Ciara took another breath, she fiddled with fingers, trying to manage the pain of her broken up fingers. As she climbed up, another barrier appeared, this time, the barrier managed to deflect the strike she used to destroy the barrier in the fiftieth floor. She exhaled cold air, glared at the barrier.

“Looks like I have to destroy it again,” she said to herself, glancing at her surroundings. “The barrier’s as thicker than ever, the recoil broke my fingers, and my insides are churning in pain, hmm, that would have destroyed my lung.”

She pulled her sword back, and with all of her weight and power, she cleaved. The barrier was split in two for three seconds, only to be repaired, and it became whole again. Ciara’s fingers were bleeding, still, her expression didn’t change. She continued swinging, not minding the pain of having her fingers broken, and her insides suffering the recoil.

She said, “The recoil is internal, and my head is getting foggier. No, the recoil, also is messing my senses, hmm, ah, yes, it is trying to cloud my mind? Pathetic.”

Her eyes widened, and she suddenly released an explosion from her body, releasing pressure, just like a cooling system that was mitigating the pressure building up inside her body. Ciara took the stance of the Lady, and this time she clad her sword with the astral cloak and under it was her sword of Salvatore.

“Break!” She cleaved horizontally and brought her sword down. The area behind the barrier erupted into a place of fire and destruction, rocks flew everywhere, and the trees that were standing burnt to crisp.

“Damn,” Ciara said, blood leaked out of her mouth, and her arms were facing the wrong direction. She staggered backward and lied flat on her back. The barrier collapsed like a tower of glasses.

She squeezed her eyes, and looked around, “I guess its too delusional for me to wish that. I’ve been searching for him for so many years. And the last time that we met I killed him. I never have wanted anything other than him. After all, he was my eternal companion, and having him not by my side bothers me. It’s selfish and unreasonable to have him with how things become. I betrayed him and abandoned him for the sake of the world. What am I supposed to do? What if he doesn’t remember me? What if his memories are gone after being put into a new world? Does he even exist in this world? Do I have to look for him? I’m tired, I am so tired, I’ve been fighting for so long I don’t remember a time where I just sat down and enjoyed a drink. He always said to run away with him, and I would love that. I wanted it. But it was either him or a world of many. I made a vow to save the world and its people. I cannot let go of my vows and duty just because of my own selfish reasons.”

She gritted her teeth, and forcibly reverted her limbs back to normal position. Usually, in the stories that she was fond off when a lady was in dire need, a hero would come in the right time, She looked up and saw that no soul was standing before her. Of course, there would be none, she has driven the hero that would have come for her.

How could she allow the hero who fought for her so much stay that way? She has broken his heart far too many times in those timelines that she thought of letting go of him. However, the thought of seeing him with others made her heart irritated, seething, as she could not handle the thought of parting with him. Yet, she doesn’t know how to face him for the sin that she had done.

“Who would love a woman who would dare to kill their child? I thought that maybe if I survived that fight, then maybe, I could have repaid him, and if I didn’t get out of that isolated too late, then maybe, he wouldn’t have died.”

“By what right should keep a good man like him? He has always been my side despite his powerless. Yet I would throw him away for the sake of the world.”

She doesn’t regret saving the world for doing soul would deny the happiness of those who she saved. She was prepared to throw herself to the fray simply because it was the right thing to do. No matter what, she must do what she vowed to do. The moment she became a maiden of throes, and when she got the title of the War Maiden. It was her duty to help those who in need and when the heroes finally took their rest. She took the weight of the heroes as well.

Ciara could save others but she never thought that the one person who had been with her needed saving. She thought that he would always be by her side no matter what. But that illusion was broken when he allowed himself to turn into a monster, into a being that he lived his life fighting against. The man she loved finally turned his blade against her. There was a rage in his eyes and yet she didn’t hate him for it. She deserved it and there was a part of her that wanted that man to hate her. Even though many timelines passed, there was a part of her that wanted to know if the man who followed her would one day be mad at her. He did, and she ended his life, and threw his soul into the middle of the worlds, hoping that his aged soul would recover.

“I need to move,” she said mindlessly. “I don’t know what’s on the surface but it should be better than this place.”

She was lost in another world that she did not know about. But this wasn’t her first rodeo and Ciara Alician moves forward. She was good at it and even if this world was troublesome. Even it was tiresome, she can only step forward.