Hedge Wizard Aiko is Dead

When Aiko opened her eyes, everything looked different. It seemed dark, but she could see differently now. There was no difference between dark and light. That concept no longer pertained to her.

She looked down at her arms. She still clung to Oscar and Mega. But Oscar had been transformed. His once pure white fur was now green, brown, bloody, and mottled. In some places, he had no skin or fur at all.

As for Mega, she was gone. Now Aiko held only a burnt empty husk in her arms. That was all that was left of Mega. There was no life there, not even a shred of existence or consciousness. It had all returned to the singularity

Aiko looked at her own hands. They were no longer the hands of a person. They were dark appendages, partially translucent, swirling digits of ether. She had become something else, something dark. But not Mega. Mega had been spared from the darkness by… her love?

She remembered that she had loved Mega so much. But now, she could not feel that love. Even for Oscar, stirring in her lap, she felt some type of strong affinity, but it was not the thing she once remembered as love. Aiko could not feel that anymore.

But Aiko could feel anger. She could feel sadness, remorse, longing, and aching guilt for bringing Mega to her end. She felt the pain of all the victimized plants like Mega, trampled, cut, crushed, plucked, and burned. She felt those things stronger than she ever had and let out a wail that pierced the land.

She arose and realized she was still upon the altar of the Temple of the Abyss. This would be her place now. She placed Mega’s husk upon the altar. It would be safe there. Whomever mortal may touch it would be instantly immolated and scorched of life, as Mega was.

This would be a dark place. She would keep it so. No light or sacred flame would ever burn here again, for that would erase the memory of the sacrifice that Mega had made because humans had lusted for power and greed. The darkness would serve as a reminder of what happened here and Aiko would remain, for eternity, as the guardian of her final resting place.

But, Mega had also given her life trying to defend the Yureikin, and Aiko would honor the altruism of her best friend, the kind monster, by preventing the spirits of the abyss from overrunning Yureinochi. As long as the Yureikin remembered Mega as the good creature that she was, Aiko would hold the spirits in check. And if they began to forget Mega, well, maybe Aiko would send a spirit their way to remind them.

The lesser spirits here would answer to her. They would serve her. She would tame them, and she would use them - for revenge.

Plants had been used and abused by the denizens of the Runiverse for too long. In the name of Mega, Aiko vowed to make the slayers of plants pay. Whether it was a simple farmer, a greedy corporate executive, or a malicious shadow-entity, Aiko would hunt them and drag them back to her Hell Chamber, to join her in an eternity of suffering.

Entered by: 0x9A86…1586