Amid the shattered embers, the Ethereal Woman emerged from Afterflame. Her eyes fixed on the distant golden border as it gradually receded. Although she had not been the main target of the strike, the crimson Sinfire pushed to the utmost limits of ascension had still inflicted considerable damage on her.
Her body trembled violently, as though two entirely different wills were fighting for control of her.
A glimmer of clarity seemed to appear in her eyes at that moment, only to be swiftly engulfed by the thick darkness again.
Rustle-
She abruptly raised her hand.
One strand after another of Invisible Threads seemed to gather in her grasp, pointing toward the receding golden border far away.
An eerie light flickered between her fingers, and a thin, invisible thread appeared.
The next instant.
She pulled hard, drawing the invisible thread taut. It seemed that a single thought from her would now be enough to kill that distant figure, already on his last legs, on the spot.
But just then.
Her body suddenly stiffened.
As though she had sensed something.
She whipped her gaze toward the receding golden border. Her pupils contracted and dilated violently, and the hand gripping the thread could no longer exert any force.
At the far end of the Abyss, amid the hazy light, a figure seemed to stand on the opposite shore, blocking the way ahead, bearing witness against the past.
A bewildering illusion, flowers in a mirror and the moon upon water.
She suddenly felt violent pangs and palpitations in her heart.
That figure looked at her as though across an endless river of time. Millions of years ago, when she had already died, through one cycle of reincarnation after another, she had never dared reach for him, yet had always harbored hope.
He was like