GENESIS OF INFINITY
CHAPTER 1
WELCOME HOME
"Have they all been gathered?"
"Yes, My lord."
"Very well. Prepare for disposal."
The stars, although billions of light years away, shone brightly and pierced the vast darkness that is space. However, even the stars' glow was not infinite in the eyes of the lonely traveler. In space they shone the same, but they were empty when compared to the ancient, comforting light that he viewed from the ground. Here they were merely orbs of illumination, while on the land they were almost like guardian spirits overseeing all of mankind.
The lone figure looked out at the stars through the glass ceilings of Welgaia. They had always given him comfort throughout the thousands of years of his life. Now they only reminded him of the hole in his heart.
He turned around and walked away, his flaming hair covering his equally scarlet eyes. Sapphire wings shot from his back and he quickly made his way to the outskirts of the city. There, a huge mound of crystals was stacked up and a few angels here and there were piling the last few exspheres they could find.
"That should be the last of them, Lord Kratos," an angel reported to the red-head.
"Please, no 'lord' nonsense," Kratos muttered, slightly annoyed (believe it or not), "Alright, clear the area. When you're ready, open the hatch."
"Attention! Clear the area, preparations for exsphere deployment are in effect," the angel called out to the stragglers.
In the haste a single angel was left to stumble to the pile, a crystal clutched tightly in her hand. For a member of the soldier-swordsman class, she was fairly clumsy as she ran, unlike the straight, strict stride expected of an angel. Her face was also unlike any other of the angels: softer, as if she knew how to smile. When she reached the hill, she carefully placed the clear, spectral-colored crystal down.
"Number 265! Clear the area!" said one of the other angels.
"Ah! Right away!" she said, slightly flustered.
A ghost of a smile played across Kratos's face as he watched the young angel run towards him. She reminds me a little of Collette. He gave a small chuckle. Except maybe not as air headed. He then remembered the rest of his friends that he had left behind. In the short time he had spent with them, he had grown somewhat fond of them all. Sheena, Collette, Raine, Genis, Regal, Presea, Zelos…Lloyd.
Lloyd… I'm getting rid of the exspheres, just like I promised, he thought sadly as if talking to his on and only precious son. It seems like ages since he had said good-bye and left on Derris-Kharlan, but the reality was that it had only been a few days since the end of their journey together.
"Kratos-Sensei!" the young angel called out happily.
"Hello, Chesa," Kratos replied, showing his rare, small smile.
"Hey, after this, do think you could train a bit with me?" she asked.
Kratos was about to respond when the loud noise of the wide doors opening interrupted him. The vacuum of space eagerly sucked up the exspheres until all were gone. He looked on for a few moments and turned to leave. He stopped suddenly when his angelic hearing picked up a commotion farther to his left. An angel was searching the exspheres frantically with his eyes and went wide-eyed as he spotted a glint among the crystals.
Another angel whispered to him, "If Lord Kratos finds out, we shall be in serious trouble!"
"If he finds out what?" Kratos said coolly from right behind the pair.
After nearly dying from heart attack, the angels hesitated to speak.
"Well?"
"It would seem…that in the clean up of all the exspheres there was a mistake…"
Kratos gave him a look to continue his explanation.
"…the vault containing…containing Odin's Tear, was opened…and it was accidentally mixed in with the exspheres…"
Kratos's usually stoic attitude turned to that of shock for a moment, but quickly returned as he too looked to the mere specs as they flew off into the wide abyss.
"I want it found. Focus all the networks of Derris-Kharlan's system on locating and retrieving it."
The angels scrambled to their positions as Kratos calmly, but quickly, made his way to the main control room. There, the angels worked to find the one crystal among the hundreds scattered around them. Kratos stood silently watching them, when he noticed a very slight distortion in the space a few hundred meters to the starboard of the large comet of mana. With his angel sight, he zoomed in and saw a white spec inching ever closer to the rip.
He grit his teeth and thought Ah! Of all the rotten-!, as he said aloud, "Change Derris-Kharlan's trajectory to the wormhole on starboard side!"
The huge hulk of a comet was obviously not going to make it in time, and the Tear slipped into the hole right before their eyes.
Blast! Kratos swore and ran towards the nearest warp pad. He shouted to the angels in the control room through a monitor, "Direct the target of this warp pad to the exact location of that hole!"
"But, Lord Kratos that is very dangerous, and-"
"NOW!"
"…Very well."
"Wait for me, Kratos-Sensei!" Chesa came running up to him, but was held back by other guard angels.
"Stay here, Chesa. I leave you in command in my leave," he said as he faded away and disappeared.
The next thing he knew, Kratos was flying through a tunnel of swirling light and matter. He tried to pull out his wings, but to no avail. Putting his arms up in front of him as a guard, he looked ahead and saw the light glint off a small object. He reached out to grab it, but as soon as he got his hands around it, there was a flash, and he found himself free falling in the atmosphere of a large green planet.
Looking for the object, he spotted a streak of fire hurtling towards the ground. Focusing his attention to the Tear, he only noticed the ground speeding towards him when it was a mere few thousand feet away. He successfully extended his wings, and pulled out of his dive with only a few a hundred feet to go. He floated in midair and watched as the fiery mass continued to plummet toward the land.
Down below, a hooded figure a short distance to the west noticed the falling meteorite, and could only stare as it collided with the earth, taking a small chunk of the surrounding forest in the following explosion. The man put up a Guardian to protect himself, and as soon as the blast subsided, darted off to the landing site.
Kratos gently touched upon the center of the crater and waited for the smoke to clear. He pushed some rocks with his foot, but the Tear was nowhere to be found.
"Hmmm…"he mumbled thoughtfully.
His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a presence come from behind him. The figure had drawn his sword and swung at Kratos with inhuman agility.
Kratos sidestepped and drew his own sword only to put it up to block a second sword from his attacker. So, a twin swordsman. He's not bad. He looks to be at least nineteen…it couldn't be…
Glancing at his attacker's swords he saw medium quality blades that seemed to have no distinguishing features common among powerful, hand-made swords.
Kratos turned his attention back to the fight and spun behind the man, prepared to strike; but the man smirked, and just as quickly twirled around and met Kratos's sword with one of his own.
Kratos coldly analyzed the man as they continued to stare each other down, swords crossed.
Then, suddenly, the young man began to laugh. Kratos was slightly confused and turned down the intensity of his glare.
"You, state your name," he demanded.
The man chuckled a bit more and spoke for the first time, "Give me your name, and I shall give you mine."
Kratos's eyes widened as he lowered his sword and attempted to speak, however, the words were caught in his throat.
The man pulled back the hood of his cloak to reveal spiked up, auburn hair, and chocolate, brown eyes. He stared at the man and gave a huge, goofy grin, "Still haven't lost your touch, have ya?"
"L-Lloyd?!" Kratos choked out, dropping his sword to the ground.
Lloyd ran up to him and gave him a hug, saying, "I missed you…Dad."
The word came hesitantly from Lloyd at first, but after he had said it aloud he gave a small nod and smiled, as if it felt right now. As if it was what he knew he could say now.
After a moment of utter surprise, the red-haired swordsman patted his son on the back and whispered, "Me too."