Fractal Plane: Purgatory Survivors

Chapter 17 - Brother Dearest

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Sorry, everyone.

There were more reasons for her to want to go after the Nullity. She knew full well that the reason of them being unfit was just that, an excuse.

More important to her heart was the desire to make things up. The failure stung, but it also compounded to an even more pressing concern.

Right when she was about to deliver the finishing blow to the homunculus Class B, she saw him.

Brother...

It was that glint, that glimmer, that caused her to hold back for a second, and her hesitation could have cost them all.

Still, there's still a way to rectify it all. She'll hunt the Nullity and finish it off.

No way could her brother be really alive, right? And assimilated in that Nullity, too.

It was all an illusion.

She convinced herself while running.

Unless she would hear his voice again... unless she could touch his gentle, caring hands again... she refused to believe the power of Mu.

She tapped her head a couple of times, as if trying to force those thoughts in. She cannot afford to be distracted now, not when Samsara's in danger. Not when she has yet to meet Guren Izaya.

Each of her footsteps echoed louder and louder. With only the trail of the leaking magical energy guiding her, Sayaka Uehara hurried down the hallway. She did not know where it led, but she knew full well what awaited at the end of it all.

The blade on her hand emitted a cold, blue glow.

Her Armament was hungry, and so was she. That Nullity had barely escaped them, but it would not do so again.

Running past the end of the tunnel, she leaped down and landed inside a room.

It was spacious, but there were no windows nor passageways in sight.

A dead end.

She had followed the trail of the Nullity, but this was where it ended. Walking towards the center of the room, she saw no sign of it.

She expected spikes to shoot out from one of the walls or for the pillars around the room to collapse on her, but none of that happened.

"Where are you?!" she shouted. Her sword glowed in sync, the blue radiance of it pulsing like heartbeat.

When the fog started growing thicker, she started peering to the sides, anticipating an attack.

It was here when she realized something amiss. Looking back, she could only see thick fog from where she came from.

She had lost track of the tunnel in which she came from as the thick fog blanketed the entire scene behind her.

She was completely alone.

"Arata! Amagi! Kimura!" she called out into the void, but her only reply came in the form of more fog.

No one else is here.

Her conscience battled against her heart while it started to sink in. There was no way around it. In her mad dash to this place, she had abandoned those three companions of hers. None of them were in any condition to fight another intense fight. Only prayers could save them from the Class B Nullity should this one be a decoy.

On the other hand...

It was better this way, she decided. If this Nullity happened to indeed share a connection with her brother, it was a being that she hoped to confront alone.