Aeso took another step through the snow, and tore his eyes away from Rei’s back. The snow began to glow with the slow rising of the sun.

“It’s not like last time,” he murmured to himself.

“Aeso…”

“Hmm?”

He looked up as a gust of hot air pushed against him.

His eyes widened and his legs seemingly froze into place. Before them was laid a sprawling field of green, and in the center stood a massive tree with bright pink flowers blossomed from every branch. The snow on the perimeter trickled into tiny streams, saturating the blades of grass. Droplets of dew shimmered in the rays of the dawn light.

The two swordsmen turned to look at each other, the awe still evident on each other’s faces.

A smile broke out onto Rei’s lips, and she began to laugh. She stumbled down the small cliff of ice and snow, lost her balance, and crashed into the dirt below. The grass tickled her skin from below and the wind caressed it from above. The cool air washed over her, and for the first time since she was born, she felt her blood flow freely through her body.

You mourned him because you loved him, but you were proud because you’d finally triumphed over a great man of whom you believed you could never surpass.

Rei tore off her coat and danced around the field. Aeso continued to stare in disbelief. He looked up, where a blue sky shone down upon the field in a circle of perfect clarity. He felt an emptiness from above too, but… mostly, it’s just beautiful.

The Heavens could no longer hear the endless stream of gratitude that poured from his soul, nor Rei’s, nor anyone’s.

You feel empty because you understand that the world was saved for you. You understand that your sacrifices mean nothing because they’ve done nothing.

Aeso froze.

“What…” His breath came out in frozen clouds. “...is that?”

Rei hadn’t yet noticed, and continued to giggle as she tried to catch all of the falling petals.

Aeso turned around, for a symphony of divinity drew closer, step by step, with a blizzard and wind as its accompaniment. It was one Man who stood in the middle—who walked forward—greater than any god, wielding more power than existence itself. Spirals of ice froze and shattered around him in a constant equilibrium of creation and destruction.

“Rei!” Aeso called, his face drenched in sweat. His voice shattered their sphere of tranquility. “We have to protect this!”

Rei stopped frolicking and turned to Aeso, confused. Then she felt it too—a being more divine than divinity, more God than the gods—and the contents of her life began to run in shadows across her eyes.

Truly, why did I create humanity?

Rei tore Hiketsueki from its scabbard.

Aeso clenched his fists and both of his eyes burned gold. The air around him scorched as he concentrated his aura, as he stared at the man. Ice shattered in the distance, rhythmic in its approach.

And then the Man was there. In a single instant—no, in less than an instant—the Man had appeared from miles away to inches apart. His face was somehow both empty and full at the same time, and in a moment that seemed to defy time itself, he tapped one finger against Aeso’s chest.

A deep visceral roar exploded across the planet, and a tsunami of white light rolled forth from the tip of the Man’s finger.

Aeso’s senses flooded with that white as his insides boiled and burst. His aura shattered and scattered like dust as he slammed into the other side of the cliff of ice.

The ringing and light was gone as soon as it arrived, and Rei opened her eyes.

“Aeso!” she cried, catching the sight of his body plummeting, streaks of red trailing his descent.. With Hiketsueki in hand, she flew over to him with flames wisping behind her.

Aeso regained consciousness as he slammed into the earth. Rei arrived with her flames dissipating into embers as he began to stand.

“I’m okay,” he coughed. “Well, I’m not dead at least. More importantly...”

The Man continued to walk towards the tree, the blizzard following close behind. The field of green fought back, turning the snow into a torrent of rain, and the cold into a cool air. However, the air around the Man was still pale, and everywhere he stepped, the green withered and froze.

One touch, and my creation will be undone. You’ve put up quite a fight, haven’t you?

The Man smiled sadly as he reached for the tree. His fingertips nearly touched the bark as desperate screams exploded into his ears and his body was forced backwards. On his left side, a man dipped in gold forced him back, and on his right, a girl of a scarlet fire did the same.

The Man sighed, and with his breath came a powerful shockwave.

Rei felt her nerves collapse and spark out, and her grip slipped. Her eyes darkened as she slammed into the dirt, and the ends of her hair blasted away with the shockwave.

On the other side, Aeso had taken the full brunt, and was once again sent flying.

His body smashed against the dirt and flailed back into the air, where it then met a solid wall, and slid flat back to the ground. Pink petals floated around him.

Rei picked herself up, curling her fingers in and out. Hiketsueki was no longer in her grasp, and she began to feel as if icicles were freezing into her blood, piercing and pressing her flesh from the inside.

“Where is it?” she whimpered, stumbling about randomly.

It’s here.

Rei stopped; looked.

The Man, too, had stopped. He looked from blade to girl, from girl to blade. His voice seemed to penetrate all, both in the wind and mind; heart and soul. His voice became everything it needed to be, and be, it did.

“Yes…” she whispered, taking a step forward, her eyes so drawn to the blade it seemed as though it were to devour it. “Give it back.”

Rei stopped once more. Hiketsueki’s steel blackened and withered before her eyes. The blade shattered into dust, giving one last shriek of existence before fading away into the wind.

She collapsed to her knees, the cold freezing her body into stillness.

“Rei!” Aeso shouted. Still clad in gold, he swooped by and gripped her in his arms. The landing of his foot crackled against the frozen grass before launching back away. “Are you alive?”

Rei noticed that his breathing and the passage of wind became one as they fled. She gave a weak nod, struggling to break the ice that had grown onto her neck.

“You’ve used up all your divinity,” he said. “We don’t stand a chance. We’re running away.”

For a moment, as Rei stared at the fear in Aeso’s eyes, she saw Taki. She’d sacrificed him for the greater good, to save her country from tyranny, and believed it was right. But as she imagined Aeso’s eyes as lifeless as the spark she took that night, she realized that his sacrifice was not her choice, and could only muster one response.

“Okay,” she said.

Aeso reached the edge of the field and prepared to jump just as that voice that pierced all, flooded everything.

Where do you draw your hope?

Aeso froze, feeling the Man’s gaze on his back, and his breath formed into fog before him.

“You’ve always been mine, so please… at least try.”

Ariane’s hair was always like silver, and Aeso once joked that she’d always be second place to his gold. She didn’t argue with him, remarking that there was no need to state the obvious. Aeso always wished that she had, for her hair was the color of steel, and Ariane was stronger than he was, wiser than he was; what was gold but empty value?

“Aeso, we’re running… right?”

Rei looked up at him, and he was smiling.

He set her down gently against the wall of melting snow and patted her on the shoulders. A warm glow formed around her, and her frozen body began to thaw, too.

“Aeso?” Rei asked again, feeling her warmth return. “What are you doing?”

You must sacrifice one to save the other. That is the rule of the world, isn’t it? The rule of your world. So, Aeso Mstislav, what is your answer?

Aeso turned his foot towards the Man.

From the edge of his fingertips, the last of his divine sand ran up across his skin, then floated back down his body like a waterfall in slow motion. The gods were all gone, consumed by choice to create an everlasting warmth, but the Heavens were still there, ready to smite that which opposed humanity.

The Man widened His eyes as the ice and snow and wind disappeared and melted from around Him—as a light crashed against Him with the force of the thousand stars of his invention. Rei could only watch in awe as every drop of Aeso’s divinity tore away from his body and soared into the Heavens above.

A great roaring pillar of light crashed down onto the Man and the earth beneath Him, and even His great presence obscured amidst the light and flame. The might and will of Heaven, wielded through the vessel of that demi-god, unleashed its fury upon Him.

He walked out without a scratch on Him, his expression almost seeming to be apologetic.

Enough. It’s fut—

Aeso disappeared in a flash of blue flame. The Man’s neck suddenly snapped back. A fist laden with a blue fire struck His jaw, hard. Its impact spun even that great figure around once before He recovered and stared at that which hit Him.

Aeso’s gold was gone, and his aura was now that of a blue inferno.

The Man widened His eyes.

He’s burning his own soul to...

“I have a great sin!” Aeso thundered, flying into a kick. The Man buckled under its force, and was sent reeling back into the fury of Heaven, which crashed upon him with the weight of the world. Aeso flew into the pillar himself, knocking Him out and then back in again. He flew faster with each strike, and his strikes grew louder with each dive into the fury.

The Man coughed once when the downpour of Heavenly might ceased. He stared at His hand, then at his surroundings, and realized that His aura of shattering ice and cold was gone.

“I can only try my best to protect everyone,” Aeso said. “I won’t sacrifice anyone anymore.”

A massive amalgamation of blue and gold flame, of soul and divinity, towered over even the skies, held in the hands of the ninth prince of Volhynia. The blinding light danced across the Man’s figure, and his shadow extended across the field.

Rei screamed Aeso’s name as the flames erupted, and the world went deaf. Aeso’s great explosion reverberated across the entire world, and was felt by all. The Tsar Mstislav and his eight remaining sons all sat on their thrones, tired and cold, as they felt Aeso’s final declaration. Yua was awoken by the great rumbling, but quickly fell back asleep; she gripped Rei’s blanket tight as she continued to await her return with the warmth she promised.

Aeso drifted in the sky, then, his form crumbling. From his toes to his heart, it all faded away into dust, as all things do eventually. He imagined a familiar girl floating beside him, beautiful in every way, with kind eyes and silver hair. She smiled and hugged him tight.

One tear streaked from the corner of his eye to his chin, and then another, as his body turned to dust with every second.

“I tried my best, Ariane,” he whispered. His body shuddered with his sobs, and he held her closer. Her skin was fair and soft, and warm. “I tried my best.”

“I know,” she smiled, rubbing her cheek against his. “Thank you.”

Pink petals and blue embers floated around Rei as the explosion subsided.

Aeso was gone, that much was clear. No scrap of him remained, his very soul burned up and become one with oblivion.

Rei felt a tap on her shoulder, and she turned around. A fur coat was held up in front of her.

It was his.

The Man stood behind it, perhaps offering an expression of encouragement. He no longer froze everything in his path, and now looked like just a man.

Rei took the coat and ran her hand across its fur. It wasn’t Aeso’s, but was her own, the one she’d taken off when they’d arrived.

“Thank you,” she said, nonetheless.

A gust of wind blew past the two of them, and the Man was gone. The wind carried the warmth of the dead gods from the field across the planet, and at long last, the Eternal Winter began to melt.

I can’t bring myself to give up on you yet, so I’ll give you one more chance. Prove to me…

The Man’s voice stopped, for tears streamed down Rei’s cheeks, and her cries tore at the winds. Her face was hot with frustration, anger, and grief. She cried and cried, returning to the little girl she was with Yua, the little girl she was before her little war.

She buried her face in the coat he had given her, hoping to somehow find something of Aeso in it, a trace at the very least.

The Man sat in the sky, watching, and cried with her.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed.

And the Man returned to the little boy he was with his first creations, the little boy he was before the wars he witnessed, death and tears.

“Forgive me...”