Eternal without Meaning

The sun hung low in the sky, casting an amber glow across the broken landscape of Yrlith, a world still reeling from its near destruction. The air felt lighter today, though the remnants of fractures in reality still shimmered faintly in the horizon. Eryn Noctis walked ahead, his white hair catching the evening light, while Eilea followed, her footsteps soft against the quiet earth. For once, no distortions lingered, no cracks in time threatened to tear the world apart.

Eilea watched him carefully. His expression was distant, his gaze always focused on something just out of reach, as if he was perpetually looking through the world rather than at it. She understood why. For Eryn, reality was like a fragile canvas, one he could tear apart and rearrange at will. It must have seemed meaningless when he could reshape everything with a mere thought.

But today, something felt different.

"You’re quieter than usual," Eilea broke the silence, walking up beside him, her voice light but probing.

Eryn did not answer immediately. His eyes were fixed on a small, insignificant patch of wildflowers growing at the edge of the road. Something about their simplicity caught his attention. Their vibrant colors—the purple, yellow, and white—seemed out of place in a world that was constantly on the verge of collapsing.

After a long moment, he finally spoke, his voice flat and emotionless. "It doesn’t matter."

Eilea sighed softly. "Everything always doesn’t matter to you, does it?" She bent down, plucking one of the small flowers from the ground. Its delicate petals rested in her palm as she held it up for him to see. "But to me, this—" she pointed at the flower—"matters."

Eryn glanced at her, his gaze cold, but something flickered beneath his impassive facade. "It’s just a flower, Eilea. It’ll wither and die soon enough, like everything else."

"But that’s what makes it beautiful," she said firmly, her tone soft but unwavering. "Because it’s fleeting. It won’t last forever, and that’s why every moment with it counts."

Eryn turned away, the weight of her words pulling at him. He had lived long enough—too long—to see beauty in anything temporary. For someone who could erase entire cities, reverse time, or unmake existence itself, such small things seemed utterly irrelevant. Yet, there was something about the way Eilea spoke that made him pause.

"You think any of this is worth it?" he asked, his voice dropping lower, the weariness in his tone betraying the centuries of detachment. "Why bother appreciating something so fragile, so meaningless?"

Eilea didn’t flinch at his words. She stood her ground, her gaze steady. "It’s because it’s fragile that it has meaning, Eryn. If everything lasted forever, like you, how would you ever find joy? What would be left to appreciate?"

Her words struck him like an unexpected blow. He had never thought of it that way. For so long, he had felt burdened by his immortality, by his ability to bend and break the world without consequence. He could reshape reality but had forgotten how to see the world’s beauty as it was, untouched by his hand.

They continued walking, the silence stretching between them, but it was different now—less heavy, more contemplative.

Eventually, Eilea spoke again, her voice quieter this time. "When I was a child, there was this tree near my home. It wasn’t special, just an old oak, but every spring it would bloom with the most beautiful white flowers. I used to spend hours under that tree, watching the petals fall. I knew they wouldn’t last, but for those few days, I would sit there and feel... happy. Content."

Eryn listened, not speaking, but he found himself imagining the scene. A young girl, sitting under a tree, watching the petals drift down like soft snow. In his mind, he could almost feel the warmth of the sun, the gentle breeze carrying the scent of spring.

Eilea smiled, though it was tinged with sadness. "That tree’s probably gone now. But those moments I spent under it—they still matter to me. Even if I’ll never see it again."

Eryn’s jaw tightened. "I could bring it back. The tree, the flowers—everything. If you wanted, I could make it so it never even withered."

Eilea shook her head slowly. "No, Eryn. That’s not the point. It’s not about making things last forever. It’s about living in the moments that we have."

Her words echoed in the hollow spaces of his mind, a mind that had seen centuries pass like mere hours. Moments. He hadn’t lived in a moment for a long time—perhaps never. Everything had always been too easy, too malleable. He had lost sight of the value in things that couldn’t be bent or changed at his whim.

Without warning, a sudden gust of wind swept across the field, stirring the air with an almost unnatural force. The sky, which had been calm and golden, darkened quickly, and the ground trembled beneath their feet.

"Eryn!" Eilea grabbed his arm, her eyes wide with alarm. "What’s happening?"

Eryn frowned, sensing a distortion in the fabric of reality. He didn’t need to look to know that this was no ordinary storm—it was something far worse. Reality itself was buckling again, as if the world couldn’t hold together much longer. And at the center of the disturbance, he felt it—a presence, ancient and chaotic.

The air split open before them, and out of the swirling void stepped Varis Grell, his dark eyes cold and unyielding. The hunter from the Order of Dominion, his armor glinting with unnatural light, moved forward with the grace of a predator, his gaze fixed on Eryn.

"You’ve run long enough, Noctis," Varis said, his voice like steel scraping against stone. "The time has come to end this."

Eryn’s eyes narrowed. He knew Varis had been hunting him, waiting for the right moment to strike. But today, of all days, seemed ill-chosen. Eilea took a step back, instinctively putting distance between herself and the danger that radiated from Varis.

"Eryn..." she whispered, concern lacing her voice.

Eryn didn’t flinch. His power surged within him, bending the air around them, distorting reality itself. He could feel the pull of destruction, the temptation to erase Varis from existence with a single thought. It would be so easy.

But then, Eilea’s voice echoed in his mind.

"It’s about living in the moments that we have..."

For the first time in a long while, Eryn hesitated. He could feel the weight of his power, the emptiness it brought. He had fought countless battles, erased entire beings, yet none of it had ever made him feel... alive.

Varis lunged, his sword gleaming with energy meant to cut through the very essence of anomalies. But Eryn didn’t respond with destruction. Instead, he twisted time, slowing the movement of Varis’ strike. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Eryn stepped aside effortlessly, avoiding the blade without unleashing his full power.

"Is this all you’ve got?" Varis growled, his frustration evident.

Eryn's voice was calm, almost serene. "I’m done fighting meaningless battles."

Before Varis could respond, the ground beneath them cracked open, the void threatening to swallow them both. But instead of reacting with the usual violence, Eryn waved his hand, gently closing the fissure.

He turned to Eilea, who stood frozen, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Let’s go," he said softly.

And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Eryn Noctis chose not to erase, not to destroy, but to let the moment stand as it was. Fleeting, fragile, and full of meaning.

The battle could wait.

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