Chapter 510 - Alana (1/2)
CHAPTER 510
ALANA
Two women sat side by side, perched on top of a platform in the high-skies surrounded by nothing but clear, even dull, cyan. The platform rose up into a gardened gazebo, domed roof adorned with hand-carved lines of gold. The windows were covered up in slits of perfumed wood, the benches inside cushioned, with the steps outside leading up from the platform to the gazebo cast out of white, smooth marble.
Gaia and A'yor sat in silence for a long while, gazing off beyond the orbit of Noterra, into the empty cosmos. Their minds were heavy, plagued by the reality that had transpired not too long ago -- the Empyrean had won. The Descent was gone. The Primes were dead. The Holy Army itself routed back onto the Holy Continent where, no doubt, they would soon be pursued and executed. The entirety of Noterra now belonged to the prime agent of Chaos and was his to command.
Gaia's emotions were akin to a whirling pandemonium; a sensation of regret, a trace of awe, a pulsation of longing. She still had trouble reconciling everything, how he went from the boy she met in the Umbra Kingdom decades ago, to the undisputed Emperor of the whole world. He seemed so innocent, naive, unlikely to ever ascend, back then. Yet, their realities now stood uprooted. Perchance, in his eyes, she hardly even registered anymore; only as a stain of the past he will eventually cleanse.
”... do you think Dangwe can fight him?” A'yor asked, her red hair trailing back like small threads as she turned toward silver-eyed Gaia.
”... no,” Gaia shook her head, sighing and tearing her gaze away from the cosmos. ”If anything, Dan is probably looking for the deepest hole to hide in right now.”
”... this can't be it, can it?” A'yor asked with bitterness in her voice. ”After so many years... after getting so close... just for it all to... vanish?”
”--I should have listened to my heart all those years ago,” Gaia said. ”Had I, we would be down there, celebrating in the gloom. Rather than here, just being... gloomy.”
”Nobody could have predicted this,” A'yor said. ”Perhaps not even Ataxia. At least not for all of this to happen so quickly. In less than a century... hah. If the others who tried to conquer the world heard of this, they might just go absolutely mad.”
”...hm?” Gaia arched her brow, turning her eyes in front of her whereupon space there trembled and shook, a faint ripple exploding out followed by a crimson-shaded black swirl emerging. His heart thundered, though her limbs refused to move. He's here!
Though her thoughts were screaming that, the ripple vanished without him churning through -- only the crimson-black swirl of chaotic energy. A'yor shot up to her feet and pulled Gaia back, standing in front of the latter, pulling out a shimmering sword.
”... rest your arms, child,” Ataxia said, his robotic voice cracking slowly. ”I haven't come to fight.”
”Then why did you come? To mock us?” A'yor asked, baring her teeth.
”No, I've come to prepare you for the next battle,” the black swirl glazed over onto the platform, his voice turning eerily human, that of an old man's. It slowly began bending and sheering, extruding upward and shaping up into a figure -- a figure of an old, dreary-looking man with a wrinkled face and a pair of abyss-like black eyes. He towered tall, over four meters in total, and seemed large enough to pound a mountain into mincemeat with his bare hands.
The look in his eyes, however, was strange, as they never left Gaia, not looking at A'yor even once.
”--what... the hell?” A'yor stumbled over her words, uncertain as to what was happening.
”You've spent countless lifetimes looking to peer through the doors,” Ataxia said, sighing lowly. ”To see what's inside.”
”...”
”Do you really want to know that badly?”
”--I do.” Gaia replied, her emotions strange; she didn't feel fear or anything even remotely like it. Rather, she felt an odd sense of peace. Calmness.
”... very well.” Ataxia said after a short pause, sighing. ”Let's go then.”