Josh's head turned red, and he gnashed his teeth and ran towards Weber.
Weber furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes glowing bright, but his gaze was dull and lacking emotion.
The closer Josh got to Weber, the more it felt like gravity was pulling him down, but it was ghosts—unseen—that were the cause.
"Josh, give me space and I will end our captor," Weber said, giving Ariel a glare.
Weber slowly raised his hand toward her. "Eat her up," he said, and ghosts started swarming towards her.
"Weber, she's on our side! Don't do this!"
Weber held up his hand, and the thorned shadows stopped rushing towards Ariel. She took several steps back.
"I hope she didn't drug you senseless," Weber said, looking down at Josh. Josh gaped.
"What do you take me for?" Josh yelled.
"I don't have time to argue how she's probably messed with your mind," Weber said and walked past Josh, which made the weight around Josh disappear.
Ariel clenched her fists as Weber walked forward.
Then Weber's eyebrows went up when he saw that her irises were pink.
"Your Wail of the Abyss was weaker this time, Weber," Ariel said, watching his reaction.
Weber looked around, and it was true. When he fought the executive officer Stanford, there were dozens of ghosts at his beck and call, but now it was just a handful making a ruckus, for reasons he wasn't sure of.
"You know too much," Weber said, his voice iced.
"Or you know too little," she shot back, tossing him a picture of Weber and Ariel smiling happily—the same one she had shown Josh.
Weber's eyes shifted from glowing white to their normal hazel, then he turned back to Josh. "Is this true? Am I really looking at myself?"
Josh hurriedly nodded.
Weber sat on the floor, staring at the image. "That's us together two years ago," Ariel said.
Weber just stared at the picture. "Who were you to me?"
Ariel's expression dulled. "I was about to be your fiancée, as we planned after graduating college. But the Abyss took you from me."
Weber looked at her, and it now made sense. The time he heard a female voice telling him in a dream that he'd die if he didn't stop what he was doing—it matched Ariel's voice.
"The Abyss... what is this Abyss?" Weber said, rising to his feet.
Ariel took in a deep breath and exhaled. "The Abyss is where you get your power from. When souls are unsatisfied after their deaths, they can't enact revenge with their full potential. The only person that can do such for them is you, Wraith Keeper."
Before Weber had a chance to be bewildered, a sharp pain hit his head when he heard Wraith Keeper.
Ariel rushed to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard, but don't try and think about it."
Weber looked at her, gritting his teeth from the pain. "Why's that?"
Ariel looked to the side. "Because past you made this pain a curse that prevents you from immediately remembering everything you forgot," she said. Her hand began glowing dark red, and she brushed it over his arm. He felt a tingling sensation.
In seconds, a marking of an unknown language was displayed on his hand.
"How did you know about this?" Weber asked, looking over the cursed mark.
Ariel pulled down her sleeve and showed him she had the same thing. She held back tears. "You gave me the same curse so that I wouldn't be able to remember all of the past as well."
Weber's heart tightened as he clenched his fists. "What did I do that I don't want any clue to anything? Why am I my own worst enemy?"
Josh gasped when he saw Weber stand up, walk to a corner, and wipe his tears as he sat down with his back to them.
Josh looked at Ariel. "What type of mana art do you use?"
"My art has to do with revealing things that might be hidden, but only physically. Had I been powerful enough, I could make anyone see Weber's ghosts," she replied.
"Then can you check my arm as well?" Josh asked. She sent mana to her hand, but his arm was clear of any cursed mark.
"Some time ago, I realized it's possible Weber got rid of some of my memories. But I guess they were just small things compared to you two's memory erasure," Josh remarked.
Ariel walked up to Weber and handed him a napkin, but Weber pushed her hand away.
"I don't deserve your care," he said, turning away.
Ariel frowned. "I've already forgiven you. I know all the crazy things you did weren't really your doing, but the influence of the Abyss on you," Ariel said.
"Ariel," Weber began, "if we were to start a family eventually, then do I already have a family I come from?" he asked, and Ariel's eyes shifted away.
"I'm not sure I can tell you that part of your life yet," she said.
Weber sighed and remained silent.
"I see," he said, staring into the corner.
She squatted and slowly laid her hand on his shoulder. She noticed his body wasn't as cold as it used to be.
"Every time you use the power of the Abyss, you get stronger, but... you lose yourself with full consciousness," she remarked. Weber was taken aback and turned to her.
"How's that possible?" Weber asked.
"It messes with your sense of self slowly but surely, and it reaches a point where you no longer know left from right, only prey," Josh remarked, folding his arms.
Ariel and Weber turned to Josh. "How did you know that?" Ariel asked.
"I've seen him fight over and over. Before he started using the Wail, he showed signs of being less of himself. But once he started using the Wail? He rapidly changed," Josh said.
Weber started to think of his past fights.
When he first fought terrorists, then Desmond and Zir, he never showed signs of losing sanity as quickly compared to when he fought Stanford using Wail of the Abyss.
"Ariel, earlier you told me that there's a curse on this world and only a Spectre can stop it, right?" Josh asked, making Weber turn from Josh to Ariel.
Ariel nodded.
"The war between mana users isn't just random. I'm still researching, but it's clear that a mana war will never end the conflict—that's fighting fire with fire," Ariel said.
"But there's still a lot to remember, and even though this war has been going on for centuries, one way or another, it's never been this bad," she remarked.
"All this is too much..." Weber trailed off.
Ariel held his hands. "I know, that's why I'm not going to ask you to save the world or anything. You wanted to, and it took everything from you..." Ariel said, frowning.
Weber stood up, helping Ariel to her feet. "If I want to fix what I did to you and myself, maybe I have to stop the war."
"Well, before we go on... Ariel, where are we?" Josh asked.
"In Vespera, my home country," Ariel said.
"Is Vespera not an ally country to Fantasia?" Josh asked.
Ariel smiled and nodded. "Yes. Fantasia has yet to find a person who meets the power standard of a Captain, so Vespera's Captain is helping Fantasia not instantly lose to Celestia."
Ariel let go of Weber's hands, brought bowls of rice with boar stew, and gave them to Weber and Josh.
Josh accepted, but Weber looked away without taking the food.
"Don't tell me you think I'm angry at you," Ariel said.
"It's just... I don't deserve anything from you. Because if past me was so innocent, why hide so much by hurting those I loved—and even myself—with curses?!" he said, slamming the wall.
As Ariel was about to respond, Weber became intangible and went through the wall.
Ariel saw him leave, her heart tightening. She wearily walked over to a desk and sat down, lost in thought.
She turned on the TV, hoping to drown out all the chaos that was now part of life, even for a moment.
But it was no use, because of the breaking news.
"Captain Lewyin of Celestia Says the End of Fantasia is Near."