#*twirls my hair* haha hi zero what if dsr starter

[unmeiha-arc]

          ❝ Trust me, sweetheart, I’ll be here when the starlight fades, right alongside you. I’ll bring you back from anywhere; if you’ll do the same, there’s no end here. I’m not willing to lose you. I’m not willing to say goodbye.                         ― The Sweeplings,  ❛ Goodbye ❜

          How many, she wonders, how many times is it now? An injured Aymeric calls for his father in a futile attempt at diplomacy despite everything. She knows what comes of this conversation, of his idealism. She’s heard it before — over and over   ( and over and over and ... )   She knows what comes next, too. He will turn to her and, in a silent understanding of one another, he will lead the charge at her side to put an end to a thousand year war here and now. And then he will fall so that she might live.           Not this time, she tells herself. How many times has she said this? Have the number of loops come to rival the number of times she’s relived this moment in her dreams? Again and again she’s watched it, lived it. Again and again she’s failed. She can’t tell if she’s awake or dreaming anymore.           She steps forward without him; she knows he’ll follow.   ( When was the last time she looked at him directly? How many loops ago? )   Her hand tightens around Cronus’s hilt and she pulls it from her back.   ( Each time she comes back here it feels a little heavier. )   The heavy blade echoes when it hits the marble, as the steel scrapes over stone with every step she takes. She knows precisely where it happens, precisely how long it takes to get there. She knows Zephirin’s spear is already airborn before @ishguardians' warning rings out.           She pivots before she hears it connect with his shield,   ( faster, faster, faster, )   using all of her body weight and every ounce of strength she can muster to swing the greatsword in a wide arc.   ( Too soon and she misses, too late and she misses. How many times has she missed? )   Just as the aetherial spear makes contact with the shield, so too does Cronus connect with the spear. It’s not enough, she knows — she’s been here, too. The shield cracks and her leg sweeps out, hooking behind his to unsteady him.   ( If his spear must strike, let it miss its mark. )           He falls, like he always does, and she cannot bring herself to look.           As does she. Her own balance unstable, the stone sends tremors through her body as it connects with armored knees and she leans all her weight on the sword embedded in the stone to at least stay upright. She doesn’t bother looking up as the airship makes its departure — there’s no point. Her chest heaves from the exertion and she it’s all she can do to wait for the inevitable blackness that signals the end of a loop, that signals her failure to overtake her.

                                                          𓆩❀𓆪