Nihilist

The tears of a small nova form rivers over my arms. The animals have finished their hunt, digging their fangs into what remains of order. The rest have walked out into the forest with a new future under their paths.

I stand frozen in awe of what I've done as my nine white tails brush against a faint breeze. My body is one with the predator within me, and the souls of my children are free to run through sapphire forests. I turn with the wind, my perception more keen than ever before, and find the same woman in white with transparent tattoos the same as mine. The shine over her skin alerts of her abilities in action. When the glow fades under her pale skin again, the shards still floating in the atmosphere lower with her arm.

Her mask lost in the shadows, I analyze her features with ease when the moonlight makes the crystal crescent under her eye shimmer. Her dress is without a tear and her eyes remain as soft as the face of the child at my ċhėst.

"Faeri," she calls my name, "You just shifted the roots of time."

"You're the seer that everyone speaks of," I say, my stutters of fear ceased with my fight.

"Yes, I am Aries."

"The first celestial child."

"You shouldn't be so amazed by my presence," she graciously strides up to me, "You're holding the last."

I look at the child.

"I thought I saved her," I tremble.

"I have no prey left to hunt," I tell her.

"You know little of the fight beyond physicality," she looks up to me in pity.

"I want to know more," I request.

"You have taken the seed of a meteor that was once a gift to humanity, but soon exchanged for power. You have taken the last of this stone, shattering the rest under a hundred floors just an hour ago. You are now a celestial," she explains. I look up to the stars with knowledge that I am one of them.

"What must be done?" I ask her.

She paces. "The branches have not met their ends as we speak. There is still time to tick, and we must be aware of the entity that brings that soft sound to silence. We need to prepare with what we have left, for if time finishes growing the tree that holds the cosmos in its roots, it will soon rot with all things in our reality."

"A cosmic annihilation?"

"Nihility," she calls out. "We as celestials are the only ones with eyes in the unknown to hunt what has yet to exist."

"I wanted to end the work of social order," I growl to her, "The seer now stands in front of me with a request to bring equilibrium back to the universe, too. I write code and see things that I shouldn't. How could you tell me that I'm capable of something like this?"

I look to Ash, and then back to her.

"One who is innocent would not be the cause of this devastation," I say.

"You hunt with purpose. Your work today saved countless souls, and you knew that when you began. You don't wish for glory, because you know that worth is not equal to peace."

"What of it?" I try to cut her off, but she responds immediately after. She knows my actions before I even think of them.

"Your morality has kept its purity. You remain virtuous even when your actions inflict harm. You, dear Faeri, are more than destined to be a celestial."

I stand in a moment of silence, my eyes damp under warm metal.

"What happens now?" I ask her, rocking the future in my arms while speaking to the one who has studied it.

"We forge a new Legion, perhaps. A celestial gathering to prepare for what lurks beyond the cosmic gates you've just opened," she suggests.

"You wish for me to join you," I presume.

The wind grows stronger with our presence in the forest, and the tides in the ink above shift in our favor.

"I accept this invitation," I say, holding my head high as I join a new cause. I didn't need to see the faces of the first rebels to know their impact on the world. The face of my mask will be how deities see my wrath, knowing little of the creature under its metal. As the tails of an ethereal kitsune disintegrate into thin air, I realize that even the perception of reality has no restrictions.

The smile that Aries holds on her pale face is brighter than the staff in her grasp, her crescent gleaming under the light of a full moon.

"Welcome back, sister."