Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

Only photographers would capture the unexpected campfire. The little white beast had somehow escaped the clutches of the demon, and one of its clones came to the campfire, attracted by the heat it emitted.

"I'm curious, you're not even human, so how do you possess so much energy?"

It spoke up, while the ashes simply watched in silence as the stage began to crumble.

“You seem to have a good way of using the power within you. Compared to the uncontrollable emotions of humans, the flames you burn seem much clearer.”

She drew her longsword from her shield, and her katana left its sheath.

"We've already decided to abandon human emotions as an unstable energy source, but our mission won't stop. You should know about the other Homura Akemi, right? If we don't limit 'entropy' in this universe, it won't just be your world that suffers 'heat death.' Let's cooperate! With our technology, we can definitely thoroughly study your situation. You might be the key to saving the world..."

The longsword and the katana pierced the incubator's body together. A flash of fire, and the small animals that tried to get close to the campfire were burned to ashes.

The two ashes looked at each other, one with a bitter smile and the other with a smile.

"Xiao Yan, what are you planning to do now?"

"I...don't know, in this world...I don't know."

The flames burned so calmly, even the black streak within them was so calm.

"If you were to return like this, even you now would feel resentful, wouldn't you?"

"Of course, admitting defeat is one thing, but watching defeat come is another."

"How about we indulge ourselves for once?"

"capricious?"

"Since we've already failed, what's wrong with smashing the chessboard like a child who refuses to admit defeat?"

The smile slowly returned to its original cheerful tone.

"However, this chessboard is very hard; I don't think we can break it."

The bitter smile slowly faded, and a faint chuckle returned to his lips.

"How about we secretly knock down a few chess pieces?"

"For example, the most important queen?"

"The king would be furious if that happened."

"Then let her jump. She's already beaten me on the chessboard, so I'll annoy her off the chessboard."

"So……"

Let's go!

In the collapsed stage, the bonfire spontaneously sprang up, leaving a trail of flames that surrounded the panicked actors on stage.

Deep purple and gold figures rushed toward the House of Cocoons, carving a narrow passage through the crowd of guards; mournful dolls surrounded them, but could not stop them from leaving burning footprints in the passage; they passed over brown witches and golden magical girls, trampled over the bodies of mermaids, and passed through the battlefield filled with knives and guns.

Ashes ran recklessly across this bizarre stage, their fiery silhouette so dazzling, yet so out of place in the world.

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"Xiao Yan...did I ever abandon you and go far away because I had no other choice?"

The source of the anomaly: the garden is covered in colorful cracks, and the gods are embraced by demons, murmuring to themselves.

"I feel like... I shouldn't look like this. I should be shouldering other missions."

The divine radiance struggled to break free from the demon's embrace, but was unable to move within its tight hold.

"That was just a nightmare. Xiaoyuan, you just said that you don't want to be separated from anyone."

The incubator's experimental device was gradually going out of control. The red headband was removed from his head and thrown into the shattered soul gem.

Reaching out to take the red hairband, the demon brushed it against the god's hair, causing the twin ponytails to scatter, and pink strands of hair to surge in the center of the anomaly.

"You are, without a doubt, the real you."

A red hair ribbon began to wrap around her pink hair, and she tied it into a bow, just like she always had.

"What I long for is a world that can make you happy."

"Xiao Yan...?"

"Yes, I'm here, and I'll always be by your side."

On the ruins of the stage, a small shed began to be erected.

Above the shed, the first thing set up was a small silver courtyard.

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 This volume is finally coming to an end, it wasn't easy!

PS1: As usual, I'm begging for votes by being cute!

Volume One: The Final Act of Fate - To Your Silver Garden

The crayon drawings, with their abstract and distorted strokes, reflect the fact that in the children's eyes, the world is still undefined; the sun can be a red coil with a few golden spikes; the lizard has big eyes, black circles encircling each other without distinction, its body painted entirely purple.

Two casually drawn lines divide the entire picture into two halves.

On the left, outlined in pink crayon, are clusters of clouds, and below them, zigzag lines depict mountain peaks. There are no houses, only a rough pink road that winds through the grass drawn with just a few strokes. The clouds overlap with the horizon, and the curved ground bends the rough road together.

To the right is a cyan city, with two cyan lines connecting the winding telephone poles; the tall buildings are framed into several square boxes, filled with cyan blocks, serving as windows illuminated in the darkness; the city is layered like steps, with random dots that extend down to the road, and the towering streetlights illuminate the city's night.

The silver courtyard is like a small canvas, and even though only one person is painting, they are using different crayons.

On the left is the world of pink-haired girls, and on the right is the world of long-haired girls. The villains gather on the lines that divide the picture in two, erasing the crayon marks on both sides. Among them are mermaids holding batons, dolls with cheese in their mouths, hunters in yellow hunting clothes, and warriors wielding long spears.

Most despicable were two streaks of fire that set the canvas ablaze, deep purple and golden yellow, rising from the painting of the sun and lizard, leaping from one end to the other along the boundary that divided the two images, their destruction nearly tearing the painting apart.

The crayon doodled on the middle line, the mermaid's baton was taken away, the rag doll's cheese was eaten, the hunter's rifle was without a trigger, and the warrior's spear was missing its tip.

The burn marks were difficult to fill in, and crayons alone could not add new colors to them. So the canvases, now broken in two, were pieced together, the corners folded, bringing the two worlds one step closer.

In a pink world, draw a hand reaching out; in a cyan world, draw another hand to catch her.

Two girls, from two different worlds, stood back to back, their hands tightly clasped together.

The flames burned through the folded edges and spread towards the clasped hands.

Blue crayon sprinkled raindrops, which fell on the blue city. A long-haired girl opened a blue umbrella and drew a pink raincoat on a pink girl. The flames melted the crayon, and the wax dripped onto the broken canvas. After drying, it tightly glued the two worlds together.

A new canvas was laid out, and the crayon crossed the boundary of the new canvas, drawing a path that connects the two worlds. At the end of the path is a door, behind which pink and cyan lines intersect and converge. The long-haired girl grabbed the pink-haired girl and ran along the path towards the end of the picture.

The flames reached the edge of the new canvas, but the old canvas was suddenly pulled away. There was nothing new to burn, and the flames flickered as if they were about to go out.

The long-haired girl's lips were drawn with a curved line, and the pink-haired girl looked lingeringly at the damaged canvas, but the two paintings were far apart, and one could not see the other.

The silver door was right in front of them, but the girls couldn't open it because they were holding hands. Just then, the crayons came to help again, but they mistakenly picked up a dark purple crayon. As they drew a large dark purple hand to push open the door, the melting crayon revealed the sparks hidden inside.

The door was burned through, and the enraged artist smashed his crayons, picked up a glass of water, and poured it over the flames.

The gramophone, which had a water glass on it, was accidentally knocked over, and the record fell out onto the ground.

The music that was playing on repeat was disconnected.

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"Ladies, never date a jerk who's always saying things like, 'Oh, how can you eat an egg that's not half-cooked?'"

A new day begins at Mitakihara Junior High School.

"And all you male students, please don't become adults who get hung up on questions like 'how well-cooked an egg should be!'"

It was still the same classroom, and the same homeroom teacher, but now, the girl waiting in the classroom was a girl with long black hair.

"Okay, and now, I'd like to introduce a transfer student to everyone today—Kaname-kun. Please come in~"

Classrooms rushed past her, and the ravaged girl ran down the corridor.

"Um... nice to meet you. My name is Kaname Madoka. My mother was sent abroad, so my family has been living in the United States for three years..."

She ignored the surprised looks directed at her as she ran, her body glowing with deep purple flames, as ethereal as ashes about to be scattered by the wind.

"I finally returned to Mitakihara last week, and starting today I'll be transferring to this school to study with everyone..."

The girl with long black hair seemed to have noticed something. She turned her head to look out the classroom's floor-to-ceiling window and frowned deeply.

"Um... please take care of me!"

The cute pink-haired girl finished her self-introduction, and the whole class applauded enthusiastically. But then a figure suddenly left his seat and headed towards the classroom door.

"Xiaomei?"

"I'm not feeling well, I need to go to the infirmary."

The classroom door was pulled open, and another figure rushed to the door. Their identical faces met for a moment. Ash threw something into the classroom with all her might, and the next moment, the demon grabbed her by the neck.

The corridor suddenly transformed into another dimension. Before the teachers and students in the classroom knew what had happened, they discovered that two figures passing by had vanished.

Everyone turned around as if nothing had happened.

Only the pink-haired transfer student stared blankly at the pink soul gem in his hand, the strange light flashing in his eyes immediately suppressed by some kind of force.

She clutched the gem tightly and, as instructed by the teacher, walked to her seat.

At the edge of the world, like two canvases separated, the sky and the earth are divided in two. The demon, clutching the ashes, places her on the abyss where there is no sky or earth.

Purple eyes and black eyes met, the demon's expression was indifferent, and Ash's lips curled into a smile. Neither of them spoke, but they silently let their gazes meet.

After a long while, the demon released her grip, letting her fall into the abyss before the ashes completely turned into flames and disappeared.

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The looping music stopped, water spilled, the flame turned into a wisp of smoke, and a corner of the canvas was soaked.

YOU DIED

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 This chapter was written while listening to the ending theme of "Rebellious Tale". After much thought, I finally used a stream-of-consciousness approach to describe Ash's final struggle. Overall, I still feel that I haven't expressed what I wanted to say. My writing skills are always limited. For now, I'll leave my own regrets and Ash's regrets here, and maybe I can finish them someday.

PS1: The next chapter will begin a new volume, "What is Death All About?", with keywords including exploration, a new world, and turmoil; please look forward to it!

Chapter One: The Abyss Beyond

Flames filled the field of vision, then suddenly rose up, as if the world had been turned upside down; one moment it was bright flames, the next it plunged into the darkness of an abyss.

A chill crept up my spine. My body, which was constantly burning as ashes, felt as if it had been doused with cold water. The dampness seeped into the firewood that was supporting the fire, turning into black pus that flowed beneath the faint flames.

Ashflame saw himself stand up from the firewood, shaking off a pile of charred, white firewood, leaving only a black humanoid figure, retreating step by step towards a place where the firelight could not reach.