tbate | The Storm Gods Chosen [Dropped]

Ch 131 Goodbye, my Friend

I felt the world shift sickenly around me. The room felt like it lurched suddenly before slamming into the ground. My eyes forced open were greeted by the stone ceiling of the Typhon's infirmary.

I felt Claire, Zephyr, and Balmung through our bonds as well as their concern and worry. All of their emotions faded out of my mind as I closed them out of my mind, I didn't want them to see or even feel my mind when I was like this.

Taking a shuddering breath, I pushed my emotions deep down. Each breath was calmer than the last as I bottled up my emotions. Knowing that every time I did this it was because of death, I still did it anyways and found an unsettling sense of nostalgia from it.

Pushing the thought from my mind I turned my attention inwards to my body. My mana was leaking out of my channels, veins, and core like a punctured hose; my core was still intact and functioning fine other than being numb and sore all over.

My body was covered in bandages, some sections of the bandages were corroded and rotted away from the blood that leached out of my wounds. The fact the bandages were even still on me means most of the poison in my blood was purified recently.

Footsteps slowly approached the door that opened soon after, but before she could speak I cut her off, "How long have I been out, Myre?" She sighed softly under her breath before answering.

"Four days, Your wife did quite a good job healing you: however your mana core, channels and vessels were stained to the point that if you had still been human the backlash would have killed you," Her eyes scanned over me with an amused curiosity before she looked me dead in the eyes.

"That being said, the damage your mana arts caused to Alacrya would have killed most Asura with the backlash alone." She said with a dark tone.

"Such a technique would be better guarded by the Indrath clan-," Before she continued on I laughed below my breath, Myre stopped speaking and raised a brow. "What's so amusing?"

"The fact you think I would fall for that," I could see the frustration in her eyes that I noticed her ploy, "Kezess had the World Eater unleashed on Elenoir to kill a single target that ended up escaping just to send a message to Agrona in the original timeline." I purposely didn't mention it was Cecilia to be on the safe side.

Pushing myself to my feet, I withdrew some elven robes from Gramps that he sent me at my request and slipped them on, elven robes always were a lot more comfortable than most of the other casual clothing I had.

My memory is a bit hazy but the technique I used to annihilate Vechor was one of Boreas's Thunderbolts. Even with my Chimera body composed of some of the strongest bloodlines of Asura's alive, it put me out of commission for 4 days.

"I won't pry into your love life but Kezess isn't trustworthy. After all, his inflated ego is the reason why the storm clan was nearly wiped out." I said in a cold tone as I passed by her on the way to the door.

"If your view of him is so bad, why do you work together with him?" she spoke over her shoulder.

"This war threatens my family, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But don't get me wrong this whole fucking situation was because of Kezess's selfish need to keep aether to himself, and Agrona finding out." I spoke aloud standing in the door frame.

I chuckled under my breath before continuing, "If you look at it closely this whole war, Sylvia and Sylvie's deaths, as well as the Djin and the Storm clan being wiped out, was all because of Kezess being a fucking narcissistic maniac."

Myre signed below her breath in defeat, "yes, I suppose you're right." as I walked out the door.

Withdrawing my medallion and pushing mana into it the artifact chimed softly as it connected to Elijah's, "Where's Arthurs's grave." my voice cracked as I choked back the emotions from overwhelming me.

"After all that the first thing you do is ask that? Claire's worried about you."

"Answer my fucking question." I snapped back, I didn't need to see his face to picture his expression.

"... The foot of the mountain overlooking Ashber," Elijah relented.

"Thanks, Elijah,"

"I know how it feels but it's not good to hold onto those emot-" his voice cut out as I broke the connection and opened a portal in front of me to the mountain.

Stepping out of the multicoloured portal I looked towards the ruins of Ashber destroyed in my fight against Androxus. I walked aimlessly on the path of the mountain before sensing two familiar mana signatures.

The guardian bear grumbled at me before settling down next to his bond curled up in front of the graves overlooking their hometown.

A marble statue of Arthur standing tall in his lance uniform wearing the crown of Elenoir resting his hands on dawn's ballad with Sylv's dragon form overshadowing him with her wings spread in a protective manner around him.

Hundreds of different bouquets were placed around the grave breathing the freshly dug soil around it.

I stood next to Ellie, her head buried in her arms weeping softly Boo pushed up right around her comforting her as best he could.

"... why? Why did this happen?" She choked out between sniffles. "one day we were eating together and laughing and now they're gone."

"I'm all that's left." her voice crackled and broke as she struggled over the words.

I felt my emotions start to force their way to the surface as I wiped a tear from my eyes, "I'm sorry I couldn't save him. I failed him, I failed all of us." I couldn't find the words to describe what I truly felt but this was the closest I could get.

She didn't respond, didn't shake her head or anything, she just sat there unmoving.

Looking down I saw the plaque on the statue, "In Loving Memory of Arthur Leywin, Future king of Elenoir and beloved by all."

Next to his grave was Alice and Reynolds buried together, one of Reynolds' gauntlets was crossed over an old staff likely Alice's from her time as an adventurer. A dagger left by Jasmine was sat there as a gift she meant as an anniversary present but she never had the chance.

"For better or worse till death do us part." Their grave read, reminding me of the oath I made to Claire. She's a white but I'm an Asura now, I'll outlive everyone.

I'll be alone all over again eventually.

"Dammit!" I cursed aloud, taking a flask from my ring and lifting it to my lips before stopping on the first drop that entered my mouth. It's the same drink I shared with Arthur in the auction house.

"... For old times sake." I drank a sip before pouring the rest out on the ground for Arthur, before refilling the flask with the same liquor and leaving it at the base of the statue.

Resting my hand on the statue and closing my eyes, I nudged Stasis into the statue. It rushed along the sharp edges and soft contours, into the subtle striations within, grabbing onto the patterns I remembered covering his body.

Ellie's breath caught, and I opened my eyes. A light sheen of swirling blues and purples, seeming to move constantly inside the stone, swirling and flowing like water into the runic patterns of Realmheart across his body.

"Rest easy Arthur, I'll keep Ellie safe and end all this bloodshed," I spoke softly while the tears running down my face froze and flaked off.