CRUELTY OF THE SCORNED

Two was currently standing over a small, erect rock inside a muddy dip surrounded by white and crimson roses growing at an angle so that they created a dome above by intertwining. A singular name lay carved out in the stone, Tatyana, Two's eyes glued to it. She stood in silence for days on end, occasionally crouching down and caressing the chilly stone with her long fingers.

After nearly a week had pa.s.sed since she first arrived, she turned around and took a deep breath, walking out of the small grove and up a spiraling road surrounded by rock and stone on all ends. She eventually reached a wide platform flattened artificially inside a mountain. It spanned over two miles across altogether, though it was mostly barren save for at the center.

There, lined up neatly in five rows, two per row, were gallows, totaling in ten. Each had five ropes whisking downwards, and out of the fifty spots, nineteen were filled. She walked over to the exhausted and dispirited figures, who each looked at her emptily.

"… your devotion is praiseworthy," she said in a cold, emotionless voice. "Yet idiotic. You won't be rewarded for it."

"…" n.o.body replied, causing her expressionless face to turn colder for a moment before relaxing as s.p.a.ce next to her ripped open, Four walking through.

"Have you finally changed your mind?" she asked indifferently, not even glancing at him.

"—no," Four replied, glancing at the figures whose lives hung by the thread of a wooden stool beneath their feet. "I've come to see whether you have."

"… you keep questioning me these days, Four," Two said. "I don't understand where you get the courage."

"… this… isn't right," Four sighed. "They are innocent."

"They're working for him," Two said. "That disqualifies them from being innocent."

"—you are blinded by hate—"

"Of course I am!!" Two exclaimed angrily, turning toward Four and reaching out with her right hand, grasping her fingers around his neck tightly. "He killed her!!" she screamed into his face. "Instead of questioning me, you should be bleeding dead to find him!!"

"…" Four remained silent.

"… fine," she casually threw him down onto the ground, s.h.i.+fting her focus on the gallows once more. "Do as you wish, just don't stand in my way."

Four merely sighed audibly before vanis.h.i.+ng, appearing on top of the mountain, inside a carved clearing surrounded by roofed shacks and a few gardens. Five and Seven's expressions damped when they saw his, causing them to slump further back against their chairs as Four joined them. They were sitting inside a fenced garden, beneath the shade of a ma.s.sive tree growing from the top of the mountain and almost piercing the clouds far above.

"—we can't let this go on." Seven said.

"What do you propose?" Five shrugged, reaching over and tying his flamboyant hair up. "Since she underwent her Awakening, n.o.body can match up to her except One. And, as usual, the f.u.c.ker's nowhere to be found."

"Even still…" Seven sighed, her usual, placid expression growing slightly worried. "I… have a bad feeling about this whole thing."

"She's brandis.h.i.+ng her fangs," Four said. "And the Empyrean won't back down either."

"… she'll get herself killed," Seven shook her head. "That's what worries me the most."

"… you don't think the Empyrean can actually kill her?" Five exclaimed. "I figured even killing Three was due to sheer luck."

"Oh, come on," Four rolled his eyes. "As though Three could have been killed through luck. Since the start, we've made nothing but terrible decisions in regards to the Empyrean. Now… it's going to come back and bite us in the a.s.s."

"Has Six had any luck finding him?" Five asked Seven.

"No," she shook her head. "He popped up briefly on the Eastern Sh.o.r.es but vanished soon after. It looks like he's really headed to the Dragon Isles… Sylver will try and follow, though I wouldn't hope for much."

"—this… is becoming more and more bothersome…" Four sighed. "

**

Lino watched the horizon open up in front of him, ocean's waters swinging high and low as far as the eye can see. They hovered just off the sh.o.r.e, at a decent elevation, hidden from the curious eyes. He was still waiting to see whether Y'nn will find the people that tried to hide in the major cities and for Hannah to give birth. Though it would all add up to six-seven months, it was hardly a lengthy period of time.

Lucky had also left just recently alongside some other Shadows to look for the stragglers and find some more information, while everyone else busied themselves with various jobs – Primul was working on improving the Orbiter alongside Tim, Simon, and Anna, while Eggor, Sarah and other smiths were once again relegated to crafting and repairing armors and weapons.

Hannah, Val, Edith, and Ally mostly focused on the paperwork that he couldn't quite understand, while Amadeel would either meditate or check up on the ever-growing interdimensional black hole.

The fortress currently held upward of 50,000 people, a number that will only grow before they depart for the Dragon Isles. After all, the part of the Orbiter that Primul was working on was the one that would allow them to finally pick up all the souls currently allied with him. Rough calculations put the number of people into tens of millions, a severe jump from 50,000, though save for the paperwork, there was little else to be done to accommodate them in the end as they all already had their own system in place to do that.

"—you're here," Ella's voice jolted him awake as he glanced sideways while she sat by his side. "Bored?"

"Eh," he shrugged. "It doesn't hurt to occasionally sit down and relax."

"Ha ha, I suppose it doesn't." Ella chuckled. "It will be short-lived, after all."

"… yeah, point your blade at my heart and shove it in, why don't you?"

"Ha ha, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"So? What's up?" he asked, taking out a gourd of wine.

"What do you think the black mist is?" Ella's question didn't seem to surprise him as his eyes veered back onto the distant horizon.

"… no clue." his answer, however, did strike her, her expression turning into one of shock.

"W-what do you mean?" she quizzed.

"I can't see through it, in any way, shape or form." Lino replied. "Can't see what's within it, what's it made out of… or what it is. From one terrible thing to another… I don't think all of us should go there."

"… we won't," Ella nodded. "We can bring the others to the Edge and hide them there while the few of us go to explore."

"Who did you have in mind?" Lino asked.

"Ally, Lucky, Amadeel, Primul and t.i.tus." Ella replied. "Besides you and me, I mean."

"t.i.tus?" Lino asked.

"Hm," she nodded. "His Cultivation Method is based on Light and Endurance," she said. "I thought he should be enough to protect Primul."

"… hm," Lino nodded after a short thought. "Hannah will be p.i.s.sed, though."

"She'll have also just given birth," Ella shrugged. "As if I'll let her go."

"… ha ha, thank you." he chuckled faintly. "Shouldn't you be helping Primul with the formations, though?"

"Nah, he said, and I quote, 'you don't know what the h.e.l.l you're doing, just go away and join the other useless one'."

"… ouch."

"Yeah…"

"… something's been on my mind ever since I met him," Lino said suddenly, the look in his eyes changing slightly. "Nothing about him screams that he's easily corruptible… or easily driven to madness. Yet, he had been. Why?"

"… there are millions of roads to madness Lino," Ella replied. "Who can ever tell? Why? Are you worried you might follow his footsteps?"

"… no," Lino shook his head, leaning back onto his arms. "If anyone's banking on me going insane and losing this war that way, they'll be waiting for a long time."

"Oh? Aren't you awfully confident, and not in your usual, very arrogant way."

"Oi, what do you mean very arrogant way?! My confidence is always pure and founded in truth!"

"… yeah, yeah, sure thing. So? Why?"

"—I've reached the Absolute Mastery of Madness," Lino replied casually. "It's… well, it's one way to avoid ever going insane, I suppose."

"… that doesn't mean you can't go mad still, though," Ella said. "It just means you'll have the illusion of reins over it."

"—I'm confident in my heart, more so than anything else," he replied. "It won't betray me. It can't betray me."

"… as am I," she said, ruffling his hair. "You've grown."

"… hardly," he scoffed. "In many ways, I'm still just a brat."

"So long as you realize it."

"… ha ha, yeah. But… I can't be… not anymore." he said, his eyes s.h.i.+ning in a faint glimmer of determination. "I'm about to be a father. I can't be cheapening my life anymore."

"And you won't." she said. "I know it."

"… aah, oh well." he yawned, getting up. "I've nothing to do for over half a year. I guess I can go on a crafting spree and fix myself a decent a.r.s.enal and craft something for Hannah. I've promised her a while ago."

"—and you've promised me a necklace decades ago, a necklace I've never gotten."

"Oh, right!" Lino exclaimed. "Wow, I remember that. That was actually the very first time I thought of you as my mom."

"Hey! That was years into your staying with us!" Ella exclaimed, pouting. "What did you think of me until then?"

"Uh… I don't know? A kind, old lady?"

"…"

"A kind, old, but breathtakingly beautiful lady?"

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"… old has to stay, huh?"

"It has to, indeed," Lino grinned. "Fine. I'll fas.h.i.+on you a necklace. I'll make you proud of me!"

"… I'm always proud of you. Well, not always," she added, sighing. "But, most of the—well, on occasion. But relatively frequent occasion."

"You could just hear your heart break the further along that sentence stretched…"

"… yeah."

"… and now mine's cracked. Fine. Go to the son you're proud of! I'll go and vanquish my sorrows with a hammer!"

"Ha ha ha, have fun!" Ella exclaimed, tenderly gazing at his fading back.