EndlessReverie
Chapter 3: Rewrite the Rules
𝚉𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚗
05/20/2025
A/N: i promise you, if I fail to deliver. ill just hide in a hole ;+; hihi <3 — have a good read!
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For a long while, there was silence.
"... Alicia?" Zairon called out to her, hands trembling as he noticed that she was stagnant.
The world held its breath once more — ruined skies overhead dark with mourning as scorched earth beneath trembling with unshed tears. A single gust of wind passed through the broken pillars and shattered dreams, brushing against his battered form and the cloak that was draped over Alicia. As if trying to stir life into her still frame.
"... A-Alicia, y-you are not making me laugh," he tried chuckling to play along with her games, though she didn't move. "Alicia... please just open your eyes."
Zairon knelt there, holding her close, tears running unchecked down his face. From his perspective, the world had stop spinning — as if time itself refused to move forward without her.
The distant groans of Aetheria's collapse faded into white noise. All thet remained was the hollow beat of his own heart. Thudding in protest — in disbelief.
He didn't breathe. He didn't blink.
He merely gazed at her intently.
Her body, still. Her lips remained — parted with the last words he ever wanted to hear like that.
I love you.
It echoed deep inside him, louder than the roars of any battlefield, much more deafening than any spell or explosion. Zairon's heart clenched so hard that he feared it might shatter.
Zairon sat on the ground next to her, pulling her closer as if to anchor her lingering soul to his trembling hands.
"Alicia…" he whispered.
No response.
"Alicia," he called again, louder this time, hands trembling as he cupped her cheeks. Still warm. Still… there.
"Don't—" he couldn't make up his words, yet he continued.
"Don't do this..." he murmured, his voice breaking as a sharp sting flooded his eyes. "You promised. Y-you said you'd always be with me... Always..."
He just couldn't take it anymore.
He received the power of Aetheria — at least what remains of it. He would sacrifice a great amount of his essence just to bring her back.
"S-stay with me, don't—"
And as he pressed his palm against her chest—
A twitch.
Her eyes fluttered slowly before her lips opened.
"... I'm s-still here," she muttered, barely audible, but it struck like the warmth that Zairon desired. "Y-you cry too much."
Zairon flinched, eyes wide. His breath caught. "You—"
"Zairon, it was a cold feeling... a prank," her smile weak yet playful, as if teasing death itself before rising from where she laid her back. "... I wanted confirmation that you would panic if I-I'm gone."
Zairon let out something between a sob and a laugh, burying his face against her shoulder, holding her as if she'd vanish again.
"... I h-hate you..." he whispered, voice trembling.
"I love you too," she added with a faint smile in her voice.
He smiled weakly "... you are so unfair."
The silence that followed was gentler now. No longer hollow or sharp — it was full of things unspoken, hearts laid bare in the ruin of a broken world.
But even moments like these had to end.
Above the two lingering souls, the world trembled once more. Thunder cracked — but it was not thunder. It was the rupture of something sacred, ancient, being torn apart. The space warped around them.
The thread — that luminous strand of golden-dark essence — had been forcefully pulled out of Zairon, coiling and glowing like a serpent of fate. Alicia stared at the thread before turning her gaze towards Zairon.
"You have to go."
She spoke after a long pause, her voice steadier, though fatigue lingered in its edges. "It's the only way—"
Zairon pressed a finger on her lips.
"I don't want to leave you."
She nodded gently, understanding in her eyes — but firm resolve, too. "And I don't want you to stay here. Not in this world. This… isn't our end. You'll find me again."
"How can you be so sure?"
She reached up and pressed her hand over his heart. "Because I'll be waiting — in the warmth you remember, the laughter we shared. Even if I don't look the same, my soul will know you. And you'll find me."
He shut his eyes tight, clenching his jaw, as if resisting fate itself.
"Promise me," she whispered. "Promise me that you'll find me, that you'll pursue me, that you'll always strive to find a way to seek the life we had since desired."
He opened them again, glimmering with tears. "…I promise."
Slowly, Zairon raised his hand towards the thread that shimmered into existence. Swirling with impossible colors — a symbol, a manifestation of time and choice. He pulled it gently, and it sliced through space like a blade of destiny, opening a ridge in the air: an anomalous gateway, crackling with unfamiliar power.
The portal pulsed softly, beckoning him forward.
But Zairon lingered.
His hand hovered mid-air, fingers trembling just inches from the breach between worlds. The golden-dark thread wrapped loosely around his wrist, as though urging him onward — yet even now, his feet refused to move.
What would happen to her once he crossed?
Would she be left behind in the ruin of this collapsing world?
Would her body dissolve into ash and memory, or would some quiet magic preserve her long enough to follow?
He turned, eyes searching Alicia's pale face. Her breathing was shallow — but there. Her soul still clung to her frame like the last ember of a fire.
"Alicia…" he murmured, as if her name alone could stop him altogether.
She blinked slowly, her gaze fixed on his sad expression. "You're hesitating."
"Because it's you. How could I just leave you in this dying world, how can I just walk into something unknown when you're still here — bleeding, barely breathing?"
Her smile returned stronger — faint, tired, but reassuring. "I am more than what you see, Zairon. My thread isn't done weaving yet. This body... this world... it's only one part of who I am."
He knelt beside her again, the hum of the portal thrumming behind him like a second heartbeat.
"I don't want to forget," he said. "I don't want to lose this — you."
"You won't lose me," she whispered, fingers intertwining his. "You won't ever lose me. I remember what you told me years ago — ' I promise I won't forget you, through this world of sadness and glee... because we are an Eternal Reverie '."
His gaze fell to their hands — hers trembling, his clenched with resistance.
"I feel like I'm abandoning you."
"You're not," she said with a firm voice, strength creeping back into her voice, though barely. "You're choosing us. Choosing the chance that we never had. A world that you and I can live freely, a future that still breathes."
The portal pulsed again, brighter than ever, like it sensed his heart wavering.
He swallowed. Zairon's lips parted, but no words came. Instead, he reached into the pocket and withdrew the fragment of a memory crystal she'd given him. It pulsed faintly — a heartbeat not his own. He wrapped his fingers around it.
"I-I guess this is it," he voiced softly. "Though, I wonder if you could come with me?"
The question hung between them, fragile and full of hope.
Alicia's eyes flicked toward the portal — the swirling rift of gold and dark, pulsing like a second sun against the collapsing sky. For a moment, she said nothing, her expression unreadable.
Then, softly: "The thread… it doesn't just take one soul, does it?"
Zairon's gaze sharpened. "I feel like it doesn't."
"It was never meant to," he murmured, wonder creeping into his voice. "It's a bridge. A guide. Not a barrier."
Their eyes met.
"You could come with me," he said, firmer now. "We don't have to do this separately. We never had to."
She exhaled, a sound somewhere between relief and fear. "I thought… I had to stay. That someone needed to hold the thread steady."
Zairon reached for her hand, fingers intertwining with hers. "I was scared that you wouldn't be able to follow me. But, as I feel the essence pouring into the thread, I believe we can move forward together."
The portal pulsed brighter, as if in agreement. The golden-dark thread shimmered and split, weaving gently around both of them now — two strands, spiraling like twin comets.
Alicia looked down at their joined hands. "If I go, what are the chances that we'll still be the same?" she chuckled softly as her voice rang loud due to the realization.
"Neither do I," he admitted. "But if we're there… if we're together… we'll find each other. No matter who we become."
Her eyes welled with tears, the last defenses of fear breaking like thin glass. "Even if we forget?"
"We won't," he said, lifting her hand to his lips. "Because I remember what you once told me — 'We are an EternalReverie.'"
She smiled, tears falling freely now.
"Then let's cross."
Zairon nodded.
Hand in hand, they stepped toward the light.
"This time, we'll rewrite the rules."
The thread surged with radiant warmth, wrapping around them like an oath made flesh — not binding, but freeing. As they crossed the threshold, the world behind them collapsed, folding in on itself like a page turned in a book long overdue.
The portal swallowed them whole.
And somewhere, in the silence between moments, the cosmos shifted.
Not one soul…
But two.
* * *
And then — a cry pierced the silence. Soft. New. Alive.