There was no sense of nausea this time. Li knew where to go. How it felt to commune with an other that was still him. Seemed like a contradiction, that, and if he had to try and explain it out, he knew he could not. 

All he could say was that it felt natural. 

Darkness clouded his vision, and that darkness began to flicker and start warping, like space twisting and turning and tearing.

Then the darkness faded away, revealing water tinted in various shades of gray, the dull light of a grayscale sun shining neutral rays through the depths of shimmering, color muted water. 

And spending an instant here, he knew he now had the power to close the rift. He did not have to go through the hoops of talking with his embodied other this time, though he doubted it would be the last he would see of it. Perhaps it was because closing the rift was a relatively trivial matter

He knew that in the world above, outside of the space that housed this side of him, he was already moving to close the space. 

And yet, his consciousness still stayed here. 

This time, he was in the water. Sinking. 

Soon enough, the gray rays of dull light disappeared. The water became darker and darker until finally, the grey became black, the waters so devoid of any semblance of light that there was nothing but the void.

Or, as one could put it otherwise, the abyss. 

A voice echoed to him through the water. It was muffled, garbled, barely audible as it traveled through the waters from seemingly all directions. A voice quiet and tired, the intonations lingering at the end of each sentence like talk from a man barely woken. 

"Why?" said the voice. "Why do you do this? Why do you side with them?"

"It is my decision. And I do not have to explain it to you."

"You are so far beyond them. They are specks of dust compared to you. Infinitely insignificant motes drifting on a single rock surrounded by an infinitely vast, infinitely colder universe."

"I know."

"No, you do not. Why else would you protect them? Uphold Order? What is it you truly believe will come from this? For every speck of Order. For every little particle of warmth. There is a far wider, broader, vaster expanse of cold. 

Chaos is the natural state of all. You will come to know it, I promise you, and then, you will understand. You will agree with me. You value Order. When my call is sent, Chaos will come. Chaos will become uniform. Chaos will become the new state of Order, as it has been in the beginning and always shall be in the end. 

An Order more stable, more constant than the fluctuations of life and free will."

Li did not respond, and the voice continued. 

"There is no point to this. Guarding over one rock. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, it matters not. Keep me aslumber. Destroy me. But for what? Chaos is eternal. Ever encroaching. Ever present. You cannot spend an eternity fighting against the natural state of existence."

"I will be the judge of what I can or cannot do."

"You are misguided. But you will come to know. Tell me, Gatekeeper, what is it that you believe you will protect? All the life you know now will wilt in time. In a century, no, a millennium, beyond that, then what? 

Who will you know? What will you care about?

Who will care about you? Who will know you as you are now?

What will you have?"

Li felt a tug of familiar warmth on his arm. He felt himself floating upwards, through the abyss of water, the voice below rapidly fading.

"I'll have a daughter," said Li.

Li found himself staring at his hands. The wooden palms were pressed together, and he felt them exerting force, like he had crushed something in between them. The plant life that curled around his hands and arms that had wilted started to grow back, the grey, black shades of death fading away as green life returned.

"Papa, you're back!" said Tia. 

Li looked back to see Tia rubbing her eyes as she got off from the ground, a tiny crater behind her, like she had been blown back into the earth. 

"Are you alright, Tia?" asked Li as he turned, ready to heal her.

Tia answered by flapping her wings and sailing into his arms, showing that yes, she was as healthy as could be.

"Was I…was I gone long?" asked Li. 

"No." Lira came into view, her hair blown back messily. "Only for a minute. You dipped your hands into the rift, closed it, but the moment before it fused shut, something held you in place. A fairly large shockwave blasted us back, but it did not take you much longer than a few seconds to overpower the last remnants of that accursed rift."

"Good," said Li. He felt Tia snuggle into his leafy chest. "Good."

"And now, look at that." Lira pointed to the sky with her torch, smiling. 

The fog started to clear up. The azure blue skies became visible, and instead of the thick white veil of fog, the only whites that floated now were large, fluffy clouds. The light of the sun shone once more, its warmth washing over Li and Tia. 

"With the rift sealed, this land is now free of its tainted air," said Lira. She sighed and sat down with her legs straight. "And now, my duty is done." 

"Wow," said Tia. She pointed down. "Look at that, papa! From you!"

Li traced where her finger pointed to see that the cracked, battered, barren and destroyed earth, once covered in various shades of scorched black, now started to find itself painted over in smatterings of green.

Then flowers. All kinds of flowers of all colors. The scale of the regrowth was massive, and Li felt surprised – this was far more extensive and faster than what his usual passive presence could do. 

Within minutes, the landscape had just as much green and vibrant colors as it did blackened rock. Waves of life infused energy echoed out from Li, each ripple planting and growing more and more life. 

Remnants of the power he must have used to close the rift. To oppose Noctus and his whispers. 

"It has been over a hundred and fifty years since this land has ever borne the fruit of life," remarked Lira in awe. She sat up cross-legged, dispelling her arcane armor so that she could run her bare fingers over the growing grass, her scarred and calloused finger hovering over a sunflower. "It is good to see it return before I fade away."

"Are you going?" asked Tia from Li's arms, worried.

"Yes, but I know you will see me again, so worry not, little dragon. In time, my true self will come back to this world. Hopefully, your father will have done all the heavy lifting and gotten this whole mess with the Darkness sorted out.

And I still have until midnight to enjoy myself, so I am in no hurry to say any goodbyes."

"Hopefully," said Li as he shifted back to his human form, willing the Vukanovi back now that there was no threat. "But that does not mean you should expect to get out of helping any. If your help is needed, that is."

"It is never a bore to fight for a good cause," said Lira. She caressed the golden petals of the sunflower. "No nobler and grander fight is there than that to protect all life. And it is good to see you fight for the same cause."

Li nodded, smiling at Tia as she occupied herself in wonder at the growing nature around her. "Yes. Nothing nobler."