novelnext The Bittersweet Haze of Regret
The Bittersweet Haze of Regret
(¡¡¡SPLAT!!)The ragdoll dropped Mireya’s memory bubble, and as it hit the soft ground of ash and chocolate, it burst with a doughy sound, splashing its cosmic contents into a puddle of unintelligible light that quickly dissipated.
{¡¡INCORRECT MEMORY!!}
Her cloth hands waved frantically as she ran back toward the fissure, which continued to emanate a torrent of iridescent spheres.
"...."
On the other hand, Shija, despite the chaos and confusion, remained motionless in his position of apology, his forehead low and his body firmly crouched.
(¡WHIZZ-FLUTTER-GRAB!)
However, the doll, desperately ignoring reality, continued in motion, her non-existent eyes scanning the myriad of floating memories.
{Silver's memories won't be useful!}
She avoided the metallic silver bubbles that hummed with echoes of battles and honor.
{Goldie's...? It's impossible for me to imitate them!!}
She set aside the golden ones that shone dramatically between light and darkness.
{I don't understand Brownie's...}
And she even passed by the bronze ones that resonated with echoes of technology and curiosity.
{As if I could use Echidna's without consequences!!}
With almost palpable determination, she completely dodged the emerald ones, which vibrated with an energy that felt disturbingly familiar to her.
{This must work! This must work!}
Her cry mixed with the sweet murmur of the wind as her small rag hands lunged at the fissure, searching, rummaging through the spheres, until finally her fingers caught a bubble that had the same opaque, earthy tone as the one she had just crushed.
{This is the one!! Here will be the precedent I need!!}
Thus, the doll held up the new orb with forced conviction, exclaiming with almost desperate confidence in her mouthless voice.
(¡¡¡FWOOOOSH-GLEAM-REVEAL!!!)
Releasing the glow once more as the new bubble shone, enveloping the ragdoll and projecting its light upon the silent figure of Shija, still kneeling.
"Silver Fang!!"
And inside, a new image began to materialize, revealing another fragment of a past that the doll hoped would give her all the answers.
(¡¡¡KRA-KOOOOM-SCREECH!!!)
After which the new bubble burst into light, but this time it wasn't white, but a sickly, dark violet that tinted the cotton candy clouds with a hue of rot.
"I curse you!!"
The image that materialized was an abandoned city, submerged in an eternal night where the only light came from the lightning bolts cutting through a sky heavy with statics.
"I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR HER DEATH!!"
There, in the middle of an avenue cracked by the passing of centuries, two figures collided with the roar of a train wreck.
(¡¡SQUELCH-THUD!!)
The sound of the collision was not metal against metal, but something more organic and wet—a dull thud that made the foundations of the ruined buildings vibrate.
"I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE ON YOU AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR DAMNED HENCHMEN!!"
And finally, at that moment under the glare of a lightning bolt, the screaming figure revealed its grotesque form.
"¡¡GRRRROOAAAWWWLLL!!"
It was not a human being, but a mass of biological nightmare: a body composed of hundreds of intertwined tentacles that pulsed with a violet light, covered in a slimy, semi-transparent skin that revealed pulsating organs inside.
"DID YOU HEAR ME, YOU WITCH!!"
It had multiple eyes with vertical pupils distributed erratically across its torso, and from its limbs sprouted bony stingers dripping with corrosive venom. It was an entity of pure chaos, the kind of creature born from the darkest corners of existence to devour the light.
"¡¡GLUURGH!!"
After saying those words, the monster let out a liquid roar, a sound of viscous, guttural bubbling that made the asphalt under its tentacles crack even further.
"Why do you hold so much resentment against me?"
However, instead of a war cry, a serene and crystalline voice cut through the static-charged air.
"We've only just met..."
That bewildered voice asked with a calmness that was insulting in the face of such horror, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
(¡¡¡THUU-DUM... SWISH...!!!)
That was the instant a lightning bolt illuminated the top of the tallest skyscraper in the dead city.
"Besides, it's not like I like this job... or the dress..."
Descending slowly, as if gravity were a suggestion and not a law, appeared the figure of a small magical girl.
"Besides, I don't think I've hurt anyone... consciously... Okay, except for a few exceptions..."
His dress was a masterpiece of contrasts: a fluffy, voluminous structure of alternating layers of snowy white and abyssal black. The bodice was adorned with lace that looked like woven shadows, and in the center of the chest, an ancient silver medallion held a fluctuating gem.
"Besides, it's clear that you're the monster in this place!"
The stone had no fixed color; it vibrated, passing from crimson to sapphire, from emerald to gold, as if it contained a miniature universe.
"So shouldn't I be the one who's angry when we've only just met?!"
His hair, long, straight, and of a lunar silver, shone with its own intensity, waving softly despite the absence of a breeze.
"WE'VE ONLY JUST MET?!"
When he landed, his eyes were pure white, without pupils, and in their glassy surface, the grotesque and twisted image of the tentacle monster was reflected with cruel clarity. The monster screamed, its multiple bloodshot eyes vibrating with hatred.
"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT YOU DID TO ME?! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THE PRICE I PAID FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND THOSE OF YOUR HENCHMEN?!"
Under the light of the next lightning bolt, the face of the small figure was completely revealed.
"I really don't know what you're talking about..."
It was Mireya, looking at the monster with an expression of genuine and absolute confusion, tilting his head with disconcerting innocence.
"Are you sure you're not confusing me with someone else?"
Blinking softly while looking at the monstrosity with a certain degree of concern, he suggested his hypothesis.
"......."
"...."
The silence that followed his words was heavier than thunder.
"YOU WRETCH!!"
But finally, unable to bear it any longer, the monster screamed, tearing the air apart, charged with a hatred that made the glass of the surrounding skyscrapers vibrate.
(¡¡¡SQUELCH-CRACK-GROOWL!!!)
The creature then began to mutate violently. Its tentacles, once thin, thickened with hypertrophied muscles, acquiring a rough texture.
"Forgotten?! You say you forgot?!"
Its torso widened, and massive, curved fangs sprouted from its face; its eyes sank under a prominent brow ridge, taking on the features of a monstrous, bloodthirsty boar.
"I will never forget! That night everything went to hell! The facilities, our hierarchy... our lives! We were the commanders of Thunder Claw, the sovereigns of this district... until you appeared."
The monster dug its hooves into the concrete, remembering the fire and the collapse.
"Three generals came to stop you... three powers that no one dared to challenge."
Faced with the beast's volcanic fury, the magical girl remained static.
"And you destroyed everything as if it were made of paper! You collapsed the base upon itself... Your straw beasts and vassals killed my companions. AND NOW YOU SAY YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I AM?!"
At those fervent words, Mireya placed a finger on his lips, narrowing his eyes in a gesture of absolute concentration.
"Mmm... Thunder Claw... generals..."
The silence stretched on, interrupted only by the faint flow of wind between them until finally...
"Ah..."
Mireya faintly remembered.
"N-no way!!"
He immediately proceeded to cover his face with both hands, but the blush was so intense that it seeped through his silk fingers.
"That night...! That chocolate... the Chocobomb. The alcohol was too strong!"
His white eyes shone with a mixture of horror and fragmented memories that began to fit together like pieces of a broken puzzle.
"YOU DESTROYED THE BASE!! You summoned those damned straw dolls, covering everything like a tide! That silver armor killed the strongest general, reducing him to ash... And that wretch.... That wretched golden doll almost killed me with her blow!! EVERYTHING WAS RECORDED ON THE CAMERAS!!!"
The Thunder Claw monster trembled, its tentacles waving as it remembered how its army of security mechas was dismantled like toys by simple straw dolls while a religious organization took advantage of the chaos to loot everything in the name of a delusional worship.
"You...! You killed Vespira and stole the prototype!"
Hearing those words, Mireya crouched down, curling into a fetal position while covering his face with both hands.
"I remember almost nothing! I only have flashes! Wait...!"
His ears were so red they seemed about to puff out smoke.
"Oh, heavens! I remember vomiting on something... AND I USED SOMEONE AS A WEAPON!!"
Mireya was overwhelmed, remembering his pathetic behavior from that night, where he handled a "protagonist" like dough, acted in a "humiliating" way playing around stupidly, and tore a hole through the place just to vomit—only to wake up the next morning with a terrible hangover.
"Ground, swallow me whole!!"
However, seeing this pathetic display, the General of Thunder Claw knew it was his chance.
"You will die here, you wretch!!"
He had harbored his hatred and the humiliation he had experienced. He had volunteered for experiments that warped his brain and genetics, even altering his personality for revenge, analyzing the security footage that survived the disaster to understand his enemy's "strategy."
"I WILL END THIS TODAY!!!"
And now was the time to vindicate himself, to take revenge, to recover his prestige...!!
"JUST... GO AWAY!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
However, Mireya, who was still curled in a ball on the ground with his hands pressed against his eyes, could only scream from the depths of his soul...
(¡¡¡DOMMMMM-DIVINE-BURST!!!)
Unconsciously releasing a divine decree that generated an invisible and absolute shockwave, expanding from his body and distorting reality in its path.
"I CURSE YOU, YOU WITCH!! I CURSE YOUR NAME AND YOUR EXISTEN...!!"
As a result, the General, despite his monumental mass and fury, was struck by a force that did not obey physics, but a greater will, ejecting him toward the horizon, turned into a burst of light that disappeared among the storm clouds—forced to leave against his will and surviving once again.
"Sniff... Damn it... AAAHHHHHH!!!"
Leaving Mireya behind, who seemed to have lost the battle in some way.
(¡¡¡POP!!!)
{Yes... Um... Incorrect memory... somehow... I'm sorry for seeing that...}