"So, we're doing this?" Kima asked.
Surrounding her centered body, her plentiful allies took precautions, covering their faces as they stood some feet away. Instead, Katie covered June's smaller figure with her extended arm against her cousin. The white-haired girl peeking over her taller relative's shoulder, Ace mocked his sibling, leaning over Alex's head from behind.
"Yup! Whenever you're ready, Kim!" yelled Al.
'Alright. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!'
Submerging her feet into puddles of darkness, she sighed, sinking into the floor. Gradually descending into the shadows, she landed on the reflective void serving as the surface her feet stabilized against.
Encompassed all by endless blackness, ominous whispers enveloped her environment. Blackened canines came running to her legs, leading her to kneel. Scratching behind their ears, petting their furry bellies as they spun to their backs.
"Hey, babies~ how you doing?" cooed Kima.
While loving her beasts, impending footsteps mushing through the fluids below sent a chill down her spine. Purple eyes darting toward the source, a whimpering gasp released from her throat; not of her own volition. Then again, she wasn't supposed to be surprised.
'As always… Katie was right,' June narrated.
"So this does work," Kima said aloud, examining the man's build.
If the same attire he'd killed himself in didn't give it away, then the red pupils against a black eyeball's background did. A serious expression plagued his features until his scarlet retinas scanned her curves.
"Damn. Another one of you here, huh? Well, at least Whitney and I won't get lonely anymore. C'mon, kid." He turned around, beckoning her with his wagging finger. "Follow me."
"W-wait!" She cried.
Her shriek garnered his turning head. He squinted upon recognizing her face's shape. It was almost like he'd seen her somewhere, either that or she was just incredibly good-looking. At least those probabilities coursing through his head made sense. Unfortunately, the conclusion he'd arrived was the undeniable truth and it sent him to his knees, covering his mouth.
"U-uh… are you okay? Mister, uh… Mister Rivera?" She asked, uncontrollably extending her hand to the kneeling man.
Then, he started maniacally laughing. His loud insanity reached such a limit that even the hidden beasts amidst the darkness covered their ears. Removing her palms from the sides of her head, Kima exhaled sharply.
The smoke cloud behind the seated man was destroyed, for a monstrous hand emerged from inside. Pointing a claw against the red-eyed man's throat, he smirked. His irises scanned the razor-sharp nail, then darted to the perpetrator's gorgeous face. Purple orbs glistening in the shadows, she glared down at him with uncaring eyes and a battle-ready stance.
"So, I'm right. You're not any other person, are you? You're special… you're Whitney's daughter. Meaning my little brother succeeded and there now exists a 'New World' where Alex lives," He said.
"You're… older than the New Allfather?" She asked, tilting her head.
"We were born on the same day but four years apart. We had a sister named Madisyn. But I guess that's beside the point. If you access this measly little domain we call our home, you must want for something. Does another dilemma plague the New World as it did ours?" Jason asked.
"Y-yes. YES! Uh, b-but, how'd you know that?"
"Lucky guess. Tell me your name, kid," demanded the Vampiric spirit, outreaching his hand to her.
"Kima. Kima... Wilder. Kima Wilder," she replied, sliding her smooth-skinned hand into his own.
"Jason Rivera."
They'd already finished shaking hands. Slowing the movement of their conjoined limbs, Kim turned her head. The look on his face wasn't one she could dismiss and forget. Yet it wasn't threatening—it was more puzzling.
"I-is something wrong?" asked the purple-eyed girl.
"Wilder. I've heard that name before. I remember momentarily incarnating into the New World to help some redheaded kid. I didn't have agency of my own—someone had baselessly summoned me and then I was instantly banished back here after the end. Are you the one who summoned me?"
An interrogating question she could either respond to truthfully or lie right in his face. Both options sounded appealing to Kima at that moment. However, she soon realized that lying would only send her further down the rabbit hole. After her eyes closed, she sighed; leading to Jason's head-turning curiosity.
"I am the one who'd summoned you. I don't expect you to understand but I had no idea you existed and I summoned you on instinct. It's nothing personal so calm yourself, old man," Kima insulted with a mischievous smirk across her face.
Jason smirked back at her. "Old man? Hah! It's been so long since I've heard that one, it's kinda funny. The last time I remember someone calling me that was when your father did!" he exclaimed.
"M-my… my father?" She quizzically queried.
"You don't want to see him, I can tell that much. You technically gave me the information that you're dating that redheaded Wilder kid—not my fault. But on how I knew you were Whitney's girl, it's the purple. He has the same eyes and aesthetic. You look just like him," Jason complimented the pretty girl.
But despite all the affirmation she was receiving, she couldn't shake that interested feeling. Why didn't she want to see her father anyway? Had she ever asked herself the meaning behind the true decision she'd subconsciously made?
'I'm not ashamed of the person I am. What I told Ace, being beside Katie and June—that means being true to myself. I'm not gonna waver now. If he doesn't wanna see me then he doesn't have to see me. As long as I see myself in the light I want to, then… it doesn't matter.'
"Do you not wanna see him?" Jason asked.
"I don't. I want to turn my back on that past… and move forward with hope for the future," Kima claimed.
Jason's new smile appeared abnormally gently. Instead of a disappointed Look accompanied by an uncaring sigh, his hand drove upward.
Before she knew it, what touched her wasn't anyone attempting to behead her with a chop. On her shoulders was his hand, allowing for his cuticles to sink into her skin as they attached to her clothes. Just this single moment, the sole action she was the center of—not anyone else besides her. Maybe that was what she'd longed for all along or maybe not. Maybe this temporary feeling of unexplainable elation was courtesy of her dwindling oxygen.
Regardless of her present feelings, she had to persist. Her eyes locked onto his own, the lights in their optics shining as bright as the sun on a heated summer day. But she couldn't lie; the touch of his hand against her made her feel something she hadn't known existed until now. Something she hasn't even experienced with even Ace's arms around her.
'Kima told me about what she felt there with our uncle before her. It would be a while before I would understand what she meant, but the way I am now, I believe I do. I don't know when or how the time came when I perfectly understood but I can say now, in full confidence, that what she felt there was something she'd never experienced before even with my big brother. It was… love.'
Back in the past, Jason smiled at the shorter girl. Removing his hand from her person, he stepped back and watched as Kima waved her hand over the ground, summoning chairs for them to sit on. Bottoms now against shadowy seats, their persons bordered by a table in between. Jason on the right, Kim on the left.
"So, what is it you want to know?" He asked her.
"Have there been any structures you remember that could hold impenetrable walls built by Requiem might superior or equivalent to Alex's strength?" Finally, she'd asked the question she'd arrived for.
"Well—" He trailed off and shrugged. "There's only one thing that comes to mind. Alex has my brother's blood and he was personality Incarnated via his whimsy. It's more than likely what you're searching for or unintentionally describing is the infamous Tower of Chains."
"Tower of… Chains?"
"Yes. The Tower of Chains was an indestructible structure created by the Great Old Ones controlled by God. It was initially formed to abide by the truce between the Angels and demons following the formation of the Incarnations of Obliteration. It held the potential to allow for multi-dimensional transpiration using demonic and angelic energies. They were known as Omni and Takyr before the Old World's end. However, it could also be used offensively. As in, used for Earth's destruction. My original world was destroyed because of a Child of God's activation of that structure. Why do you ask me about this?" asked Jason, hand idle against the table.
"My friends and I are in the middle of a dire situation. Does Alex know anything about the Tower?" She queried.
"Only the bare basics. Ben felt immensely guilty after leaving our old home for dead but there was no other choice for us. If anything, that kid August knows more about it than even I do. Try bothering him if you wanna know more," Jason suggested.
In contrast to his hopeful offer, Kima furrowed her eyebrows, a hand on her head. If she hadn't made it any obvious before, it was clear she was stressed by something.
"What's wrong with you?"
"We're not exactly… playing on the same chessboard as August and Azazel," she informed him.
"Why not?"
After Jason questioned her, she remained silent momentarily. Purple eyes scanned the reflective puddle they were atop of before she arrived at a proper answer to a complicated question like that one.
"Because August would choose the path of suicide rather than fight for the right to live in this New World. He believes the intention of the New Allfather's sacrifice to have been the demise of the Requiem bloodline. He wants us to do nothing while our enemies could attack us at any point just because of his self-righteous justice!" exclaimed Kima, slamming her fist against the table.
Unusually, the sound of her slamming the table was wholly muted. Rivera's red eyes focused on her hand momentarily before they snapped to her face yet again. Her ragged breaths expressing from her mouth vented out following the way her chest cycled between falling and raising.
"That nephew of mine thinks my brother killed himself so everyone else could follow in his footsteps? The reason the Old World was exterminated was because of the endless hate that existed across every corner of the Earth. None of that hate was ever directly according to us. That's just how humanity always was. Why should we have to suffer for the rest of their mistakes? Why should… Alex have to endure the burden of being the last living Requiem in the New World?" Jason's head fell after he asked her this.
"We need your help. I don't know why Azazel's helping August but I know more than anything, he loves his daughter and would die to protect her. If not for me, sir, then at least for her," Kim pleaded.
"'Her', huh? How could you beg and plead for me to give you information to help you when I don't even know this girl's name?" He leaned back in his chair, flaring a toothed smirk at her.
For some reason, that weird side comment sent a smile to her mouth. There was something unexplainable about him that she couldn't name—then it hit her: abnormal charisma.
"Her name is Katie. Katie Moon. She's named the Source of Death, for some reason," She explained.
"Source of Death? What's that?" He tilted his head, awaiting an answer.
"No idea. I need you to tell me the truth, though. What did the New Allfather do after making the New World?" She asked.
Jason's eyes widened.
"How do you know he… did anything afterward?"
"Because he was essentially God for like two seconds. For him, time is infinite, instant, and nonlinear. We already know what he did; making the first Requiem Emperor of the New Requiem Empire. After his death, the Requiem's power was diminished over time. But the Requiem army retained some of their powers before their demise, and composed walls surrounding the Capital to protect them from any threat. The walls are formed by Requiem strength descended from the New Allfather. But it's not just the walls… below the surface of our home, it can be something more. The Tower of Chains is what lies below our home's surface, right?"
Jason and Kim glared at one another, one nonchalantly seated, the other frustratedly standing. As she awaited her answer, the air stagnated. It was almost as if the stagnated air would detonate; when that time would come, none of them knew. But there was something unavoidable they both had to face. The conflict surrounding the Evolutionary Capital of the New World… was much bigger than whatever secrets were locked within the Rivera bloodline's lost remnants.
Having sworn to his brother he would keep their promise, Jason faced the truth of the imminent disaster threatening his descendants' home. What more could he do but choose to…
To Be Continued.