Finishing his conversation with Lord Sinclair, Aldrich returns back to the hospital bedroom. Standing outside of the door is Hiram and Leah while Danjela had already gone inside. As Aldrich reaches them, Hiram speaks to Aldrich.

“Hey Aldrich.”

“Hi… were you two waiting for me?”

Hiram looks as if to say something, but seems to hesitate as if something was stuck in his throat. Leah feels the awkward tension of her brother and speaks instead.

“Yeah, Hiram and I were going to thank you for today.”

“That’s pretty strange. You? Thanking Me?”

A look of humor spreads across her face as she smiles and responds,

“Of course you idiot, thanking you is the least I can do for today.”

As she says this, she pushes her brother forward.

“Hiram here also wanted to say his thanks.”

Hiram, being pushed forward, had no choice but to respond now. Getting on his knees like his father he begins,

“I, Hiram Sinclair, son of Lord Sinclair, give my thanks to you, Lord Aldrich Elden Agnis, for saving my cousin Danjela, my sister, our friends, and me.”

Aldrich looks on with a sense of embarrassment at the situation but as Hiram finishes he says,

“I, Aldrich Elden Agnis, accept your thanks.”

Hiram hears this and begins to stand,

“However, it was not me alone that saved us. It was our efforts together that got everyone home.”

While Hiram knew this is probably what Aldrich would say, he did feel relief as it felt like Aldrich had forgiven him for his failure as a leader, much like how Danjela’s word felt.

Standing there for a few moments, Leah grabs both of them.

“Well what are you both waiting for? I’m tired and want to sleep.”

She enters the bedroom with the two in tow. Much of the children there were already asleep, with Danjela knocked out on her allocated bed. Leah points out,

“It feels like a sleepover, except that everyone is super tired out already.”

Looking around the room, Aldrich can see all of his friends sleeping there except Peter. Issac, Yumi, Kaori, and Shun were all asleep. Heading to her bed, she flops on it before quickly moving her bed sheets around and then falling asleep. Hiram and Aldrich do the same before they too are taken by sleep. Outside the room, behind a mirror that peers into the room, is Noriko. A group of nurses and doctors are seen monitoring the health of the children.

“Are you all ready?”

Noriko asks one of the doctors nearby.

“Ready when you are.”

“Great!”

Noriko sits down on a chair provided to her by one of the nurses before she begins concentrating. She slights hums an unfamiliar tune before falling into a deep trance while continuing to hum. A nurse nearby asks one of the doctors.

“What kind of magic is that?”

“It’s an ancient elven magic voice spell type.”

“Amazing. So what does it do?”

“According to Ms. Noriko, it calms the body of those who it affects and pulls them into a dream realm. She said that according to her great grandmother, who was one of the maids for the former elven royal family, the spell was designed to eat away nightmares.’

“I see, that’s very useful. We could really use that more at the hospital.”

“You’re right, but the technique has been semi-lost since the Age of Restoration. Only the Dragon Capital academies and certain elven communities know of and teach the spell.”

“That sucks. Has Ms. Noriko used the spell before this?”

“Yes, she had been helping at the hospital before she became Aldrich’s tutor.”

“That’s great. I hope she comes by more often then.”

As they finish their conversation, Noriko goes into a full on soothing song. Magic ether pour out of her as the spell ramps up to completion.

Waking up in a dreamy way, Aldrich looks around him. He was at the base of the dragon roost or rather what looks to be the base of it. Unlike how he remembered it, the horizon of the place he’s currently at is filled with hazy clouds. Still, it looked quite similar to the green hill Noriko would normally tell her stories. Standing up, he observes a group of 17 children and a recognizable elven woman. Approaching them, the children turn and see him. Some wave their arms while others make other different gestures. For some reason they aren’t speaking but their expressions and reactions are obvious. Closing in on them, the elven woman speaks to him.

“I’ve been waiting for you Aldrich.”

Aldrich tries to speak but found that he couldn’t. She giggles as he tries to express himself and then says,

“Don’t worry about it. Take a seat. We are currently in a dream world right now. You’ll find it hard to speak in here though since you aren’t in control of it.”

Calming down, Aldrich sits down next to his friends.

“You all are very lucky for this. The rest of your friends won’t get to see this. I wish Peter could have also been here but it is what it is. Today I won’t be reading to you all. In this world I’ll be able to show the story with more than just pictures.”

“Today I’ll be showing the story of the God’s War, or also known as the Age of War. The Age of War was a period of time in which the entire world became embroiled in a massive and unending war.”

As she explains this, the dream world changes shape as the green hill they were on shifted to a bloody battlefield filled with many races battling against one another and epic god-tier magic was being performed. God forms, elemental bodies housing the soul and will, can be seen clashing into each other and into other beings.

“Entire religions and faiths sought to wipe each other out as the god fought against god, both in their realms and in the physical world. Invasion after invasion would pummel each and every god’s world while the physical realm warped itself anew. Great magics lost to the ages, transformed the landscape with reckless abandon as mountains shattered and seas flooded the earth. People and races all over the world perished. Soon several gods tired of this endless conflict. It was not that they sought conflict as a solution, but found that their conflicts with each other, may that be either to race or ideology, proved to be deadly, too deadly. They no longer wished for their people to die, but yet the wars waged on. A group of gods who did not wish for the wars to end however, continued with their wars. These gods were then named as the “war gods”. Those that wished for the wars to end were called the “peace gods”. Seeing as the war gods would continue for as long as they could possibly do so, the peace gods decided to request aid from the only beings strong enough to handle other gods. They turned to the dragons for help.”

With this, the dream world changed. No longer were they on a battlefield, but instead they were sat in front of a massive dragon.

“The dragons, though they lived in the war-filled world, did not act out of neutrality. While they felt horrified as their world burned around them and had wished to stop it, the dragon king forbade them. He too had wished to end the wars but whose side he would have to choose was the problem. Like his own kin, he had nurtured and watched as the gods grew. Though the first gods themselves, the elder gods who held the most power over the world and maintained magic and the world itself, were not deeply involved in the war, they had favorite gods and descendants that had chosen to wage war. The wars themselves were not necessarily good or bad and either side would have justification. However, this ended when the peace gods formed and begged the dragons to stop the conflicts. This was all the dragon king needed to start putting out the flames of war.”

In the dream world, the massive dragon took flight alongside many different colored dragons.

“The dragon king and his kin traveled the world, arbitrating peace through diplomacy, or by complete destruction. Gods who could be reasoned with stopped their wars through negotiation by the third party of dragons. Gods who resisted the dragons however, were granted many chances before they were wiped out. Killing a god was difficult, becoming even more difficult and deadly the stronger the god was.”

The dream realm then shifted to show different types of gods waging war against the dragons. God forms clashed with large flame breathing dragons as the god’s people fought smaller dragons.

“Three tiers of gods exist, the first being the elder gods found by the dragon king in the Age of Nothing. These gods can not be killed. Their existence is what keeps magic alive in the world. The second tier are the world gods. World gods are very important gods to the world. Theoretically they can be killed, but their death would result in losing many aspects of the world such as the sun or the seas. To kill such a god, you’ll need to erase all that it represents in the world. The last and most common tier of god is the third tier. These gods are not gods that would impact the world greatly. These gods are a creation of magic and prayer. Though they can be born from the union of another god or the splitter of one. Most are born from the thoughts of living beings. A living being itself possesses a small amount of magic, so small that one could not use it. Very few races can have enough magic inside them to use it. This is why magic today is formed by using ether from the air. The gods recycle the magic made by living beings and put them into the world. Coming back to the gods, tier three gods are powerful but very killable beings. Their existence is tied to their belief in them. Any sort of prayer to a god transfers the small amount of magic in a person’s soul to the god. When a new religion is founded, it may not have a god at first but will definitely have one eventually. To kill one, the dragons found that by wiping away their faith whether through blood and fire or by other more peaceful means, they could starve a god to death.”

With the ending of the gods by the dragons, the dream realm transformed to show the world recovering. The raging landscape that was common throughout the world cooled down as life bloomed once again, a scene before the Age of War.

“Sadly, the dragons enacted this throughout the world for the gods who did not stop their wars. With the war gods destroyed, the dragons engaged in the first gods council. The council was composed of all who would seek any answer as a solution other than war. At last the world was at peace. Though wars would erupt time after time, the dragons would set out and stop them as the world’s ambassadors and police. Empires grew and advanced through technology and magic, races prospered, and a long golden age appeared.”

Ending her story, Noriko announces,

“The end, well until the next story.”

The children begin applauding before the dream world begins to dissipate along with Aldrich’s “consciousness”.