The battle was over. I walked closer to where Ide and Titee were. Snow was watching Dia and Hitaki where they slept on the grass. She recognized that these were the final moments for the two Guardians, so she was giving the three of us time on our own.
Ide let out a laugh as he saw me approaching. “How splendid! This is the end, then. With today, the throne of the Sovereign Queen Lorde is vacant, and the Apostle who served as its guardian has vanished. The battle of Viaysia is over.”
Titee, beside him, continued, “With this, neither of us have any more lingering regrets. If anyone does have any, it would be Nosfy, but it seems like it has to be you who untangles them. Okay, Kanamin! You absolutely must make my friend Nosfy happy! I’m counting on you!”
“Oh, um, I’ll try my best.” This utterly unreasonable request was pushed on me at the very last moment, leaving me troubled.
Titee growled discontentedly. “Well, that’s your problem now. I’ll stop interfering.” Her face was bright even as she grumbled. It seemed she wasn’t as dissatisfied as her words suggested. “I trust both you and Nosfy! You’re both friends I’m proud of!”
It seemed she could rest easy as long as I was around. To see her off without any lingering regrets I nodded back, still feeling a bit troubled. Titee happily nodded, and Ide smiled.
“So even my big sister has made friends,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m just a little envious.”
“What are you talking about?! Ide, you’re friends with Kanamin too, aren’t you?!”
Ide and I exchanged startled glances at Titee’s words. But we also immediately knew those words were true. Funnily enough, there really was that clichéd friendship between us—the kind that felt like we’d fought each other under the setting sun.
Sensing that bond, Ide’s face lit up with genuine joy. “Seems so... Unexpectedly, it looks like I’ve gotten everything I wanted here. Ah, this place really is wonderful...” His face was overcome with emotion and he was on the verge of tears. Naturally, his form as a Guardian faded as his regrets faded away. Looking closely, I could see the same was true of Titee’s body.
“You two! Your bodies!”
“Honestly, we’re completely drained. Not just of magic power but of our lingering attachments too. So it seems like this is the end! Bye-bye!” Sensing their impending disappearance, Titee first waved vigorously at Snow in the distance. There was not a single shadow of unhappiness on her face. She accepted her own existence being diluted, like it was dissolving into the air.
“Is this our farewell already?” I wished we could have talked a little longer, just the three of us. Just when all the gaps had finally been filled, the final moments felt far too short.
Titee, however, seemed to feel differently. She shook her head. “No, Kanamin, not ‘already.’ This present isn’t short. A moment longer than a thousand years exists here and now... Indeed...”
With narrowed eyes she surveyed the surrounding scenery. Looking upon the view of Viaysia created within the Ide AND Titee spell, she declared it filled with things worthy of eternity. With cheeks flushed and mouth open wide in delight, Titee proclaimed that irreplaceable value existed here.
“At last! I live in my own time! Time is packed tight here! It’s not like that millennium that only accelerated like I was free-falling! Solid time exists here! I’m certain that the present lives a second longer than a millennium!”
Spreading both hands wide where she sat, she drew in the air of her homeland to her fullest. She savored it as she continued to speak.
“It’s incredible! The world is vibrant! It’s colorful! Time itself is shining!”
Time was shining? It was a sensation I couldn’t quite grasp, but Ide seemed to agree.
“Yes, indeed, it finally feels like I’m truly alive. The world that seemed so faded until yesterday is now vividly bright. It’s almost too dazzling for my eyes...”
They both looked satisfied, so it was all I could do to smile and watch as their bodies grew faint. Now that they had completely resolved their lingering attachments, I couldn’t hold them back any longer.
“Well then, Kanamin, thank you for guiding us this far!”
“I am truly grateful, Master Kanami. I hope you, too, can return to your homeland.”
I hesitated slightly before waving softly at them. Their bodies grew transparent, the trees behind them beginning to show through.
“Farewell, both of you...”
Titee and Ide remained seated, holding hands, right up until the moment they vanished completely. Their hands clasped, never to let go again, they spent their final moments together as siblings.
“As expected of my dear sister... Thank you for the reward promised long ago—for ‘here’ and ‘now’...”
“Yeah. At last, we have returned to ‘here’ and ‘now.’ But forgive me. We are terribly late...”
“But we made it. We made it in time. Thank you for this reward. I won’t...let go...anymore...”
“I won’t let go of you either... Not ever...again...”
As their bodies faded, their voices grew faint and broken. Their final conversation was about a promise made a thousand years ago. About their reward. Perhaps because they were reminiscing about the past, the figures of two children overlapped with their fading adult bodies. Dimension was likely reading the memories packed within the dancing particles of light. I saw a harpy girl with emerald hair, and a white-haired dryad boy. Beneath the white Pieris Aicia tree where they’d once promised each other this reward, the two children held hands and huddled close together.
“This...meadow...smells...familiar. Ide, the sky is...so blue...”
“Yes. The world was...this beautiful... It feels...so good... The wind feels...so good...”
Their voices became faint, growing smaller and distant. But I could hear them clearly, the voices greeting their end.
“At last, I’ve returned to my beloved homeland.”
Their final words overlapped beautifully, then were swept away by the wind. Like mist blown away in an instant, their bodies vanished from this world. The siblings’ magical particles danced upward, carried by the winds of Viaysia.
The story of the Sovereign Queen Lorde woven by the two children came to an end. The final illustration adorning the tale depicted them beneath the white Pieris Aicia tree, standing in the undulating grasslands.
The wind blew, petals danced, and the siblings stood hand in hand, shoulders touching, laughing together. At the story’s end, they realized the answer. Nothing else was needed to prove they were a pair. The sister had a brother and the brother had a sister. Simply put, they had family. That was all that had mattered.
As if to prove it, within that final, soaring light, I could see it. I wasn’t using Future Sight or Past Sight, but from the residue of their dense magic I simply sensed it.
What I saw beyond that final light was a house. A house with a gabled roof. At the entrance with its nostalgic smell stood an elderly pair of sorcerers. Smiling, they waited for their family’s return.
There, the two children, who had been sitting under the Pieris Aicia next to the house, stood up and ran toward them. I felt as though I could practically hear their lively voices as they shouted, “We’re home!”
✦ ✦ ✦
With that final scene, all the swirling light began to converge. It transformed into two crystals, two magic gems that overlapped like they were holding hands.
Two Essence Thief gems, proof of defeating two Guardians.
[GUARDIAN’S MAGIC GEM]
The crystallized magic power of Guardian Ide.
[GUARDIAN’S MAGIC GEM]
The crystallized magic power of Guardian Titee.
Next, a menu, signifying the success in passing the Guardian’s floor appeared.
[TITLE UNLOCKED: The One Who Cradles the Wind]
+0.50 bonus to Wood magic
[TITLE UNLOCKED: The One Who Cradles the Trees]
+0.50 bonus to Wind magic
“I’m glad you made it home, Titee and Ide.” With that blessing, I picked up the two dropped magic gems. Then, lifting my face to look around, I saw that the Ide AND Titee spell had disappeared. Their hometown had vanished, returning to the royal capital I recognized. No, wait, looking closer, I could see things were different here and there. Even the already verdant capital had sprouted more nature, spreading out across where Ide’s moving castle had trampled the plants, likely grown by Wood magic. And they weren’t just sprawling but neatly arranged, as if by a tender gardener.
Above all, the greatest change was to Viaysia Castle itself. It should have become a giant moving creature, but instead it had transformed into a single great tree. It retained its function as a castle only up to its midsection—beyond that, it was entirely tree. It was tall enough to touch the sky, and countless branches, all bearing white blossoms, extended from the main trunk.
It was unmistakably a Pieris Aicia tree. That majestic, fantastical giant tree remained where the siblings had departed.
I held the two magic gems and looked up at the sky above Viaysia. The blossoms in full bloom on the giant tree swayed in the wind. Ah, the wind felt so good. It blew through the capital, scattering white petals. Somehow, just that alone made me feel incredibly happy. For some reason, this moment felt long.
“Titee, you were right.” Indeed, the world might be vividly shining, even so much so that time might have been shining, I thought.