Chapter 371

When the Star Fell (I)

How much time has passed? A couple of years at least, Cain ventured. The passage of time turned murky when the scenery remained constant and days indistinguishable from one another. Yet another dawn, and yet another view of the stretched mountains while he sipped coffee to the sounds of shouts and screams coming from the valley behind him. Unlike most mornings, though, he had a guest time around.

“Dad!” Lana exclaimed as she stormed out onto the balcony. “You told me you’d keep ‘em silent?!” she had plateaued at six feet tall, and was very much like Emma was in her early twenties, down to the stature. For an Elementalist, she hardly looked the part.

“But then I wouldn’t get to spend this beautiful morning with you, princess,” Cain grinned, pouring her a cup. “C’mon, have a cup with your daddy.”

“Ugh, you just never change, do you?” she grumbled, though sat down still. Coincidentally, she also looked like she had taken a trip to the bathroom after waking up before ‘storming out’ onto the balcony. There were games that children never stopped playing, it seemed.

“Ain’t that for the best? You know well and good how to manipulate me into what you want, by now.”

“Then how come my morning alarm is a song of pain and agony sang by a hundred people?” she gave him a side-eye, taking a sip of coffee. “Mom hasn’t come back again?”

“Nah,” he shook his head. “You know her. She’s really stubborn like that.”

“She really is,” she sighed. “And she’s gotten so much stronger! I don’t get it...”

“Me neither,” Cain shrugged. “I thought they were ready to go balls-to-the-walls and challenge the boss last year, even. That poor thing has gotten so bored.”

“That poor thing? Who? The boss?” Lana quizzed.

“Hm? Ah, yeah. I kinda made a deal she would join me once Emma and others defeated her,” Cain shrugged indifferently.

“... you’re not just making up a story to make me think you’re awesome, right?” Lana looked at him oddly. “You are way too old for that.”

“Hey! When have I ever done that?”

“...”

“Alright, I might have done it a few times. But not this time, I promise. I mean, we made that deal years ago, and the poor thing’s been just doin’ nothing in that big arena of hers. I even had to go over a few times to spar.”

“Right. The boss everyone’s desperately training to barely defeat... you simply sparred with because of boredom. Dad.”

“What?”

“I heard mom and sis whisper when they didn’t think I was listening,” she said. “Saying that you might leave.”

“...”

“That the rest of us are holding you back. Is it true?”

“Do you even care?” Cain grinned. “I heard someone’s been thinking about the wedding bells.”

“Ugh, don’t even mention it! Stupid Taima is all like, ‘I have to craft the best weapon for the Master ever! I have to craft this and craft that!’. Idiot thinks you still don’t know. How stupid can he be?”

“Still can’t believe you two got together,” Cain sighed genuinely.

“I still care, though,” she said. “Of course I care. I... I don’t want you to leave. But, I think everyone kind of realizes... you’re above all of this.”

“Above what?”

“This... us. Even those three you brought. I’ve never seen sis sound or seem so defeated, dad. For the first year, every time I’d see her, it was like someone ripped her soul out. It’s gotten better recently, but... she’s not the same Senna I remember. She was fierce, fearless, impossibly confident.”

“She’s just grown, princess,” Cain smiled gently. “Well, temporarily. In time, all that fire that you saw in her will come back. And it will come back with the vengeance.”

“... I feel more and more like I’m losing you all,” Lana sighed, shuttling over onto his chair and laying her head against his chest. “And what’s worse, I’m losing you to something I can’t even begin to understand. I get it, you know? Using magic is fun. Flying, shooting fire, never getting a cold... it’s great. But they... they push it so, so much farther. It’s nuts.”

“Ha ha ha, it really is,” Cain chortled, caressing her hair gently. “It’s unlucky, ain’t it? That you got stuck with a family full of nutjobs.”

“Yeah, well, you are my nutjobs,” she chuckled. “And I wouldn’t trade you for the world.”

“And nobody’s leaving kiddo,” he added. “Ever. We’re all gonna grow old together. We’re all gonna be white in the hair and brittle in the bones and I’ll still be a daddy and you’ll still be my princess. And mom is still gonna roll her eyes at my stupid jokes and your sis will pretend she doesn’t find them funny.”

“And I’ll be judging you all silently!”

“Ha ha ha, sure, and you’ll be judging us silently. The two of them... they think they’re holding me back. That’s their fire, you see. That’s what pushes them, the wind that knocks them back onto their feet whenever they falter.”

“...”

“In truth, they very much know they’re just making that shit up,” Cain added. “I’ve told them as much over a decade ago, and I’ve said it countless times. But, as you may have realized, it’s very, very, very difficult to motivate yourself so much as to give up your freedom and a painless existence. So, they do all that they can. And my image suffers.”

“There’s no image to suffer, dad.”

“Ouch.”

“... well, I’m off. Taima promised he’d give up a day of smithing once a week so he can spend it with me. You know how long it took me to ‘banter’ a day off of my fiance so he can stop working on an item for my dad? It’s nuts. All of you--completely nuts!”

“Hey, hey, your daddy ain’t nuts,” Cain said as she stood up.

“You’re the nuttiest of them all,” she rolled her eyes. “Mom told me.”

“Told you what?”

“You know, that you’re from the future.”

“... oh. That.”

“Yeah. That.”

“... you alright?”

“What difference does it make?” she chuckled. “You came from the future and you could have had the world. Instead, well, you got stuck with us.”

“You are my world, princess. All three of you.”

“Yeah, saw that coming. You’re becoming predictable... daddy.”

“Ah, she said it. She actually said it.”

“Ha ha ha. I’m off!”

“Be safe, princess! Tell that boy of yours he better treat you right!”

He turned toward silence yet again--one interrupted regularly by the melody of practice. They had gotten much stronger than he expected, but that wasn’t what surprised him. Of every member of the raid... only two quit. And everyone else, rather than just training to face U’nul, trained to face the Tower. Even Quinn and the twins were surprised by the unrelenting fire that faced them.

Taking another sip of the coffee, he sat up and floated toward the sky, flying over to the vast fields. Everyone was busy with whatever task they were pushing themselves to fulfill. Blood, sweat, and tears poured the stained dirt, and from it the grass of life grew. It was a sight that he thought he’d never see.

“Your army is coming along well,” a voice spoke from the mote of light that appeared next to him. It was a familiar voice, though one he hadn’t heard in a while.

“You think so too, huh?” he mumbled with a smile.

“There’s trouble coming your way.”

“I was discovered?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking,” she said. “A few nearby worlds have formed an army, and that army is en-route to your world to invade it.”

“... I woke up after a nice sleep. I had my cup of coffee. I had a beautiful chat with my daughter. I watched my fellow men give it their all. And you, you just had to swoop in and ruin it, huh?”

“The rest of us cannot afford that luxury. I thought we only evened out the field. Though, the attack had nothing to do with us. Well, kind of. It’s a long story.”

“It always is,” Cain sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Since you’re warning me, it means that I probably can’t just deal with it alone.”

“I’ve sent someone, but she’s gonna take a while to arrive. I didn’t expect them to deploy the forces as quickly as they did. You need to get them to finish the 20th floor fast and rapidly evolve.”

“I can’t push them yet,” Cain said. “They’re on the cusp of rebuilding themselves.”

“You can’t face the whole army alone.”

“I can hold them back for a while, at least. What about the protective shield? How long can it hold up?”

“A few weeks, even if you help it along.”

“There you go. A few weeks is all we need.”

“... don’t kill yourself trying to be a hero.”

“Nah, don’t worry,” Cain chuckled. “Heroics don’t suit me.”

“Right...”

Both the voice and the mote vanished, and Cain’s face darkened immediately. It was yet another wrench, yet another curveball that he wasn’t expecting. No, he had no means of expecting it. Nothing even remotely close happened in his last life. And there were no signs that it would in this, either. Though he had expected a war, he expected it well down the line.

Looking toward the sky, he worried that he was unable to detect any approaching presences. Considering that he was warned, it would mean that the army was far from small. And yet, he was still unable to detect it.

“Might just be the distance,” he sighed, deliberating on whether to just go to space and inspect the situation. It wasn’t as though he had much to do here, and knowing was usually at least half the battle. “A’right, time to become a spaceman, I guess. Jesus, you really can’t plan life, huh?”