Chapter 842: Farewell, new friend.
“And that…was the last time I ever heard from Meteor Horn,” Daria said before pausing so that she could take a breath and emotionally recover.
“Damn…just…damn.”
[That was…sad.]
To say the last few minutes of Daria’s story was intense would be an understatement.
Throughout the course of her retelling, Daria had dug up a lot of emotions and memories she hadn’t thought about in years due to the simple fact that life and time waited for no one.
Tempers cool, grudges eventually fade from memory and all injuries heal to some extent over time.
Besides, Daria had a promise to keep.
“Alright now…I should probably explain what happened after Meteor Horn…broke down.”
________________________________________
I didn’t see what happened during Meteor Horn’s last moments, since I was too busy hiding at his request.
But…I could hear it.
I could hear the bellows of a beast that was both a natural disaster and a waking nightmare all at once, mixed with what I could only assume were the screams of the damned.
But, I could recognize the voice as still being his.
I could hear the voices of those elders, their allies, all echoing across an empty landscape.
They were not cries of battle, nor of jubilation nor of victory.
They were screams.
Desperate screams.
The type of screams that only those who were facing an inevitable death released when they were facing an overwhelming force and were praying for a miracle to the very last moment.
It was rather surreal, hearing these screams coming from warriors I knew slaughtered men as easily as a butcher slaughter chickens.
To hear cries of mercy from elites that would rather kill someone than grab clemency.
It was terrifying and strange…but oddly relieving.
Eventually though, everything went silent.
I couldn’t feel any additional fluctuations of aether.
I couldn’t hear any more cries of terror, roars of pain and desperation nor any pleas for mercy.
All I could hear at that point was the howls of the desert wind.
Thinking it was over, I decided to leave my hiding spot to go and see just how much devastation had occurred during Meteor Horn’s last stand.
I won’t say it was a mistake, but…what I saw that day made me realize just how small my worldview was.
And how weak my clan really was in the grand scheme of the world.
…
When Daria first found Meteor Horn’s home, the Tomb of the Star Caller, it was on a rocky plateau that was surrounded by several dozen spires of stone that were like the fingers of fallen giants reaching towards the heavens and dunes of sand that appeared to be as endless as the sea.
“By all the ancestors and saints…,” Daria said in disbelief.
That wasn’t the case anymore when she exited from the tomb.
The plateau was still surprisingly intact, but the terrain surrounding it had been drastically altered.
The spires of stone had all been deformed in a way that suggested that they were destroyed, melted into magma and then rapidly cooled into new shapes. Embedded in several of these “new” stone structures, Daria could make out indents that were clearly body parts, fossilized human skeletal remains and rock deformities shaped like screaming faces.
Amongst the faces, Daria could make out the screaming face of Elder Maximo, a fellow who she recalled having a strange fascination with the scent of blood.
Not in a cannibalistic way, but in a sexual way…which might’ve been worse all things considered.
Moving on from the new landmarks though, when Daria surveyed the terrain she had no choice but to shield her eyes with her hands.
Because the dunes of sand within who knows how many meters in either direction surrounding the plateau had been melted into glass.
Some of parts of the sand had been turned into tempered structures, formations that would never bend or break without powerful external intervention.
A majority of the glass in the area though could be seen as shattered shards scattered about, clear signs that they had formed structures that were so delicate that the slightest breeze rendered them into powder.
In this pool of tempered glass and shards though, Daria could see the molten remains of another warrior, the face and bones of which so badly damaged that she couldn’t identify a single defining trait.
However, she didn’t really care for any of these human remains, even if she was vaguely related to some of them.
“Where is he, where is he…”
The only one she actually cared about probably wasn’t even remotely humanoid looking at this point, but was more of a family member than even her parents or siblings.
“Come on, come-wait…there he-oh no…”
Unfortunately, it was also as bad as assumed it to be.
[D…da…]
“I’m coming, Meteor Horn! Just don’t die on me yet! [Shadow Breeze Dance]!”
Several hundred feet away from the plateau, well beyond the glass floor and the mutated rock structures, Daria managed to spot what appeared to be giant dying beast that was leaking smoke-like energy from several massive wounds all over it’s body.
The beast in question looked…off, even by aether beast standards.
From a distance, it appeared to look like a giant rhinoceros, covered in a thick brown hide and a golden horn.
However, if one were to examine the beast up close, they would notice details that didn’t match up to any rhinoceros aether beast in existence.
The beast didn’t have four legs and grinding teeth, but instead had a pair of curled up arms like something that would be on a gorilla and a maw of razor sharp teeth that could tear the flesh off of anything. Caught in these aforementioned teeth by the way, was the upper torso of a warrior from the Dragon Breaking Pavilion.
The thick brown hide was actually mottled meteor stone, too thick and too deep to just be armored plating. Evidently, the massive sword wounds cutting into this beast made it obvious that it had no means of pumping blood or sending nerve signals.
On top of all this though, the golden horn that was growing from the beast’s nose appeared to have been covered with an etched mural of some kind.
If anyone were to take notice of this mural and get a closer look, they would find that it seemed to depict the story of a young girl dancing alongside strange and fantastic monsters that all seemed to have constellations marked upon their torsos.
However, the one person who could’ve noticed this part was a bit too busy panicking and running.
“Come on Meteor Horn, please keep it together a little longer…”
Daria knew for a fact that this beast was none other than Meteor Horn…although at this point, he didn’t have that [Name] anymore.
Regardless, Daria moved as fast as she could to get to Meteor Horn’s side, building up what little [Chaos] she could muster all the while.
‘Please, please, please!’
Meteor Horn had once taught her that [Chaos] was a strange form of energy that could do anything, but it had to be directed by a strong will, a strong desire.
Which is why she was going to try and heal Meteor Horn with it.
“Stop disappearing, stop disappearing!”
She knew it was probably hopeless and pointless.
She knew what was going to happen.
And yet…she had to at least try.
[Chaos] was all about defying reality, and what was death but a rule of reality?
“Yes! I made it and now I just…huh?”
Unfortunately, what was happening to the beast was a rule of unreality.
“Why…why can’t I touch him?!”
The moment Daria tried to place her hands on the beas•’s fading form, she ended up touching thin air. Then, as she moved her hand up the bea•’s body, the same thing kept happening over, and over, and over again.
Until, she finally reached the h••• and realized that…there was barely anything left.
The last bit of hope left her body when all that seemed to be proof of this ____ existence was a fading eye.
At the sight of this, Daria fell to her knees and began to cry, harder than she had ever cried before.
That is…until she heard a small voice.
[D…d…]
“Huh? Meteor Horn? You’re still alive?!,” Daria exclaimed with hopeful joy. “Oh thank, wait no! This is the time for action and not prayers. Stop disappearing on me! Maybe if I channel more [Chaos], I can-”
[D…Dahlia?]
“Wait…what?”
[Dahlia is that you?]
Needless to say, Daria was incredibly confused at this sudden change to her name.
[Dahlia…]
“No, it’s Daria. My name is-”
[Dahlia…did…did you see that? I…I made a friend. A little girl…just like you were.]
“O-oh…”
After realizing what was actual happening, Daria proceeded to stay quiet.
[Her name…is similar to yours too. Isn’t that…funny?,]•••• continued to say. With every word though, the last remaining bit of •••• became fainter and fainter.
