Seraphic Wings

138. Final Goodbye

Corvus finds himself standing in a flower field. As he looked around, he saw that the flowers were all the same type and, on closer inspection, he also saw that they were red spider lilies. From his knowledge of plants and knowing various cultures, he knew they can mean a final goodbye. Feeling confused about where he exactly was, he started to walk in a random direction. After walking a short while, that was when he saw them. The things that he always tries to ignore, considering the heartache they caused so many years ago. Behemoth, Ziz and Leviathan, and he noticed that they seemed like they were hovering in the sky. It also looked like all three of them were intertwined with each other, but there was something off with them. It looked like they were fading? It was, in a way.... Quite sad. Those things have always scared him. Their powers scared him, which was the reason why he entrusted the four elemental spirits to keep them imprisoned.

Feeling somewhat curious, Corvus proceeded to walk on. He then started to notice that the flowers started to become sparse and, what was once a field of flowers turned into something that looked like it had been torn apart by war. The terrifying trio was still in the sky hovering, but they were still slowly fading away. As he kept walking, he didn't notice that the weather changed and it started to pour down with rain. As it hit him, the rain made him both cold and very alone. As he hugged himself, he noticed a lone figure slumped on the ground and, as he briefly looked to the side, he made a mournful sound. For there, lying on the ground, was the wind spirit Zephyr, the mighty white bird. But he was not moving and a light breeze, due to the rain, moved his feathers. Feeling somewhat concerned and confused, Corvus continued walking on ahead but, on either side of the path that he was walking on, he noticed what was left of the fire spirit, Eldur and a mound of earth that he could only guess used to be Terra. This wasn't right. Was this a nightmare? It had to be. As Corvus continued walking past the unmoving beings, he spotted something on the ground right in front of him. As he looked down at his feet, he saw the whimpering water spirit, Laminar, on the floor. For some reason, this hit him hard. Laminar was a docile being, much smaller and calmer than the other three. As Corvus bent down to pick Laminar up in the palm of his hands, the little water dragon looked at him briefly before bursting into water and cascading from his hands. As Corvus stayed crouched down, staring at his partially wet hands, he didn't notice a few white feathers flutter by.

"This isn't right...."

As Corvus swallowed something that was hiding deep in the back of his throat, he stood up and headed straight to the slumped over figure. Answers were needed. As he marched towards them, he realised that they were sitting directly under those Celestials, but it definitely was someone. As he crouched down in front of the slumped figure, he realised that he was actually staring at himself.

"It's a nifty trick, isn't it?" The other 'Corvus' weakly mentioned, as he slowly lifted his head.

"But you're....." Corvus' eyes widened.

"Dead? Kinda.... What I did to save your life was more than just a mere swap, they..." He trailed off as another white feather fluttering on the rain breeze and, as he saw it, he pulled a sad expression. "... They gave their essence up to even accomplish all of this. For a full clean swap, like we managed to pull off? It was no easy feat...."

".... Spirit walking." Corvus told him.

"Heh.... So you are aware of it...."

"Yes."

Corvus narrowed his eyes as he stared at his other self. Spirit walking was a rare technique where you can interact with the dead or phase steps in and out of certain realities. Victus can naturally do it, and Nocte could too. Corvus could do it as well, thanks to the water spirit, but he saw no use in it anyway and, when he even thought about doing it before, he remembered that he had already locked them away. However, as he was no longer locked away, he still had no desire to do it. So his other self managed to pull off that entire swap with a powered up spirit walk... Intriguing.