The morning sun rises slowly.

On the rooftop of a modest house in a remote village sits a man and a woman enjoying pancakes and tea whilst looking at the majesty of sunbeams breaking through the horizon making their way to the clouds and letting them admire the farmland and plains beyond as birds soar through them.

“Nebula isn’t here anymore," he says between bites.

“Neither is cosmo," she answers nonchalantly.

“Were we not hospitable enough?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about their whims, I’m sure Nebula just got distracted by something else."

“Or scolded herself back home."

“She’s such a lovely child... we really should visit her more often…” her face wears the gentlest of smiles.

“I do worry that she gets too lonely at times," he wears a sad but kind smile.

“Anyhow, we’re getting guests this afternoon so let’s make today a delivery day."

“Oh? Outer friends or?”

“No no," she says with giggles, “actual guests this time... they’ll be seeking help."

They finish their breakfast in idle chat about the happenings of their pleasant surroundings.

Once the morning gets brighter the dirt roads get busier… well… as busy as a small village gets.

The man and woman go down to the first floor to their flower shop. It’s called a flower shop but they have a habit of selling any plant that’s not too exotic. Not the most lucrative of businesses in a remote location, but it’s not like they’re doing it for the gold.

Moments later, they leave with a large bag filled with different kinds of herbs. They go around the village, house by house, leaving them a present by the window. Some were orders and some were pleasant surprises. It doesn’t take them more than two hour to finish their lap of every building, but it’s still longer than they expected. Has the village grown since the last time they did this?

Lunchtime comes and they go to a small house by the village centre where a group of kids get ecstatic by the sight of the gorgeous couple. A young girl thanks them before leaving the house in their care.

Some of the kids are energetic and lively while others are timid, but all of them sit around the table in a mannerly fashion. When it’s lunchtime or there’s a guest in, they always behave.

The couple engages with the children in all sorts of fun chats that the kids like to talk about as they eat, what they’ve done this week, the newest toys they got, what fun activities they’ve done in the festival, that sort of thing.

The couple practically fund the House of Children. Parents that can’t attend to their children during the day leave them here, parents that are sickly and wish to keep them safe, parents that need to leave the village for one reason or another, and most important of all… children of war; those that lost their parents or were sent here as refugees. Even though the village was always welcoming and had their gates open, adults rarely ever seek its shelter, but they can’t risk having children stand the fight with them.

Seeing the happy looks on the children brings a spark of joy into the couple’s hearts. This life they’re living now is worth it.

After having lunch with the children, they make their way to the outskirts of their humble abode to welcome the weary travellers from (not that) afar.

Two figures make their way closer to the two welcoming them with a warm smile.

“Lady Asire and Lady Tensha, what a pleasant surprise!” the lady says with enthusiasm.

“Seraph! Musha! Argh! I missed you two!” Asire throws herself at the two hugging them tightly while old lady Tensha stands behind with a nostalgic look.

“It’s been far too long." Musha, the man, looks to be genuinely surprised by their visit, and still happy to see them.

“All that power and speed of yours and you don’t even drop by to say hello." Seraph has a teasing expression on her, not that Asire can see it, but it’s still there.

“I wanted to, I really did... but after what happened I couldn’t bring myself to…” before she could finish, Seraph pats Asire’s head.

After holding the hug for a while, she lets go so that Tensha can greet them as well.

Tensha turns to look at the somewhat excited Asire behind her.

“Go on then, we’ll be at the shop." She has a kind smile on her.

Asire runs off like an overexcited child into the village, waving at everyone she passes by while everyone returns the favour with an even bigger smile, while they know not to stop her on her trail.

It’s been a very long time since she has come here, others don’t see it as that much, but considering her extraordinary young age, 40 years is considered a lot for her.

She makes it to a little house near the centre of the village and knocks. The door slowly opens as an incredibly old lady with marks of age all over her tired body peeks out to see who it is.

A large smile of pure delight forms on the lady’s face as she shuffles towards Asire and wraps her arms around her as tightly as her weak arms can.

“I thought I’d never see you again," they both say the same thing as they’re tearing up with joy.

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t… I wanted to… but I…” Asire couldn’t finish any sentence as she sniffled between words and shook her head next to the old lady’s.

“Shhhh, it’s okay… I’m just happy you came to see me." The old lady wants to embrace her closer, but her body is barely holding her as is.

They walk inside to enjoy a short, but still sweet family reunion.

“Vanilla cinnamon tea with Senin (a type of flower) cake, just how you like it." After putting it down, the excessively gorgeous man wearing an apron leaves the living room behind and heads back to the kitchen.

“it must have been hard for you both to come here… so I’m all yours." The excessively gorgeous woman wears a melancholic smile on her face… it doesn’t suit her at all.

“The empire has been too busy cleaning up after themselves to notice the patches of death spreading through its land, but I’m sure you noticed," Tensha wears a serious face to discuss the matters at hand.

“I did notice, and I deemed it too much trouble for us to get involved." Seraph’s face also gets serious in return.

“I figured… but we ran out of options."

“So, what is it you know?”

“May I?”

Seraph responds with a nod and old Tensha picks up an ornate board and puts it between them.

Currently, the board looks like a decorated board of chess, but after Tensha puts her finger over a slot on its side, the chequer pattern fades into a unified grey colour to contrast the golden border.

The grey surface starts to warp into the vague shape of a map. At the very centre stands a miniature castle. And around its land’s (surprisingly large) border, there sit three miniature flowers that look the same as the one that Asire fought, equally far from each other.

“These three flower-like creatures are what’s been draining energy from its surrounding area. They’re not expanding their fields like a bubble, instead actively seeking areas with higher potency." Lines start to spread out from the miniatures, providing visual feedback to Tensha's explanation.

“Which is why your castle is safe." Seraph throws Tensha a cheeky look.

“Living in dead land has its occasional benefits."

“And you want to kill the flower things?”

“That’s the idea."

“And you need help where exactly? Last I checked, you have two of the most efficient active destructive machines on this side of Feria." Seraph leans back waiting for what’s expected of her.

“We believe that all three of them have to be killed at the same time."

“And there’s 4 of you, I don’t see the issue here."

“These things are incredibly fast and deadly… my dear Asire wasn’t even able to hold on for 2 minutes."

“When was this?” Seraph’s expression changes ever so slightly.

“About a month ago."

“That brings me peace of mind," the old lady sighs with relief, “what about those… those friends of yours… the other knights you were with?”

“They’re also fine and living in the castle with us…” Asire’s smile turns into a saddened one but the lady’s too old to notice. She can’t exactly tell her that most of her friends are missing and presumed dead.

“That aside, I got you this," she says as she puts a bracelet around the lady’s wrist.

The lady looks at the bejewelled bracelet, already happy just with getting a gift from a girl she raised. Jewellery isn’t her style, but she’ll treasure this nonetheless.

“Try to walk around."

“I’m sorry?”

“Come on, gran just do it." Asire excitedly helps the lady stand up, and a wave of joy runs over the lady.

She starts walking around the living room with great care on each step.

“I heard you were getting tired and didn’t leave home as much as you used to."

An ear to ear smile forms on Asire as she helps the old lady get used to moving.

“But…” tears start dripping from the lady’s eyes, “how?”

“Don’t worry about it too much, I had a few friends help me make it for you."

After a while, the old lady lets go of Asire and walks to the kitchen at normal speed. She doesn’t feel joint pain or feebleness. And if she gets used to it, she’ll be able to move like she’s a few decades younger. She’s still old and will get tired easily, but this makes it a lot easier and much less painful.

“So you’re telling me, you’ve been out of the loop for an entire month?” Seraph can’t help but show her surprise with a hint of excitement and anticipation.

“Well," Tensha shows some embarrassment, “it’s been more like 4 months."

The gorgeous Seraph only answers with a shocked face.

“It took us a long time to figure out how to deal with the situation, and we needed time to rest between battles and decide on our next move."

“Wow…” after a pause, Seraph quickly shakes her expression back into a serious one. “Anyway, from what I gather, you need someone to take care of a flower while you take care of the other two."

“And given our current situation, we can’t really announce a call to arms."

Seraph thinks for a moment before answering her.

“I won’t help personally, but I can’t let you return empty han-…” she pauses mid sentence as she stares blankly out the window.

“Lady Light?” Tensha taps the table to snap her out of it.

“Ah." She shakes her head as she regains her focus. “My dearest apologies, I simply didn’t expect a response that hastily… And especially not from her."

“What do you mean?”

“She’s saying, she found the help you were looking for." a third voice joins the conversation, a gentle voice with a rough tone.

Both the ladies’ heads turn to see the man sitting on a couch. A chiselled refined body covered with a skin tight, black… material? It doesn’t look like cloth or leather, just a flame-like pattern of black surrounds his body like a snake entangling him. He’s not big by any means, but anyone that glances at him can tell you that he can probably punch through a wall with ease.

Tensha tenses and a wave of adrenaline flows through her.

“You’re not…” before she could finish, Seraph gets interrupted.

“She’s a bit preoccupied, so I’m here instead." he sits comfortably like he owns the place.

“And you’re here to help?” she asks with a sarcastic tone.

“Yes." he nods his head with a stupid smile on his face.

“And we should believe you why?”

There’s a tense aura in the room, a single spark is all it would take for this situation to go sour.

“I’m here to offer a helping hand, if you don’t believe me that’s alright with me."

“Where is she?” Seraph asks with a deadpan look on her.

“Busy," he responds with an equally expressionless face.

“She always gives notices before doing anything, and she would rather send anyone before sending you."

“She leaves notices??” he asks with genuine surprise. “Of course she does, cause why wouldn’t she." he facepalms.

“She’s the one that replied to my summons, so… where is she?”

“Ugh… fine… she’s busy removing 13 Flowing Curses…”

Silence fills the room for a second. Throughout this entire scene, Tensha was just observing and constantly on edge. She doesn’t trust neither him, nor the girl they’re talking about, but especially him. She’d seen him burn down an entire village once out of spite.

“You know, I may not be able to fight anymore, but really… you ought to avoid picking a fight around me."

A decorated exotic sword spins and materialises next to Tensha who instantly takes it and jumps from her seat to the couch aiming for the guy’s heart, but the only thing it pierces is the couch. She turns to see him standing by the window.

“Okay, well, that’s just rude, I’m only here to help," he says with disappointment.

The room becomes ever so slightly brighter as a force field fills the room.

“You’ve always held malicious intent whenever we’ve actually met you." Seraph calmly takes a sip from her tea.

Tensha moves in to slash the man by the window but quickly changes her swing to a lunge backwards where it pierces the man’s stomach before he jumps back.

“Well, as impressive as it is that you can adapt to find me in such a short period of time." he steps back again avoiding another swing. “I implore you to stop trying to kill me."

Tensha turns sharply and throws the sword to the other corner of the room where it gets wedged inside the man’s left shoulder.

“We’re not trying to kill you my dear invader, we’re just kicking you out." Seraph throws a cheeky smile at him.

“Well, I’m lending you my help whether you want it or not." the sword falls onto the man’s right hand. “You don’t have a lot of options. And evidently, I want you to keep trying to kill me," He says with a calm smile from the sofa where he’s sitting now.

A minute of silence as Tensha goes back to her seat.

“If I had malicious intent I would’ve attacked before she had the chance to turn you two into invulnerable buildings," he says cheerfully like he’s talking about a game of football while handing her the sword back.

Seraph lets out a big sigh.

“Are you sure you can take it down?” Tensha asks with a hint of disdain.

“Of course, I can’t say I’ve killed a See-”

“Flower… you haven’t killed many flowers like that one." Seraph cuts him before he can say any more.

“Yeaaaaah… flower… anyhow, I think I can take care of the third one."

“In exchange for what?” Tensha can’t help but be suspicious of him.

“Nothing?” he asks with a tone of confusion.

“What do you mean nothing?”

“I mean nothing, you have nothing of interest to me."

Veins around the man’s wound start to dimly glow through his skin.

“Then why would you help?”

“There was a call for help, and that wench would have helped, so I’m doing it for her…”

Tensha’s been around the block one too many times; throughout all her years, one rule stood strong. Everyone with significant power had ulterior motives. Sure, the rule had exceptions every now and then, in fact, her and her friends are a part of the exception, but she can’t be too trusting.

Seraph merely sips from her tea and watches the exchange between the two.

“For the record, that sword is extremely painful," he says casually at Seraph.

His veins still glow

“I better hope so, it’s one of my most precious treasures." Seraph answers with a smile full of pride and content.

Tensha, strong, smart, old, tired, best chemist in the empire by a large margin, childless, helped raise many powerful and notable individuals, most of which are either dead or missing, and owner of a True Artefact of Defence that can withstand and stop great force, limit: meteor.

“I can’t believe they did that." Asire laughs wholeheartedly with the old lady. “I really wish I was there."

“I know how much you like weddings, this was one you would’ve enjoyed most," the old lady has a smile on her face as she speaks.

“I never thought either of them would get married ever, but that sounds exactly like something they would do."

“I’m sure they’ll be the talk of the town for the next decade."

“I’m happy for them, I really am…” Asire’s head turns slightly as the gears in her mind start turning; she realises she doesn’t really need to wait for them to come back from their honeymoon year to give them a gift. “You don’t happen to know where they are right now, do you?” She can barely hide her excitement.

“Um, I don’t, but I’m sure Salem’s mother can tell you… she was always fond of letters."

Asire leaves and heads to another house somewhat away. After knocking, a warm face of a lady greets her with a smile. They hug and spend a few minutes catching up before Asire congratulates her for her son’s wedding and asks for his whereabouts.

After the pleasant chat, Asire leaves and walks out the village and starts sprinting towards a very small camp she set up with Tensha on the outskirts.

She pulls out a thin fully metallic spear from the weapon’s wrack and steps away a safe distance before looking into the sky.

She assumes a throwing position and aims very carefully down to the fraction of a degree.

She knows how risky this is but she’s still going to try out her new ‘ability’ she discovered.

Lightning starts to crackle off the spear, her smile gets illuminated by her madness as the wind starts to turn around her and the spear, leaving nothing but static air around, even in her lungs.

Everything came to a sudden stop around her.

As sudden as the stop was, a sudden bolt leaves her as she throws the spear with enough strength to blow apart a meteor in its course.

The spear itself has now been launched at mach 11 and leaving behind it a trail of nothing through the air.

Asire starts to giggle to herself thinking about what she had done and slumps back slowly to her granny's place.

A knock on the lady’s old door at midnight. This is the busiest her home has been in years. She opens the door to see the gentle face of an old friend; someone much older than her, but the marks of time weren’t as cruel to her friend as they were to her. Tensha smiles and hugs the old lady before stepping in.

After having a nice and long chat about old times, the old lady thanks Tensha for taking care of the chaotic child (relative) that is Asire for all these years. She knows that she doesn’t have much time left, and she’s happy that she can rest easy knowing that Asire is in safe hands… the safest of hands. She looks through the window on the wall to Asire’s room where she sleeps peacefully hugging her pillow like she used to when she was a child. She can only hope that she’ll be remembered.

Two incredibly attractive figures sit on a rooftop watching the glittering stars with a cup of tea. They enjoy the silence between them for a long time before the man speaks.

“The gears are turning."

“So they are… even the twins are getting involved."

“It’s gonna get very interesting by the end of things."

“How do you think we should handle the merger?”

“Well… we can’t exactly act like nothing happened."

“But we also can’t just let them experience the entire thing”

“Maybe a Hosted Dream?”

“We’ll figure it out when it’s time."

The night continues with the both of them enjoying the view of the sleeping village lit by the stars.

A thin figure stands before a bed, barefoot on the mossy marble floor. He wears a long robe, dragging behind him, undecorated and bland, just 3 holes in white cloth. The guy has long silky flowing hair, very long cyan hair, so long, it reaches his ankles and folds back up to his neck then back down to his hips.

Many roots have embedded themselves in this bed around the sleeping beauty in the middle of all the fungi and vines covering her and leaving her face untouched.

The tanned lady may be asleep but her face conveys emotions of pain and grief. The guy looks down at the lady with a sad frown on his face.

He wants to help her but has no idea how, so he does the only thing he knows, and watches over her whenever he’s not doing anything else.

Many uninterrupted hours go, where he stands with the same unchanged expression with a blank mind.

He starts to hear a gentle female voice in his head.

“Hey Bubbles, Ten wants you to go to the camp now, she’s waiting for you."

It’s Asire’s voice. With it, a smile of joy forms on the guy’s face. He nods meaningfully before leaving the room. He strolls out the giant black castle in the middle of an endless snowfield and takes graceful flight into the sunset.

Tensha sits by a hill watching the giant blue wool balls bounce over the hills as glowing insects fly in and out of them, still shining even under the morning sun. The grass has a tint of blue reflecting beautifully till the horizon. But something’s missing in this alluring scene… There are no flowers in the serene hills. There’s usually many other sets of contrasting colours that make the bluish green even stronger. Well, different as it may, it’s still a beautiful place to look at.

A white sheet made its way to float next to Tensha as she finished her cup of milk tea. She turns to greet the young man with a smile. They have a mutual hug without exchanging words. She’s glad to see that he’s been faring well. Alistair isn’t the kind of man that should be left alone, especially not to take care of an entire castle.

“Alistair sweetheart, we’re going to attack that flower we talked about. Are you okay with that?” she asks him with a kind tone. He responds in a soft nod and a smile.

“Alright, but before that, have some breakfast, you’ve been flying all night." She removes the lid off a plastic container with brownies inside and puts it next to a cup of milk.

Alistair’s heartbeat slows down.

Tensha continues watching the beautiful scenery, but it’s even more beautiful now, just merely looking at the hills next to someone she cares for enhances the experience 3 fold.

As he finishes eating, they both hear a voice in their minds.

“My dearests, I’m in position and waiting for your order." Even though it’s just Asire’s voice, they can imagine her saying it with a full smile under her huge armour.

Alistair’s heartbeat slows down even more after hearing Asire’s voice.

“Asire dear, we’re gonna need another hour before we get there."

“Oh, alright… and what about that guy? Do we have to message him somehow?” she only now realised they don’t have a way to contact him.

“Don’t worry about him, he said not to worry about timing." Tensha is trying not to think about the third flower. If she thinks about it anymore, she’ll start to realise how much of a gamble this is.

The black flame pattern that entangles the tight body of the man moves like a snake repositioning for a better sleeping position. He stands before the skyscraper-sized flower on the hot desert planes between the mercury rivers.

“Aight, you overgrown tulip, we got an hour of warmup… give me all you got!” he shouts at his foe with vigour only to be ignored. It doesn’t react in any way.

“Oh come on, you can’t not put up a fight…” he says with great disappointment.

He kicks a pebble at the flower out of frustration.

Nothing happens.

The man falls to the ground in pieces of shredded meat as vines with sharp thorns appear from the ground and stand tall. The thorns themselves aren’t thin enough to cut through anything, let alone something as thick as that guy. But with enough speed, any projectile can cut through any material as long as it doesn’t break.

Fight a Seed of Entropy they said… it’ll be a great experience, they said…

…

They were right.