Chapter Text
For as long as Chiwa could remember her body was always cold.
No matter what she did she never knew what warmth was. Not her mother’s hugs, not even stacks of clothes or even fire made her feel this warmth everyone kept describing.
Despite that Chiwa lived a fairly normal life. She smiled, laughed, played, just like any other normal kid her age.
But that all changed the day she met Rudo, the alleged son of a murderer.
Everything changed for her that day when she took the boy’s gloved hand. For the first time in her life she felt warmth.
For as long as Rudo could remember his hands always hurt and his body was always warm.
No matter what he did he never knew what coldness was. Not when Regto fanned him, not when he took off his clothes, not even ice made him feel this chill everyone kept describing.
Despite that Rudo never lived a normal life. He was too broken… His hands always hurt, he tries fixing trash thrown away by the upperclass, doing things kids his age never do.
But that all changed the day he met Chiwa, a seemingly normal girl his age.
Everything changed for him that day when she took her pale hand. For the first time in his life he felt cold.
‘Rudo’s really done it this time!’ Chiwa, a petite teenage girl with large brown eyes with green irises and red rings and short orange hair slightly curled up at the ends, thinks angrily as she stomps forward, her face pouting cutely.
Why is she angry you may ask?
Well, her best friend Rudo had gone on another trash raid the other night.
If you don’t understand why that’s bad, well that’s because the world they live in is not a kind one.
Chiwa lives on a floating island separated in two parts, the rich and the poor. The rich throw live as you'd expect them to, while leaving the poor or as they are more commonly known as, tribesfolk, to fend for themselves with scraps.
However the nobility have a bad habit of throwing away items after they break one time.
Rudo, taking advantage of this, had made a habit of sneaking into the clean city and stealing the nobility's trash and fixing it up for others to use.
However, for some unknown reason, the nobles don’t take kindly to people stealing trash and have their guards attack Rudo on sight whenever he is found. This has led Rudo to get hurt multiple times and now was no different.
Chiwa had learned from Regto that Rudo had gone on another trash raid yesterday and most likely got hurt again.
“Rudo!” Chiwa calls out to Rudo, a teenager with a thin and scrawny figure, with short spiky unkept white hair with black tips at the end, who is fixing up some trash he had raided from city folk. “Did you go dumpster diving again?” She asks, though it sounds more like a statement than a question.
“Chiwa.”
“Don’t Chiwa me!” She pouts cutely. “The city folk get super upset about their trash. There’s no telling what they’d do if you ever get caught.” Her tone is now laced with worry. “I know how you feel about trash and how the nobility throw out good stuff, but if you keep doing this you're gonna get caught, or worse…”
Rudo seeing Chiwa get more upset and worried rubs the back of his head. “Sorry… OUCH!” He mumbles a weak apology before wincing in pain from a bullet wound he had taken the previous night.
Chiwa’s eyes widen as she finally sees the tear in Rudo's sweater and kneels next to him. “Oh my you did get hurt!”
But before she could even inspect Rudo’s injury a group of bullies their ages show up and start causing a scene troubling Rudo, calling out his relation to his biological father who had murdered people and his scarred hands. But Chiwa is able to shoo them away, not bothered by their pathetic attempts to act tougher than they actually are.
Still, Chiwa knows. She knows Rudo’s ties to his parents, how much he hates being associated with them, and how much he hates being called the son of a murderer. She’s seen his scarred hands beneath those gloves and told Rudo that they look cool, Rudo really appreciated it at the time.
Now, with the bullies gone, Chiwa looks at what else Rudo had fixed up before her eyes land on a cute stuffed toy with a scarf around its neck. “Ah! Look at that puppy! It’s so adorable!” Chiwa exclaims, gaining Rudo’s attention. “It looks practically brand new! I keep forgetting how good you are at fixing stuff.” She compliments him.
Rudo, feeling embarrassed, tries to muster up the courage to give the plush to his long-time crush. “Y-yeah, that guy’s, you know…” Rudo crouches next to Chiwa. “I mean, he’s not for sale or anything. He’s special.” The white haired boy picks up the canine plush and presents it to her. “And I thought you–”
“Chiwa!” Only to get blocked by Chiwa’s mother.
“Mom!” Chiwa calls out, a little bit disappointed that her mother unintentionally put a stop to her moment with Rudo.
Chiwa joined her mother and walked away with her telling Rudo that they’ll see each other again tomorrow.
“I thought I told you to stay away from that boy.” Chiwa’s mother scolds her for hanging around Rudo again.
Chiwa follows her mother, walking away from Rudo. “But, mom. I keep telling you Rudo’s a good person!” She tries to convince her mother, but like every other time her arguments fall on deaf ears.
(Chiwa’s house. Late at night.)
Unfortunately for Chiwa, she and her mother would continue to argue well into the night.
“I just don’t understand why you keep staying around that boy! He’s the son of a killer!”
“Because Rudo isn’t like his father at all! Why is that so hard to grasp!” Chiwa counters.
“Oh, sure!” The mother scoffs. “Then what about that nasty look in his eyes? I’m telling you Chiwa, that boy is going to snap one day and is going to hurt you!”
Chiwa grips the table tightly as she glares at her mother in annoyance at her stubbornness. “So? Just because he glares at people every time they call him the son of a killer, he’s considered dangerous?” She snaps. “How would you like it if others called you the daughter of a thief!”
“That’s not the same!”
“YES, IT IS!!” Chiwa’s grip on the table tightens.
Silence fell in the room. The mother and daughter stared each other down, neither one willing to back down on their beliefs.
Then Chiwa’s mom points at the door.
Chiwa looks at the door in confusion, then back at her mother.
“Leave.” The mother says in a flat tone.
Chiwa’s eyes widened, before gritting her teeth and marching out of the house, slamming the door behind her.
Once Chiwa is gone, the mother looks at the table and sees frost on the edge of the table, where her daughter was.
(The next day. Slums.)
Rudo is currently walking around the slums, his destination? Chiwa’s home.
He thinks back to the conversation he had with his adoptive father, Regto the night before. “You gotta quit pussyfooting around Chiwa. That one’s a real catch you know. Some guy will snatch her up.” The man’s words from the night before continue to ring in his head as he looks at the dog plush he plans on giving to the girl he likes.
“ARGH! Damn it Regto, why you gotta say stuff like that!?” Rudo exclaims rubbing his hair with his free gloved hand. ‘But still… Chiwa is the only other person who’s nice to me, who doesn’t see me as the son of a killer…’ He thinks as he keeps walking, thinking back on his past with Chiwa by his side, how cold her hands felt in his, even though he’s wearing gloves all the time.
As Rudo continues his walk, he sees Chiwa up ahead staring at the pit. ‘Chiwa? What’s she doing here so early in the morning?’
Marching up, he sees what she’s looking at.
Another criminal getting dropped in the pit and a crowd of tribe folks chanting. “Send the filth to the pit!”
Rudo can’t help but think back to when he saw his biological father got dropped into the black abyss. ‘I wonder what happens after you get dropped in there?’
“Looks like they’re sending down another criminal.” Chiwa speaks up startling Rudo and making him turn to face her. But Rudo’s eyes widen when he sees Chiwa’s face, her eyes are red and puffy, she’s been crying. “Morning.” Chiwa greets with a fragile smile, acting as though she’s fine.
“Chiwa! Hey! Are you okay? Have you been crying?” Rudo asks rapidly, checking on Chiwa to see if she’s hurt.
Chiwa’s small, fragile smile widens just a little bit seeing Rudo’s concern for her. “I’m fine, just got something stuck in my eye.” She lies weakly.
Rudo, understanding that Chiwa doesn’t want to talk about what’s troubling her right now, decides to drop the subject for now.
For now Rudo takes Chiwa’s hand and holds it gently, feeling her cold, while Chiwa feels his warmth. It’s something that they’ve been doing for a long time now. They don’t recall how it started or how they even found out about it, but whenever one or the other would feel down in the dumps, they’d hold hands to comfort each other. It’s their own thing that helped them get closer to one another.
“So what’s going on? I hardly ever see you around here.” Chiwa asks, still holding Rudo’s hand.
Rudo quickly tries to hide the plush from Chiwa’s field of vision, not wanting to ruin the surprise just yet. “Yeah, well you see–” The white haired boy struggles to form words.
Seeing how Rudo is struggling to express himself, Chiwa chooses to change the subject by talking about something else. “It’s a cruddy view, huh? It’s gotta be the worst spot, in a lot of ways.”
Rudo lightly scoffs at that. “Well, it can’t be much different from anywhere else in the slums right?”
“You know why they built the slums on the edge of the city?”
“Yeah, cus’ they want us tribes folk to never forget. ‘Do anything bad and you get thrown into the pit, like trash’! You’ve told me that multiple times, Chiwa.”
“It’s awful isn’t it?” Chiwa asks, holding Rudo’s hand a little bit tighter. “And even if we don’t want to, we all got to standby and watch when it happens just because we live here.”
A moment of silence washes over the two teens, the wind passes by them.
“Hey, Rudo?” The boy in question turns to face Chiwa. “I don’t want that to happen to you so stay out of trouble for me, please?” She asks softly and Rudo holds her hand a little bit tighter as well, silently answering her question. Chiwa looks ahead to the pit again. “I know there’s a lot of trash that doesn’t deserve to be thrown out and abandoned but that doesn’t mean you need to go out and risk your life for it. And if you get caught you’ll end up thrown into the pit too, you already got hurt yesterday!”
“Regto said the same thing.” Rudo confesses, remembering the scolding he got from his foster father.
Chiwa smiles, knowing that the kind man is always looking out for the boy she’s loved for so long as if he were his own son. “Of course he did. We just want to look out for you because we love you so much.”
Rudo lets out a small chuckle, knowing how much his father and Chiwa care for him. “Yeah, that old softie.” He says before his eyes widen at what Chiwa has said. “Wait, did you say we? Like we?” He asks with a small hopeful tone in his voice.
Chiwa lets go of Rudo’s hand in confusion, before she realizes that she has slipped up and starts blushing. ‘Oh shoot! Did I really slip up like that? I mean, I don't like Rudo like that… Do I?’ Chiwa thinks to herself, before really thinking about her relationship with Rudo. ‘I guess… the first time I met Rudo, I felt bad that he was getting bullied by everyone, then I heard about his father and what he’d done, but then I got to know Rudo and saw that he wasn’t the son of a killer at all. He’s just Rudo.’ She then thinks back to every time she and her mother would have a fight about Rudo and she would leave the house, Rudo and Regto would always accept her into their small home. ‘Rudo’s always been kind to me, treated me like a normal person despite my body being cold all the time… Yeah, I guess I do love Rudo.’
Chiwa smiles at Rudo, her cheeks pink. “Yeah, we.”
Hearing Chiwa’s confirmation, Rudo hides his face in his hands and freaks out, making strange noises and falling on his back with a thud.
“Ah! Rudo, are you okay?” The girl asks, before noticing the plush in Rudo’s hands. “Is that the puppy you fixed?” She asks, causing Rudo to yell and leap to his feet.
“W-well, he was just there, and I was like, oh Chiwa might really like you.” The dumpster diver rambles, face red in embarrassment before stopping. “But then you might not since I got him from the dump.” He finishes sadly. “Still, even if you didn’t like him I figured he’d be happier with you than rotting away in a dark hole. So yeah.” He finishes before presenting the dog plush to Chiwa as a gift.
The girl takes the dog plush from Rudo’s hand. “He’s perfect.” She says hugging the plush to her chest. “I’ll love him always.” She says before stepping close to Rudo and…
…kisses him on the cheek.
The unexpected act causes Rudo to run off happily, leaving Chiwa only slightly confused. “I think he liked it? Oh, well I guess we can talk about it some more later.”
Little did Chiwa know, her life would never be the same again.
(Later. Still in the Slums)
Chiwa is seen walking around the slums, holding the dog plush Rudo gave her with a big smile on her face.
She couldn’t wait to see Rudo again, so she can really iron out her feelings to him.
"Did ya hear? Rudo's been arrested for murder."
Chiwa stops dead in her tracks, her eyes wide in shock as she overhears what the tribe folk just said. “What?” She asks, her body going colder than it has ever gone before.
The tribe folks who are conversing with each other don’t even notice Chiwa. “Yeah, apparently he killed his pops?”
Chiwa’s eyes widen even further as her knees tremble and she holds the dog plush tighter like a lifeline. ‘Regto’s dead? But that doesn’t make sense! Rudo would never kill Regto!’
Chiwa’s mind tries to make sense of the situation and her mind reaches the only actual conclusion it can find. ‘Rudo was framed!’
The girl runs as fast as she can. Her destination? The edge of the slums where criminals get dumped into the pit for their crimes. As she runs, Chiwa leaves footprints of frost behind her.
When Chiwa makes a turn to take a shortcut someone grabs her wrist and puts a hand over her mouth preventing her from screaming. “MMMPH!” That doesn’t mean she didn’t try though. She kicks, she punches, she flails, anything to try and free herself from whoever it is that caught her. She looks up to see who has caught her and sees a man in a brown coat wearing a dark purple skull like mask on his face, hiding his identity. The sight makes Chiwa fearful for her safety.
The masked man drags the flailing child, to where? Exactly where Chiwa was going, the edge of the slums. She only realises this once she hears the voice of the priest.
"You have committed a grave felony in this beautiful , sacred land…"
‘No. This can’t be happening.’ She thinks as she sees Rudo hung by arms, his head limp and blood soaking through his white sweater.
"You have committed a grave felony in this beautiful , sacred land…" The priest continues unaware of the true conflict taking place. "He has committed the filthiest act of all, murder! Even if that person is a lowly tribesman we will not tolerate murderers living on this land , not even for a moment."
Chiwa redoubles her efforts, trying to break free from her captor’s grip.
"Therefore you are sentenced to death!" The priest finishes as the mob of people shriek those awful words she’s grown to hate.
"Send the filth to the pit!"
"Send the filth to the pit!"
"Send the filth to the pit!"
Rudo finally lifts his head, scanning the mob of people and in the far back he sees her… Chiwa, being held back by the masked man who killed his father Regto!
“CHIWA!” The boy shouts in fear and panic, but his voice is silenced by the mob of people chanting for his fall.
The priest raises his hand, the ring on his finger reflects the sunlight hitting it.
The true killer brings out a small dagger to Chiwa’s neck and…
.
.
.
.
.
Chiwa can’t breathe.
She feels something warm dripping down to her neck and onto her clothes.
The masked man lets her go, falling to her knees. She uses her free hand to touch her neck and sees her fingers caked in red.
Chiwa tries to inhale, but instead chokes out her own blood.
Her vision grows blurry as she falls to the ground continuously coughing up her blood. She can faintly see Rudo scream in horror but no sound reaches her ears, just a painful ringing.
And finally, the ropes holding Rudo suspended in the air snap and the boy falls into the pit.
Chiwa’s eyes widen as she sees Rudo fall, as if the world slowed down just for her to make this moment more painful for the both of them. Once Rudo disappears from her blurry sight Chiwa tries to get one final look at the man who slit her throat.
She’s not sure how and even in the future she’d never have a definitive answer. But when she looked up at the masked man, even though she couldn’t see his face, she knew, she somehow knew… he was smiling underneath that damn mask.
Her body’s temperature goes lower. The air around her seems to freeze.
“Y-y-yooouuu…” The dying girl somehow manages to choke out, glaring at her murderer with nothing but pure rage and hatred.
The killer snaps his head towards the dying girl, his mask hiding his shock as he sees Chiwa’s skin turn paler and paler and her eyes turning yellow.
Chiwa removes her bloodied hand from her throat revealing the cut to be somehow healing.
“You… YOU MONSTER!!” She screams before exploding into ice!
The crowd screams as they see a massive spike of ice appearing out of seemingly nowhere. But their troubles were only just beginning as a storm of frost was brewing and the ice started to crack.
Awaken.
Awaken, Warden of Ice…
Awaken, Eikon…
Shiva!
*CRACK!*
*CRACK!*
*SMASH!*
And just like glass the massive ice spike shattered and inside, where Chiwa once stood was now replaced with a giant of a woman, with pale white–almost blue skin, pointed ears and short, platinum-blonde hair. Her hair is adorned with gold ornaments, and she wears a three-point crown. She wears a white dress with dark-blue ornaments that leaves her stomach exposed, and a massive, flowing mantle.
Chiwa is no longer present, replaced by the harsh cold that is Shiva!
As she rises in the air, Shiva’s savage yellow eyes scan the area, her face the picture of calm, but internally a rage-filled storm.
The Eikon of Ice turns her head to the masked man who killed Regto and would’ve killed Chiwa and raises her hand launching a series of sharp icicles at the murderer. The masked man dodges a few attacks, but one manages to strike his right hand, freezing it up to his elbow.
Seeing that he is outmatched against the Eikon, the masked man strikes Shiva in the face with the same blade he used before, cutting the ice woman’s eyes.
Shiwa lets out a blood curdling scream as her eyes heal quickly, restoring her vision and savage yellow eyes. Looking around she sees that the masked man used her moment of weakness to flee and scanned the area in an attempt to find him, before her eyes landed on the tribes folk who were now screaming in fear of the giant pale woman.
Shiva’s mind replays the moment when Rudo was dropped into the pit, his look of horror as Chiwa choked on her own blood, how these people cheered for an innocent boy’s demise.
Now the anger of the Eikon of Ice has found a new target.
With a rageful scream Shiva aims her hand down and unleashes a storm of ice, launching ice spikes in every direction, hitting the tribe folk.
The sound of flesh being torn and screams of humans fill the air…
Once the icy mist settles, the scene revealed can only be described as gruesome.
People frozen like statues or completely encased in ice, the lucky few who weren’t caught by the Warden of Ice’s attack were left to suffer with ice shards in their bodies or impaled.
Shiva raises her hand once more this time forming a massive sword of ice and diving down on the closest person to her with the intent to cleave them down.
“CHIWA!” A familiar voice calls out, stopping Shiva dead in her tracks, her blade inches away from the person she was about to slay.
Shiva blinks several times, her yellow eyes turning blue as she notices who she almost killed.
“Mom?” Shiva asks, seeing the terrified look on her mother’s face, her clothes covered in frost.
Shiva, now in control of her actions looks around at the carnage she had unleashed mere moments ago.
“Did… Did I do this?”
Her gaze then lands on the edge of the slums… where Rudo was dropped.
“RUDO!” Shiva calls out, flying into the air at blinding speeds ignoring her mother calling her name.
The Eikon dives off the ledge flying as fast as she can. ‘Maybe Rudo hasn't reached the bottom yet! I can still save him!’ She thinks as she speeds up her descent.
Once Shiva enters the black clouds, everything goes dark.
Against her will Shiva is forcefully turned back into Chiwa.
The girl looks around the darkness, trying to make sense of it and her eyes land on a massive creature that appears to be a colossal humanoid with a skinny body, it has fully black skin that shadows its entire body including its face and a set of spikes in the back.
“W-what is that?”
And then Chiwa passes the black clouds once more, entering a new world.
“I’m out?” She asks looking around as she falls and sees the ground below, scorched in fire and ash. “What happened here?” She wonders as the wind blows in her face.
But then she sees it, the cause of it.
(A few minutes earlier.)
Rudo screamed as he saw Chiwa hit the floor, blood pouring from her neck and although she was so far away he could see the fear in the girl’s eyes as she choked on her own blood.
*SNAP*
The ropes tying his wrist, keeping him suspended snap and gravity pulls him down.
“YOU BASTARD! DON’T YOU DARE THINK YOU’RE RID OF ME!” The boy shouted at the top of his lungs as he plummets towards the darkness. “I’M COMING BACK! AND I’LL KILL YOU AND EVERYONE UP THERE!” He shouts as tears fall from his eyes as images of Regto’s limp body and Chiwa’s desperate attempt to breath fill his mind.
All of this caused by that masked bastard!
“YOU HEAR ME!? I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU–”
Everything goes dark as Rudo enters the black clouds.
The boy looks around the darkness, trying to make sense of it and his eyes land on a massive creature that appears to be a colossal humanoid with a skinny body, it has fully black skin that shadows its entire body including its face and a set of spikes in the back.
Rudo, taking this as a challenge, glares at the strange being.
“Y-you! You think this will stop me!” He shouts as fire begins to surround him. “I… I wil find a way to get back up there and I won’t…”
“I WON’T LET YOU STAND IN MY WAY!”
Rudo’s eyes turn yellow as he passes through the darkness and his body bursts into a gigantic ball of fire.
Awaken.
Awaken, Child of Fate…
Awaken…
Ifrit!
*WHOOSH*
The ball of fire falls to the ground like a meteor, leaving a large crater in its wake. As the fire settles and the smoke clears, it is revealed that something else has taken Rudo’s place.
A giant demonic being, its body covered in flames and its skin appearing like charcoal or lava rock. It has massive, backwards-facing horns. It possesses reptilian features with sharp fangs, with a mane of white hair running down the back of its neck. The beast has sharp claws on its hands and feet, the latter of which are digitigrade. It possesses a long tail.
Rudo is gone, now replaced by the unforgiving flames of Ifrit!
The Eikon lets out a savage roar as it lunges forward striking the ground with its claws causing an explosion of fire. It continues its rampage, striking at trash below its feet hitting anything in sight, launching fireballs from its hands.
The destruction by Ifrit’s rage caused the trash beneath it to rise and take shape into many types of giant trash beasts.
The trash beasts attack Ifrit, striking the Eikon with a fist made of trash, but all that does is make Ifrit angrier and give him a new target.
Ifrit lunges a great distance closing the gap between it and the closest trash beast and plunges its clawed hand into its chest before igniting it, burning the trash beast from the inside until only ashes remain.
As the ashes of the fallen beast blow in the wind, the remaining two trash beasts try to pin Ifrit down, not realising that in doing so they sealed their fate.
Ifrit uses its claw to firmly hold on to the monsters holding it down, preventing them from fleeing and begins charging up his magic.
Its body glows orange with flames surrounding the Eikon. The fire keeps growing and growing as the trash beasts realize that they’re trapped, but Ifrit doesn’t let go.
The Eikon of Inferno roars as fire explodes around him and burns all the trash away.
But it doesn’t stop there.
It roars louder, the flames burn and spread farther. Its roar turns deafening as Ifrit unleashes all of its fire magic to call upon its most powerful fire spell…
Hellfire!
Fire covers a massive portion of the trash filled land, burning away the remaining trash beasts, leaving Ifrit as the sole victor.
The Eikon lets out a final roar declaring its victory, but the rage… Rudo’s rage still remains inside and it continues to grow.
High in the sky, Chiwa falls just in time to see Ifrit wander around, hitting the ground like a savage beast. “What is that?” She asks as the wind hits her face, her descent accelerating.
Then her mind is filled with knowledge she hadn’t had before.
Dominants.
Eikons.
Magic.
“Is that Ifrit?” She wonders, even though the knowledge is present in her mind, but then she sees the scorched ground rapidly approaching. “AAAAAAHH! Okay, okay! I need to do something! NOW!” She panics, flailing her arms.
“Wait! Priming! I need to turn into Shiva again!” Chiwa closes her eyes and focuses.
She concentrates on the cold she felt when she first transformed, the rage that fueled her, rage towards her people, towards the masked man that tried to kill her, the ice that came from her heart…
“That’s right, I am ice.” Chiwa’s skin and hair turn pale as she opens her now blue eyes. “I AM SHIVA!” She calls out just in time as she explodes into ice right before hitting the ground and emerging from that ice is Shiva, once more taking flight.
Scanning the area, now knowing that she isn’t in any danger of fall damage, Shiva looks at rampaging Eikon of Inferno. “Who are you?” The giant woman asks to herself, before the two Eikons make eye contact.
Ifrit looks up at Shiva, its savage yellow eyes meeting her controlled blue.
Shiva looks deep into the infernal beast's eyes noting something familiar in them. “Rudo? Rudo, is that you?” She asks her eyes wide with surprise, as Ifrit roars and jumps high in the air in an attempt to strike the Warden of Ice.
But Shiva gracefully flies to the side dodging Ifrit’s fist. The Warden of Inferno doesn’t let that failure sway him, instead he lets that failure fuel his rage even further.
Seeing how Ifrit isn’t going to stop attacking her, Shiva flies close to the ground, but still far away so that Ifrit has to run at her. ‘If that worked for me, then maybe it might work for Rudo too.’ Shiva raises her hand, Ifrit clenches its clawed hand into a fist ready to punch Shiva.
Ifrit finally reaches Shiva and swings its fist at her before-
“RUDO!”
Ifrit’s fist stops, inches away from Shiva’s face. He looks at Shiva, confused why the woman’s voice sounded so familiar to i̶t̶him. He blinks and where Shiva was standing now stood Chiwa the girl he watched get murdered in front of him. Blinking once more, Ifrit eyes, now blue, sees Shiva again, only more clearly now, the pale woman looks so much like Chiwa he wonders how he didn’t notice before. “Chiwa?” He asks with a deep tone of voice, fitting for a beast his size.
Shiva smiles and nods, placing a hand on the Infernal Eikon’s cheek. “Yes Rudo, it’s me.”
Ifrit reaches out as well with his clawed hand and notices his new appearance. “W-what happened to me?” He asks, fear rising in his chest.
However Shiva is quick to calm him down, holding his hand. “It’ll all make sense when you turn back to normal Rudo, don’t worry.”
Ifrit breathed and closed his eyes, focusing on Shiva’s cold comforting hand on his face. He thinks of all the good times in his life. Trying out different things with Regto, his incessant teasing, hanging out with Chiwa, showing her how to fix up certain pieces of trash to make them usable, Chiwa’s cute laugh. All those happy memories serve to calm Ifrit down and he slowly reverts back into Rudo.
At the same time Shiva also reverts back into Chiwa, still holding Rudo’s cheek in her hand.
Once the two teens are back to their regular selves they stare into each other's eyes. Neither are a savage yellow or a controlled blue, but their regular normal colors. Rudo’s red and Chiwa’s brown.
“Chiwa… You’re really here.” Rudo sees a horizontal scar on the girl’s neck. “Your neck it’s–”
But he is cut off as Chiwa hugs him tightly, sniffing in his chest. “I’m so glad you're okay, Rudo!” She cries, her voice muffled by Rudo’s sweater.
Rudo feels tears build up in his eyes too as he hugs Chiwa back. “Yeah… me too.” The white haired teen whispers thinking on how so much has changed in such a short amount of time.
His father is dead and the girl he likes almost died as well, all on the same day.
He lets his mind wander, absorbing knowledge of the Eikons, Dominants and magic. Chiwa was right, things would make sense when he’d turn back to normal, but there are still so many questions on his mind.
He doesn’t have time to question them as he feels Chiwa go limp in his arms. “Chiwa? CHIWA! Are you okay? What happened–” Rudo panic reaches a halt as he feels a large wave of fatigue strike him. The boy tumbles on his back, still holding Chiwa in his arms as he passes out.
*THUD*
The two teens lay asleep on the scorched ground, both tired after all the events that have transpired.
Not too far from them a man wearing a gas mask carrying an umbrella walks towards the unconscious teens.
“Man, talk about a light show!” The man says, hoisting his umbrella on his shoulder. “Now, look at you two love birds holding on to each other. Hmm, what’s this?” He notices something between the two teens, a dog like plush with a scarf around its neck. “I wonder, can all Spherites do what you both did? Or are you two the exception? Bah, I’ll ask one of you when you wake up!”
He then takes out a spare gas mask he carries for situations like this. “Wait… I only have one back up? Ah, crap!”
(Somewhere far away.)
A girl with long black hair with orange tips looks high in the sky and sees an Angel she had seen many months ago.
However she notices how the Angel seems to have trouble flying and is able to see its frozen right arm.