The whirling mass of darkness slowly began to take shape.

From the darkness came hands, followed by the feet, shins, elbows, shoulders, thighs, chest, hips, abdomen, and then stomach. Its head was still a swirl, but it was slowly gaining its shape.

"Who… you?" The mass said in a rough tone of voice. "Look… close… Nox?"

"It seems your vocal cords are still forming along with your brain."

"Question... answer." He said slowly picking himself up.

"I am Nyx, Goddess of the Night."

"Ny…x…Nox." Its speech began to get more refined. "You are…Nyx?"

"Yes. I was the one to pluck your soul from Samsara, Cirrus to—"

"Bring her back." His head finally formed, but his appearance was that of a blackened humanoid figure.

"…I—"

"Bring her back." Cirrus falls to his knees. "Please... can you bring her back? I will do anything you ask." He kowtow before her.

Nyx could feel the desperation and heartache in his voice.

"I am sorry, but I can’t—"

"Bullshit." He slowly looks up at her. "You… reincarnated me… you are Nyx, the only god Zeus is afraid of. You stand on equal footing with the likes of Ouranos. You are a supreme god. Can’t you do this single thing? Please?"

"Cirrus, as much as I would love to do that." She walks to him and kneels before him. "I can’t. What I did was something that would have been overlooked if you hadn’t killed Erebus with Nox."

"He…. deserved it." He looked at her in his dark-formed eyes, filled with grief, anger, and hatred. "He and every one of the gods of Evilus brought devastation to the world... Do you not think I know why they came?"

"Cir—"

"THEY CAME TO HAVE FUCKING FUN!!!!" Her domain shook from his furious shout. "THEY DON’T FUCKING CARE!! WHY SHOULD THEY!! THEIR ALL IMMORTAL!! THEY DON’T HAVE TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESSES THE PEOPLE DO!! THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO PAY FOR THEIR FUN!!!"

"…Cirrus I know you are angry but-" She released some of her own power. "Rumble! Rumble!" It was massive and overbearing. Cirrus did not waver in his resolution. "Do not cut me off again."

"Or what? You’ll kill me?" His appearance began to change to look more like himself. "I’m sure you would enjoy killing Nox as well."

She flinched slightly.

"I know you are hurting right now, Cirrus, and I am trying to understand you."

"Understand? Under…stand, me?? You will never understand what it is like to lose your other half. The one who makes you whole and makes this dreary world just a bit more brighter."

"…" Nyx couldn’t say much about it. She didn’t have such a person who could make her feel what Ai did for Cirrus.

"…I just want her back… I want us to go and live far away from all of this bullshit. I want to sleep in and enjoy the beach again. Drink with friends and family. Read some more books and just… and just hold her once more…" Tears began to fall from his face. "As we grow old together."

His body drops down as more of his appearance gets closer to his real body.

"…I am sorry. This was a path I had hoped you would never would have gone down. When I plucked you from the cycle, I saw many paths you would take. Out of all of them, the one we are in was the most unlikely."

"…" Cirrus looks up to the sky to see the star trails with his hands on his lap. "They will never let you be famous and happy." More tears begin to fall and patter onto the flower-covered field. "This was why I never wanted to be a hero... why I gave that up in the Kaios Desert."

"…Cirrus." Nyx said, with a pained voice.

"I know I don’t deserve happiness... Nor do I ever deserve forgiveness for what I did there." He looked down at his hands as tears drip on them. "Blood will always stain these hands... No matter how much good I do, they will always be red." He puts them down and a look of defeatism washes over him. His body began to melt. "With her, I didn’t have to worry about anything. I could just... let go and be vulnerable to her as she was to me."

The domain was deafeningly quiet.

"Ai…"

As his eyes go hollow, the rest of his body loses its form and returns to a pool of darkness.