My Other Half - A story of Love and Revenge: Chapter 11

Akari

I felt my whole body shudder with the reality of what Aurora’s words meant. My eyes and mouth were wide open; I couldn’t even comprehend my current circumstances.

“But… why?” I said in complete shock, “How could it be fifteen years later?” My mind felt completely blank; I didn’t understand why this had happened.

“The world you went to move’s at a much slower rate than we do here. With only spending a few weeks in Haru’s world, ten years would have passed here. Coming back after fifteen years, I assume you spent three weeks over there.” Aurora said with confidence.

I nodded my head. “Yes, it was about three weeks I spent in that world, but why wouldn’t you tell me something so important?”

“We couldn’t tell you because the risk of you staying was too great. Even your parents knew about what would happen if you traversed worlds. Why do you think we put so much effort into supplying you with everything needed in that ring?” Aurora pointed at Akari’s space attribute ring.

“But that’s fifteen years. I just lost with my parents, and you could have at least said something.” I couldn't help but feel betrayed.

“The risk of you not going was very real, and we couldn’t take that chance. Your life is more important than any of our lives, and meeting Haru is going to save us all.” She said with sorrow, looking at Akari, “Could you honestly say you would have left, knowing it meant losing fifteen years here?”

“Of course I would because Haru is also important to me, and I love him.” I said it with all I had.

“It’s easy to say that now, Akari. But before you met Haru, would you have made that same call?” She placed her hand on Akari’s head. Aurora was a good foot taller. “Listen, we did this with your best interest in mind, and if you stayed, the chances of dying were one hundred percent.”

What? If I stayed, I would have no chance of living. What kind of crazy future did Aurora see that would give me such a bleak chance at life? I understand the overwhelming amount of mana was a big concern, but could it have been that deadly? It could also be I died by an assassin or enemy attack. There are no other possibilities I can think of.

“Why would I die if I stayed? I asked quizzically.

“That mana inside of you is extremely dangerous to your health. It would have become unstable a few years after the day you left to go find Haru. The damage to your body would have been irreparable. We had no choice but to send you as fast as possible to save your life. With the union between you and Haru, it allowed for your body to recover before major damage could happen.” Aurora said with a solemn face.

***

Haru

Lying here quietly, I try not to interrupt the very important conversation happening right now. I had woken up when they both started talking to each other. Being a very deep sleeper is something I am not. Hearing what Aurora the phoenix is saying really took me aback. To think fifteen years have gone by in this world. I thought something was weird when I saw the condition of that castle.

As I looked at Aurora, whose name I had learned from hearing Akari say it earlier, she stared straight back into my eyes. I’m pretty confident; she knew I was listening the whole time. That’s why there were no issues in explaining the situation. She had mentioned right when I woke up about waiting for me. But I was pretty much awake during the whole length of their conversation.

“Haru is awake.” Aurora motioned with her hand, pointing at me.

I sat up with a smile, “Yes, I’m awake.” I said as Akari ran over to me and leaped into my arms, pushing me back to the ground. She started kissing me all over my face, and I just lay there, allowing her to do as she pleased. After hearing some details from their conversation, I can only assume Akari is feeling extremely anxious right now. “It’s good to see your spirit is still high after everything Aurora just told you.” I said as I returned her kisses and consoled her as well as I could.

“You were awake the whole time, Haru?” Akari asked, wondering why he didn’t say anything.

“Yes, I was awake at the start of your conversation, but the topic was so heavy I decided not to interrupt.” Putting my arms around Akari and giving her a strong, reassuring hug.

“Should we continue our conversation?” Aurora asked with a smirk as she looked at us holding each other on the ground.

Akari and I stood up quickly to hear the rest of the story. I take Akari’s hand and hold it tightly. My role in this type of situation is to try and give her support to the best of my ability. To be her rock that she can lean on a safe haven.

“Yes, please continue. I’m also very curious to find out what happened to the Beast Kingdom.” I said to Aurora.

“Where are my parents, and did they survive the attack?” Akari asked.

“Alright, I will tell you the full situation in detail. But we must leave here before the demon army finds us.” She says, looking off into the distance as if seeing something, “I’m going to need both of you to get on my back, and I will fly you somewhere safe.” Her form started to shift back into a giant orange and yellow bird. “I will explain on our way.”

Akari and I both nodded, jumping onto the phoenix's back. I sat behind Akari and wrapped my arms around her waist firmly. The excitement was really high in my body at the thought of flying through the air on a mythical bird. I wonder if a phoenix is considered mythical in this world or if it’s just a common. Probably an insane thought to think of a phoenix being considered a common anything. She took off from the ground and started heading in the direction of some massive mountain range.

“Alright, you two listen well, and I will explain our current circumstances.” Aurora said as she let out a loud screeching sound. It seemed like she put up some kind of barrier in front of her that blocked the wind from impacting our faces, allowing us to speak freely.

“It all started six months before Akari left to find Haru. During one of my visions of the future, I had foreseen the death of Akari. Your body had succumbed to the vast amount of mana within you. One person should not be able to handle such a burden, and it’s truly amazing you lasted this long without any major issues. During the vision, I had overheard your mother saying, if only Akari could have found her partner. That’s when an image of somewhere I’d never seen before came in front of my eyes, and I saw Haru.

With my space magic, I was able to understand I wasn’t in my own world but another altogether. That’s when I realized this was likely to be Akari’s fated partner and the one she must meet to survive. Keeping you alive, the strongest to have ever been born in this kingdom, is extremely important for our survival. I started learning how to create a method to traverse worlds so you could go find him. I also brought this up to your parents, who forbade me from telling you anything about it.

During my study of time and space between the two worlds, I found a massive distortion. What only took a few days over there would take years here. It was a concerning finding, but something we all felt the risk was worth taking. Giving you a chance to live was more important than those years we might lose spending with you. These were the words of your parents.

Six months later was when I brought up a fated partner around you, Akari. That was when I finished my work on the tool to send you to his world. You know the rest of what happened after that. We didn’t know the next time we would see you, so your mother went crazy and put everything she could think of into that ring.” Aurora paused for a few minutes, giving us time to take in everything.

“Hearing a second time, I was going to die without meeting Haru. It really hits home just how important of a person he is to me.” Akari turned her head back, and we touched our lips together. I could feel the emotion she was feeling translated through our kiss.

“I will always be here for you to lean on, Akari. That’s a promise I vow to never break!” I start to nibble on her ears as she twitches in surprise at the sudden sensation.

“Alright, you two, I’m going to finish the second part of the story. We will be at our destination shortly, and I want to fill you in before we get there.

Akari and I nodded, “Please continue.” I wrapped my arms back around Akari, and she leaned back into me as we got comfortable for another info dump.

“About two years after you left, we got word about movement from the humans and elves. They had a massive combined army coming in our direction. This was the first time either race has shown force entering our lands in about one hundred years. Our scouts said the army from the human side was easily five hundred thousand, and the elves had two hundred thousand.

This was an extremely huge show of force, and they spent the next few years conquering the outskirts of our kingdom. They were going for a strategy that cut off all our resources as we sat inside the capital city. We tried to put up an offensive to their constant encroachment of our territory, but sadly it was all in vain. The humans had some extremely powerful groups that would shred through any of our defenses. When we finally stopped their movements, the Elves would bombard us from range.

Many years later, we had successfully stopped them, but at the cost of more than half of our land. They picked it dry and enslaved anyone who wasn’t already dead. It was a catastrophic loss for us on land, people, resources, and just about everything you could think of. But we had also caused a lot of the enemies to fall during this campaign. That’s when the worst news came.

The demon army had decided to move after we had thrown everything at each other. The human and elves got out fast, with our capital taking the brunt of the demonic forces attack. There was nothing we could do. With the overwhelming numbers of demonic beasts that came rampaging in our lands. The capital fell in only a few days, and your father was the reason a lot of people were able to survive. But it was at a great cost because of the damage he took.” Aurora finished her long monologue with a sigh.

“How is he now?” Akari asked impatiently.

“That all took place about four years ago, and your father has been struggling to hold on all that time. He refused to leave this world until he could see you again. I’m sorry to say, but your father probably won’t last much longer. But your mother is alive and well.” She finished with some good news to help Akari not fall too deep into despair.

“Your father sounds like an amazing man, making a last stand to ensure everyone who could escape got out.” I said to help Akari cheer up, who was currently feeling down.

“That’s true; I’m sure it was a sight to see.” Akari said in a low voice.

“What happened to all the survivors?” I asked Aurora.

“That’s where we’re going right now. We will be there very soon; it’s on top of the mountain we’re heading towards. The last four years we have been living here, trying to find some kind of life after our kingdom fell.”

“What are these mountains called?” I asked out of curiosity.

“The Wintry Mountains.” She said with a sigh.

I think I know why she’s sighing, and I’m sure it has to do with the layer of white that blankets these mountains. It’s probably somewhere very cold, and I’m sure a phoenix would prefer a much hotter climate. The thought of living in cold weather doesn’t really thrill me either, besides the obvious fact of heating up Akari.

“It looks like we’re going to experience a lot of cold days from now on, Akari.” I said as I took both of my hands and rubbed them up and down Akari’s arms.

“That looks to be the case, but even more reason we should do stuff that heats us up.” Akari turned to me and winked.

“On the other hand, I guess we have a great time ahead of us.” I said with a chuckle as we started to descend. There was a settlement with one huge building and many smaller ones surrounding it. I assume that big building is for the king and queen.

“It must have been rough for everyone to live here for the past four years.” Akari murmured.

“We just have to take back the kingdom that was lost. I’m sure if the both of us trained hard, we could do a lot of damage to our enemies.” I said with pride.

“Haru, you’re getting so much better with your confidence; I’m so proud of you.” She said as she grabbed one of my hands around her and kissed it.

“Well, it’s hard to not be confident with such an amazing girl standing next to me.” After Akari heard me say those words, she lost her reasoning. Akari flipped herself around on top of Aurora so she was facing me. We began to make out with intense passion as we landed on the ground.