Ignis struck his sword into the ground on his left away from the kid and smiled 'Really how carefree… as they should be'
He took in a deep breath and looked onto the sky. His vision had grown blurry and started struggling to breath. His hand curled up from the pain.
After all that, only now did sweat start to appear.
He slowly narrowed his eyes looking at the sky, not being able to keep them open for much longer.
'I guess my time is up… this me was never supposed to exist' he paused for a moment, thinking.
'I wonder if it wasn't for that order… could we have ever met differently? Any place other than that hell.' as he pulled on his green hair with hatred trying to rip them off just for a few strands came off from his head onto his hand. He just silently stared at them.
'Could our paths have crossed differently than this cruel fate?'
His body starting from his wound started to crumble like glass, cracking from the wound as it turned into weightless ash. He was not bleeding red but his wound emitted glowed yellow and gold. The thin cracks revealed a bright golden light in between them like light shining from underneath.
It looked as if the body was breaking into small fragments and those weightless fragments floated straight upwards, only to disappear into nothingness. Unaffected by the winds of this world.
The fragments that were broken off the body seemed like they were disappearing as it seemed like they were being burnt off.
But for Ignis, it felt like being tucked into the bed by his parents on a cold rainy night as the sound of rain singing in his ears with a chess board on the near table he used to play with his dad as a child having a single piece of horse sitting on top of it.
A gentle warmth of not the blanket but of parents' love.
He lifted his arm reaching towards the sky but it instantly cracked and shattered into nothingness. 'Ha… fate really is cruel…' he mocked while letting off the strands of hair fly into the wind only for them to not be speared and disappear into dust. His hair left behind traces of green like skin like a snake sheathing his skin.
'When I begged for my death. It refused to let me go and now after all this suffering, just to send me off like this when I finally wanted to live a bit longer… I guess it's a befitting punishment for someone like me…'
This reminded him of the lullaby his parents used to sing to him in his sleep.
A story of a puppet attached to the strings who fell in love with the beauty of the outside.
There once was a puppet who enjoyed dancing so the string made him dance.
He danced day and night, enjoying his life as the kids looked at him filled with joy.
But one day he caught the glimpse of the scenery beyond the window as he fell in love with the beauty of outside.
He wanted freedom to explore it all but was bound by the string of the caster.
Every day he wished for the strings to break apart so he could gain freedom but it was all for naught.
He despaired over it day and night as he longed for outside, far from sight.
The beauty of the world seeing it from afar, he desired for more and broke himself apart.
But only when the string broke apart, freeing his arm. Did he realize his wish could not last.
For his arm now hung lifeless. Only to realize that those strings were the reason for him to be able admire the beauty from afar.
And now he laid on the ground, helpless and lost with the freedom he asked.
He kept on staring at the outside from afar only to realize the beauty was false…
…
What was it… I can not remember the rest.
Ignis had already fallen asleep in his warm bed. He had never actually made it that far for he had always fallen asleep by then.
And now once again he was falling asleep in this world. A sleep from which he knows he will never wake up from.
Not in a warm blanket but in the blood of his own. No parents singing him a lullaby but the wind racing across the ground. Not in a soft bed but sitting on a hard silent road side.
Alone has the wind swept across his face and a weird young man sleeping peacefully beside him against whom he fought.
I could not escape my fate but could free you from yours…
'Hey kid… no—' he paused and smiled 'Smiley, be better than me… be better than us all and be free from the strings of this phoney world. I wished I had stayed to see how this rigid world would bend to the existence of yours but this marks my end but also your beginning… The One Who Won Against This Corrupted Fate…'
Ignis looked at the boy sleeping peacefully as he stopped him and repeated his words 'Rest well Smiley… I will carry the burden of the dead… After all I was the one who cut their strings' he paused 'Even puppets can defy their masters'
As the cracks reached for his head, he glanced at the dirt thinking to himself with a pause before picking a small pinch of dirt and nibbling upon it as he ate it.
He spoke with a slight chuckle 'Yea still tastes like shi—' but before completing, the cracks instantly shattered his entire remaining body, making him disappear with no trace left of his existence behind.
Even his sword had dissolved away with his body leaving a faint mark behind which would be trampled upon just to soon disappear just like him.
On the other side was the kid sleeping from exhaustion. In his dream he was in some plain covered completely in darkness that stretched beyond the horizons.
In the sky, there was a large eclipse whose edge shone bright white as the center was covered by pure darkness.
He opened his eyes as he thought to himself 'Where am I…' confused and tired.
His thoughts echoed throughout the land.
The young man found himself entrapped and wrapped in thorns that were feeding on his blood and tearing through his flesh when he tried to move.
He tried to free himself but the thorns just embedded themself deeper onto his flesh as he screamed yet they kept on feasting on him like a prey.
It all seemed hopeless but his only thought at that moment was 'I would rather die than fed upon living stuck here. Either I win or we both die'
After all the thorns will have nothing else to feed upon afterwards.
But it's easier said than done. He kept on trying to free his arm but got entangled further within them.
His head dropped trying to catch breath feeling light headed as his skin turned pale white from the blood loss.
His bare feet touched the floor which was wet and a bit slippery as the cold creeped onto his leg. He breathed out a cold puff of air from sheer cold.
The vines slowly creeped towards his face trying to eat him whole.
As he stared at the ground hopeless of his situation and the veins covering his vision.
He heard footsteps of someone walking towards him in front of him.
Step step step
He noticed smoke creeping towards him as it surrounded him from all directions.
With every step he took towards the boy, the thorns unwrapped themself from the boy slowly creeping away from the figure as if they feared his existence and they slowly eased up before retreating, trying to not hurt the boy further but still hurryingly to not get devoured by the smoke.
The thorns that were blood thirsty just a moment ago now yielded with his presence alone. No words. No expression. Just footsteps were enough.
The kid fell on his knees the moment those vines let him go as he took a heavy breath to calm himself down from the pain and fear.
The dense fog surrounded him and the sky which was dark turned into white.
The kid looked in front towards the person and was in awe. The only thought he could use to describe him was how claiming he was to look at.
The shadowy figure was covered in white and grey-ish smoke whose features were indistinguishable.
The only thing that boy could make out was an old flower crown that he wore on his head like a crown that shone icy blue and his white body outlined by a hazy mist of grey-ish black.
The kid felt at ease in front of him. His guard was lowered down against his will yet despite his blurry face, the boy felt no threat from him and felt like the figure was warmly smiling at the kid.
The dark world had turned white with his presence.
The figure raised his left arm and with just a snap, the thorns shattered to dust instantly making the boy fall to the ground, like a motionless body as all his wounds were healed in an instant.
The figure looked at the boy before disappearing with the smoke just as mysteriously as it appeared.