⁂~(Updated 2022-07-04-)~⁂

*Ready for professional edits*

(This is the free version.)

Word Count: 1692

Agatha manifested into a fiery underworld through powerful bursts of multicoloured flashes and booms. She clutched and dragged herself across the black sand and observed her celestite with blurred vision as white-blue wisps of magic smoked from the diamond-shaped crystal in her palm. The azure radiance that had once given the gem life began to fade into a lightless grey void before Agatha's old bloodshot green eyes.

Hellish mana reached out to her deep inside the surrounding Realm of Styx, shaving off her lifeforce. The dark energy washed over her failing mind and gifted her the remembrance of her unlucky fate. She knew these were her last moments of life.

"I must find Angelo's Sigil Heart."

Agatha journeyed through Angelo's dimensional abyss in search of his soul-gem. Her silver curls trembled against the intense heat streams and floating black embers as she explored the infernal atmosphere. Battling against the firestorms and her declining presence, Agatha ripped the loose fabrics of her grey kimono below her feet into flimsy pieces of singed cloth. She wrapped the materials around her feet and pushed through the relentless surrounding firestorms of superheated rock.

Reviving on the dark sandhills from her dozenth swoon, Agatha squinted through her cloudy eyesight. She saw an endless beach stretch out in front of her, bathed in black fire. A silver wave of fire-kissed water began to slide into the black shorelines and splashed against her charred feet. The awareness of chronology waned as she flipped onto her back. The thick gloom clouded her mind and spirit, throwing her within an infinite loop of confusing entropy.

Weeks? Years? Seconds? How long has it been? How long must I endure this torment? Angelo... I would have freed you sooner had I known this was the hell you spoke of for all those years, she thought as she squeezed a pile of charcoal-stained sand between her wrinkled fingers.

"I thought you were just whining," she giggled.

Beyond the silver seashores engulfed by blue-black flames, the pungent miasma of sulphur lingered and wrapped around Agatha. The crimson, cavernous world resembled an apocalyptic Cavern of Tranquility—furnished with colourful sparkling red-orange gems Angelo formulated over the eras. Maroon billows passed in front of the sunless nebulae sky while enshrouding Agatha's body with a harmonious blue light.

Agatha fixated on the white-blue mana embers above her head as they bounced around. Her eyes, nose, throat and wrinkled skin tingled as Angelo's raw magic protected her. As her blurred sight healed, Agatha finally saw past the silver lagoon.

A strange wooden sailboat carelessly floated up the enflamed lake alongside her and the dark beach. Exhausted and unable to walk or control mana, Agatha crawled through the hot black sand, enduring the ominous pressures weighing her down. With one final tug, she squirmed onto the mysterious wooden sailboat.

"It looks like Angelo has not used this boat in many eras."

Agatha peered over the wooden boat's side as the vessel bobbed on by itself through the silver-blue water. Shades of her fallen comrades drifted underneath the hull. Their ethereal bodies shrieked in dismay like banshees as they wafted around the boat—a tormenting trick of the broken mind.

Is this truly my punishment? Must I see the lost souls of my companions? Ocelot... Belzaar... Himawari... and even Master Hohenheim.

"I never imagined it to be like this," she cried. "To remain here for all eternity. I'm sorry, Angelo. I was scared, and I needed you."

Agatha slipped in and out of consciousness as she flipped onto her back in the black sailboat, staring at the scorched red-violet atmosphere.

Are you proud of me, papa?

⁂~(Agatha Flashback: One)~⁂

https://youtu.be/SAPyzljp-uM

⁂~(Agatha Flashback)~⁂

"Agatha, how often do I have to warn you about coming here by yourself? It is too dangerous for someone your age," said Agatha's father, Kali Haru.

"You just turned eight this month! Now look, you have a broken toe. What would you have done if I did not come here to look for you?"

"But papa, I love it in the Heart of Yuun. I want to be as big as you are. So, I won't ever quit training!" shouted young Agatha.

Kali Haru, the fifth to bear the core Celestite of Life, chuckled and stroked his long silver hair with his big fingers. Giant rose petals grew up from the long grass and twirled into his white robe sleeves, elegantly pulling back his wet robes. While on one knee, he placed his enormous hands over his daughter's broken foot.

Young Agatha cried in pain as the injury gleamed with virescent light. "Ow, papa!"

After healing Agatha's broken foot, Kali Haru clenched his daughter's shoulders.

"Remember this, my daughter. A new generation of roses grown in the same spot will always grow to be more colourful than the last. Now, get up... Get up, Agatha!"

⁂ ~(The Present | Angelo's Realm of Styx)~ ⁂

Overcoming the impossible as she heard her father's voice echo within her mind, Agatha suddenly regained consciousness.

"I hear you, papa," she said.

Stretching her only arm to grab the side of the boat, the spirit of Agatha's father, Kali Haru, snatched her from dropping. Taking deep breaths, she threw the sign of the tiger to her forehead. One. Last. Time.

"An heirloom ward. You placed a portion of your life force within my wound that day. It has been lying dormant within me for almost my entire life. Amazing," smiled Agatha. "Papa must have set it to trigger when my life was truly ending. His magic can feel my certain doom... I always knew you were right here beside me, papa."

Agatha's celestite began to glow green with mana that was not her own. As she looked at it in surprise, red blood squirted outward from the pores of her wrinkled body and whipped her silver hair in all directions. "This is the end then..."

Agatha battle-cried as her father's powers and voice crossed over into her speech, into a fusion.

"Life-Core Heirloom: Kali Haru's Blade of Roses!"

As she leapt off the sailboat within a burst of green light, Agatha ran while unleashing her mighty father's roar across the silver-enflamed waterline. Her father's heirloom replaced her missing left arm with a long, sharp blade of pure energy. She could see Angelo's Sigil Heart across the lake as she spun the blade around and slashed her way through the spits of magma.

"Papa entrusted me to protect his legacy for the crystal of life. I will use the last bit of my powers to shatter Angelo's sigil; my father's magic blade will free him. He will protect the last hope of the humanity you spoke of for so long. Even if it costs me my life, papa, I will protect the legacy you left behind! Angelo has inherited the Will of Akira Sirus. He will protect Kazuki until the very end!"

Agatha soared across the enflamed lake. She spun, evaded and cut away multiple bursts of fire like a professional chakram dancer. "I won't let them win, papa. You have my word!"

The next beachline emerged into view. A large phosphorescence crystal with long chains wrapped around its cortex reached into the endless, sunless sky within the crimson world's gloom. The All Demon's terrifying, powerful voice stretched over the realm.

"Would you give your soul to this void for all eternity to set him free? How mortal of you!"

Agatha stopped and drew a severe breath while maintaining her balance on top of the silver water, yelling hard into the charred sky. "You have no power in this realm, you horror! Not anymore!"

"Blithering women, your family has always been a nuisance to me! It is over; your soul is mine! You cannot escape my world!"

"Oh, I have no intention of escaping. My fate is certain. I will protect my father's legacy with my life!" shouted Agatha as she raced for the soul-gem and dodged bursts of fireballs erupting underneath her feet.

"Six-hundred and sixty-six is one of my most unique yokai—close to mastering the Transformation of the Nine Gates of Hell. A fitting predecessor to thy self. Although he alone can not protect the All Bearer. I will bring about the Maelstrom. I will lay your world in demonic fire and eat it! Then I can destroy Sagax and rule this universe. Do you hear me, you old hag?!"

Upon placing her palm onto the soul gem's cortex, Agatha squealed as her lifeforce drained from her body. "Angelo, you're free!" she screamed.

https://youtu.be/u2oql-D7euc

The realm ruptured and quaked as the glowing soul-gem crumbled like smashed glass. A mystical blue power hurled Agatha backward and flipped her body multiple times through the air. A fiery beam of light launched from the Sigil Heart into the crimson sky while its corroded iron cables slowly disintegrated into ash.

Fragments of the dissolving iron cables split and fell. As the debris showered upon Agatha's withered face, she breathed her last moments on the atomic sand. Her eyes filled with black tears as she glanced at her palm; the ashes fell to the cracked celestite crystal as it faded its blue-green light.

She snickered as she remembered the good times with Angelo and her friends. "We may never meet again, Angelo," she said. "Nevertheless, you were caged here, and every time you got out, you lived to protect us. I trust you to do the same for him and his friends, as you did with Akira Sirus and my friends so long ago. Free this world of pain, Angelo, one last time. That was my father's dream. You two are so alike... I will always love you, Angelo. Thank you for everything."

Agatha closed her eyes with a smile as the demonic realm collapsed and consumed her. "Papa?... I can hear you... Yes, I did it... my journey is over... I am finally coming home to see your rose gardens... Mother is here too? Oh, papa... I missed you so much..."

Agatha Haru: K.I.A on Nova 10th, 893 AC.

Cause of Death: Evensong Rite