Content Warning:

-Strong Language

-Vomiting

-Heavily Implied suicide

-Intense imagery

Setsune watched the City of Tsuno slowly disappear into the distance. She winced as the further she got, the more of the Dead Oceans she saw. 

[She felt a lighting bolt strike her brain. There was a barking sound in the distance.

“You…don’t….belong ANYWHERE, URSAAAAA,” a voice like an abused dog barked in her ear].

Setsune placed her hands on her Xiphoid Process, a tough spot at the end of the sternum *just* between the stomach and chest.

She took slow, deep breaths. She felt the energy, the six colours, flowing around her body. Beneath the Xiphoid Process, at the Centre, was a glowing white light. However, there was an infestation of black and red flames swirling around the colours and trying to devour the white light.

“It’s your turn miss,” an elderly woman’s voice called out.

Setsune had been waiting in line around the lower levels of the airship. The rest of the people in that line had minor to mild amounts of corruption infecting their bodies. At the end of the line was a heavy door with a small examination room and an elderly woman in a hazmat suit.

“Of course, where is my mind today?” Setsune exclaimed, smiling and subtly removing her broach from her chest.

[The barking echoed in the distance].

Chapter III

Infection of the Beast

[Setsune felt a lightning bolt strike her body. Flaming corpses ran around in the rain. A wolf of lightning with eagle wings and beak howled, summoning more lightning. A snake strangled a mule. A woman screamed, creating a wave of orange that evaporated the city around Setsune. A large pitbull of black and red fire rushed towards her].

Setsune vomited a black sludge into a bucket. Her skin was turning ash grey, and sweat poured down her body. Black stains were around her nose, ears, mouth, and eyes.

Water was poured onto her. She fell back onto the freezing, metal bed. It felt quite nice in her sickness.

“Sorry, sweety,” the elderly woman apologised. “I wish there was a quicker way to deal with corrupting in the stomach,”

“It’s okay…,” Setsune assured, pressing her forehead against the bed as she took slow, deep breaths.

She saw her reflection in the bed. It briefly became distorted by black and red.

The woman showed her a red pill, a purple pill, and an orange pill, “Orange can help reverse any damages inducing your ICG{Internal Corruption Gastroenteritis} has caused, purple will help numb any pain your feeling, and red will help slow the spread,”

“What’s the price?” Setsune asked, lifting herself up.

“The orange is worth a red marble, the purple is worth a red and an orange, red is worth a purple marble,” the woman explained. “I don't get the pricing either,”

“I'm…fine…the treatment is…,” Setsune moaned, glaring at the pills.

“The treatment you just received should be worth a green tile. If you can’t pay we’ll-,”

Setsune fell to the floor where her kimono was. She reached beneath her bow and pulled out a bag. From it, she took out a small, green tile.

“You can’t….debt…me,” Setsune exclaimed, her hair covering her eyes as sweat dripped from it.

“I’d like to apologise for this,” the woman responded, giving a bow and taking the tile.

“It…fine…,” Setsune sighed, trying to use the bed to lift herself up. “The Aeternum…should….,”

The old woman picked up Setsune’s Kimono and wrapped it around her. From the bow dropped a few other bags and a few, small paintings.

The woman picked them up, “Are you an artist?”

“Actor….,” Setsune shook her head. “Those are…,”

“No need to force yourself sweety, just go find a place to rest for a bit,” she urged as she wrapped Setsune’s bow and directed her towards the exit.

Setsune left the infirmary. Another patient entered shortly after. The halls outside were small and made of thick iron. She could hear footsteps above her.

The only way to see the outside was through small, viewing spots that were often surrounded by other passengers. The entire, tiny floor was filled with the sick and corrupted, with few guards around. The only guards were guarding the staircase to the upper decks.

Setsune could barely move, limping against the wall. [The pitbull followed her, glaring at her. It had a single cropped ear and six eyes. Five of the eyes were slits the colours yellow, purple, green, orange, and blue in a V formation. At the bottom of that formation was a sixth eye, a white dot.

“Give…up…you…have…NOTHING!” It snapped, it’s voice shifting between whether it had a treat or got forced into the ring].

With no place to go, Setsune squeezed next to a family laying against the wall. There were three of them, a mother and two children. They were covered in bandages, each having lost a limb or so. The mother and one daughter laid like corpses against the hot metal wall, while the second child sat anxiously.

“Are you…okay?” Setsune asked, starting to calm down a bit now that she sat down.

The child looked surprised, “no…but Moma said Rem will make it better,”

Setsune smiled warmly, “Your Moma is right,”

“She also said…th-that there wouldn’t be any black beasts there,” the child quivered.

“Like…the crystal ones?” Setsune asked in surprise.

“Y-yes,” the child exclaimed, starting to shake.

Setsune placed a hand on the child’s shoulder, “You’ll be safe there,”

“How do you know?” the child questioned, pushing themselves against the wall in terror.

Setsune lowered her head to the child’s level and reached out her hand, “I can’t guarantee everything, but I was there once, and I know that if you can find a happy little corner. There’ll be happiness…no matter what happens. And Rem is a little corner of the world, so you'll be halfway there,”

“You were there?”

“Yes,”

“Why’d you leave?”

[Setsune stood in a grassy field outside of Rem. She was dressed in a funeral kimono. The sky was grey and before her was an airship. Two olive skinned men waved to her as they got on the airship.

As the airship flew away, one of the men fell into the water, nailed to a cross. The other took out a rifle and pointed it at their-].

“So I could come back,” Setsune responded, her face completely unaffected.

“Your weird,” the child stated, taking her hand.

Setsune chuckled, “What’s your name?”

“Tetora,”

“....that’s a very unique name,” Setsune exclaimed, taken aback.

“Thank you,”

Setsune laid back against the wall. The child held onto her arm as well as their Moma’s, shaking for the next few hours. The thumping above their heads went on and on, until the light dimmed from the gaps. That’s when the thumping slowed and the child fell asleep.

That’s when Setsune’s hands began to shake.

[Across from Setsune was a woman who looked like her Ursa self, with grey skin and black hair. She was different though, as her hair was put together and parted to one side. Her ears were like a pitbull’s, with one cropped and the other not. Her mesmerising eyes meanwhile, were blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple with white centres. 

She was dressed in a long, slim gown made of black and red fire. That fire stretched beyond herself, consuming the floor. 

“Not going to sleep?” She asked, her legs crossed and her claw against her cheek, her voice like she had been given a treat.

“I will once you leave me alone, Eversor,” Setsune responded, calming down, closing her eyes, and leaning her head back.

“I’ll leave you alone once you let me fully possess you,” she responded, gesturing to her and back at herself, smiling with her eyes closed.

Setsune lowered her chin and sharpened her eyes at her, “You can wait,”

“FUCK YOU!” Eversor responded, becoming briefly distorted. “I mean….no really, I’m just gonna say ‘fuck you’,”

Setsune turned the other cheek. She felt a burning in chest. Eversor was looming over her, her eyes and the red glowing in her shadow.

“You can wear a mask around everyone else, but I am deeper inside you than any of your lovers ever were,” she threatened. “You know that there’s nothing for you in Rem. There’s nothing for you anymore in general. Give up, and let me take over. I can get revenge on the rest of the world for the way it’s treated you, treated us,”

“Could you kill Jadeite?” Setsune asked, looking up at her with disinterested eyes, her heart beating a mile a minute.

Eversor scratched the wall, “Of course I can. The ‘Strongest Aeternum’ is still an Aeternum,”]

“It doesn’t matter,” Setsune responded, forcing herself to her feet and [stumbling through her].

With no one watching, she placed her hand on her broach. 

Within the Colour Realm, the airship was a series of rings surrounding a ball at the centre. It was like a tiny galaxy. The entire structure was blue and green with yellow flowing through specific rings. The rings spun around, with tiny spheres spread about them.

They kept up a constant motion, with a very thin field pushing back the clouds of water that filled the air. There were many other airships throughout the darkness, almost like they were stars in the night sky.

Though Setsune wouldn't know what that was like. It was still beautiful in its own way.

Holding onto the outer ring and growing nervous of the water, Ursa looked up and saw the cities that surrounded the crater. She felt like she was within the abyss, with the rest of the world looking down on her from its nest. She reached for it, but it was so far away.

She sighed. She closed her eyes and placed her claws on her Xiphoid Process. She could feel the different parts of the ship within the Reflect Realm. She could feel where everyone rested, and where all of the guards were.

She took a step onto another ring. As it spun around, she dropped down onto another ring. As it spun downwards, she held onto it until it grew high enough for her to roll onto another ring. She quickly leapt off of it, and further inwards.

She returned to the Reflect Realm. She noticed the great window of a wall. She was on the observation deck, where most people were during the day. It was a long hallway that featured many cabins and empty space. People slept along the walls, or in their cabins. Some people even had little lanterns to act as nightlights.

Setsune wandered the halls, a cheeky smile on her face and her hands on her back. The halls were so peaceful and quiet.

[“You can’t escape, Ursa,” Eversor Bestia called out.

Setsune glanced out the window. Normally, it would've let the passengers see the silent waters and the great continent before them. What Setsune saw though, was one of Eversor’s bestial eyes pearing in at her].

Setsune went back into the Colour Realm. She leapt from her ring, wrapped a piece of cloth around it, and swung around the entire sphere.

She stopped by the kitchen and gorged herself on bowls of the guards’ stash of rice. Eversor bothered her there. She swung around to the bridge. She was there. The place where they poured waste into the dead oceans(she thought she could see some of her own vomit there). Eversor was there too.

She went all around the airship to and fro until she was on top of the ship. The armoured balloon that kept the whole thing afloat. There was a great and strong breeze up there that she could take in as she elegantly walked.

Thunder roared in the distance. Setsune glanced off to the side.

She could see the shores of Adlernest. Dark green clouds hung above it, only fed by factories and camps. While barely visible, it was eerie and dark.

It was only at its most visible when green lightning struck. Setsune flinched at its sight.

She took deep breaths and squeezed her shaking fists.

[“I can kill her, Ursa,” Eversor commented as she lay atop the airship on her stomach. “She deserves to writhe in the deepest pits of Nigrum Cavea for everything she’s done to you,”

“No one deserves anything, Eversor,” Setsune sighed, sitting down and glancing Eversor’s way. “You’ll get your chance eventually, just leave it,”

“You’re right, but I don’t care. All of the Aeternum deserve to FUCKING-,”]

Setsune reached into her bow and pulled out the tiny painting. It was of a tall woman, with red-brown, fiery hair in a teal gi. She had no shadow. She held hands with a young girl with black hair, in a black and white chequered kimono. Her shadow was quite long. On the woman’s left was a hastily drawn girl with brown-red hair in a white kimono with red flames.

Her Shadow was put on a little too thick as well, with the red flames bleeding into it.

“(Tetora…Moma…),” Setsune muttered to herself. 

---

There was a map of a continent called ‘Stultorum Campus’ and a collection of many, many islands to the North called ‘Daqun’. The western side of the continent was a long, thick strip of land marked ‘Verdin Lands’. The far eastern side of the continent was a small piece of land sticking out from the continent marked ‘Rem’. To the south was a small collection of icy mountains called Zvezdy.

Then as for the inner body, there were three nations in between all and built around a large crater in the North. In the central plains was a large chunk of land called ‘Adlernest’. On the western side was a strip of land separated into twelve smaller territories called ‘Daimyo’. And on the east side was a thin, flat strip of land called ‘Cavalier’.

A black crystular claw pointed its finger at the edge of Daimyo, around the water.

“Listen well, my Northern children. If all is correct, Ursa will be crossing over the Crater Sea from Aries 21st to 23rd. With this in mind, you should strike on the 23rd,” the masked one stated, moving her finger over to near Cavalier, but still on the water.

“It would be more secure to take her on the 22nd,” Tempestas argued.

“Of course, for a Disaster Beast like yourself,” the masked one agreed before clapping her crystal claws. “Your support however, would be at risk of getting corrupted in the water, especially if you disturb it so,”

“Shut your mouth mask. As long as they have me, they’ll be solid,”

The masked one chuckled beneath her breathe, “These Northerners really can’t catch a break,”

“They understand the assignment,”

“Many people often think they understand the assignment,” she responded, placing both of her hands behind her back and standing straight.

“What are you trying to say?” Tempestas threatened, picking up its hammer.

The masked one rolled something in her claws, “it doesn't matter. It's your mission after all,”

To Be Continued……….