THUSLY SKY QUAKED

Winter had long since perished from Skyfire Paradise, and its snow-coated rooftops once again shone splendidly underneath the glimmering sun. Over the course of winter, the Kingdom’s expansion all but halted; the only part of the Eastern Wastelands that didn’t fall under its domain was the small corner in the furthest north, and it was only because there was no reason for it, as the land was known for spewing toxic gases, and was practically inhabitable.

Despite the fact that the Kingdom never stopped growing, no other Kingdom dared declare a war; it was well-known that Skyfire Paradise – while perhaps not having the most numerous army – bolstered the strongest Mages in the world at the moment. Rather than war, most Kings and Queens opted into commencing diplomatic missions in order to establish relationship beyond that of a simple trading system.

However, in spite of all the forward momentum the Kingdom was upholding, neither Parsia nor Thalia were able to calm down for some reason. Their hearts felt a strange sense of foreboding, and it wasn’t as though they had no inkling as to why: The Great War was approaching. Conflicts had escalated well beyond simple skirmishes at this point, and more and more Divine Mages were getting involved. It was only a matter of time before their little Paradise will have been swept in the war’s current.

The two of them were currently sitting on a modest balcony hanging on the highest floor of the Palace, enjoying breakfast as they basked in the sun. Both wore night clothes and wore their hairs unruly, yet neither seemed to mind. Looking at the sky, Thalia sighed once more before reverting her gaze back onto Parsia, smiling warmly.

“How’s the breakfast?” she asked.

“I always keep thinking ‘well, they can’t make it any better than this’,” Parsia said. “But, it’s like they’re intent on proving me wrong.”

“Ha ha, they really do like outdoing themselves, don’t they?” Thalia commented with slight laughter. “It doesn’t hurt that we’ve finally imported some decent wine.”

“… so you were the one who chugged the ten bottles two days ago?” Parsia said, smirking lightly.

“What? A girl has her needs.”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say, girl.”

“… isn’t it strange that we still haven’t received any news?” Thalia’s tone suddenly grew grim and serious as her expression mimicked it. “By now, we should have heard something.”

“We’re far from the central focus of the conflict,” Parsia replied. “By the time the war reaches us, it will have undergone many shifts. Even some Divine Realms have yet to plunge themselves into large-scaled conflicts, let alone outright war.”

“Will the forces we have be enough?” Thalia mumbled.

“We’ve done the best we could,” Parsia said. “Also, Y’se promised she’d keep an eye out on us and, if need be, send help.”

“… why would she, though?” Thalia said. “She has no ties to this place anymore.”

“Trust her,” Parsia said, smiling lightly. “She’ll come through.”

“You say that just because she’s pretty.” Thalia said, smirking.

“Well, can you blame me?”

“Ha ha, no, no, I certainly cannot. Aah, she really has a way of making the girl jealous,” she added, taking a sip of the tea. “I wonder what she’s doing now.”

“… she is a Divine Magus,” Parsia said, looking up. “And one of the direct descendants of the Ancient Clan. I imagine she’s at the heart of it all.”

“We really drew the good end of the deal, didn’t we?”

“To be fair,” Parsia said. “We were never asked to participate.”

“That’s true,” Thalia said. “I didn’t even hear from my Master since I last visited her.” she added, unaware that her Master was currently locked in a deep dungeon, chained to cold and wet walls in complete darkness.

“Lynne’s probably the one to blame, or thank,” Parsia said; Thalia twitched slightly at the mention of his name, but recovered quickly. It didn’t escape Parsia’s eye, but he said nothing. “He must have said something to others.”

“… does that sound like an act of a King who abandons his Kingdom?” Thalia said. It wasn’t an uncommon sight; ever since Y’se told her that Lynne would most-likely never be coming back odd eight months ago, she had grown bitter and resentful whenever he was mentioned.

“Lynne left for a reason,” Parsia said; unlike Thalia, he was able to look past him leaving, and look at the core of it all. Rather than abandon, Parsia believed Lynne left more because he had to than anything else. Some bigger calling heeded him, and a single, golden Throne remained too small to hold him whole. “You can’t forever be stuck in that limbo, Thalia.”

“… I’m sorry.” Thalia said, sighing lightly. “I know I promised, but…”

“This has nothing to do with the promise,” Parsia said, leaning over and gently caressing her cheek. “I’d just rather not see you in pain every time I mention his name. For all his faults, we both know Lynne didn’t leave because he felt like it. And, no matter how big of a front you put up, I know that, deep down, you’ve already forgiven him. You’ve just yet to forgive yourself.”

“…”

Meanwhile, spanning thousands of miles eastward, on a small cliff side surrounded by thick forest and a deep ravine beneath spilling into a mountain valley, a man and a woman were sitting next to each other. The man had thick, black beard, long, unruly hair, and what used to be a white coat. Woman, on the other hand, appeared slightly ethereal – as though she was both there and elsewhere at the same time – yet that didn’t lessen her beauty in the slightest.

The two had been sitting like this for nearly half a year now, not moving an inch, waiting. Sometimes they’d chat, sometimes they’d drink, and sometimes they’d sleep. It was peaceful, bordering surreal, yet, through it all, a silver-hued cloud hung eternally above their heads. The silent ripples, the swaying branches, the trouncing rivers… any sign of sound and movement would cause the two to become alerted and jump onto their feet.

However, at the moment, the two appeared relaxed, as though a massive battle wasn’t looming over them, as they happily chatted and drank. Lynne’s youthful handsomeness was all but gone now; his forehead showed the first signs of wrinkles, his jaw was now cut and strong, body no longer slender but relatively muscular, and the only remnant of his past handsomeness remained his hair which had now grown to half his back.

“… you’re fucking with me!!” Lynne exclaimed, bursting out in laughter. “He really stripped her naked in the middle of the battle?! Ha ha, what a maniac…”

“He was one insane bastard,” Meredith said, laughing lightly. “But, he could fight with the best of them. Alright, your turn. The craziest bastard you’ve ever had a pleasure of meeting.”

“You mean besides myself?”

“Well, if we included you into this list, nobody else would have made it.”

“Wow, hell, that was just mean. Like, really fucking mean. I thought you actually liked me.” Lynne said, barely holding back laughter.

“Like you? You promised to fight a fucking God while I was asleep. You could have least given me a heads up, you know?”

“Ah, come on. I know you’re itching to get your filthy nails into some godly mucus.”

“Wow, hell, that was just mean. Like—“

“Alright, alright,” Lynne interrupted, stroking his beard lightly as he dove down the memory lane. “I wouldn’t leverage she’s was on the level of your guy,” he continued as a faint image popped into his head. “But, there was this girl I met a long time ago, Fen’er. She was a daughter of some crazy bastard that was trying to revive a False God or something, but that’s irrelevant. Anyway, one day, she and her cult ambush this innocent gathering of adventuring Mages – which I obviously was a part of – and they start their nonchalant massacre. Not wanting to die, I go slightly batshit insane and kill a whole heap of them. A few months pass, and I run into her yet again while I was traveling, and she actually remembered my aura. My fucking aura. She chased me, fought me, swore she’d kill me and rip me to shreds. Later on, she actually betrays her father, joins me as we trounce the bastard, and ends up falling in love with me. Ain’t that poetry at its finest?”

“… you told that entire story just so you could brag about the girl falling in love with you, didn’t you?” Lynne smirked lightly as he drank directly from the bottle. “What happened to her?”

“Ah,” he exclaimed softly as he put the bottle down. “She died, fighting my battle. Kind of a running theme with people I knew.”

“Wait, I remember her!” Meredith exclaimed. “She wasn’t a lunatic! She was quite funny and sweet, actually.”

“… anyone bent on following me is a lunatic.” Lynne mumbled.

“We really are, aren’t we?” Meredith said, chuckling lightly. “But, we can’t really help it.”

“What? My glorious mustache is simply that irresistible?”

“You really need to shave,” she said. “You look like an offspring of an ape and… hair. Just… hair.”

“It makes me look rugged and like the type of guy who’d gone through stuff, you know?”

“… it’s this,” Meredith said, leaning back and sighing slightly. “This… madness that rolls off your tongue. The unflinching way you talk, walk and fight. The way you make even the most insane statement sound plausible. The way you make people think ‘damn, I can do this’ whenever they’re around you. Even when you were a tantrum-throwing child, I suspect you had a lot of people enamored by you. It’s simply not something you learn, but something you either have or you don’t.”

“… it’s weird,” Lynne said after short silence. “Why does someone need me to tell him things can be done? If people want to do something, they should just do it. There’s nothing stopping them.”

“… ha ha, it’s amazing you were even able to say that without biting your tongue halfway through.”

“I know, right?! It’s definitely getting into my top ten lifetime achievements.”

“Oh? What’s the top one?” Meredith asked as her smile suddenly turned upside down. Earth beneath them quaked gently as the sky above darkened somewhat and clouds began blocking the sun. Lynne slowly got up on his feet and downed what was left of the bottle, still looking up.

“Saving the world.” he mumbled, causing Meredith to smile as she shook her head slightly. A moment later, she flashed in brilliant gold and disappeared, retreating into Lynne’s soul. As winds hissed and mountains grunted and rivers screeched, Lynne remained motionless as he let his hair and coat flutter backwards, the all-too-familiar medallion hanging off his neck slipping out and dangling. Although the sheer amount of Mana currently converging at the topmost point of heaven seemed large enough to drown the entire World into ash, it didn’t matter much to Lynne who slowly extended his right arm and summoned a familiar friend; the scythe screeched out excitedly as it felt the Mana convergence, crying out like a child who’d gotten a new toy. “You and me both, friend.” Lynne mumbled, suddenly smiling. “You and me both.”