It didn't even take a minute as I heard a painful scream filled with sadness, like someone was crying her heart out.
It was the kind of sound you only hear once in your life — and you pray you never hear again.
My heart plunged downward, all the way to my stomach, my legs already moving before my brain understood why.
I followed the voice, followed the sound that rattled something inside my chest that I didn't know could rattle this badly.
Every step I took felt heavier, like the air was growing thicker, colder, harder to breathe.
The closer I got, the more the world around me looked wrong.
Frost crawled up entire buildings.
Trees were frozen in mid-sway.
Snowflakes hung motionless, suspended in the air like someone had pressed pause.
Even the light felt frozen — stiff, unmoving, locked in brittle silence.
And when I reached the courtyard…
I stopped breathing.
A pale pillar of bluish-white light towered in the center, flickering like an erupting icy flame, swallowing the storm.
A blizzard swirled violently around it, winds so sharp they could probably cut skin — but even the blizzard was frozen in mid-motion, like someone trapped a hurricane inside a photograph.
And at the center of it…
Serafall.
On her knees.
Her body is shaking.
Her arms wrapped around someone.
Someone limp.
Someone small.
Someone wearing glasses.
Someone I knew.
Sona.
A sword was stabbed straight through her chest — a holy blade, glowing faintly, its light slowly dimming, fading, dying.
Just like her.
The world didn't feel real for a moment.
The cold didn't feel cold.
The air didn't feel like air.
Everything was numb.
Serafall was hunched over her, crying silently.
Tears fell from her cheeks, hitting the air and freezing instantly into tiny crystals that drifted down like broken pieces of her heart.
She didn't scream now.
She didn't curse.
She didn't rage.
She just cried.
And that… somehow hurt more.
I walked toward them slowly, each step feeling like I was wading through water, or like something inside my legs didn't want me to get any closer.
When I finally reached them, I couldn't speak.
Couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
Sona's face looked peaceful in the worst way possible.
Too peaceful.
Her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted — like she was only sleeping.
But the sword…
The frozen blood…
The way her body hung limply in Serafall's arms…
My stomach twisted.
My throat closed.
Something inside me pulled tight, like a rubber band stretched too far.
And then I noticed more.
To the side — frozen in place — Kiba's body.
Headless.
Blood scattered in mid-air like red glass suspended above the ground.
My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Rias, Akeno, Asia, Koneko, Tsubaki, Xenovia, Irina — all frozen in blocks of brutal crystal ice, their expressions twisted in horror, eyes wide, mouths open mid-scream, hands reaching toward something they never reached.
Everything…
Everyone…
Locked in the moment, everything went wrong.
My mind was breaking.
I could feel it.
Thoughts hit me in fragments.
Did I… just lose everyone?
Why?
Why me?
Why now?
Why wasn't I here?
How did this happen?
Who did this?
Is this a dream?
Someone wake me up.
Please.
Please wake me up.
But nothing changed.
No one woke me.
This wasn't a dream.
This was real.
This was happening.
I felt small tremors in my hands.
Then on my shoulders.
Then in my chest.
At some point, I realized I was breathing too quickly — too shallowly — but I couldn't slow it down.
My lungs hurt, my throat tightened, my vision blurred.
Fear, despair, anger, sadness — all tangled together until they felt like one huge storm swelling inside my ribs.
Nothing felt real.
Nothing made sense.
Every step forward felt like my heart shrank smaller and smaller.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
No one breathed.
Except Serafall.
And me.
Barely.
I forced my voice out.
Barely a whisper.
"Giratina… come out."
The words felt like they were dragged out of me.
My shadow rippled, and a small chibi shiny Giratina floated out — golden, cute, completely wrong in this nightmare.
I didn't smile.
Didn't joke.
Didn't feel anything.
"Giratina… fix this."
My voice cracked.
It wasn't a command.
It wasn't confident.
It sounded like begging.
Giratina stared at Sona for a long moment — longer than usual — then floated closer, looking, observing, checking.
Her next words stabbed deeper than the sword in Sona's chest.
'Master… I can't revive them.'
Everything inside me went silent.
Not stopped.
Just… silent.
'Or at least… not without turning them undead.'
My throat tightened painfully.
"…why?"
The word came out broken.
'I have never successfully resurrected someone without changing them. This will be my first time doing it. There is only 4.78% chance of perfectly reviving them. Rias and the others are alive. Only frozen. But Sona and Kiba… their souls are gone. Only Dialga, Ho-Oh, or Arceus can bring someone back perfectly.'
My vision blurred again.
Dialga.
Ho-Oh.
Arceus.
Billions of yen.
Billions.
And I had… a few million.
That's it?
That's all?
That means—
"That means…" I whispered, my breath hitching, "…I lost her forever?"
The silence that followed felt like the world had collapsed on top of me.
My breathing grew ragged.
Uneven.
Panicked.
"No…"
I shook my head.
"No, no no no no—"
My voice cracked every time.
"No no no no no no no no—"
The words tumbled out uncontrollably, like my mouth couldn't keep up with my unraveling mind.
My knees trembled.
My hands shook violently.
My chest felt tight enough to burst.
Reality became blurry and sharp at the same time, like the world couldn't decide whether it wanted to exist or not.
And then—
Serafall stood up.
Slowly.
She turned toward me.
Her eyes were red.
Her face was streaked with tears.
Her shoulders shook with every breath.
She held Sona tightly against her chest, like someone trying to keep a part of their soul from slipping out of their hands.
"Why…" she whispered.
And even that single word sounded like it broke her throat.
She raised her hand.
A massive meteor of ice materialized above me and dropped instantly.
Giratina destroyed it before it touched me.
Serafall didn't stop.
"You said…"
Her voice shook violently, unable to stay steady.
"…you said to give you a chance!"
She raised her other hand.
An entire inverted ice castle fell from the sky — gigantic, cold, beautiful, deadly — and Giratina blocked it too.
Serafall dropped to her knees, curling over Sona again, sobbing helplessly.
"I… I… sob… sob…"
She couldn't speak anymore.
Her words dissolved into broken sounds.
And I…
I stood there.
Watching her break.
Watching myself break.
Watching a world fall apart in front of me.
And I couldn't do anything.
Not a single thing.
For the first time since I got this system…
For the first time since everything started…
For the first time since I believed I had power…
I felt completely powerless.
More powerless than the day I reincarnated.
More powerless than any fight I ever lost in my previous world.
More powerless than any fear I ever felt.
Because even with everything I had…
I couldn't save her.
I couldn't save any of them.
And I didn't know what scared me more:
The fact that Sona was gone…
Or the fact that something inside me — something important — was breaking with her.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Quietly.
Piece by piece.
Like I was unraveling from the inside.
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