Era of Madness

Sweet lie, the beginning of a new life

As he was falling, Harry's consciousness was already declining. However, he still managed to see Nova-C-8394 clashing one last time against the magnetic barrier. Its ethereal body had now turned to a near smoke-like state, but at least, with this breach, it would now be able to escape into space. The old drunkard smiled slightly, knowing that the three Cifer's members, along with Penny, would be able to do the same.

If he was in good enough condition, Harry would've sighed: in truth, he didn't really want to die now. Even if most of him was tired of life, there was still a part that wanted to get on the spatial ship with Penny. Restart a new life and become a better person, to finally be happy with people he loved...

But he knew it wouldn't be possible: commanding a Nova beast was a very difficul process. If it wasn't for Nova-C-8394 still being weak due to its interrupted growth, he couldn't even have dreamt of creating a device that could command it with his limited ressources. Even then, for his device to work, he had been forced to stay close to the phenix-like beast.

For an instant, just a short one, he thought his noise-cancelling headphones would be enouh to survive the nightmarish shockwaves caused by the repeated clashes against the magnetic barrier, and that he would then be able to join the spatial ship too, but reality sadly catched up.

Now that he was approaching his inevitable death, for some reason, everything around him seemed slow, almost stopped in time. He felt as if he stopped falling, as if everything around him had disappeared. 

Suddenly, a memory came back to his mind: the one where he met his wife.

In truth, it was probably one of the most ordinary encounter ever: they just met at work, exchanged some good words, and that was it. Such a boring first encouter...

Yet, finally remembering this moment filled him with melancholic happiness: the first time their fingers touched, the first time he heard her beautiful voice. All those little things he had forgotten overtime, he was sincerly happy.

All of a sudden, he felt like he wasn't this old obese, unshaved and tired drunkard anymore. It was as if he was back in his late twenties... when Stelly was still alive. He saw her standing there, in front of him, in a vast expanse of nothingness. 

"Stelly... is that really you?" he asked.

Her beautiful lips contorted into a sad smile, as she took him in her arms:

"Of course not, my love. I'm just a creation of your subconscious"

Harry laughed:

"Heh, I guess it was too good to be true... after all, there's nothing after death, is it?"

Stelly's hallucination didn't answer, and hugged him tighter. Despite the familiar warm that was making him feel safe and peaceful, he could still vaguely notice the coldness that was infiltrating his real body.

"I... heh, can't say I'm not sad, but I'm not disappointed either. After all, would there really be an afterlife for someone like me who entrusted my first daughter to corrupted political power-hungry bastards, and my second one to inter-planetary criminals? Hehe, bet even the Silent devil wouldn't want such an irresponsible drunkard in their hell, else it'd crumble in weeks, hehe"

His laughter died as the dreadful coldness was infiltrating his body more and more:

"I know it's stupid, but can you tell me that it's really you? That I'm about to join you in your eternal rest, and finally reach happiness in the afterlife, with you and our daughter?"

"Of course I can" the hallucination replied, kissing his forehead. "It's me, Stelly, and I'm happy to finally be with you once again. Now, we'll finally be able to rest happy, together and forever"