Caius wasn't sure exactly when he'd stopped caring about the fate of the world, but he knew that the death of his first Yeul had been the start of it.

He grew up believing in Etro, the goddess of death and chaos who protected those who protected themselves. He prayed to her, just like everyone else in his small village. When he was out hunting, he could always feel her divine protection at his back. She was the goddess of death, the saint who watched over the hunters. He would never have thought that he'd one day hate her more than anything in the world.

After the death of his third Yeul, he stopped praying to Etro. To him, fal'Cie was no longer a protector of any kind. He could only see her as the goddess who'd forced a girl into the horrible fate of going through life over and over but never getting the chance to actually grow up.

The seventh Yeul died on her sixteenth birthday. She'd been an especially curious one, longing for the day she'd be old enough to travel the world. Caius yelled at the night sky that night, cursing Etro and her divine powers. He screamed until his throat was raw and his voice was just a hoarse whisper. He wished he could just end it all, to make the pain go away, but he couldn't. He had to live on to protect the seeresses of the future. If he died, there would no longer be anyone who remembered the many Yeuls and their selfless sacrifices. He had to live on, even though he'd never desired the gift of immortality Etro had bestowed upon him. He had to live on for the Yeuls of the past and the many Yeuls to come.

When he watched Yeul die for the thirteenth time, he didn't even shed a tear. The pain felt like a red-hot knife in his chest, but his eyes remained dry. He was too furious to cry.

When Yeul died for the sixty-seventh time, he decided that enough was enough. He would kill Etro, even though he knew her death would lead to the end of the world. Yeul's endless suffering would finally end, and when it did, so would his. He would watch the world burn, and then he would finally be free.

So why do I never deal the final blow? he wondered as he watched Etro's champion summon her eidolon protector. The eidolon grabbed Lightning's arm and flung her towards him. She soared through the air, leaving behind a trail of rose petals and white feathers. Caius unsheathed his sword. Lightning was a talented fighter, but she was still young. So very, very young. She always let her emotions rule her actions, and she was easy to provoke. If he wanted to, he knew he could end the fight. He could finish her and thereby destroy Etro's final defense. So why do I find it so difficult to kill her?

A smirk played on his lips as Lightning attacked. He blocked her gunblade with his sword, putting all his weight behind his movement. Lightning was forced to take a step back, and she nearly growled with frustration. Caius' smirk widened. He knew he should be trying to end the fight, but he couldn't help but enjoy himself. She was strong and unpredictable, and he had to admit that she had proven herself to be a formidable challenge.

"Stop playing with me!" Lightning hissed, her strikes turning wilder the angrier she got. "I'm ending this now!"

"Give it your best, warrior goddess," he replied, watching with amusement as the pet name made his opponent even more furious.

Their swords clashed over and over as they demolished yet another part of Valhalla. She managed to give him shallow cuts on his cheek and torso, but in the end he had her cornered against the wall of one of Valhalla's many ruins. She held her head up high and raised her sword, not even a hint of fear in her eyes. In that moment, she truly did look like a goddess.

"Do it," she said. "Finish me."

Caius froze.

Lightning cocked an eyebrow. "It's true, isn't it? You can't kill me. You—"

Caius interrupted her by turning into his Bahamut form, sending a powerful shockwave through the air. Lightning slammed into the stone wall, hit her head and lost consciousness. She tumbled to the ground, landing hard on her back in the sand. Caius immediately switched back into human form and kneeled next to her to check her pulse. I need to find another tactic for avoiding her questions, he thought as he cast a regen spell over her body. It had become a habit, something he always did when he'd knocked her out to make sure he hadn't given her any permanent injuries. The thought of her never opening those challenging blue eyes again did not appeal to him at all.

He knew that if he kept knocking her out every time she asked him questions he didn't want to answer, he would one day end up killing her on accident. That was the extent of the power Etro had given him, pulsating from the heart of chaos in his chest. That was the price of his immortality. Sooner or later, they always die, he thought bitterly. They always leave me behind.

Lightning frowned in her sleep. She would wake up soon, and then she'd be at it again, attacking him over and over with seemingly endless energy. He gently touched her face, stroking her messy pink locks from her eyes. When she awoke, he would pretend that she'd only been out for seconds. He would never admit the existence of these moments, the short minutes where he got to watch over her without her trying to kill him. He treasured those moments. In her waking state, she was like a thunderstorm – powerful, uncontrollable, an unstoppable divine force – but beneath all that, she was a woman. A woman who would give her life to protect the ones she loved. In a way, she reminded him of his old self; the person he'd been before he took on the responsibility of defending time itself.

His thumb grazed her lips. The armor covering her arms and torso was hard and impenetrable, but her skin was warm and soft. It seemed like every time he looked at her like this, every time he got the chance to touch her impossibly soft lips, something strange happened inside him. Somehow, this woman had the power to awaken something inside him that wasn't just pain and hatred. Something he hadn't felt since he watched his first Yeul die.

Something warm.