"You don't even remember anything, how will you teach me?" Elric asked.
"You are so inconsiderate to my help and it's your fault. You haven't even told me anything about my family, our friendship and who I was before all these and why the world is different." Acacia let go of his arm and looked at him accusingly.
"....I just don't want to overwhelm you."
"Or you don't want me to know anything."
"You are Erla Rion. Twenty years old, no family, no magic. We were friends at the orphanage, and dreamed of being heroes. But only I gained an ability after I turned six. You never once looked at me with envy, never a hint of anger. I wish... I wish you had." Elric's sigh was a quiet admission of his burdened conscience.
Acacia observed him, the contrast stark. 'She's nothing like me. I was consumed by jealousy towards my brother.' She imagined Erla's quiet, accepting demeanor, a mystery she couldn't quite unravel.
'Exactly why I call you rotten. You lack a shred of decency.' Daemonis's voice dripped with amusement.
'l'm not a bad person. I'm doing what I must to survive.' Acacia's reply was sharp, a brittle defense against his scorn.
'Survival? Or an excuse...' Daemonis chuckled, a low, mocking sound.
'Shut up.' Acacia thought and immediately softened her features as she noticed Elric's concerned look.
"Why would you want me to envy you? You deserve your... 'heroism,' regardless of my own lack of any abilities." Acacia's smile held, though a tremor flickered beneath it. As she spoke, Elric's features warped, twisting until his face looked exactly like Lucian's and his lips widened into a cruel grin.
"Is that truly your sentiment, Acacia? Do you truly believe it 'doesn't matter'?" Lucian's voice, once smooth, now rasped with a guttural undertone. "Mother and Father's disdain was a clear reflection of your... inadequacy. A blight on the Algernon name. A thing of weakness."
His blue eyes, once vibrant, began to darken, the irises dissolving into pools of obsidian. Cracks spiderwebbed across his pale skin, oozing a viscous, black ichor. From the empty sockets of his eyes, thick rivulets of blood, black as night, dribbled down his cheeks, staining his grin a horrifying crimson. "You were always the stain, the unwanted flaw, and you know it."
Acacia's skin prickled, each hair a tiny, terrified antenna, and her heartbeat pounded a deafening rhythm in her ears until Elric's voice, sharp and insistent, shattered the dread. His face back to how it was and no sign of Lucian.
"You are too nice for your own good." Elric muttered with a small smile.
'.... pathetic.' Acacia thought and ran her fingers through her hair.
"And for why the world is different, there was an apocalypse and you got injured from it, resulting in your memory loss."
'Liar but I am not any different in that category.' Acacia thought.
"Oh? That must have been terrible. Thank you for telling me." Acacia said with a smile.
"You're welcome." Elric nodded and two pairs of arms were wrapped around his neck and Zephyra materialized behind Elric, her head poked out and her ruined abdomen exposed, a gaping maw from which thick, tar-like blood gushed, forming a slick, spreading pool on the floor. The cracks on her face and arms deepened, like fissures in decaying porcelain, spreading like a morbid spiderweb across her skin.
"You murdered me. Why did you withhold the truth? You saw Elric that day, the orb of wishes... I trusted you, nurtured you. And you killed me." Zephyra's tears were a grotesque mockery, mixing with the viscous fluid that dripped from her disintegrating face. The crunching sound intensified, a sickening symphony of bone and flesh being consumed.
"Answer me, you wretched thing! You could have prevented this! I offered you a mother's love, and you repaid me with oblivion. Now I understand why your own mother abandoned you to rot!" Zephyra's voice, once soft, now raked with a raw, guttural fury. Her remaining eye, bloodshot and frantic, locked onto Acacia's frozen form. The words, a venomous echo of Acacia's deepest fears, hung heavy in the air, a suffocating shroud of guilt and despair.
'It is just an illusion, calm down.' Acacia clenched her fists and took deep breaths.
"Are you proud of me? I know you don't remember much but did I make our dreams come through?" Elric asked with a smile.
"Yes, I am very proud but I would be prouder if you were captain. Then I would have a super awesome friend." Acacia clasped her hands together and ignored Zephyra's form on Elric. Her gaze flickered down to the ground and saw the pool of blood staining her shoes.
"I am still not sure about that." He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Kill him and avenge me already. Hurry, hurry...hurry... at least do something right in your life." Zephyra touched her stomach and smeared the blood on Elric's neck.
".... Elric, I will take a break. I'm a bit tired but I do think you will make a great captain. Make dinner delicious!" Acacia smiled and dropped the bag on the couch as she left for her room without waiting for his response.
She closed the door behind her and took deep breaths, the blood seeped through the cracks of the door and she immediately backed away from it. She looked around and noticed the dark vines growing on the walls.
"No no no..." Acacia said in urgency and quickly rushed to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. The vines started to grow on the walls. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.
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"One...two... three ...four ...five " She said in a shaky voice and opened her eyes but the vines were still there. She felt a warm liquid on her cheek and some blood stains on the floor. She slowly raised a head to see blood dripping from the ceiling. "Daemonis, please stop this."
'I didn't do anything. Your mind is the architect of this delightful chaos.' Daemonis's tone remained infuriatingly casual.
"Then tell me how to stop it!" Acacia's voice cracked, the warm, slick blood on her face was a grotesque parody of tears. The crimson rain intensified, each drop a fresh wave of horror.
'My dear Acacia, I'm a connoisseur of destruction, not a therapist. You'll have to unravel your own little puzzle.' Daemonis's chuckle was a low, chilling sound.
"Damn you." Acacia said with annoyance as the crimson rain continued and her body felt sticky as the black vines grew further out of control and spread around the walls.
"Acacia... the results are conclusive. You exhibit no trace of mana. It's possible a latent potential will manifest with age, but..." The elderly man's voice, sterile and detached, echoed through the tiled bathroom.
"Doctor Jaxon?" Acacia's voice wavered, her gaze darting around the empty room, searching for the unseen speaker.
"It's the Algernon girl! Lucian's sister."
"So? I heard she has nothing to show for it. Probably clings to Lucian's coattails for relevance."
"I don't!" Acacia shouted in a raw and desperate manner but her voice was swallowed by the rising tide of jeering voices. Her vision was blurred by the crimson rain. The bathtub, the towel, the vines and the floor were all covered.
"Look at her! She acts all high and mighty but we all know if it wasn't for her family, she would be irrelevant."
"I'm surprised she has the confidence to show her face in class, I would rather be homeschooled."
"Shut up!" Acacia covered her ears with her hands. Her hair suddenly grew shorter and she was wearing her school uniform as her height shrunk and flashes of lights blinded her vision.
"Miss Acacia! Please tell the camera how you feel about your brother having his first successful raid! Are you excited for him or disappointed since you don't have any mana even though you're thirteen years old?"
"There are reports that suggest that you have a different father! Miss Acacia is that true? Are you the product of your mother's first love? Is that why you have no mana?"
"How do you feel about your brother? Are you close to him?"
Acacia pressed her hands against her throbbing temples, the relentless flashes of light and the faceless interrogation, a brutal assault on her senses. She stumbled away from the crowd, the cacophony of their voices echoing in her ears. The street, a jarring contrast, teemed with smiling faces and the blur of passing cars. Buildings stood pristine, a mocking normalcy. She halted, her breath catching in her throat, before a shop window. Her reflection stared back, a distorted echo of her thirteen-year-old self, a child lost in a nightmare. Christine materialized behind her, Acacia watched the reflection with shock.
"Acacia! Are you okay? Don't let those reporters get to you, I don't have any mana either but I have my best friend." Christine's voice rang out, soft and gentle as ever. Her black hair in its usual ponytail and her green eyes bright as ever.
Acacia spun around, her gaze locking onto Christine, and a torrent of tears streamed down her face. "You... you're really..."
"Oh, gods, no! I didn't mean to upset you." Christine's embrace was immediate, her hand gently stroking Acacia's hair.
"I missed you so much..." Acacia's voice was muffled against Christine's shoulder, a raw, desperate plea.
"Missed me? We were together yesterday. We're in the same class." Christine's chuckle was laced with gentle confusion. "You never used to... this isn't like you."
"I know... I'm so sorry... I wish you were still here..." Acacia's grip tightened, her knuckles bone-white against Christine's uniform. "I wish you didn't leave me...."
"I would never leave you! We have plans to graduate and go to the same university and even be each other's bridesmaids! Why would I leave you to do all that alone?" Christine said in a firm voice but it just made Acacia cry even harder.
The world dissolved, Christine wrenched from her grasp like a phantom. "No—!" Acacia's fingers clawed at empty air as she was flung into another reality. She found herself kneeling on rain-soaked earth, the sharp, half-mown grass biting into her skin. Her clothes clung to her, heavy and sodden.
'Christine...' The name echoed in her mind, a hollow ache. A soft sniffling drew her attention. Beside her, a younger version of herself, no more than nine years old, mirrored her posture. The child's bright pink dress, now a muddy ruin, was soaked through. Above them, her mother loomed, her face etched with cold disdain and not a single droplet of rain touched her.
"You're a disgrace, your father is a magic user, I am a magic user and even your brother is a magic user. Why are you different?!" Her mother asked in a harsh tone and young Acacia flinched. "Maybe if you endure this, you will awaken your abilities."
'This was the day....I hated my own mother and brother.' Acacia thought as she looked at the young Acacia gripping her wet dress.
Her mother's back was a rigid line of dismissal as she retreated into the house, the door slamming shut with a finality that echoed the silence. Moments later, a thirteen year old Lucian emerged, a shadow slipping into the rain. He paused, his gaze settling on Acacia's kneeling form. "Mother seems... displeased. Another failure, Acacia?"
"Go away." Young Acacia said in a hoarse voice.
"How could I abandon my little sister in this downpour? Tell you what...I'll plead with Mother on your behalf." Young Lucian offered, his tone gentle.
"Really?" Young Acacia's eyes, filled with a fragile hope, lifted to his.
"Naturally. But... there's a price. A small condition." Young Lucian smiled brightly. "You'll beg me. And kiss my feet."
"…What?" The fragile hope in Acacia's grey eyes shattered, replaced by confusion and dawning horror.
"You're a burden and a failure now. The lowest of the low. You must act according to your level." Lucian said as his expression remained bright and innocent.
"....I hate you! Do you truly believe your abilities make you superior? You're no different from the dirt beneath our feet! A nobody! An absolute nothing! I swear, you'll pay for this!" Young Acacia's voice cracked with rage, tears streaming down her face, and young Lucian flinched, a flicker of something akin to fear in his eyes.
"Why... why are you being so cruel? I'm only... doing what Father instructed. The weak must understand their place, and you... you lack..." Young Lucian's gaze faltered, dropping to the rain-soaked ground, his expression a turmoil of conflicting emotions.
"Go away! I never want to see you again! Just leave me alone!" Acacia's scream was a raw, broken sound, filled with a pain that belied her young age.
Young Lucian backed away and turned around as he left young Acacia alone. Acacia stared at her younger self. 'I was so angry then....I think that's when I grew angry all the time. Everything irritated me except for my friends.'
Acacia slowly laid down and sank onto the rain-soaked grass, her gaze drifting upwards to the oppressive grey sky. Raindrops kissed her face, cold and unwelcome. She closed her eyes, and the world fragmented once more, reforming into the sterile, pristine bathroom. The black vines had vanished, leaving no trace. Her crimson wings, once proud, now limp, lay unfurled across the cold tiles. Her dark brown hair, damp and heavy, pooled around her head like a dark halo. And in her eyes, a void, where red embers died, a vacant, distant gaze, where nothing could reside.
'Has your sanity finally dissolved into the void?' Daemonis inquired, his tone dripping with sardonic amusement.
"Maybe... my mind...Zephyra...broken fragments...mana..." Acacia whispered, her words a disjointed symphony of delirium.