After consuming part of the God tree, Johan had become one with the world — every breath of wind, every twitch of Aether, every approaching heartbeat—he felt it all.
Even Sebastian's shock or Radhaan's charge couldn't escape him now.
He already knew Radhaan was coming by the system, so he immediately took action, leaning in closer to Kirin.
As his fingers grazed her skin, searing heat flared—like plunging his hand into the heart of the sun. Flesh sizzled. He jerked back, the pain immediate, instinctive.
As if getting the cue, Melodis unfurled from the soft shadows beneath Kirin's chest, wings shimmering, and perched upon Johan's shoulder with silent elegance.
"You're already ready?" he asked a bit surprised at how fast Johan managed to adapt to the powers of God tree, to which Johan nodded dazidly.
Johan touched her face again, this time only her remaining bodily heat could be felt.
He opened her eyelids, staring at the void like blue eyes.
He tried to breathe—only for it to catch in his throat, a broken sound escaping like the first gasp after drowning. His eyes widened.
He really considered himself emotionally strong, even when he jumped in front of the truck by pushing Clara, he had felt nothing other than guilt if Clara got some bruises.
But now… he wanted to cry, cry as loud as he cried on the day both his parents died in the car accident.
"Stay calm! you're sensitive to emotions right now… Corruption, remember?" Melodias gently kissed Johan's ear with his beak, trying to calm him down.
Johan nodded softly, whipping the tears before they even escaped his eyes, "Harbringer of life… Death is no more!" he declared in a whisper.
Shrimm! Shrimm!
Johan's body glowed of gloden bright light, similar to how Gods and Angels are shown in mythologies when they descend, brightening the night sky like the sun.
Every muscle in his body seems to sing a lullaby, his body giving positivity by just standing by his side, completely opposite of his aura just seconds ago.
Marino could barely move in Sebastian's writhing Aether chains—but his eyes widened. Feeling extremely calm, and wanting to laugh, and jump with happiness like a little girl, even getting a boner from pure happiness.
And what Johan was doing—
That wasn't healing. That was ressuruction. Johan was dragging her soul back from the dead.
Squinting his eyes to look at Johan's handsome, cold face.
Johan extended his hand, placing it at the sweaty upper edge of Kirin's waist, just below her breast.
Shrrimm!
The bright yellow light seems to travel from johan's hand to Kirin's stomach, slowly Johan's body started dimming, and Kirin's brightening.
Melodis carefully watched every part of the process, checking if everything was working, still keeping an eye on the Limbo state of Kirin's soul, as a Great spirit, he could see spirits, travel to different kinds of Afterlifes.
'It's similar to a normal healing spell, but on completely different level… this is the perk of being a wielder of a healing ability, modifying simple healing spells for stiching a limb back to reviving people back from dead.'
Johan was also quite a bit surprised while using the infamous revival ability of the Harbringer of Death he heard so much so much in the game, but it turned out to be same as any healing spell—
Like how when someone uses heal to recreate a limb, like a leg or arm, they're not actually recreating it.
They are using the essence of the body part to tell the body that they need this part, then by using healing aether, lead the body to consume the essence, and create the part on its own.
So, their older limb if placed on ground severed will disintegrate, because the body will find its connection to it, and use it to regenerate.
That's why healers recommended keeping the split limb intact, because healing will be much simpler, and less risky, since they don't have to create nerves, bones, flesh from the scratch.
This was the same—
But this time, the 'limb' was Kirin's soul, which Melodis saved from traversing to afterlife by interrupting her.
It was necessary since without moonlight at full power, Johan can't really obtain souls essence or lead them, and bringing souls back from afterlife is also completely impossible, even for Melodis.
(A.N.= Melodis and Kirin had a very good moment at the gates of the hell, where he talked out Kirin from giving up. I thought i should write and publish it in the volume 0, should I?)
Haaa!
Kirin's eyes shut open, her blue pupils glowing wildly with a golden hue.
Slowly her face gained clarity, her breathing became stable. Making Johan lean closer to get hit by her breath to check if everything was positive.
Johan was still tightly pressing Kirin's soft waist, transferring the Golden light inside her bones.
"...Johan." Kirin's lips curled upward in a big soft smile, reavealing her red tongue, and gleaming white teeth.
A kind of smile that escapes when someone smiles from their heart.
Melodis told her 'everything'. She knew that he ate the most toxic kind of poison just for a possibility to revive her. She felt a strange warmth in her heart, which she never felt.
In Johan's mind, her pale white face, her blue eyes, her white hair, her perfect body, looked so familar, so friendly, so comforting.
All the worries vanished— future, Olivia, Selene, Acier, Sebastian, and Leor.
Deeper roots—roots of hope begin to spread.
His body moved instinctively—
He threw his arms around her neck, pulling her close, her warmth wrapping around him.
She was taller now, nothing like the short girl he used to carry on his shoulders.
"I know, you're the big brother, and want to protect me, but… please, please don't do something like this again… I will die without you." she moved her arms, wrapping them against his broad back that always shielded her, her voice was barely a whisper, but Johan heard it clearly.
Johan gave in, he no longer stood above her. His strength unraveling as he bowed his head, pressing his face into the curve of Kirin's neck.
Feeling the warm soft skin, his body trembled, his breath hitching against her skin.
"Hhngh….. Hngh"
Then, he broke.
A chocked sob escaped him, his weight sinking into her as though the death—the burden—the loss was too heavy to bear alone.
She tightened her embrace, arms locking around him, her fingers pressing into his back as if holding him together.
"I'm here." She said in a soft, almost inaudible whisper.
"Ahh, what a touching moment…" a man's cold voice rang, and Suddenly Kirin pushed Johan away with all her strength, a hundred meter wall of flames manifesting out of thin air above her.
THAMMM!!
A bright Purple lightning beam, like the judgement of the world itself, a few hundreds meter thick, directly fell from the sky, tearing the night sky apart.
Johan, who was still rolling on the ground from Kirin's push, immediately dug his nails in ground, grabbed the screaming Marino, and jumped few hundred meters, away from the impact.
Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of explosions rang.
A spark of fire manifested beside Johan, transforming into Kirin the next moment.
The Giant firewall entirely crumbled at the impact, the lightning hitting the ground.
Their expression becoming tense, but firm.
Marino's eyes widened with disbelief, not understanding why Johan saved him.
Rustle! Rustle!
The lightning stopped, sparks still infecting the air, dust started to settle down—
A crater — massive, absurd in scale — carved brutally into the earth. Four, maybe five hundred meters across. Its walls were jagged, still smoking at the edges.
And at its center... nothing.
Just depth.
A hole so deep it refused to show its bottom.
No light or echo could reach it's end.
"Sebastian!!" Kirin yelled at the top of her lungs, Johan also looked up—
Sebastian was lifted up in the dark sky by his white mouchtache, hanging in the air like a lifeless toy.
Tightly held by a man in a flamboyant red full suit, a bright black top hat, and a cold smile.
Sebastian was still conscious, unharmed even, but it seemed, his body was entirely paralyzed.
Which meant—
His life was completely in Radhaan's hands.
A.N: I don't know man, writing emotional shit is harder than just magic goes boom, I am smashing my heard rn, this was the best I could come up with in the limited deadline of a day, was this good? If not, would you tell me where it killed it for you?