Brief Reunion

“This is really comfortable”

Aidan lies face down on the bed. We’re currently in Edelgard, one of the major Elven Kingdoms in the Chablis continent.

Around three-fourths of the walls are glass. The room has a view on top of the giant tree – which dwarfs the other trees in the forest, and in this height, I can see miles into the forest.

I look at the huge branches, there are several rooms like this one. I didn’t notice it before when we were back in the carriage, but there are other turrets hidden within the branches. Ballistae, lots of them. I figure they’d be enough to shower the sky with huge arrow bolts.

It’s only natural as elven cities that are built on these huge trees are frequently visited by flying monsters, namely dragons and wyverns.

I look out to the horizon; the sun is starting to set. They’ve been keeping us here since noon. I don’t really mind though as the elves are treating us really well.

Aidan walks over to me and looks out the window.

“So, Al- Aelius. It feels weird to call you that. Sorry”

“It’s alright. At this point I’m fine with it. Also, you believe what I said?”

He raises his arms above his head.

“With all the evidence presented before me, it would be weird if I still didn’t believe it. You’re too knowledgeable about this world to be an otherworlder”

I think I can see my reflection in the glass.

“Well of course, I am the God of this world after all”

“Why do you say it like you’re the only God?”

“Ah right. I keep saying that without regard to Amaris and the other two”

But now they crossed a line they shouldn’t have crossed. Why would they want to upset the balance? Well, it’s probably mostly because they hate us. I’m not oblivious to that. I find it hard to believe they could gravely wound Amaris though, I might be gone but she’s not someone to be trifled with so easily as well.

“I have a question, Aelius”

“What is it?”

He steps closer.

“Why would you continue to let the wars happen? Are you unable to interfere? Or did you choose not to interfere on purpose?”

This conversation went south quickly.

“There are rules that the four of us Gods established. One of them is that we’re not supposed to interfere directly into the matters of this world”

“But there should have been exceptions, right? What about all the lives that are gone each day? There are plenty of times in human history alone where hundreds of thousands of lives were taken. We may be inconsequential to you Gods, but we’re still living beings, like you are. Don’t we deserve to live in peace too?”

He looks at me with a straight face. But his tone is forced, he’s clearly trying to keep his emotions out of this.

“Nadia…my sister and I never got to enjoy our childhood with our parents. We were so young when we evacuated from the outskirts. If it wasn’t for the one of the Astra Noble family’s members took us in, who knows where we’d be right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to get you to pity us”

He walks back to his bed.

“I was just sharing my thoughts”

“…”

I can’t bring myself to reply once again. I just don’t know what to feel anymore. On one hand, there’s this crushing guilt, the other is me trying to ignore that guilt thinking it is beneath me.

I’ve only been with this group of people for a few weeks, yet they’ve affected me more than anything in my existence as a God for thousands of years.

I lie down on my bed.

“Aidan… I’ve been alive ever since the creation of this world. I… I’ve always thought, how fleeting your lives were, within a blink a new generation has already replaced the old. But now I’ve gotten to experience it firsthand, and I… I’m not sure about anything anymore”

“That doesn’t sound comforting at all. But I know what you’re trying to say”

He smiles a little.

“You do? I don’t even know what I said”

“Oh”

We both laugh a little.

He looks at me again.

“At least, when you’re back to being a God… try to be a little more considerate with the lives on this world”

“Hm, I was thinking of doing that. Thanks”

“Cool”

I can feel the guilt lessen a little. This sense of relief, I wish it would last forever.

“I never though you’d be someone I can talk to properly, I always figured if anyone was going to be amiable between the two of you, it would be your sister”

He opens his journal. I can see drawings of his sister. Aidan is undeniably better than Grayson at drawing at least.

“You’d be surprised. Nadia may be fun and games most of the time, but she can be someone who can, you know, be someone you can talk to”

“I’ll test that out myself”

I look outside. Time sure flies fast. It’s already dark. Soft light emanates from within the leaves of the tree. Unlike the harsh lights that pierce the darkness everywhere else, the light from the city feels natural. Like thousands of fireflies.

*knock*

A voice calls out behind the door.

“The king wishes to see you at the throne room”

Alright. It’s time.

We get ready.

…

A couple of minutes later, we’re at the throne room. The room is empty except for us.

“Alright, time to see the Goddess” Mercedes walks beside Iris and Loralei.

“Where is everyone?” Grayson looks around.

“It’s only us for tonight. Having a lot of people in the Goddess’ chambers is dangerous”

The King waves towards a wall. A magic circle appears and the room glows for a moment. The wall then opens to the sides, revealing a large silver door.

It’s well decorated with ancient runes. Or at least they would be ancient for anyone that isn’t a God. It says “Don’t touch my stuff Aelius”

The letters glow.

“Woah those runes might mean something useful” Grayson look at the sign in awe.

Please don’t be fascinated Grayson. You’d be embarrassed - and me as well if you could read this. Back in the past, we used to come to this place whenever Amaris wanted to visit her creations, the elves.

The door then opens.

The room seems to be made entirely of glass, as it shows the view of the entire tree and the landscape below. The view of the sky is so clear. The room itself is actually inside the huge tree though, it’s just using magic to give us this view. One could direct the room to project the view of almost anywhere – within the forests of Edelgard.

The view fades, the color of the room is actually mostly silver, with hints of gold here and then. There’s another room besides this one, which is the bedroom. This one we’re in is for visitors. There are seats and a glass staircase in front. Kind of like the entrance to a ball.

Everyone turns their attention to the top of the staircase. Even the King and Queen fix their attention on the girl at the top.

Amaris.

She’s wearing a one-shoulder dress, her long silver hair is pulled back with a pin, long earrings and an accessory on her neck. She’s got elf ears too and white or pale skin? As she walks down the stairs, her hair turns into a bright shade of gold.

King Senerian bows down, so does the Queen.

Seeing this, everyone else follows suit.

“Good evening to you Lady Amaris”

She looks at the two.

“Good evening Senerian, Syllia. Thank you for assisting me in gathering the heroes here”

“You’re too kind my Goddess. We’ll take our leave now”

“Alright, my children”

The two step out and leave the room. Seriously? They didn’t have to go.

She looks at our group. Everyone seems to be stuck on their feet. She walks towards Grayson.

“It’s nice to meet you in person heroes”

Grayson blushes so much that it seems like his face will be stuck in a permanent shade of red.

“I-It’s n-nice to m-meet you too”

Amaris then walks over to Mercedes. Even she can’t help but blush. Looks like both sexes can’t resist her appeal.

She looks at Aidan, then Iris, then Loralei. None of them could muster a single word. They’re rendered helpless and unable to stop blushing by her divine aura.

She then walks over to me.

“You”

“Seriously Amaris, is that all you can say? And please turn off that aura, even I’m not completely immune to it, seeing as I’m a human right now”

She conceals her divine aura. Everyone suddenly goes back to normal. They’re still blushing though.

Amaris quickly wraps her hands around me.

“Brother!! It’s been so longgg! I missed you so much!”

She begins to rub her face on my shirt.

“Hey cut that out! You’re messing up my shirt!”

“Wait a second. You were telling the truth??”

Grayson exclaims as he’s clearly surprised at the scene in front of him.

“So you really are Aelius?”

Mercedes is clearly surprised as well. She hasn’t even stopped blushing yet.

“Now do you believe me?”

“…”

I’ll take that as a yes. I lift up Amaris – she’s already taken the form of a child, again. This happens a lot.

“Brother~”

“Not now Amaris, I need to check on your injury”

“Hmph okay”

She shapeshifts into her original form. White robes, long ang loose white hair, and a simple double crescent accessory on her hair. I put her down. There’s a wound on the left side of her stomach. It’s bleeding gold, and red.

“It still hasn’t healed yet?”

“I don’t know why either. And it’s making me weaker each day”

Damn it. Oberon, Oriana, you guys better have a good excuse when I return to the Heaven Realm. Having two less Gods in this world is starting to sound like a good idea.

But not now.

What am I supposed to do now? The original plan was to defeat the Demon Lord so the portal back to the Heaven Realm would automatically activate. Once back there, Amaris could fix my condition. But now we’re both… mortal.

Amaris holds my hand.

“Just think about it after you finish off the Demon Lord. I’ll try to come up with something in the meantime. I still have some of my powers you know”

I can’t help but smile a little.

“You seem to always know what I’m thinking Amaris”

“Of course! I’m your sister after all!”

She smiles as well. She then immediately switches back to her elven form, her dazzling aura filling the room.

“Now, let’s try to do something about your Unique Skill”

Amaris places her hands on my forehead. I can feel her trying to remove the Unique Skill.

“Wow, that’s tough”

She tries another approach. The Unique Skill: Blessing of the Archmage is being modified.

I checked my status.

Unique Skill:
Bles̵̨̠͂̀s̶͉̫͠i̶̬̹͊̓n̸͔̎̆g̴͈̼̖̔͂̌͂ ̸͉̜̂õ̵̭f ̵̗̊̓͗thē̷̦͔̗̂͑ ̷̨̱̪̩̽͋͘a̶̱͓̜̮̎̉̆̂ŗ̷̨̺͉̈́̌͋́c̸̗͔̏̒͠͠h̴̥͉̝̺̎̈̽m̶̧̛̯̟̈́ả̶̻̤̆age
+ The person's affinity for magic increases greatly and their mana capacity expands significantly.

- -̸H̴i̶g̷h̵e̷r̷ ̴m̴a̵n̶a̷ ̶c̴o̴n̸s̴u̶m̶p̸t̴i̵o̴n̸ ̴f̷o̸r̷ ̸L̶i̵g̸h̷t̸ ̴a̴n̷d̵ ̷D̷a̸r̶k̶ ̶e̸l̷e̴m̴e̶n̶t̸ ̸m̴a̶g̶i̵c̷.̶

+ Lower mana consumption for Light and Dark element magic.

- -̴U̷n̵a̶b̴l̷e̴ ̸t̵o̷ ̶u̵s̵e̶ ̷M̵a̵r̷t̵i̴a̴l̸ ̶A̵r̸t̷s̸.̸

+Able to use Martial Arts

She’s modifying the parameters of my Unique Skill. I never thought about it, but Light Magic and Dark Magic mana consumption was almost doubled for me, now it’s halved. I guess this is to prepare me in my fight against the Demon Lord.

I never actually considered using Martial Arts, since I’m bad at physical stuff, but I guess I need to learn some sooner or later. I can’t always rely on magic since I run out of mana so fast.

Amaris points to Grayson.

“You both have the same Unique Skill: Blessing of the Archmage. Better magic affinity, inability to use Martial Arts”

“Looks like he inherited it from his father”

Grayson speaks up.

“Correction, it was my mother”

Loralei scoffs at Grayson.

“So that’s why you didn’t use Martial Arts in our first fight. Not that it matters.”

Amaris clasps her hands together. The whole room fills with light.

Another update from status.

Unique Skill:
B̵l̶e̶s̵s̶i̷n̶g̶ ̶o̸f̸ ̷t̶h̷e̵ ̸A̷r̴c̵h̵m̵a̵g̴e̸

The person's affinity for magic increases greatly and their mana capacity expands significantly. Lower mana consumption for Light and Dark element magic.

Serene Night Moons

Boost to stats during night time. Boost to stats when fighting demons. Bonus doubles under the light of the two moons.

Unique Skill: Serene Night Moons. I would prefer fighting during the day, but this is already a good ability. It’s actually perfect for Iris, for obvious reasons.

The glow stops. Amaris almost collapses, but I catch her. She shapeshifts to her child form.

“It’s not much right now, but I hope it helps everyone”

Looks like she gave it to everyone.

“I’m going to sleep for a bit. I’m sorry I can’t accompany you on your journey Aelius”

“Don’t feel bad about it. It’s better this way, I don’t think they expected you to survive from your wounds. We can use that against them”

Amaris disappears from my arms and reappears on top of the staircase. She’s back to her elven form. She waves at the door. It opens up.

The King and the Queen enter the room.

“Take care of our guests. See to it that they leave the forest safely”

“As you will it, Lady Amaris”

We all leave the room. The others are still stuck in a semi-trance. My sister’s beauty is a little too effective sometimes. I catch a glimpse of her limping back to her bedroom.

Just rest well Amaris. Your brother will make things right.

We enter the throne room.

Seiji is standing in the middle of the room. He waves at us.

He’s not coming with us. With the archangel/sword on him, he needs to stay and guard Amaris.

The King waves, and a magic circle appears below our feet.

“Heroes, good luck on your journey to defeat the Demon Lord. We’ve added supplies to your carriage and our soldiers will escort you to the edge of the forest”

The magic circle glows.

Stay safe Amaris.