For a while, Leo wondered if he was dreaming.
If this was so elaborate illusion crafted by Kaelith or Mauriss, designed to offer him hope only so it could be ripped away again at the cruelest possible mont.
However, the longer the transmission remained stable, and the more he watched Amanda's shoulders tremble as she cried without restraint, the more certain he beca that this was no fabrication.
"Amanda..."
He called weakly at first, his voice rough from everything it had endured.
However, as though disgusted by how his own voice sounded, he straightened instantly and steadied his breath.
"Amanda!"
He called again, this ti calm and firm, as his expression hardened and he forced himself to look composed, to appear as the pillar she needed rather than the broken man he had been only minutes ago.
Amanda froze at the sound of his voice, her tear-filled eyes lifting slowly towards the communication orb.
Beside her, Dumpy frowned deeply, clearly irritated by the continued sobbing, as without ceremony, he thrust the orb into Amanda's trembling hands.
"Get your shit together, woman."
He snapped bluntly before turning and storming off, leaving her alone with the image projected before her.
Amanda cradled the orb carefully, as if it were the most fragile treasure in existence, her fingers curling around it protectively while she stared at Leo as though she were seeing him for the first ti.
"Y-you're alive?"
She asked softly, her face attempting to form a smile even as tears stread freely down her cheeks.
Leo nodded once.
"Of course I'm alive. I would never leave you alone in this cruel universe."
He replied steadily.
As at those words, Amanda broke into uneven, breathless laughter that dissolved imdiately into more tears, her emotions too tangled to separate relief from disbelief.
For several long seconds, neither of them spoke.
They simply stared at one another through the projection, as Caleb and Mairon hovered uncertainly around their mother, tugging at her sleeves and glancing between her and the orb.
In those quiet monts, sothing inside Leo shifted.
The fear he had tasted earlier did not vanish, but it transford.
"You're alive... and I'll never lose you again."
He murmured quietly, as his gaze sharpened and a colder resolve settled behind it.
He had co too close to losing everything.
Too close to becoming helpless.
And as that realization settled fully within him, he understood one truth with absolute clarity.
No matter what stood before him in the future, even if death itself ca knocking at his door, he would rather face oblivion head-on than ever endure that kind of emotional devastation again.
He had always known just how important his family was for him.
However, it was only today, when he montarily lost them, that he realized just how precious they really were to him.
"Never again..... no matter what."
(anwhile Mauriss's POV, Planet Granada)
*Thunder*
*Rainfall*
Rain lashed rcilessly against the lone rock that pierced through Granada's endless ocean, as thunder rolled across the black sky while waves crashed violently below.
Mauriss stood barefoot atop the slick stone, bare-chested as always, rain streaming down the sharp planes of his body while wind whipped his long hair wildly around his face.
In his hand, the report trembled slightly, not from weakness, but from the force of the storm battering it.
The Five Great Clans seed to have reached an agreent, where they had formally acknowledged the Eternal Sovereign Kaelith as their nominal leader, and had re-established the old Universal Order.
The old trade routes.
The old book of law.
The old army structure.
They were all restored, in what seed to be an attempt by the Great Clans to restore stability across the universe.
As reading the report, Mauriss could not help but smile faintly.
"So... the sheep gather beneath the wolf's shadow... because they fear
the mountain lion."
He mumbled, as lightning flashed in the sky above, illuminating his eyes in stark white.
His attack on Ru Vassa had most definitely forced this change.
As fear seed to have accomplished what politics never could.
"Oh, how exhilarating..."
Mauriss muttered while tilting his head back slightly as rain struck his
face.
"The power the Origin Blade grants ... it is intoxicating."
His fingers twitched faintly, recalling the sensation of divine flesh
parting.
"I wonder how well they sleep now."
He let out a soft, uneven chuckle.
"Ru Vassa most of all."
He imagined her waking in the dark. Imagining footsteps.
Imagining a blade at her throat.
"She will lose sleep. Lose peace. Lose temper."
Another thunderclap shook the sky.
"For centuries perhaps."
He lowered his gaze toward the raging ocean below.
The Universal Governnt had not reford because of stability.
It had reford because of him.
Because one unpredictable variable had torn through their illusion of
security.
The era of chaos that had begun with Soron's death had not yet
stabilized.
If anything, it had only grown more unpredictable.
"More," he whispered.
"I want more." Rainwater ran down his chest in cold streams as he spread his arms
slightly, as though embracing the storm.
"For now, I am the hunted."
A slow grin stretched across his face.
"And I enjoy it."
The idea of being pursued made his pulse quicken.
"Will they unite and march on Granada?"
He glanced around at the endless ocean.
At the single rock.
"There is nowhere to hide here."
He laughed softly.
"Will they attempt another ambush? Another clever trap?"
He tore the report cleanly in half and let the pieces blow into the
ocean.
"I hope so."
His breathing deepened, uneven, excited.
He had not attacked Ru Vassa for territory.
Nor for dominance.
Nor even for vengeance.
He had done it for this.
For instability.
For the knowledge that the strongest beings alive now felt unsafe in
their own realms.
*KABOOM⭑
Lightning split the sky again.
"Run to Kaelith."
"Unite."
"Strengthen your order."
His voice rose slightly, almost tender. "Because I am not finished."
The storm roared around him as he began to laugh openly, the sound
nearly swallowed by thunder.
The universe had begun to move because of him.
And that realization thrilled him more than any victory ever could.
Chaos was not a side effect.
It was the goal.
And Mauriss had never felt more alive.
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