The tears of a creation.

John instantly ripped his hand free. Seeing their difference in strength John should have been unable to, but it was surprisingly easy. “What?! Are you defying me? Are you going to stop me again? Are you going to make me suffer all over again?” He shouted at her without thinking, the anger, which he had assured Aclysia would dull and vanish in time, breaking out with the **** of repressed thoughts.

Aclysia took a step back; her face betrayed her fear, the fear of falling into disarray with her creator, the most important person in her life. Yet this was replaced with determination a breath later. “If that is what it takes to save you.” “I will not die, we have a safety precaution,” John said as his eyes kept his eyes steady on the monster table. What should he kill next? “I am not talking about saving your life; I want to save you, John!”

His eyes wandered to Aclysia again. He was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Since when was she capable of crying? “Do you think I enjoyed leaving Mistress Rave behind?” She asked sincerely, “No, but…” John wanted to say something, anything, that would justify his anger, but it melted away as Aclysia kept speaking, sobbing.

“I love her; I love both of you. I can only feel this way because you made me, John, because you decided to make me more than just a being based on protecting you because you helped me understand what I am,” she tried to wipe away the tears but more just kept flowing, “I hated myself for doing what I did. I understand that you are angry with me and every second that you are away from Rave hurts you; I can see that. I envy that, and I hope that you feel the same for me.”

John was completely dumbfounded. They stood in this plane of nothingness as Aclysia, little figurine Aclysia, quiet except for when she had questions, laid open her feelings to him. “Every second we are apart, I see you agonizing over what happened, and it breaks my heart. I understand that we need to save her, I want to save her.” Finally, she gave up trying to wipe away the tears as she shouted at him, the first time ever she raised her voice like that, “BUT WHAT IS SAVING HER WORTH IF IT BREAKS YOU IN THE PROCESS?!”

She stumbled towards him, fell against his chest as she embraced him, “In that fight just now you just threw caution to the wind because you didn’t care. Even as those rats ate away at you, we could all hear your thoughts.”

“I do not approve of self-sacrifice,” said Salamander as she burned in the air. “I do not approve of selfishness,” added Sylph, “I do not approve of carelessness,” finalized Gnome.

“You didn’t care if you broke. It wasn’t a tactical move of yours; it was your desire to get stronger quickly.” “How would you know that?” John asked, baffled. “We…” “…are…” “...all…” “…You…” The girls said in turns. “”We are all you John, we are the bigger picture, the parts and the sum of you.””

“Have you even stopped to think about Undine?” asked Gnome as she stood firmly on the ground, “Have you even stopped to heal?” added Sylph, “Have you even stopped to relax?” finalized Salamander.

“Have you not noticed? We all care about you John, so I want to say this to you now. This is not you. I accepted that you would need time to forgive yourself and me but I will not stand quietly as you destroy yourself. You will sacrifice yourself if it means saving Rave, John. You have barely talked, you have only rested the minimum, you have not lusted after anyone, you preserved your caution for the longest time, so I had hope, but you seem to deconstruct rather than become again who you are. I cannot bear to see you like this.”

Aclysia raised her tear-stained face off his chest and looked him into the eyes. The light-green of her wet eyes reflected his own face. John had not realized how tired he looked but now that he saw, his whole body, already strained from the lack of HP, slowly collapsed under the mental stress. Tears welled up in his eyes. “I miss her,” he whispered.

“We understand your suffering,” stated Sylph as she danced in the winds. “We understand your regret,” added Gnome. “We understand your desire,” finalized Salamander. “We all want your best,” Aclysia raised her head up to his, her lips slowly closing in, “Please, as much as it torments you, as much as you might desire against it, as much as you think it a waste of time in this situation, please, take the time to preserve yourself. Saving Rave at the cost of yourself is not something she would want. Can you promise me that, John?”

His answer was his lips pressing on hers. He was so tired. His body, his mind, the loss of recent times. He was so tired and yet as they shared a moment of honesty he felt awake, he felt what he had been missing, love. It was a cliché thing but the comfort of another human, even if that human was without a heartbeat and not natural, caring about him mended the pain of his soul.

What he felt towards Aclysia at this moment was different than what he could have ever anticipated feeling for her. When he had made her to fulfill a perverted fantasy over when she had become conscious, he never stopped once to think about his feelings for her, only ever just accepting that she was part of his family. However, she had turned into so much more.

He loved her. Not like he loved Rave, dearly and from the depths of his heart, but nevertheless a true love that came from himself. A proud and honest love, impure in nature and desire but nevertheless as true as the fact that the sun would rise again tomorrow. The kiss they shared at that moment cemented his feelings for her for eternity.

Their lips departed. “You are right. I can not go on like this. Jane would not have sacrificed herself to see me end like this,” he admitted, “Neither would she want me to destroy myself over the attempt to rescue her.”

Aclysia just quietly nodded. John looked over to the elementals. “I was actually worried for a moment there, whoyee, JohnTron, you sure make my existence interesting….but don’t do that again I mean this whole thing makes me really jealous I can’t f-,” Sylph babbled and randomly looped through the air until being caged in Gnomes hands, the earth she was made of reliable shut out all noises. “We should rest for today, John,” she offered a plan, “The gains were small but gains nonetheless.” “Also get Undine back, I wanna apologize,” Salamander scrubbed her head, “Maaan, why is burning so much fun?”

John failed miserably at a smile, “Sure,” he nodded and turned completely from the Monster Spawn menu. They left the Gate behind for today.