Chapter -82: All Out Against Calamity
The roars of calamity rained upon the land, falling upon Sarajin's deaf ears. He was frozen, as the passage of time flowed without his involvement.
Fire spread, land was battered and broken, people were dying...And all he could think about was how he failed right out of the gate.
"I was supposed to make things right...But this strength still isn't enough."
A boulder crashed down beside him, spit up by the Black Beast, who now toyed with its prey, cornered at the last bastion of hope in this world.
One of the hands slithered out down low and levitated in front of Sarajin. With a withdrawn gaze of hunger, it spread its fangs into a cheeky grin and then opened wide, lunging it's maw straight at him.
Sarajin gazed into the infinite darkness within it's throat and saw Ophelia staring back at him, her form stepping out slowly and extending her hand.
She wanted him to accept failure and death with dignity...
As Sarajin began to raise his hand, Gabriel suddenly lunged out in front of him and drew his sword with a heavy slash upward, splitting the beast's head in two.
He then held his katana up high and was visibly panting through his half-torn chest plate.
"Get a hold of yourself, Sarajin!" He shouted.
"W-What's the point?" Sarajin remarked, his tone emptied hollow by the despair in his heart, "We can't win now."
Gabriel looked over his shoulder and spoke up, "Convince them of that."
Immediately following this, Jubei and Valkenhayn soared over their heads on all fours and dashed towards the Black Beast.
As their fur stood mangled and besmirched with blood, they repaid their scars to their aggressor in full, tearing the seithr to shreds with their sharpened blades.
Trinity floated higher above them, her body alight with a platinum glow as she funneled magical energy into her rod in order to rain large, molten rocks upon the Black Beast's form.
Even Konoe, for all the damage she has taken to her body and brain, stood at the edge of the castle balcony and bombarded the Black Beast with conflagration spells.
The beast's Armageddon would never succeed so long as hope stood tall as the wall in its path.
Sarajin looked down at himself, and saw there was no sword in hand. He squeezed his fists, and closed his eyes to take a deep breath.
Time felt like it came to a halt as he emptied his inner thoughts calmly, "They're still fighting their very best to win..."
"...I keep doing this...Every time I run into trouble I curse my lack of strength and almost give up."
"I keep having to be saved. It's like my five years of training hasn't been enough."
"Maybe...I thought I wouldn't need to push myself anymore, that if I was no longer the weak child who couldn't do ANYTHING I'd be satisfied."
"But I can still keep going...! I'm still standing! I'm still here! This isn't the time to give in to despair...Not when people are fighting and dying to achieve peace!"
He widened his eyes and drew his sword.
His body moved on its own with a swift, weightless feeling on his shoulders until he was within the path of one of the beast's heads.
A mage had tripped trying to flee, and would have perished had Sarajin not cut the head down with a sword ablaze with determination.
He then gripped the sword in both hands and pointed it at the Black Beast in a slant, the fire projecting into his eyes to give his scowling expression more intensity.
And with his battered body standing in defiance of the end of the world, he declared to himself, "I want to be just like these six...! A hero who can save anyone!"
The mage was picked up by Gabriel and carried to safety in the castle, while Sarajin fought off a few of the heads and the swarm of beasts charging the front stairs.
He kept his concentration on the battle at maximum and surrendered himself to the flow of elements inside his body.
He pulled away when the beasts attempted to overwhelm him, then used the ground to spear them with rocky spikes.
When the heads grew close he tossed the spikes at them, then took them out while they were weakened using slashes of electricity.
He caught the beasts trying to get around out of the corner of his eye and swerved hard, blasting them into the sea with pressurized wind.
He then hopped atop the nearby fountain and ripped it off, causing a geyser of water to fly into one of the heads.
He then froze the whole thing solid and used it as leverage to scale further up and get a better view of the beast.
The Six Heroes were putting everything they had left into tearing the heads apart. It was a feral spectacle over whose determination would win out.
And all the while Celica was still fighting alongside the mysterious Bloodedge on the inside, as the beast's body throbbed and bubbled in anguish.
The Black Beast aimed its many heads skyward and launched black orbs that burst into rain drops of seithr to push its aggressors back.
They stood tall and kept attacking. It didn't matter at this point what damage they took, or if they gave their lives for this battle.
And the beast was enraged by their defiance, shouting and screaming with a womanly wail.
Sarajin took to the air and faced the heads straight-on. He used his flight to get around and force them to entangle one another, then split them down the center.
Gabriel remained on the ground to clean up their remnants with his cuts.
The beast hadn't advanced in over ten minutes, and this had given the lesser mages enough time to rally together inside the castle.
With Konoe's guidance they sprayed fireballs, lightning bolts and ice chunks upon the beast, all amplified by the remaining vestiges of Trinity's own magic.
Jubei and Valkenhayn were eventually forced off the Black Beast and sent hurtling into the castle walls faster than Sarajin could catch either of them.
Yet a few aches and groans later they were running back and slashing up the horde of beast's running towards the gates.
Muscles split and blood sputtered out of their bodies, staggering their movements and making them succumb to more attacks.
Valkenhayn was forced to stay as a full beast to reinforce his body beyond its limits, but one beast alone could only do much against many.
Sarajin hadn't seen hide nor hair of Hakumen or Terumi ever since the spell failed. Had they succumbed? No...it couldn't have been possible, could it?"
Sarajin accidentally allowed worry to cloud his judgment for just a second, allowing a beast to get the jump on him from behind. Then a head followed suit and smashed both it's spawn and the boy into the ground.
Then the head snapped back with the jaw wide open to devour.
"Empty Sky Form..." In a flash of white, Hakumen appeared before Sarajin and severed the head whole, "Winter's Riposte!"
Sarajin then stabbed his flaming katana into the snarling beast and stood up, feeling like his knees were one wrong movement away from snapping.
He staggered towards Hakumen and panted to catch his breath, "S-Sir Hakumen...!"
"Can you still fight?" He questioned.
Sarajin twisted his grip on his blade as hard as he could and the bones cracked.
Hakumen then planted his sword vertically before his body and held a hand near the top, "Then let us silence the Dark One, and put an end to this nightmare...!"
His body radiated out a pristine snow white aura as his hair rose in eight directions like tails, "Retribution...INFINITY!"
His form stood resolute against the scars and dust that marred his armor. With no indication of backing down, Hakumen leaped into the fray with blade swung back as far as it would go, facing the wrath of a dozen heads converging upon his location.
He swung so hard it made his body float like a cloud, and sent rumbles through the entire island and out towards the sea.
The heads were sliced apart by a thousand blinding white cuts that extended down to the body. But more took its place.
As Hakumen descended the darkness sought to surround and consume him, but he spun to meet every demon's nightmarish gaze and sliced them apart.
One arm would attack, the other would shield with a rune to allow him to freeze them in place for him to keep his rhythm going.
When it seemed that his efforts would fail by a mistake performed at a millisecond of hesitation, Sarajin leaped into the fray and sliced that head down, allowing Hakumen to safely take the other one on opposite sides.
The two warriors floated with their backs at one another, but saw their gazes all the same. Hakumen let out a quiet hum, then gripped his blade in both hands and cleaved through three heads and a horde of beasts like a guillotine.
He then spun around and with one heavy slash, threw many of the beasts and the ground at their feet skyward.
While everyone was throwing their strength around, Terumi had been sneaking through the streets undetected.
Now he emerged, twirling his knives around on one finger until he stopped, then clacked them together and put them in his pockets.
He stared high up at the Black Beast, his smile the widest it's ever been, and his eye casting off a sinister green light as his body slowly became engulfed in black flames with a green tint.
"As much as I'd loooooove the irony of seeing you tear apart dear sister's 'perfect' world..." The ground split apart at his feet and spewed up green flames that raised parts of his coat into the air, and forced the Black Beast to take notice of this snake's bite...
"I'm the only one...who will raise HELL on Earth...You USELESS doll...!"
The flames ate him up until it was like a cocoon around his body. Then as the heads descended, he emerged, his body baked in a silhouette similar to Hakumen's armor, only grimmer and representative of the flames that bound him.
He swung back a warped blade and then cleaved it down, screaming in a distorted voice, "NOW BOW BEFORE YOUR TRUE GOD...!"
His slash did not cleave, but rather erased, every trace of seithr that composed the beast's heads and necks.
In the aftermath fissures exploded across the ground and caused more of those accursed green flames to erupt.
Terumi returned to normal and hung back, laughing it up loudly with a hazy green aura growing over time.
Then the heads started to reform, causing him to immediately stop and hunch forward with a wide-eye, "Oh come the FUCK on, get the message already you stupid BITCH!"
Many of the beast's heads combined their efforts for the sole purpose of eradicating Terumi with energy. He took it head-on with a gleeful smile, his seeming annihilation prolonged when Sarajin jumped to his aid and split the energy orb in half.
As the halves came crashing through large chunks of the ground, Terumi stood up and grumbled in an annoyed tone, "Boy, you really are a goodie two-shoed little shit ain't ya?"
Sarajin was panting and sweating so much the man's words didn't fully register. He then took his blade up and wondered aloud, "We keep holding it off but we need to STOP it!"
He then quickly looked over his shoulder and asked, "Terumi, do you have any ideas?!"
"Pffft, you tossed all your eggs into that anti-seithr basket," Terumi said in a biting, mocking tone, laughing it up all the while, "Unless you can cook up some bullshit other method to teleport the Black Beast well...We're sure as shit gonna run out of time soon enough, eh hee hee hee hee!"
"Time...?" Sarajin felt a click in his mind and then started to contemplate over it with his head hung, "Time...time...time..."
His gaze started leaning towards his pocket and then he sprung his head up, "That's it!"
He then turned to Terumi, who was wearing a puzzled expression, "Terumi, I think you just saved this world!"
"W-What?!" He spouted through deeply gritted teeth.
Sarajin flew off without an explanation, leaving Terumi to stew in his scowling frustration and mutter, "When this is over, I'm gonna SLAUGHTER him."
Sarajin flew straight for the castle with the beast's heads in feverish pursuit. Jubei and Trinity were able to get them off his back, allowing him to land where Konoe was with a shaky tumble.
He stood right back up and shouted to her, "K-Konoe! I think I've come up with another way to get the Black Beast into the anti-seithr crystals!"
"What? How? We don't have the magical energy to cast another teleportation spell!" She shouted.
Sarajin pulled the Gaia Temporis from his pocket and held it before his waist, "This stone...It's able to manipulate time and space. I-I don't know how powerful it can get, but I figured if I could concentrate hard enough on the Black Beast..."
"You could cause a spacial relocation phenomenon...!" Konoe pulled her attention away from her spells and then grabbed onto the rim of her hat, "Ok...! I'll use the remainder of my magic to project a visual image in your mind telling you where to send the beast. The rest is up to you..."
A stray energy blast nearly took out the balcony they were on, but they still leaped and floated away to another. Konoe then bit her teeth down and muttered, "And the others holding it off..."
Once they landed Sarajin pointed the stone at the Black Beast, clasping it in both hands while Konoe gathered up her remaining magical energies and placed her hands at the side of Sarajin's head.
Sarajin's eyes began to glow with violet radiation as his mind's perception envisioned a cavern full of blue crystals with an otherworldly glow.
"See it?" She wondered.
He smiled bright and then focused his concentration upon the Gaia Temporis, "I do...!"
The stone began to glow, and allured by that faint, pinkish glimmer, the Black Beast stopped everything it was doing and focused all its heads upon the castle.
"Shit...!" Konoe bit her teeth down, as the ground rumbled and the beast condensed a scary amount of seithr into one massive orb.
It hastened through the completion process and just fired it off, the energy screaming through the sky in it's misshapen form.
Jubei and Valkenhayn leaped high into the air and attacked it with everything they had. Their bodies were giving off heavy amounts of sparks, the feline's armor being stripped down until he was bare save for the unbreakable blades, while Valkenhayn howled in pain, the flesh and fur being stripped off his legs until he was burning down to the bone.
They shaved off a good chunk of the energy, but then it let off a pulse that slammed them upon the ground in craters.
The orb kept flying until it was met with a massive bell-shaped golden shield summoned by Trinity, "Y-You won't...get through...!"
She was pushing her body so hard that blood dripped from her nose. She screamed vigorously through the pain and was brought to her knees after a long, drag-out battle.
The shield cracked and then shattered, having only gotten a little of the energy off.
Terumi used his chains to grab Hakumen and throw him up in the orb's path, where the man stood tall and summoned a towering seal between him and the orb.
"FINAL JUDGMENT...!" The world around him turned white and all life was painted black, "PERISH EVIL...!"
He then swept his blade towards the orb, where a hundred strokes of ink black painted the orb with visceral sounds, ending with the energy brought to less than half its original size...
Hakumen was then mowed down as it resumed its course, coming within mere seconds of impact...
Sarajin widened his eyes and knew he'd just need a few seconds beyond this to succeed...
And the last hope came in the form of Gabriel, who ran up onto the balcony and leaped off, summoning his fading aura to surround his body and tank the orb straight on.
He then quickly transferred it to his blade and delivered an unseen slash that split it down the middle, forcing it to collapse into a smaller form.
He then absorbed the impact of it in this weakened state and was thrown back onto the balcony with his chest armor obliterated and blood spurting from his mouth.
"Gabriel...!" Sarajin shouted in a panic.
The man cracked a weak smile and remarked, "I-I made a vow...long ago...that I would not let those under my protection be hurt again..."
"H-How could I bring myself...to bear the weight of Lady Auris' tears...if you did not return alive, Sarajin?"
The man then fell unconscious, his last minute intervention giving Sarajin the last push he needed to finish his part.
He aimed his heated gaze at the Black Beast as it readied one last, stronger attack to wipe them all out for good.
"Devil...! This world...DOESN'T NEED YOU...!" As his head throbbed massively in pain and blood leaked from his nose, Sarajin thrust the Gaia Temporis out and caused the titanic beast to instantly be swallowed up by the pink light and warped away.
Konoe let go of Sarajin's head and stumbled back, her arm and head hunched over as she gasped for breath, "D-Did that do it...?"
Sarajin's arms dropped and he tucked the Gaia Temporis into his pocket, "I-I think so. We still need to finish the beast off...Ghhh...!"
He fell onto his knees and seconds later, found he couldn't feel a thing as his vision sank into darkness...
He was later awakened by a feeling of a garden's warmth enveloping his body. His eyes slowly opened, where he found Celica kneeling over him with her hands put down in front of his chest.
Her smile grew more visible and she brought a fist back to her chest while breathing a sigh of relief, "Whew...! Made it just in time!"
Her perky attitude jarred him wide awake and upon sitting upright, he looked around frantically to see where he was.
There was destruction and death everywhere, but the castle still stood, and there was not a single trace of beasts to be found...
Konoe and Trinity stood off in the distance helping each other to stand. Valkenhayn was bandaged up and tended to by that odd blonde-haired girl from earlier. Jubei was standing by him, battered all over but in good shape otherwise.
Terumi sat on a bench looking comfortable in his smugness, while Hakumen seemed to be guarding him, his presence that of contentment.
And then finally there was Gabriel, who was kneeling beside Sarajin with his chest bandaged and his eyes halfway open.
"Welcome back." He whispered.
Sarajin was confused and stumbled upon the general gist of what was going on, "D-Did...did we win?"
Gabriel closed his eyes and nodded, "That we did. The Black Beast lay slain, both body and heart."
Sarajin safely collapsed upon his back and let out a heavy gasp. He then spread his arms out and started chuckling. At first he was solemn about it, then let loose cheerfully as he thrust his fist into the sky and began to cry.
"We did it...! WE DID IT...!"
"You," Gabriel uttered calmly, "You did it, Sarajin. Without your efforts, this planet's hopes would have been lost."
Sarajin looked at him, aghast, but he spoke no lie. And he accepted this fact humbly, "I wouldn't have succeeded without everyone's help..."
He then sat back up and looked at Gabriel with a puzzled look, "But uhh, did anyone notice anything odd about the Black Beast when they finished it off...?"
"Hmmm?" Gabriel raised his brows.
"Didn't you note something was wrong before it arrived?" Sarajin said with a simple, kind gesture.
"Mmm..." Gabriel closed his eyes and said, "My vow...forbids me from explaining in greater detail. All I can say is that what I assumed caused the Black Beast's increase in power, was nowhere to be found when we examined its remains."
There was a low, ominous feeling in the air when he spoke that.
"...So it's gone, right?" Sarajin tried to remain positive, "Then...wouldn't that mean there was no 'Blank' involved?"
"I can assure you there wasn't." Gabriel made one last note of saying.
Sarajin took a deep breath then used it to stand up, staggering to keep upright.
"You should probably take it easy..." Gabriel noted, standing and reaching out with a caring hand.
Sarajin looked at him and said, "Who knows how long we'll still be here...There's something I want to ask Konoe real quick."
He dragged his feet over to the mage and she responded with a display of tenderness and concern, "You made it after all..."
She closed her eyes and crossed her arms under her chest, "I...want to thank you. You did more than save the world today. Without you, my sister, Celica, she would not have survived. Please, if there is anything I can do to repay you, Sarajin, just ask."
"...W-Well, funny you mention that," Sarajin waved his hand around and began to make his inquiry, "On our world...We suffer from a similar problem to the Black Beast. There's this power, called the Rot, that has taken away most of our land and replaced it with deadly monsters."
"But...you were able to make objects that could utilize the Black Beast's own energy against it. When my wife and I fought a powerful Rot Walker a while back, she was able to damage it by turning its Rot against it. So if it works the same way...maybe we could create our own objects out of the Rot to combat it?"
As Konoe and Trinity's faces turned pale, Sarajin brought his questioning to a head with a simple, innocent wording of, "So, how did you make them anyways?"
Konoe pulled her head back and her sigh precluded a blunt, but not cold remark, "You do not want to go down the same road we did."
"Huh?" Sarajin stood confused.
"These...Nox Nyctores, are not something that should have needed to exist."
"What do you mean...?"
"Oh quit sugar coating the issue, you lying witch...!" Terumi spoke up in a delighted, scathing tone. With his body in a slack he grinned from cheek-to-cheek and uttered, "Ya wanna know...what the Nox Nyctores are made of, little brat?"
He widened his eyes and before Konoe's reflexes could kick in, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Try...the souls of millions! EH HEE HEE HEE!"
Sarajin's heart went cold with shock and his pupils shrank. Meanwhile Konoe lashed her hand out at the snake-y man, causing him to squirm in pain, "Do not try to take the moral high ground Yuuki Terumi, when it's the experiments you and that BASTARD performed that brought that accursed Black Beast forth in the first place!"
"W-What...?" Sarajin's gaze slowly panned between Terumi and Konoe, landing on her with a silent desire for answers.
She pulled back with a look of tense regret and muttered, "...My father, Terumi, and one other, were conducting dangerous experiments in Japan using a Cauldron, a gateway to the Boundary where all Seithr originates from."
"After it emerged, I began to work harder on merging science and magic together to create the first Nox Nyctores that would combat the Black Beast...Take Mikazuchi. In order to fuel a Nox Nyctores, it required a method similar to how the Black Beast was created...Absorbing the souls from the dead."
"When Take Mikazuchi alone wasn't enough, I split its core into nine parts and made the other Nox Nyctores that we wielded today."
Sarajin shook his head and then interrupted, "So the souls you gathered...belonged to people that were already dead?"
"It is still a disgusting act, perverting the cycle of life and death. It goes against everything the Mages Association taught us!" Konoe proclaimed.
Sarajin then remarked, "Don't worry, I'm not going to try and repeat your methods to save our world."
He then clenched his fist and looked her dead in the eyes, "I...understand you had to make a tough choice, and I don't hate you for it. But when it comes to my world, I'm going to achieve peace in a way that doesn't involve death or sacrifice."
Konoe huffed out her anger in one go and then gave him a brief smile, "We wish you the best of luck then."
"Yeah, and good luck with your world too." Sarajin said with a smile back.
"We have a lot of work to do, that's for sure." Trinity replied.
Sarajin then glanced across his shoulder at Terumi, feeling compelled to address the man's unsavory attitude not with contempt, but an attempt to appeal to him, "And Terumi?"
"Eh?" The man half-cocked his brows his way.
"Try and be a better person, ok?"
The man's expression was positively seething with a scowl that he could not act upon.
Sarajin then walked back over to Gabriel and let out a small sigh that did not go unnoticed.
"It is unfortunate it did not work out." He said with sympathy.
Sarajin was looking off the other way but didn't seem that dismayed over it, "Well, maybe it's not all that bad."
"Oh?" He perked up curiously.
Sarajin looked at everyone gathered in the ruins of the battlefield and smiled, "Despite everyone's differences, they all worked together against their Devil and WON. It gives me this hope that maybe my dream isn't as crazy as it sounds."
"...Perhaps not." Gabriel whispered under his breath.
As Sarajin looked back at him, the man rubbed his chin and muttered aloud, "Though the question remains...Is this world's Devil the beast we slain...Or does he take the shape of man, to walk among us?"
The two looked back at Terumi, who greeted them with an awful sneer. There was a bit of cold sweat coming off the two's faces thereafter...
A few moments later, they found themselves taken from this land and pulled all the way back to the white void, causing them to look around in surprise until locking eyes with the wise Yen Sid.
"You have accomplished your given task. Impressive work, Sarajin." He spoke with sagely praise.
Soon, the looming shadow of Futanji descended upon them in all its majesty.
With his body swimming through the ethereal infinity, the dragon gazed upon the two figures and spoke in a regal tone, "The abnormality has been severed. It appears this world does not house a 'Blank', as of present."
Sarajin gestured his hand out and remarked, "S-So it was normal for the Black Beast to speak?"
"...It is not. But that appeared to be a result of whatever ailed it. You need not concern yourself with that now," Futanji then raised its snout slightly, "I mirror the sentiments of my companion...You have proven yourself true to the cause. For now, at least, we shall continue this partnership."
"So from now on, you'll call me whenever you need me?" Sarajin asked.
"Indeed. Though we shall make a better effort to not snatch you up unexpectedly next time," Futanji then chuckled, and then pointed at the two with a glimmer in his eyes, "For now, I shall return you both to the place you belong."
They were back in Sancturia, deposited right outside the palace. It was still day time, or perhaps it had become the next day.
Whatever the case, Sarajin was left with a sore feeling across his entire body and rolled his shoulders while enjoying the fresh air of home.
"Haaa, wish we got to say goodbye before we left, but oh well. I'll never forget the time we spent with them," He then turned to Gabriel to ask, "Right, Gabriel?"
But the man was frozen in a cold sweat with pupils shrunken and his green skin pale.
"...Gabriel?" Sarajin had to wave his hand before his face to get him to flinch, upon which the man let out a couple gasping coughs and then pounded his chest in a rhythm.
"S-Sorry, the pain must be getting to me" Gabriel rested a hand softly upon his sheath and then made a light bow, "I must go and report to Lord Borealis. Then...I shall take a long nap. Give my best regards to Lady Auris, and Sarajin...?"
When Gabriel lifted his head he looked a bit frightened by his light, easy-going smile, "...Take care of yourself."
He whispered that out and then the two parted ways with appreciation for what they accomplished together.
Gabriel then went and reported the events in great detail to Lord Borealis. As he neared the end of his report, he made note of one particular facet of the events, "I had no reason to lay a hand on Sarajin. The harmful information he could have brought back, he chose to ignore."
Borealis stood with his back turned to Gabriel and his arms tucked behind. He then gestured aside and looked up at the starry ceiling, "...You must still remain vigilant in keeping an eye on him. It is only a matter of time before he's forced to reveal his true colors...as a savage."
"Lord Borealis, I-" Gabriel felt his mouth being forced shut by the man's mere glance, upon which he bowed his head in deeper and whispered, "I will...keep an eye on him."
Borealis then turned aside and wondered, "Now, about these 'higher-ups'. You saw them. Describe them to me."
Gabriel's eyes widened on the spot.
How could he forget that wretched image burned into his retinas?
Where in that white void, he saw that serpentine creature floating in the air, towering above all creation...
That centipede, with realistic eyes of pitch black origin that swallowed the heat from entire suns, and it's crawling, wiggling form pinning entire worlds at the ends of its blade-like legs. And it continued to twist and twirl like a spiral, until ending through a punctured galaxy...
Gabriel trembled intensely, unable to lift his head, for wherever he stared, that thing's presence followed...
Meanwhile, Sarajin and Auris enjoyed a peaceful conversation in her home. She massaged his sore muscles with an aura-infused grip while he recounted the exciting and harrowing tale.
"Sounds like you had a fun time." She said with mild sarcasm.
"Whew, it was too close for comfort. If it wasn't for the Gaia Temporis..." Sarajin patted its place in his pocket.
"Yep, it continues to be your most trusted ally." Auris whispered.
"Huh?"
"Never mind that." Auris finished soothing his sore shoulders and then gently guided him to lay down on his stomach so she could get his back.
"Oooooh," He moaned long and hard for a solid half a minute, "Heeey, Auris...I'm sorry for not giving you a warning we were leaving. I didn't think we'd be gone a whole day..."
"I'm not upset," She leaned in and whispered into his ear with firm sincerity, "I must simply force myself to get used to these disruptions, to make sure that I'll be able to protect the world in your absence."
Sarajin then rolled over onto his back with a grunt and looked deep into her crystallic eyes, "I love you so much."
She closed her eyes and got a little choked up, "Yes...I love you too."
She then patted him on the chest like her hand was a feather, "However, please do me a favor...and try not to make a habit out of coming home a wreck like this."
He then sat up and grabbed hold of her hand, "Well, I'll have better odds if we keep training."
She glanced at him tenderly and then chuckled, "That you would. Tell you what, let's worry about starting that in the morning. For now, you just rest up and let me handle the meals for today."
She then stood and Sarajin inquired, "What will you be making?"
"I'll leave it a surprise." She said with an air of confidence and playfulness.
"You don't have any idea yet do you." Sarajin teased her back with a chuckle.
Auris then glanced over her shoulder with a smile, "And expect that to be the status quo until I get it right. Oooor I can inflict a greater wound on your gut than any man by robbing you of a meal."
Sarajin grimaced and his chuckle became less jovial, "Awww don't do that, I need my three meals a day."
She smiled a little wider and then made her way into their new kitchen, which she created in the day he was gone.
Sarajin then laid back and looked up at the ceiling. Reaching out towards the sky, and new possibilities, he smiled and believed, "There's an answer out there somewhere...I just have to keep believing..."
Next Time: A Warrior's Anchor