The Legends of Anigma: Ethiel Archer | ONC 2023

PART XLI

Tifa stretched out her arms to him. Their hands tried to hold each other's, but they passed right through, leaving a tingling feeling behind.

Ethiel tried again, but he couldn't. He crawled closer to her, the pain of the memories crushing him. He tried to hold her, but she was like a ghost, untouchable.

"It's okay... Ethiel..." Tifa told him to stop panicking. "We can't..."

"Tifa... what is happening?..." He asked, dragging himself to her.

"You are not the Ethiel I know... but you are the same... so lovely and caring..." She smiled at him. "I guess... in your world... the burden is on you..." 

"I'm so sorry... for always being such a burden..." He started crying. "I've never been a good brother to you... I've always been so caught up with mourning what was... I never really appreciated you.. I've put you through so much..."

"Don't say that... you have never been a burden to me... and I don't think... you're a burden to me in your world either... brother... You are the reason... even after mom left... a reason for me to smile... the heaven in my life... mom means a lot to me... but in all honesty... you mean the most to me... so whatever you are... please don't cry..."

Ethiel couldn't stop crying.

"And get up..." She got up on her feet with difficulty. "We can do this..."

Wiping his tears, he struggled to his feet, pressing up the weight of the field.

Another person lay dead beside his feet. He had blonde hair. A shocking realisation struck Ethiel...

"Yeah... those dead bodies... they're us... we failed in those worlds..." Tifa told him.

"And that means... I never got back... and if I didn't make it out of here... Tifa..." He remembered her.

He imagined her to be waiting for him in that horrifying forest, clinging to Lord Veer, frightened by everything. The chimeras... all around her... There was nobody to save her if he died...

The thought was unbearable. He couldn't have allowed that.

"I can't let this happen to Tifa..." He said to the adult Tifa. "I can't let this happen to you! I can't fail! I can't let any of me fail!!!"

Anger erupted within him, breaking through the memories and the sensations. His body burned, not with the sensations, but with the blood rushing through his veins. He clenched his fist, straightened his back, and whipped his head up, letting out a scream.

"ARRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!" His spirit energy flared high.

"Ethiel..." Tifa whispered.

"TIFAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I WON'T LET YOU DIEEEE!!!! I AM COMING, MY DEAR SISTER!!!!" He screamed, his emotions rocketing high.

"What are you doing?!" Tifa asked him. "Already the memories are too much!"

"This place, time and space is mixed up here, and our feelings and emotions can travel through this place. I will make imbue each one of me with my resolve." Ethiel gritted his teeth with, trying not to break under pressure. "And as for these memories and sensations, the spirit itself said we are only experiencing pain 'cause we believe it is real. We are tieing ourselves to all this. Lord Veer, he said our reaction and connection to all this is what disturbs us... If we just observe these memories without judgement maybe... not tying ourselves to these thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions, then maybe we won't be affected as much. I don't know... But one thing I do know... none of this pain is anything near the pain of letting you go through pain... I won't let anything happen to you, Tifa! Let's do this!"

Tifa’s eyes became watery and a smile sparked on her tensed face. She kept looking at him with adoring eyes, and then she said. "Let's do this, Ethiel."

Ethiel smiled back, "Yeah." And then he screamed at the top of his lungs again.

Beside him, Tifa started to seem energised.

The skeletons started to disappear.

"It is working..." she said.

"It can't do anything but work! I won't give it another option! Argghhh!" Ethiel briskly took a step forward. "Let's go!"

Tifa took a step forward with him. And then another. Then another.

The memories and sensations came, bringing along the pain, but Ethiel observed them with a neutral perspective. Those were just memories. None of them was his reality. And the pain wasn't real. All of it, was just information. Neither good. Neither bad. It was hard to get in that mindset, extremely hard, but he got into it, pushing through the pain at intervals. He wavered but his resolve brought him back in the groove until he became the groove. All the memories, thoughts, sensations, whispers, voices, visuals, and perceptions, they became nothing more than mere information passing through him. They no longer affected him. As he walked alongside Tifa, at one point, she merged with him, overlapping over him, becoming one. Up the way to the pillar, more ghostly figures of himself from other worlds merged with him. Their emotions and resolves combined, echoing further through time and space, becoming a beckon for more of him and more of Tifa.

The waves of energy rushed through his hollow observation, not bothering him anymore. It was still hard at times, but not too hard. Soon, his steps became faster and lighter. Luminescent strands brushed past him, engulfing him and releasing him as he walked forth with determination towards the pillar of light. His jerking movements were roughly followed by the ghostly, overlapping, and smoky movement of billions of spirits that were alternate versions of him.

Before he knew it, he was standing in the pillar of light, in complete white, in front of the floating fragment of the Pyramid of Lomeyin — a sphere of stone.

He extended his arms out to it and curled his fingers around the sphere. It felt light, just like the first fragment. He brought it close to him.

"We did it..." Tifa said.

"Yeah..." He smiled, and then...  his body became loose... and his eyes drooped until they shut, plunging him in darkness...