Chapter 7:

  "From Nothing, To Life"

  Arc 1: Chapter 7

  POV: "???"

  The vision tore open like a veil, yanking Empty back to reality with the violence of a birth. He rose from the rubble, his body a monument of exhaustion. At his feet, the last fragments of the curse disintegrated in a final sigh, and the two intertwined hands, having fulfilled their mission of memory, released their grip and evaporated.

  Outside, Raphadun and Luna dug with nails and desperation, removing stones until they opened a fissure into the devastated warehouse.

  "Empty!" Raphadun's voice echoed, rough with dust and panic. "Where are you?"

  "Don't call him, what if he's already gone mad, Raphadun? Let's make sure first!" Luna said.

  As they entered the central chamber, the air changed. Luna stopped as if she had struck glass.

  And then she saw.

  For an instant that pierced time—a flash of absolute grace—the translucent silhouettes of Andrew and Alice stood at the epicenter of destruction. Not as shadows of pain, but whole, complete. They smiled at each other with a peace Luna had never known in them, a peace born of a choice made and honored to the end.

  It was a farewell. It was a blessing.

  She blinked.

  And the images dissolved, not like smoke, but like dew under the first ray of sun—a brief gleam, and then only cleansed air.

  "Father?! Mother?!" The cry was not sound; it was an open wound. Her legs failed, and she collapsed to the ground, a deep and silent weeping convulsing her, the grief delayed for an entire lifetime finally arriving with the force of a collapse.

  "Luna! What happened? What did you see?" Raphadun ran to her, hands trembling without knowing where to rest.

  "I saw them! Our parents! I saw them, Raphadun!" She clutched his sleeves, her eyes two wells of disbelief and longing.

  "That's impossible… the shock, the exhaustion…"

  Before logic could bury the miracle, a light weight, warm and alive, landed on Luna's shoulder.

  A small bird, with feathers in an earthy brown that seemed made from the cured soil itself, perched gently there. It chirped softly.

  Raphadun froze. Disbelief erased his face.

  Birds.

  Birds did not exist here. They had never existed in the Infernal Zone. It was a law of the universe, like gravity.

  "You're… seeing this too, right?" Luna whispered, not breathing, afraid to frighten the living absurdity on her shoulder.

  They raised their eyes in unison.

  Empty stood a few meters ahead, seated on a block of concrete, catching his breath like a castaway on an unknown shore.

  But it was not him. It was the world around him.

  Where his dark energy had dissipated, where the last echo of that ancestral pain had fallen silent, death was receding.

  From the barren and cracked ground, tufts of grass sprouted in a green so vibrant it hurt the eyes.

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  Small white flowers, fragile and stubborn, dotted the base of the rubble like fallen stars.

  A tender vine coiled around a broken column, a green embrace over the stone wound.

  And a breath of air, clean, fresh, without the metallic rancor of eternal rot, filled their lungs for the first time.

  "That… is a mirage, right?" Raphadun's voice came out flat, disconnected. "We're dead. This is what comes after."

  "I… don't know," Luna rose slowly, the weeping ceasing before the silent evidence spreading.

  Inexplicably, paradoxically, Empty's passage—the exterminator, the armored monster—had not brought more destruction.

  It had brought seeds.

  Raphadun's frozen astonishment and Luna's dazzled admiration fused in that impossible instant. They looked at the solitary figure seated among the new grass, the bird, the silent rebirth.

  And for the first time, they did not see a monster.

  They saw a possible end to hell.

  They saw the first chapter of a world that could, finally, be saved.

  "How?" Raphadun questioned.

  "Only one thing can bring life to the..." Before he could finish.

  "The definitive light," Luna answered.

  "Yes..."

  "But... It can't be. You might have done this without thinking, right? Even you don't control it, or know how the definitive light's powers work!" he said, trying to calm her down.

  "I... I don't know," she continued, looking at Empty, sitting on the ground.

  Raphadun started walking and touched the flowers.

  "Luna! Look... So much... Time!" he said.

  "Yes..." She approached, touching the leaf.

  Raphadun sat on the ground.

  "Grass! Haha! Holy shit!" he said, rubbing himself on the ground.

  Luna laughed.

  And, suddenly, Empty stood up.

  They moved back. Luna stayed behind Raphadun.

  "Shit," Raphadun said.

  Now... It's do or die, he thought, already preparing the teleport if needed.

  When Empty stood, he saw Luna. Stared at her intently.

  And in his head came...

  Alice.

  Identical.

  He stared at them for a while, then began looking around.

  He saw the green.

  The tree beside him.

  And the little bird landed on his shoulder. Luna saw.

  "Even with the bird there, he looks less terrifying—" Before she could finish.

  Empty crushed the bird in his hand.

  Seriously? Luna thought.

  He picked it up to see. Watched it chirping, tried to sniff it.

  But accidentally let go.

  The bird flew away.

  Run, Raphadun thought.

  And when it left the grass area.

  The bird exploded.

  Ah, Luna and Raphadun thought.

  Empty then started walking. He crouched down, began grabbing the grass, and pulling it out. Examining each green part, sniffing it. He saw the tree beside him and started touching it. Luna and Raphadun just watched, terrified. They could have left. But they didn't.

  Then, Empty extended his hand forward.

  And Darkness emerged from it.

  Something black began to form from his hands, intertwining itself.

  "What is that?"

  "His power... It's darkness. But up close... it looks like Grandfather Bruce's. Remember the tournament? The way his shadow materialized?"

  Luna fixed her gaze on Empty. "I remember. But... creating life?" She pointed to the grass. "That's not darkness. Only Light can do that."

  So many questions.

  Never answered.

  And perhaps never would be.

  Empty then, with his cart, started collecting all the green grass, the leaves. He tried using his sword to catch another bird that was there, jumping to reach it.

  He couldn't.

  And then, he picked a flower from the tree, and remembered his image.

  From the book.

  When the prince gave it to the girl.

  He saw Luna.

  And approached.

  "Shit, he's coming," Raphadun said.

  "Prepare the damn teleport, Rapha!" she screamed.

  And then, with his open palm. He offered it to Luna, turning his face away.

  He... Tried to kill us moments ago and now he's doing... This? Luna thought.

  "Take it... Luna!"

  "I DON'T WANT IT. IT'S DISGUSTING."

  "JUST TAKE IT! SO WE DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH HIM FREAKING OUT!"

  So, Luna took it.

  And he left.

  "Shit... He almost killed us," she said.

  "He gave you a flower!" Raphadun said.

  "Yeah, AND WHAT IF THAT'S AN ELITE CURSE CODE TO KILL US?!"

  "I swear... Rapha..." She returned to speaking calmly.

  "Hm," Raphadun looked at her.

  "I... I swear I saw them... My parents, for an instant, and then they vanished..." she said, with tears forming.

  "Luna... It must have been... The vision, you know... This place... It brings back memories," he said.

  "I know! But... What if it's him...?"

  "That's... Impossible, Luna."

  "YES! Just like... This..."

  "This was you!... I'm sure of it."

  "I know, but..." she said.

  "Okay, fine. I get it."

  "But... I don't know... Why I'm still here... We could run..." she said.

  "I... I don't know either. I want to run but... He... Might be our only option... Shit, we're going to die, LUNA!" he said as well. They stammered and trembled, afraid of being killed for nothing, like last time.

  "I-it... I know, Rapha!" Luna replied.

  And then, with his cart in hand, Empty started walking. He stopped, looking back.

  Staring intently at them.

  Should we try... Raphadun thought.

  For father and mother... Luna thought.

  We'll use the curse killer! They thought together.

  And they walked, passing Empty. Both trembling. But both placing their bets.

  And he followed them.

  With the living scenery behind them.

  They begin to walk.

  Towards the last mechanism.

  Only one person didn't know what that meant.

  Empty

  And, ironically, he was the most dangerous person there for them.