Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai 1

(Licht)

My body aches horribly. Only my missing right eye doesn't hurt me.

Every day now, I have to consume a little more power to heal my inherent decay, and just to keep my bones moving.

Remember where you come from...

I remember my name. And I remember killing the dark one the other day.

Turning her to ashes.

It made me think...

I found the key to my plan, and way to victory.

I step into a clearing. My energy pushes me above the ground. I lift off and bolt away in the sky as a shooting star.

~

As I fly at high speed like that, I don't feel human anymore. It feels like dreaming, being asleep, feeling warm.

Lights and colours stretch around and melt in my eye. I can't see where I am, and know it roughly from general feelings that come from other senses than hearing and sight.

I fly above sea and land for a long time. I have barely glimpses of the places I fly over.

I have a faint itching in my brain that works as a compass, and helps me go where I want.

I've never flown this far away before.

I have to talk to her.

Hopefully, she will agree to help me. Otherwise, I'll consider what I'm willing to do and sacrifice in order to win.

I probably wouldn't take the extreme route. I'm not a prince, and there is a right way to win for me.

I reach my destination, tired.

My light recedes as if I was folding wings in my back. My body reappears as I stand up, feeling exhausted.

I landed, feet in the burning sand.

The pain slowly recedes as well as I stand more proudly. My hair moves around my neck with this warm wind.

I'm smiling with surprise as I see the result of her journey.

Beyond the great pyramid of Kheops stands a titanic bush of flower buds, with vines spreading all around the area.

Some gigantic white roses are open to the sun above that swarm of tangled vines and jungle looking plants and trees.

The flowers are maybe dozen of metres wide, giant, clear and clean flowers, gathering like bouquets around the summit of this much older structure.

The vines themselves are covered with buds of flowers instead of thorns.

They are all tighyly closed, only the main bouquet is radiantly open, filling a third of the sky I can see from here.

There's a really slight perfume I think, but it's probably just my lingering imagination.

L - My, how you've grown, Blume...

One of the main flowers, hundreds of metres distant, beyond and above the pyramid, turns its eye toward me.

The vines closer to me react to my presence now.

I keep walking in the sand along these vegetal pipes.

L - A long time ago, you were a forest somewhat similar to this. You later sacrificed it in order to save her life and fuse with her. What made you change back?

B - I've evolved, and grown, for us. Rose isn't gone, she's in my care.

L - I expected no less.

B - You're truly not like the mindless roses. Rose told me about you, Licht.

L - This will save me a lot of time, that's good... I... came here to ask for your help.

B - Against your god?

L - Yes.

Blume is reluctant. I can understand. She's always reluctant to fight against monsters stronger than her. It's like war, you can never be sure about how it will turn out later.

B - it will depend of what you need from us. You certainly know what my objectives are.

L - I do. Just as if I'd been the one you had loved for over a year. You want Rose to live on, and you two to live happily together thereafter.

B - Something has changed.

L - Oh?

And she tells me about Rose's dream. Her change of mind.

I can obviously understand her feelings, but I didn't expect that.

Now that I think about it, Ogre probably had something to with it...

Rose's curse... I can somehow see her, crying like she, I, we, did, when we found out we had lost Blue for ever.

This damn Ogre knew where to hit so the wounds would go worse over time rather than heal.

Blume is doing her altruistic best for that.

Which is weird... Even for her.

I could help her. Help them.

But...

What I want needs to come first.

Blume... Forgive me.

L - I'm sorry, but I need to speak to Rose.

B - What do you need her for?

L - I need to plant a poison inside of her, and then for both of you to die. When the Dragod will try to resurrect you, my poison will hit it from inside and allow me to win.

B - I don't like the middle part of your plan, Licht.

I smile, or rather I smirk.

L - Of course not. But the last part will be for you all to revive, I promise you that.

B - So you plan to become as god?

Ouch... It hurts, but she's right... What she means by that is that there is absolutely no way to get her to trust me, given the claims I make.

And if I were to fail to kill god and survive, she will die with her loved one. If we do this and I fail, Rose's only remaining existence would be that of a mindless slave...

~

L - The only way to defeat a god is through trickery. We can't overpower it. This one however, given its personality, I know how to outsmart.

B - I'll help you if you have a way that doesn't require our death to Rose and I.

I smile a little sadly. I'm sorry Blume, I'm not telling you the entire truth of my plan. But I wish you would have trusted me regardless because of what I am.

I lift a hand where a glow appears. Ogre gave me a way to trick everyone...

L - Can you decipher what I hold? It's a gift for you. It's everything left in this world from the original Blue, that Ogre had gathered. It turns out she had somehow the same idea as you. Who inspired the other I wonder?

B - Ogre...

L - She's dead. For good.

B - I can hardly refuse such a gift for Rose's dream, but... What is the reasonable price?

L - I want to talk to Rose.

Face to face, to discuss my plan.

Blume is conflicted because she doesn't know how Rose will react to all this.

No one likes having one's life put over a bet on the line; no matter the possible reward.

And what Rose might decide might not align with Blume's desires.

She reluctantly agrees, and tells me to climb. She's honest.

I fly slowly over the pyramid to land at its top, right as Blume lowers a large bulb of water to my level. A flower with a big amniotic egg where Rose is asleep and healing.

I press my hands against the translucent skin that is like a giant rose petal.

While Blume begins to look inside me to recover the remnants of Blue, I try to speak to Rose.

She looks asleep. She doesn't reply.

Blume opens the cocoon by lifting thin layers of petals covering Rose, one after another, until I can reach her.

L - Good morning Rose, can you hear me?

She twitches. She's about to wake up.

I'm sorry Rose.

I'm sorry.

I clench my teeth and fists. My whole body gets tensed. The poison I created begins to sip out of me.

Rose opens slightly her eyes and sees me.

We both feel a shiver running along our spine.

She whispers my name.

She remembers me, me as myself.

My heart hurts in a good way.

I make a pained face. Blume has realised that I lied to her. It's too late.

I shoot my hand ahead and pierce Rose's ribcage and thorax. My fingers reach her spine, ripping every organ along the way. Blood flows. Poison flows.

I let my light explode in my back before Blume can stop me.

Everything disappears into my light.

~

I ripped the flower apart from Blume. I ripped out a few of her giant flowers.

My light turned into fires, sticking to the jungle Blume has become below. I'm burning her alive in a sea of flames.

She's yelling at me and fighting me with everything she has left.

She can't grab me. She can't fly after me. All she can do is yell her hatred after me, all around, and die...

She's crying. What she throws at me falls back rapidly. She was so strong, and now she's powerless.

The Pflanzen Teufel is crying, screaming, crying after its lost love...

I do feel sad for her, because of what I'm now stealing from her.

I'm sorry.

She's less and less responsive as the fires burn her immensely wide body. She's still moaning, while the flames keep spreading. I can hear her.

I can see her, with a crying face, the one who has suddenly lost all.

I'm floating above this swamp of flames and fumes, holding onto the ripped flowers from her.

I set myself ready to go, Blume still crying and moaning her despair loudly in the air and over the land.

I begin to fly away.

L - Don't die Blume...

Everything isn't over yet.

You will come to understand.

With the pods of flesh I ripped from her held tight, I leave her in this agonising pain and solitude.

It's all up to me now.

I must not fail.

I will not fail.

~