HEARTS FOR A HEART

The sky whiskered deep violet in twilight, beaming down light onto the barren desert. No sound escaped but occasional howl of the wind, causing eerie atmosphere to arise. Corpses doused scarlet lied strewn about the still wet sand, some still almost whole, some torn into countless pieces. The scene gave off an odd feeling, almost like a serene painting of a post-war tragedy, yet, at the same time, a painting of a mere prelude to much grimmer things to come.

Not a minute had passed since Lynne had forcibly transported everyone into separate dimension when a few white-clad figures broke free, confusion apparent on their faces. Then, one by one, more and more figures escaped, finding themselves back in the desert. Lynne himself was standing next to Yunchi’s corpse, calming his own heart while holding hers, before forcibly removing himself from the dimension as well.

He appeared near the formation’s breach, at the bottom of the nearly crushed mountain, Yunchi’s still warm body next to his feet, immediately drawing eyes of everyone witnessing the battle. When the Patriarch saw the scene laid before him, his heart froze; when Y’se saw it, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of complex emotions; when Thalia saw it, a glint of sadness flashed through her eyes. When Median saw it, he found even breathing to be difficult.

Lynne never told him that it was Yunchi who ordered him dead. Rather, he never badmouthed her in front of him, because he knew his father, regardless of all her faults, still loved her. Even though he could faintly feel Median’s confused gaze, he didn’t bend his back forward nor lower his head. Rather, he looked up into the sky and raised the still-beating heart in his hand toward it. And then, with a simple grip, he crushed it completely, letting its pieces scattered down his arm while some blood flew over and painted his face crimson.

Yet again, all sound died, and silence became the god of the land. It took a moment for all to realize that Hyorn’s pride and treasure had died, and yet another moment to realize that it was a barren youth with emotionless eyes that did it. He crushed her still beating heart in front of everyone, not even caring who was watching or what emotions were felt. And then, as if by design, everyone was forcibly ejected from the separate dimension.

Tens of thousands of corpses, both sides entangled without a clear boundary, and tens of thousands living ones. That single moment of seemingly destined tranquility didn’t last much longer, as, a mere heartbeat later, all hell broke loose. From the sky a torrential rain poured, while earth beneath quaked as if dead were battling to arise. Air became suffocating, and Lynne felt pressure akin to ten thousand rein down onto him. Still, he didn’t bend, nor did he break. He endured, his expression still empty.

“YOU BASTARD!!!!” the voice roared like beast’s, causing hearts of many to freeze, and some to even fall over and collapse. The brunt of it, though, was aimed at a single youth, who withstood it without seemingly feeling anything. “KILL!!!! KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THE BASTARDS!!! ANNIHILATE EVERYTHING!!!!”

Then and there, Lynne finally flinched; he realized something was amiss. However, before he had a chance to completely comprehend it all, he felt it in his heart – his action didn’t have the result he wanted. Rather, he felt winds behind him change, and as if voice spoke to him, he turned around and looked. There, he saw something that stunned him.

From north, Beastkin were rushing valiantly, but not to support them or to fight alongside them, but to kill them. Within every separate group, he saw in-fighting beginning to occur. Because the defensive formation was attacked from the inside, even Y’se felt backlash as she spat out a mouthful of black blood, causing the entire formation to flutter.

Still, Lynne recovered quickly; gritting his teeth, he tore space apart as he appeared next to Parsia and Ayya’s group, where only two were trying to protect the pair of unconscious lovers. He immediately summoned his scythe and reaped. The two were lying down on the cold stone in the pools of their own blood, barely breathing. Picking them up, he tried to break through the space again and get them to safety when he felt a scorching pain invade his back.

He screamed out in pain, but still pulled through, disappearing. Midway through his travel, he spat out a mouthful of blood and wasn’t able to land properly as he exited the space tunnel, crashing onto the ground. His back was tore open, his bones almost visible, but he bit his tongue and endured. Putting them down, he immediately tore through the space yet again, this time rushing toward Chief’s and the Commander’s position.

When he got there, he could only witness a scene of utter despair and anguish; both the Chief Trios and the Commander were beheaded cleanly, with thousands of corpses strewn about. Wielding his scythe, he arrived before the still surviving ones and began repelling back the invaders, one by one. He had already lost the count of how many he killed, and, at this point, he didn’t care for it much. The only thought on his mind was to protect.

“Goddammit, we can’t hold them! Y’se, can’t you fucking close the breach?!” Lynne shouted in frustration. However, Y’se didn’t answer; he looked up and saw that she was fighting the Patriarch, but all he could see were blurs and afterimages. “Thalia, where are you?!!”

“I’m still outside,” a hurried voice replied. “I’m being swarmed, where the fuck are you?!!”

“Inside, it’s a fucking collapse in here!!” Lynne replied while swatting back a group of ten white-clad figures. “Beastkin have turned on us and are attacking from the rear, while it seems that every group has at least a dozen of traitors mingled in! Get inside, we’ve already been breached!!”

“… how are others?” Thalia asked, her voice filled with worry.

“Parsia and Ayya are out, Y’se is fighting the Patriarch and can’t close the formation, Chief and Commander are dead. As for others, I’m not sure about their status.”

“… dammit. Alright, I’ll try to get inside. Go and help others, I’ll take over the breach!”

“… thanks.”

“Thank me later, bastard.”

Heeding her words, Lynne spat out a wave of golden flames from his scythe toward the breach as he tore through the space, moving toward his father’s position. Strangely, though, his heart was calm, and his mind was constantly calculating. It was already too late for regrets, so he was focused on trying to find the best solution for the current predicament.

As he finally appeared on the other side, the scene finally caused his heart to burst out in tears. Hundreds still fought in smoke and ashes, marble stone beneath coated in crimson dye, air filled with stench of blood and death. Above all, though, his eyes immediately found him; Median was lying on the floor, his neck crooked, eyes void of life. Above him stood Gru, his expression cold and indifferent. As if he sensed something, he looked up toward Lynne and suddenly broke out into smile.

“You sure took your sweet time getting here, Boss,” Gru said mockingly. “Had you come a bit earlier, you might have even been in time to save him.”

“…” Lynne said nothing, merely staring at the scene that left him scarcely breathing.

“Honestly, what did you expect?” Gru asked as he spread his arms wide, whereupon two axes appeared in his hands. “I thought you were smarter than this.”

“… ah, I thought so too,” Lynne suddenly burst out in mad laughter as he landed a few meters away from Gru. “It’s all falling apart, isn’t it? My Paradise.”

“Aye,” Gru smiled mockingly. “Before it even properly flourished.”

“Ah, just the same,” tears suddenly tricked down Lynne’s cheeks, mixing with his red-stained face. His appearance was akin to a mad devil, yet at the same time a broken soul. “Ha ha ha, goddamn, this is hilarious. Yes, go on, take everything from me!”

“So? You ready to give up yet? In the name of our friendship, I’ll let you---”

“Give up? What shit are you spouting you cocksucking horsefuck?!!!” Lynne’s mad laughter turned into an even madder roar. “Give up?!! HA HA HA! You’re one retarded bastard, aren’t you?!! Ha ha, and here I thought we could all have a proper battle for once, ha ha ha. Aaah, this is enough,” Lynne muttered as he let go of his scythe. The weapon suddenly disappeared and appeared above him, eclipsing all and everything as its aura burst out like a tsunami, overshadowing whatever else existed. “Watch this, all dead and dying,” Lynne said, smiling bitterly. “This is my requiem for you.”

Then, as if called by will divine, a gigantic, crimson shadow burst out from within Lynne’s soul and transformed into a bloodied titan standing behind Lynne. Then, one after another, beasts were born from flames, rising behind him as if reborn from ashes. Some small, some larger than the crimson titan himself, hundreds soon appeared.

“… eeh? Is it finally my turn to appear?” a familiar, yet distant voice echoed inside Lynne’s soul.

“You sure took your sweet time,” Lynne said. “Had good enough of a sleep?”

“Ooh, you sure are in a pickle! Eh, I’ll help you out. Looks like it’s high time for Divine Meredith to remind the world of what a true Divine Magus is.”

Aura akin to absolute domination began flooding out of Lynne as his entire body appeared to go under a metamorphosis, but, far from stopping, he forcibly calmed himself down as he slowly began muttering one chant after another.

“Infinity,” floodgates opened and Mana burning out of him caused even hearts of those watching from the distance to freeze. Outside of its sheer quantity and quality, Meredith’s presence and his own two Bloodlines enhanced the rather ambiguous ‘sense’ of Mana, to the point where nearly all living surrounding him wished to bow down in awe. “Pyre,” the Mana bursting out of him suddenly became visible to the naked eye as it turned into brilliant, nearly translucent, white flames. “Mana Burn,” World’s Mana, which was rampaging under the influence of Lynne’s, suddenly converged toward him, empowering already unbelievable Mana influx. “Pocket Void,” he muttered. “Burn all.” as if yet another floodgate opened, ten stored pockets full of Mana resting within Lynne himself burst open as the Mana within them flooded Lynne’s veins and nerves, causing his body to wreathe on its own.

Just as he felt his entire body would burst from the overuse of Mana, Lynne felt dam within him break as if he had gained enlightenment before he would die. Concepts that danced in his mind for the past half a year suddenly began merging, and knowledge he acquired finally melded together. Empyrean Lord… Lynne thought unexcited. The scythe hovering above him shook for a moment, unleashing aura which seemed to be willing to swallow the world. Lynne finally combined two concepts he wanted – Empyrean Absolution and final technique of the Reaping stance of his Empyrean Scything, Chaos, Eternal Entropy – into one.

“End - Empyrean Entropy…” his voice was barely able to fade into the wind when the World broke out in cries of torment, awe and anguish.