Alitia: Welcome to Millenia

L: To Tear the Moon From the Sky

Luce could feel arms around her when she next came to.

She slowly fluttered her eyes open and saw a variety of faces standing above her. Closer examination showed that it was all her friends. The person who was holding her was shown to be Michaela. Myra and Chester were there as well, both of them clinging Sylvia's hands tightly. If Luce had hated tight spaces, the moment would have set her off in a panic due to the countless other bodies around her.

"I'm glad to see you're awake," Michaela told Luce, pulling her a bit closer into a loose hug. "Is there anything you need?"

Luce let one hand drift up to her head, and she massaged her temple lightly. The vision of Dawn came to mind, and she couldn't help but wonder if that had actually happened or not. It had a hazy, dreamlike quality to it, but it was nearly impossible to tell for sure what had actually taken place. She wanted to know the truth, but she knew mentioning it would yield no results.

"I don't think so," Luce murmured. She looked down to her stomach and realized fully that she had transformed back to normal at some point. However, that wasn't the surprising part to her.

"My injury... It's gone!" Luce gasped, her hands drifting over her abdomen. There were no signs of the blood that had covered her skin during the fight with Iago. It appeared as if that whole battle had never even happened, and she didn't know whether she should feel relieved or unsettled at that realization.

"Injury?" Sophia echoed.

Luce nodded. "Yeah... He got me in the stomach, and when I passed out, there was blood everywhere, but... Not now," she explained. She glanced around the area and saw there were no stains of crimson on the ground anywhere. In fact, the only notable location with red was a few yards away.

"It looks like you finished him off," Carys commented, gesturing over to where Iago's corpse rested. The grass around him was coated with a layer of scarlet, and he wasn't moving. Everything about him was lifeless, and Luce couldn't help but think about how this was the way she preferred him to be.

Luce smiled to herself. "We did it... Come in, girls," she told them.

With that, the eight other girls came in to hug Luce tightly. Their embrace was more a mess of limbs than anything else, but none of them seemed to mind, instead enjoying the moment silently. Myra and Chester watched on silently, in their right minds for the first time in years. Michaela released Luce as the embrace began, smiling on at the young girls fondly.

"We should return to Alitia. I'm sure there's a lot of work to be done back there," Michaela suggested as the hug started to wind down. She rose to her feet and reached out a hand to help the nearest girl, who happened to be Tanith, to her feet.

The nine girls pulled apart from each other and rose fully. There were no objections as the twelve people started the trek back to Alitia. Joy was left unspoken in the air, and smiles were on all their faces.

At long last, the Thanatos line had been cut short. The curse on the children of the Loveknot line had been broken. The war had ended, and light had arrived once again.

~~~~~

Back at Alitia, Cryon was standing next to the gateway of the school. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he stared out into the horizon. In any other situation, he would have been up with Lianna, checking to make sure that she was alright, but he couldn't do such while she was being healed. Alistair and Zylphia were insistent that she would be okay, but they had to take a little while to heal her and restore her magic. Cryon didn't want to risk getting in the way, so he stood silently outside the courtyard and waited for Luce to return.