Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 754: The Last ()

A gust of wind cut through the mountain ledge, it was as chilly as ice. Freezing if Neveah was being honest. It ruffled Neveah’s hair and clawed at her black dress. But Neveah barely noticed the cold, her focus was fixed on Menarx, on the hollow look in his eyes and the way his shoulders hunched under an invisible weight.

He looked so... small. So fragile. Like the wind would shatter him if it blew just a little harder.

Neveah’s chest tightened painfully, as her eyes searched his, but found nothing... grief so absolute, it left no traces, nothing. She had heard of the effects of the severing. How much of a toll it took on a dragon, but it had only been an hour...How had it come to this?

"So what now?" There was a tremor in Neveah’s voice, despite her best attempts to sound steady. It was the most hopeless Neveah had felt in a long time, knowing what Menarx was going to choose even before she asked it. "I just... go back to Inferno? Without you?"

Menarx diverted his gaze, as though he could not bear Neveah’s stare. He shifted his attention to the swirling clouds below. "You should return, Neveah. The place you have to be right now...it isn’t here."

Frustration coiled within Neveah, so fiercely that it was physically excruciating. "Don’t tell me where I can and cannot be." Neveah hissed. "I don’t want to hear about duty or any of that. Tell me what I can do... right now, to stop you from falling apart right before my eyes..." She whispered helplessly.

The answering silence was unbearable, suffocating. Menarx’s shoulder tensed, but there was no other indication that he had heard Neveah. "Just...say something... anything..."

Menarx exhaled slowly, his breath fogging in the cold mountain air. His jaw tightened visibly, as if speaking was no longer a task he cared to take part in. "Tell Kirgan to stop hunting me." He finally said, his tone was low...weary. "I’m not the biggest concern the stronghold faces right now."

Neveah could not believe her ears. "You are...but you are!" Her voice rose, as if that would help it sink through Menarx’s unfamiliar indifference. "You matter! To me...to everyone. Scales, Narx! You know that...you know it!"

Menarx’s shoulders sagged under the weight of Neveah’s words. Neveah knew it was a lot for him to handle right at this moment and she knew she wasn’t helping matters, that he would need time if there was to be the slightest possibility of him getting past it,

But time, it was the one thing they did not have on their side this time. And that was precisely why it was so terrifying.

When he finally dared meet Neveah’s gaze again, his eyes were dull...haunted, nothing like the Menarx she knew. "Veah... I know your heart."

He always said that. He always said that he knew her heart, but did he really?

"But I am no longer your responsibility... you let go of that, a long time ago." He said in resignation.

The words hit Neveah like a physical blow and she staggered back, the hurt lancing through every fiber of her being. The lack of emotion in his tone, and how easily he could say those words, to her of all people, after all that event had put her through... who was this before her eyes?

Neveah’s hands trembled and she curled her fingers into fists, clenching tightly. "Do you think if you are cold and say harsh words to me, I’ll turn around and give up on you?" She asked, "Because if you do, then you do not know me as well as I thought you do."

Menarx’s brows furrowed slightly, and like a crack in a wall, Neveah watched Menarx’s facade crumble as silent tears slipped out his eyes.

"Do you know what ’forever’ means?" Menarx whispered in a broken tone.

Neveah winced visibly, her heart constricted so tightly, it was difficult to breathe. She blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes, wondering if she even had the right to shed them in the face of Menarx’s raw pain. Instead, she closed the distance between them, and wrapped her arms around Menarx, tight enough so he knew... that she would never let him fall.

Menarx trembled in Neveah’s arms, like all his strength evaporated at her touch.

"Now, I must remember her for longer than I have known her..." He whispered, barely audible.

And then his head dipped, shoulders trembling as he sobbed into Neveah’s neck.

Watching him in such despair, Neveah’s heart shattered into pieces that she was not sure could ever fit together.

Menarx pulled away, staring at Neveah.

"You are what the stronghold needs right now, Veah." He whispered hoarsely. "That’s why you have to go back... to where you’re meant to be. Use that..." He glanced at the orb, "Whatever it is, and do what you do best... make things right."

"If I can’t even help you, how am I supposed to help anyone?" Neveah asked weakly.

Menarx’s gaze softened, despite the pain shimmering in his eyes. "You’ve already helped me...more than you’ll ever know."

"Then why won’t you stay with me?" She asked, her voice breaking. "Jian is still gone... and now you, I keep losing the people I care about. My heart is frayed from this constant seeking... I can’t do it anymore... I won’t!"

"It is not that I won’t...it is that I can’t." Menarx’s face twisted, revealing the agony he tried to hide. "I am... breaking, Veah."

"Then let me hold you together... I swear I can, I will..."

A tear slipped down Neveah’s cheek, icy against her skin. She reached out, her fingers grazing his sleeve, desperate to pull him back from the edge, desperate to keep him from slipping away.

But Menarx pulled back, his eyes hollow, his expression desolate. "But you can’t, Veah. Not anymore."

His words were final, a door slamming shut. Neveah’s hand fell to her side, her fingers trembling. "Narx...where will you go?"

Menarx looked away, his shoulders hunched, his face was etched with grief. "Don’t come looking for me here, Veah. Don’t come looking for me at all. I’ll be fine... and you will see me again when I am."

She shook her head, a sob catching in her throat. "I let you go once... you owe me this much! Can you not... choose me this time? Just this once?"

Menarx’s face contorted, raw pain flashing in his eyes. He reached up, brushing his fingers against her cheek, wiping away her tears. His touch was cold, fleeting.

"You never did understand this...that I would choose you... every time," he whispered, his voice breaking.

Neveah’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. She wanted to fight this.

To rage, to undo what had already happened, to claim back the moment that had been stolen.

But there was no battle to be won here.

Only grief. Only loss.

Neveah took a trembling breath. The wind howled between them, carrying away whatever words she might have said.

There was nothing left to say.

Instead, she reached out, slowly, carefully, and pressed her forehead against Menarx’s. A single moment of shared silence, 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Then she stepped back, and Menarx did not stop her.

Neveah’s fingers curled around the orb. She didn’t know what it was, but it was Adrienne’s final gift. And she would carry it.

For her.

For Menarx.

For everything that had been lost.

The sky rumbled above them. Somewhere a storm was about to begin.

Menarx retreated a few steps, but Neveah stood in place. And she remained motionless even when he stepped off the mountain’s edge, disappearing beneath the clouds.

Once again...not for the first time and not even for the second, Neveah let him go.

Only that this time...there was a sinking understanding that it would be the last.