"Hey guys... if you're hearing this, then it means… I'm gone." Fou said, his voice echoing out into his forge. It was distorting ever so slightly in the recording he was making, "I lost. Got the shit kicked out of me really… I'm sorry. But this is my last stop. See, when I came into our world, I was really just a collection of somebody else's memories." He chuckled, tending to the flame in his soul, feeding it more and more material. To push back the cold, creeping dark that leaked in through his body.
"I wasn't… Me. I was the collection of memories of an identity set up for me." The fire roared, leaking into the recording with some static. "But with your help, those memories…" His voice cracked, seemingly holding back tears as he hefted another weapon into the fire, melting it and the memories he added, down into nothing.
"They-they took form! It was My voice, not just some pre-made one. It was my own personality, not some cookie cutter reincarnated person stuffed in another's body." He paused, his voice shuddering as another memory was pulled from his mind and sacrificed in the fire.
"And, after a while, I…" He hesitated, melting another weapon and pushing the darkness back just a little bit more. "I began to make brand-new memories of my own. In our new Avalon." He looked out, at the tendrils surrounding the Forge, each trying to break past the dwindling fire protecting him from full corruption.
"They are what make me who I am... But, they're also what I have to lose." Silence took over, nothing but the roaring fire as he added weapon after weapon, memory after memory to push back the corruption. "I can't stop this corruption from infecting me, but if I erase my memories, if I... delete me, myself, and I?"
The tendrils sped up as the pile dwindles, he jolted, his body falling slightly forward as he lost both of his legs calf down. "Maybe… Just maybe… The fragments I'll leave behind will have the strength to hold out long enough for help." He grunts, pushing himself up onto the lip of the forged, loosing a thigh in the process.
The circle shrank further and further, letting the cold creep in. "I wish that there was another way." He laughed boisterously, letting it fill the air instead of the tears that fell down his face. "But I can't find another, short of a friend finding me and lending a hand…" His arms disappeared, leaving him just a torso with a head.
"I'm glad, to have gone on our adventure. Short as it has been in the grand scheme of things but…" He paused, starting to lean back, the fire licking at him. "I guess the saddest part is that I won't get to see the end of this."
He smiled, staring at the black sky of his Noble Phantasam, the walls breaking down until nothing but the single forge and crucible was left, surrounded by a small circle of flame. He fell into the forge, feeling what was left of him melt into the icy blue liquid that sat in the open flame.
"Ain't that a bitch."
…
…
*Click, Clack, Click, Clack*
The clicking of light boots echoed throughout the cave of Mount Justice. "Oh, you…" a feminine voice echoed out as it approached the lone blue ball floating in the air. Their tails flickered in the low light provided by the soul that floated just in front of it.
Tendrils of corruption continued to lick at it from beneath, festering on the corpse left in the very centre of the destruction. "You never had experience with corruption before, huh?" She asked, pushing her hood back and fully taking in the battle as she removed the corruption from the room with a flick of her hand.
The small kitsune crouched down to the body of what was once her friend, closing the lone undamaged eye. "You did the right thing. Though I'm sorry it came to this." Her hand gently took the soul from it's floating place, one that was so light and fragile.
She smiled, knowing his soul persisted, despite the damage. "Thankfully, this wasn't the worst case scenario." Her face was calm, yet frustrated as she gazed upon the soul in her hands. Thinking back of when they first met. She pulled the soul close, cradling it like a newborn, before she vanished from the world as chaos untold rained upon it's surface.
She reappeared in her domain, walking past a couple of people under the moonlit night. She walked and walked until she reached a tree, she gazed down upon the soul as it started to bask in the moon light. "This time, you'll be prepared. But you have to show your will."
She laughed slightly with mirth, feeling the soul reach to the moon. "Your true self. The one buried underneath all of those expectations, powers and impressions." She sighed with care, like one seeing their long time friend disappear before them.
She waved the hand not holding the soul through the sky, tapping a ray of moon light and converting it into a silver stream of fire. It swirled around her before engulfing the sphere, empowering it
"Show me who you really are, Zwei. Mm! I like that. For your second life…" She held the soul up to the moon, finalizing the ritual as the power died down, leaving nothing but a shine to the soul. "You should have a name all your own. Just like me. You'll have no system, but you never truly needed that. Figure out your powers and forge bonds stronger than steel. Good luck!" She exclaimed, her own power gently encapsulating the soul, blessing it, before she vanished from her domain.