The wind of sorrow

ㅤ Ami… The little sister lay in a pool of blood on the floor of a ruined house. Chester cried silently, gritting his teeth. He was shaking, but he had neither the strength to burst into tears nor to give in to his anger and hatred. He dreamed of tearing to shreds the monster that had decimated the village while Chester and his friend were hunting in the nearby forest. The entire village. Everyone. Even the dearest and only member of the family. Everyone was slaughtered. No one was spared. Not dogs, not cats. The birds no longer chirped either. As if the Abyss itself had swallowed all life. Shuffling footsteps sounded behind him—Cless approached slowly, staggering. His already ill mother had just died in his arms from her wounds. He found his father already dead. His legs were wobbly, his eyes were almost blinded by the darkness that filled his soul. He froze. He stared unseeingly at little Ami. And the memory of the very recent moment when Ami had given him the homemade toy flashed through his mind. She had been so happy. So proud! And now she lay there cold… "It…" Cless began. He couldn't bring himself to call this creature, this thing, human, "it might come back. We need to leave." The red Vision on his friend's belt caught Chester's attention. Cless had received it as a child. Chester had never been envious; he was genuinely happy for his friend. But now… 'I need the Vision… I must take revenge…' an obsessive thought. And Ami… was as if she had never smiled. Her face was frozen in prayer and horror; even her eyes, closed posthumously, could not hide it. 'Please!' the soul's cry echoed like a headache. 'I need it!' Silence. Darkness. Despair. Chester continued to sit motionless and silent. Cless stood nearby. He reached for his friend's shoulder, but found neither the resolve nor the strength to support him. His own heart ached. He knew nothing would help them come to terms with this nightmare. "It… couldn't have gone far…" Cless struggled to speak. "We will have our revenge," he shared Chester's desire. "Certainly," his voice lacked strength: pain and helplessness extinguished the fire of hatred and anger in his soul. "M…" Chester agreed emotionlessly, weakly holding his sister's cold body in his arms. Chester stood up, swaying slightly, looking down at his feet, at the person dearest to him, who had been mercilessly taken from him. Something terrifyingly bloodthirsty and powerful, which had destroyed an entire village in one fell swoop. 'If we leave, no one will bury them,' he realized, thinking calmly, as if fear no longer existed. Nothing existed… "Let's go, or we'll miss it," Cless reminded him. "Yes. Wait a bit." Chester found a teddy bear in the rubble and placed it under Ami's arm, nestling it against her chest. To brighten her loneliness in the afterlife. "Let's go," he said decisively, looking at Cless. Two of Toltus' best hunters began tracking their prey. The rain had washed away almost all traces, but Cless' sense of the elements, heightened by the tragedy, and Chester's attention to detail helped them find the right path. The one who had destroyed the village was in no hurry, so catching up with him wasn't difficult. He was easy to spot in the endless green expanses. A tall man in black clothes and an orange cloak walked as if he were dead. His long blond hair was completely matted with water and hung limply below his shoulders. Noticing their pursuit, the man slowly turned around, revealing a handsome face, partially obscured by a mask over one eye. The unusual pupils in his blue eyes were no visible to the two surviving friends from a distance. "Gotcha," Cless said quietly, almost to himself, drawing his sword from its sheath. Chester also picked up his bow, readying an arrow. "You better leave," the man said in a deep voice, breathing heavily. He looked sideways, his head down. His expression was one of struggle; if it weren't for the rain, his forehead would have glistened with sweat. "Don't even think about it!" Cless exclaimed menacingly. "We'll make you pay for everything you've done!" "You're not escaping us!" Chester added. The man's eyes were filled with pain and regret. He wanted to say something, to explain, but he knew his words were empty words to the avengers. No one would ever hear him. Suddenly, his gaze changed. He straightened up and looked at the two pathetic youths with menace and contempt. "You dare challenge us, the Overlord of the Abyss?" his words rang out arrogantly. Demonstratively, the man conjured a ball of Abyssal darkness above his hand, a clot of contradictory and powerful energy. The friends hesitated: they hadn't expected to encounter such a formidable enemy. The Abyss was already renowned for threatening the entire world, but meeting the Overlord himself was a million-in-one chance. But no one talks about such encounters. There are no one left who could tell. Chester and Cless exchanged glances. They knew they were going to their deaths anyway. So what difference did it make who their opponent was? They were already here, they had already drawn their weapons. They had been ready from the moment they entered their ruined home village, without a single living soul. 'For Ami.' 'For my father and mother.' Nodding to each other, the friends charged. Cless rushed forward, closing in on the enemy, while Chester covered him with arrows. Arrows bouncing off the barrier around the Overlord… With one hand, he stopped Cless's sword. Menacingly crushing the ball of darkness, he struck Cless in the stomach with a single fist, sending him flying toward the momentarily open rift. "Cless!" Chester only managed to shout. The Overlord turned his gaze to him, preparing to teleport closer and teach the pathetic creature a lesson. Chester braced himself for a close attack… Which never came: the man clutched his head, struggling with himself. A moment's hesitation, a moment of confusion, and Chester aimed his bow at the man again. His last chance. The only one. He couldn't afford to miss or falter in any way. And though his breathing was ragged, his determination steadied his hands and sharpened his mind. His concentration was so intense that the wind howled around him, coating the arrow with Anemo power. Chester concentrated even more intensely, ensuring that with one shot he would surely dispose of the Overlord once and for all. And he released the arrow, which hurtled toward its target. In an instant, both the man and the arrow vanished into a new rift. Chester had no chance to understand whether his revenge had been achieved. And it didn't really matter. He stood completely alone in the green void, and the Anemo Vision hovered before him. Chester instinctively took it, then sat down, exhausted. He laughed nervously, hiding his face behind the hand that held the Vision. The rain hid his tears, but he still wanted to hide. To disappear. "My wish… the Vision… But at what cost…?" he clenched his teeth. He was alone. Utterly alone. And only the wind tried to support him, to soothe him with its mournful melody. ㅤ