A person without purpose is one who is disposable. Aria aches anytime the negativity is cycled within her. She has been in a state of unrest, struggling to find her place in the world and looking for meaning in her life. On endless nights for months, she wonders if she even has a purpose besides being in the shadow of her older sister. The shadows lurk, surround, and pleasure Aria against her own judgement. She desperately seeks an answer, for she knows that no matter how hard she tries to ignore the shadows and live a happy life, the ache will remain until it is truly addressed by her own fight. The shadow circled around to make an eerie, darker variant of Aria.
"Do you think you can go against this?" the voice asks. "Your purpose is sealed; you won't ever be at the forefront of anything."
"You'll be stuck as the one in the background, the one who will always be bound by your own mind."
Aria wakes up in the same motel bed she was in two weeks ago, and her alter ego's laughter fades into reality.
"A... dream?" she asks herself, tears flowing down her eyes. "That was no dream..."
She gets up to look outside. The constellations freeze her in awe as she stretches. The universe is a big place when you look at it from the eyes of a mere soul. She takes a deep breath, allowing the beauty of the stars to fill her with an indescribable peace. Green essence separates into yellow and blue. one representing the purity of her soul during peaceful times, and the other representing the horrid abuse she endured during the Exile's Curse. She closes her eyes, achieving a peaceful state while separating the two essence sources that made her into who she is today. Navigating the emotions that make her feel overwhelmed, scared, angry, and many other conglomerated emotions stoked in them She takes a deep breath and slowly starts to relax as the two essences drift apart from each other.
Exhausted, she imagines two different essences of herself, one colored by pain and suffering from the Exiles' Curse and the other golden, representing the purity that is present in her soul. Those two imaginations mutated into two different variants of herself. She takes a few steps back and looks at both versions of herself.
"You have endured so much pain and suffering, but despite it all, you still have a pure soul that can never be taken away," both variants of herself say to Aria. Aria finds strength in knowing that, although she has suffered, her soul has remained unharmed and resilient.
"Don't worry about us too much, okay?" the pure soul says with a smile. "You've spited us for too long; it's about time to turn that spite into love."
"But how do I do that?" Aria pleads. The confusion and comfort brought her to tears. "All I have gone through is suffering and burdening." "Over and over again, I am still in the shadow of Reina; I'm always in someone's shadow..."
"But are you really in my shadow?" Reina says as she walks into the room. "You think that the reason they left you was because you were a burden, Aria?"
Aria hugs Reina tightly, her emotions flowing freely without any essence altering consequences. Reina looks at the two essence figures in awe. She is shocked that essence can be separated by mere meditation. I have no exclusive way to master your essence flow; I leave it up to the soul to figure out what works for them. As long as it works for you, you can master your essence flow in any way you see fit.
"So, you've mastered your essence flow?" Reina asks in a soft tone. "You were able to do this so quickly, and that is why the angels were scared."
"Scared...?" Aria mummers. "What do you mean, scared?"
"What you're looking at is what I mean; this is the essence flowing down to the bare bones of colors in all things."
"I was just calming myself down; my mind still isn't in the right place."
"Let's dissect your mind together then, over time, of course."
Aria thanks her older sister as Reina walks away from the room. Reina's thoughts have overflowed after seeing what her sister has achieved. Reina felt both joy and sorrow at the sight of her sister's accomplishments. She is happy that Aria has mastered her essence flow, but she is sorrowful because the one thing Reina hasn't done is master her essence flow. As negative thoughts try to whisper in her mind, she shoos them off, not letting anything cloud her judgment of her little sister. Reina reminds herself that even though she has yet to unlock the same power that Aria has, she is still capable of mastering her essence flow.
As Reina leaves, she looks up at the sky, seeing the silhouette of a ship. Reina returns to Windon with a stern warning for "The Burdens of the Lost. As Aria looks down at Reina, she realizes the meaning of what her sister said. The two silhouettes of herself comforted her as fear took over. Knowing that doom will strike on the peaceful town of Vinlox Despite the terror that filled her mind, Aria was determined to find a way to save everyone and keep her family safe. With her reaffirmation of this determination, she figures out a plan to stop whoever might invade the town.
"Be careful, dear sister," she thinks to herself. "The ship will come after you first before they invade."
"Daesig, Daesig," Reina mutters to herself as her eyes turn a deep blue. "You don't know what you are going to get yourself into."
"Oh, trust me, I know what I'm here for, Nikuyoku," a woman's voice says as she stands in front of Nikuyoku.