Music: Cloud Island by Yoann Garel (Dreamhop Music)

The world twisted... warped... as the young man's eyes first fell on that righteous party—and their newest member standing on the side.

The Astral Express, Aventurine thought to himself, carefully studying the new group of people standing around at the hotel's lobby. Carrying thoughts and memories from miles and worlds away. Is this why I'm getting this unsettling, peculiar feeling about them?

His eyes sought the young man again—that Trailblazer named Rudi. It was a strange name for an even stranger fellow; but that wasn't the only thing about him that felt out of place.

As Aventurine's thoughts were getting closer and closer to that man's identity, a sharp, ringing pain began to pound inside his skull.

"Ah—!"

His face twisted in agony and, for a moment, it was as if a higher entity was warning him to refrain from entertaining this train of thought. There were more important matters to be dealt with in Penacony, and the presence of a single person who would come and go from his life didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

So Aventurine walked forward and introduced himself to them the way he initially intended. He hid that gnawing, paralyzing sensation that he felt every time that Trailblazer turned his attention to him, and so the story continued just as it was always supposed to.

...

...But still. That feeling... that itch... It never seemed to go away. Be it at the moments when 'Rudi' smiled at him, or even when he could practically smell his fear and apprehension. The Astral Express had always been guarded around him—and that young man should have been the same.

And he really was.

...Wasn't he?

Rudi had never shown any obvious signs that there was something more to him other than the occasional smiles and bashful answers of his that had always felt out of place. In the end, he had followed his Trailblazing family out of the Land of Festivities and continued his own journey through life.

Aventurine had felt his eyes brimming with unshed tears after the dust had finally settled. He could feel it in his gut that, for all this time, he'd been suffocating. He'd had several opportunities to take Rudi aside and talk to him, but every time he did, his mouth just failed to ask the most basic questions:

Who are you, really?

Are you feeling the things that I'm feeling right now?

And if you do, then answer me something:

...

WHycaNtwEBreAkawAYfrOMThiSsCrIpT.

...

......

The world split. His veins felt like they'd burst. And a violent, mind-numbing hunger started to slowly consume him from inside out.

That Trailblazer... She feels so familiar to me.

...She?

That sharp headache that gnawed at him every time he pondered over Rudi's identity suddenly hurt so much it could melt the insides of his skull. Aventurine forgot where he was at present, who he was with, and why he was even alive. He felt his knees buckle and give in only for him to start laughing.

"Hahahahahaha..."

He dropped to the ground, his nails clawing at the cracked earth beneath him as if to keep him from falling even further into oblivion.

'Not so strong after all, are you, friend?' he mocked that higher entity inside him—the one who kept holding him back every time he felt like talking to... her. 'Go ahead; hurt me even more than this if you dare. Hahaha... Can't do it, can you? You lost the game the moment I saw through your schemes.'

Keeping his eyes wide open and grinning darkly through the pain, Aventurine forced himself to really focus on that Trailblazer and pinpoint what it was that felt out of place.

First, the gender. Aventurine didn't know why, but he was sure of it: Behind those amber eyes, beyond that foreign figure, there was a whole other being. A blushing female, fidgeting and trembling somewhere within Rudi's confident form. That was his first, crudest image of her, and it already felt fascinating.

Aventurine felt his gut tighten as he finally let his eyes close.

His face grew warm. In his mind's eye, he could see the most beautiful light glowing in front of him: flickering and weak, and yet somehow impossibly bright.

Instinctively, he knew what this light symbolized. It was a concept so foreign to him, lost from the moment he'd been born, even though he deserved it so much...!

The will to live. Her love for life.

That—That was the essence of her soul, and he already felt so entranced by it. That being who kept hiding inside that Trailblazer was everything he needed to feel complete. That female... She wasn't exactly kind, but she would be more than kind to him. She would treasure him, reassure him, need him, love him—

...If only she was still here. If only this wasn't too late.

...

...It's... not. She's made for me.

He had no proof of it, but Aventurine knew he hadn't turned insane—not just yet. He wouldn't start asking himself why he was so sure about things that no one else around him realized, because he trusted in that hunger in his gut. He knew that her essence was real.

And had he been anyone else, perhaps the game would have already been lost. After all, his only link to her had already traveled miles away. The Trailblazer along with the Astral Express had disappeared indefinitely, cutting off any connections they had to him and even to the IPC.

But not all was lost. Aventurine would see her again. And then he'd never let go—even if the whole universe tried to stop him.

The blond raised himself back to his feet only to realize that his headache had subsided a long time ago. Little by little, the fragments of present which he'd so forcefully pushed away started resurfacing, reminding him of his purpose.

The almost glowing, purple and blue rings of his eyes watched the desolate scenery of his homeland with icy detachment.

Ah, yes. Sigonia-IV, the place where everything began.

Aventurine didn't know at what point he'd stopped truly caring about the things that had tormented him in the past. The death of his family, the blood, the starvation, the slavery... Everything was but a piece of the puzzle now, only having value because they'd shaped him up to be the man he was today.

Cursed with good fortune, he still couldn't help but feel conflicted about his fate. Whatever the nature of this rare 'gift' he'd been blessed with was, he still couldn't ascertain whether it was his ally or foe.

This unnatural luck he'd been born with had taken away his family, his childhood, his freedom... and now it had taken her away too. Aventurine hated its cruel hold over him, but that didn't mean he couldn't use it to his advantage. Like he always did, he would play his twisted trump card to get ahead. And this time, 'getting ahead' could only mean one thing.

Her.

The planets would be destroyed, one by one; and then the universe itself along with him. That was his set course of action unless the Aeons intervened. Aventurine couldn't find it in himself to care much about the fate of this world given how much it had taken from him.

As for right now, the destruction would begin in Sigonia-IV. After all, it was only appropriate for him to return its favor.