TEARS, GORE AND WAR

Thalia caught up to Lynne and Y’se by the time the two already went off to their own battles. Scouring the picture in front of her, she sought where she could help the best. In the distance, she spotted two dots charging towards the endless darkness beneath, and a singular dot moving slightly behind the two. Immediately drawing her spear out and brandishing it tightly, she burst forth and threw it in full swing.

By the time Hylana realized that there was a spear aimed at her, the weapon had almost reached her already. Having no time to think, she pulled her two sickles and threw them towards the spear. Explosion echoed out as the weapons clashed, and as she was almost at its epicenter, she was blown backwards like a cannonball, her clothes slightly tattered, shoulder and abdomen cut and bleeding.

“Crap, they’re strong!” she exclaimed lowly as she tried regaining her footing while recalling her weapons towards her.

Thalia quickly caught up, now holding a spear in each of her hands. With one propelling herself backwards and one chasing, they were only one of the numerous pairs currently engaged in a battle in the sky. Gritting her teeth, Hylana pulled the space around her apart and disappeared, materializing behind Thalia and immediately swinging her sickles towards her back.

Sensing the space behind her distort, Thalia forced herself to a halt and spun around, using the momentum of the spin to throw her spears in succession. Another explosion ensued as sickles and spears clashed, blowing both backwards. Recalling her spears, Thalia tore the space behind her open and teleported behind Hylana this time around. Combining the two weapons, spearhead and shaft grew twice their original size. Diamond light enveloped its tip and split apart like web, shooting out in arcs as though attempting to entrap Hylana in a net.

Sensing the danger, Hylana burst forth with enormous amount of Mana, spinning her sickles circularly. Each spin bent the space and sent forth massive influx of invisible energy spreading in all directions.

“… Mind?” Thalia mumbled, going on full defensive as she withdrew her net and enveloped herself into a cocoon of light.

As the invisible energy met the light, it bounced off and dispersed into nothingness, as though it was never there. Clicking her tongue, Hylana combined her sickles into a massive, twenty meters long and a meter thick chain with a reaper-like blade atop. As the chain took to the sky, it wiggled on its own as though alive, soon splitting off into hundreds of smaller units.

Meanwhile, Hylana took this opportunity to retreat further away from Thalia. She realized that the latter specialized in the short-distance combat, and while she herself wasn’t awful at it, that wasn’t where the strength of Law of Mind lied. However, she was almost instantaneously frozen as she glanced back toward Thalia.

Where once stood only a thin layer of light surrounding here was now a gathering of elements. Above Thalia’s head, lasting nearly a hundred meters in length, a spear was vibrating as elements surrounded it in coiling fashion. The massive Mana fluctuations being emitted from the spear caused her fright and shock, and the fact that all her chains were being burnt away one by one didn’t help.

“… w-what the fuck?! Divine Gift?!” she exclaimed as she pushed herself to limits in attempt to retreat. “You gotta be shitting me!!”

As Thalia finally gathered enough Mana into her spell, she realized that the distance was too great to cover. Taking in a deep breath, she cut the space in front of her apart and sent for the spear flying through the vortex connecting the two points. Spear emerged overhead of Hylana and dove like a lightning bolt at the latter. As she noticed it, she summoned the most Mana she could in a short amount of time and completely burst her brain’s circuits in attempt to unleash as much energy as possible, nearly fainting in the process while also trying to regenerate them as quickly as possible. The clash was imminent, and she knew she’d lose; it was only a matter of preserving her life.

Meanwhile, several miles away in distance, and several miles further up the sky, Parsia was currently pursuing a short, plump man wielding two, sword-sized warhammers. The latter never dropped his panicked and frightened expression, but try as hard as he could, Parsia couldn’t even injure him. Several dozen lightning Dragons danced around him and bit towards the short, plump man, but each would either get parried or outright blocked directly.

“… I won’t get anywhere with this,” he sighed, retracting the Dragons. He extended his hand whereupon a crimson halberd, emitting an aura of pure death, appeared. “So let’s try this one.”

Coating his feet in lightning, he vanished from the spot he was at and traversed the distance between the two in a blink; although Lightning isn’t as potent as Fire at direct attacks, there’s no element except the Light itself that’s faster than it, not even Space. Startled, Sorth immediately raised his warhammers in a cross. As halberd’s tip pushed against the warhammers, space distorted around the two as massive amount of vanishing energy burst forth from the halberd, enveloping the warhammers and Sorth’s arms in extension.

Sorth only felt trickling sensation which turned into a burning one before he screamed out and let go of his weapons, retracting them. Explosion, followed by a mountain-blowing shockwave followed, pushing him backward like a kite through the sky, his clothes and skin scorched. Parsia himself wasn’t left uninjured, but he ignored it, coating his entire body in Lightning and bursting forth yet again in chase.

Realizing that he’s inching towards the death’s door, Sorth roared out in anger and desperation, causing his eyes to beam out brilliant light as his entire body tripled in its size. His fat disappeared, replaced by vein-bulging muscles, and his skin grew out thick, steel-strong hair all throughout, making him seem more akin to a monster rather than a human. From his head, a single horn grew out in a backward arc, while his eyes calmed down into a crimson hue.

Baffled, Parsia wanted to stop and retreat, but as he was already in a full-swing, he could only follow through. Pushing even more Mana into halberd’s shaft, he crashed it directly against Sorth’s arm; however, to his dismay, not only did halberd’s attack do nothing, but the strike caused the weapon to split in half. A massive recoil of energy followed, shocking Parisa to his core, as he was blown backwards.

His clothes tattered beyond the point of recognition, entire chest ravaged until even the bones were visible, his entire left forearm cut off, and even one of his eyes popped directly out of its socket. However, he had no time to process pain which assailed the entirety of his being – Sorth was already flying toward him, his gigantic arm in full swing, aiming for Parsia’s chest.

“Motherfu--” a direct hit against an open wound caused Parsia’s words to be blown back into his lungs. Although he coated his entire body in as thick of a shield he could muster, the arm still broke through – although just barely – and hit him squarely. He spat out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying yet again.

Biting his tongue to force the desire to sleep away, he tore the space behind him apart and transported a mile backward while the beast-like man gave chase as though mad. Taking in a deep breath, he tried to calm his beating heart, but to no avail. Blood seeped out of every part of his body, even his remaining eye, and every inch of him felt like it was falling apart.

Roaring out into the sky in anger, he pushed his remaining arm as though to clasp together with the other; although it appeared awkward, he didn’t care. Muttering a low chant, his entire body began giving off cyan sheen. Blood that was pouring out was stopped as the sky above him grew darker. Just as the beast-like man was about to land another punch, lightning strike tore open the fabric of world and hit Parsia directly atop his head. The sheer burst of energy caused Sorth’s body to fly back, setting him directly on fire, and causing him to release a roar full of pain and anger.

Even further up, where clouds no longer mattered, inching the very edge of the realm, Y’se was hovering calmly, her hands crossed in front of her chest, her robes fluttering backwards. In front of her stood a relatively handsome youth with a scar across one of his eyes. He wore simple, leather armor, his hair blindingly golden and long, fluttering backwards like serpents. He stared vehemently at her, gritting his teeth as though holding back a scream.

“… you said you wanted to talk, Eyoh?” Y’se said calmly. “So fucking talk already. I don’t feel like having a staring contest with someone as ugly as you are.”

“… why… why are you fighting us?!!” the man called Eyoh finally let go of the scream, sending ripples through the space around him. “You should be standing by our side!! You should be helping the Lord, not fighting him!!”

“… helping Ryon, huh?” Y’se muttered, her voice carrying a scent of sorrow. “How can I be helping him if I don’t even know what’s he doing?”

“He’s doing it all for you!!!” Eyoh screamed out yet again. “All of this!! He’s suffering so much for you, yet you’re still fighting against us!! Against him!! Against everything he’s devoted his life to!!”

“…” Y’se sighed, lowering her head as her body shuddered for a moment. “I-I don’t need him to.”

“… don’t say that…” Eyoh whispered, lowering his head as well. “Don’t even tell a lie like that…” he added, quickly looking up directly into her eyes. “Most humans believe that Gods like us don’t have emotions, that our sole purpose is just to exist, to be their prey. They think that no matter what they do to us… it doesn’t matter. After all, we’re not ‘true’ Gods. We’re just remnants. We’re just specks of dust blown by the wind from the endless desert. However, you… you know. You’ve known all along. You’ve known that we feel as much as you do. You’ve seen it. You fell in love with it.”

“Stop…”

“I won’t!! I won’t stop until you finally open your eyes!!” he screamed out yet again, flaunting his arms around freely, as though words weren’t enough to express what he wants to say. “All of this is so that you two can finally reunite!! All so that humans can finally understand that, we too, can love, can ache, laugh and cry! How can you reject it?! How can you fight against it?!!”

“… heh, you’re asking me how?” Y’se raised her head finally, tears trickling down her cheeks as she smiled in pain. “Because that is the only way, Eyoh. The only way I’ll forget.”

“F-forget?! You want to forget?!”

“Aye, I want to forget. Because of him, I’ve lost nearly a hundred years of my life thinking of ‘what could have happened’. When you go back, Eyoh, tell him… tell him that if I’m the only reason he’s instigating pointless wars throughout the World, he should stop. I’m neither worth it, nor happy about it. If, on the other hand, I alone am not the reason, tell him that I’ll stand on the other side until the very end.”

“…” Eyoh stared in anger for a moment before his expression mellowed, his brows arching downward into a saddened expression. “No,” he said. “If you want to break him, don’t do it through someone else. If you have the resolve and the courage… tell him that the next time you meet him. If you can’t even do that, then you truly wouldn’t have been worthy of any of him.”

“… hah, you’re right.” Y’se said, wiping her tears away, chuckling. “If I can’t even do that, then I’m only lying to myself to feel better, no? So, you wanna fight or not?”

“… what’s the point?” Eyoh said. “I shouldn’t even be here. I’m going against his orders. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. I’ll just stay to make sure you don’t interfere with others.”

“… I’ve grown stronger, you know?” Y’se said, smiling.

“I know.” Eyoh said. “However, no matter how strong you become, you won’t be able to change the tides of war. Hell, that kid down below has better chance of doing it.”

“He does, doesn’t he?” she said, chuckling.

“… he’ll probably die today, though.” Eyoh said. “Luo has been ordered to kill him even if he himself needs to die doing it.”

“… ha ha,” Y’se suddenly burst out in laughter. “To think you’d be willing to sacrifice a God to kill a child. Just how cautious of him are you?”

“… time will tell.”

Down below, Lynne stared at the small old man in front of him, unable to calm his beating heart. The man’s eyes were cold, vacant, distant… and Lynne only saw the reflection of himself in them.

“Uh, Ely--”

“Don’t call me that.”

“--I don’t think he gives a shit about you.” the two talked through telepathy.

“Yeah, I can see that. Well, good luck.”

“S-should I make the first move?! We’ve been just staring at each other for like ten minutes!! This battle pose is starting to look awkward!!”

“Starting?”

“Ah, shut up! Anyway, should I?”

“Do what you want.” the Dragon said. “After all, this is my first battle in… well, let’s just say it’s been awhile.”

“Forgive me child,” the old man finally spoke as he spread his arms apart, causing sky to darken. “You have not sinned, but you need to perish.” lightning broke out as the clouds thickened, and bolts began dancing around the man like children.

“… God of Lightning?” Lynne mumbled, his jaw agape. “Ah, fuck off already!!”