REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD

A brilliant, diamond spear flashed through the air, piercing chests of dozens of white-clad figures, as if it had a mind of its own. Behind it, Thalia wielded two identical ones in her hands, as each swipe brought about a wave of either golden light or freezing, deadly water. Surrounded on all sides, with more pouring in through the breach, her body had already been dyed crimson red, with dozens of cuts spread throughout her body.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled back as she suddenly summoned another pair of diamond spears, hanging above her head in a twirling motion. She stab the two she held in her hands into the ground, causing it to quake, as two pillars of water erupted and coiled around the two hovering spears, turning them into massive drills. White-clad figures fell like flies from the sky, pouring onto an already massive pile of dead bodies, creating a sight that would make even the bravest shiver.

However, she had no time to pay it any attention; besieged by all sides, she kept summoning spear after spear as golden light erupted from her scarred skin, causing those around her to turn blind. Explosions mixed in with hallowed screams, as sounds burnt away any resemblance of peace. Dead and dying were strung everywhere within her sight, and even she couldn’t help but let her heart waver for a moment.

She glanced back, trying to sense Lynne’s Mana, but he was too far away. She battled like crazed, her usual, nonchalant demeanor completely gone, replaced by a berserk one. She directly threw herself into the heart of nearly two hundred white-clad figures, causing spears surrounding her body to spin circularly and shoot beams of golden light. At the same time, she clasped her hands, causing earth beneath her to rumble. A mere moment later, thousands of tree-thick icicles broke through the wet ground, piercing thousands of figures. Blood rained freely, turning this seeming slaughter into a spectacle.

However, she felt exhausted, out of breath and almost completely out of Mana. Every inch of her body ached, and she was no longer able to stop the continuous bleeding of her wounds. Aah, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this much pain, she thought, chuckling inwardly as she repelled another wave of white-clad figures. She lost count of how many ran past her, but she couldn’t do anything about it. I wonder how’s he doing… he should be fine, right?

Just as that thought crossed her mind, she felt aura besiege her like storm, causing her entire being to shudder. However, unlike her, white-clad figures suddenly all fell on their knees, unable to get back up. Following the overpowering aura, a Mana surge akin to something out legends erupted from where Lynne is supposed to be, causing Thalia’s eyes to turn wide.

Within the seemingly endless outpouring of Mana, she felt familiar, yet still terrifying presence, that seemed to have eclipsed everything and everyone, even those watching from the high above. She froze, much like every other person currently within and outside the Paradise. Nobody moved. Rather, nobody even dared to take a breath.

Y’se and Patriarch had stopped fighting and simply stared at the distant scene beneath them, where an army of blazing monsters was being led by a Crimson God, who was, in turn, being led by a single boy… boy who had caused the very nature of Mana to bend to his will. Even further up above them, those curious eyes dared not look away, for fear of missing even a single detail. They all shared similar thought: This shouldn’t be possible!

Yet, before them lay that impossibility. Above Lynne, who was coated in furious, white flames of Skyfire, appeared a mirage of a beautiful woman, wearing flamboyant, white dress. Her hair trickled down her back and behind, and her eyes shimmered in gold. Much like the crimson titan standing behind Lynne, she gave of an aura ready to cause World’s Evanescence.

Then, a mere motion later, the gigantic scythe that eclipsed all and everything, including the woman and the titan, shuddered as white flames coated it from bottom of the shaft to the tip of the blade. Vein-like threads appeared through its surface, and at the point where blade and the shaft intersect, where a skull stood, those two empty eyes lit up, as if alive. No, rather, it was alive.

Then Lynne spoke faintly and, just before his voice faded into nothingness, sky above tore open. The world beneath, across and above froze in that singularity, not a single thread of living moving. Pressure akin to nothing that could be put into words dawned on everything beneath that gigantic hole in the sky. Within it, countless stars lit up like lanterns as they blazed in every color in the known spectrum.

Then, as if by a hand divine, they moved; at first slowly, but, as those breathless moments between seconds counted on, they sped up and grew larger and larger. Then they appeared in the sky like shards of eternity, all falling in the final blaze of glory. Fires of every kind, dominated by Skyfire and Hellfire coated strangely shaped objects as they fell like meteors from the sky. Hundreds… thousands… tens of thousands… soon, the number lost the meaning. When it rains, it truly pours.

As each blazing object descended, it seemingly gave birth to a circular rings of flames surrounding it, and the rings spun like wheels, birthing rain of fire. From gigantic boulders came tiny pebbles, and it never ended. The world was coated in celestial lights as the temperature of the entire realm skyrocketed, causing even the distant North to feel it.

Gru stood frozen at the same place, his eyes fixated onto the distant sky, piss wetting his leather leggins, as his feet shivered in place. He had stopped breathing, or even thinking. He was frozen both in time and space, as infernal shower of death closed in on him.

Lynne didn’t idle. As inferno collapsed from the sky, he arose into air, still burning in complete white. A medallion that was eternally wrapped around his neck escaped his robes as it fluttered in front of him. A medallion given to him to serve as a reminder. He gripped it tightly and closed his eyes for a brief moment. Then, as if time unfroze, calamity arrived.

Wrapped in white flames, as hell poured onto the Paradise, Lynne blasted from one place to another, causing shockwaves so large to erupt that they crumbled mountains standing in their paths. Craters began appearing wherever he’d land, alongside epidemic of similarly clothed corpses. Life and death, at that moment, lost all meaning.

Empyrean Absolution combined with the final stance of Reaping created something even beyond his imagination; as the latter use the power of Entropy of the World to freeze and overwhelm anything, the prior used the Will of the Flames to ‘steal’ the stars in the sky and coated them in eternal fires, pulling them to wherever he wished.

As he blasted apart countless, so did the monsters he summoned, and so did the Sanguine God, and so did the Divine Magus Meredith. White-clad figures, Beastkin, all those who betrayed him fell one by one. It was no longer battle, nor was it war. It wasn’t even slaughter… it became concentrated omnicide.

Paradise burned as celestial objects fell at last, blasting apart mountains, blasting apart rivers and lakes and forests. Yet, strangely, as if protected by something out of this world, those who still fought for the burning Paradise were unharmed. Fires evaded them, the falling objects never touched them, and all burning monsters aided them.

In ten breaths, it was all over. For tens of miles, celestial fires burned as Paradise turned to Hell. At all corners, corpses piled up into mountains. Where there were no corpses, there were ashes. Bit by bit, the torn sky healed and the celestial beyond disappeared from the sight. Meredith suddenly rose into the sky and spread her arms wide, her mirage glistening in gold, as the pillar-like beams shot off from within her body down onto the land. The wounded were healed, the land was protected, the fires were contained. Yet, even she couldn’t stop one fire from burning. White flames appeared wild yet calm, tamed yet controlled.

Surprised, she glanced into the horizon, at a boy who was standing upright, blood pouring out of every one of his orifices, creating a small pond beneath his feet. He still burned white. And white burned around him. Skyfire bent completely under his will, inextinguishable by anyone else. The white flames surrounding him suddenly concentrated onto his back, shaping themselves into a pair of wings as he rose into the sky, bolting backwards.

He landed back where it all began, next to his father’s motionless corpse. And next to the only survivor of the apocalypse: Gru. He still stood all the same, unable to look away from the sky, his eyes continuously pouring out tears. What he just witnessed burned itself so deeply into his mind that it replaced all of his memories. There was only the gaping hole in the sky, and burning stars pouring down like rain.

Lynne looked at him strangely. There was pity, anger, hatred, sadness, remorse, resentment all combined inside his gaze. He had long since lost his appearance, as he was completely doused in crimson from head to toe, and were he not standing, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he was a corpse. Yet, his eyes brimmed with strange, lively light.

“I’m here,” Lynne suddenly spoke, breaking the silence that had besieged the Paradise – the World itself – at last. “Go on, kill me.”

“…” staggeringly, Gru shifted his head down and looked at Lynne. His body, as if by instinct, shuddered as he fell onto his knees, arms hanging at his sides. Fear akin to nothing he ever felt burned inside his eyes as he looked at the devil standing before him.

“You can avenge them all,” Lynne continued, still standing motionless, holding onto the scythe in his right hand. “You can do a great service to those you serve. Just get up and wring my neck.”

“…” however, Gru did nothing. Rather, he couldn’t do anything. Even if his mind processed and understood the words, it immediately discarded them. Neither mind nor body – or even his heart or soul – were willing to do anything but remain still and wait.

“Don’t hold back,” Lynne urged, taking a step forward and stopping a mere ten centimeters away from Gru. “Go on. Many eyes are expecting it, begging for it. End me now, and end it all.”

“…” yet, nothing changed. Gru remained frozen. Outside of Lynne’s voice, no other sound escaped into the wild. As if the entire World listened in on this single scene, nothing and no one else moved.

“Now,” Lynne suddenly crouched down and grabbed Gru’s neck, lifting him up off of his feet. “That’s what you call ‘giving up’.” Lynne said expressionlessly as he gripped his fingers, tearing through the fragile neck and wringing Gru’s head off his neck, quickly throwing it away. Dead silence.

Something akin to the ancient tales of Primordial Era just transpired before everyone’s eyes, its remnants still burning in Skyfire Flames. White and beautiful, but even more so plainly horrifying, they burned like campfires, spread across the Paradise, as if singing the final chorus of the requiem.