A week went by.
The patio of the Vale Guild overlooked much of Tayon City. The setting sun painted the horizon gold and orange. Far off in the distance, flocks of beasts flew together through the sky. Their silhouettes crossing the fading light.
A cool breeze drifted through the air.
Simple peace.
Skysin was undoubtably causing trouble somewhere around the planet. Crim was likely buried beneath Lucy's engine again.
Which left the sisters upon the patio, side by side, watching the sunset. It was a thing the girls always did since they were children, merely enjoying each other's company.
Lord Alfonse had come from the entrance leading outside, keeping that same smile, "figured I'd find you two up here."
The girls stood, bowing, "Lord Alfonse."
Alfonse chuckled, taking a seat, "please, let this old man live without professionalism for just a bit, huh? Just checking on you girls."
Ai Mei smiled, "yeah, I'd definitely like to relax a bit…"
Alfonse shook his head, "no worries. I just came by to say thank you. Your friend Crim looked like he was cursing out his ship when I passed by."
Elaine giggled, and Ai Mei scoffed, "him and Lucy have a…love-hate relationship."
"Seems so…" Alfonse chuckled, looking to the sun, "I just wanted to say thank you. For what you kids have been doing. All of you. You've helped so many people. Practically saved the entire continent."
Ai Mei waved it off, "no need for that, Alfonse. It was our life or Greyvus'. We just did what we had to."
Elaine nodded, "he was scary, that's for sure…"
Alfonse agreed, "I don't doubt it…He used to train with your father all the time before you two were even born. Long before he met Audrey. Greyvus was a different man back then…kind, gentle, disciplined, respectful."
Ai Mei wasn't so surprised from Alfonse saying that; after all, Greyvus said he knew Raine. Elaine on the other hand, this was news to her.
"Wait, really??"
"Yes." Alfonse said, "times were different back then. He loved his family more than anything. But after he lost them…the man broke. He could never recover."
Ai Mei felt a lump in her throat. After all, her mother, Ai Ling, was the one who murdered Greyvus' family. Though Ai Mei had no part of it, the guilt still sat there.
Alfonse sat forward, "still…Raine, Audrey…they'd be so proud of you girls. Really. You two have grown into such strong, dependable young women."
The girls smiled, just thinking of their father and mother. Parents who wanted nothing more but the best for them.
Alfonse stood, "well, I just wanted to say thank you. But don't ever lose that fire in your heart, girls. As it will burn brighter than the sun. Cherish the flame in your souls."
"Thank you, Alfonse…" Ai Mei replied, her voice softer, "it means a lot, hearing that come from you…"
Alfonse smiled, "anyone whose seen you two grow into who you are now would say the same. I'll see you two later, good day to the both of you."
As Alfonse left, the girls gave a bow.
With the sisters left alone once more, staring to the clouds, Elaine broke the silence, "Mei Mei…"
Ai Mei glanced over, "yeah?"
Elaine fiddled with her sleeve, "is it weird…" She hesitated, "that I keep imagining what dad was like?"
Ai Mei stayed silent, and Elaine continued, "I keep wondering how he fought. What he sounded like. What did he do to keep us safe?"
Elaine's eyes lowered, staring at her slippers, "I know we can still remember them. But sometimes…it just feels so…small." Elaine paused, her voice cracking. The wind brushing through her hair, "I miss them… I couldn't even say goodbye…"
Ai Mei didn't answer right away, reaching over, and gently pulled Elaine's head onto her shoulder, "No." Ai Mei answered softly. "I don't think it's weird at all. I think about dad too."
More than she would ever admit.
The memories, the questions, the what-if scenarios.
"I know he probably didn't survive…" Ai Mei said, and the very words hurt her soul. "Especially after all this time. Even if a part of me likes to pretend he somehow made it."
Elaine gave a small chuckle through the sadness, "yeah…"
Quietness settled again. A comforting sadness with honesty. But Ai Mei smiled again, small yet real, "one thing for sure though…he didn't go out quietly."
Elaine laughed, "definitely not. I think dad kicked some butt."
"Me too."
"Do you…think they were scared? Mom and Dad?" Elaine asked, looking up to her sister.
Ai Mei's smile disappeared, and she sternly shook her head, "I think mom and dad were worried for us….and that's just how they were." Ai Mei squeezed Elain's hand, looking toward the first stars beginning to appear, "I think wherever they are now…they're happy we made it."
Elaine shifted closer to her sister, digging her head deeper onto Ai Mei's shoulder, "me too…"
***
FOUR YEARS AGO: RAINE'S SHIP.
Raine covered his stomach, his blood-stained fingers trembling slightly as warm crimson slipped between them. His sharp hazel eyes lowered, staring at his own red paint.
The hooded woman stood across from him, her silvery voice echoed softly, "you do understand this is the end…correct?"
Raine lifted his gaze back toward her. His expression rested between alarm and composure. He was like a marathon runner, forcing himself to keep moving through sheer will alone. "Maybe so…" Raine muttered.
He used his telekinesis to stop the blood flow, "my girls are safe…that's what matters." His eyes sharpened, "but you won't leave unscathed…not after what you did to my wife."
The woman tilted her head slightly, "such pride." Black matter slowly coiled through her fingers like a slender snake, "I can respect it. Though it will amount to very little."
Raine exhaled slowly, and his eyes flashed as his stance shifted. One foot forward, the other set back as his hands rose.
Shang Fu.
The woman's cloak fluttered; several lances of black matter formed beside her, humming with enough force to distort the air around them.
The ship groaned again.
Lights continued to flicker red.
[WARNING]
The ship's AI suddenly spoke.
[UNIDENTIFIED PLANETARY MASS APPROACHING. WARNING. UNIDENTIFIED PLANET INCOMING.]
Raine's hazel eyes narrowed, and the woman's lips lowered into a frown. The two gazed towards the window, attention being caught by something else.
At first, it looked like a starless void. But the two finally seen it.
An enormous, massive, black world hanging silently in space. Surrounded by rings that looked less like stone and more like shattered fragments of glass. Purple lightning crawling across the atmosphere.
And the closer the ship drifted toward the planet, the more unstable everything became. Gravity distorted, the walls bending slightly inward. Even the natural chaos itself felt wrong.
The woman herself was shocked, "impossible…" she whispered. Her scarlet eyes narrowed toward the planet beyond the window. The chaos radiating from it felt immense, ancient, and primordial. This presence resembled the forbidden passages she had once studied many years ago.
"…The Chrono-Velta." She muttered, awestruck, "here…within the Vinteel Galaxy?"
Raine noticed the hesitation instantly. He knew that prolonging this would be bad, and that single opening was enough.
He lunged forward, "Tiger: Roaring Palm!" Red aura exploded from Raine's hand as he drove his palm toward the woman's face. The force was enough to bend the air itself!
Black matter surged outward, almost instantly, forming a shield, inches before impact. The collision unleashed a violent shockwave throughout the ship. Metal walls buckled and glass shattered. The entire vessel tilted as sparks rained from the ceiling.
The woman skidded back slightly, cloak whipping behind her. Those scarlet eyes sharpened, 'this man is becoming a troublesome…' She thought to herself, black tendrils curling around her arm. 'I need to exterminate him before he ruins this moment for me.'
The two vanished.
Impact after impact erupted within the dojo. Raine was fighting like a cornered beast; each movement of Shang Fu flowed into another swift attack. Elbows, knees, palms, sweeps. Raine was relentless.
But the woman met everything effortlessly. Too easily. Each strike Raine launched was interrupted by black matter or redirected before he could land anything meaningful.
Outside, the ship screamed as it descended closer toward the planet's atmosphere. Blue and violet light bled through the windows as Chrono-Velta loomed larger.
The woman spun into a vicious roundhouse kick, aimed at Raine's head.
Raine ducked under by inches, "Monkey: Wild Streak!!" His stance shifted instantly. Raine stormed forward with a barrage of punches, fists becoming blurs as he hammered toward the woman's torso and jaw. Each strike carrying more force than the last!
The chamber shook chaotically from the pressure alone.
The woman's eyes widened slightly as the final punch cracked through part of her defense of black matter. A small fracture, at least.
But it was enough.
Raine grinned, "got you…"
The woman scoffed and swung her fist.
Raine weaved beneath it and spun his elbow upward to her nose.
WHAM
A sharp crack echoed through the storm.
Before she could even recover, Raine drove another elbow straight into her stomach. The force folding the air itself.
With haste, Raine acted again. He twisted his body and kicked her up, blasting her through the dojo's ceiling, disappearing into the raging skies of Chrono-Velta.
Cold violet rain poured into the chamber immediately. Lightning flashed blue and purple across the furious heavens.
The woman steadied herself midair, cloak snapping wildly within the storm. A thin stream of blood dripped beneath her hood, "I lost focus…" She growled as clouds around her darkened further, "but not anymore."
Behind her, black matter began spiraling together. It wasn't solid, nor liquid, but something in between. Then a colossal, dancing darkness formed overhead, twisting like a living abyss.
The woman extended a finger, "Perish."
The attack screamed across the sky; everything it touched vanished in an instant. Chunks of metal disintegrated in the blink of an eye. Metal, steel, walls, engines. Erased as if existence had been peeled away.
Raine flipped through the collapsing corridors with impossible agility. Dodging over the holes ripped into the ship. Matter flashed past his face as another attack crashed under him. One barely grazed his shoulder.
This ship was dying around him.
Raine gritted his teeth and leapt straight out of the declining ship. His aura ignited red against the storm as he hurled himself at the woman like a cannon.
The woman smiled, "too predictable." A massive tendril formed from the abyss she created, smashing directly into Raine's body.
Raine groaned as his body rocketed backward like a meteor. He slammed back through the remains of his ship just as it finally broke apart entirely. The vessel was spiraling down before crashing into the surface of Chrono-Velta!
The very collision shook the alien world. Towering blue plants bent from the force. Shimmering violet grass rippled endlessly under the waves of heat. Glowing spores drifted through the air like stars.
And deep within the strange world, the wreckage burned.
***
Raine brutally coughed, blood spattering across the glowing violet grass beneath him.
For a moment, he simply laid there in silence, staring at the ethereal storm swirling across the heavens above. Blue and violet lightning slithered through the clouds like veins.
Raine groaned softly before forcing himself to stand upright, one hand clutching his wounded stomach. "Where…am I?" His hazel eyes slowly scanned the world around him.
That's when Raine realized this was no ordinary planet.
Chrono-Velta felt wrong.
Not hostile, though surely not peaceful.
But alive.
The plant life infinitely stretched across the landscape, glowing in hues of blue, violet, and turquoise. So vibrant they almost hurt to look at. Towering trees swayed together in perfect rhythm despite the absence of wind. Vines pulsed like a heart carrying blood.
Raine looked down onto the soft waves of grass under his feet, sprawling inward and outward as though the ground itself were breathing. His expression slightly hardened, "what the hell?"
Tiny glowing spores danced through the wind around him, and one landed against Raine's arm.
A memory flashed through his mind.
Ai Mei laughing loudly as a little girl. Elaine sitting quietly with Audrey. The warm sunlight, the peacefulness.
Then the vision vanished immediately.
Raine's eyes widened, "…memories…?
He looked around again. The entire forest vibrated, as if it were hearing him. The glowing plants began to lean forward to Raine, like they were almost studying him.
Raine took a step back as the violet grass separated, enormous roots rose from beneath the ground.
No.
Not roots.
Raine looked closer.
Bones.
Ginormous skeletal remains buried under the planet's surface. Creatures so enormous their ribcages looked like ancient buildings swallowed by nature.
And woven through those bones are chaos.
Pure Chaos.
Raine understood that Chrono-Velta wasn't merely a planet.
It was a graveyard.
**
Raine briefly closed his eyes and released his aura. Invisible pressure drifted through the forest as his senses expanded.
One mile.
Five.
Ten.
Nothing. There was no trace of the hooded woman's strange aura nearby. But that didn't mean she was gone; she could easily be hiding herself.
Raine sighed. "I'll stay cautious in case she appears out of nowhere."
As he crossed the glowing wilderness, the forest opened onto a vast lake. Countless lights shimmered beneath the water's surface.
Blue, silver, violet.
Entire galaxies seemed to turn within the lake, swirling gently through the crystal-clear water.
Still, it was beautiful.
Raine stared at it quietly. "…Can I even drink this stuff?" He wondered. But his throat burned with thirst, and his body ached. At this point, he had little choice.
Raine slowly knelt beside the shore and dipped his head into the water.
Instantly, his eyes turned white. A violent throb traveled through his body. Chaos exploded around his mind.
'What's happening??' Raine asked himself.
The lake flashed a blinding light.
Suddenly, Raine saw Ai Mei and Elaine as little girls.
Training.
Laughing.
Arguing.
The scene played before him like a live recording. A blast from the past.
Ai Mei pointed her small finger at Elaine, "your fat head doesn't help you move any faster, 'Laine!"
Elaine's cheeks puffed instantly, "SHUDDAP MEI MEI!!"
Raine, years younger, stood nearby overseeing their training, already exhausted. "Do you two always have to argue?"
The girls answered together with no hesitation, "YES!!"
The visions shifted again.
Audrey teaching the girls how to cook.
Ai Mei reading a book in her library that Raine and Audrey made for her.
Elaine practicing how to speak with customers with her mother.
Holiday gatherings.
The warmth of home.
Helping travelers and challengers at the guild.
Simple, happy moments.
Raine's chest had tightened painfully, "my family…" A frown slowly appeared across his face. The man was already missing those days.
Days when all he had to do was care for the ones he love.
The lake changed again and the atmosphere grew heavier.
Only now…
The girls were full adults, at least in their twenties.
Raine's eyes widened.
Ai Mei stood tall. Beautiful and confident, her cream-colored hair flowing far past her shoulders. Her blue hanfu drifted gently in the wind, elegant, yet ready for battle.
Elaine was standing beside her, dressed similarly. Though her hair had been cut short into a neat bob. Calm, refined, and intelligent.
The girls were laughing, surrounded by companions.
A young man with lazy, sharp violet eyes and golden hair with the energy of a storm. A crimson-haired fellow holding a wrench, flipping it onto his palm. Along with four other individuals. But the aura, the power, the strength this group had…
Was terrifyingly amazing.
Raine stared silently, "…is this…the future?"
The visions continued flowing.
Battles. Victories. Pain.
But growth.
Raine followed each vision carefully, and his expression unknowingly changed.
Was it fear?
No…
It was pride!
Pure, unwavering pride.
His daughters were safe; they survived!
But they did more than just that.
They had become extraordinary.