The seal welcomed its creator with a warm wave, and Mikleo passed the boundary without any trouble, unlike everyone else. He sat down on the cliff beyond which stood the pillar of light, legs dangling gently in the air beneath.

"Sorey, you are still there, aren't you?"

It had been 40 years since the fight against Heldalf ended with their victory and Sorey sank into a dreamless sleep. No matter how far he went, Mikleo had never given up on the habit of visiting Camlann every once in a while, sometimes returned to Izuchi despite knowing nothing abnormal was going on, just to sit down in front of the pillar of light like this. Then Mikleo would start telling about what he experienced on his journey, in spite of not knowing whether Sorey could hear them or not.

"I found another human-seraphim village again, Sorey – it seemed that after Heldalf was quelled, human started acknowledging seraphim even more. And do you know what was special about this village? It was the seraphs that suggested their cohabitation first; normally we stay away from human, don't we? And Alisha also promised to help them, starting from building a sanctuary with a pure enough vessel for the lord of the land to dwell in."

After finishing his stories, Mikleo would stay for a while, gazing at the light ahead and held his left hand out as if to touch it, even though he couldn't do that anyway. Only when he felt satisfied did Mikleo stand up and leave, promising about his return before closing the door: "I will be back again Sorey. We will see each other soon, eyes to eyes."

Until that light went out, the world in Mikleo's eyes would remain colourless.

36 years ago.

Mikleo didn't quite recall how their fight against Lunarre in Camlann went. It had only been 4 years since he was torn apart from Sorey – the wound in his heart was still too flesh to be reopened so forcefully like this. In the end they managed to chase off the intruder, and Mikleo excused himself to find another formation for an even stronger seal than the current one they built together, which had just been broken by Lunarre.

Mikleo closed the book he was holding and placed it on the table after finishing the last page. The pile of ones he had read kept piling up, yet Mikleo found nothing useful, which made him wondered why his mother - a mere human being - was able to use this mysterious kind of arte that even a seraph like him couldn't, despite having to sacrifice her own body. Mikleo hadn't seen her after the fight, which could lead to one conclusion only: he had lost her again, this time forever.

But if he failed here, his mother and guardian wouldn't be the only ones he lost – Mikleo's most important person would also disappear, the seraph reminded himself. Mother, please tell me, how did you make such a miracle happen? -His head leant against the hard surface of the desk; depression enveloped him. Mikleo remembered her seal being so strong that it could block the spread of such a thick layer of malevolence, without having the purification flames itself.

The purification flames... Lailah...

An idea was formed in Mikleo's mind, which could be his only solution right now: a power borrowed from the oath.

The seraph stood up so fast that his chair tumbled over. Not caring about lifting it back up, Mikleo ran straight to Izuchi's lake at full speed, the refreshing wind grazed his face. Being near his own element always seemed to calm him down, so Mikleo sat down on the shore, his gaze fixed on the starry sky reflected on the surface.

Mikleo remembered the first time he was seen by a normal human about a week ago. Having carelessly dropped Rose's pocket elsewhere, the seraph was tracing back his way when a child tugged at his sleeve, asking if what she found was the thing Mikleo was looking for. Mikleo thanked the girl and patted her head before realising she was a human, and was told that she could only see seraphim just recently. His next visit to Camlann took longer than usual: Mikleo had to inform Sorey about the change he had managed to make, with the determination he had shown in Lastonbell under that glistening sky.

The stars he was seeing right now were different than those of Lastonbell, Sorey once said the same. Under that sky the brunette was determined to return, for his dream to live on as long as he didn't forget, while Mikleo made up his mind that he would support Sorey to the very end, which was not only the end of that journey, but the end of the world. Because that was what his name meant: Luzrov Rulay – Mikleo the Enforcer. It was not that with Sorey away Mikleo wouldn't have anyone to 'enforce' - waiting and protecting was simply another way of supporting him while the brunette sank into that dreamless sleep where Mikleo wasn't there, unlike Mikleo's always full of Sorey.

These stars were like emotions: some couldn't be seen, but in fact was still there. Mikleo had a lot of feelings of the sort, all of which was toward Sorey, but at the same time the seraph doubted that they weren't realised – maybe this was the first reason Sorey said that line about the stars, who knows? – yet had no way to confirm his thought, until the day they met again. Which reminded him why he was sitting alone on the shore of the lake like this...

After a while, Mikleo inhaled deeply, bracing himself for whatever might come next. Closing his eyes to concentrate better, the seraph asked the source of seraphic power deep inside his soul.

I want to take an oath.

Strangely, a voice answered him from nothingness– "What could be your reason to come this far?"

I have to protect him – protect Sorey, my most important person.

"How much power do you want?"

Enough to seal off Camlann. It doesn't have to last forever – only when he is still sleeping is fine.

"Great power comes with a price, and it won't be anything cheap. Are you aware of that?

... I am. What do I have to exchange for it?

"More than anyone, you love the world that Sorey loves. So you won't be able to look at it like you do now, having to give up on the ability to see different colours. Not forever, but until you meet him again – then this power will also vanish."

The moment he heard that condition, time seemed to freeze. Mikleo wasn't ready for this cruel cost at all. How could he carry on Sorey's dream of visiting ruins with his own eyesight as a hindrance? How could Mikleo admire those ruins like Sorey wanted him to if he couldn't even genuinely observe them?

Not having Sorey beside him right now had left Mikleo with nothing but sadness, so how could he even suffer from a world devoid of colours in both his eyes and his heart?

But if Mikleo hesitated, the day of reunion he had been waiting for might never come. And for that day to become a reality, Mikleo had no other option but pressing forward.

If I can protect Sorey that way, then I...

ooo

Mikleo woke up in a hazy state. The sky was still dark outside, so he must have dozed off on the ground again while reading books, just like he used to do with So-

Huh?

The burden of the oath crashed on him at once when Mikleo fully opened his eyes, letting the room in his sight. The flames dancing in the fireplace was no longer a warm orange, but now a ghostly white. Mikleo immediately adverted his eyes elsewhere, and when his gaze fell on small pots of herbs in the corner, Mikleo found them weren't green as how they supposed to be, already turning into a dusty grey colour.

The seraph instinctively opened the drawer and take out the only remembrance he could find in Sorey's badly damaged house – a shirt of the same kind with the blue one he had been wearing when they left Izuchi, somehow still maintaining Sorey's familiar scent. Mikleo really treasured the object, and it had become a habit of him to indulge himself in that scent, which had the power to soothe his sobbing heart. But right now in Mikleo's eyes the shirt wasn't that deep blue anymore, instead replaced by a menacing black. Staring blankly into his hands, Mikleo let the clothing slip out of his numb fingers and fall onto the floor, which also had the same colour, albeit of a lighter shade.

Even though Mikleo knew he must finish what had to be done right now, his legs refused to stand up, while from his eyes tears started overflowing like an open watergate. Mikleo only sat there and cried while his thought process temporarily stopped. After what could have been seconds, minutes or hours (he couldn't tell), the door clicked open and Rose's voice echoed.

"Lailah cooked dinner for us, and we are all waiting for y-... ... Mikleo?"

360 years later.

The water seraph lifted his face to take in the magnificent sight in front of him, or to be precise, most of it. Lava was pouring down from a crater near the ceiling, on both side of a huge stone door. He could tell that liquid was lava, not water, because of the heat and how much more dense it seemed. In Mikleo's eyes, its colour was closer to black – unlike that of water which was closer to grey.

"It was nothing, really. I miss him, that's all." – Mikleo had always insisted – lied – when his friends asked him what caused those drops of water running down his cheeks. The condition of keeping oaths secrets was indeed cruel.

He had been looking at the world like this for 396 years, Mikleo was surprised at himself. The colours of different flowers he met on the way would always range from black to grey to white, and so as everything else, as if he was looking at a post-apocalyptic world where time didn't matter anymore. But Mikleo had never once regretted the choice he made: his vision of colour was a small price to pay for protecting Sorey.

I wonder what he would say about this ruin –Mikleo was thinking when a sound – no, not really – a sensation stirred his nerve, and for a split second Mikleo thought he saw a shadow pass by incredibly fast. Turning around swiftly he looked backward, but there was no other presence to be found – he was the only one in this ruin at the moment.

The heavy door slowly opened with a low, rumbling sound. Another room came into his view: grey was its main colour, appearing in different shades; the floor was covered with water to the ankle – pure water that reflected the sunlight pouring down from the round-shaped window above, creating curves of white on the walls; an altar with a silver gemstone in the centre. There was a narrow passage that separated the room in two symmetric halves, slightly above the water level. Mikleo walked on that passage, his footstep echoed around the silent atmosphere.

The seraph was reaching his hand out to touch the smooth surface of the gem crafted on the altar and wondering in what era this place was built when the ground suddenly crumbled under his feet, forcing a gasp out of Mikleo's mouth as he readied himself for the not-so-pleasant landing ahead. But for some reasons that landing never came, leaving his body hanging dangerously above the crack. Confused, Mikleo looked upward...

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Light flickered twice in Mikleo's vision as amethyst eyes fell on the person holding his hand, whose figure was slightly blurred due to backlit. Still, his green eyes and brown hair could be seen, and on that face was a radiating smile that brightened Mikleo's world.

Sorey... – The water seraph's eyes opened wide as that person's name instinctively formed in his mind, but his voice didn't managed to escape, for it was the moment that miracle happened.

From the other's face, colours began to come back and spread every way until they covered all of Mikleo's vision, like a stone fell into the smooth surface of Izuchi's lake, creating concentric circles of waves. Life was brought back to his post-apocalyptic world, and Mikleo's frozen sand clock started flowing once more.

The same thing occurred to Mikleo's heart: the heart that had beaten only for the sheer purpose of living, giving its owner's time to wait for someone for 400 years now started to race for a whole different reason. Mikleo wondered when the last time he felt this way had been - supposedly it was in a distant past, when Sorey was by his side.

Mikleo's eyes softened; warmth flowed from Sorey's callous hand into his veins as the brunette pulled him up into the room gleaming gently with different shades of blue. The cerulean gem crafted on the altar reflected the figure of Mikleo throwing himself into Sorey's chest, arms wrapping around the other's body, never letting him go again.

As a drop of water fell down from the ceiling to the floor underneath, creating a small splashing sound, Sorey's voice resounded, breaking their silence.

"I'm back, Mikleo."

"Sorey, welcome back."