ARIYS NIRSA

In the midst of seashell fog, Anish was running with Ariys fell asleep on his back. As they kept moving deep into the fog Anish's vision became narrowed.

"Looks like I'm about to arrive in the center of the fog" Anish thought as the fog there was more dense than the rear.

He tightened his grasp on Ariys, a precaution in case something attacked them. It will be over for Ariys if Anish loses her in there. There's no way he could find Ariys if they were separated.

After an hour of running, Anish's vision became even narrower, almost completely obstructed. As he ran, he barely could spotted a big crystal that blocked his way. Instinctively, he jumped high into the air. The crystal was so tall that even after jumping, he still couldn't get over it or even reach the top. He landed smoothly, he then touched the purple pink crystal with his left hand while continuing to walk to look for a way in, he was unaware that some crystal dust had stuck to his palm.

As he walked through the crystal, his breath came in and out quickly, fatigue crept over him. He then leaned on the crystal with his front body. "Am I already exhausted? It's only been two hours since I'm running" he muttered as he knew his body couldn't felt tired so easily.

He thought to change his course rather than wasting his time looking for a way in. Just about he lifted his leg to sprint, the crystal he touched suddenly changed form from solid to liquid. The crystal then surrounding Anish, after finished blocked all his way the liquid crystal turned to solid again.

Anish wondered, "Am I in dream realm too?". He looked at the crystal ceiling above him, letting his guard down because of the mystery. The crystal took the chance to attacked him on his left leg by combining it fluidity and solid form. It stretched some liquid crystal while maintaining the solid form on others area and the edge of the attack.

Anish reached the liquid crystal to pull it out, but the crystal doesn't made it easy for him. It turned to solid and sharp wherever he grabbed, relentless the blood that flow through his hand Anish managed to forcefully pulled out the crystal.

Then he smashed the crystal wall Infront of him with the crystal he grabbed in order to make a hole, but because of the crystal fluidity Anish attacked became pointless as the crystal he used merged with the wall.

The fully liquid crystal then swirled around him. In the intense situation, Anish realized something. "Wait I can see more clear in here". While he was thinking of a way out, the crystal attacked him in multi directions. He was able to dodge all of that even though that place was small and he still held Ariys on his back.

He then made a risky move by suddenly speed-blitzing throught the swirling crystal before it could turn solid again. He succeeded, but he wasn't relieved at all as his vision became blind again.

He felt so pissed as it made him remember his past at the place where everything was dark and he was left in there with similar condition he faced now. This time he tried to resist the emotion to not to take control over him. "I can't afford to go berserk now" he said, looked at Ariys. Suddenly he was punched in the stomach by the liquid crystal.

Anish bare the pain and sprinted away from there. He wondered how can the crystal landed a perfect attack. It supposed to be at least a few try to land a perfect hit, but that crystal just did it on one try.

Not left with many options Anish sprinted with many different forms like ran with four legs, jumping to the right and left and crawled to avoid the crystal attack.

He cursed his mind as he can't thought a way to fight back or understand the crystal properties. Surprisingly the crystal landed a perfect hit again on his side body, he was pushed away from there.

He fell down on the ground while still grasped Ariys tightly on his back. He stood up quickly while gritted his teeth, he cursed again "damn it, I'm done running. Let's settle this fist to fist". He then ran towards the crystal.

This time he ran straightforwardly without any unnecessary movements. The crystal formed spear and swiftly stretched out to Anish in high speed. Knowing he couldn't senses the attack, Anish rely on his hearing senses. He could heard a sound of crystal cracking was about to reach him. He threw Ariys upwards as he will tank the spear using his body, the spear arrived right after that and piercing through his left lower part body. Anish vomitted blood, but his right hand still moved to grab the crystal. He catches Ariys on his back first before jumped to the crystal, he launched a punch as he arrived on the crystal body. The crystal spread to the side leaving a space as Anish punch landed and made the ground cracked.

He then jumped again as soon as possible to avoid being solidify inside the crystal. He was confused with his body "how come I punch that weak, usually I can make a crater form easily with my fist"

He knew he was tired, but it doesn't made sense at all for him. This made him more angrier, still he could hold it by mesmerising moment by moment to get a clue. He looked at his left hand that had fully bathed in blood as that was the first moment they made contacted, he spotted a crystal dust glowing with same colour as the one attacked him.

He suddenly laughed out loud, even the crystal stopped attack out of confusion. "I can't believe I'm being this stupid. Oh god, I should just ignore this crystal when we first met" he said with a grinned smile.

He then sprinted again with his top speed, running away from there. The crystal response was slow, it give enough time for Anish to put a great distance between them.

After fifteen minutes the crystal had get closer with him. The crystal launched a brutal massive crystal shards shower. From the crystal perspective of view, where everything was dark, the crystal could only saw part of its own body like the crystal dust glowing frequently being hit by the shards glowing. After finished attack, the crystal approached its own dust that had stopped moving. There were no resistance response when the crystal liquid touched its dust, so the crystal devoured its own body.

As the crystal formed a new body, it realized that the things it just merged was not human at all. It doesn't have a head, hands, legs or a body, it just have a plain skin of a palm.

Even though the crystal failed to kill Anish, it seems not to be bothered. After all, the crystal was there for something else.

The crystal then leaves from there as soon as it get signal from the pilot in the central fog, where the pilot sat on a stone throne in a cave. At there many crystal creatures was wondering around, while outside the cave a paradise was built naturally in there with fog surrounding that place.

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On the other side at the dream realm, in a replica of Twilight Vale forest; Ariys was hiding in a hollow beneath big tree.

Time in dream realm worked differently from overworld. She felt as if she'd been in there for one whole week, though it had only been hours in the overworld. In that time she had fight endlessly with the dream creatures and been tortured mentally as she always saw her past self. Now she was just hiding, hoping she wouldn't have to fight or be disrupted by her past memory.

Ariys curled into herself, sat with her hands clutched her legs. She wiped her red eyes that holding her endless tears.

"I can't do this any more. I'm tired" she mumbled before she lay down on the cold ground.

Her eyes became blurred with her tears while her head began to fill with memories she had shared with Fri and Qylaa, the two people that changed her life, protect her from bad things and taught her how to live in this cruel world.

"I miss you two so much" Ariys whispered, her voice been swallowed by the quietness. She could feel the warmth in her body rapidly diminishing as her mental got down more badly. She clenched her fist tightly hoping she will woke up soon, but her mental had already on her limits making she closed her eyes and eventually fell asleep.

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"Hey, Ariys"

"Ariys, wake up you lazy girl"

She heard a boy voice kept calling for her to wake up. She opened her eyes. Her sight blurred as the sun shines burst into her eyes.

"Do you usually wake up this late in the morning? It's almost afternoon now. Get up and washed your face now. I have prepared our lunch" the boy kept babbler.

As her sight became clear, she was surprised to see herself at the tree where she lost Fri.

"Hey, I said go washed your face now or I will do it myself" Fri's voice high. His hand touched Ariys back.

As she turned back her eyes burst in tears to see the man that she thought has dead was alive infront of her.

"What's wrong Ariys? Are you feeling sick? Or are you hurt at somewhere I can't see?" Fri worriedly asked. He also hugged the cute little princess.

"It's nothing Fri" she said in his arms, her voice stammered and her hands also hug Fri tightly. "I....I just had a really long nightmare"

"It's okay, Ariys. It's just a dream, everything will be fine" he said, trying to reassure her. His hand wiped Ariys back.

After a minutes, Ariys finally stopped crying while Fri continued preparing lunch. Ariys looked around and exhaled gladly. She then walked to the outside to wash her face.

She brought Fri's water bottle along with her. There She couldn't saw anything below them as tree branches spread all over the place, it was weird but she thought maybe the nightmare had made her forget how that place looked. She then took a sit before poured water from above her head. It was nicely warmth, but somehow Ariys doesn't feel refreshed at all.

At the same time, the tree branches below her slowly burning and revealed what's on the below. As Ariys done washed, the bottle slip off from her hands into the scorched forest. It was a terrifying scenery as she saw many ash blew to the air making the sky became darker.

She gulped and quickly ran back to hole.

"Fri we need to run now. There are Flareonix nearby" she said in a quick, but Fri was nowhere to be seen. "Fri, where are you?" She shouted, her voice echoed.

When her eyes focused searching Fri, a hand suddenly touched her back. With heart pumped so fast she turned back, her knees became weak as she looked a man with burning scars all over his body making she kneel on the tree branch.

Even though he looked like a corpse, he was still alive. "Why you said that? have you forgotten that we have already run from Flareonix, Ariys" his voice stammered, but loud.

Her eyes swelled up, "No, no, no, no, this can't be real. This should be the real life right, don't play dumb with me" her glazed fell into the ground letting her tears fell off. "I know this time we could be together and not just me alone surviving this apocalypse" she said.

Fri came at her and helped wiped her tears "calm down okay, Ariys. This was just a dream and soon you will wake up from this nightmare". He then continued to try cheer her. "Looks like I'm dead in real life" he said while laughed. "Ariys. You're strong than what you believe. I believe you could do everything even without me by your side" Fri's tone cheerful, totally opposite with what he just said.

"No, it's wrong. I'm not that strong without you. I'm just a little girl who needs friends when things go bad" Ariys denied it. She tried her best to stop crying when saw Fri's body became invisible, the sky above them also began to crack while the ground shattered into the void.

In that last moment together, Fri hugged Ariys for the last time before they part away. "Don't be a crybaby while I'm gone, Ariys" he said while his hand softly wiped Ariys back head. "Just remember me when odds is against you, maybe I will appear suddenly" he said.

"Nonsense, you're dead. There's no way you can came back from nether" Ariys replied, smiled at him, so he can pass away without worried her in the afterlife. Fri also smiled looking at her. They hold each other tightly until the dream realm totally destroyed.

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Somewhere in the real Twilight Vale forest, Anish was lying on the ground with Ariys lying beside him. He yawned out of tiredness from continuosly ran and fight with the mystic crystal. He was surprised when Ariys suddenly woke up. First thing she did after awake was looked at him.

"You look terrible, can you move on your own?" She asked, her body turned away from him as she prepared tools to treat his wounds.

"Yeah, I can move a little, but you can rest first, took your time to heal yourself. This was nothing to compare with mental attack you faced" he said, as he could know in one glanced that Ariys probably was sad, hurt and more than he could thought. "I'm sorry I can't get out from there more fast"

"It's okay, you have your done your best. I'm glad that you're still alive" she said, her hands fell down as she let out all her sadness she held for a long time since Fri died. Anish rolled away from there to give her a room to be alone.