By Zephyria 
One of Aska’s wings looked much longer than my height. With both wings spread out, his presence was overwhelming. With a single flap, our plummeting bodies slowly floated upwards.
Perhaps due to air resistance, I felt a crushing force from above, momentarily taking my breath away, but I quickly recovered.
I widened my eyes and looked at Aska’s face. His eye color had turned dark red, and his pupils seemed slightly elongated. Honestly, I was incredibly surprised, but I remembered that Aska didn’t want to show me this side of him, so I tried my best to act nonchalant.
“Cool…”
And just as I was about to compliment his wings, our bodies suddenly tilted to the side. Instead of falling downwards or rising upwards, we started charging towards the cliff at a strange angle.
“Where are we going?”
I was flustered, but I asked calmly again. Aska couldn’t hide his embarrassment and hurriedly opened his mouth.
“The wings…”
“Huh? Ugh!”
What would happen if we charged towards the cliff at this speed? We’d crash, of course…
With a loud crash, we collided with the cliff, and a huge impact struck my entire body. Fortunately, Aska had wrapped his wings around us to protect us just before the collision, so I wasn’t hurt.
Bang, crash! Bang!
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“No, ahh! What are you doing, ugh! Ah!”
“The wings! Ugh! They won’t move! Ah!”
Aska shouted urgently, but it was hard to respond. We were sliding down the cliff, rolling around like balls. We kept bumping into things and getting stuck in the corners of the cliff, only to be bounced out again.
“Fly the other way! The other way!”
“How!”
“There’s no path here!”
“Ah!”
“Ugh!”
For someone who had confidently taken out his wings, his flying skills were terrible. Perhaps realizing it was hopeless, Aska planted his feet on the cliff and pushed off with all his might.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, we didn’t tilt back towards the cliff. But this time, we were falling upside down, headfirst. And we were spinning like a pinwheel.
“Aska.”
Even though I felt nauseous and my stomach was churning, I tried my best to remain calm. At this rate, we might both end up splattered to death.
“Calm down and focus on the wings slowly. I’ll hold on tight, so relax your arms and legs and just focus on the wings.”
Aska, who had been panicking, quickly regained his composure at my words. His breathing was still rough, but I could see him trying. I looked steadily into Aska’s eyes while hanging upside down.
“Don’t try to fly upwards, just try to move them.”
“They’re not moving well.”
“Don’t be impatient, take your time. We still have a long way to fall, so don’t look down.”
Actually, we didn’t have much time left. At this speed, we were almost certainly going to die. Aska’s body was strong, so he might not die, but I was definitely going to die.
Still, I didn’t rush him and waited patiently, and one of his wings started to move little by little. The balance was off, so we tilted to the side again, but the falling speed decreased, and the spinning stopped.
After waiting longer, the other wing, which hadn’t moved at all, also started to move. But the problem was that the two wings weren’t moving together, but out of sync.
So, the left wing would go up while the right wing went down, and so on…
It would be hard to do that on purpose, but Aska had managed to do the impossible.
“I just took out my wings for the first time.”
He said apologetically, looking embarrassed, as if he couldn’t believe it himself.
“It’s okay, it happens. I also fell and bumped my forehead when I first started walking.”
“…”
“Stop both of them and try moving them again from the beginning.”
Aska nodded at my words. But unlike his response, there was no sign of the movement stopping. Aska struggled for a while with an uncomfortable expression and asked me.
“How do I stop them?”
I had never had wings, so of course, I didn’t know. Now that we were really close to the ground, I had no choice but to change course with shock therapy.
“Aska.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and whispered with the heart of someone facing death.
“If we’re reborn in the next life, will you marry me again?”
“What?”
“I’m so glad that the last thing I see before I die is your face.”
As soon as I thought I should cry, tears quickly welled up in my eyes. Aska’s eyes, which were looking at me from a close distance because we were stuck together, widened like saucers.
Then, with a pale face, he hugged me tightly. I buried my face in Aska’s chest and made sobbing sounds while trembling.
Soon after, the wings that had been moving out of sync finally stopped. The moment the fall accelerated, a pair of wings moved simultaneously and soared upwards.
I wanted to kiss him right away for doing so well, but I thought that would make him lose his tension, so I just pretended to be scared and kept trembling.
The flight became smooth, as if it were a lie that we had been crashing into the cliff and spinning upside down just a moment ago. We occasionally wobbled and suddenly soared upwards, but in the end, we were able to land safely.
As soon as my feet touched the ground, I kissed Aska’s chin and cheeks indiscriminately.
“See, you can do it if you try, right?”
“Were you crying?”
The tears had already dried a long time ago, so I pretended not to know.
“No? More than that, let’s take a look at the wings…”
I let go of Aska, whom I had been holding, and took a step back. It was to see the wings that I hadn’t been able to see in detail earlier. But the big wings had disappeared in the meantime. Only the torn and tattered top and robe, which had been ripped when the wings came out, were barely hanging on his body.
“What happened to the wings?”
Aska didn’t answer and grabbed my cheeks with both hands, forcing me to lift my head. I pouted my lips because my cheeks were pressed in and said in an awkward tone.
“Take them out again. I couldn’t see them properly earlier.”
“…”
“I only remember that they were black.”
It seemed that seeing me cry had been quite a shock, as Aska’s expression was more serious than when we were in danger of falling to our deaths.
His eyes were full of things he wanted to say, so I waited, but his mouth didn’t open. He didn’t know what to say first.
I was just acting, but it was a bit embarrassing that he was taking it so seriously.
“I think it’s more effective to just push me off a cliff than to praise and encourage me when I see you,”
I said, clearing my throat, to Aska, who was still silent.
“I mean, when learning something. There are people who don’t do well when their bodies are comfortable and their stomachs are full, but suddenly do things they couldn’t do when they’re in extreme situations. You’re exactly like that.”
“So you pretended to cry on purpose?”
“Yeah. I’m kind of like that too, so I know.”
“…”
Suddenly, Aska’s hands, which were holding my cheeks tightly, tightened even more. I opened and closed my mouth like a goldfish and asked.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, I feel annoyed, but I also don’t…”
What is he annoyed about? Anyway, isn’t it a good thing that he can fly well now?
Aska just stared at me, who was still opening and closing my mouth, with a complex expression. Then, he let go of my cheeks and grabbed my lips.
“But is there really a next life?”
If he’s going to ask a question, shouldn’t he let go of my lips? I couldn’t answer, so I just shrugged. Aska stared blankly at me and then belatedly took his hand off my lips and muttered to himself.
“Where do people go when they die?”
“Well, wouldn’t they go to heaven or hell?”
They’ll just become soil or sand and become fertilizer for the land, I guess. But I didn’t bother saying this to protect Aska’s innocence.
I took off Aska’s clothes, which were torn and tattered and barely hanging on his upper body. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but all the wounds that had been there were gone.
Are they healing well? I pretended to be organizing his clothes and fiddled with his shoulders and arms, then found a large scar on his left chest. Is this the only one that hasn’t healed yet? It looks a bit different from the lightning-like split scars I saw before…
I unconsciously reached out towards it, and Aska asked.
“Can I go there too?”
For some reason, the scar looked like it hadn’t been there for long, so I frowned deeply and observed it closely before raising my gaze.
“Where?”
“To heaven or hell.”
My throat suddenly tightened. It sounded like he was saying he would follow me wherever that place was.
The surroundings were a mess with the wreckage of something broken, rotten and broken trees, and collapsed piles of stones. But at least for now, I couldn’t see any of that.
It felt as if pink, sky blue, and pastel-toned bubbles were floating in the air like a scene from a fairy tale.
“…”
I don’t even know if heaven or hell really exists, or if the destination of humans and Magical creatures is the same. We simply become fertilizer when we die, but I thought it wouldn’t be bad to have some absurd dreams from today onwards.
I moved my lips and answered a beat late.
“Of course…”
Thwack!
Something burst through the dirt-filled floor and pierced Aska’s shoulder. He was relaxed, and it happened so quickly that there was no time to react.
The scene of bright red blood droplets splattering into the air was replayed in slow motion. I rolled my eyes and caught sight of something unidentified that looked like a black oil spear with a shiny obsidian-like surface.
At that moment, the back of my neck turned cold, and goosebumps ran all over my body. When I closed and opened my eyes, Aska was pulling me towards him. At the same time as Aska’s arm covered my face, a chilling sound struck my eardrums.
Three thorns thicker than fingers, with the same texture as the one that had pierced his shoulder, were embedded in Aska’s forearm.