Time itself seemed to freeze. The ground, the sky, even the air, everything around Raidha cracked. A darkness as never seen before started to slip between the cracked space, until the reality itself shattered like glass falling to the ground and disappeared into nothingness. The only remaining there were Mirthia and Raidha, floating in the middle of an empty black space.
"What the hell is this madness?!" Mirthia loudly screamed, not understanding what just happened.
"This is my world, a world I created with the only purpose of allowing us to speak calmly."
"A world you created? Nonsense, as if you were some kind of deity. You won't fool me with mere illusions. I am the source and origin of power…"
Mirthia began to cast a spell. Around her appeared some piles of sand that quickly compacted, creating dozens of projectiles similar to stone spikes.
"Sand arrow!"
The arrows flew straight to Raidha, who just stayed still, floating in the middle of nowhere, and raised her hand.
"This is not an illusion."
Raidha slightly waved her hand. With that simple gesture, all the sand arrows flying directly toward her disappeared as if they had never existed.
"This… is not possible…"
Again, Mirthia was unable to understand what had just happened right in front of her eyes and she even forgot to meow at the end of the sentence.
"And you are right, I'm some kind of deity here. Everything here is under my control!"
With another simple movement of Raidha's hand, all the arrows reappeared, but this time heading towards Mirthia. Mirthia was also floating in the middle of the empty space, so she was not able to move away. One after another, the sand arrows dug into her body, causing the catgirl to look similar to a porcupine.
"Meooooooooooooooooooow!"
The terrible cry of pain was lost in the immensity. Still, Mirthia quickly gritted her teeth and swallowed any other screams that wanted to escape from her throat. Slowly, one by one, she began to rip out the arrows stuck in her body.
"Do you understand now? There's no way you can defeat me."
Mirthia furiously glared at Raidha just after she drew the last arrow. It was obvious that Raidha had not targeted any vital point.
"Forget about us and go home, I don't want to hurt you anymore."
"I better die!"
Mirthia threw the arrow in her hand to a side and tried to leap toward Raidha with all her might. However, the distance did not narrow, on the contrary, it seemed to get even wider.
"If you refuse you will only suffer!"
Raidha raised her hand to Mirthia again.
"Who cares! Suffer? This is nothing next to knowing that that damn dog is still alive!"
Mirthia kept trying to get closer to Raidha to no avail. She raised her arm and began to open and close her hand as if trying to grab Raidha, who at seeing her, moved her own hand again.
"Meooooooooooooooooooow!"
Another terrible scream filled the place at the same moment that the arm with which Mirthia was trying to grab Raidha flew off. Blood began to spurt from the wound. This time, Mirthia wasn't able to hold back the screams as before. She clenched the wound with her remaining hand and refocused on Raidha as she gasped for air.
"I don't want to do this… but you are forcing me."
For a moment, Raidha's expression tightened and her lips trembled at the sight of Mirthia suffering, and the catgirl noted it. An imperceptible smile touched the cat's lips.
"Meow, meow, meow, what's the problem? It's just an arm. Rip off all my limbs if you want… I won't back down."
Raidha fell silent and bit her lip. Just by watching at Mirthia, her own body ached, and the simple fact that she was the one who mutilated her did nothing but increase her pain and despair she was feeling.
'Please give up now. I can not stand this. Please, please, please…'
Raidha raised her hand again.
"Oh! Do you really can? You obviously don't want to do it, meow, meow, meow." Mirthia spoke with a provocative look in which could be appreciated her pain even though she was trying to hide it.
"Enough!"
Raidha waved her hand.
"Meooooooooooooooooooow!"
The other arm and one leg also flew off.
"You're right, I don't want to… But I will!"
"Let's see, meow…"
Raidha bit her lip so hard that it even started to bleed. Something inside her seemed to be dying, no, it had probably already died… Her stomach was turning, her heart was beating so hard that it seemed to be about to leave her chest… but she must endure it! Everything would have been useless if she stopped at that moment.
"As you wish…"
Raidha moved her hand again… once more… and once more… every time she waved it felt heavier as Mirthia was slowly torn apart to the point where it was becoming difficult to recognize her...
"Meow… meow… meow… I thought the monster was that dog, ha,ha, ha. But I see, the real monster turned out to be you."
And even so, the catgirl continued to appear firm in front of her, without giving a single sign of weakness. A couple of tears spilled down Raidha's cheeks, but she held back the others.
"This is the last time I ask you…"
Raidha raised her hand threateningly again. That really would be the last time. Although it didn't seem like it, maintaining that space was not even close to easy, much less in the state in which she was. Her strength was reaching her limit and the pressure she was feeling was increasing with each passing second.
"... The next… Will be your head!"
With that statement, she locked her gaze with Mirthia's, who after a second of hesitation just started laughing.
"Hahahahahaha, here it is —Mirthia responded, with a distorted smile.
Mirthia lifted her chin. That strange smile became familiar to Raidha. A smile full of madness born from pain and rage… a macabre smile similar to that of… that...
"I never wanted this to end this way… It seems that even in a place where I have absolute control I can make things go just the way I want… I failed once more…"
Raidha closed her eyes and waved her hand...
***
I was in the middle of a completely empty space… I remembered perfectly having been pierced by a sword, so it was most likely that I was dead.
"Is this… heaven?"
"No, moron, you are alive."
I looked toward the origin of the voice, an exact reflection of me, with white hair and red eyes, with a strange black smoke coming out of his body.
"So… this is my inner space…"
"It seems. Well, I'm just as surprised as you are. Somehow you got out… or we got out… or whatever… out of this. Anyway, you are a sucking moron! "
That guy put his hands behind his head and floated upside down, as if he were lying on a bed in the middle of the sky. He was watching me from that ridiculous position with a disapproving look that really hurted and made me grumpy. He finally sighed and went back to standing in front of me like a normal person.
"I can't believe you let yourself be hurt like that… Can't you do anything by yourself? Can't you even think a bit before acting? Moron, you are more than a moron."
"Hey… you're going too far… I just…"
I averted my gaze from his. I felt guilty and sad at the same time. Although his comments were harmful and unpleasant, I could not reply to anything.
"Seems that I'm still useless..."
"Yes, an useless moron."
"In moments like this people usually shut up or try to comfort the other part, you know?"
I sighed as I clenched my fists tightly.
"Well, I get it, I screwed up one more time… It won't happen again…"
"You could have died today."
"I know…" I replied regretfully.
"If you had died, you couldn't say it won't happen again, moron."
"What the hell does this mean?"
"If something similar happens again, you may not have a second chance to say that it will not happen again."
"Well…"
Suddenly, he went from an annoyed expression to a somewhat macabre laugh...
"But you managed to get out alive. You really are a lucky moron."
He began to walk senselessly around the area before sitting down in nothing, as if there was an invisible chair... and I was starting to be somewhat scared of his behavior... This guy definitely did not seem to be right in his head...
"It could be said that it has been a good lesson, do not trust someone so easily."
"Trust someone, huh? It seems like I'm not good at making friends... and having someone I considered a friend stabbing me in the back... makes me seriously wonder who I can consider my friend and who I can't…"
"Well, I suppose you can consider Raidha a friend."
"Raidha... I guess that's true... I hope... Anyway, what makes you think that?"
"Intuition."
"Ah? Do I have to trust that? No, I don't even know why I even bother talking about this with you. To begin with, I'm not sure who or what you are… What am I supposed to consider you?!"
His expression grew serious again and he looked up at the sky for a moment before turning around and beginning to walk into the darkness without saying a word.
"Don't ignore me again! Dammit…"
I sighed and prepared to go in the opposite direction from him, but he suddenly stopped.
"For now, I suppose you can consider me…"
Without turning back to me, he looked up at the sky.
"… a friend…" he whispered.
I barely managed to hear that word, and as soon as he said it, he disappeared into the darkness.
"What the fuck? That makes me understand... even less…"
I let out a heavy sigh in the dark.
"Every time I talk to him I feel like I'm talking to a damn little kid… It's frustrating."
***
"What... What just happened, meow? Was it really an illusion?"
Mirthia opened her eyes in the middle of where she had supposedly been before everything went black. She still remembered all the pain, and she even felt it at that moment, even though her whole body seemed to be fine.
"Not at all. Everything that has happened has been completely real. Space just doesn't seem to like being altered. Once I cancel my magic everything tends to return to how it was before to some extent. I don't have enough power to leave a permanent alteration… less now, for certain reasons not worth mentioning."
"Meow... meow... meow... I can't move... Why can't I move?"
Raidha walked over to the side of Mirthia, who was sprawled on the ground, and stared down at her with a downcast expression.
"The injuries you suffered were real. You really died. Although everything returned to how it was before, it doesn't mean that there are no traces. Your body is in worse shape than it appears at first glance."
Raidha crouched next to Mirthia's face.
"Now that you've calmed down, how about starting over? I'll ask you again, leave Drayd alone. You know what happened was nothing more than an accident. The one who tried to kill Drayd was Gad to begin with. Drayd just fought back. I'm not saying that killing him was correct. I have no intention of approving what he did, but you have to understand that if he did not defend himself, he could have died."
"I know that!" Mirthia screamed, full of regret. "But the result is the same! Gad is dead! He is dead… Accident or not, he will not return… He will not return! Or can you revive him with that power of youts?! Can you heal Gad like you healed him?!"
Raidha looked away and slowly shook her head.
"No, I can't… I'm sorry…"
"Then there is no way I can forgive him! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!"
This time it was Mirthia's face that began to wet with tears.
"I understand why you don't want to, but you're not going to make him come back to life by killing someone else! Killing him won't change it!"
"Leave him alive either! Meoooooooooooow!"
Still without stopping crying and with no strength to barely move, Mirthia kept struggling to get back on her feet. She rose a little and fell, over and over again. Her rage didn't seem to go away, on the contrary, it kept growing. Raidha no longer knew what to say or what to try… What could she do? There was something she could do to calm her… She could still do something… right?
***
Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was Raidha, crying like a running faucet.
"Hey…" I called her attention.
"Buaaaaaa! You really are alive! Sniff, sniff."
She jumped on top of me and hugged me with all the strength she could use, completely filling my clothes with her snots.
"Somehow… It seems I'm fine… the wound has healed completely."
"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! You are a big idiot! I thought you really died! Snif, look at you, you even went back to normal. Your hair and eyes are brown again too, sniff."
"Yes… From what I see, I spent all my energy healing the wound. Now I'm completely dry… By the way… what happened with Mirthia?" I asked, not seeing the catgirl anywhere.
Raidha fell silent for a moment, sniffing at the remaining snot and mopping her face a bit before a strange but charming smile broke out on her face, a smile capable of captivating even the hardest heart.
"I managed to make her agree to leave us alone. I don't think she's going to chase us again, snif. I don't think she will… she will not…"
Her grip tightened even more as she let a sea of tears fall again, at the same time as she pushed her face into my chest. I had never seen her smile like that and look so sad at the same time. I didn't want to say anything, I couldn't say anything. I had no idea what had happened, so I just decided to hold her tightly to my chest and let her cry as much as she wanted.
'In moments like this… the best is just to stay quiet.'
I looked up at the sky as I lost myself in thoughts. In the end, nothing had changed, when I was most needed, I was still useless...