Kyle glanced down at Alison as she lay her head on his shoulder, he just barely make out her face through her hair as suddenly.
*Crack*
Reality cracked, literal cracks formed in his vision as reality seemed to part for another to take it's place. Through the cracks Kyle saw someone standing over him, blades clashing with some kind of creature.
"K-yl-Wk-u!" scattered and distorted words came through as the cracks suddenly closed up just as quickly as they appeared.
Kyle's eyes went wide as he quickly stood up and backed away from Alison, she looked at him in confusion as she noticed his sudden fear. Kyle felt his heart drop as an expression of hurt joined her confusion "What is it?..." she asked softly "Is something wrong?..."
Kyle stared at her as she stood up and carefully approached him again, she was so real, she felt so real that he didn't know what to think anymore. "My..my friends…I…I have to…"
"You're leaving?..." she asked with a hurt tone as her eyes began to form tears, slowly she lay her hands over his chest "Why?...Why do you want to leave?...You've only…I've only…" suddenly she embraced him into a hug as she pulled onto his shirt.
As she lay there sobbing Kyle felt his chest tighten again ("Why do I have to leave?...") he then suddenly asked himself.
Alison looked up at him as she spoke "Don't leave…stay here with me. What is there out there for you other than more pain?...Stay here, it's quiet and…it's just you and me."
Kyle found his hands raising of their own volition, he grabbed her shoulders and stared down at her. He was shaking, she was too "I…" he didn't know how to respond ("I can't…I can't leave her again…").
"Don't leave me again…" once she spoke those words Kyle felt something break inside him, he felt cracks that had formed long ago spread out and shatter what else remained. Kyle felt his very being fall utterly apart, not because of the pain, not because of the sadness.
Kyle felt his soul shatter as fury like he had felt when fighting Void emerged from within, rage so raw that his flames engulfed his entire body of their own will. Kyle looked down at Alison as she backed away from him, her eyes wide in fear as she looked at him.
He stared for what felt like an eternity trying his hardest to see a difference, to see something wrong with her but he could not. She was perfect, she looked the same yet…Now he knew she wasn't real.
Kyle immediately shut off all emotion, his flames dissipated immediately, his face turning a cold empty slate as he stared at the terrified Alison "You dare." he spoke and just as the first time he did his voice echoed out "Whatever you are, you won't live through this."
Kyle raised his hands with palms open as his Frostfire emerged once more, exploding outwards from his body the flames rushed to devour anything it could reach spreading out to cover the entire street. Kyle watched calmly and coldly as his flames engulfed Alison, as she disappeared into the white-blue once more.
*Crack* *Crack*
Reality cracked again around him, at first slowly it opened up before suddenly shattering into a shower of reflective shards that fell all around him. Kyle quickly retrieved his flames as the new reality became uncovered, as the illusion fell apart.
A grey void spread out all around him, swirls of colour cut through the grey glowing and slowly moving through. He found himself standing over an invisible floor, while deep below the void continued on.
"Kyll!" called out a female voice from his right to which Kyle turned. Karnage stood several meters away from him, engaged in combat with two shadowy creatures each taking the shape of a very large scorpion and a large falcon respectively.
"He has awoken!" exclaimed the falcon as it flew circles around Karnage and the scorpion.
"It matters not! Our work here is done!" replied the scorpion with a hiss as it lunged at Karnage with its stinger.
Karnage rolled to the side evading the stinger as the scorpion suddenly backed away from the fight and turned tail, running as quickly as it's insectoid legs could take it.
Kyle took a single step towards the scene as his form suddenly disappeared, appearing above the scorpion with sword in hand Kyle flew through the air cleaving the creature's tail midway through. The scorpion screeched in pain as it's tail floated away into space, losing it's shadowy form it revealed itself as entirely skeletal, made of bone and seemingly spines.
Ignoring the orthodox creature's make Kyle continued his assault as he landed on the scorpion's back. While it spun around trying to shake him off, with three quick strikes he cut off the creature's left legs entirely leaving them to aimlessly float around like the tail.
The sound of flapping wings reached his ears as Kyle surged off the scorpion just in time, as shadowy talons clawed through the space he once stood in. The falcon flapped it's massive shadow wings as it grabbed the delimbed scorpion and took flight.
"Fool, kill us or not your fate has been sealed!" the falcon exclaimed as it flew away from Kyle and into the distance, suddenly a black swirl of colour within the grey they were flying towards expanded and devoured them whole.
Kyle stared up at the swirl of black as it went back to it's shape and size, nothing more than a splatter of colour among with the grey void full of them.
"Kyle!? What were those things?!" asked Karnage as she caught up to him, out of breath and bleeding from several cuts on her face and arms.
Kyle glanced at her then at her wounds "I don't know, what happened?" he asked solemnly.
"I think I can explain that." Said Celica as she suddenly appeared with a flash of white "But we must leave here first."
"Where is here?" Kyle asked as he turned to her, his expression retaining it's coldness and emotionlessness.
Celica looked frustrated as she saw his expression "This is the Veil Kyle, existence between realms. There is no time to lose, this way quickly!" she exclaimed while gesturing at the swirl of white behind her, taking a single step towards it the white expanded and devoured her form.
Kyle stepped forward briefly before stopping in his tracks ("Is this real?") he asked himself while glancing around.
"Kyle? You heard her we can't stay here." Said Karnage as she stepped to stand in front of him, a worried expression among her exhaustion.
Kyle nodded silently, before stepping forward alongside Karnage towards the swirl of white. Looking into it he watched as it expanded and covered his vision.
"Now we can talk." Said Celica from behind them.
Kyle turned around to her then glanced around as the white in his vision blurred and dissipated to give room for the bright and bursting streets, hundreds of flying vehicles above them and the soundlessness of it all.
Kyle, Karnage and Celica were hovering above one of district 7's streets. People in crowds walked around the street below while others flew their vehicles up above. Yet there was no sound from either, no whistling of the cars, no words from the people or sound from the advertisement boards. It was all utterly quiet, other than for themselves.
Kyle turned to Celica as she watched him with cautious eyes "What happened back there?"
Celica bit her lip as she spoke with an annoyed tone "You were intercepted, they somehow locked onto your soul and intercepted your journey through the Veil."
"They?" asked Kyle with a raised brow.
"Void beasts. Those creatures you fought, it's what they are called. They are corrupted Spirit beasts who's only purpose is to serve their Void lord, my guess is that their Lord is our Nogitsune." Celica explained with disdain.
Kyle's expression remained empty as he looked down at his open palms "Our work here is done…it said." He placed both hands on his chest and clenched the skin below his shirt "They placed an illusion on me. What they showed me, when I realised it wasn't real…I felt what remained break."
Celica grimaced as her fears bore to be true "Those bastards…Kyle you…"
Karnage glanced between them in confusion "What broke? What did they do to him?!" she asked whilst wearing an expression of dread.
"What we were trying to prevent." Celica replied before continuing to explain "Souls are a powerful but fragile existence, each soul is different but each race has specific differences. Spirit beast souls tend to regenerate themselves once broken but…they regenerate said soul into a mirror version of itself."
"Then why am I still me? Why has nothing happened yet?" asked Kyle as he looked up at her.
"Because your ability to turn your emotions dormant isn't what it seems, what it actually does is lay your soul dormant. As long as you stay emotionless you will be fine but…" Celica trailed off as she looked away from her nephew.
"The longer I do that the worse it will be once I let go." Kyle understood her meaning and voiced it.
"The bastard…How did it know?" Celica murmured to herself before looking back up at Kyle "Why did you…No…why did I not stop you?" her eyes widened as she looked away again in shame.
"I don't get…what does it mean?" asked Karnage as she stared at Kyle's expressionless face.
"It means I have two choices remaining. To stay a hollow body or turn into a monster." Kyle explained as he stared at the moving crowds below "To either never feel anything again or destroy everything around me."
Kyle could feel the annoyance and anger coming from Celica, he could feel the confusion and shock coming from Karnage. Yet he couldn't feel a single thing from himself, no sadness, no anger. The raw fury that lay within him was frozen, lying dormant as he willed it to be.
"There is no point in standing here, we came here for a reason so let's move." Said Kyle with a solemn tone as he looked at Celica "Take me to Scythe."
"So we're going on anyway? After all this!?" Karnage suddenly exclaimed "You really don't feel anything?" her eyes were wide and expression ghastly as she stared at him "Kyll this isn't right…there must be…there has to be something that can fix you!"
Celica shook her head "Nothing can be done…Not even Gods can untangle a soul…"
Kyle nodded in acceptance "You heard her, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment. So I'll do what I can and stop Scythe as quickly as possible."
Karnage's expression turned to disbelief "How can you accept…this…" she murmured to herself before realisation hit her "Why does this happen?..."
"You wanted to come with me, welcome to my life." replied Kyle with a shrug "Do you want to go back?"
Karnage looked down at her hands, trembling and shaking they were as she hugged herself "No…if you haven't given up yet…then I won't either." Looking up at Celica she nodded "I'm ready."
Celica shook her head again "So you accept the consequences of this decision of yours Kyle? Will you really go on forward?"
Kyle looked at her with a raised brow "I do and I will."
She stared at him, a hard attentive glare "Would you do it again? Even if you know these would be the consequences?"
Kyle briefly continued to stare back at her in confusion, he then glanced around at the street below, the cars flying up above then down at his own hands "I won't go back on my word, even if it means becoming this or a beast. I won't sit in the side lines as they risk their lives fighting for our dream, I will fight too." He said meeting her glare with his own expressionless stare.
Briefly Celica held up her glare but eventually gave in and sighed in exasperation "You kids…Fools the lot of you." She flicked her fingers and suddenly the world around them shattered and dissipated giving way for reality.
Kyle felt his mind doing a backflip, barrel roll followed by few matches of twister. It was an understatement that he felt sick afterwards. Falling to his knees he watched as the world around him shattered to give way to the Crystal kingdom of Kori, where he stood only minutes before alongside all the founders at the very top of the staircase.
Glancing up he saw each founder standing right where they were before, the portal also was there along with Celica standing right next to it. She stared at him with an annoyed expression "At first I wasn't going to let you go, even if it meant putting you under a long term illusion I wasn't going to let you leave but…" she sighed and ruffled her hair "Go you fool, go save your friend. It's your damn life to live, not mine."
Kyle willed through the nausea and stood up, looking up at his aunt he disabled his ability allowing his soul and emotions to awaken. He felt it, the pain, the anger, the confusion and then the sadness but it was then followed by happiness. It was all an illusion, a test by his aunt. His soul was still whole.
Kyle chuckled "You had to use her?..." he asked with a dangerous smirk.
Celica met his glare with her own deadly intent that gleamed in her eyes "Would you have preferred if I'd gone further? Go before I change my mind stupid child."
Feeling the nausea disappear Kyle straightened himself and stared into the sphere of white, he couldn't blame her, no matter how deep her ways cut she did it to protect him in the first place.
"What just…happened?" asked Karnage as she remained kneeling on the ground, holding onto her stomach as her expression slowly turned away from being green.
"I learned not to anger my over-protective aunt." Said Kyle with a smirk as he noticed Celica glance away "You still ready to go Karnage?"
"Yeah…I don't think I've seen enough crazy today either…" she replied with a chuckle while standing up "Let's go for real this time though, I don't know if I can take anymore of that."
Celica snorted "Better get used to it quick then kitty." She mumbled under her breathe.
Karnage felt a chill move down her spine as Celica turned to look at her, not having heard her words but her amused expression said enough "Yeah let's go…" she said then taking the lead to approach the portal.
("Don't die on me you crazy bastard, reinforcements are coming…hopefully for real this time.") Kyle thought as he reached out into the portal first, having been closer than her.
Karnage watched as the white light engulfed him briefly before sucking in his form, she reached out as well but was stopped as Celica grabbed hold of her arm. Feeling another chill move down her spine Karnage glanced to the side and at the intimidating woman, her fierce crimson eyes locked into hers as she spoke "Watch his back for me little cat." Celica told her before shoving her into the white.
Terrance chuckled "To protect the ones we love sometimes we must inflict them pain…" he mused before glancing to the side at Celica "You haven't told him yet. Why?"
Celica grasped her left arm with her right hand, clenching hard she briefly bit her lip "Because the longer he doesn't know the more I can postpone him knowing…Inevitable as it may be…If at all possible I wanted him not to know…"
"Then why did you let him go? He will find out now and it will break him." Terrance asked as he turned to stare into the portal.
"What would you have had me do?...Lock him up? It's like he's fated to break…" she hissed back at him.
Terrance only chuckled in response to her hostile tone "My child if I have learned anything from my studies is that…there is no such thing as fate but only decisions. He made his."