Resonance of the Abyss

[***]

A girl with a tall stature, obsidian black hair and crimson eyes, stood at the edge of a cliff. Gazing at the limitless expanse of the desolate land.

The atmosphere contained a tint of violet hue, the clouds had an unruly vibe to them.

Long distance from where she was, at the end where her eyes could see, was an enormous spatial portal.

The portal glimmered with transcendental light, glistening the terrain around it with the shining light. Around it in a resting position was a gargantuan ape.

The ape was adorned with a spiked cape on its shoulder, accentuating its fear-inducing stature and fierce expression, even when it was resting.

The ape wore a shimmering armour on its troso, and another on his lower limbs made of some kind of creature hide. From which unfortunate creature's hide, it was made remained a mystery.

"Vesna, let's go. Arceid is helding a meeting, we are invited."

The voice who called Vesna, was of another girl. Very tall stature, fiery scarlet hair, violet eyes, with a tom boyish body. She roared, calling Vesna to the incoming meeting.

Listening to her, she stood up and started following her. Not even once, she looked at her face strangely embarrassed about something.

They made their way through the desolate terrain, reaching a spaceship.

The spaceship was gigantic in size, made up of materials never once excavated from earth. Even looking from the outside you could guess the laughable amount of chambers it contained.

It was levitating above the ground, when they arrived it opened its shuttle, letting them in.

Inside the spaceship, they entered a separate room after traversing through its metallic hallways.

Within the room, there was a set of seats. Placed in accordance with the status of the people present. On the top seat, sitting on it was Arceid: the strongest Astra.

Just below him, sitting was Kaltain: the most mysterious and heinous Astra.

Similarly just below him was Larrisa: the strategist.

Seemingly that, according to their rank, everyone was sitting there. The girl who had called Vesna also went to her seat, her status around rank 5th.

Vesna also took her seat, the dead last one.

After everyone took their position, Arceid got up.

"I don't wanna sugarcoat anything. So, I will deliver it bluntly. Tomorrow might as well be our last day, we are besieged by approximately a hundred galaxies' collective force."

His voice was…flat with no emotion not even coldness just flat even when he was literally talking about their upcoming death. As if he had already faced worse, the people sitting were also not so different except Kaltain.

"There is no point in having hope or something like that, we all know deep down we will die tomorrow even if we surrender. It's really laughable that we don't even know why they attacked us, we will perish without knowing it too."

There was a lamenting emotion on his poker face, a face filled with arduous experiences. He was telling everyone present that they would die the next day, still none of them had the audacity to refute his statement as it was cold stoned truth.

"I just want to tell…No, request you all to enjoy the last remaining bits of your life. Tomorrow we will march our way to our demise."

Saying so he left without waiting for anyone's remarks, leaving without looking back.

Larrisa got up next. "You should enjoy your last day, there is no strategy this time. Just do what you can do, go berserk, be rabid, let your inner beast out….."

She didn't continue after that, she also left without looking back at their faces. Which were showing their self mocking expression.

One by one, each of them left. The meeting could be called meaningless but deep down they knew that it was necessary to give a reality check to them.

That they should not have any lingering hope, that they should not waste their last day.

...

After Vesna came from the meeting room, she went outside of the spaceship back to the desolate landscape.

Gazing at the portal upfront, her eyes clouded with whatever was going inside her brain.

She silently took out a knife from her armour suit, and put it on her throat. Before she could slice her throat, a hand stopped her.

Taking the knife out of her grip, the scarlet haired girl slapped Vesna across her face.

"You really would have sliced your throat if I wasn't here. You aren't scared of death. So, what's your problem? Why do you not want to fight? I didn't teach you to become a coward."

Vesna looked at her master, her face filled with extreme sorrow still. Even a single tear didn't drop from her face, as if she already had emptied it after countless agonies.

"I am cowardly, master, you can't change that fact. I can't bear seeing someone I love and care about die again in front of my face."

"You should be numb to those trivial things, not a single person present here has anyone closely related to them. We are an exception with our master-disciple bond."

Vesna's face scrunched, distorted, she pleaded with an agonized expression still not even a single tear dropped from her eyelids.

"I'm not numb, if anything I'm haunted by their memories. The time we spent, the moments we shared. I want to just forget their existence all together, but their existing memories make it hard for me to do."

Vesna's master's eyes dropped, hugging Vesna, while caressing her with a soothing voice unlike her usual rough one, she said. "Memories aren't something which makes us weak, you little brat, they are precious, they aren't something you want to forget. They make us strong, they give us the motivation to grow strong."

With Vesna in her embrace, she continued talking in her soothing voice, caressing her head like she was a baby.

"Nobody can grow stronger alone, without conviction, without motivation, without an aim or goal. Everyone has something they want to protect, if someone has nothing even then they have their loved ones memories, their ideals, thoughts and ideas."

While Vensa goes into the dreamland, her master's words echo in her mind…. reverberating.

"Memories hurt Vesna but they give meaning to our life. Always remember you aren't cowardly, you are just a really sensitive and caring person. Don't cloud such a sweet trait with something so…bad. "