⊹ ࣪ ˖Chapter 10: Second life, same wounds...♡⸝⸝
⚠️TW: Stabbing/blood mentioned!!
The silence lasted only a breath, but within that breath it felt as though the entire world had dared to hope. Then the world screamed. From the shattered battlefield, from scorched earth and dying embers, 1x1x1x1 rose once more—not broken, not beaten, but consumed by a fury so vast and unnatural that it could scarcely be called rage anymore. Green fire pulsed through the fractures spreading across the glass of his chest, each pulse illuminating the twisted black steel of his body like a diseased heartbeat.
Flames coiled around his limbs in restless spirals, writhing and snapping with every movement, while the air itself seemed to distort beneath the sheer weight of his presence. Even the sky appeared dimmer above him, not because clouds had gathered, but because the sunlight felt distant, as though the heavens themselves recoiled from what stood upon the ruined earth.
Without warning he surged forward. There was none of the terrible grace he had possessed before, none of the cold restraint that had once made him seem untouchable. Now he moved like a disaster given form, tearing through the battlefield with reckless violence as a scream erupted from him, so loud and raw that it seemed to split the heavens apart. Daemonshanks crashed into the ground beside him like a falling god, and the impact sent pillars of fire spiraling toward the sky.
Trees vanished beneath the inferno almost instantly, reduced to ash before they could even collapse, while the earth fractured into jagged ravines that stretched across the battlefield like fresh wounds. Eliot barely had time to shout before grabbing Noob and dragging them out of the way as a beam of green fire carved through the landscape behind them, leaving nothing but a smoking crater in its wake.
Yet 1x1x1x1 wasn't looking at them.
He wasn't looking at anyone except Two Time.
The burning red flame that served as his eye remained fixed on them with terrifying certainty, and in that moment Two Time understood, with a clarity more frightening than panic itself, that there would be no escape. Not from him. Not from the past. Not from the memories they had spent so long trying to outrun.
Everything happened too quickly after that. One moment Two Time stood frozen amidst the chaos, overwhelmed by exhaustion, grief, and a guilt they had never fully managed to bury, and the next death was rushing toward them with both swords raised high. Their body refused to move. Their mind refused to think. They could only stare as 1x1x1x1 closed the distance between them, every step radiating murderous intent, every flicker of green fire promising annihilation. The blades came down.
And never reached them.
A flash of red burst into their vision. A coat whipped violently through the smoke. A figure threw himself forward without hesitation, moving with the desperate certainty of someone who had already made peace with the consequences.
Shedletsky.
The swords tore through him.
There was no elegance in it, no heroic beauty. Steel carved through flesh and bone with horrifying ease, spraying blood across the ruined battlefield as his body jerked from the force of the impact. He collapsed heavily to the ground at Two Time's feet, and for several seconds they could do nothing except stare. Their mind simply refused to accept what they were seeing. Blood spilled through the tears in his coat, pooling beneath him in dark crimson rivers, while his hand trembled weakly around the hilt of his sword. Yet despite the pain, despite the blood filling his lungs, despite the certainty of death already settling over him, he managed to smile.
It was small, weak, but real.
"Told you..." he rasped, his voice barely audible beneath the chaos. Blood slipped from the corner of his mouth as his grip loosened around the sword. "You've got more to finish than I do."
The weapon slipped from his fingers.
His hand fell still.
And suddenly the world seemed to lose all sound.
Two Time stared at the body lying before them, and something inside them shattered. The smell of blood. The unnatural stillness. The way a person could be there one moment and gone the next. It all came rushing back with merciless clarity, because this wasn't the first time they had knelt beside someone they loved and watched life leave them. It was happening again. The same helplessness. The same horror. The same unbearable weight pressing against their chest until breathing itself became painful.
Azure.
The name alone was enough to send them crashing back into the memory.
Their knees struck the ground as the past swallowed them whole. Warm blood seeped through trembling fingers. A soft gasp echoed in their ears, fragile enough to break them all over again. The knife was still there, buried deep within Azure's chest, and no matter how many years passed, no matter how desperately they wished to forget, they could still remember every detail with perfect clarity. Azure's eyes had been wide with shock, bright with unshed tears, and fixed entirely upon them as though searching for an answer Two Time could never give.
Those eyes haunted them more than any nightmare ever could, because even now they could not decide which hurt more—the pain in them, or the trust that had remained despite it. And as Two Time stared at Shedletsky's blood staining the earth before them, their own hands began to shake exactly as they had that night, because all they could see was Azure, and all they could feel was the terrible certainty that no matter how many years passed, the blood would never wash away.
"No..." they whispered, gripping their skull as if they could claw the memory out. "No, no, please—not again, not again..."
But reality didn't care. It struck without mercy. A blade slashed across their side, sharp and deep, dragging them back into the present. They screamed, body folding under the pain, their breath fractured, shattered. And then everything went black.
When they opened their eyes, they were somewhere else.
A place too warm, too gentle, too kind to be real.
They stood in a field of swaying nightshades, petals brushing their knees like whispers. The sun poured golden light from a sky so blue it hurt to look at. The wind was soft, and the scent of violets and earth hung in the air like a lullaby. It should have been a dream. It should have been impossible.
And then they saw him.
Azure.
He's kneeling in the grass ahead, humming softly to himself as he plants nightshades in neat rows, his fingers stained with dirt and his sleeves rolled carelessly to his elbows. The wind tugs at the tear in his coat, making the worn fabric flutter against his side, while sunlight spills across him in warm gold and catches in his hair until it almost seems aflame. He looks younger here. Lighter. Free in a way Two Time had nearly forgotten was possible. There is no fear in his face, no sorrow hiding behind his smile, no invisible weight bending his shoulders toward the earth. He simply smiles as he works, cradling each tiny flower with gentle hands as though every bloom is something precious enough to deserve its own place in the world.
And something inside Two Time breaks.
Not slowly. Not quietly.
It shatters.
They stop where they stand, unable to move, unable to breathe while staring at a sight they had spent so long wishing for and dreading all at once. Every detail is exactly the same. The soft hum beneath Azure's breath, the absent-minded way he brushes his hair away whenever it falls into his eyes, and the tiny smile that appears whenever he's focused on something he loves. Two Time knows all of it. They know it so well it hurts. The memory of him has lived inside their chest for so long that seeing him again feels less like finding a lost person and more like watching a ghost step out of their own heart.
Slowly, almost fearfully, they lower their gaze to their hands.
They are clean.
No blood stains their fingers. No crimson sits beneath their nails. There is nothing there to suggest what happened, nothing to prove the weight they have carried all this time. For a moment, the sight unsettles them more than the impossible scene before them. Their hands look exactly as they did before that night, before the screaming, before the guilt, before Azure's body collapsed against them and left a wound that never stopped aching.
Their throat tightens.
The garden blurs.
Their hands begin to tremble.
"What is this...?" they whisper, the words barely making it past the ache in their chest.
Azure doesn't look up.
The wind continues to drift through the flowers. The sunlight remains warm. Somewhere nearby, birds sing without fear. The world carries on with the quiet peace of a memory untouched by tragedy, while Two Time stands in the middle of it feeling as though they are the only thing that does not belong.
Azure turned at the sound of their voice.
And when he saw them, he smiled.
Not with surprise. Not with confusion. Simply with recognition, as though he had been expecting them all along.
"Hey," he said softly, setting aside the handful of nightshades he had been planting. "You're here."
The words shattered something inside Two Time.
The words struck Two Time harder than any blade ever could. For one impossible moment, the battlefield ceased to exist. The screams, the blood, the monsters, the endless weight of grief that had followed them for so long all seemed to melt away until there was nothing left except Azure kneeling in the sunlight with dirt on his hands and warmth in his eyes, smiling as though the years between then and now had been nothing more than a terrible misunderstanding. He looked alive. Not like a memory, not like a ghost conjured by guilt, but alive in a way that made their chest ache with a longing so fierce it bordered on agony.
It hurts.
It hurt so much that they could barely breathe.
Two Time staggered backward as panic crushed the fragile hope rising inside them, their throat tightening as tears burned behind their eyes. This couldn't be real. It couldn't. They had spent too many nights replaying that moment, too many years carrying the memory of blood-soaked hands and a body growing cold beneath their touch. Reality did not grant second chances. Reality did not return the dead.
"No..." The word barely escaped their lips. "No, this isn't real."
Azure's smile faded slightly, confusion creeping into his expression.
"What?"
"You're not real."
The tears came anyway.
"You're dead."
Azure frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're dead!" The words erupted from Two Time before they could stop them. Their entire body shook beneath the force of emotions they had buried for far too long, and suddenly they could not bear the sight of him, could not bear the possibility that this was some cruel illusion wearing the face of the person they had loved most. "Don't come near me. Please. I-I can't do this. Don't make me look at you. Please!" They begged desperately.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Azure froze, confusion flickering across his face as though he couldn't understand why Two Time was looking at him with such fear. The silence stretched painfully between them, growing heavier with every second until it seemed to swallow the garden whole, and then the world began to change. The sunlight faded from the sky as though someone had drawn a curtain across it, the warmth draining from the air until the breeze itself felt cold against their skin, and all around them the flowers began to wilt where they stood, their bright petals curling inward as color slowly bled from the world.
When Two Time finally forced themselves to look up, Azure was no longer standing beneath golden light.
A dagger pierced his chest.
Blood spread slowly across his shirt, dark against the pale emptiness surrounding him, blooming outward like a dying flower.
Yet he neither cried nor spoke.
He simply looked at them.
The same way he had looked at them that night.
The sight shattered what little remained of their composure. Their knees struck the ground as years of guilt came crashing down all at once, crushing them beneath a weight they had never truly escaped. Sobs tore through their chest while their hands dug desperately into the dirt, as though they could somehow anchor themselves against the flood of memories threatening to pull them under.
"I did it," they choked out. "I let you die."
The confession echoed through the dying garden.
"I watched it happen. I watched it happen and I didn't stop it."
Their shoulders shook.
"I should've fought harder. I should've screamed! I should've done something."
Every word felt like tearing open an old wound.
"You were all I had," they whispered, their voice raw with grief. "You were the only thing I ever wanted to protect, and I failed you. I ruined you. I ruined everything."
Silence followed.
Not the empty silence of abandonment, but the quiet stillness of someone listening.
Then Azure moved.
Slowly, gently, he knelt beside them and reached out. Two Time flinched before they could stop themselves, expecting anger, blame, disgust—expecting the judgment they had spent years believing they deserved—but none of it came. Instead, Azure's hand settled against their cheek with impossible warmth, and when they finally lifted their eyes to meet his, they found tears shining there as well. There was no hatred in them, no fear, no resentment for everything that had happened. The grief was there, unmistakable and deeply human, but so was something far worse—something Two Time had spent years convincing themselves could no longer exist.
Love.
Not the fragile kind that disappears when tested, nor the idealized kind people write stories about, but the stubborn, aching sort that survives even after betrayal, after bloodshed, after death itself.
"I forgive you."
Azure's thumb brushed gently across their cheek.
"I already did. A long time ago, actually."
Their face crumpled.
"I don't deserve that."
A faint smile touched Azure's lips.
"Maybe not. But I forgave you a long time ago."
The answer hurt more than any condemnation ever could. Fresh tears spilled down Two Time's face as they shook their head desperately, unable to accept the kindness being offered to them.
"I'm a monster,"
"No."
"I've done horrible things. I killed you."
"I know."
The simplicity of the response left them speechless.
Azure's expression softened rather than hardened, and somehow that hurt more than anger ever could have. He already knew. He knew exactly what had happened, exactly what Two Time had carried with them all these years, and yet there was no hatred in his eyes when he looked at them.
"I know," he said quietly with a soft smile. "And I still love you."
For a moment, Two Time forgot how to breathe.
Every defense they had built over the years crumbled beneath those words. They had imagined this conversation a thousand different ways, had imagined anger and disappointment and blame, but never this. Never love. Never understanding. Never the impossible mercy of being seen completely and still being loved anyway.
Their foreheads touched.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Two Time closed their eyes. They desperately tried to memorize the warmth before it vanished.
"Please don't go."
The words came out as little more than a broken plea.
Azure closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again there was a sadness there that seemed older than either of them.
"Promise me something."
"...Anything."
"Promise me you'll finish this. Promise me you'll stop them. Promise me you won't let them take anything else from the people you love."
The request settled heavily in Two Time's chest because they understood what he was really asking. He wasn't asking for vengeance. He wasn't asking for revenge.
"I promise."
"Promise me you'll keep living."
That one hurt. That one nearly broke them all over again.
Still, they nodded.
"I promise."
Azure smiled.
The same smile he had worn while planting flowers beneath the sun.
Then the world shattered.
Reality tore through the dream like shattered glass. One moment Two Time could still feel the warmth of Azure's hand against their cheek, could still smell earth and flowers and sunlight, and the next they were ripped violently back into the battlefield as agony exploded through every inch of their body. Their scream echoed across the ruined landscape while blood burst from reopened wounds and bones cracked beneath their skin with sounds like distant thunder. Something ancient and terrible surged through their veins, a force born not from hatred but from grief so immense it had finally outgrown the shape of a mortal body. Wings erupted from their back in a spray of blood and dark light, a tail unfurling behind them as power flooded every nerve, every muscle, every fractured piece of their soul until they could barely recognize the person they had once been.
When they finally rose, the battlefield fell silent.
It was not the silence of fear alone, nor the silence that follows destruction. It was the silence of witnessing something change forever. The grief that had haunted Two Time for so long had not disappeared. The guilt had not lessened. The pain had not healed. Instead, it had become something else entirely. It had become purpose.
Across the shattered battlefield, even 1x1x1x1 hesitated.
For the first time since the battle began, uncertainty flickered across his face as he stared at the figure standing before him. The broken, grieving soul he had sought to destroy moments ago was gone. In their place stood someone forged from every loss they had endured, every sacrifice they had witnessed, every person they had failed and every person they still refused to abandon.
Two Time said nothing.
There was nothing left to say.
Azure's final words still echoed inside their chest, not as a memory but as a promise.
Then they moved.
The ground exploded beneath their feet as they launched forward with enough force to crack the earth. Wings tore through the air behind them while their dagger flashed like a fragment of fallen starlight, and for a time the battle became impossible to follow. Steel collided with steel. Fire consumed fire. The world around them fractured beneath the violence of their clash as they hurled themselves at one another with everything they possessed. Every strike carried years of pain. Every blow carried years of loss. Every movement was driven by a love that had nowhere left to go except forward, transforming grief into something sharp enough to challenge a monster.
Yet determination alone could not rewrite fate.
The battle turned in a single instant.
A mistake. A fraction of a second. A movement too slow.
1x1x1x1 twisted past their guard with terrifying precision, and before Two Time could recover, they felt the blade drive deep into their chest.
The impact stole the breath from their lungs.
For a moment, the world simply stopped.
Sound vanished.
Movement vanished.
Even pain seemed distant.
Two Time looked down slowly and saw crimson spreading between their fingers, blooming across their clothes like the petals of the flowers Azure had once planted beneath the sun. The sight struck them with a strange sense of familiarity, and suddenly all the fury that had carried them this far seemed to drain from their body at once. Their strength abandoned them. Their wings sagged heavily behind them. Their knees buckled beneath their own weight as darkness crept steadily into the corners of their vision.
Still, they lifted their head.
One final time.
Through blurred eyes they saw Eliot, giving pizzas to Shedletsky. They saw Noob crying. They saw Chance gambling, and he won. They saw Shedletsky's motionless body lying among the ruins of the battlefield. They saw the people who remained, the people who had suffered, the people who were still fighting despite everything they had lost.
The people worth protecting.
The people worth loving.
The people worth dying for.
And as that realization settled fully into their heart, a small smile slowly appeared on their face. It was not the smile of victory, nor the smile of someone who believed they had won. It was something quieter than that. Softer. The expression of someone who had finally found an answer after searching for far too long.
Because at last, standing at the edge of death, Two Time understood what Azure had been trying to teach them all along. Strength was never measured by what a person was willing to destroy. Love was never proven through vengeance. What mattered was the willingness to stand between darkness and the people who could not face it alone, even when the cost was everything.
And as the battlefield blurred around them, Two Time found peace in a truth that had taken them far too long to learn.
They no longer knew what they were willing to kill for.
But they knew exactly what they were willing to die for.
Author's note: Hello angels!!!!!!!!!! know that i've been off for 1 year and i'm SO sorry for that. i've been busy with exams and i got a lot of problems irl too. i promise that i'll be active now since it's summer!! 🥲 i know it's very irresponsible and selfish for me to leave you guys for months, but i hope yall can understand me.
Note: im changing my writing style!! and im not writing 2time saying stuff like "Dear spawn..." or whatever that is supposed to mean anymore 😭 so dont expect that kind of dialogue from me lmao. and i'll write less "—" bcuz alot of ppl say it's similar to AI.
Note2: i know that the forsaken fandom have gotten alot worse but i still want to finish this story. i have left the fandom so idk abt new lores. if there's any weird part in the story, pls tell me so i can fix it!!
Daily reminder: If this chap is too confusing or boring, please leave a comment bellow so i can write better for y'all! 🥰❤️
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen3h.Co