Cocolia's Faith Shattered: Why Won't My Stellaron Listen to Me?

The instant time began flowing again.

Crack.

A sharp shattering sound rang through the hall.

Before the echo of the finger snap could fade into the cold wind, the murky yellow Stellaron energy around Cocolia shattered like cheap window glass struck by a hammer.

There was no violent explosion.

No deafening roar.

The Imaginary Energy broke apart in midair, scattering into countless flecks of dying light.

The flecks drifted down, only to go dark before they touched the floor.

Cocolia was still leaning forward, throwing everything she had into her attack.

The momentum of time resuming carried her another half inch forward.

A faint sound of flesh tearing.

The saber pressed against the left side of her chest slid a little deeper.

Its icy tip pierced the surface of her skin.

The blood that had been frozen in place began to flow again.

A string of crimson drops ran down the snow-white blade and fell onto Su Chen's white leather glove.

The stain spread across the pristine leather, painfully vivid.

Only then did the sting reach Cocolia's mind.

Her mouth hung open, and a hoarse, broken rasp came from her throat like a bellows being pumped.

The storm was gone.

The power she had believed was capable of tearing all of Belobog apart—the power she had taken for truth—had simply vanished.

Cocolia froze before the blade's tip.

Her eyes locked on the woman in the white military uniform.

Beads of cold sweat sprang up across her forehead.

Sweat slid into her eyes and stung fiercely, but she did not dare blink.

She began calling out frantically in her mind.

She called to the voice that had accompanied her for more than a decade and granted her immense power.

"Answer me! Give me your power!"

She screamed it inside her head with all the desperation she had left.

There was no answer.

The Stellaron's whispers, usually ceaseless in her ears, had fallen utterly silent.

Cocolia panicked.

With difficulty, she lowered her head and looked at her chest.

The Stellaron, which should have burned like the sun, was sealed beneath a thick layer of white frost.

This was no ordinary ice.

It was dense ice capable of sealing away even energy from the Imaginary dimension.

Their mental link had been severed.

It was as though someone had taken a rusty, blunt saw and hacked through the nerve in her mind that connected her to her "god."

She could no longer sense the Stellaron.

Fear slithered up her spine like a venomous snake.

Cocolia's teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

Clack, clack, clack.

The sound carried clearly through the empty hall.

The faith she had prided herself on.

The supreme being that had promised a new world and the destruction of the old order.

Before this woman in a white military uniform, it had been so frightened that it had cut off their connection.

It had simply played dead.

The last of Cocolia's strength drained away.

Her knees buckled.

Thud.

They struck the fractured marble tiles with a dull impact.

The blade's tip slipped free of her flesh.

A few drops of blood spattered across the floor.

She collapsed like a heap of mud with all its bones pulled out.

The metal crown symbolizing the Supreme Guardian's absolute authority slid from her head with the violent movement.

Clang.

The crown hit the stone floor and rolled twice.

It stopped against a broken chunk of stone, coated in pale gray dust.

Cocolia's meticulously arranged golden hair came loose.

It spilled messily over her shoulders and face.

A few strands stuck to the blood dripping from her chin and clung to her pale cheeks.

She gasped for breath.

A wheeze like air escaping through a leak came from her lungs.

The eyes that had once burned with fanaticism and pride were hollow now.

They stared without focus.

They remained fixed on the dust-covered crown lying on the floor.

Everything she believed had fallen apart.

Centuries of Preservation, decades of struggle—and in the end, the god she had chosen to believe in could not withstand a single icy breath from someone else.

She felt like a complete fool.

"Mother!"

Bronya's voice came from the other end of the hall.

Rifle in hand, she stumbled forward.

When time resumed, her finger was still on the trigger. It jerked sharply, and she nearly fired by accident.

Her military boots picked their way unevenly over the rubble.

Several times, she caught a boot on a raised tile and nearly fell.

Five steps from Cocolia, Bronya stopped.

She forced herself to a halt.

She stared at the disheveled woman on the floor, her eyes unfocused.

Was this really the Supreme Guardian who had always held her back straight, dignified and untouchable?

Bronya's finger slowly eased off the trigger.

The muzzle dropped and struck the tile with a clack.

Her eyes began to sting.

Bronya bit her lower lip hard enough to break its cracked skin.

It felt as though a wad of waterlogged cotton were lodged in her throat, impossible to swallow or spit out.

She hated her mother's betrayal. She hated that her mother had tried to destroy this city.

But seeing her so wretched and hopeless still made Bronya's heart ache beyond her control.

Behind a thick stone pillar.

Xingbao was still clinging tightly to its cold surface.

When time unfroze, she had not even managed to steady her breathing.

The gale vanished without warning, and the force tugging at her clothes disappeared.

Xingbao's legs gave out, and she slid straight down the pillar.

"Ow."

She landed on her backside and grimaced in pain.

The hem of her gray coat dragged through a broad patch of dust.

Rubbing her scraped palm, she looked up in bewilderment.

She looked at Gojo Loli, suspended in midair, swinging her legs as she ate candy.

Then at the woman in the white military uniform standing in the center of the hall.

Finally, her gaze fell on Cocolia kneeling on the floor.

Xingbao was utterly confused.

She shook her head hard, sending the dust on it flying.

How did that world-ending monster end up on the floor in the blink of an eye?

She swallowed and stayed seated on the floor, obediently keeping quiet.

Su Chen paid no attention to what anyone else was thinking.

He felt the lingering cruelty of Esdeath's power inside him.

He reached to his waist with his left hand and drew out a white handkerchief.

His movements were unhurried.

Pinching the handkerchief in his white-gloved fingers, he pressed it against the cold blade.

He gently wiped away the string of crimson blood.

The motion was as elegant as though he were tending to an expensive work of art.

Leather brushed against metal with a faint rustle.

Cocolia knelt on the tiles.

She braced both hands against the floor, digging her nails into the gaps between the stones until they bled.

The rough stone scraped the pads of her fingers raw, but she seemed not to feel it.

With difficulty, she raised her head.

The bones in her neck gave stiff little cracks.

Beneath her tangled hair, her hollow eyes stared at Su Chen.

Cold wind swept through the broken dome, carrying a few snowflakes with it.

It made Cocolia shiver all over.

"You..."

Cocolia spoke.

Her voice was as rough as two sheets of rusted iron scraping together.

Every word trembled with despair.

She coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam, her chest heaving.

"What exactly are you?"

She stared at the woman in white, her voice shaking as she broke down.

"You can even ignore the power of an Aeon...?"

Su Chen wiped away the last trace of blood.

He casually dropped the bloodstained white handkerchief onto the floor.

The cloth covered half a broken tile.

Shing.

The slender saber slid neatly into the sheath at his waist.

Esdeath lowered her head slightly.

The brim of her military cap blocked the light from above.

Not a trace of mercy showed in her ice-blue eyes.

Su Chen looked down at Cocolia coldly, as though she were an ant.