Falling petals

The Last Tear. part 2

Seraph and Ariel were battling him on their own because they were the first ones to arrive to his side while the others were still fighting the commanders of this man.
 
Seraph used up almost all his magic so he was only able to use a bit of low tier magic and a sword. His skills aren't as good as Ariel or Azrael, but he wouldn't lose to a royal knight in a mock battle.
 
Just when Ariel got the leaders full attention. Seraph was ready to strike the man behind but didn't know that the man already knew.
 
A twisted smile spread to the young man lips, his looks gave a dangerous yet attractive tone that many would fall for if they didn't know who he was.
 
With a snap of a finger a portal appears behind him and a delicate figure replaces him.
 
Corruption spatial magic energy is released by that figure and it was obvious that person used the spatial magic to switch with the man.
 
Sensing who it was the man turns but already switched places with the person.
 
The young man didn't intend to have her switch with him, rather he intended for the other person to switch him with one of his dead commanders so he can escape while they stabbed that useless corpse in his place.
 
"Hoo~ you got me."
 
He was in the crumbled palace walls of the Eternity empire, the place he sent her as a mission to distroy while those powerful figures went out to fight him. He was surrounded by many royal knights and Azrael who stood before the man with his sword.
 
While in the other side, Ariel went out to get Rose and Uriel to save and heal her wounds. Seraph stiffly catches her when she leans forward and falls in his arms.
 
He can feel her short breaths and the sticky blood that flows steadily through her wounds.
 
"Why did you switch places with that bastard Sakura!?"
 
He screams in agonizing anger while watching the blood flow through her wound.
 
He now watches how the blood seeps and slips through his fingers and begins to seep into his clothes.
 
"Why?"
 
The girls clear eyes begin to cloud and her mind grows a bit dumbstruck by the great pain her body feels, yet the numbness in her heart overthrows the pain and only self hatred and guilt filled her mind.
 
"Why.... because I was tired on being his pawn. Tired of doing things against my will and hurting so many people.... because.-cough!"
 
Again blood spreads and splatters his already dirtied clothes, yet those drops of blood feel like they are burning through his clothes that seems to change color the more blood she loses.
 
"...because.... I lost... th... only t.ing..- th-t matt-rd..."
 
What hurt him and made his tears fall was her own tears falling down her eyes. The pain that displayed through her eyes and that appearance of her truly holding no desire to care on fighting any longer ate him inside.
 
"Pa-...pa Ra-"
 
She chokes on her blood and tears when she thinks of Raphael, the only one who believed in her from the beginning to end, who never once turned his back to her even in his last breath when he looked up at her in his last dying moments.
 
"I uhh- k-k-killed h-him."
 
Those words filler her with pain when she remembers it. How the corruption in her body took a chunk of her soul, causing her to black out for a moment only to come back in focus only to see her hand covered in blood.
 
She sees a speck of a dark blue and fully looks down on the ground, only to see something that broke her almost completely. Him kneeling in his blood while holding her hand.
 
The last moment she had with him was him dying in her arms while she wailed in anger and resentment- resentment toward herself for not pushing him far away from herself and for allowing him to waste his life beside her.
 
"I- I!!"
 
She wanted to scream out how horrible of a person she is, how the corruption easily took over her because she has such a twisted and disgusting heart and soul.
 
"It wasn't your fault."
 
Before she can die with the guilt she was planning to take to the afterlife she was surprised by a delicate touch. With the bit of energy she had left, she looked up and through her blurry tears she can see Seraph crying.
 
The uncle who was stone cold and indifferent was crying right in front of her. His weeping face held agony for her. While he gently and shakily wiped the blood away from around her lips, as if to take away the pain of her coughing up her insides. He begins to speak again.
 
"I know Raphael well. He wouldn't be able to face you if he learns you blamed yourself for his death. He would never accept your apology because he will tell you that 'you have nothing to apologize for;' because you did nothing wrong. You were controlled and weren't in position to stop it. So don't blame yourself. Raphael wouldn't allow it."
 
He know he had little time with this niece of his, because she felt cold to the touch and by the frightening about of blood she is losing. Her whole body was stiff and the arms that aren't covered by the clothes she wore displayed a translucent white like a sculpture made of ice or a clear gem.
 
He cried knowing that he couldn't save her and couldn't protect one of the most precious treasure of his sister and his best friends.
 
"Re..-ly?"
 
He nods and gently wipes the tears that fall down her face.
 
Sakura was already loosing consciousness and the pain she felt had already become numb a while ago. The only thing that hurt her was the thought of Raphael hating her, but hearing Seraph's words took a big weight off of her shoulders. Her mind began loosing focus bit by bit.
 
'Ah... Uncle Ser never lies, so he must be saying the truth... I'm glad.. I thought.... I.- w-- dn't b...e ab...le ... to fa-ce. Pap- Ra...phel'
 
In his hands that was beginning to wipe her last tear the last bit of warmth he felt turn cold. Before him now just stands a sculpture made of translucent glass, when the light hits it, it gives off a rainbow shine while the only thing that ruins it is the sword through the chest and the bloody clothes that drapes her with those dark veins appearing like cracks in a masterpiece. Even the last tear he was wiping remained as glass in her face.
 
He looks on and cries with no reserve, caring nothing of his image as the head minister of the Eternity empire. He had lost his son in just recent years as well as his older sister to whatever illness she had. And now he lost the niece he should have cherished and stood beside of.
 
The others arrived but when they saw his weeping expression and his hand still trying to wipe away that last tear frozen forever on her face, they all understood they were too late.
***
 
"Sakura? Are you unwell!? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I'm scolding you! I was just worried."
 
He began to panic and looked awkward in his attempts to comfort her. But seeing him trying made her remember that memory even more. And she couldn't stop crying.
 
"Ok that is it. We will end this here, let us continue another time. We all need time to process this information and I think we would not be able to take much more until we finish processing it. Come Sakura, I'll take you to freshen up and then you can get the pie your nannies are preparing."
 
Raphael unexpectedly spoke calmly and wasn't panicking like the rest. Uriel as well was not panicking like the rest and knew that for Sakura's sake, it is best to end it here.
 
'We as well need time to stabilize our thoughts with all this information we learned in this short notice. It is best to leave this be until she seems like she would continue her talk.'
 
Raphael gently picks her up and Sakura already wrapped her arms around his neck and gently wept in the crook of his. The image of a dead Raphael and that of her uncle trying to wipe the last tear that will never be wiped away hurt her and she just cried that memory out.
 
That is how the discussion that held so many important events came to an end. That is until the next time Sakura deems that their talk needs to continue from where they left off.