Nolan Salvatore walked out of tall bushes. “Ah, where is this place anyway?” He looked from left to right. The view in front of him was still the unchanging landscape of trees and mountains. Where was the rock that he was told to?

The sea of trees swayed left and right. Rain fell and a mist gathered around. He puffed on a brown rolled paper and released smoke from his mouth and nose. Nolan scratched the side of his head, and he thought, “Was I doing something, hmm, that dream-“

***

Time stopped for Nolan. The world went gray and a figure appeared. 

“No, that’s not allowed, you must be free from that curse.”

Time started again.

***

He almost tripped on a branch. Then, he looked at the trees while relaxing his shoulder for a bit. The ground was wet. He couldn’t possibly sit on such wet. The trees below were large enough to be called caves. He descended and followed a narrow rocky path until he reached the ground area. When he reached the ground area he started to look for a dry hollow. He found one dry hollow, twigs were on the ground, and it delighted her that there was a campfire that existed here.

“I must be close,” Nolan said. He started setting up his camp for the night. His wooden box had two compartments and he used the other compartment to pull out the necessary items he needed. He took a cup from the compartment and heated beans that turned into aromatic coffee. He took dried meat and started eating it.

Some time passed by, he glanced at the rain and continued his journey. The ground was freshly wet and he heard the croaking of frogs. Some animals were running around the bushes. There were multi-colored birds that clung to the sides of the trees. When Nolan passed through this stream that was only thigh-deep to him. He noticed a sweet flowing air. Then, he saw a human figure that glided on the air. Every single one of these glided into the air.

Alium. He recalled that he was in a world where people would call the world where the Valkyries flapped their wings. Some may call it the home of Valkyries, and some call it the world where every being resided except for the Gods and their mountains. It was a new world that was out of the bubble, and it was simply the afterlife.

He recalled dying during that day. It was his only death and then he spent his life wandering as someone who wanted to help people.

Nolan Salvatore felt joy in his heart.

***

She knew this. She knew this well after staying in the heart for too long. The real wish of the Nolan that she loved. The wish of the man who had worked to save people from illness if he was allowed. But he was not allowed because he was charmed by a war maiden, a lonely war maiden that had no one beside her, and she had built him into a lonely warrior that walked the bleak.

The Bleak Walker, a cursed name, a title branded by the lonely war maiden. Indeed, she couldn’t deny that he felt a fondness for her. She hated that, for she knew that the War Maiden exploited that. She couldn’t understand him either, the fool, the bleak walker who forgive the woman who killed his children, and created a false family.

He couldn’t even tell the lies that were placed in front of him. He was so blinded with the happiness that she conjured that lie. He didn’t question why she give birth early. He believed simply because she was abnormal in the first place. He was so easy to fool that she could only scream, hoping, that he wouldn’t fall for the lies of a woman.

Every creation has a long process and she who had tasted the power itself could not believe her. Creating that lie would mean that she was giving birth to an imperfect vessel. The twins she created were the result of that process. Indeed, they may not be a lie, but she had created them to fabricate the life that she wanted.

She had seen this repeated actions for the past twenty-four billion years. She had repeated this lie and she couldn’t take it anymore. That’s why she gathered power and succeeded in moving past the loop.

Who said that the loop ended when he escaped this word? To her, he was only following the same pattern, the day where he would recall that he would loop back to Oasis City, the five hundred years of being used as a battery, and his arrival to the tower of nimrod.

How many times had she seen him repeat the same thing over and over again?

Twenty-billion years and an endlessly repeating loop that he couldn’t escape. 

She was guilty as well. She was a woman who fell in love with her captor. The woman who was dragged to the endless loop that the war maiden had played. The lies, the disgraceful lie that she had conjured would always end with a world cracking at the expense of everything. She couldn’t believe, that such a sinful woman would be able to stop at her lies.

She had been longed to become a woman who had surpassed her powers. However, she knew that she had to do something, and finally that gamble worked. The gamble worked and now they were finally free.

Free from the loop that had cheated her man.

One day, she will be free, and she would accompany him. Until then, she will always be by his side, and that was has she been doing ever since then. Ever since the day that he sealed her. Ever since she became his. In this world where she had finally taken him. Tania of the Obsidian flower had finally achieved twenty-four billion years of escape.

That’s why she won’t allow him to call for that woman.

Her name won’t be spoken and she will purge every memory of that woman from his head.

For that was the only way they can be a free from her bleak path.