Yuri's Death

[22:31] Compelled to fight for him, to bring him back. Promises were made, improvement occurred. Regardless of all said, he at least found a true oath and pledge, one to them.

And before their eyes it crumbled, dragged away and only they bore the burden of loss today.

Was it worth it? Lying like that? For the Hel that would ensue following their return? Forces retreat and all is far too overwhelming, even when made forward they're pushed back and back.

The wrong choice was made today. Avlainn should've been taken and a trade should have been made. Or the two should have died together.

Desperate to see him return, they gave in.

But it pulls them back- Retreating forces of demonkind alike would leave the battlefield. If lingering for too long, then they'd be at risk.

Eyes fall upon the downed, fallen Radiant. Even though they don't speak, it should reach him as the electricity around them falls.

Hopefully the Queen slept soundly at night.

Turning their back or fighting would be their beloved would die. To save themself, to live and move on.. They fall back.
(Jianyu Xi)
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[22:31] Jianyu Xi says in telepathy, I love you, Yuri.
[22:39] But remember that your choices are the ones that you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life.

This grief is one she had carried with her for eleven years now. Emotional back and forths. The obsession of a manipulative young Knight. Once, she had tried to support him. Once, she had tried to urge him to be happy.

He had found that with Jianyu. He had sought to strip her happiness in return.

These protestors... these preachers of honour... what did they know about what Yuri had done? About the grief he had caused his home? To hell with the Rhoynish bitch and her unwarranted commentary.

Jianyu is spared a glance, and Yuri spurred another -

The agony and heartbreak that sits upon her countenance is one of a woman who did not wish to commit the inevitable. But Anastasia's decree had beckoned a single command from her lips -

Yuri is to be executed by my hand. Nobody needs to bear the burden of my mistakes but me.

The former Radiant is not offered a smile, and the alleged consequences of those who knew naught about what he'd done fall on deaf eras. That waning, quiet spurt of emotion twines in her chest still, but this decree had sat years in the making -

While Tea and Alexios occupy, a sudden twist of her wrist beckons the ethereal, a pointed sluggishness that draws their immediate surroundings to a slow, and a potent boon of mana that compresses unto the heart of Yuri from all angles.

A goreless death. A quick one, too. She is merciful in his final moments, though offers not a single word to the man who had sought to take her everything.

Just as Yuri's heart had guided him into the arms of a beloved, so too would that same heart stand as the cause for his descent into a shallow grave for his treachery and betrayals.
(Aeliana rei Petrakis)
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[22:53] I love you, Yuri.

The words that ring in his mind didn't take long to bring tears to his eyes. He felt a weight descending upon his heart, yet, it felt like it was trying to crawling out of his throat. He could hardly breathe. He could hardly see the world before his eyes, beneath the waters.

With all the fear that had consumed him Yuri had forgotten for a moment that his life was one that had grown into a happy one. One he could be proud of. One he shouldn't run away from. His lips inched into a smile, even with Aeliana's blade at his neck. A breath was drawn and the decision was finally made proper. He'd always wondered what he would say moments before his death. He never was good with words, with catchphrases, with anything of the sort.

He could have told Aeliana that in the end he was there with her even in his last moments, through happy and sad. To wonder if for her which of these two it was.

He could have apologized for ruining her life.

He could have apologized for ruining Avlainn's life.

He could have apologized for ruining Jianyu's life.

But the latter seemed impossible to just say like that. Sure, they'd gone through bad, horrible things. But what they had... it wasn't a joke. It wasn't a mistake or an accident. He completed them, and they completed him. He left for the sake of happiness. And for the sake of happiness would he be falling before everyone's eyes. The world's happiness? Certainly not.

This was all for Jianyu. From start to finish. Never had been manipulated, twisted, or made to do something he never wanted to do. It may have been rough. Toxic to some, but to the both of them there was a... magic to it. Those afternoons spent laying in bed, tinkering with rocks while Jianyu leaned up against him.

That night on the beach where a bit more of their heart was shed forth for him to see, wherehe heard them sing and hummed along. They both sucked at dancing, but swaying from side to side with the one you love was... plenty enough, wasn't it? They needed not to attend that masquerade; all the eyes that mattered were upon Jianyu that night.

Yuri could feel a pressure on his heart. Was it the mana that would allow him to be dragged into the depths of Hel or merely the sensation one feels when reminiscing their loved one moments before death? Yuri wasn't certain, but there was a smile on his lips as Aeliana could not dare to draw one.

If there was one thing he hadn't lied about or misinterpreted with his words it was the fact he was happy. He'd been granted something that few could ever claim they held. Lips parted and he felt his heart failing.

He could smell the scent of incense. The smell of warm tea waiting for him. It was... humid. Quiet. Beautiful in its own way. A warm embrace presented from a lower height. One of the few. Those flowers were always so beautiful, weren't they?

How could he ever think about cutting them away from his life.

Aeliana may never forgive him, but maybe one day she would understand what drove him mad, what drove him to the point of being ready to hurt others, to ruin lives for the one he loved. That smile of his shone before the harsh reality of his surroundings. That heart of his stopped beating, yet, it could still love.

Those who awaited the fear in his heart to show itself would be disappointed. In the most dire of moments was the one who'd always been there for him still present. In his mind. In his heart. The time for apologies was long gone, he didn't want that last memory they shared to be a bade one. The last words Yuri would ever speak were ones he'd never said; a retort that had never been spurred on out of fear from a certain Shengese.

"I love you too, Jianyu.

Now, and forever."
(Yuri)
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[23:18] The commentary of Tea beckons naught in response. What did she know, raised in her little faux-Kingdom away from the world? Raised behind the walls of a populace that turned their eyes away and refused to fight. What did she know, through her lift spent gallivanting, crafting her little potions and brews, pretending she had an ounce of sense of the world?

She was no Princess. She was barely even a warrior. Mayhaps the grandeur of false titles had elevated her to imaginary plains, but it stirs Aeliana none -

The Queen of Nothing would live with this burden. The death of Yuri meant the survival of many. It meant the survival of the very honour Tea preached against. It meant the breakage of oaths pledged to Esshar bore true consequence.

Her golden gaze does not diverge from his own in those final moment. Would he be thankful she allowed Jianyu to live, or would he hate her from the pits of Hel?

It hardly mattered. Yuri hadthreatened to take everything, and reneged on every last promise he'd made to childhood friends and family. These reparations were necessary.

Even if it broke her heart. Even if it stripped some innate, humane part of her away to see her beloved, dearest friend die at her hands.

A single utterance sits upon her lips, audible for none but the dying Knight aside her.

Today, love would not be the death of duty.

She witnesses every last second as vibrant ebbs of life fade from Yuri's emerald hues. A delicate hand finds refuge upon his cheek as he falls, wilted to a crumbled, lifeless heap of limbs. She witnesses it not out of joy, but an innate necessary to face the consequences of her own actions.

"...victory is ours.

Secure the wounded and -

And make haste back to Myllenoris."
(Aeliana rei Petrakis)
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[23:20] Aeliana rei Petrakis whispers to Yuri: I'm sorry... I'll love you always, Bestest Friend of Nysea.