The Soul Realm was quiet.
A vast, endless expanse of shifting light and shadow, where fragments of lost souls drifted without purpose, suspended in an eternity of silence. It was a place without warmth, without time, where the remnants of the departed slowly unraveled, fading into nothingness.
At the heart of this emptiness stood a lone glass tube. Surrounding it, towering crystalline structures pulsed faintly, their glow cold and distant—like dying stars frozen mid-collapse. Their eerie light reflected off the curved surface of the tube, illuminating the frail ember flickering within.
Weak. Dying.
Aeri stood before it, motionless.
Her own reflection wavered on the glass, distorted by the pale glow, but her attention remained fixed on the fragile light inside. It was the last remnant of a child's soul. Encapsulated. Fading. The ember pulsed unsteadily, each flicker growing fainter, each moment dragging it closer to oblivion.
Her fingers curled slightly at her sides, nails pressing into her palms. She had seen souls fade before. She had witnessed death more times than she could count. But this was different. This was a child.
Her throat felt tight as she took a step forward. The very air of the realm weighed down on her like unseen hands, suffocating, cold. Slowly, hesitantly, she reached out, fingers hovering just above the surface of the tube. Even through the glass, she could feel it—the warmth within, so weak now, barely there.
And she had felt this before. Not as an observer. Not as a stranger.
She had been inside Elrize's body.
She had run through the streets, her small feet scraping against the dirt, lungs burning as she screamed. She had clung to the knights' cloaks with shaking hands, desperate, pleading, as they moved too slow. She had felt the way time stretched unbearably, how each second passed like an eternity, every heartbeat a countdown to the inevitable.
And then—she had felt Elrize's soul crack.
That moment. The one where everything stopped. When her body had gone still, when her world had shattered, when the final ember of hope had collapsed beneath the weight of grief.
The silence that followed had been absolute.
Aeri pressed her palm flat against the glass now, fingers splayed as if she could reach inside, as if she could take Elrize's hand and pull her back. But she knew the truth. The ember was fading.
She had seen soldiers die before. Comrades. Enemies. Even herself.
But none of them had been a child. None of them had fought so hard just to return home, only to find nothing waiting for them. None of them had been forced to watch their world burn before their eyes.
Aeri inhaled sharply, forcing the lump in her throat down.
The ember flickered again—gasping, barely holding on.
And then it dimmed.
Her fingers curled against the glass, her body tensing as her breath came short and uneven.
"Not yet."
But the Soul Realm did not answer.
It simply watched.
Aeri didn't move for a long time. Her forehead rested against the cold tube, her breath fogging the glass slightly. Inside, Elrize's soul continued to wane, each flicker of light weaker than the last.
And she—she should feel relieved.
The moment that ember went out, she would be free. She would no longer be a fractured remnant of a dead soldier, a lost existence caught between life and oblivion.
She would have a body again. A second chance. A future.
All she had to do was let go.
Her fingers twitched.
This was her chance. The ember was fading—Elrize was giving up. If she just waited, the body would become hers. The child's soul would disappear, and Aeri would live again.
And yet, she couldn't move.
Her jaw clenched as frustration twisted deep inside her chest. Her emotions warred against each other, tearing her in two.
She exhaled sharply, closing her eyes.
Then, slowly, she leaned forward, pressing her forehead more firmly against the glass. The chill seeped into her skin, but she ignored it. Instead, she reached out, her spiritual energy stretching toward the ember like trembling fingers grasping for a fading light.
"Wake up, damn you."
The ember barely flickered in response.
Aeri grit her teeth and pushed harder, her presence curling around the fragile soul, pulling at it, trying to force it back to life.
But the soul refused.
Elrize wasn't just fading—she was locking herself away.
The ember recoiled, slipping from Aeri's grasp, sealing itself behind an invisible barrier. The light dimmed even further, retreating into a space Aeri could not reach.
Her breath hitched.
It wasn't that Elrize couldn't hold on.
She didn't want to.
The realization struck Aeri like a blow to the chest.
Elrize had already chosen. She was letting go, burying herself within an unbreakable wall of grief and despair. She had lost everything. There was no reason for her to stay.
Aeri swallowed hard.
She should leave it. Let it happen. Take the body and move forward.
But for some reason, she couldn't pull away.
Her fingers curled into fists against the glass, her nails biting into her palms.
"Dammit."
Time blurred as Aeri poured everything she had into the ember, her spiritual energy battering against the wall Elrize had built around herself. She didn't care if she was wasting her strength. She didn't care if she was burning herself out.
She refused to let this child slip away.
Even as exhaustion crept in, even as her limbs trembled, she kept pushing. She fought against the silence, against the stillness, against the absolute nothingness that was trying to claim Elrize's soul.
And then—
Aeri felt it.
A pulse.
Faint, barely there.
Her breath hitched.
Another pulse.
This time stronger.
The ember flickered, like a tiny heartbeat struggling beneath layers of ice.
Then again.
And again.
Her pulse quickened, her heart pounding in her chest.
There was still something there. Something clinging. Something alive.
Aeri exhaled shakily, pressing her palm more firmly against the tube. Her spiritual energy wove itself around the flickering ember, urging it to stay. To live.
She closed her eyes.
And for the first time in an eternity—she prayed.
She had never been one to put faith in unseen gods or spirits, had never believed that fate or mercy played any part in the world. But now, with everything slipping through her fingers, she whispered a plea into the void.
"Please… don't disappear."
The moment stretched. The silence grew unbearable.
Then—
Something shifted.
The ember pulsed again—brighter.
Aeri's eyes snapped open.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Inside the tube, a pair of lifeless eyes stared back at her.
Wide. Empty. Hollow.
Elrize.
Aeri's fingers twitched against the cold glass, unease curling deep in her stomach.
Those vacant eyes bore into her, unblinking. Expressionless.
Something was wrong.
The ember had flickered. It had responded.
So why…
Why did it feel as though she was staring at something already lost?