Chapter 42: Aziel
"Sorry about the landing," Aziel called out, his voice carrying an unmistakable note of amusement. "Still working on the whole braking thing." He giggled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. The fading sunlight caught in his hair, giving the edges an almost luminescent quality that matched the lingering traces of electricity still sparking occasionally across his skin.
Arthur was on his hands and knees, chest heaving as he desperately tried to catch his breath. The ground beneath his palms felt cold and lifeless, much like the field of gray roses surrounding them. Each inhale brought the scent of dust and decay into his lungs, a stark reminder of the desolation that stretched in every direction. After several ragged breaths, his fingers curled into the dry soil, crushing withered petals beneath his grip as he turned to Aziel with a face contorted in anger, tears welling in the corners of his eyes.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU... I- I DIDN’T NEED TO BE SAVED." His voice cracked with emotion, echoing across the desolate landscape. The words seemed to hang in the air, vibrating with a raw intensity that made even the dead roses around them tremble slightly.
Aziel’s amused face of awkwardness morphed into shock, his playful demeanor evaporating instantly. His mouth opened slightly, then closed again as he processed Arthur’s unexpected reaction. "What!? Are you being serious? Because you looked like you definitely needed saving." Confusion etched across his features as he stared at Arthur’s trembling form, his confident posture faltering for the first time since his dramatic appearance.
Arthur rose to just his knees, his body shaking with emotions he could no longer contain. His shoulders hunched forward as if bearing an invisible weight, and his hands hung limply at his sides. Tears streamed down his face, carving glistening paths through the dirt and sweat that clung to his skin like a second layer of misery. "WELL I DIDN’T!" he yelled, the words tearing from his throat like they physically pained him, leaving it raw and aching.
Aziel’s face contorted into disbelief, his eyebrows drawing together and his mouth tightening into a thin line. "Are you stupid or something?" His voice was laced with anger, the electrical energy that seemed to constantly surround him crackling more intensely for a brief moment. But then he caught a glimpse of Arthur’s destroyed expression—the empty and torn apart look in his eyes that spoke of wounds far deeper than physical ones, pain etched so deeply it seemed to have hollowed him out from within.
The air between them grew heavy with unspoken tragedy, thick enough that it seemed to absorb the very sound around them. Aziel suddenly realized what Arthur meant, his own expression softening as understanding dawned across his features, and his voice lowered to a gentle murmur. "Ah, I see... It’s not that you didn’t need saving, it’s that you didn’t want it, huh?"
Arthur’s face grew more distorted as tears continued streaming down his cheeks. The fight seemed to drain from him all at once, like water through cupped fingers, impossible to hold onto. He gave up, rolling onto his back to stare blankly at the sky. The fading light painted the clouds in muted hues of orange and purple, a beautiful backdrop to his personal hell, colors that seemed to mock the grayness he felt inside.
Aziel did not move any closer, respecting the invisible barrier Arthur had erected around himself. Instead, he sat down cross-legged a few feet away, his muscular frame settling onto the barren ground with a soft exhale. The makeshift pack formed by his tied shirt shifted slightly as he adjusted his position. "Yeah, sorry, I guess. But letting you die there wouldn’t have sat right with me, so I didn’t do it for you—I did it for me." His words were honest, stripped of his usual bravado, floating between them like an offered hand that Arthur was under no obligation to take.
Arthur didn’t speak, just staring blankly at the sky as if searching for answers among the gathering clouds. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, the only indication that he was still present in the moment. The silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken words and fresh grief, punctuated only by the occasional rustling of dead rose petals in the gentle breeze.
After some moments of this weighted silence, Aziel grew antsy. He shifted his position, disturbing the stillness that had settled over them like a funeral shroud. His fingers tapped an irregular pattern against his knee, betraying his discomfort with the heavy atmosphere. "I must say, I’m surprised to have found anyone here, much less someone from the academy. As far as I know, this place is an unexplored region of the second realm, so we couldn’t have gotten any more unlucky." His attempt at conversation fell flat in the space between them.