Heart of the Sandstorm

 is an event in SINoALICE.

Parrah:

…

Noya:

It’s been a while!

Parrah:

Aw, don’t look at us like that!

Noya:

It’s just more nightmares for you to end!

Parrah:

There’s one with a rather unique body, in fact!

Noya:

I know, I know. It’s a pain.

Parrah:

Let’s cozy up with a local!

Noya:

Ah! Here’s a nice one!

Parrah:

Handle it well and take it out, okay?

Noya:

Have fuuun!

In Search of a Miracle
“I’m sorry I’m a disappointment.”

“Please… Won’t you scold me?”

My dearest grew weaker.

If I had one wish, it would be for her to admonish me like she used to.

I knew she would notice my absence when she awoke from her slumber.

That she would worry about me.

That it would be bad for her health.

But I had to go through with it.

It was the only way I knew how to save her.

It would be dangerous,

but it was a path I had to take.

A Maiden’s Resolution
Her illness tirelessly ate away at her.

Her bandages, hot with fever, filled me with fear no matter how often I changed them. So I held onto the doctor’s dubious prescription.

It may have been nothing more than legend, but I sought it anyway.

I was sick of being the one helped.

If I completed the trial, I could show her my strength. She would no longer need to sacrifice for me…

Squinting through the fierce sandstorm, I focused on what lay ahead.

A False Covenant
Leering dolls reached out for me.

The person I once was would want to escape their grasp...but I held on.

I would do anything to save my older sister,

to give her a chance to survive. I would even make a deal with the devil himself.

“Will you help me?”

“I can read what is…

...written on this stone.”

“I can help you.”

The words fell out of my mouth.

And, in that moment, we made a deal.

Our hands clasped firmly. The dolls’ eyes, however, warned me to be wary.

Blue Trial
“Wait. There’s something written…

...on this stone.”

I read aloud the words carved into the gravestone to prove my usefulness.

“Thou shalt follow these commands.”

The Trial of Colors

The dolls began to rattle, beckoning me forward.

What I saw...was sickening and bizarre.

Still, my desire to have my older sister recognize my capabilities pushed me onward.

I needed to prove that I could take care of myself.

Magic Seal Trial
“Breaker of the trial laws--”

“Thou shalt abide by the following rules.”

This was carved into the black stone.

We decided to take a break.

The dolls asked me for my motivation.

I knew it wasn’t what they wished to hear,

but I told them the honest truth.

“It’s a simple reason, really.”

“I just want to save someone important to me. That’s all.”

Physical Seal Trial
The dolls were skeptical. Their response echoed through my mind.

My true intentions were not that simple. There was a desperate element to my determination, born of my knowledge of her fate.

I knew after I fell asleep, she endured horrific pain, screaming in silence.

She tried so hard to hide it… What choice did I have but to greet her with the same smile every morning?

Watching my sister make me breakfast,

her tranquil face masking her constant pain,

thrust me into despair and agony.

She suffered for my helplessness.

I could not let it go on any longer.

And so I have decided to challenge these trials, and earn the miracle-making wings.

Red Trial
The trials sapped every ounce of my strength.

Even the battle-hardened dolls lost their breath.

Without regard for my own exhaustion,

I breathlessly read the words on the next trial’s tombstone,

then closed my eyes…

“It must be a lie. It can’t be true.

My sister is strong. How could she possibly become so sick?”

My mind was clouded by fatigue.

Unbidden, my thoughts drifted to the day the two of us met.

Humans, humans humans…

Humans, humans, and more humans.

Countless humans, listless and lifeless,

lay before me, packed like sardines.

I gagged on the putrid stench of decay that enveloped the world.

Not one word was spoken.

They had long since given up on life.

I was forced onto a slave ship,

brought to this sand-covered world,

full of violence,

and the unending waves of the surging sea.

Green Trial
- - - - - - -Flashback- - - - - - -

I looked around the new world in which I had arrived.

Perhaps this was the afterlife,

I thought. I was certain I had died in the previous world.

But now, I was transformed. I had become something ugly in an unseen land.

A beast clad in untamed darkness stood there as if waiting.

It rampaged at the sight of me.

Even this world rejects me,

I thought…

As my will to live waned,

a furious voice spoke up.

“Don’t give up!” she said, chasing away the thread, and bringing me into her arms.

Trial’s End
At last! The final trial was over.

My body, however, could not go on.

“All these trials you have overcome…”

“And for what?”

“You’re bleeding to death.”

The dolls’ smiles mocked me.

I paid them no mind.

“I must...get to her…

Must give her...this...to heal her.”

How would she look at me once she realized the danger I put myself through?

Would she scold me? Or would she,

for the very first time, praise me?

My heart raced as my mind began to fade.

“I must hurry.

I must get this to her…”

Then, before my broken figure,

stood a wolf. Just like before.

Sisters of Sand
Its ferocious fangs descended on me.

I closed my eyes.

Warm splashes of blood rained down.

In that moment, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not.

Powerful and unwanted.

“I looked...everywhere...for you…”

“Don’t...make me...worry like that…”

When I opened my eyes, she was there.

My beloved sister.

“S-Sis...Why…?

Why have you come...all this way?”

“Don’t scare me like that…”

Realizing what I clutched in my hands,

she knelt down and caressed my head.

“Thank...you...for letting…

me be... your big sis…”

“I can’t stay...with you...any longer…

but you can make it...on your own...now.”

I tried to say “Wait! Use these wings!”

but my lips refused to move. My strength was gone. My time was nearly up.

If I could have said one last thing to her, it would have been this:

“I hope we are twins in the next life.”

...She shared the same sentiment.

As we whispered our dying words,

the light enveloping her grew blinding.

“We both felt the same way all along.”

Our tears turned to sand as our bodies grew cold in each other’s arms.

Our eyelids slowly grew heavier, and we closed them for the last time.

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