Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate

Chapter 37: There is no point staying in the past

Imogen is surrounded by never-ending darkness. She walks around but seems like she is walking nowhere. Everywhere looks the same - it is just darkness.

"Imogen," Laurel calls her out, and Imogen turns towards where she thinks the sound came from.

The darkness that wrapped around her disperses. Imogen is now standing at the top of one of the rocky mountains that duplicated itself endlessly towards the horizon. Streams of bright red and bubbling magma flow out like rivers on the bottom of these mountains. She looks at two figures, which were both familiar to her eyes: Laurel and herself. She looks at her translucent body and sees that she is being influenced by something that causes illusions. The sight in front of Imogen is making her heart beat fast. How can she ever forget this?

Laurel smirks at Imogen, and says, "Imogen... People change when life is cruel. This also applies to me, what makes you think that I wouldn't! Do you really think that I am as naive as the first time I met you?"

Laurel laughs miserably and continues, "Or do you think that what was between us would stop me?"

Blood trickles down Imogen's mouth. Imogen smiles faintly with self mockery, but her eyes were filled with turbulent emotions. She loosens her grip on her sword.

Laurel snaps at Imogen's expression and shouts, "Why? Why are you not fighting back? Are these rotting emotions what are holding you back? Why is that you always look so aloof and uncaring, but you are still full of sh*t. You know from the beginning that this is the most probable end, yet you kept going against fate when no one should be able to do so. You should have never loved me. Now, don't you regret it?"

Imogen does not reply.

"Explain to me why you have to make me the one to take your life. Why me? Is this your revenge? Is that it?" Laurel's eyes finally shed tears when she penetrated her sword in Imogen's body.

Imogen lets go of her sword and slumps down. Laurel catches her body.

"Imogen... Why does it have to be you? Why not someone else?" says Laurel as she holds Imogen's cooling body close to hers.

"You were supposed to fight against me... I was supposed to die by your sword..." cries Laurel.

The scene before the translucent Imogen starts to blur as the world goes dark.

Round: 487th

Then, another illusion entered into Imogen's mind. The dark scenery changes into the scenery within a mansion. The mansion was practically covered in black: the curtains, furniture, walls, and floor. Imogen runs desperately and opens a door in the basement of the villa.

"Laurel!!!" Imogen shouts, seeing Laurel tied to a cross. Her body is covered in wounds from torture. Laurel was frowning even as she was unconscious.

She frees Laurel from the chains and continues to scream her name.

"Laurel! Open your eyes... Laurel!!!"

Laurel weakly opens her eyes and smiles at the sight of Imogen.

"You finally came, Imogen," says Laurel weakly.

"Don't talk, we can talk later when you are better," says Imogen casting the blessings on Laurel's broken body.

"Imogen..."

"Don't talk."

"Listen... I know I don't have much time. There are words that I would regret if I don't say them... Please live a normal life. Although I am upset not to be able to be there for you, please... forget saving this wretched world and live your life till the end of times," whispered Laurel as she was struggling to voice her words.

Tears ran down Laurel's eyes and said, "I hope that in the next life, I would not be the one to tie you down." Laurel's eyes lose the light, and her body slowly slumped into stillness.

Imogen looks down at Laurel's body, but tears just do not come out. She just sat there for a long time staring at Laurel's lifeless and broken body.

Round: 1949th

The surroundings went dark again, and another scenery appeared.

Laurel shakes Imogen with tears on her eyes.

"Imogen! What have you done? They were just children and innocent people. Why did you have to kill them? They were not even the enemy!" Laurel screamed till her voice was rusty.

Imogen, with her lifeless eyes, looked at the shaken up Laurel, surrounded by a city in ruins. The fire burning at the city roared, consuming anything on its path. Piles of bodies flooded the streets.

Imogen tried to reach Laurel, but she moves away in fear. She is shaking as she looked at Imogen with eyes filled with hatred.

Imogen thought, "Would you believe me if I were to tell you that this city would turn into a city of the undead?"

However, Imogen does not say anything. No words came out. No words were able to come out.

"Just how many times do I have to explain?" thinks Imogen.

"You are just a murder... A crazy psychopath..." Laurel says in tears.

Laurel disappointed, runs away with her eyes filled with hate.

Round: 3291st

The darkness returned, endless darkness that surrounds her.

The voice of Laurel filled up Imogen's ears:

"I love you!"

"Tell me that this is not how we were meant to end up as."

"I hate you, Imogen Winstanley! I hate you!"

"I want to stay by your side forever."

"Please, don't leave me."

"Hey, promise me that you will love me for all my next lives! You have to go find me, okay?"

"Imogen, you are too naive. Emotions die."

"I wished we could have never met."

"This is a perfect house! Since I am so bad at cooking, you should cook for me every day!"

"Why? Why are you always leaving me out?"

"Imogen, I love you!"

"Imogen... Why... Just why did you choose me?"

"Stop... Stop this... Stop!" Imogen yells desperately at the never-ending darkness that surrounds her. "Someone... anyone... stop this! Please..."

Imogen grabbed her head and screamed crazily. She screamed and screamed until all her energy is gone. She falls to the ground, and her eyes are unable to focus on anything in the darkness. The emptiness that surrounds her start to look daunting. She is tired. Her eyelids are getting heavier.

"Imogen!" a voice echoed in the darkness. Imogen opens back her eyes.

"Imogen!" the same voice got louder and louder crying out her name.

She sits up with great difficulty and looks around. Something is building up in her chest. That something in Imogen's chest is coming out, and Imogen opens her eyes, coughing the water that has been in her lungs.

"Imogen!" Kyrie sighs in relief when he saw that Imogen opened her eyes. He slumps down like all his energy is drained from him.

Kyrie checks on Ian again, who is leaning against a rock breathing softly unconscious, his clothes soaked all the way.

[I will never touch this place ever again...]

Just recounting his own traumas were enough to make Kyrie nauseous. How Kyrie already recalled his past in the form of a dream was already bad enough, the illusions were worse. They felt so real that Kyrie is much more shaken up with a couple of minutes in those illusions than a week in his dream. It was a miracle that he was able to come out of his illusions that slipped into his mind when he saw Ian jumped into it. He somehow was able to circulate his mana and invoke light magic to surround his body for a couple of minutes to get Ian and Imogen out of the waters. Kyrie coughs again and looks at Imogen sitting back up. She looks at the distance at the relic that she was not able to get.

"Imogen... Forget it! There is no point in getting it," says Kyrie.

Imogen gazes at Kyrie so coldly that Kyrie starts to break down into sweat. The heavy dark aura around Imogen is slipping out of her body, giving anybody who locks eyes with her the most bone-chilling sensation one could ever experience. Imogen stands up and walks back towards the town. She was silent from the moment she woke up. Kyrie follows her while carrying Ian without letting out a peep. The air is suffocating even to breathe in.

[Looking at Imogen like this, I guess Imogen is still human as well... It must have been hard for her experiencing the past all over again while being stuck in the pond for so long.]

When Kyrie touched Imogen as he tried to save her, he got a glimpse at her memories as if her memories were leaking out of her body. That relic is called the relic of songs for a reason; it absorbers the energy that memories have from the dead and also the memories of the living that touches the pond. It is a relic that is powerful enough to slay a deity. The fallen saintess must have known about the springs of tranquillity, but seeing how untouched the treasure is, even the fallen saintess does not fit the requirements to pass through the springs.

[What human can ever escape the suffering that life brings? However...]

"Humans are not as tragic as we think we are," says Kyrie out loud.

Imogen turns around and looks at Kyrie, but this time with a different atmosphere around her. She looked like those words stabbed her where it hurts. Imogen seemed so human to Kyrie with the pained expression on her face. She looked like a human covered in wounds, fragile like glass, and worn-out like a broken sword. However, she also looked stubborn enough to keep herself standing. Imogen's eyes were lifeless, filled with the fatigue from emotional exhaustion.

Nonetheless, Kyrie is getting bothered that Imogen would not show any other emotions from such an experience than exhaustion and pain. She just stands up and walks through hell and fire like a machine. Imogen is losing herself again. That same expression that Kyrie saw when Imogen got summoned into this world - an empty killing machine. He knows that there are many more expressions Imogen can express, although most of them are to make fun of him. He saw it. He felt it. She shared it.

Kyrie nervously gulped as emotions started to build up inside of him.

[I have to say it.]

"There is no point in staying in the past, Imogen. You will forget that there is ever a door to the place you are trapped in if you stay for too long. Sometimes, you just have to decide that you are not a tragedy. Rather, you are a miracle, a miracle to this world walking towards destruction. You tried everything you could. You gave everything you had. You never gave up despite so many things that were against you. If not a miracle, then what are you?"

Imogen's eyes shined with tears like she was waiting for those words to come out from someone. A genuine human expression finally came out of her air-tight sealed heart. The tears flowed out like they were trapped inside her for millenniums. Kyrie felt Ian's hold tightening. He was awake but looked somewhat fragile in his arms. However, Ian smiled warmly towards Kyrie. They both waited for Imogen to waste all the tears she accumulated throughout the years. Tears that Imogen herself thought have dried up. But, no human tears ever dry up. They are just inside accumulating so that one day, you can bring your most genuine self out. Tears are not weaknesses. They are your journals of pain.

When Imogen finally stopped crying, hours have already passed. However, Kyrie and Ian waited for her. They never looked away. In the end, they both were sitting next to Imogen instead of distancing away from her.

"Should I change your nickname now? Wimpy lady? Wimpy b*tch?" Kyrie teased.

"Shut up, cockroach!" says Imogen with a slight blush on her cheeks.

Ian laughed at their interaction. Imogen and Kyrie smiled in response.

[Imogen changed. She didn't need two thousand years. She just needed a couple of hours.]

A loud crash echoed throughout the forest, and a strong gust of wind hit them afterwards. They looked at the direction that the blast came from. The town flooded in a sea of fire.