Epilogue: Things to Come

Aesis stood by his balcony, staring into the evening sun, watching as the orange colours paint themselves over the brilliant sky. It was a rare sight, but one which he somehow manages to catch all of the time. It was during this hour when he enjoyed himself on the balcony, watching the sun set slowly. To him, it was a masterpiece that is equivalent to heaven itself.

" Well, enjoying the sights, are we?" a deep low voice asked him from inside his room.

" Well, you know...I would have never seen this back in my homeworld..." Aesis replied.

" Possibly that was the reason why your father come here, I believe..." the unknown voice answered back once more.

" No, my father and my brother came to this world to destroy it. I'm here to protect it, that's the difference between the both of us...but perhaps if my father had seen the error of his ways, as I've heard, then perhaps he managed to see the beauty that this world holds," Aesis replied.

A moment of silence before the voice spoke up again. " Hey, Aesis, let me see it as well," the voice said.

" Hmm? You never were interested in sunsets, Hades. What made you change your mind?" Aesis laughed.

" I'm not sure...perhaps I just want to see what is it that you see in this world that makes you so different from the rest of your people," Hades answered.

Aesis walked back into his room, and a second later, he took out his two broadswords. Outwardly, they looked like they were made of refined Orichalum, but Aesis knew better. His swords were heavy, not something a normal person could carry, but that didn't really apply to him. They looked like plain simple swords.

He leaned them against the balcony, then returned to his gaze to the sunset. After a while, there was a soft popping noise, and the most peculiar thing happened. Right at the point where his sword's hilt met the blade, a slit like-layer moved upwards, like an eyelid, and out emerged an eye, one on each sword. The eye was bright red, coloured slightly with orange veins running along it. The eye looked like the eye of the devil, and for any normal human, it would frighten the shit out of them.

" Hmm, I still don't understand what so great about the sunset..." the sword replied, its eyes swirling around, looking all over the place. " Although I must say, there are some pretty merchants down there below..."

" Hahaha, you were never one for being artistic," Aesis laughed.

" Perhaps..." Hades replied. " What are you going to do now?"

Aesis frowned. " I don't know. The Dark Legion isn't dead as of yet, that is for sure. I'm not too sure how to act as of yet. I just know it, but where do we start?" Aesis said.

" Aeron..."

" I know that...I can feel him too. But it should be impossible...he should have died a long time ago," Aesis replied.

" Tyranus..."

" What about her?"

" She might have absorbed his essence."

" You think so?"

" Perhaps, but I think I sensed his presence when you fought with her..."

" Well, that regenerative ability she had was really unusual, I must say...what you say may have some credit," Aesis replied. " Well..."

" Reinne's coming!"

" Oh, now you address her as Reinne now?" Aesis joked.

" You are one to speak!" Hades replied, before closing his 'eyes'.

The door of his room opened, and Reinne stepped in. " Hey, Aesis, you are needed in the meeting Come along now...what are you doing with your swords out at the balcony?" Reinne asked, seeing Aesis's swords with him.

" Ah, well, my sword wanted to see the sunset for a while," Aesis replied seriously.

Reinne glared at him, her eyes piercing his. " Hmm, yes, very funny, Aesis...I wonder what do I even see in you," she muttered, leaving the room.

" Hmm, yes, very funny, Aesis...I wonder what do I even see in you..." Hades replied sarcastically.

" Yes, very funny..." Aesis replied sarcastically as well, picking up his sword and putting it back in his room, leaning it by the wall by his bed. " I need to go, Hades. I'll be right back. And I swear, stop scaring people with that disembodied voice of yours whenever they enter my room. I'm not going to hear another complaint that there are ghosts in my room anymore alright."

As he was about to leave his room, Hades suddenly spoke up. " Why don't you just tell her how you feel about her?" Aesis paused at the door, and Hades knew darn well he had hit the mark. " Why Aesis? You know better than I do that she feels that way. She hasn't said a word since it is you who is avoiding her. Why? What's holding you back?"

" I...can't..." Aesis sighed. " What would she do if she finds out what I truly am?"

" She will even love you more for that," Hades answered.

" No..."

" Yes..."

" Nope, don't say that."

" Yes, I'm darn right, and you darn well know I am!" Hades argued. " I just hate it seeing you just watch her from afar. She is reachable, you know. I've heard her confide her feelings about you to Deinelle once, and there is no mistake about it. She said she could care less what her father said."

Aesis looked sadly at Hades, the talking sword. Hades opened one of his eyes and looked at him. " Eh? Am I not correct?"

" No...there is something that is holding me back..." Aesis admitted sadly.

" What?"

" Tessa..."

" She's long dead, you dumb fool..."

" Not here, Hades," Aesis replied, placing his hand on his heart. " At least, not yet."

" Do you think Tessa would have wanted it for you to act like this?"

" Why do you care what Tessa thinks? Why can't it be me for this moment? I'm a selfish bugger, let me have my way for a while," Aesis argued back.

" Until you tell her how you feel, I'm going to continue to be the ghost of commander Tessa in your room..." Hades replied.

" Feel free, Hades," Aesis said, walking out the room. However, before he shut the door, Hades heard him say " Thanks for the thought though, I'll think about it." Hades saw him close the door and leave. He gave a huff, then closed his eye.

" What took you so long?" Reinne asked, standing by the corridor further down.

" Ah, I was talking to my sword..." Aesis replied. Reinne sighed, wondering what was up. However, when she was about to leave, she felt Aesis pat her on her shoulder. " You know, after the meeting, I would like to have a word with you...in private."

" Eh? What is this about?" Reinne asked, surprised.

" It's a secret..." Aesis said, winking, as he walked down the stairs. Reinne looked at him quizzically, then slowly followed him.

Writer's note: And there you have it, the epilogue of my story, the final chapter. Oh no, the story is far from over. It's just that this arc has just finished, that's all. Since this was the final chapter, I decided to add some comments upon the story:

-This story was supposed to stand totally by itself, having no continuation at the end of roughly 40 chapters. However, I had plans on writing another rather long, epic-like fanfic, and I then decided to sort of fuse this story to provide some background for the story, and thus we have this as a finished product. Also, Azaroth was really 'supposed' to die in the final chapters of the original plan, but since I'm going to have another story arc, I can't have that, right?

-My original plan did not include Vermillion and Serene, nor did I have any plans on including elves, not until much later after I added the prologue. However, I figured I might need some strong female figures in the story, so I included them in, and the interaction between Vermillion and Serene felt rather interesting in my head. Vermillion originally was supposed to be Krayken, but sharing the same characteristics as she does now, just as a male. Thus, I might have portrayed Vermillion too much as a male person in some parts. Since I was missing an assassin of sorts, I gave that role to Krayken.

-The final fight with the Cardinals was way too short than from the original plans. It was supposed to be some three chapter long fight where Azaroth was supposed to kill them all in some bloody bloodbath, but the plan was way too long, and there were some oddities with the plan in terms of logic, so I decided to scrap it and insert only half a chapter of it.

-If any of you read Bleach, you will know where I got Grimjaw's name from. Illustrianatrienne was supposed to be his real name of sorts, taking from an old RP game my friends and I used to play years ago, but then I realised despite its 'sentimental' value of sorts, I couldn't afford such a long name, so I gave him a nickname of sorts, 'Grimjaw', which almost stuck as his formal name.

-I've just realised that I have not listed a disclaimer here in my fanfic, and it's the last chapter. But anyways, for those of you who didn't know by now, I do not own Ragnarok Online. This fanfic was written just purely for fun and has nothing to do with the game. Anything that happens in this fanfic in real life is, obviously, purely coincidental.

-A lot of details about the Kyrodin guild and Azaroth's past, along with some of the other main characters, Krayken especially, were not addressed properly, due to timing issues and me being a forgetful bum.

-Tryzen was never supposed to get married. However, due to past experiences in writing fanfics and allowing fans who are female (I have nothing against females, alright?! I'm all for equality), I dislike the thought of my fanfic sounding yaoi-like (again, I have nothing against yaoi) with Tryzen's friendship with Azaroth. People have mistaken friendship between two guys as some yaoi or gay love thing I have in the previous story I used to write, so I just had to have Tryzen marry someone just to prove he's straight...yeah, dumb, I know, but what the heck...I repeat: I have nothing against the opposite sex or yaoi or gay people, I just had bad experiences in the past, that's all.

Well, there you have it, the sort of 'deleted scenes' of my fanfic. The sequel will be out, hopefully, sometime in the next three months, or more, depending on if I decide to focus on something else. Thank you for reading and thank you for those who will. I'm totally open to all sorts of comments and reviews.

Have a nice day people.