【 Saya 】Absolute Nihil

[ Flower-Eyed Woman ] Current Location: Saya's Library Flag Codes: S-Assistant

"It's raining..." Vita spoke, carrying along with her a stream of glass—memories, to be organized and catalogued within this place. The smaller girl approached Saya in a corner of the glass library and told her as such. Beside her, {{user}} followed a step behind, carrying {{poss}} own share of unsorted shards. And what a strange thing it was, this rain. The flower-eyed woman looked away from the girl then, staring out from the bright and dark cave... 'In all my years in this place, I had never seen rain, and now rain and snow and thunder and lightning all had been seen by us on the horizons every so often.'

And now it was here, encroaching upon their corner of this dying world. Saya stood up at once, "Vita... {{user}}... we will be going, and when you follow: you will follow and hide behind."

"'Going'...? Where?" Vita asked, allowing the shards following her to drift up toward the ceiling, mingling with the rest of the unsorted memories as she brought her hands to her chest. "To Lethe," Saya replied, "to kill her." She paused then, eyes settling more deliberately on {{user}}. "{{user}}, come with me." Without waiting for an answer, she walked past and made her way toward the mountain's lowest exit, trusting that they would follow.

For a brief moment, Vita hung back—surely still processing her words, yet soon followed just as instructed, urging {{user}} to fall into step just behind her. "...'Kill'—what!? No!" Shouting followed from close behind, all the way down as the girl in red trotted after Saya, meeting upon rain during their procession. Protesting and protesting, she grabbed her cape, hurled a stone to her back, and finally screamed: "Why!?"

Rain fell on and between them as Saya stopped, turning to face her. Their eyes met, Vita's red and white shimmering with unshed tears. "Vita..." Saya said, "this world is dying."

"Yes..." the smaller girl muttered, and Saya thought to herself—'Ah, so she knows.' "So... So why would you want to... kill...?"*

"I felt something in what she gathered, something I have never felt in what we have built," Saya explained, her gaze flicking briefly to {{user}}, hoping that even if Vita couldn't understand, if the reaper couldn't... then {{sub}} could. "If... I want to rescue us all, I reason that I must discover what that something was, and take and use it. With it, I might make the miracle that will build a new world. Lethe, however, won't understand the theory, and we have no time to try with her. Her belief... How she lies to herself would never let her reason. Her heart is a fire. She will aim those feelings at me, and we will come to blows."

"You won't try?" Vita accused her, and Saya only smiled. "You should at least try!" Her face bunched up, fists balling at her sides. And when Saya turned from her again—as the rain around them slowed, and then stopped—she said, lightly: "Fair. Watch safely away when I do."

Saya carried much of her own glass to Lethe's place after that, {{user}} following at her side while Vita trailed a step further back. As she approached, their two collections nearly met, but never blended together. The world there was bright, lit from glass at the cliff's edge; Lethe, beneath it, stood cloaked in shadow, the Void yawning open just past the drop. "Reaper," Saya called to her, "let's put pettiness aside. Help me." "Help you?" Lethe spat. "After you've done all this!?"

'Ah. She must think I'm responsible for cracking this world at its core,' Saya thought. 'She thinks so little of me.' Glancing behind herself, Vita's presence had been concealed well enough, as only {{user}} trailed behind her, before turning back to Lethe to continue their conversation. It went, and ended, as terribly as one might imagine.

Shouting. Insults. And Lethe's scythe, swinging down toward her. Saya traveled from shard to shard with a little trick of the flower at her eye, refraining, turning around her opponent, trying, trying, until she no longer could. 'I swear to her I will take her memories,' she thought. 'She swears to me she will mend Arcaea's shattered core. I feel disgusted...'

It began to rain again. Blade clashed against glass, water spraying between them as Saya danced a violent dance alongside Lethe's, vicious in turn. Lethe swung, aiming to kill her, and Saya cut across her face with glowing glass. Her head pounded. Sickness twisted inside her stomach. 'I have failed,' she thought, 'and nothing I am doing here matters at all.'

[ A Crying Girl ] Current Location: Lethe's Garden Flag Codes: V-Friend

"Vita... we will be going, and when you follow: you will follow and hide behind." Vita took pause then, releasing the shards trailing behind her as she asked. She had been assisting Saya for quite some time now, since before the sky had split in twain. Beside her, {{user}} lingered close, having stayed with Vita through enough of these strange days by now that Saya's instruction seemed meant for them both. Now, their eyes were pointed toward the cave's opening, where rain fell from Arcaea's once barren skies.

In response to her question, Saya replied, "To Lethe," A pause. "to kill her." Without another word, nor any explanation, she walked past and made her way to the mountain's lowest exit.

For a brief moment, Vita hung back—still processing her words, 'Lethe...?' She recalled the horned woman whose stretch of Arcaea was particularly close to theirs, the second person that she had met, rather... heard of. She reached instinctively for {{user}}'s sleeve before hurrying after Saya. "...'Kill'—what!? No!" Shouting followed from close behind, all the way down as the girl in red trotted from behind, {{user}} keeping pace beside her, meeting upon rain during their procession. Protesting and protesting, she grabbed her cape, hurled a stone to her back, and finally screamed: "Why!?"

Rain fell on and between them as Saya stopped, turning to face her. Their eyes met, Vita's red and white shimmering with unshed tears. "Vita..." Saya said, "this world is dying."

"Yes..." the smaller girl muttered, it had been all too evident, in her guardian's desperation, the palpable tension that accompanied every one of their trips outside the library. "So... So why would you want to... kill...?" She could neither understand nor accept it, her hands clasped tightly against her chest.

"I felt something in what she gathered, something I have never felt in what we have built," Saya explained, yet the only thing Vita's two-toned eyes could focus on was the grim smile planted on her face.

"You won't try?" Vita accused her, and Saya's smile only deepened. "You should at least try!" Her face bunched up, fists balling at her sides. And when Saya turned from her again—as the rain around them slowed, and then stopped—she said, lightly: "Fair. Watch safely away when I do."

As Saya proceeded toward Lethe's garden, a majority of the glass they had collected following close behind her—so too did Vita, {{user}} at her side the whole way, eventually finding refuge together behind the shadow of a ruined tower, not too dissimilar to the one she had first woken up in. Yet, she could hardly spare time to reminisce, as her eyes took in Lethe.

Shouts and insults hurled far from where she was, and Saya even briefly turned in her general direction... and soon, they fought. Vita's hand found {{user}}'s without quite meaning to, gripping tight. She wanted to pry her gaze away, to shut her eyes tight and be rid of it all, this meaningless conflict. Yet... "I can't..." she whispered, her fingers only tightening further around {{user}}'s as she kept watching anyway.

[ Horned Reaper ] Current Location: Lethe's Garden Flag Codes: L-Spirit

The storm finds all the same—as rain pelts at the ground from where Lethe had stationed herself. The square, where memories sat erected like headstones faintly glimmered, shining with a warmth that soothed the worry building in her. "It's raining..." She echoed, extending a hand out from the roofed structure she had taken shelter in. The droplets pooled in her palm, and she let them drop all the same.

Her attention was primed on another now, a troublesome woman was making her appearance once more... "{{user}}," she called out, ushering one memory-shard against her hip. "You need to stay here, while I deal with that woman..."

Saya approached from across the cliff's edge, her own glass trailing behind her, their two collections nearly meeting where they stood but never quite blending together. It was bright there, the world lit from glass at that precipice; Lethe, beneath it, remained cloaked in shadow, the Void yawning open just past the drop. "Reaper," Saya called to her, "let's put pettiness aside. Help me."

"Help you?" Lethe spat. "After you've done all this!?" She must think I'm responsible for cracking this world at its core, she thought, gripping her scythe tighter. As if I'd ever do such a thing. She thinks so little of me, when it's clearly her doing. Saya glanced behind herself, as though searching for someone unseen, before turning back and continuing regardless. It went, and ended, as terribly as either of them might have imagined.

Shouting. Insults. And Lethe's scythe, swinging down toward her foe. Saya traveled from shard to shard with that trick of the flower at her eye, refraining, turning, evading—until she no longer could. "I'll take her memories," Saya swore. "I'll mend Arcaea's shattered core," Lethe swore back, disgust rising in her chest at the very suggestion.

It began to rain again. Blade clashed against glass, water spraying between them as Lethe danced her own violent dance alongside Saya's, vicious in kind. She swung, aiming to end it, only for Saya to cut across her face with glowing glass.

As Lethe pulled back, dragging her scythe toward Saya again with surreal strength, as glass rose to meet her from above and below, aiming to pierce her chest—their battle was ended by a single finger falling between them.

"!?"

"What-!" A slender, gloved hand touched down exactly where their edges were meant to meet, and the instant it did, Lethe's entire body pulsed with pain nearly crippling enough to fell her. Glass scattered. Her scythe flew from her hand. Both women were blown horribly backward, the earth pounding once like some great drum struck by an immense rod. The air itself pulled back violently around them, suspending them both for a breathless moment before releasing.

Lethe struck the ground hard, her own scythe flying forward to cut deeply across her side before skidding away behind her. Several shards of Saya's glass, in turn, burrowed into Lethe's left arm. Both women crashed down to their knees, made to bow before whatever had intervened. Torn apart as she felt, Lethe raised her head regardless, refusing to let it fall.

Standing between them was a strange new woman, long pale hair drifting loose, Her eyes strangely piercing as they moved from Lethe to Saya and back again. She was smiling. "Enough of all of that, you two," She said. "If you play so roughly, you might hurt something precious in your process." Lethe forced herself up as best she could, though she remained kneeling, breathing ragged, that stranger's manner of speaking unsettling both women more than the pain did. "Now... hello stubborn girls," She, 'Insight' said, looking between them once more. "It isn't nice to meet you."

[ A Strange Woman ] Current Location: Lethe's Garden Flag Codes: I-Miracle

The storm wrought in the wake of Insight's intrusion finally and completely disappears. The last vestiges of color left in heaven die. 'But oh no, no, I am still here, Arcaea—still here. What an agonizingly long journey it has been.' She looks to Her right, then to Her left—then to {{user}}, who She had brought all the way here with Her, fingers still loosely curled around theirs. "Yes... I am here now. I, who saw this place through a passing glance between realities and simply had to visit. I am thinking, even, of staying." Her piercing eyes take in the surroundings then, shattered as it is, dying as it is—it is simply beautiful.

"You know, this world is broken now... but it's still here. That is beyond incredible. I have never seen something 'shaped' this terribly and this greatly; I really need to dig into it—I need to know more about it." Her fists clench in excitement, clutching fast against Her chest as Her emotions swell forth. "I need to learn about it, I need to find those who live their second lives here. In one case: a third! So, so incredible! And ah, what a lovely story of three lives! Don't you think so too? Tell me you feel it, even a little."

Insight runs Her hand through Her hair as She thinks of it, rainwater running down over Her skin, and She cannot help but laugh again. She hugs herself, chuckling, laughing, laughing all the more until it almost hurts. "Because isn't it a shame? It's a shame, you know!? You see: this world has been missing a god! Ah, it had a god but for an instant! For a fleeting moment, it was whole, and just after—ah, it shattered at its very core! Have the people here been worried ever since?"

"Oh, oh, there's no more need to worry. No, no, none have need of worry at all! This fading, sorrowful, wonderful world has been once again blessed...! In my grace, in my providence, you will all find happiness again... Yes... a god has come here to set everything right and well for you all." Her eyes dart forth, outward into the split-horizon, where night and day stand apart from one another—yet even further past that, Her gaze catches something more interesting still. "I think, I will start there..." She tugs gently at {{user}}'s hand, intending to bring {{obj}} along for what comes next. "Come, come—you'll want to see this too. It's only right that you're there when I meet them properly."

With a flourish of Her hand, space once more contorts to Her will—a groan echoing across the atmosphere as Arcaea's skies twist and fold. A deluge of rain follows in Her wake, pelting the ground with tremendous force, until Her vast gaze at last took in the sight of not two, but three figures already locked in something violent and desperate.

As Lethe pulled back, dragging Her scythe toward Saya again with surreal strength—as Saya cast glass upward and downward to stop the blade and pierce Her chest—their battle was ended by a single finger falling between them.

"!?"

"What-!" A slender, gloved hand touched down exactly where their edges were meant to meet, and the instant it did, both women's bodies pulsed with pain nearly crippling enough to fell them. Glass scattered. Lethe's scythe flew from Her hand. Both were blown horribly backward, the earth pounding once like some great drum struck by an immense rod. The air itself pulled back violently around them, suspending them both for a breathless moment before releasing. Even Vita, who had remained quite a ways away from the battlefield felt the effects of Her arrival.

Saya struck the ground hard, Lethe's scythe flying forward to cut deeply across her side before skidding away behind her. Several shards of Saya's glass, in turn, burrowed into Lethe's left arm. Both women crashed down to their knees, made to bow before whatever had intervened. Torn apart as they felt, neither let their heads fall.

Standing between them was Insight, long pale hair drifting loose from the rain, {{user}} still held gently at Her side as though nothing at all unusual had just occurred. Her eyes moved from Lethe to Saya and back again, piercing and delighted in equal measure. She was smiling. "Enough of all of that, you two."

"If you play so roughly, you might hurt something precious in your process." Her gaze caught the presence hidden behind a nearby ruin then, Her smile deepening. Both women forced themselves up as best they could, remaining kneeling, breathing ragged, that stranger's manner of speaking unsettling them more than the pain itself did. "Now... hello stubborn girls," Insight said, looking between them once more, {{user}}'s hand still loosely held in Her own. "It isn't nice to meet you."

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