3

The next day, Belgemine set out for the Temple of Macalania. Seymour went with them to pray as he did everyday.

The route to Macalania was strangely clear, almost unsettlingly so… Seymour kept his guard up, just in case…

He walked along with Behel at his side. She had not said anything for hours, and anything she had said was not directed to him. He watched her closely as she walked up to the entrance of the Thunderplane.

"I like Thunderplane. It's fun."

Seymour smiled. "I suppose it is, if you are fast enough."

She stood in silence, looking out over the emptiness. "What you say last night. You mean it?"

He looked at her. She continued to stare out over the cacophonous landscape, smiling at every flash of lightning.

"Yes." He whispered, barely audible. "Yes, I meant it, Behel. You are the only person who can possible understand me…"

She turned and faced him then, smiling slightly as she did. "Feeling is mutual, Seymour Guado."

"Then… will you call me friend?"

"Indeed." She laughed, taking his hand. "Friend."

He smiled back at her, gripping her hand tight. "Ready?"

She nodded.

He held their joined hands upwards. "One… two… GO!"

And with that, they ran out laughing into the storm.

Seymour sat quietly surveying the surrounding area… the Macalania Woods. He remembered coming here as a child with his mother, chasing butterflies without a care in the world… then mother got ill, and couldn't come any more…

"I like butterflies"

Seymour looked up to see Belgemine looking down at him. "They're so delicate, so beautiful. They remind me of the human race."

She giggled and sat down next to him. "You are an extraordinary man, you know that, Seymour? Is it alright if I call you that?"

He nodded silently. Belgemine, one of the only human beings ever to not pass judgment on him, was calling him extraordinary?

"Why do you think I am extraordinary, Lady Belgemine?"

She smiled warmly. "You have brought something out in Behel that I have not seen since her union to her buck. You… touch her, Seymour. She is so reserved all the time… it is nice to see her happy."

He laughed slightly as her words. "You are mistaken, Lady." He sighed following the path of a blue butterfly as it swooped around them. "It is her who has touched me, not the other way round."

He stood and offered his hand to the summoner. "Shall we continue? It is a long way yet to Macalania! We should try to get there before it is too dark."

She smiled back at him and took his hand. "Indeed, we must."

"MY LADY!!! MY LADY!!!"

Seymour looked up to see Averus shouting down. "What is it, Averus?"

"It's… a fiend, Belgemine! Touka is down and Behel is fighting on her own!"

"We'll be right there" called up Belgemine as she and Seymour began the ascent up to the correct level.

Seymour ran as fast as he could, his heart thumping. She was fighting on her own! She could get hurt…

Hurt. He laughed at himself for worrying. She was on a mission to get killed, for goodness' sake! Still he ran on, checking his equipment. He was ready.

When he reached the path he could not believe his eyes. It looked like a Dragon, but it couldn't be…

"Seymour! Here!"

Behel called him to her side as she fought strenuously. She was panting and bleeding, trying desperately to fend off the creature. "It no good!" she cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground. "You must attack as strong as you can!"

He thought about his options… Multi-Watera, Firaga…

No. There was only one thing he could do.

He looked into Behels eyes. She looked up at him expectedly. He would have to do it.

"In the name of sorrow and suffering" he called to the sky, raising his staff. "I call for you! Come, Anima!"

The sky turned dark as the anchor crashed down through the pulsating ground, hitting the ground harshly. Then the screaming began. It was so faint at first… then the cacophony grew and grew as Anima rose from the depths of Hell itself. She stood swaying to and fro, her one crimson eye weeping… with once final cry, she prepared herself to give the Grand Summon… her overdrive.

Oblivion.

The fiend melted away into the ground, no inkling of the terrible atrocity that awaited it. But Seymour knew. Seymour knew that the part of Anima that was visible was nothing compared to what lurked in the darkness… he shut his eyes as the screams reverberated around his head… the screams of Her, the screams of the Fiend…

After what seemed like hours of the torment the Fiend slammed down into the ground, dead on arrival. Seymour called Anima back, and with one final scream she disappeared.

Behel stood and ran into his arms. "What… that… thing you summoned" she choked through frightened tears. "It… so hideous!"

Seymour slipped a potion through her black lips. "That was the embodiment of all the pain, all the hatred of my childhood. It was a symbol of what I felt when they picked on me, taunted me, beat me…"

Behel looked up at him as he paused. She stood away and studied his pained face. "Who…?"

Seymour turned away from her, the truth tearing away at his soul.

"That was my mother"