17 Oblivion

After cleansing the chaotic energy out from the world, repairing the wounded space, and stabilizing the crumbling world, the mighty and majestic roots, that came out from Hei Long's back, started to slip away from the cracks of the sky and the ravaging whirlpool of the sea. Swooshing and swishing sound whistled out from his back, as the giant roots retracted back to his while the roots were shrinking in the process.

After a few moments, the giant tree roots were gone, leaving only a tattoo of a tree on his back, which would sometimes glow with green lights proving that it was active and alive. Either saving him from another calamity or devouring for eternity, no one knows when exactly it might strike back.

Looking from afar, anyone could see everything: the sun was no longer falling down from the sky, the sky was no longer littered, and scarred with spatial cracks that spread far and wide, the vast sea wasn't filled with ravenous waves and undercurrents like a hungry beast waiting for a feast, and the balls of light weren't stuck inside the void like prisoners--now, they were moving in their unpredictable paths, free and happy. Everything was back normal, except for the little angel who was weakly lying on the solid sea surface. Strangely enough, Hope was breathing without a problem, but one particular surfaced, his body was jumping from a tangible and intangible state, as he curled up like a dying pup.

"Am I dying?" Eyes dimmed, he mumbled as he looked at the man, who was standing still, from the corner of his eyes. Then he blanked out as darkness devoured the light of the sun. Night came, lording over the sun for the meantime.

...

As rays of light crawled out from the darkness of the night, and onto the vast sea, bringing the warmth of life to the desolated place, Hope awoke from his unplanned rest, with a little energy to spare. Despite the time it took for him to rest and save energy, it was still insufficient.

I must get up, he thought. Struggling to fight against exhaustion, which was constantly whispering him a demonic chant that verbally portrayed sleep and rest were his best friends, Hope had to bit his delicate tongue in order to make himself more active and awake. But by doing such a struggle made him more weak and lethargic.

He looked at his translucent hand, then he knew that his time was coming to an end, an end that he didn't really want to come. But every beginning that he remember was always accompanied by endings.

I can't leave like this! I need to do something! he thought. There are so many things I want to talk about!

With all of his might put together, Hope mustered his strength to stand up. You can do it, he mentally encouraged himself. Although he was shaking, he still did it. He stood up.

"Yes, I did--"

But his feets failed him after a few seconds, making him tumble his way towards Hei Long.

In the end, Hope had to lean and grabbed the unmoving Hei Long in order to stand up once more.

He grabbed Hei Long's sleeves, tugged it, and said while smiling his most beautiful smile. "Big brother, wake up. Wake up."

Only a few moments had passed since he started to wake Hei Long up, but for Hope, it felt like years had come and go. He couldn't afford to waste any of it. Calling out, he was having a hard time holding on for a little more longer. He himself was barely awake. From time to time, he was blanking out as if he had lost his soul somehow, then when the time came that everything came back to him, he would just continue all over again, waking up his brother from his deep slumber. Although Hope didn't know what destiny had in store for him, he knew that he needed to make a choice. Yes, a choice that he wouldn't regret.

Seeing this, the ancient being, who remained silent for a long time, could no longer bear to see this scene.

"Boy," he said, "that's enough! He won't wake up, and it'd be best if you stop bothering him. Boy, our purpose here is done. I hate to say this, but we're nothing but ghosts of his past now..."

As if he heard nothing, the poor little angel smiled and continued to tug and wake Hei Long.

Being ignored, the ancient being wasn't angry at the boy, but he was angry with himself. If only he was brave enough to take out his soul and gave it to Heilong. Then the child wouldn't have to make such a cruel sacrifice. But he was scared, he knew such a thing would lead to a disaster. He knew Hope was barely conscious, so he had to try to at least make the most out of Hope's time.

"Boy, that's enough. We've both made and took our own fair share of sacrifice. Now, let's leave."

"No!" Hope yelled," Big brother still hasn't remembered me. I don't want that, and I still want to say good-bye."

"So what!" the ancient being snapped. "You want him to believe your story? And what--tell him that you are dying because you were feeling "valiant" and you needed him to live because he still had his "family" left behind in another world? Hope, think about this: what about you? Your divine soul is gone!"

"No! You don't understand, and you won't cause you're a reaper!"

"Then what do you want! Maybe you want to see his lovely expression as he processes the whole thing regarding his origin!"

"No! You are wrong..." Hope looked confused. "I-I, you don't understand..." He smiled as tears and snot covered his face, he tried to wipe everything away but he didn't have much strength.

"Kid, you're dying! No matter what you do and tell him, he won't believe you. To him, you're nothing but a strange angel, who appeared out of nowhere, with a strange story to tell. You're just making things hard for him and yourself."

"If we leave now, I might lose the chance to talk to him forever."

The ancient being didn't want to be harsh, but if he can save the kid more time. Then he would do anything.

"Stop this farce, and accept the truth... He's different from what he was before. He doesn't have memories about us. It'd be best to go home, and spend the remaining time you have left with your siblings-- siblings who remember for who and what you are."

As if it had hit his sore spot, the poor little angel finally stopped, and choke down a sob, as he knelt down, wiping the tears on his face with his tiny hands. "I-I just want him to ruffle my hair and say bye-bye!"

Out of a sudden, as if the gods had heard his pitiful calls, a big hand had gently wrapped his head, while ruffling everything. Because of habits, Hope involuntary closed the lids of his eyes, put up a smile that made the surroundings more colorful as he flapped his wing side-by-side.

"Why are you, my child?" the owner of the hand asked. "Are you hurting somewhere?"

"Daddy, you remembered...?

"Dad--?" Hei Long knelt down, saw Hope's dirty face, and frowned. "Are you fine?"

"So you don't remember?" Hope smiled. "I'm fine, your child's fine."

Hei Long didn't mind the words, but his arched brows deepened.

"Then why are you crying if you're not hurt?"

Hope didn't answer but smiled as he remembered something. He eyes blanked.

The little angel, Hope, was full of smiles all the time, but he didn't smile because he liked it, nor did he smiled because he found something funny. No, he was full of smiles because he was taught, at a young age, that his smile could relieve anyone's pains and sufferings.

"Hope, someday if you ever feel sad, just smile. If you ever feel lonely, just smile. If you ever feel you can't handle everything--"

"Just smile!" the little one interjected while smiling.

Hei Long laughed, "Right, we won't let such emotion drown us to the bitterness of despair. We are mighty and strong!"

Little Hope nodded, eyes glimmering with passion. "We are mighty and stwong!"

Hei Long laughed, "Not stwong, it's strong!"

Inclining his head sideways, Hope asked, "Styong?"

"Strong," Hei Long pointed out with patience. "Baby, stro-ong!"

"Stwong!"

"No...."

Memories of the past vanished like bursting bubbles, waking him back to reality.

Hei Long check every inch of his body., "Are you sure you're fine? You just blanked out!"

"I was having a dream," Hope said. "A good dream."

"Dream?" Hei Long put his hand in front of Hope's eyes and moved them from to side to side. His eyes are clearly out of focus, Hei Long though. He was fine just a few moments ago, what exactly happened?

What Hei Long didn't know was that he was forced to enter a lethargic state by the ancient being to stabilize the world around by letting him see and realize what he truly desired. Many events had already happened, yet it appeared to him that only a few minutes had passed.

"Kid? Hey kid! Oh, finally, got through--your hands are fading! What going on?"

"Oh, this?" Hope looked at his translucent hands. "I'm leaving, so this is normal." He lied.

Hei Long wiped away the sweat on his forehead and released a sigh of relief. "I was panicking for nothing." Hei Long stared at the translucent hand, touched it, but his finger simply passed through it. Hope winced in pain, and quickly pulled hands back.

"I'm sorry," Hei Long said. "I didn't know it would hurt." Hei Long was suspicious. "What's exactly happening to your body?"

Hope pointed at his body, which was slowly becoming hazy and disintegrating. "This? It's about time for me to leave this place, so I should do the fade-fade thing to return home." Idiot, someone shouted inside Hope's head.

Hei Long smiled at his antics. "Then you should take care, okay?"

The angel inched closed to him and hugged him tightly as his body slowly disintegrated into nothingness while saying his final good-bye with a smile. "Bye-bye, Daddy." Until the end of his time, Hope kept his smile, and a teardrop rolled down from Hei Long's eyes.

He caught it, and it shook him. "Eh, what is this--a teardrop?" Hei Long felt very sad, for some reason that he couldn't even stop his tears from flowing down. No matter how many times he tried to wipe it away from his eyes, it just wouldn't stop.

"What's going on?" He closed his eyes as he tried his hardest to remember everything the child had said.

"Wait--what!" His body moved on his own as he gathered the particles around him, with his bare hands. Unfortunately, he was already too late. Hei Long was suspicious about himself, the kid, and ancient voice, but he couldn't do a thing about. The meeting was too abrupt and everything happened too fast, he didn't have the convenience to ask.

At the very start of their meeting, he felt joy, worry, and pain out of a sudden after seeing the kid, but he was sure he didn't meet him before. Therefore, not knowing the kid was fine, yet for some reasons, it dealt him great pain because the emotions the kid invoked inside of him were real.

"This is a dream, right?" Hei Long laughter resounded to the high heavens. "Yes--a dream! Please, anyone, tell me everything's just a dream!"

As if someone heard his calls, he heard a bell ringing, shattering his doubts and bringing him back to reality.

-Ding!

"No!" He raised his hands towards the sky as darkness surged and drown him in.

-Assimilating divine soul starts within 3-seconds!

-3!

-2!

-1!

-Compatibility rate: Calculating...