WITCH OF THE END

When Luna opened her eyes once again after the train incident, she was surprised to be met by a rare sight of a strange darkness.

For a second, her mind almost jumped to the conclusion that she had gone blind after the Black Ether worked its magic—was magic even the right to use after that experience?

But that wasn’t the case, Luna could still make out details of herself. Her pale hands were still there and her body seemed to be in one piece too. There were no scratches or scars from the previous fights, concluding that this was probably a version of her consciousness or her soul. She didn't know the difference.

When her eyes finally adapted to the darkness around her, Luna realized she was sitting on a black mirror-like surface. Turning her gaze up, the sky was also pitch black. There were no stars or moon to lend beauty to this place. Also, even though she was completely naked, she felt no wind let alone any sign of life in this world. She couldn’t even feel her own breath.

It was a Void of darkness. With nothing else but that.

She gulped and tried to keep her "mind?" at ease. There was no need to act rashly in a situation like this. "So this is death. I never thought it would be this…boring," she sighed while recalling her last moments before losing consciousness to the painful feeling of corruption.

To be honest, it had been an excruciating ordeal. Having her body break apart from toxic magic was one thing. But to have that poison gnaw at her broken form was another kind of torment entirely.

Luna laughed at herself while she recalled the events and how they played out before losing her consciousness like a film. The details were getting clearer and clearer now that she had time to spare.

Since when had she become such a heroine? For a fleeting moment, Luna had enjoyed the main character treatment of fighting valiantly with intentions that didn't only benefit her own but everyone else.

However, despite her noble intentions. In the end, Raphael remained invincible. Her enchanted blade, her strength, and her impeccable combat skills had all been useless against him. The disparity in their power had been undeniable.

Why had she even tried?

She laughed louder, her voice swallowed by the empty world as she lay motionless on the floor. She laughed at weakness because crying about it wasn’t her way of life.

When stopped she sighed and lay on the floor once again. "At least now I can rest."

With those fleeting words, closed her eyes for a few moments and thought.

'Perhaps my end wasn't so bad.'

***

When she opened them again, the void was gone along with its darkness.

A cacophony of beeping machines assaulted her ears before white light pierced her darkened vision.

She squinted her eyes as the world slowly came to focus. They had been used to being surrounded by darkness so the bright light was such a harsh welcome to the world of the living. If she had even left in the first place.

'What the…'

Luna paused that thought when she realized she was in a hospital room. The sound of a life support machine was ‘beeping’ rhythmically beside her, its monotony reassured her of her stable condition.

Something covered her mouth and nose, amplifying her breaths.

"Loud." She hissed. She felt numb all over. Why did her body feel so numb?

Moving her head slightly, she saw numerous tubes and wires connected to her. She recognized the setup; these tubes were keeping her body nourished and managing her waste while she was in a coma.

Another tube was in her forearm, delivering synthetic blood. This blood, mixed with zenshi was designed to treat those afflicted by corruption and were still in their early stages of infection.

In most cases, only thirty out of a hundred survived the treatment. This was not a bad number by the way, since this medication was still in the early stages of testing.

Luna was sure she survived because the blood inside her body held out long enough to deliver the synthetic blood into her system. Her body was already weird to begin with.

‘Or maybe mom put me in a cryo state.’ She sighed and shifted her eyes to the false window across the room.

They had survived the night thanks to the timely intervention of Flame of Winter who had decimated Raphael's entire army and ruined his plans.

Throughout their journey, whispers of the legendary Flame of Winter had circulated among the soldiers. Tales of her icy wrath and unmatched power were spoken with a mix of fear and reverence. From time to time, Luna had always bothered to dismiss most tales about her mother as exaggerations made up to fuel propaganda.

But after last night, Luna now believed everything they said about Mao Feng.

Ascenders capable of real sorcery were indeed the mightiest among humanity, revered almost as gods. They were pillars of strength, capable of manipulating nature itself. That's because the Fourth Soul Gate allowed one to expand their Aura and let it affect the natural world as they pleased. She remembered how the entire world suddenly bent to support Mao Feng as soon as she arrived.

Luna had never seen her mother like that before. Or seen her use her powers until last night. Truth be told, it was quite a beautiful sight.

Opening the Fourth Soul gate meant that an ascender had finally understood their Aura, granting them full control over the concept they ruled. But to what extent? Because there were things Mao Feng couldn’t do.

She was sure of it.

Once she was finally able to move, she removed the oxygen mask and yanked the unnecessary tubes out of her body. She settled on the edge of her bed and stared at the false window.

Now that she was alive and kicking, she could put the pieces of the information she acquired before passing out together.

She thought back to her fight with Raphael and his gruesome demise, his final words, and the context hidden behind them.

He claimed to have been sent by “Corruption” to eliminate an anomaly.

This confirmed two things. One, that there existed a being capable of wielding Black Ether or something similar as an Aura. Two, an ascender on the train possessed a power that it saw as a threat if they made it to the tower.

"Who could have such an Aura? And why are they connected to the Tower." Luna wondered.

Auras were manifestations of concepts. To humanity, they were complex phenomena granting extraordinary abilities. Auras were simply what humans called them because of how they changed one's entire presence. Ascenders with the Second Soul gate opened were believed to have already traversed the realm of humanity because they wielded concepts like gods themselves. Yes, these concepts were weak compared to what a god was capable of.

But wielding concepts was never meant to be something mortals should be doing.

"What if it's not the Aura but the ability they wield with it?" she tilted her head. "Or maybe that person can manipulate Zenshi to a level we don't know yet."

They were flames in their purest form after all. Flames that couldn't burn like...

"The stars..." she muttered mindlessly when she recalled a few vague words told to her by a man she couldn't quite remember.

"Are they one of the fallen stars?"

Just then, Luna lingered for a moment and shook her head when she realized that her mind had gone blank.

Whatever she had muttered for those short seconds was gone.

"My head hurts."

Her eyelids flattered as she regained her train of thought and rubbed her temples.

Gasp. She froze when she thought back to what she was thinking about and noticed…

She remembered nothing.

This was the second time something like this had happened since the incident on the train to Hansho where she had forgotten an important piece of the journey.

Those memories had remained inaccessible despite the hours of meditation she put herself through that day. Luna always prided herself on having an impeccable memory.

So. The only answer to this memory problem was that someone placed a mind hex on her and everyone else that day.

But the hex didn't just affect the mind—every sensor and camera had captured nothing as if intentionally keeping everything concealed. It was like reality had been twisted to hide everything that happened that day.

“Maybe I was tired that day.” She told herself this every time she thought back to the subway incident.

But now it had happened twice, confirming her theory. Such power was unheard of, even after fifty years of researching Auras. The power to erase something was…ridiculous.

‘Is the power the power they fear?’ Luna wondered.

At the same time, a creepy smile curled on Luna's lips as the gears in her mind churned with the many possibilities she was coming up with.

"I guess I recalled something that triggered that hex. I see... it's a fail-safe to keep their secrets hidden. Very smart, indeed."

And so, Luna accepted the challenge.