Worlds In Limbo

The voice was soft like velvet, but it felt strong. It came from the back of her mind and, with an invisible hand, tugged on it with a firm grasp. 'I am Rhian Smyra.'

Kouki was still carrying the two injured mages. A man with a missing arm was secured on his shoulder, unconscious, while Kouki wrapped his arm around Rhian's hip, carrying her as he sprinted away from the hordes of Abberants.

'W-What?!' The revelation shocks her as she feels a hand firmly gripping her brain, pulling it backward. 'Heed my warning.' The voice darkened, becoming as rough as sandpaper, gripping Rhian's entire head with ethereal hands as she felt herself shaking vigorously.

'I do not. Want to be. Awakened again.' Fingertips engraved into the sides of Rhian's head, shoving a sense of nausea and pain deep into her head as she released a jarring cry of pain.

"SMYRA!" Kouki quickly took notice.

Rhian's head was filled with indents that gradually deepened. Her hands were placed on the sides of her head, veins bulging as her palms gripped into her flesh, causing blood to seep out.

'Heed. My. Warning.' The voice echoed throughout her mind in different octaves, tormenting Rhian with blaring sounds and quaking in her head, causing her to sink her fingers harder as blood and hair covered her armored fingertips.

"HOLD ON SMYRA!" Kouki's Runes were pulsating, spreading throughout the black, vein-like Runes as the ones enchanted onto his legs shone with a dark radiance, allowing him to hasten his sprint.

His vision was locked onto a fallen Terrestrial akin to a jeep, one much smaller than the First Squadron's and belonged to the man he was carrying on his shoulder.

"A-Alright. How are you?" Kouki laid the man on the wet, grassy earth while he gently laid Rhian against the Terrestrial's wall as he crouched beside her.

Rhian's face was dripping with blood as if she cried blood. She felt nauseous, clawing at her head to counteract the constant ringing, wearing a horrified face as she constantly mutters without a stop: "STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPST-"

Kouki's expression had a sense of regret, possibly from deciding to leave her alone on the Terrestrial. "Alright.. Stay still." The black sword that pierced his chest shone brighter while his unit expelled red vein-like Runes from his skin, injecting into Rhian, following Kouki's command.

Surfacing under Rhian's armor, they glow crimson on her skin, climbing all the way to her impulsive fingers and her bloodied head, applying a Rune that nullifies the 'sense of pain'.

"Now..." Kouki sighed heavily while another sword formed above his head, overlapping the yellow halo above him as it impaled his head, removing his 'sense of doubt'.

"Come forth." Yellow, nerve-like Runes exit his forehead, cascading onto the crazed Rhian as they enter her body, shining through her skin as they climb to her head.

The collapsed Terrestrial fell close to a dense forest, one which unspecialized Terrestrials can't cross and it was near the vicinity where William said was 'colder than usual.'

The giant, purple hollow disc hovering behind him spun around before dissipating along with his yellow halo, seeping back into his head as Rhian came to her senses, prompting her to lower her fingers.

"K-Kurayami?" She felt bliss.

Kouki's little Runes seeped out of her head, returning into his body as she slowly took off her gauntlets, gently and carefully touching her head, feeling the little dents and cuts she did to herself. "A-Ah-" Her heartbeat raises as she realizes what she had done to herself. Regret? No. She feels more horrified by what she has done to herself. Terrified by whatever the hell is in her body, or whose body she is inhabiting.

Her hands stayed there, gripping her head again but not applying enough force to crush her skull. "S-Smyra?" Kouki's Runes were dimming, sinking through his unit as they entered his body, returning him to be the oddity in space.

"K-K-Kurayami-! I-I- I'm scared!" Rhian stuttered, sniffling in between her words as her body collapsed into a fetal position with tears streaming down her blood-stained body.

"I-I- IT'S INSIDE ME! I-IT- SHE-" She reminds herself of the ethereal hands that had a firm grip on her head, being able to kill her at a moment's notice; the same ethereal hands that had tormented her, enclosing herself in a chamber with an unimaginable impression of her head being constantly crushed.

She tried to speak out words, but the fear instilled within her disabled her from doing so, shackling her mind with the threat of constantly having her fleshy, fragile brain played with.

"I-It's fine, S-Smyra." The red veiny Runes remained on Rhian as Kouki embraced her, encircling her body with yellow Runes as exhaustion crept up to him.

"Let me... tell you a secret about.. our bodies." Kouki's eyes were blinking.

"We are made of soul, mind, and flesh. The soul comes first as our identity, molding the perfect cradles to birth mind, and flesh. Then comes the mind, telling the flesh how to be formed and how to feel according to our soul."

Rhian's river of blood halted as she listened, glancing at Kouki whose eyes grew weary.

"So, never let your flesh tell your soul what to do. For it is because of you that your flesh exists. You decide what happens." A soft sigh leaves Kouki's body as he finishes, falling limp on Rhian as his Runes retract back to him.

"..."

'I decide?' She echoed in her mind, gazing toward the expressionless face of Kouki as she sighed, wiping the tears away, accidentally staining blood in her eyes. "Shit.." She carefully pulls the sleeves of her shirt out of the vambrace of her armor, wiping off the blood with it.

She looks at her hands' fidgeting before touching her neck, feeling the blood vessels pounding. She was still afraid of 'Rhian Smyra.' "Need to make sure they're alright." Rhian gently removed Kouki's arm around her, slowly moving him to sit against the Terrestrial before standing up.

Sweat drips down on her, slowly washing away the blood smudged on her face as she notices the man with the missing arm, deciding to walk toward him.

His severed arm was bandaged. Rhian took notice of this before placing her finger on his neck, feeling weak and occasional pulses. 'He's still alive..'

It was quiet. There was no Abberant that was trying to hunt or chase after them. There was no creaking and shaking of Terrestrials, not the destruction of them. It was pure and utter silence and Rhian savored it, feeling the cold breeze brush past her, bathing in its comforting embrace.

'Mine.. to decide.' Her hand guided itself toward her chest, pressing against it as she felt a faint pulse. She sighed, removing her hand before looking forward- "What the hell?" A tone of annoyance.

The forest she decided to lay her eyes upon was decently destroyed. Burning, sliced, and even a Terrestrial crashing into it. She stares at it, feeling the heat surge in her body as her heartbeat quickens, prompting her to take a deep breath.

"Do not fear. Do not doubt. I'll lie to myself even, if that's what it takes to gain control." She had conviction and determination.

A sense of... not dread, but excitation, feeling lighter.

"I am Isabella Yates, and this is my body."

Talking to yourself, although feels like a mental disability.. you, humans, love to say it's 'healthy'.

I mean, she doesn't even notice the spreading cracks in the sky.