After many more months, annexation was still in full swing. Everywhere Alaric’s soldiers went, the answer for their actions was always the same: love. When occupied citizens digressed, the soldiers proclaimed they “have not spiritually understood” and “needed correction.”

When it came to the Alaric Empire’s “True Creed,” its soldiers proclaimed it was the only faith to bring more love. However, under the watchful of Alaric’s Sun, a new religion emerged the occupied citizens laid claim. This faith had no records in Pantaiyanilam’s history. Inside a “church”—an abandoned barn before—twenty members participated in the daily sermon.

Today’s preacher, and only preacher ever, was the infamous rogue mage: Ted Manson. Thought to be dead a year ago, his appearance no longer matched his records. However, his brown, combed short hair and prim and proper personality did. Now youthful for a forty-year-old, one could easily mistake him as younger. He wore no traditional religious attire, wearing a sky blue long sleeve polo shirt, tan trousers, and brown shoes.

When people rebelled against the True Creed, they turned to Ted’s religion: “Jones’ Creed.” All members were grieving family members who lost their spouses and loved ones on the battlefield; every one of them had suicidal thoughts.

The church did not preach about removing oneself from suicide, however. What was preached—was exceptionally bizarre. According to Ted’s sermons, regular suicide was a wrongful, shameful, tragic act that disappointed the Gods. A disappointment carried on to their other family members and beyond. Ted proclaimed a solution: a “rite of passage” called “quintessence ascension.”

He spoke in a very endearing manner when asked by his disciples. “Taking one’s own life is blasphemous, my child… and so I shall uplift you all to the answer. Quintessence ascension dictates you should remove your human qualities before the deed.

“It is not you—who should remove your life—but of one of our children here. When the deeds are shared, the Gods will accept you all—for they have ascended from humanity long ago.” Ted walked up to a praying woman. “This, my child… is quintessence ascension.” Placing a knife at her neck, he asked her questions. “For what dost thou seeketh before me?”

“I seek to watch over mine beloved son forever.” She spoke softly, clasping her hands tighter.

“For this knife before your gaze, shalt thee have cut thine own throat?” Ted neared the tool closer.

“No….” The woman shook her head. “Mine hands are not for the cutting of flesh but the embracing of mine little angel….”

“And so with this knife before your gaze—shalt mine hands cut thine throat?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yes… For mine blood only tarnishes the blade, and no single hand before my gaze.” She smiled intimately.

Ted moved the knife deeper into her neck, readying his arm. Before the deed, the woman uttered the church’s declaration of affirmation.

“Aeternum.”

Eyes opened, the woman laid on the floor with an already lifeless expression, smiling. She uttered no word even as her complexion grew paler.

Ted walked to the other members, giving out four knives out of sixteen. Going back to the podium, he showed them the same endearing smile. “For you see, my children… this is the sharing. For the last one of you—I mineself shalt do it again.”

In a gleeful and relieved manner, the members gave others the rite of passage. Their pale expressions on the floorboards were not different from the mother before. After Ted did the honors for the last man, he walked out of the church.

Outside, Alaric soldiers stood by, ready to attack Ted. It never fazed him, showing a smirk. Immediately with zero hesitation, raising his right hand, Ted yanked off their heads along with the spinal cords. When others came in, they floated midair out of their control and had their bodies wrung like a bloody towel. With another hand gesture, all the clothing and remains circled each other into a highly compressed red, chunky sphere the size of a beach ball. It was thrown far away into the atmosphere with a twitch of Ted’s finger.

With that, he decided to walk downhill, having tea at someone’s home. There, a husband and wife lived. The latter cried endlessly about her teenage daughter, whom she hugged before the draft.

The husband sat next to Ted. “Sorry if she bothers you so… but I can’t help wanting to cry either. She demanded to join Jones’ Creed for quite some time, so her misery will finally go away.”

Ted placed the teacup on the table after drinking from it, “Oh, I wouldn’t recommend that, bud…. Not in a million years.” He shook his head and corrected his hair. “Those guys there are crackpots! And no one likes crackpots. But I do like crackers and pottery!” he chuckled.

Even at their first conversation, the husband found Ted’s demeanor very strange, and as handsome as he was, his tone did not fit him. It was slightly hoarse, abrasive, and sarcastic. Eventually, however, the husband let go of any bad faith assumption against Ted and continued the conversation.

“Say… this may be very rude to tell you—but you don’t seem to be from here. Are you, however?”

“Oh no, I’m not! Not at all.” Ted chuckled again. “You see—I’m from a place where hosts die abruptly when the guests leave. In another angle, it’s comedy gold.” he smiled intimately.

“Excuse me…?” The husband’s eyes squinted.

Getting off the table, Ted shook his hand farewell, thanking him for the hospitality. The latter became more confused as the guest walked out. When the door closed, Ted heard a loud, splattering sound inside the house. He sighed and never looked back.

In an outpost far away, Rosette tended to her men. Rubio slumped his upper half in boredom on a table, twiddling his fingers. For a moment, he looked at Haruto, who was asking soldiers over which lands to go next. Rubio’s eyes narrowed a bit, and he looked away.

Like always, Rubio barely fought and stayed behind Rosette when annexation efforts commenced. Nowadays, Haruto would only talk to Rosette, and even then, it was sparse.

“No man left behind?”

Rosette stood up. “Yes… though I’ve dispatched some to investigate fresh murders and sudden disappearances. As for Gevär—he went on his own accord.”

“Excellent. Well, take care….” He waved from behind.

After nodding, Rosette sat beside Rubio again. Throughout the day, she never smiled, eyes drooping down and lips frowning a bit.

She turned to Rubio, who still fiddled about on the table. “So friends no more, are we not?”

The prince looked at her briefly before looking at his finger. He sighed, eyes closed, “That’s up to you, Rosette…. I’m the one who cut ties with him, while you never did. In other words—I don’t mind at all if you’re still friends.”

“Would it be bad if you spoke with one another again?”

“No… not at all….” Rubio shook his head. “I just don’t want to.” he hunched over his chair, viewing the sky. “If it’s important—I’ll respond either way.”

As Rosette continued talking about her doubts to Rubio, a soldier came in screaming at the outpost. The state he was in would make anyone vomit. A flooding trail of blood followed the soldier—limping with one leg detached and mangled beyond belief. His left arm was severed, and an eye socket dangled long enough to touch his chest. Lastly, his fingers were fractured, and most teeth were missing. The soldier uttered one phrase at the top of his lungs repeatedly.

“Leave this place!!”

When Haruto, Rosette, and her men tried coming for the soldier’s aid, he slumped down. Inevitably, it was his demise. Rosette did not recognize him as one of the soldiers she dispatched. However, the others mentioned the late man scouted the area where the recent incidents occurred.

Due to these circumstances, Rosette concluded that wherever these areas were, not one was alive there. Just as she told her men to stand their ground, Haruto interrupted her, standing in front of them. “We have to go. If it’s a hidden terror group unwelcoming of our presence, we can set up an ambush before they know it.”

“B-But sir! None of our men there returned! If they truly perished, we must prepare for the worst here….”

Haruto shook his head, eyes closed briefly, “If we don’t intercept now, an ambush might come for us instead. If you’re worried so much about the others, they can stay here along with our prince and Rosette. I’ll lead the party. This way, we can—”

“Wait!”

Haruto looked at where the voice came from, and it was none other than the prince himself, getting off the table and walking toward him. His eyes narrowed slightly over the great concern he felt from hearing Haruto’s plan. “So you plan to lead them to their swift, pathetic deaths as they accomplish nothing?”

Haruto walked closer, “Rubio… I said I would lead them. I’m more than perfectly capable of protecting them all—”

“And what if you fail?! And end up like the one who just died here?!” The prince walked closer as well, “I know you’re strong, Haruto…. But out there—someone or something—massacred our men possibly faster than I could blink! There should be times in your life when you don’t see yourself as a hero! We’re not fighting for the greater good. We’re stealing land!” he glared, panting.

Haruto’s eyes also narrowed, showing a more intense glare than Rubio. “Then how about you fight?! I get why you hold back, but right now, you’re rejecting the one time we would need your strength!”

“That’s not the point, Haruto! We can’t waste their lives over a potential fool’s errand! You can’t go. I forbid any of you to go!”

Haruto clenched his teeth and grunted, “Well, then what gives you the right to say that!”

“I am your prince!” Rubio pointed at his chest. “I may not look like it, but I know what’s best for all of us!”

Haruto glared even harder, walking closer to his former best friend. Because of the sheer intensity between them, Rosette stepped in to calm both down but to no avail.

Haruto held Rubio’s shoulder, “You know what? I’m returning the favor.” he slapped the prince right across the outpost.

The soldiers backed away. Rosette’s eyes frowned in distress, crying out her best friend’s name.

Haruto walked and looked down at Rubio on the ground, panting with eyes narrowed, “If you knew—how strong I was… you wouldn’t be telling me to stay behind! If we’re no longer brothers, as you say—then why should you care if I’d go in the first place?!

“You’re weak, Rubio. You acted like you made up your mind on me—but no—you were just afraid I would change for the worst. Well, guess what—I didn’t come here for a vacation!”

Coughing and dusting himself, Rubio got up slowly, now equally enraged as Haruto. This time, he was silent, walking at a fast pace. He threw a right hook to Haruto’s jawline. Unlike his usually destructive power, Rubio did not even bother to use it that time. All he wanted now was to batter his former best friend. Haruto got up and wiped the blood off his cheek. With that, their brief skirmish began, strangling each other.

Immediately, the two were restrained by the others, with Rosette holding off Rubio. As Haruto shook off the men holding him back, he sulked, took a deep breath, and told them to follow his lead. Very few were reluctant.

Haruto turned his head briefly. “I’m going, Rubio. If I die, you can tell Adel to announce it before my proper burial. I discourage drawing your blood over a sapling for me. That would disgust me beyond the grave….” he treaded the forbidden path.

Rubio shook off Rosette and moved from afar. “Well, good! Do whatever the fuck you want! See if I give a shit!!” As Haruto disappeared from his sight—walking further away—the waterworks began.

Turning around, Rubio grabbed the nearby table and turned it into a twinkle in the sky. A saddened Rosette held his shoulder behind, but Rubio shook it off and went inside his tent.

As she witnessed her best friend yell at his men to leave him be, Rosette’s lips frowned and trembled. “No…. No….” she ran away while her men tried consoling her.

Rosette settled on a hill nearby the outpost. Coincidentally, a willow tree stood on top. She sat by it and covered her face with her arms and knees. The waterworks began for her as well. Rosette recalled the time when she and Rubio became the life of the party after a drinking contest; Haruto raised his mug, laughing cheerfully with eyes closed.

With that, the lost little girl wept a river.

“Haruto…. Rubio. Please remove the poison in your hearts. It aches me so.

“Grandfather…. Lend me your strength….”