✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Staring up at the starry heavens, Sora sensed a certain someone's mana from outside one of the Isolated Training Fields. A strong, and dense radiance at that as well.

Sora was on his way back home from the Astral Emergent Park to kick back and enjoy playing some games up on the virtual plane with his friends, but his curiosity got the better of him, so he decided to visit the one place he loathes more than anything else, such that he would rather not if it weren’t for Sakuya’s omnipresence which he had recognised.

The leylines had brought him in front of a gigantic warp bubble that swallowed a whole star system, planets, and all. It acted as a spatial sponge that would subsume, dissipate, and nullify any destructive waves of magic being released from within. It prevented the cause of any collateral damage beyond its boundaries and barring any outside interference. As such, the phenomena of fluctuating lights warping into a distorted halo in the background could be observed as he entered the encased, well-protected, astronomical-sized arena.

“Hm? Yuki?”

He happened to sense Yuki’s presence among the spectators situated on a set of internal leylines that formed outer rings a distance well away from the clique of planets isolated within another warp bubble. And for that matter, the planets were in such close proximity, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them fall into each other under their gravitational influence. But as the warp bubble itself had manifested this phenomenon – an intricate mechanism reliant upon mana was what kept them stationary using complex magical rites.

“Ah! Sora! Come here and watch our Elder Sister!”

Approaching the spectators around the perimeter woven from leylines, just as Yuki asked, the both of them started spectating from the sidelines. They consisted of many others who also practice their Valier Arts.

“Nnnhhh!!!”

“Guh!!?!?!”

On a rocky planet within the bubble, they watched Sakuya taking up a mana-infused practice sword and with it, she splendidly fought off against multiple opponents and defeated each and every single one of them.

“No way…”

“She’s completely out of our league… is she really 13-years old??”

“As expected of an Amamiya…”

The many other practitioners of the Amamiya Valier Arts were Valiers whom had taken it up upon themselves to test the worthiness of an Amamiya they were mostly unfamiliar with. But as expected, they all dropped like flies before the insurmountable difference in strength between them. It was like watching a dancer gracefully flowing from one move to another with such elegance, it was difficult to not be taken in and mesmerized.

Not a single one of them stood a chance, even though there were some of similar age, others who were much older.

This was the difference between regular Valier Ordinaires and a young girl who would have otherwise been an up-and-coming Manarea from Prystia.

“Huuh… She really is strong… I wonder if all the mages at the Six Spires are this crazy strong.”

A sigh of admiration coupled with a transparent stare of rumination entered his impression of Sakuya. There was something he couldn’t quite grasp, and that mystery was all that really bothered him. In the end, he couldn’t do a thing about it because he just knew from his intuition that his elder sister in front of him was world’s apart from what he’s seen of others.

“Sora, of course they would. After all they’re all taught by the families of the Elemental Houses at each of the Six Spires.”

“How much would you bet she’s even met the Elemental Emperors?”

“You'd have to be suuuuuuuper talented for the Emperors to even look at you or give you the time of day! But it wouldn’t surprise me if Elder Sister did ever have an audience with the Emperors…”

A look of anticipation came with some form of a resolute expectation from Yuki, clenching her fists as her eyes seemingly started to sparkle. Just the idea of meeting with the Elemental Emperors was enough to kindle the fire of eagerness within her. But it didn’t resonate so well with Sora.

“Guess it'd be like that huh?? I hear that the Emperor’s stay within their Inner Precincts that’s like a whole different world compared to ours… They never come out unless it’s needed. What a bunch of shut-ins!”

“Shhh!!! Sora, are you crazy?!?!? You can’t say stuff like that out loud, you know?!!”

Astounded by what came out of Sora, Yuki had appropriated a gesture for Sora to tone down on his offhand remarks.

At some point, the massive brawl going down in the Isolated Training Field had ended in cessation. A lone girl stood upon the face of the planet being steered clear of challengers as they returned to the abutting fringe of leylines.

“Fuu… That’s it, I’m guessing…… Nn?”

The girl in the limelight was practically sighing, replete in her ennui as she sheathed her sword. Her sight was locked onto the pair of white-haired children, trying to focus on their preamble.

“Hah!! It’s not like they do anything as these so-called ‘Emperors’? The Four Cosmos could go on without them having to lord over every corner of Elyiere. In fact, what do they even do?”

“Uhhh… I think they maintain balance and control over all the Cosmos?”

Yuki thought long and hard to come up with a simplified answer which wasn’t so helpful to Sora. As a matter of fact, he even raised his eyebrows as if to question the veracity of her own image of the Emperors.

“Oh? And how do they do that? Going around, beating bad guys? There’s way too much on their plate for them to handle, and even then, what’s with this ‘balance’ thing? I don’t remember them doing anything so monarch-like.”

A child-like response which was surprisingly half-sarcastic, half-meticulous, was all that Yuki had received from Sora.

“It's more like they act as some figureheads that hold aloooot of power, and they use their influence to make sure everything's a-okay! Or… they're just… political puppets meant for the Elemental Familia to use as they see fit… there’s that option too…”

“Yuki… you're repeating the same thing yanno? So what if they have power? They don't really do much with it. Heck, I don't think they've had much effect on the governance of other Cosmos. It’s just like you said, they literally have no veto power except for what goes to Six Elemental Familia.”

“Nnn… so then what are the Elemental Emperors? Somehow, there’s also only five of them left remaining when there should actually be six of them. It feels more like they’re some secret weapon that the Elemental Familia have at their disposal…”

Coming full circle, even Yuki was left hanging with no way of resolution to this problem. It seemed like the image of Elemental Emperors was slowly beginning to dissolve into something that wasn’t so concrete. Or rather a dangerous line of thought – save for the puerile element in her opinion.

“You're not too far off thinking that way. You two sure are quite bold to be talking about the affairs of Prystia so casually out in the open~ ~. Some things just never change…”

“Ahh, no, Elder Sister! That’s not… we didn’t mean it like that! We humbly apologise for–”

「Ahhh... they got the wrong idea. It's not like I'm going to rebuke them for their pinpoint accurate persiflage...」

“Ah, it's fine, just drop the formality. We're cousins aren’t we? I mean, it has most certainly been a while, Yuki-chan.”

“Umu?”

「Chan?? What does that…」

“Unn! We missed you, Elder Sister!! And we're sorry for speaking so brazenly about the Emperors!”

Springing onto Sakuya, Yuki tightly hugged her cousin whom she had met many years ago. At a loss for what to do, Sakuya was surprised by Yuki’s sudden impulse and accepted her embrace.

“Like I said, it’s fine you know? Just watch out for when and where you say things like that. You’re still only so young.”

“It's Sora's fault! He started it!”

Finally looking up at Sakuya, she passed the blame onto Sora who replied with an uninspired expression, arms crossed without much care.

“Yep, she’s not wrong. It’s been a while, Older Sister.

“Unn! It’s been a while, Sora-kun.”

“Kun? Chan? What do those mean?”

“–?! T-those are just honorifics I use to address cute children younger than me ♡.”

「Crap…!!! I used honorifics as an act of habit!!!」

With a jubilant smile that almost froze over, Sakuya teased the two ever so slightly with a dry laugh that lacked any credibility. However, the monochromatic pair didn’t take being treated like children all too kindly… Or maybe it was just Sora––

“H-huh?!?! Who are you calling cute!?!?”

“Ehehe… cute… ♡?”

––After all, Yuki was clearly blushing in euphoria. Whereas Sora looked like he was ready to explode in secondhand embarrassment.

“Fufu… it’s what we use when we address other’s where I'm from. Or rather, where our family is from. Arghh!!! Just forget I said anything.”

“Hn? I don’t really get what you mean but whatever. So, Elder Sister isn’t going to scold us at all?”

“Meaning?”

“We were just openly criticising the Emperors earlier… that?”

“Oh, that…”

「I have volumes worth of crap to say about those shitty Emperors, but ahhhhhhh, can’t really be telling these young kids about it.

“Hmm… I'd rather not say, just yet. Maybe later, when it’s just us.”

This thought wasn’t just me thinking of what to respond, but an actual concession of mine. A telepathic message, that only the three of us could have picked up. I had my reasons since this was a training area open to all – I can’t just let others eavesdrop on anything that could be held against us… Who knows who’s listening?」

Narrowing her eyelids made it clear that she was mulling over it but she wouldn’t let her younger cousins know about it – the other half of her thoughts which would go on in tacenda for quite some time.

「Another thought was transmitted to me just as I was thinking to myself. Belonging to Yuki-tan, her voice popped into my mind.

“Eh?? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Wait wait wait, that’s too suspicious, no matter how you put it. Were you not a Manarea at Prystia??”

The younger two in turn voiced their own thoughts within their thoughts, making their heavily incredulous attitudes clear even if it weren’t written all over their faces...」

“I was, but not all the Maidens of Lacuna decide to become Manareas. And not everyone over there is as uptight and stalwart as you may think.”

“…”

“Ahaha! I bet you didn’t expect that sort of an answer, did you two? I'm sure you've been told that I'm from the Spire of Lacuna which the Inaliere Family is in control of. However, recently the Darkness Elemental Emperor had suddenly vanished. I say recent, but it’s been a growing concern over the past decade. For one reason or another, all of us at Prystia having to leave was somehow connected to it, but there’s no solid proof of it.”

“Huhhh, so the Six Elemental Emperors really are short of one Emperor?”

“That’s right. But enough about Prystia. What were you two doing here?”

“Watching Elder Sister beat those losers!”

“I came here because I saw a strong and unrecognisable source of Od.”

“Eh? Really? I wasn’t releasing too much mana at all. And wait, since when could you see into Elyiere?!?!”

It came across as a surprise that a child so young could already have such delicate perception and sensitivity to the other side of the world already.

And that was all it took for Sakuya to decide on her recourse.

「So there was some truth to what Yuuto-ojisan said. These two really might be...」

She saw herself from the past within these two and she knew she had to prevent an inevitably restricted future from falling onto their shoulders, no matter what. They were the only ones she had left.

She couldn’t let these two fall into the same misfortune as others like her had.

“Of course I can. I saw quite a dense Od within you. Older Sister, you really are unusual huh?”

“I wanna cross swords with you! I'll have you know I'm one of the strongest Valiers here!”

If not the strongest – is what Sora wanted to add on, but he thought it'd be better left unsaid. In terms of just sword skill, Yuki was most definitely the strongest user of the Amamiya Valier Style for her current level of skill. And within the lower stratum of Valiers.

Their school of Valier Arts focused on magic combat with the emphasis on close-ranged melee. Thus, it was perfectly suited for any Valier to learn the art of their school. Or rather, it was best if they had some form of combat experience.

It was a big and wide world. One where you may never know what might happen to you. Especially during these times where the uncertainty lying at the heart of Elyiere could shake the balance of the universe.

“Then come down here and we'll see who really is stronger.”

Sakuya's figure disappeared, reappearing on top of one of the planets with a chalky surface within the inner warp bubble.

“Yuki, be careful. She’s strong.”

“Heh, I don’t need Sora to be telling me that! Just because you can see mana…”

“Fine, just don’t underestimate her. Remember what my mother said, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah I got it!”

Shooting off from the spectator’s orbital platform and onto the carbon planet's surface, Yuki unsheathed her manalyte blade fastened to the left side of her hip, as it’s always been.

Mana scintillated from inside of her, cloaking Yuki in a white aura. Activating 『Physical Enhancement』, the pure white mana was siphoned by her blade and started glowing in lucent fluorescence. The regolith behind her was swept up in an intense storm as if fleeing away from the heavy pressure exuded by them both.

Taking up their stances, Sakuya stood with her right foot placed in front, gripping the hilt of her own manalyte blade with both hands as opposed to Yuki's one-handed and a lowered posture. Sakuya’s own amethyst aura flared up in response to Yuki.

“…”

Bursting forth and brandishing her sword down in a vertical strike without a sound nor holding back, the distance between them vanished with one leap thanks to Yuki. Ringing out from their colliding blade was a seismic shockwave that purged through the crust of the planet and forced the ground to sink as if their foothold simply vanished.

A near-perfect magmatic plateau formed from the lithosphere's collapse as it completely flattened part of the globe's curvature. Cut off a chord of a circle and that’s what it'd look like from Sora’s perspective.

But that wasn’t all.

The planet bobbed down and up from the sheer impact alone, as if it were a cracked ceramic ball in buoyancy above water. The planet felt the full force of such a strong blow as it was very close to crumbling into pieces.

Without doubt, one who had practised vision like Sora was certainly able to keep up with battles even lights years away. Hence, it wasn’t even worth putting to question the clarity of one’s spectatorship.

As such, the succession of each moment was thoroughly witnessed by Sora.

In action, the ground beneath the two locked in fierce combat simply sank well enough for them to left in spatial suspension, leaving a deep crater full of magma that glowed a blood red colour, which sunk into the planet.

Soon enough, the molten surface had cooled due to the warp bubble acting on its embedded rites and mana systems to restore objects back to their original state.

Shaking off Yuki by pushing back with phenomenal force, Sakuya sent Yuki flying back down to the mantle, and flew into Yuki's embrace. But Yuki wouldn’t just let her do as she pleased. Glissading across the mantle, sparks flickered about as more craters gouged into the mantle with every strike. An unremitting maelstrom of attacks flew out in a cloud of destruction lacerating through space itself. The clattering of a thousand blade strikes quaked at every junction. Flurrying ribbons of white and amethyst mana flitted about from the point of their blades, as they zipped around on the plateau with similarly coloured streaks following them at speeds nearly imperceptible to the eye: only within the light spectrum.

The encore slowly edged toward the end of their stage.

At the precipice of the planetary plateau, Sakuya missed Yuki in adagio with her sword – a fatal hit that would've otherwise slashed Yuki in the chest. But to her surprise, Yuki fell off the edge and into orbit.

No, it simply looked that way, for what really happened was that Yuki had swung herself over the remaining forces of gravity and begun revolving around the shaven rock at ludicrous speeds. Sakuya’s eyes dilated in slight astonishment, throwing her off for a mere moment as she tracked her nadir through the ground with her extended mana perception just so that she didn’t lose sight of Yuki from outside her view.

But within that frame of time, Yuki had already circled behind her back, ready to plunge into her nape. Sakuya didn’t have enough time to act and Yuki’s manalyte blade was a moment away from delivering a decisive hit.

Rotating her head just enough to see Yuki, Sakuya guarded her blind spot by crossing her blade behind her neck like a ‘ / ‘ shape. The molten precipice broke off into a smooth ramp from the excessive force neutralised by both mages.

“I see… that’s as far as one could get…”

In that instant, Sora was already able to tell how this battle would end. As one among the spectators, Sora began to turn away in acceptance, all the while waiting for the conclusion to come about.

“Haha! My god, so this is the strength of a 6 year old prodigy huh?”

“I'm an Amamiya, so I think it’s pretty normal?”

Yuki answered Sakuya as if the answer were a given. In fact, Yuki had wondered why such an enquiry was made since it was clear to her that there could be no more obvious an answer than to ascertain that she was just born that way.

“No, I’m sure when I was your age, I wasn’t nearly as good as you were at controlling my magic. I really wonder what you would be like if you started learning magic properly.”

“Umm, so, like being able to use spells and the Elements?”

“Yup! You'd be a force to reckon with. Have you ever seen any actual Elemental Magic?”

“I have – many times in fact – but we’re not taught how to use it.”

“Then allow me to teach you. Remember our promise all those years ago?”

“Eh? Ah!!! –!?!”

Pivoting on the spot, Sakuya knocked away Yuki’s manalyte blade before she kicked Yuki back with the momentum of her pirouette for the second time. Yuki flew far away into the the racing background before coming to a stop by forcing her own inertia. Sakuya was right above Yuki since she followed after, condensing mana into her hand before it formed a large, pulsating dark ball the hue of her own mana.

“This is what's called an 『Eversio Sphere』. Try to survive!”

“Ehehe… survive? You’re… kidding right??”

Profusely sweating in face of that horrifically agglomerated ball of magnanimity which literally spelt disaster, a dry laugh escaped from Yuki.

Rather, she herself should be the one escaping…

“EHHH!?!??!?”

「Run runrunrunRUNRUNRUN RUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!!!!!!!」

Quickly turning on her heels and blasting herself into space well beyond the gravitational field of the near perfect sphere with one portion cleaved off, or crushed into itself, she saw beyond the corner of her eye, Sakuya bringing her hand down as if passing judgement onto her – the eerie orb plummeted so alacritously, it was as if a laser had been shot into the poor ellipsoid from space.

It detonated into a gigantic explosion on the surface, and the whole planet followed. The shockwave reached the center and imploded out from the core to the opposite side of the Eversio Sphere’s incident trajectory. A firework of molten debris was ejected into space at high velocity in a magnificent show of spoliation.

An aftermath of huge mana waves pulsed out, pushing everything back from the colossal release of destructive mana: planets, moons, asteroids, leylines and all. Even the few spectators watching on the leylines were sent far away by the expanding circumferences to reduce the effect the shockwave had on them, before it reached the warp bubble itself and was quelled away like a water droplet sending ripples on an aquatic surface before returning to equilibrium.

Yuki on the other hand…

“Eh………… holy……”

…she was stunned by the sight of the planet being blown to space dust and turning into collateral debris. Stunned and mesmerized.

Mesmerized whilst she fended off the strong headwind of mana. Shielding herself by crossing her arms enhanced purely with her aura and only after about 3 seconds, was she finally freed from the onslaught of magical exertion.

“Ehe… I might have concentrated a little bit too much mana for that one… That's enough magic for today then. How about we call it a draw?”

“A draw…??? It's anything but a draw…”

Still stupefied from Sakuya’s exhibition of magic, she was left speechless.

“Hm? Is it not? Then I suppose it’s Yuki’s victory for making me use magic then ♡.”

“Huhh??!? That doesn’t make any se–”

“Fufu… as your reward, I'll even teach you some magic.”

“–e…???”

“What's wrong? Why'd you go quiet all of a sudden?”

One line was all it took for Yuki to snap out of her reverie and return back to reality. Ditching the dissonance in how she repeated herself twice, Yuki switched to her cat mode. Her mischievous self.

“REALLY?!? YOU WILL??? PLEASE DO TEACH ME AND SORA SOME MAGIC ✨!!”

“M-mhm… of course! Sora-ku… Ahem, I’ll most certainly teach Sora as well, but this'll have to be a secret, okay?”

“Aww, but he's not here…”

Yuki’s face fell despondedly as she replied to Sakuya. Sora had absconded a little before Sakuya’s Eversio Sphere blew up and both of them had taken notice of this even in the fray of battle.

“Don’t worry about it, just let him know and don’t tell anyone else about this, other than Sora obviously.”

“Well of course, our parents wouldn’t even let us learn about magic from others.”

“They have their reasons. And I'll tell you why that is, soon.”

“Un!”

“But it looks like Sora isn’t going to keep his word after all huh?”

“Hm?”

Yuki didn’t catch what she’d meant by saying that. She couldn’t recall how Sora had grandly announced he would have ‘a magical duel with her’.

“From the other day.”

“Oh, last week… Huh!?!?! You heard that??? Well Sora doesn’t… really frequent here all that often…”

“Eh?”

In sheer surprise, Sakuya couldn’t fathom what Yuki had let out.

“Why not? Doesn’t he also spar from time to time too?”

“Well… he isn’t so keen on practicing his arts…”

“Huh… why is that?”

“…”

Yuki fell silent upon Sakuya’s probing. After all––

“Hm? Yuk–”

“You’re better off asking him instead! I’m sorry, Elder Sister!”

––it wasn’t a place for her to be meddling with. With reluctance, Yuki had translocated away from the pulverised planet. Running away from something she couldn’t handle.

“Huh? Ah, Yuki– wait a minute!”

But before she could even form her sentence, Yuki was gone. Taking the leylines to the outside, she left the Isolated Training Fields without leaving a trace behind by translocating away.

Sakuya was completely clueless as to what Yuki meant by 'asking Sora himself'.

「Did I do something wrong?」

Sakuya wondered absentmindedly.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

After Sakuya took her leave from the Isolated Training Fields, she headed back to her star system by riding the leylines that conveniently directed her home.

All the while, she couldn’t help herself thinking about what Yuki had said earlier, so she had to somehow ask Sora why it is that he doesn’t practice the Valier Style of Amamiya. It was in the form of sisterly concern for her younger brother. And serious concern at that.

「Why?

I don’t see why an Amamiya wouldn’t ever want to learn how to wield the sword? I'm sure he's been told that learning to fight as a Valier is a very important step in becoming a mage.

Then why?

He's already able to see things within Elyiere. So he definitely has a lot of potential as a mage, moreso than most others his age.

It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up. What could have happened to make him think that way? I have a feeling I know why... but I should hear it from him just in case.

I'll have to wait till he's by himself and then, I'll casually approach the child and spirit him away.

Yep, I'll just have to kidnap him. If Yuki was that strong even if she hasn’t fully awakened to her senses, then Sora is definitely a level above her.

Touching down on my new home planet, it was far too plain for my liking. But that’s the way it'll be for the meantime. Yuuto-ojisan has arranged a tour of Alvyion for tomorrow so during that time, I'll have the opportunity to customize the appearance of my home star system.

In case you were wondering what my planet looked like, it was a natural ball of grass with a few oceans here and there among the few continents stapled into the mantle. That's all.

There’s absolutely nothing to do here.

Or... I could make myself at home on Sora's home planet.

That's a good idea! I'll just speak to him whenever he's back. I can’t sleep here where there’s no proper place to sleep at all. And I'll quickly get bored to death if there’s literally nothing to do.

Time to pay his home star system a visit.

Lightly lifting off the prairie, I went over to my domicile's leyline and took a ride to a neighbouring star system.

Leylines were scattered across in pretty much all places that Vynexians inhabit. The vice-versa could be said of places that are remote, which have no leylines – places in every Union within Vynexia where there are isolated places. And these are areas with very dense, and torrential mana that can’t be filtered or cleansed. Such mana could potentially kill and is enough to act as a poison for those who can’t control their own mana. And so, civilised regions are areas where the quality of mana is pure enough for Vynexians to safely live in.

There are even places beyond the Four Cosmos, within the reaches of space that are so far away, it is said that they are distant voids of nothingness that keep cycling through destruction.

Regions where the mana of Elyiere is so powerful, everything ceases to be.

Fortunately, such worries were unfounded inside the Four Cosmos.

With these idle thoughts of wonder, I opened up an abstracted version of the Heavenly Sky Palace’s astral mercator projection and found the star system where Sora had lived.

I made my way over to his star system and broke into his floating sky islands. It’s been a while since I've been to Sora's personal home and it seems he's changed it to something where an aerial civilization would’ve inhabited.

Entering Sora’s sky castle, I made my way to the king's bedroom and leisurely seeped into his mattress as I looked up to the vitrified canopy where the cerulean skies could be seen.

Haaaaaaaa, but even then, it’s so damn boring out here as well but it’s better than walking around aimlessly on a lonely planet...

I can’t believe how much of a toll this boredom is taking on me like this. I never would have thought I’d actually want to return to Prystia’s Archives so much...

But it’s better this way.

I won’t have to put up with all the Inaliere Familia’s problems anymore. It’s always been such a pain. Dealing with the Familias so deeply rooted into the affairs of the cosmos. The Six Spires and all of their fallacious theodicies.

I haven’t forgotten about how they lied to me.

The way they had wronged me in my naivety.

How my family and relatives were taken away from me.

The way they had forged my sense of reality.

How they joined my existence to that despicable place.

But that doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all in the past. I’ll just have to get used to things.

Oh well, the only things I can do now are limited to either playing games on my Ring or watching shows that were airing on the numerous channels and streaming services that accommodates for daily entertainment. And most of the stuff being shown is also tediously tasteless...

I’ll also have to prepare myself for whenever I decide to enter the Libria of Fírinne and even that I can’t do yet until I get a few things out of the way first…

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to pass my time reading something then.」

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

「Quite some time has passed, my concentration punched holes into the text I was reading and I completely forgot about that whole 'ask Sora about it' ordeal. By mere chance, I was reminded of my mission just as I had sensed Sora somewhere on the adjacent continent. I thought it was a good thing I prepared by doing that beforehand, but if it didn’t work in the end, it'd have been a completely pointless endeavour. When did he return back to his star system, I wonder?

I got up from his bed, in which I had leisurely passed my time on the Cosmonet just to access online books to read. The walls decorated with geometric shapes like reflective crystals had disintegrated by my will.

Translocating to the edge of the next continent over, I'd so far been able to sneak right next to Sora without being noticed as he was lying down on a grassy headland that looked out to the sea, and further into the twilight of evening on this blue planet itself.

Just looking at him like this made me feel like laying down and enjoying the coastal breeze as well. I’m surprised he hasn’t noticed yet.

Maybe he's asleep?

Should I wake him up?

Let's do it.」

“So~ra.”

“...mhm...”

“So~ra~.”

“Hnah!? Older Sis-?!!”

“Ku... Ahahaha! There’s no need to act so surprised y'know?”

「Sora shot up from the ground and flailed his arms in perturbation. What an exaggerated reaction...」

“W-what's my dear older sister Sakuya doing here?”

“I just wanted to talk to Sora a little. I know it's sudden, but I hope you don’t mind.”

“Eh? Not at all.”

“Is that so? Then do you mind if I lay down next to you?

“Sure… but wait, how did you get inside?”

「That’s a good question. I wonder ~ ~」

“That's a secret ♡.”

“What do you mean a secret!?!! “

“So, where did you disappear to after Yuki and I had our little skirmish?”

“I went back to the Astral Park. Why? What’s up?”

“Did Yuki tell you already?”

“Tell me… what?”

“So she hasn’t… Remember our promise three years ago? I’ve come to uphold it. That’s it really.”

“Promise… was it the one where you'd teach us how to fight against properly others with magic…?”

「Uhhh... he’s not wrong there but I think I meant something else... whatever, we roll with it.」

“Umm… yeah, I think. Yuki's already willing to do it and she asked me if I could teach you as well. I'd been planning to ask anyway, but isn’t Yuki such a nice girl?”

“EH?!?”

“But under one condition.”

“I'll do anything! Anything! I'd love to learn magic!”

「Ohhh... anything, huh? How desperate...」

“H~nnnn… any~thing right??”

“U-uhhh, not anything as in anything, but what I can do…”

「Ahahaha! How adorable. He shrank down into himself once he saw the smug look on my face, realising he couldn’t just do anything.」

“Alright. You'll have to answer one question of mine. How does that sound?”

“Like I said, I'll answer anything you want!”

“…”

「Brief silence as I stare out to the fading light of the evening. Sitting with my knees to my chest, and clasping them together with my arms, I glanced at Sora.」

“Tell me why… Did something happen that made you not want to take up the sword?”

“…”

「As soon as I asked…

Hollowness. His eyes – pupils – they were vacant. Turning his head, he looked out into the distance at nothing in particular.

Maybe that itself was what he had been intending to see through. Because I wondered that there was no place else where he could find the answer to my question. He sought himself within the darkness of dusk, for what lay within may have been the answer to my question perhaps.

Within himself, and what he would inevitably need to express. Because he had no reason to deny it. No reason to shut others. No reason to hold back.」

“I have no reason to take up the same sword as him. I'd rather curse myself than to have anything to do with him.”

“With who? Your father?”

“Uhuh, who else? Well… shoulda guessed that Older Sister would see through me and him, huh?”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what happened between you and your father.?”

“Why does Older Sister want to know? It better not be becau–”

“Well I get that there’s something between the two of you, and that maybe there’s been a bit of a disagreement, and maybe a few fights, but Sora–”

“I don’t need you to tell me! Yeah, I know I should learn the way of the Valier properly, but I don’t see any reason to.”

“But–“

“If I can do it well enough, then that’s all that matters, right?! There are others who could do it in my place. I can handle myself, and I don’t have to do any more than that!”

“Sora… Unfortunately, that won’t be enough.”

「It's simple not good enough.

I suspected that my visage had darkened. I knew what I had to do now.

Now that it’s gotten to this point.」

Wyuuu!!!

「My index finger whistled through the air. Sora had no clue what happened just then. I had pointed my index finger at him – no, beside his head – and out to the ocean. It was far too swift for him to register.」

“Huh?”

「But as if it only realised in sync with Sora, the seas finally parted in two as a deep laceration was gorged into the ocean, deep enough into its aquatic depths to caress the seabed.」

“That’s not good enough. You'd have died if you didn’t react any quicker. And I wasn’t even trying.”

“Eh…? Wha…”

“Unn… You shouldn’t be surprised. You wouldn’t have seen it coming anyway. And I don’t blame you. And that’s what I mean. The way you are right now, you'd be hopeless against magic you can’t handle. But that’s because you don't know enough.”

“I don’t care, I still don’t care!”

“Then if not you, what if I pierced your heart in such a manner? Or even Yuki? Neither of you would have survived. You shouldn’t readily rely on others.”

“Nh–!?”

“What if someone intended to kill Yuki? Someone who isn’t me, but people who wouldn’t have second thoughts about killing others with magic. Would you be able to protect her when no one else could? That's why I want you to learn magic now.”

“No! No means no! I don’t want to!”

“Now listen here you idiot… I said magic, and I will make you learn magic no matter what, yeah?”

“I said NO!– Wait what now?”

“Ma~gic. I didn’t say you'd have to continue being a Valier. Just become a Manarea or an Arquenis or something. I'll promote you from a Valier to a Manarea so suck it up. Haaaa… I really can’t just stand by and watch you two waste away your potential like this.”

「I have nothing better to do anyways, and I'll just have to risk it. Nothing’s fun without the element of danger, right ♡?」

“HUUUHHHH!?!?!!? REALLY???”

“Don’t make me repeat myself…”

「In the end, he was clueless about himself, huh? Oh well, as long as he has the Valier within him, even if he slacks off and doesn’t keep up, it shouldn’t matter. He's got his mana control to back himself up and his talents to boot. He'll become a fine Manarea. I just know it.

I'll do this even if it means lying to him. Even if I run the risk of having to break the 『Elemental Pact』.

This world is not as happy-go-lucky as others may think. It’s not like everywhere is safe in the Cosmos, unlike places that seem like paradises in the living world.

There’s way too many things about the world beyond the confines of Alvyion that Sora nor Yuki don’t know about.

And I don’t want these two to learn about reality the harsh way. And I meant it. Otherwise, I'd be downplaying the axiom of the world.

One where the weight of life itself has no meaning.」

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