Broken Wings
N.W. 1139
Rest In Peace, Sinners
"Rest in peace, sinners..." Lloyd found himself murmuring as the angelic mana around him erupted, meeting and merging with the Judgment Zelos had just cast in near-perfect sync.
One massive blast damn near obliterated the facility where the mana cannon was being built. Several smaller, less controlled blasts struck facilities where half-elves were being held captive, one stray beam even hitting the castle, not that Lloyd would weep.
They'd warned the people of Meltokio time and time again.
Stop researching the mana cannon. Stop enslaving the half-elves. Stop ignoring the remaining angels.
They hadn't listened, and thus, Lloyd and Zelos had dressed themselves up just as they used to for the parties Zelos had attended when their human friends still lived, and they'd made a public spectacle of hovering over the city, Lloyd's massive wings more than visible despite the body of each feather being roughly the same color as the sky, and Zelos' golden-orange attracting just as much attention.
They'd warned the officials, they'd warned the researchers, they'd warned the slavers, and their warnings hadn't been heeded.
So they'd warned the common folk away from the building their combined Judgment would strike, and they'd spent nearly twenty minutes simply gathering and building up their angelic mana to unleash the massive blast.
Not quite mana cannon power levels, even considering that much of the power was spread out between the different beams. Not even close, if Lloyd was being honest, because angelic mana was volatile, and powerful. The amount of mana it had taken Colette to cast an Angel Feathers was, perhaps, half the amount it took Genis to cast Fireball.
Though, Colette had never had as much angelic mana at her fingertips as he'd found he did.
Zelos had spent much of his life focusing on expanding his own stores, whereas Lloyd simply allowed it to build along with his dwarven magic. It wasn't the same, but they did seem to feed into each other...
"Lloyd?"
He looked over at Zelos and blinked. "Something wrong?"
The redhead looked down at the blazing wreck that was all that was left of the Meltokio Royal Research Institute. "You don't seem bothered by this at all."
"We warned them," Lloyd murmured. "I don't like it, but it's better than letting them finish that monstrosity." He sighed, shifted, and looked over at Zelos. "Come on. Our work here's done, and I'd like to get out of these clothes. I'm too used to my work clothes to be wearing these fancy things anymore."
Zelos nodded once, slowly, and followed Lloyd's lead as the brunette wrapped himself in mana, a flash of light making it seem like he'd simply disappeared.
He turned and took off toward Eruden, fully intent on returning home...
Not that it would be home much longer. He'd been there for centuries... it was time to find a home somewhere else now.
The Luin-Asgard area, while an option, wasn't one he was extremely interested in. The desert was creeping further and further south with each year, leaving open plains behind that were slowly beginning to flourish.
In fact, he was considering the recently-established trade town of Terce. His work as a smith would pay well, he'd have something to do for a while...
The only problem was the fact that if he built his new workshop and home too close to the rapidly-expanding city, he'd be a part of it soon enough, and his agelessness would be noticed sooner. He could only claim to be a half-elf for so long before people began to have their suspicions...
But building far enough away from the city to not be overrun within the next few decades would mean a few hour's travel.
So it was a tossup.
Try to spend a few years as if he were actually human, which would also include not smithing in the middle of the night, or keep up his usual routine, but inconvenience clients.
He enjoyed smithing. It kept him distracted, gave him work to do to keep his mind off of Colette and the fighting and everything.
"Lloyd?"
He blinked a few times and looked over at Zelos, who was flying just ahead of him so as to not be in the way of his wings.
"Yeah?"
"...Are you mad at me?"
Lloyd frowned, confused. "For what?"
Zelos looked worried, scared even. "Colette."
Oh.
Oh.
Oh spirits.
Lloyd gestured for the two of them to land, and dropped into a dive. He did not want to try to have this conversation in the air...
The moment his feet touched the ground, his wings changed. They condensed on themselves, becoming more solid. Fully extended, his wings looked more like they were meant to be an idea of birds' wings, rather than being anatomically correct. But Lloyd had long since figured out how to will them into a shape that might have held him in the air even if they were as solid as he.
And in that form, they easily folded against his back, the warm mana humming, pleased not to be dispersed.
Zelos had taught himself to do something similar, but where Lloyd's wings became those of a bird and folded, Zelos' seemed to take after an insect's, and the segmented gold-orange wings would hang like a cape from the center of his back.
When they both intended to take to the air again shortly, there was no reason to banish their wings...
But folding them like this made things like hugging easier, and Lloyd owed Zelos at least one. Probably more than one.
"I'm sorry. I know I've been pretty distanced from everything these last couple decades..." he whispered as the startled redhead's arms snaked around his middle, under the rather solid if still mostly-transparent and glowing wings that adorned Lloyd's back.
"You're not mad...?"
"No," Lloyd replied firmly. "I just wish she had come to me. We both know I wouldn't have been able to stop her. And..."
Zelos pulled away just enough to look at him with overly-concerned blue eyes. "And?"
"...I found Noishe a few weeks ago, caught in a monster trap. One of the nasty ones with metal teeth," he said softly. "Even if I had managed to get him free... even if he hadn't died from the blood loss... he never would have run again, Zelos."
The arms around him tightened, and Lloyd buried his face in Zelos' shoulder, though he had no intentions of crying.
He missed her. He missed her so much already...
But... he'd promised his father. And Kratos was still on Derris-Kharlan, still waiting for Lloyd to bring him back to Aselia.
He'd also made a promise, a vow, to Ratatosk. He would not give up that easily, no matter how badly his heart ached.
Colette would be a hole in his chest for as long as he lived... but it wouldn't kill him. Lilia hadn't killed him, and Colette... He only hoped she had found their friends, wherever she'd gone.
He had his missions, still, and he would see them through, with Zelos at his side until such time as he could see his father again.
"Don't die, Lloyd... my son."
"I won't... I promise."