I left. I didn't think to go back, ever again, for any curiosity or profound need to see if the ending would change, but instead took refuge in the city. I found someplace that looked vaguely safe after scoping out the surroundings, hunkered down, and numbly stared through the slats of the melted metal roof.
Can we...?
Pull her out? Takuya apathetically said, staring up at the sky through my eyes. I think we should.
Working in silence, Takuya and Kaya went to attend the problem of me being stuck in that pool. I didn't really pay attention as I was too unfeeling, unblinking as I dazedly stared upwards. I vaguely knew what had happened, but I didn't really want to think.
We're going to do it now, be prepared.
I didn't hear that, but soon enough my vision blacked out and I felt like I was suffocating. It didn't hurt, really, because I hadn't been breathing before they went to tug me out. It was over quite fast, and soon enough I could look out in reality and breathe.
My senses weren't so intense anymore, so I didn't automatically see 23x better than after I was pulled out, instinctively listen for predators, or smell the surroundings for fire or some other dangerous thing.
I lifted my hand, turning my head slightly to look at it, and saw no claws. I flexed the small brown thing, seeing the tiny fingernails and lines on my palm, the light blue veins under my skin and the muscles that were still forming as I grew up. Good as new. I was a different color than before I became a Dragon - I wasn't aware that you could get tan with scales, but maybe that explained some things about the other Dragons when they took on human forms - but besides that, nothing had changed.
I was wearing no clothes, I noticed when I looked down. There was a thin scratch on my abdomen, likely from when I scratched myself with my tail, but otherwise there was nothing there.
I was just a plain human baby, one that was still the same size as when I last saw myself, having not grown a bit. For a seven year old, I was slightly small for my age. Hm...well, thinking about how tall Hera and Adri were when they were seven, I had no doubt I would catch up in no time. They were still cute even when they're seven, about to turn eight years old...I think. Their birthdays were next year. Actually, what day was it? I was still six years old, wasn't I?
We've lost track of time.
Wasn't it autumn last we were paying attention? Snow was just beginning to come down in Kera, at our cave there.
Octav, I think. Beginning or end, I can't remember.
I lifted up my hands and felt for my ears, finding that they were rounded. I touched my nose, felt the curve of my eyes, smoothed my eyebrows down, wiggled my nose. I ran my hands through my hair, finding that it was automatically combed for me, seeing that it was somehow already down to the middle of my back. I didn't remember it being like that, but I couldn't remember what it felt like to be human at all. I was sure that we woke up mid-Septi from the egg event, when I won the bet. Being a Dragon for two months had screwed up my orientation; I didn't think I could stand properly if I tried.
Are you going to continue sitting there forever, or are we going to get going? Also, check your Status, we need to see if your stats have been reset or not. That would be a problem, seeing how we need to be ready to fight next week. Kaya, you too. Snap out of it.
But Takuya...
I don't care. If you continue on like this, nothing will ever get done. Now, you don't want me taking control of our body, do you? Stand up on your own.
I sat in silence, unhearing. Unseeing too, suddenly, when my vision switched from looking at the ruins of a high tech city to the inside of my soul.
"Didn't you hear me?" Takuya said, standing over my apparatus. The look on his face was one of of seriousness, unforgiving and stern. He was lecturing me about how unproductive it was to be sitting there, wasting the few precious minutes there were left of my short life.
"Why don't I just..." I started thinking, lifting my hands in my soul as well and looking at the black marks covering them. I had maybe a few months left before I was totally eclipsed, I needed to kill another god soon and take blood from it. Then, again, later, and then again, until the time in between was shorter and shorter and I would have to drink it constantly to stay alive. And then, in the end, I would still die a slow and painful demise. "End it?"
"Because that'd be stupid for one," Takuya started while crouching down with a growing look of irritation on his face. He looked like someone just immorally insulted him. "And I would be very mad, for two."
My eyes slid over to him, seeing that Kaya was sitting off to the side and looking into the forest. Her hair swayed slightly across her back from an imaginary wind, but otherwise she was still.
"Do I need to do what Kiki did to Mother and Father to make you wake up?"
"What?" I turned to look at him. "What did she do?"
What did he know that I didn't? More like, how did he know something I didn't?
"It looks like, even after death, you're still so dense," he sighed, while grabbing my hands, pulling me up like a mummy rising from the grave. The grass that had been beneath me crinkled, the golden grass popping back up again, good as new, as he forced me to walk back to the houses. "It was kind of obvious...well, not so obvious, but there was enough context for me to guess what she did after listening in while you were asleep. Also, I had similar plans to do as such in case they didn't come around."
"Do what?"
"Make them take a hike."
"Hike?"
"Guilt trip them. Take them around the world, showing all the great things you've done and all the great things that only could've happened because they loved you. All the things that won't happen because they refuse to be constants in your life over some petty racial tag in your Status." He rolled his eyes as he swung open the Itsuki gate, turning back briefly to yell, "Kaya! You coming or what? We've got work to do, and I'm not picking up your slack! That's what I made you for, baka!"
"I'm not an idiot!" She turned around and snapped, eyes only slightly red. I guess they can't cry here, properly, or she was in the process of hiding it.
"Then get over here."
She stood up abruptly, throwing her shoulders back. After one fuming breath, she turned and came marching over to us with an enraged look on her face.
"What now?" she ground out through her teeth. Her eyes...our eyes, have never looked so black before. So angry, energized, fearful... "How else are we going to succeed in killing ourselves for the greater good of some world that doesn't even care about us?"
"By making you remember what exactly you live for."
Takuya turned around and went into the house, leaving us behind. Curious enough, I went after him. I was the apathetic one of the group, Kaya being the most emotional. Takuya didn't care about our feminine outbursts, even though in this world he was technically female too.
Standing by a bedroom door on the ground level, Takuya turned to look at us.
"Whose bedroom is this?"
I stared at it, remembering. It didn't take that long, because it was the only one in the whole house I'd never been allowed to enter. But just because I wasn't allowed to didn't mean I didn't-
"Mother's."
"Good," Takuya said, moving on. We went up the stairs, going to the first door. "Whose is this?"
"Sumika," Kaya huffed, glaring at it. It was hard to miss. Her name was stamped on arrogantly in the form of a metal sign she ordered online. Gold-colored, of course.
"And this?"
"Naritsu."
We went farther down the hall.
"This other one?"
"Mitsuhiko's. What's your game, Takuya? What are you trying to make us take a trip down messed-up memory lane for?" Kaya was getting impatient, antsy. She looked at the doors, still finding it uncomfortable to be so near them even after all these years. We were the same person, so of course both Takuya and I felt the same need to stay away. He looked like he was braving all of that now, standing there. We were all sweating and looking around like someone was about to come out of the doors, staying away from them, in the center of the narrow hallway.
These people were not family. They were not friends, companions, not even distant acquaintances. Who were they?
"Miserable, terrible people," Kaya stated, looking at certain places and remembering. "What's that to do with anything? That's all behind us now."
Takuya turned around fast, his school uniform flexing. Quickly, he corrected her, "No, it's not. This is our reality, our present. You see that room?" He pointed over to Naritsu's. "That's Anthem's room."
Our minds flared as we realized the connection he was making, not liking it at all. He didn't like it himself. I felt like I was going to throw up while Kaya was paling even more than her skin tone allowed. It had a more healthy glow than the one it used to have when she - on Earth - was still alive.
"No, it's not." Kaya took a step forward, warning Takuya not to say it. The redness was coming to her eyes again. Anymore and she might actually cry, even though he just started.
"You see that room over there?" He pointed behind her, the way we came, towards Mitsuhiko's. He met eyes with her again as I was silent, reaching up my hands to block my ears. That was no use, because he was already speaking directly into my thoughts. "That's Adri's."
"No, it's not!"
"That room, Sumika's? It belongs to Chord. Oh, and Hera too, if you want."
"Shut it, Takuya. Don't say anymore."
"Mother's? Stepfather's? Well, I'm pretty sure you can guess."
"Takuya!"
"Ours?" He turned around, pointing to the end of the dusty hallway, the look on his face being one of pity. He reached up with a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off, trying to play it cool, but failing to all of us. Our anxiety was multiplying itself times three. "It belongs to a shadow. A Demon."
"Takuya..." Kaya couldn't take it anymore, already toe to toe with him. "Please stop."
He looked down at her, seeing that she understood. She'd had enough, didn't need anymore explanation. She could hear the memories behind the doors, seeing the hallway extend and revealing more of them with their terrible labels and misleading words. She didn't want to hear anymore.
History was repeating itself. If I - no, if we - continued down the path we already were in reality, outside of our body, things would end up just the same.
A ruined family, to us. An unwelcome place. Unloving siblings, disgusted parents. All of it, razed, because of a moment of weakness. Instead of leaving, that day, I should've stayed. I should've begged for them to not hate me, made them understand. It's like running away without apologizing.
But at the same time, I knew that staying behind was also wrong. If I kept on talking, if I stayed there, the damage by the things I'd done that I conveyed to them would've been irreparable. They needed time...and I needed it too.
I shouldn't apologize for existing, and they shouldn't apologize for being afraid of something they were taught to fear. We should both just get over it.
Mother already did. When she came to me, that day, she looked ready. Like she wanted to forgive and forget, or just talk. She wanted her daughter back, and at that time I believed I didn't need my mother anymore. I probably substituted Mother with her family, needing at least one crazy redhead other than myself in my life.
And besides, what's the point of living if she's not in my life? The only reason I stayed on that planet, daring to endure all of the pains and agonies, was because of her. Sorry, but it wasn't because of Father, Adri, Hera, Chord, or Anthem. It was because of Mother...and because of how much I wanted one that cared for me. She cared so much; I couldn't have found anyone better to be the one I lived and died for.
Over time, I grew to love all the others too. I mean, how couldn't I? They're family.
They were kind, they were loving, they were weird, they were fun, they were smart, they were witty, they were dense, they were accepting.
They were everything this girl could ever want.
-X-
"Marinette?" I called out, walking into her restaurant. I was in my adult form, the one that looked like the perfect lovely combination between my loving mother and my kind father. I was wearing my trench coat because it was getting cold out. If I didn't wear mine, it would look weird. "Are you in?"
"Sorry," a waitress came up to me, carrying a platter meant for the table that was staring at me from behind. "She's gone out for the day. Something about a friend..."
"Oh, thank you," I nodded my head and smiled, leaving the restaurant as the bells tinkled on the door behind me. The moment I stepped out, I was glad I had remembered my coat. Being in such nice warmth, then thrust out into the cold sea winds - the difference was obvious even to me who was not affected by the cold and heat so intensely.
Now, where could she be? She's always told me to come visit, so she should've been around there somewhere...the only friends of hers that I knew were the three males, and since it would be odd if I suddenly showed up in front of her after finding her with [Radar], I decided to go see the others first.
Now that I think about it, I always appear in front of her randomly anyway...but oh well. I was just in luck; she was with Adoray then, in his office.
So I headed over to his place first.
The square outside of the medical center was quite empty, seeing how it too was too cold for anyone to want to brave the weather. Shutters were closed, chairs for restaurants and tables taken inside. Anything that might fly off was latched down, and all people were so silent in their probably candlelit homes that even I didn't hear them. Dark, stormy clouds were overhead, with rumbling in the distance. The seas were choppy, the boats swaying in the warehouses they'd been placed in. Last time there was a storm that was going to be that bad in Severo, a lot of people almost died. I saved one boat, but it was one of the main rigs around there. One boat meant a lot of people.
Hm?
Thinking about storms and the like reminded me of that notification I got when I saved them. I believed it was something like the ire of Goddess of the Future and the God of Death? I changed the future of the war...and I stole a bunch of lives.
The lives of the people on that ship belonged to lots of fishermen.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how that changed anything.
Everything's connected, Takuya warned.
Even fishermen, I guess, Kaya sighed. She was laying down in our soul, and had been for the week we'd been stranded in the forbidden land because I couldn't use magic after transforming - a poor choice to do it there, since the spider things came for us instantly on a rampage through the ancient city - and the day or so that I spent loitering around the mountain and spying on Mother. Fishermen change wars.
Unless...I remember that around that time, there was some struggle for the throne. Just by some off chance, perhaps, was there some crucial factor that the storm was supposed to take care of, but remained undamaged because I saved those people on the boat? Something that the gods wanted gone for the sake of those fighting the Demons?
Well then. That changed things.
I should've found out what it was soon enough, the thing that changed the war. I had a bad feeling, and only now did it seem to strike me how ominous those rough waters were.
I pushed open the door to the medical center, finding that the halls were dark and empty. The receptionist was absent; any noise I would think you'd hear in a hospital missing.
"Hello?" I asked, wandering. My hand trailed over the countertop of the reception area; it was cold. The whole place was empty, it felt like, but at the same time there were many people inside. "Is anyone here?"
A light appeared suddenly, very close to me.
Oh, I know what that meant. And at the worst moment too.
Paivla's and Melody's marks. I was being called.
But, instead of doing the whole burning thing and making me drop everything I was doing, I got yelled at.
"Get down!"
Instinctively, I ducked. Something flew over my head, pounding into the wall. The plaster crackled and wood splintered; the object there tugged out immediately to be swung at me again.
"To your left!"
I turned around while crouching to the floor, kicking up a leg to where my attacker's waist might've been. The fight was going extremely slow so I should have ended it quite instantly, but for some reason I couldn't sense anyone behind me. Therefore, I had no clue where my attacker was. It was more curiosity than fear that I had as I answered the commands being barked out at me from a place unknown.
My shin made contact with something, and then it went flying into the same wall that was damaged. It didn't stop flying until a few brick walls later, after smashing through someone's home.
"Marinette?" I called out, confused. I couldn't sense her, couldn't see her, but she was on my [Radar] and I could hear her. When I went over to Adoray's office, I saw that it was empty.
"We're right here," Adoray's voice said. Then, like a veil had been pierced, the air ripped open and they appeared to me by pulling open the curtains. "Here."
"What is that?" I cautiously asked, looking inside. I could see a few more people inside with them, seemingly taking shelter. "And why are all these people here?"
"It's not that long of a story, actually," Taryn said from the bed, laying down and breathing lightly. It didn't look like there was anything wrong at first glance, but I could smell blood in the air, and it wasn't my own. "We just got attacked by a bunch of Demonic-looking warriors and stalked by tiny birds on their shoulders. Not much to say."
"Should I..." Come through?
"Yes," Marinette said with wide eyes, trying to usher me in. Her ears were trembling like she was frightened, but were too prideful to fall.
The room got crowded all of a sudden when the veil closed, so I reverted to my child form in the mini Sherlock Holmes outfit.
"What's going on?" I asked, looking at the faces of the people. They were inhabitants of the hospital, bandaged and in gowns.
"Exactly as Taryn said," the receptionist - obviously not Debrah - added on from one corner. She was holding something in her hand, looking down blankly. Her voice was clear, but I could tell with a glance that her emotions were turbulent. Her ears, those of a dogkin, were fallen. "Everything started getting darker over the past few days, and these...things...were seen walking down the streets. The crew members for some of the ships started disappearing, only to show up dead later in the last place they were seen."
"We don't know why," someone else spoke up, hugging their knees.
"Mommy, I need to pee," a little child said from the corner.
"Hold it, Derek," the mother said.
"Why are you all huddled up here while everyone else is out there completely visible...?" I referenced while waving my hands around. I could feel Paivla's and Melody's marks starting to heat up again, so I nonchalantly put my hands to my cheeks like they were cold and held them there while looking up at Marinette. I'd felt like I was repeating my questions to no end, so I just touched Marinette with my elbow and chanted a spell, "[Psychometry]."
She didn't move when I casted the spell, looking into her past. I saw all that had happened without them explaining, since it looked like many people were very fearful of the thing that attacked me.
Lately, people had been dying randomly, just as they said. People I hadn't been close with, people I had been on fair circumstances with, people I simply felt loss for, and others that didn't even register in my memory.
They all had one thing in common: they were on the boat that day, the one that I saved in the storm. Marinette and the others realized this as well.
Thanos was picking off all those that had been there, cleaning up the loose ends from so long ago with all the ones that had come to challenge him and died - the ones that would normally confront a new challenger in a dungeon. That part, the people there didn't know about.
I accidentally let a sad sigh slip out of my mouth as I pulled my hand away.
"Do you know...?" Marinette started asking, crouching down beside me in the little space we had. Adoray had to give up his office chair, his bed, his guest chairs, and the one chair he brought in to sleep on from when I was here, to others. He was standing off to the side, looking through the curtains at the sky. Gabriel was smushed in the back, helping someone.
"Yes, I know why this is happening," I clenched my teeth, eyes tight. Those marks could burn with a vengeance. "Thanos is coming."
"Thanos? God of Death, Thanos?" Marinette asked, completely calm. Her eyes conveyed worry, but she was keeping all of her emotions packed inside.
"Thanos?" some woman squeaked, voice high-pitched. "Why would he come?"
"Because I stole some things from him..." I admitted, opening my eyes helplessly. "Essentially, it's my fault that he's coming."
"Then why don't you return them? Maybe lighten whatever sentence he's coming to dole out, and stop punishing us?" Some hysterical fellow in the corner spat out, sneering at his knees. "Then we would stop dying."
"I can't do that," I said, my fists tightening. "No, let me rephrase that - I won't."
"And why is that?" Taryn asked, glazed eyes rolling over to me. He was also irritated, holding a wound on himself. Klara, his girlfriend, was also applying pressure to it while grasping his hand. She looked like she'd had a rough day too.
What's more precious than our lives? some people seemed to ask themselves, wondering why I would hold their lives below some object.
Even though most of the people in this room would not die, unless they got involved. That was highly unlikely though.
Mothers held sons, wives held husbands, sisters held brothers. All people who'd been on the boat that day...all people who were worried about their loved ones. I would not let those people be taken away.
"Because, Taryn," Adoray spoke up with that same condescending, preaching tone, the one he'd touted for the five years I'd known him, "you would die."
"He may be injured," Klara started up while looking to Adoray with a preserved sense of awareness in them, "but he is far from death."
"No," Marinette's eyes widened again and her ears twitched in understanding, piecing it together. Her hands fell upon my shoulders as the marks under my hands glowed brighter. I flinched, knowing that I should go soon before my hands started smoking. "He would die, if she returned what she stole...because what she took from the God of Death on the day of the storm, was his life. All of the lives of the people from that boat, actually. Isn't that right, Firea?" She stated the truth with dread, my name ending on that soft note of a voice cracking.
"Yes," I nodded, confirming the truth that she'd realized. I felt a whole barrel of eyes widen as they looked at each other, seeing the future collateral of my decision. "Thanos is coming to take back the lives of those that were supposed to die, and possibly for revenge on me..."
"Die?" Taryn muttered, stupefied. Klara pressed harder to his wound, holding tight as alarm came to her face. "We were supposed to die?"
"Apparently," I shrugged, halfhearted. "I don't know how, but I earned the ire of Goddess Seer as well because saving your lives changed the outcome of the war...somehow."
Gabriel's eyes flashed. Taryn swallowed dryly. The room was silent, listening to the beginnings of a horrible storm yet to come. I could look outside the window myself and see it would be nasty.
"Don't worry, though, I'll take c-care of it," I stuttered, tears coming to my eyes from the intensity of the heat. "For now, I h-have to go."
The intensity of the heat was searing, so that when I turned away and went out the door I barely managed to take a few steps out of their sight before chanting, "Follow the song of creation, and a gate to Eden shall appear."
The door to Paivla's realm opened, and I fell through it.
In mid-fall however, the moment my body was halfway through the door my cheeks stopped burning and I caught myself. Smoothly coming out of that fall, the door closed behind me.
"You always push it to the limit, don't you?" Paivla sighed when I finally came to the foot of her throne, looking up. I was numbly standing there, still sad about how badly the horrid truth of the boat must've affected those who'd been on it. Knowing you'd been scheduled to die, that you were living on borrowed time like a dead man walking, must've felt horrible.
AKA, exactly how I always feel.
"I was in the company of Thanos's targets." I took a breath, letting it go as I went into pre-battle mode. "They weren't taking the news too lightly, last I saw."
"I'd think not...did you break it to them easily?" She flapped her wings through her throne, looking down at me with a slightly anxious face.
"As easily as I could. Now, what do you have for me? I'd prefer not to let anyone else die today, if possible." Well, anyone that mattered.
I transformed into the same thing as usual, the white shirt and brown pants. I made them tighter so they wouldn't create even the slightest drag in the air when I fought, not being so loose and modest by Bytristian standards. I pulled on the drawstring to close the top, assuming the form of my teenage self.
"Seer and Thanos, together," Paivla closed her wings, narrowing her eyes. Her anxiety disappeared; perhaps she'd faked it. "Seer doesn't sit at a crystal ball all day divining, as most mortals presume. The Church is wrong in the image they project for her."
"Great," I nodded my head, picking up speed as I absorbed information. I stood on my tiptoes and rolled them around, loosening up. "Just great. What're their rankings?"
God of Death, Goddess of the Future, please be low-ranking even though you sound fairly important.
"Thanos is a large jump from Keir, your last fight-" thank you for that, really appreciate the vote of enthusiasm in your voice "-and is fifty on the God Scale. Goddess Seer is forty-two."
What a beautiful end note.
"And?" I looked up into her eyes, seriously asking, "What chance do you think I have?"
We were silent for a few seconds, Demoness sincerely anticipating the words of her employer, the Nature Goddess.
Her golden eyes were not sparkling. At that moment, I could see my king's face in hers, just a slight resemblance between them. It wasn't just the eyes, but also the aura, the structure of the features, the natural authority in the tone. She fit perfectly on the throne, looked like she was a natural born ruler. My king looked the same, although his confidence was lacking.
The last similarity between them was that, even though they ruled and were fantastic at leading and doing everything the job implied, they looked lost. Always bearing the burden of the insurmountable weight of all those lives, the lives of the kingdom, the lives of the world. There was no faking that look.
"I would not send you out if I knew you couldn't do it. Despite the cruel person you may think me to be, stealing your winter breaks, I do care about you," Paivla put force behind her words, trying to get me to understand. After making a pained face, showing that she didn't really want to say the next words, she continued. "Thanos and Seer would go to Severo and collect the souls that are long overdue, yes, but if you aren't there then they won't seek vengeance after you. If you just stay here, out of the way, you'll never see them again. You could wait a while and go back to Severo, and everything would be fine."
"...are you offering me a chance to not fight?" I couldn't believe it. Did I hear that right?
"Yes," Paivla affirmed, quiet. She seemed irritated to give me the choice, but if she wanted to keep her slave, sometimes she had to let it rest.
"But...this is what you want. You want to bring Tiyana's tyranny to an end, to bring a close to the war. To do that, I have to defeat the gods; are you offering that I could wait? Delay our fight?" I was staring up at her, double-blinking in disbelief.
"...yes."
The look on my face must've told Paivla that I accept.
I considered that, I really did.
And I could never explain how ashamed I felt the next moment.
"No," I shook my head, taking a step back and watching her carefully. "I can't accept that."
Paivla's lost expression turned to surprise as she looked up at me, searching with that young, beautiful face.
At that moment, I confirmed that she was faking it.
She knew I would say yes either way. I couldn't say no for spite either. The bitter resentment I had for the goddess was roiling down deep, but if she was going to manipulate me into doing it, why not flatter her efforts?
And...besides.
"I can't do that because..." I thought back to those people, huddled in that room and hoping for the storm to pass. Hoping that everything would be okay, that their loved ones would still be with them at the end of the day. "I love them all, and I don't let go of the things I love. Not one thing, not once will I ever let go of anything I love. If I haven't made a promise about this in the past, I will make it now," I turned a sure gaze to Paivla once again, having been looking at the floor. "In the name of Firea-Madeline de Libellule, in the name of Itsuki Kaya, I solemnly swear that I will protect those I love at the expense of my life."
I turned around, taking my first steps. Down the royal carpet, past the day and night on both sides, I took my first steps down the path of a new pledge.
Hopefully, I'd remember that one. I staked myself as collateral, after all.
The gate opened again and I stepped through without hesitation. I'd show that woman not to underestimate me...because I wasn't so blind of a puppet that I couldn't tell when my strings were being yanked. My days as Itsuki Kaya - the pushover, the coward, the weak one, the manipulated one, the one pushed over every edge for the expense of every other - were over.
And it was about time that was learned.
-X-
I appeared in the room again, in a different form. I didn't mind the stares, didn't mind the people that were in frantic states of mind because I had been able to appear so easily; it gave them the feeling that the challengers wandering around could find them just as well.
"Where are the others?" I asked, looking around for answers.
"Dead, or spread around," someone muttered. "Some people are just trying to go about their daily business, ignoring everything that's going on."
So that's why that waitress was so uneasy, yet calm. Those people were so quiet, despite it being a full house. No one was drinking, no one was talking, they all just sat in hushed silence.
"What's creating this barrier that you are in, hiding you from the outside world?" I touched the wall, feeling it ripple beneath my fingers if I sent enough force. It was pretty nifty if even I couldn't sense them. Well, I was only Level 7 after all that time, strangely enough, but still.
"It's an artifact that I have," Marinette pulled something from out of her pocket, a small yellow stone that had the affect of hiding what's in plain sight in another mini pocket of space. It had the same properties as my storage. "It creates a hidden space."
Storage? That could be useful, soon.
"The challengers can't find you in here?"
"If you mean the things walking around outside, then yes," Marinette nodded, peeking to the window.
"I could use this..." I mumbled to myself. For some reason, the memory of the map showing Severo disappearing and the Smile Islands being smashed appeared in my mind. Maybe...they weren't destroyed. Severo, at least. Maybe it was moved...or hidden. That didn't explain why another land suddenly grew farther out to sea and why I never saw Severo come back again, leaving a large bay where it disappeared.
But for that time, it would have to do.
"It's not that big-"
"We need it," Adoray blatantly cut in. He hadn't spoken much, none of them had, since I had first encountered them. "In case you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed, don't worry," I waved him off as I looked at the stone. "I was just thinking about a way to hide you all so you're not in harm's way. Make this field bigger, perhaps, so it expands over all of Severo."
"That's impossible," someone shook their head. "Not even everyone in Severo combined would have enough mana to pull that off."
"Don't worry about that." Besides, it was my plan. Stay in your silent corner, please. "And I was just going to tweak it...if you don't mind," I took it from Marinette's hand, enclosing it in both of mine. Before anyone could say anything, I drew a bit out of my mana reservoir and poured it into the stone while adding a few properties to it. [Reject the Gods's Slaves], [Shield the People], [Hide the Land]...
I could tell instantly when the barrier expanded because everyone took a startled breath. Being beastkin, they were much more adept at sensing magic naturally, and thus were shocked when that large amount of mana suddenly flowed through them at an incredible rate and pushed far, far away.
"What did you do?" Someone gasped, holding their heart. Others were shivering, ears twitching and tails flicking. The little boy that had to pee didn't look like he had to pee anymore, with a pool at his feet.
"Exactly as I said I would...and so, now I must bid you adieu until it is safe for you to come out again. Please stay safe. It is okay to leave the building because we are technically in another dimension and the fight will take place in our original plane, where this place is unaffected, but I do not wish for any accidents to occur if an attack falls here and the barrier just happens to short out. I will take care of the deities, don't worry. It's my fault, after all." I sighed internally while giving the artifact back to Marinette, ignoring the tight look on her smooth face, looking like she was trying not to cry.
I didn't even bother to open the door, just walked through it with [Intangibility]. Walking down the hallway, tracing my fingers along the walls, I waited for Adoray to catch up. The moment I left he started fighting his way to the door, trying to catch me and figure out what language I was speaking. Obviously, it must'n've been Zueltina's northern dialect, because my words made no sense.
"We know you're strong," my king had said in the past to me when I was Knight. "But you don't always have to be that way. Believe it or not..."
True. Those words, they were very true. For someone else, maybe.
"...but I learned that from you."
That part I couldn't quite believe.
"Are you planning to die?"
"Why are you acting like this is the end of the world?"
Two questions befell me just as I reached the exit, and I stopped.
"I'm not trying to die, no, and I'm not acting like this is the end of the world. I'm simply acting how I should when times like these stumble across my path, and that is with solemnity."
"Solemnity referring to the knowledge that you will soon perish?"
"Or solemnity that you will soon perish on a fool's errand?"
"Two of the least friendly, least talkative people I know, are somehow suddenly more social? It must be the end of the world for that to happen," I ridiculed while turning around to face Gabriel and Adoray. Adoray, yes, Gabriel, I was not expecting that one.
"As far as I know, I'm a dead man," Gabriel shook his head. "My world was supposed to end long ago."
"No, it was not. I'm about to go out there, right now, and prove that to those guys," I jerked my thumb up to the sky, where I could sense their presences coming from. "I don't need you trying to drag your own life to death's front step."
"I'm not...I just don't see why you are doing this," Gabriel shook his head, emphasizing that my plan, whatever it may be, was utter insanity. The teal hair atop his head blended in with his ears, which were cautiously lowered. If I didn't see the dog tail slightly behind him, I'd believe he was human.
"I'm doing this for you...for me. And if that doesn't make you happy, then I'll let you know that I have to do this anyway for my goddess too. Even if your lives were not at stake, I'd still have to go out there and fight them. I don't really have a choice," I turned back around, opening the door. Gabriel did not follow as I continued going out, but instead stood there watching after me. He understood that, having seen over the years how I stubborn and persistent I was over the years, I wouldn't budge no matter what he said. No matter what anyone said, actually. "And I would go out there even if I had one."
A hand landed on my shoulder, one I instantly recognized. It had landed in that same place many times before, and every time I turned around there was a face glaring at me for having messed up something again. My lessons in potion making with Adoray began with a rocky start, continued on bumpy roads, and never paved out. "And? What do you have to say now, in regards to my fool's errand?"
"...nothing," he turned me around. His medical coat wasn't whipping in the wind, his constantly unruly hair wasn't taking its style to new heights as his constant gaze remained as steady as ever behind his glasses...all because of the barrier. Everything that was physical inside of the barrier would be unaffected by the things I hadn't sealed in it at the time, so everything about him was perfectly still. I was outside, he was inside, save for a hand. "I do have questions, specifically about your aforementioned 'goddess,' but for now I must let you go...after all, even I wouldn't like to see these guys die, and you seem to be their one chance of staying alive. So...be safe."
"Oh, get in line," I shook my head, stepping back. The hand fell off my shoulder, and I started taking steps backward as my own hair whipped around in the wind. I was leaving the barrier through a slight rip I made. "Everyone wants to know what I'm doing these days. Mother and Father, Tuila and Lorice, Lucia and Sherfire, you," I phased completely out of the barrier, losing sight of Adoray. "Well, whatever. You can be as curious as you want, but I'll never tell." I wasn't even sure if I held his eyes anymore, but I still said, as I got ready to spring by crouching down slightly, "See you."
And I launched.
I sprung up with all the strength in my legs, heading for the clouds. I broke through rain and the winds, the fury of the gods that had been left there by those selfish things. For sure, I was going to take them down. A god of death? Why not, it's not like the world didn't function before him and Paivla had no qualms with me taking him down. A goddess of the future? There were tons of seers around, and even then no one was supposed to know what would happen, even the next second in front of them.
So I had no hesitation as I prepared my first spell, layering my body in all sorts of defense magics as I headed for my most current, powerful adversaries. [Radar] was pinging the closer I got to them and the more it picked up. I was in for quite a storm.