Light.
Soft.
Warm.
Gentle.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity,
Arin opened her eyes under a real sky.
Not broken.
Not bleeding.
Not burning.
New.
The sky above her was endless blue,
touched with the faintest brushstrokes of gold and crimson.
A sunrise.
A true sunrise.
She lay on grass.
Real grass.
Soft against her torn fingertips.
Cool against her bruised skin.
She sat up slowly.
Her body ached.
Her heart felt hollow.
But she was alive.
Somehow, impossibly, beautifully — alive.
And she was not alone.
Voices carried on the wind.
Laughter.
Crying.
Singing.
She turned.
All around her, across the green fields and young rivers,
people wandered.
Stumbled.
Collapsed to their knees.
Wept.
People she thought she would never see again.
Children with wide, blinking eyes.
Mothers clutching their sons.
Old men laughing through their tears.
She stumbled forward.
Her legs barely obeyed.
Her soul barely held together.
But she had to see.
Had to know.
She passed faces she remembered from the battlefield.
Faces she remembered from the ruins.
Faces she remembered dying.
But here they were.
Whole.
Alive.
New.
And everywhere she walked,
they turned to her.
Eyes wide.
Voices trembling.
Hands reaching.
"It's her…"
"She saved us…"
"She defeated the monster…"
"Arin… the Light of Tomorrow…"
They called her hero.
Savior.
Champion.
The one who destroyed the darkness.
The one who saved the world.
And deep inside her,
something cracked.
Because she knew the truth.
She hadn't saved them.
Not truly.
Not alone.
The boy they called monster had given everything.
Had poured his soul into the ashes.
Had died so they could live.
And no one would ever know.
There would be no statues.
No songs.
No prayers.
No forgiveness.
Only silence.
Only oblivion.
Only a forgotten boy buried under a new sky.
Tears blurred Arin's vision.
She wiped them away with shaking hands.
Because this was the burden she would carry now.
Alone.
She smiled.
A broken, trembling smile.
And whispered under her breath:
"Thank you, Kai.
I'll carry your dream.
Even if no one else remembers.
Even if they curse your name.
I'll remember.
I'll remember.
I swear it."
The new sun rose higher,
casting golden light across the reborn world.
And for the first time in forever…
a future was possible.
A new world.
Built not on kings.
Not on gods.
Not on monsters.
But on scars.
On forgiveness.
On dreams.
On the ashes of two broken souls
who refused to give up.