The Sweetest Dream of the Spectral Boy

Chapter 10

The next few years saw Kozmotis spend all of his time doing anything and everything he possibly could to become stronger.

As one of the few survivors of the massacre, Kozmotis felt it was his duty to devote himself to saving as many people as he could, and as a result of that, was unable to spend as much time with Emily Jane as he would have liked, despite having gone right ahead with adopting her. This only contributed to his already overwhelming guilt, knowing that he owed it to his friend to ensure she was safe and loved, he did seek out and find her one and only other living relative, Lady Comette, who was eager to help in any way she could after the tragedy.

Lady Comette watched over Emily Jane when Kozmotis was training and going off to war against the fearlings. Despite Emily Jane always feeling the safest around him, he knew protecting her would be far more effective from a distance. When they won this war and every horrible creature of darkness was locked in a cage forever, he would go home. Only then, could he truly rest.

He had to make a universe where Emily Jane could live. Where someone like Nightlight would never have to sacrifice themselves like that again.

Even something so simple as sleep seemed hard to come by, which only made him push himself all the more during the day in hopes that when he returned to his bunk, he wouldn't have to be kept up being haunted by the afterimages of Nightlight. It never seemed to work, instead resulting in nightmares of leaving everyone behind and living when he knew he shouldn't be. Most of the time, he couldn't even tell whether or not he'd fallen asleep at all. The only way to keep going was to remind himself that he was going to do whatever it took to stop this from happening. There were so many people across the galaxies who suffered the same thing he went through, and he was going to make sure it was stopped.

Kozmotis worked his way up the ranks faster than anyone.

When he reached the rank of General, he was placed in an experimental program being headed, researched, and funded by the Tsarina Lunanoff herself. This resulted in the essence of sunlight being infused into every cell of his body, though Kozmotis thought the sensation it brought was far too gentle to be useful in war.

Nonetheless, it did need to be used, as it was the best repellant to the darkness Kozmotis had seen since Nightlight. In a way, the golden light that now rested within himself made him feel closer to the companion who had changed his life so dramatically and then died so quietly. He tried not to think about it too much, though such an effort had already proved fruitless.

The tide of war began to change substantially, then. Kozmotis refused to sit back and order his soldiers around from a distance when he knew just how vital his light was in battle against the dark, so no matter how much it numbed him, he would simply keep going until he collapsed. Nothing else mattered. When it came time to return to the lost planet where everything had gone wrong, he disregarded himself once again and went without hesitation.

They needed to purify it. Kozmotis was only on one of many ships that were touching down, unit after unit, one Golden Warrior per ship. It wasn't going to take long. A few months at most, maybe. Light spreads far and wide. They would basically be in and out. Suddenly and deeply, Kozmotis did not want to be there anymore, or ever again.

It looked even more run down than it'd been last time, but because of his experience in the area, he'd placed himself in the same city where he'd met Nightlight. The very spot was visible from where he now stood upon a rooftop, though the lush green that had previously been crawling over nearly every inch of the city had by now withered and died.

Kozmotis lifted his sword up into the sky, lighting up as much of the city as he could while beginning the process of darkness dissipation. It would take a while, but he had to remain in position until it was done. At least the time was cut down due to his vantage point allowing the light to reach the most people at once.

Bodies littered the ground, misshapen. Their faces were terrified, some of them still twitching with darkness. Kozmotis did not want to be there.

More than anything. For a moment, Kozmotis considered that he would rather die than be where he was for another second.

In that moment, he felt both overwhelmed and empty, and the world seemed to phase in and out until he could no longer see anything. With a rush, Kozmotis realized he was starting to fall off the building and he was in no way able to catch himself. On the bright side, his mind immediately offered up, my corpse will continue the light after death for plenty long enough to rid of the darkness here. At least, Kozmotis could feel the wind rushing past as he allowed his intended last thoughts to come. At least I will have died like he did. Protecting.

Death did not come. Darkness came, instead, rushing forth before he could hit the ground, catching him in a thick black orb through which his light did not pass. Although, as he gained more awareness of the situation, it became clear that it would be more accurate to say that it wasn't the darkness to catch him- it was a corpse.

It had to be a corpse. "No. It isn't-. You're not." It had to be a nightmare, or a dream.

There was no other explanation. Nightlight was there, softly lowering him to the ground, his eyes void and bleeding darkness, but his smile exactly how Kozmotis remembered it. Perhaps more astonished.

Immediately, Kozmotis' instincts kicked in and his light shone brighter than ever, but the result was not what he expected. Nightlight did not crumble as the darkness faded from his body. No strength drained. Instead, the light bounced right off him and increased until Kozmotis could no longer keep his eyes open, feeling the warmth of his own golden light reflected so uniquely back at himself.

With no way to see what was going on, Kozmotis clung to Nightlight. He didn't know how or why Nightlight was there, but the darkness seeped out of him the instant the light hit. There was no way he could still be corrupted, but he was still moving, doing things that corpses without darkness should not be able to do. Desperately, he wanted to say something.

Just say something. Anything. After all this time, Nightlight was alive- he could feel him breathe. How?

But as he soaked in the presence of a precious person he never thought he'd meet again in this life, the only thing he could manage came out like a broken whisper. "I missed you."