· · · · · · ·

Rangort had returned the teleportation machine to the shore and had buttered it up with some elves. Luna teleported in just out of range, giving the impression she'd dropped by with other means. Didn't want to make anyone pull out a crystal ball and contact the wrong people, which would happen if she suddenly displayed magic everyone knew she didn't have the knowledge of.

"Hey. Turn on the machine," Luna said to the nearest operator that she found on lunch break. Off guard people were easiest to make comply.

"Who s- Oh. As you say, miss Luna," the elf said, jumping to her feet. "Give us a moment."

"Sure."

She didn't ask them to rush; rushed people made mistakes. That had been one of Valgarv's problems.

She waited, eyes fixed on the trail of feathers cluttering over the teleportation platform. They'd gone the opposite direction before, but now she formed the idea she had to obtain flow sight to teleport better, they pointed to the island.

At the trail's end, when she hated everything she did, she would be numb. She wanted that, could even imagine reasons why all too easily. She knew it made no sense at all, given her own wants and personality, to do this, yet she did want it.

Only one desire existed : remake the world in a better form, one that suits us. Let Volphied thrive.

Only one initiative existed : activate the machine in double mode, pull in gods and devils alike. Break their souls, fuse their power. Tear open the world at its seams.

She should just say one line. "I'm possessed." Or brainwashed or willwashed or anything like that.

She should do something else that made it clear something was wrong.

Anything but this calm procedure.

Once Filia and Xelloss came through, the operator would tell them she'd been acting weird. Hell, even Rangort's attention might be enough.

It didn't happen. She didn't want to do anything else, even as the results terrified her. None of this made sense, she knew it made no sense, but the initiation to do something else just never happened.

The elves finished tinkering with the controls. Luna took her place and within no time, she appeared on the arrival platform of Elmegiddo.

As far as she could sense, all potential threats were far. Valwin could be seen on the horizon and Rangort was gone. A nearby blue pillar indicated recent flow to Megiddo, so e had probably gone to hell. That left Ragrairyos, Lina and Zelas, whom she could avoid.

The feather trail led her down the known path to Leyunso's room.

At one point, it made an abrupt turn to the left and Luna followed it. Barely had she gone down that hall, or she heard the chatter of Lina behind her. Along with her spouses, Lina wandered by without a care, dropping a chicken bone on the floor after picking her teeth with it.

Part of her really wanted to kill Lina, but if one conflicting desire still existed, then it was how much that would get in the way of her greater goal. That she didn't feel any reason to kill Lina no longer mattered.

Everybody would die if she went through with this. She understood this, yet still wanted it. The push against killing her loved ones was strong enough to stay her hand when she stood across them, but when she didn't need to go through them, nothing was left.

Just do this one thing. Then this other thing. Step by step closer to utopia, even if that was a world that Luna would hate.

Siephied opened the door before Luna could knock.

"Hey, Siephied," Luna said. "Or Leyunso? Which are you really?"

She frowned. "What brings this on?"

"Existential musings."

"Who are you?" Leyunso took a step back and pulled the magic of the walls; she meant to seal the door.

Luna pushed in and closed the door behind her. "I'm Luna. Or does your power work one me now?"

Leyunso backed against the wall and dug her hand in the brittle sand wall. Almost she sent out some sort of signal, but Luna cut it off by digging her wing into the wall. Before Leyunso got another word in, she projected a muzzle — she was familiar enough with them to know what worked how, even on humans. She kept it invisible as a force, so none would see.

"We'll be taking a trip now," she said, taking her by the arm and dragging her along.

They made it to the platform with just a few odd looks, but once there she had to explain where she was taking a very unwilling Sage of Siephied.

Luna had zero experience with talking herself out of trouble (she could just threatened everyone), yet somehow the perfect words fell into her mind.

They weren't sure whether they could trust her, she told them. They'd take her to some place where they could determine her intentions, it was a test. Selling them the idea she was unreliable needed little seeding; Leyunso had done this herself every time she opened her mouth.

On the eastern shore station, she told them the same nonsense, then marched Leyunso into the nearest forest. There she took the muzzle off.

"Now you will help me navigate the flow. I want to pay someone a visit."

"Luna, let me into your mind. Something is wrong with you."

"There's been something wrong with me since I died when I was little."

"That's not it. You're hardly the only patched up Knight in history, nor the only one who cut into their own emotions. This is different."

Luna nodded, and found a hole where she could talk about it. "Ever since I got back the power Valgarv stole from me."

"He did what?"

Luna grinned. "And now I know how to carve open godly energy and rip out things. So convenient you're human now, you won't dissolve right away."

Volphied had given Valgarv the instructions of how to cast the particular life law circle on a god. Luna hadn't been aware of it at the time, but now the information was ready at hand. Leyunso was far from as ignorant as Luna had been, her soul gates were firmly shut. Still, Luna had one advantage. She controlled the Phied's raw power, and their soul key was near identical. Leyunso usually kept her soul gates open to perceive the world and had never needed to fear anyone getting in.

She spread out her wings and encased Leyunso in the ribcage of her astral body. She had exactly a split second of surprise to use before Leyunso realized and tried shutting her out. Too late.

Her mind, memories and feelings were full of a passive fascination with the world, doctored just to give herself something to do. Survival skills and tricks were interwoven, and experience, so much experience dominated it all. Luna could get lost within all this knowledge ... she just needed a bit of that power that allowed Leyunso to use the world's flow for scrying.

Something dropped the knowledge in her mind : Leyunso did not need to store anything with her mind. The world was practically her mind and she herself the flow point.

Leyunso was a lot better at this than anything Luna could handle. Well, that just left one option. Luna happened to be excellent at it : apply raw force.

She pushed her own power into Leyunso's mind and tried infecting her, blending minds. This very thing she had feared once, now it was her power to use and the only thing she liked about this whole mess.

Leyunso panicked and pushed Luna out, sending the infected piece along. She rammed her soul shut indefinitely. On reflex Luna tried to keep it open, but at this Leyunso was still the swifter learner.

The physical world became more real now they were unblended.

The late night sky, the sound of an owl nearby. Her own breathing. In all the time inside, Luna's body had not blinked. She had to blink away the unpleasant feeling.

Leyunso had dropped to the ground, but now stood up carefully. She said nothing, but her hatred spoke bookparts.

"Volphied, I saw you," Leyunso said. "What do you want?"

Luna ignored her, all her focus on sorting out her new addition.

With this small fragment of force and knowledge, Luna could just barely read the world, but she had what she needed : the information on how to teleport to the desert of destruction. The feather trail needed her to go there. In the original plan, Volphied would have wielded the god power and Valgarv the devil power. With either of them missing, there had to be new agents of order.

· · · · · · ·

The old base of Hellmaster Fibrizo lay east of Zephyria, far into the ingeniously misnamed desert of destruction.

They appeared a few meters above ground. When they dropped down, the slope send them rolling to the , Luna scrambled to her feet and shook out the sand in her clothes. Leyunso took a little longer.

The sky paled from the earliest dawn, showing only waves and waves of sand. With nothing to hold heat, the air was chill enough to turn breath into steam.

In other words, typical desert stuff. Sure, you'd die from heat once the day came, but there wasn't anything more destructive about it than elsewhere. One might speculate Fibrizo had demons running around once, but the astral plane was still now.

Only the trail of glowing white feathers moved, pointing her in the right direction. She wanted to follow it, but only slowly, because she did not like what she'd find at the end of it.

Leyunso put a hand on her shoulder, sending a jolt through her. She jumped away.

"What's the matter?"

Luna had been startled, if just a little. The feeling lingered longer than usual.

"Valgarv didn't get a personality transplant," Leyunso said. "He didn't need to. I can see you at work, Volphied. This one doesn't fit you well."

The accusation infuriated her, but she didn't want to respond. Just ... go. Get to the goal.

Luna started walking, pulling along Leyunso with a projected claw. After some prompting, Leyunso walked along on her own.

"Do you really want this, Luna?" Leyunso asked, only to be ignored again. "You... oh gods, you do. Volphied, you are good at what you do."

She had to be eating her emotions. Luna didn't want that, at least, but she had no way to stop it unless she got rid of Leyunso now. It was too soon for that.

"What do you hope to achieve, Volphied?"

Independence, naturally.

It was the first time Luna realized that yes, there was another person at the end of the line.

Valgarv had sought Luna's power in part to give shape to Volphied, but there had been no Volphied to reach in and he'd only embodied the program that existed for Valgarv to communicate with Volphied without shutting the Val program down. Useless on its own. Volphied still resided in the Black World, using her limited power to push through the walls of the world. Having Leyunso and a talisman shard helped, but most of all, that the gate had caused damage when Lina came through. Val had kept out Volphied, but she'd been able to sent a few spare codes in.

Valgarv and Volphied had expected her to take back the power he's stolen from her. That was all they had needed to plant their virus.

Volphied resonated far better with another godly creature than a mere dragon; with Luna it didn't matter whether or not her servant agreed. Now she had the equivalent of a beacon, rather than a general.

"She wants independence," Luna said. "So do I."

"After she carved out your original wants and wishes," Leyunso said. "Doesn't that bother you?"

Yes.

Yes it did. She just had no initiative to do anything against it. No true, fully formed wanting.

"I'm Luna," she said, only because she had always said this.

"The program—"

"Shut up!" Luna's power flared out, forming a skeletal dragon around her.

Not the usual one, it had the shape of a scorched toy.

Her familiar rage flared up, and this time it came with a host of other emotions that made it unpleasant. Anger ... about something. Discontent, confusion, disorientation, it wasn't right. It had to stop being wrong.

Volphied was calm through it all, idly wondering how Siephied stuck together and regretting she had not gotten a closer look.

Oh gods, regret. Luna only knew what to name it because Volphied did. When consumed it was just foul, but experiencing it ...

She kept talking, just to distract herself. Anger alone didn't do it anymore.

"She wants to know what you are now, Siephied."

"I do not consider myself the same as that Siephied," Leyunso said. "I am one in sequence. Rescrambled content, if you will? Or call me a child who grew up."

I will not accept that. Learn your own name and tell me again.

"Not a good answer," Luna said.

Dugradigdu had enough hatred for his fate that he could choose to defy the Lord of Nightmares. We have choices, what did she choose?"

"What did you choose?"

"I made ten thousand and more small choices that led to the one you find before yourself. How about you two try that? Become something else, someone that won't be plagued by herself. Go ahead. The choice to change is yours."

Dares mean nothing to me. I suppose I could to change, but why? I have logic to lead me, and there is an objectivity to that. I want to be what I am, it is the world that needs to change.

Luna didn't relay that, just kept walking after the feathers.

"Let me in, Luna. If I can speak with her directly, I can alter her. I can help you learn to not act on those base wants. They're simple, we can undermine them with something stronger. Volphied's limited to her program, which she created for Val. She cannot take away the bonds you have, does she?"

Right now, Luna wanted nothing more than to snap that muzzle back in place, so she did exactly that. The rest of the trek was in silence.

The trail of feathers ended at a seal and a ruin.

Luna ran her hands over the magic, finding it demonic but not outright devilish. She broke through the seal and tore down the rock walls before them. Leyunso almost got out of range in her distraction, but Luna caught her just in time and dragged her back.

This place were clearly not built by humans. Just hollow places and corridors, once adorned with magic. No engravings or ornaments like typical to human ruins.

Strands of power were strung all over the place as alarm system, but it had been calculated from big and dangerous things. Lei was fairly sharp, to have figured out that old shields can be messed with by digging around. Broken threads in the wall rang a bell. Using her holy senses, Luna just avoided them. A devil or human might not have seen them, so he expected no divine enemies. Maybe he thought that if the gods showed up, he'd be dead either way.

Lei hadn't gone in very deep. One of the smaller chambers close to an hall with a draft had become his refuge. Always ready to leave.

On the physical plane the only noticeable sign of magic were a few corrupted Zenaffa armors huddled around an old divan. Lei slept on that divan and on the astral plane. There was no more difference between the human soul and devil king, but she could guess that the human side dominated. See, there was an awful lot of human furniture here.

He'd either stolen it himself or made the armors fetch it, because ooh boy, what a mess. Aside of the divan, there was an iron hearth, comfortable chairs, table, a few books in a cabinet, and food remnants all over the place. Much of it over due.

Luna floated over quietly, stopping over the table before the divan. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of old food and unwashed human. Having lost the formal robes, Lei just wore a simple shirt and pants probably stolen from some farmer. His long hair had tangled up.

"Oh great lord of demons, thy hast become a couch potato. What woeful fate."

He startled awake, fixing wide eyes at her. Those were still a devil's.

"Luna Inverse?"

Luna hunched down in the table, tilting her head a little so she revealed one eye. "Exverse will do."

He slowly sat up. "What do you want?

Holding out her hand, she said, "My mind changed. Let's help each other take over the world, shall we?"

"What changed your mind?" he asked, more than a little suspicious.

"Noticed any of the chaos in the world lately? Big things are happening with Shabranigdu's hosts."

"I'm aware that something happened to two pieces of Shabranigdu. What's going on with the one that broke?"

"My sister and Zelas are experimenting on getting rid of Shabranigdu," Luna said. "Lina can force soul gates to open or something like that. Kind of a scary power, and I'm not sure I want her to be deciding the fate of the world. What changes is that I saw Her in my sister's soul. Have you ever seen Lucifer? Even just the trace of her?"

"I've seen her through distant eyes," he said. "I know she is dangerous."

"She is also ignorant and she is now the apostle of Lucifer. That's more than dangerous. You know all about things at the edge of your mind, don't you?"

Telling the man who sought to escape the parasite of his soul that she had her own parasite would be a bad idea.

"I conquered them, but I do remember. You're saying she's under the Lord of Nightmares's thrall?"

"Yeah, and Zelas is all fine with that. I'm not gonna let my fate in Lucifer's hands. When it comes to devils I know, Lucifer is at the very bottom."

Curiosity had a particular fun taste, but that alone wasn't an answer. He was also weary of her.

"How did you get in?"

"Holiness has perks. Don't worry, it's cause I'm smart, not because I have back up. If I was here to trap you, it'd have sprung while you still slept. So, what about it?"

"Answer all my questions, and we may get somewhere," he said after finding Luna untraced. "Starting with her presence?"

Leyunso had sat down one of the chairs on the opposite side of the table, making a point of glaring at them.

"Can't kill her or her soul's free to tell the wrong people, can't lock let her outside my astral body's range or she'll alert people. Got a friend who knows how her power works, I'm betting that if Leyunso gives her a vision that claims we could be anywhere but here, she'll get it. So she's not relevant to us, just a security measure."

"And to what end do you want to prevent her talking?"

So she told him about her newfound aspirations for world reformation, leaving out a few select details like Volphied being able to get into this world at the end, and the seeding plans. All he needed to know was the take over.

Lei's own plans were a little less ambitious than expected. He just wanted to survive and be free and planned to take over the other pieces of Shabranigdu, then sit back and advance magic. The gods being lazy, he saw no point in getting in conflict with them. Of course, he could be leaving out things just as Luna did.

As expected, he wanted a bargain. If he helped her take over the gods, she'd help him take over the devils.

He threw in some suggestions and shared knowledge of ancient magic, but not much, and he never outright accepted the arrangement. Testing her.

Luna held out her hand with a white flame in it. "If you want to be sure our goals align, why don't we fuse magic? Just think about what you want while you fuse, and see whether it becomes ... say, just a pyramid."

Lei brought out a dark flame of his own, not missing a beat. "I want to know whether we have the same goal."

"To assert our freedom and maybe rule the world if it's necessary. Anything better than what's going on now," Luna said.

Between their hands, it turned to a four point little pyramid. It could have been far better fusion magic if they had a more convergent goal, but he wouldn't know that. If he did, he might not press or she could just accuse him of holding something back.

At last, Lei smiled. "Get off the table. This is no way to deal with an equal partnership."

Bait taken. She dropped herself down on the open side of the divan.

"Alright, let me run you though our options. For starters, I've infected Vrabazard in a way that will make him obey me."

· · · · · · ·

Luna still had the tiny shard of the angelsblood talisman, which Filia had given her to contact Lina. It might not be much, but it would give Lei the edge he needed. She just had to take out the holiness, returning the fragment back to neutral. He could use to to contain Shabranigdu's power that way, a useful edge when it came to facing a fully aware piece of the devil king.

Lei's method of crafting talismans involved less of the usual wizardry. Now he was a chimera he needed no tools, only focus and magic. He went into a trance for this.

Trance ... something Luna had once deemed pointless spirituality, only useful for the most dense. She might just dislike that of her old self. For all her power, it got her little in a world where technique, gates and flow had just as much to say in the end game.

See, Siephied, isn't it clear now? I'm not even in your world, yet I've killed thousands and am on the brink of tearing it down. Be happy that you are my ally now, for your will survive what I plan. You can learn and improve now you become free from your own limitations.

Given that this involved Volphied cutting parts off of her, it made no sense to believe what she said, but Luna really wanted to.

Doing what she wanted had always been so easy.

Was it?

Don't worry for what I might do to you. I respected Valgarv as my ally, did I not? You too want to help me, I only cleared the way from some mortal concerns. The products of your imperfect life. Everything you want now has grown from fresh soil.

You don't trust yourself with your own emotions — you wouldn't know anything about yourself. I could have written a copy of myself into you without you ever noticing, till I was you. Oh, if I'd known this before, it would have been so much easier.

Then again, if you are no longer you, but me, there'd be no immunity to Siephied's curse. I'd hoped Valgarv would get it from taking your power, but no. It's only you and it makes no sense. The previous Knights weren't. Can you explain that about yourself?

No.

Maybe it is adaption.

Give something a single impulse : continue to exist and the world will force it to develop all the traits it needs for this. Species and natural selection have brought them where they are. All these facets like love, hate, wrath, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, joy, sorrow, indifference, they work for generations. For life, for adaption and survival.

The same is true for Siephied. You are but a facet of an old god, as wrung through a tiny part of the world in a shape it needed to survive. The power latched onto a human soul exactly because it sought to exist, so it, YOU, adopted the extra traits required for that.

You hear Siephied and it is a name of a person to you, rather than a force. And just like humans, this force means nothing special when compared to any other lifeform. Only that your death rate means you have to live more wisely. And isn't that what drove you? Just so you'd get the same life span as others?

Just as I was driven to become this and adapted. I've seen what happened to those of our siblings to still remain. Would you like to hear what become of the Sun Dragon after she won? And what's happening right now in the the Amber Dragon's world? Valgarv understood already, and I'm sure it won't take long until you do too. This cruel game, whim of the Lord of Light.

A force shaping her, the products of her life.

You could be immune for more than just Chaos's curse of Siephied. You could kill Lina Inverse, your world's apostle of chaos. Bring true order to the world, clean it all up now.

Are you only attached to the apostle because of the product of genes? She happened to be born close to you but when it comes to emotions and personality, that makes her no more valuable than others. Choose your own values and treasures. We can have a choice, I know. A true, orderly choice, not tainted by the randomness of chaos in the form of genes and environment.

If Lina is in our way, it may be by our law that she dies, right?

This world will not belong to Lucifer anymore.

· · · · · · ·

When they teleported to the southern area where the last piece of Shabranigdu was sealed, Luna was surprised to land in a quaint little forest meadow. Such a misfit for the prelude to the end of this world.

Two cats, a black and a white one, appeared from the undergrowth and spun around every leg they could reach; Lei's old trousers were used for claw practice.

Luna couldn't resist the urge to bend down and pet them, while Lei tried to shake them off.

"These aren't normal cats," he said while flinging one of them in a tree.

"Who cares?" Luna said, hoisting up the other in her arms. Heavens, cats were the best things Lucifer had ever dreamed up. She'd have cats in the new world, that was certain.

Lei looked around, confused. "I don't sense anything other these these pests. Are you sure we're in the right place?"

Luna nodded. "You don't sense anything because Leyunso's really damn good at flow control. See these trees? All holy shit. The cats too. They absorb everything negative and there's nothing bad to strengthen Shabranigdu."

The other cat returned from the tree unharmed, and Luna put it in Lei's arms. "Here, you'll need the happy fuzzies if you're going to face crabby igdu. By the way, our new world is going to have cats. That's not negotiable."

Confused he looked at the cat and then at Luna, who had her own cat in maximum cuddle phase. He looked like a man who hadn't been anything but a Wise Sage for too long and holding a cat was too much to ask. Not taking over the world, but cats? Hah.

"Y'know, you kept a lot of humanity. Well, organic nature anyway," he said.

"You say that like it's not so with you. Did that pillar really change you, or did Lei the human still exist?"

"I'm not sure. First the barrier around me slipped, allowing Shabranigdu movement but freezing my physical body. Then Shabranigdu was called away, forcing into the cracked power. My soul stayed in place. I stayed. Now we're one."

"Ah ... like creating a mozaic out of shards. It's a new thing from old pieces."

Lei had infected Shabranigdu, more likely. But there was nothing to say about that, because it might lead his thoughts the wrong way. Volphied knew what didn't need to be said.

The feather trail twirled into the forest edge, leading them to a small cave.

There, the cats jumped away and positioned themselves before the entrance. Luna cast an odd look at Leyunso, who walked behind them in eerie silence. The grass moved aside for her. She could ask for explanation about the cats, but she couldn't risk taking off the muzzle lest she speak to Lei.

Luna abruptly stopped wanting an explanation. It was so convenient to just stop wanting things, she didn't even need to cut away emotions for this.

"It's down there," Luna said. "I'll loosen the seal from the outside."

She climbed up a tall rock, which served as one of the magical anchors of the seal. The whole site had been constructed in the same trend as a soul jar, albeit a crude rushed prototype. Like a soul jar through its clay, it relied on Mother Earth for additional support.

Lei took out the red shard, now ready for him to use. Tied around it was a single small thread infused with fusion magic, meant to help unseal the old barrier. If all went well, Lei could claim the host's half awakened power in the way Valgarv had claimed his two.

The shard responded with pulsing red light. Lei braced himself the way only humans do. He took one careful step after another to the entrance.

"You cannot help me in this," Lei said. "At least, until it goes wrong."

"I'm sure we'll agree hard on getting out of here safely if that happens," Luna said with a smirk. "I'll keep teleportation ready in case you come running out."

Lei nodded at her, a hint of gratefulness in his emotions. How silly.

When he had disappeared into the cave, Luna took off Leyunso's muzzle.

"If he gets it to work, we'll be on our way to Elmegiddo. By then we'd like Rangort to show up, so I'll kill you soon. Any preferences on how?"

Leyunso raised an eyebrow. "How about not?"

"But I really want to," Luna said. "Come on, be happy you get a choice."

"I can't argue with Volphied, then," she said. "Just smash my head. The quicker the brain's gone, the quicker I'm dead."

"Got it," Luna said with a shrug. "Wanna argue with me, though? Or just talk? I'd like to know what you did to change Zelas."

"She was already suspecible to change, I just gave her a nudge," Leyunso said. She climbed on the rock aside of Luna, crossing her legs. "Are you sure this is the last you want to hear?"

"Yes. I'm okay like this, it's just ... Volphied doesn't know everything either."

Leyunso laced her fingers. She had milleniums of experience with suppressing anxiety and managed with only marginal cutting of her own emotions.

"Zelas Metaliom, it wasn't far from here that we met. We both tracked a host for Shabranigdu on the verge of waking.

She meant to kill me, of course, but she was always intellectually inclined. I earned her curiosity for long enough to live and tell her that Lucifer wants the world to be destroyed.

Imagine what my power does to an astral creature, made out of pure mind, when I rewrite them so their own instincts cannot be trusted? Some will find reasons to ignore their feelings, and others will be caught in a limbo. Many terminate themselves, but Zelas ... Zelas is one of the few to come out of it with the idea that the Lord of Nightmares has made up her mind to let the world exist.

She'd been seeking evidence to support that belief ever since. I've told her I am Siephied right away, so I would not be her evidence. I think ... I wanted to see how far she'd come on her own, but who knows? Maybe Lucifer sent me back to be the kind of person to make that choice, or maybe the world itself conspired to develop me like that. That you got this far on Volphied's behalf makes a strong case for us still having free will, if if the vessel is ironic. You have none of your own will left."

"I don't think so." Luna or Volphied said, she herself could not tell anymore. "I think She must do somehow. Isn't it funny how all the names of those that host part of a greater power begins with an L? Luke, Lei, Leyunso, Lina, Luna, Laust, Lyos. We all speak the same languages across the worlds. Somehow they just evolve exactly alike. Even as languages evolve or get worn down, it's the same everywhere. Why? Because we're not real, are we? Just figments of Her imagination. Did you know your name in the new languages, right now? It sounds like Sea Feed. You, the one who fed herself to the Sea of Chaos? And Volphied, who revolves and desolves and evolves."

"We're all feeds, though," Leyunso said. "In Vol's world, a feed is an observable stream of information. Maybe I'm the feedback from the Sea of Chaos. That's hardly a message about my destiny and more that She just dreamed me up to be closer to Her."

"Does it matter? We are all slave to the dream. Even right now, it might just be that I'm running along a predestined scheme, but I can do nothing but want out, so I go along anyway. If there is no chance, if i was made, then at least I'll run to my end."

"That is Volphied talking, isn't it?"

"And if we don't end, well, there's nothing wrong with taking over from someone like Lucifer, is there? Still ... I think I'm sorry. Am I? I don't really know what it feels like."

"Yes, you do. That's why your astral body got so good at cutting it away. If you wanted to do something with that, I could still help. Gods do not regret well, it's one advantage you may still have over Volphied."

"No."

Everything at peace now, there were no more reasons to postpone, no more chances to plant any seeds. The hope had existed that maybe Filia could wander into her dreams and remove this virus. She didn't actually want it though. All she wanted was the reformation of the world, even if it was will fit for her. Luna just wanted her own life, but it looked like that was impossible unless she made some great changes to the world.

Leyunso died quicker than anyone she'd ever killed before.

· · · · · · ·