The sun climbed higher on the house, and its rays bathed the plains in a golden glow.
Alai and Ubel nodded, the light from the hazy balls illuminating their faces as they watched silently.
"Prophecy?" She stared. "So you're telling me that the writing we saw was made by a dragon?!"
As silence filled the room, Alai nodded, stood, and walked to a bookshelf. She pushed books aside with focused intent, giving Aletha a chance to quietly observe her surroundings.
(The place feels lively. Even after the tornado, birds chirp, fish sing, and grass dances.)
Phthonus fixed his eyes on the art hung on the walls. Emine spoke reassuringly to the crew, while Pridia, though usually goofy, remained silent.
Alai shook her head, then slid her finger along the spine of the middle book.
"Indeed."
Swiftly, she slid the book out of the shelf and carefully placed it on the table. Then, she pried open the leatherback with ease, revealing a dozen writings inked in dark, bold letters.
(A magical tornado shall raze the land of Happiness.)
(The land of purity shall arise by the soon-coming king. And the queen shall be revitalized.)
(They shall traverse the dunes and bring Love back even to their very neighbors)
(Tragedy unfolds before the eyes of the Owners…)
(The true nation… ----------- Unveiled by the sad king's lie, shall open up briefly before being consumed.)
(GINCAD SHALL ---- -----)
"What are these?" Aletha asked with uncertainty, her eyes traveling through the dozen lines of messages.
"Prophecies." Said Alai, "Every one of these is a prophecy made by Alaunus."
Alai turned her attentive gaze to Aletha, touched her shoulder, and asked her a quiet question.
"Ever wondered why I taught and trained you ruthlessly?"
A silence brooded in the room. Alai had to be careful about her words. She took two steps back and looked at the window, seeing the sun shine vividly.
"It was just another warm sunny day."
As a nervous feeling flooded the room, Alai began to share her past with Aletha.
* * *
"Daddy! Look! I found my first prophecy!"
Young Alai was relatively short, a mere sprout with short, crimson hair. Her father, Alel, had a book stashed at his waist. It seemed as though he kept that book wherever he went. As they approached the holographic text in cyan and magenta, Alel patted little Alai's head and complimented her.
"Ooo, I see my little sapling has found her first prophecy."
As little Alai jumped up and down, Alel read the prophecy aloud.
"'A powerful girl shall swoop in and land perfectly. "
Quickly, his crimson eyes darted to the sapling. He patted her head and spoke as he recorded it in the book.
"Are you the candidate for the prophecy?"
* * *
Alai shot her gaze through Aletha, saying as she turned a page in the book, which was adorned gracefully on the table. After pointing her pink fingernails at the silk paper, she carefully explained more about her past.
"This… is the last thing my father left behind. It's the book of all the prophecies he found from Alaunus." Alai turned the page. " My dad was… a prophecy finder. He would scale the tallest peaks down to the deepest depths to search for writings made by Alaunus."
Aletha, Emine, Phthonus, and Ubel's gaze shot across the room, witnessing the sunset. As Alai began to articulate, visions of her past flashed through her mind.
"He had trained me ruthlessly."
* * *
"That's it… Work on your legs! Then when you work on your legs, work on your arms, then when you work on your arms, work on your head…"
Young Alai was now far beyond a sapling.
She was at the sweet age of ten, training hard day and night to fulfill something.
Alel had tested her endurance amicably and even gave her no breaks at times. When he found out about the strong girl prophecy, he trained her thoroughly, just as Alai would later train Aletha.
He was fixated on the idea that the strong girl prophecy would come into fruition and believed that the girl was Alai.
As he was doing so, he would write down the prophecies he found in his book, keeping it safe in his hands.
Little Alai faced trials—climbing walls, lifting weights, racing, and gymnastics. Despite her efforts to fulfill the prophecy…
"I leave my child to you, Ms. Seraphina."
As Alel prepared to leave, fixing his backpack and helmet, he patted Alai on her head and said.
"I hope that one day we will find a candidate to fulfill your prophecy. But for now, I leave this copy of my original text to you. Do not lose it. You will understand when you get older."
Ms. Seraphina looked at the crimson-haired man. He stepped back and whispered, "Make her strong and proud. I shall take my leave and search for the final five prophecies. Your reward will be grand."
And so, as Alai's tears swept down her face, watching her dad vanishing into the horizon, the blonde-haired woman, Ms. Seraphina, took his place, training her roughly.)
* * *
Peering her silent gaze at Aletha, Alai twiddled her thumbs and replied.
"My sensei… Ms Seraphina did all that she could to build me up. She would confiscate my original copy of my father's book, train me ruthlessly, and even try to hurt me.)
Aletha grew speechless, staring at her with wide gray eyes.
Alai's crimson eyes fixed on Aletha. After taking another deep breath, Alai revealed himself as Ubel, Pridia, and Emine noticed.
"The reason I have been so hard on you, Aletha. It's because I care for you."
Alai turned her head away from everyone's gaze, mumbling. "I don't want you to be like me. I want you to fulfill that prophecy."
She hurriedly turned to another page, revealing the full version of the strong girl prophecy.
(And so shall the strong girl scale the deceased king's peak and restore order to the nation of Happiness)
After seeing the full version of the prophecy, Aletha's eyes traveled to her hands, noticing her muscles bulge in strength. She couldn't believe the weight of the prophecy to latch on to her. Not even Phthonus or Emine could believe it.
(A single wish shall call forth perturbation.)
As Aletha and the others watched, she began to tear up, sneezing in fear.
.
. . .
"I am through. I QUIT!" The blonde-haired woman exclaimed as she stomped her foot on the hardwood floor. "Don't bother me anymore, stubborn child!"
After just two years of training, Alai's sensei gave up on her. She couldn't scale the mountain no matter how much she tried. And she could barely cook an egg for herself. Despite that, she let her keep her house. She hated her so much, but she couldn't bear the thought of leaving the poor little girl homeless.
Finally, Ms. Seraphina left the original copy of the book in Alai's hands.
She slammed the door, threw the prophecy book at her, and trotted out, never to be seen again. It seemed as if she lost her way, going only for the money and not for Alai's well-being.
After being left to herself, Young Alai studied the prophecy book while farming her own food in the garden and on the hills. It was only then, after years of prophecy studying, that she found what the sensei was trying to hide."
Flipping towards the right page, Alai fearfully showed the prophecy Alel was desperate to hide.
For the prophecy was written, bolded in dark ink.
(The gatherer shall lead his final moments onto the peak. And his efforts shall be recorded.)
"It was then that I realized… My father's death was prophesied."
"And so I ran away from my sensei and the house toward the mountain."
"But just as the climbing crew and I came, questioning his motives, I saw my father's corpse resting on a patch of stone."
"FATHER!" I screamed, tears welling in my eyes.
"Even though he had abandoned me, I still loved him."
"He NEVER had acted that way back then."
Terror filled Alai's eyes as she looked at her father, who lay with his hair torn from his head and crimson blood spilling everywhere.
He wasn't looking for the five prophecies. He was trying to defy a prophecy. Eventually, the climbing crew disbanded and went on to live their own separate lives. They quit seeking the final five prophecies out of respect for Alel and instead followed what the book told Alai to do—make copies of that book in the Academy of Destia.
…
"But… hey, that's in the past," Alai said with determination flaring in her eyes. "This is the present. Although I can barely accept it, I am thankful that my father taught me everything he knew. I am thankful not just with his strengths, but with the combined efforts of the group and my sensei who pushed me.".
Alai shrugged her shoulders as Phthonus, Ubel, and the rest fell silent. She continued wiping sweat down her face.
"Look, I wish it were me. But alas, despite all the training I got from my sensei, it is you, Aletha. You're the strong girl mentioned in the prophecy."
After having heard Alai's claim, Aletha turned back to the book filled with prophecies and flipped to other pages, carefully analyzing.
(The crimson-haired maiden shall eclipse the moon in a battle of epic proportions.)
As she glared at all the prophecies, one prophecy stood out from the rest. Aletha made sure to read it aloud, carefully scrutinizing every detail.
(At the peak of the deceased king of Linuxinia, the two original owners shall return and wage war against ----- only then shall this world…)
(The universe and this soil shall be tested in the waves of the stars. Gincad, the ----- planet shall ----- ------ )
(----- shall save ---- and rescue oblivion from ----)
Despite her best efforts, Aletha couldn't read the last prophecy.
"For some reason, the words are blotted out," Aletha mumbled as Alai quickly slammed the book. "Hey, I was going to read that!"
"L-look... I'm counting on you, Aletha." Alai said, clenching both hands on her. "You are the symbol of hope. The prophesied one mentioned in the writings. I want you to win. Just like how my father had believed in me."
Alai shook her head. "I'm only going hard because I want to be sure of your success."
"You're a completely different individual now, Aletha. Your strengths, weaknesses. All I can see in you is strength. The power of the Sealed Beatific is coursing through your veins. Just as the prophecy predicted."
Alai shook her head, twiddling her hair as she brushed dirt off her skirt.
"You remind me of myself." She said, "But unlike me, you should not lose. Now, hurry up and get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow.
Walking back, Alai left Aletha with one more wink.
"Oh, and about the book. You can keep a copy of it. I have several of them sealed in the shed. They won't have all the prophecies, but a few of the important ones."
After she grabbed another copy of the book of prophecies, Alai slowly shut the door and whispered.
"Good night."
* * * * * * *
All of a sudden, the bedroom was intruded upon by a vision. Aletha's body phased through everything as if she were a ghost. A sudden change in setting.
The air itself was thick with the weight of sorrow, a palpable grief hanging heavy in the silence between the wind's mournful song.
The stench of decay, a relentless reminder of death and destruction, clung to everything, seeping into her clothes, her hair, her very bones.
Seeing this sight, this left Aletha to wonder…
(Is this The War of the Wish?)
Abruptly, a powerful being with long dark hair and crystal blue eyes came from an explosion that rent the land in two. The remaining factions of people retreated into the horizon, while a few of the creatures challenged her.
In a last-ditch effort, she quickly erected glass walls all around the scorching mountain rings, reforming and terraforming the land into grass. She hoisted her arm into the air and generated a cyan light that pierced the monsters into oblivion.
Afterward, the dark-haired maiden formed a grassy area among the rocks, leading refugees and the poor toward the glass sanctuary.
Then the mysterious woman terraformed the land, allowing crops to form. Furthermore, she sent rainstorms to bind the soil. Grass, flora, and trees sprang up in the blink of an eye, her demonstration of power echoing across the land.
"Who would've known…" The strong woman mumbled beneath her deep breath. "That the King of Fear wished death on all other kings."
Amidst the chaos, the woman turned to the green-haired king levitating in the sky and protested.
"You are the last, the strongest of them all. And yet you waste it just for a single nation. The one to defy the Wish." She said, "You could have been more, Selig."
"It's for my people… Adeline." He replied, staring at the glass contraption. "Or shall I call you, The Protector? Were you not designed to protect the people?"
Suddenly, before the conversation could continue, golden-winged beings appeared in the distance, unleashing the firmament's glow upon the goopy monsters and humans alike.
The echoes of screams reverberated across the barren plains, a silent chorus of the countless lives stolen by the War.
The sun, when it deigned to pierce the perpetual ash-filled sky, cast long, skeletal shadows, highlighting the grotesque shapes of monstrous creatures that patrolled the wasteland.
These beings, twisted mockeries of nature, were born from the chaos of the War of the Wishes, their forms reflecting the terrible power of the event that had reshaped the world.
;;//: TRAITOR
The ground itself felt unstable beneath her feet; the very earth itself seemed to mourn, the landscape a testament to an unprecedented act of destruction.
Before the dream could progress further, Aletha jolted up from her slumber, screaming.
* * * * * * *
"THE PROTECTOR?!"