30 seconds.

Right after Aska’s death, or rather banishment, I prepared myself mentally for the hardest magic I had yet to use, one, the world had never seen before.

Time seemed to slow down around us as Lucy prepared everything for me.

“Alloweth the w'rld of life ope it’s doth'rs to the dead.” The ground around us quaked considerably, but otherwise I couldn’t spot any difference.

“What is going on?” There was one crucial surprise though. Bob. Honestly? I completely forgot about him but there he was, stumbling through the entrance into the room. “Lucinda? Since when are you … what do I need to do?”

“Telep'rt the staff of creation into his hands!” Lucy chanted again and let the Staff Hannah hid reappear in front of him. He directly grabbed it, luckily without activating it yet. And finally, Lucy let me take control again.

“There will be a portal. Go through it and activate the staff the moment the portal vanishes.” I told him louder than the noises from the earthquake and focused back onto the things I had to do. “Alloweth th're beest a hole in the barri'rs between purgat'ry and solaris.” But at that point, our magic manifested itself for real. Not only did every bone in my body ache from the pressure we put on them, but our souls were hurt as well, although to a minor degree. Additionally, the shaking ground gave way, making me and the corpses fall downwards with it.

24 seconds.

There didn’t seem to be an end in sight yet, but we weren’t idling around anyways.

“Hannah, Sofie, Ellie, Schwarz, Louis, Clara and Clarice, i beseech thee to cometh to me!” As the barriers between life and death has already been weakened, it was a rather easy magic, but even that continued to put a strain on this already overburdened body. Blood ran out of my ears and I lost the ability to hear the wind caressing the falling stones. Once again, I let Lucy do the next step because frankly speaking, it wasn’t my area of expertise.

“Mendeth thy souls, healeth the cracks death inflict'd upon thee! pi'rce the pieces togeth'r, and regrow what wast hath lost!” The corpses around us started regenerating to their former state as Lucy spewed out a mouthful of blood. This body was already done for, even though we had just started.

Sixteen seconds to go.

“Wend backeth to thy bodies and liveth!” Their souls scooted back to their regenerated bodies which were mostly close by except for the twins.

The first one to open her eyes was Hannah who looked at Lucy with excitement and then confusion as she noticed her green eyes.

We didn’t have time to explain though and so, I immediately wrestled control away from Lucy once more.

“Wind bubble!” Thankfully, the only person capable of using magic understood right away and formed a protective barrier around our group while laughing madly.

“I knew it!” That was wild coming from someone who didn’t even question my reasons for asking her to kill herself properly.

“Impact!” I screamed as I felt the ground approaching fast. The bubble of wind burst around us, sending the stones flying in every direction and slowed our fall considerably.

“Where … where am I?” Sofie muttered while staring at the ground she just landed on strangely. But there was no time to waste.

Kneeling on the stoney ground, I placed my fingers on it as well and closed my eyes.

Eight seconds to go.

“This is mine own home, did construct out of the v'ry same mat'rial i am off.  I may not beest it’s 'riginal owneth'r, and yet thou art still mineth.” I wrestled all the death in the area out of Aska’s control and began drawing a line around me in a circular fashion.

“May this beest the b'rd'r uncrossable by all.  May t separateth mineth from his.  May t beest an impenetrable mure by all means.” The circle I just made extended outwards for kilometres without end, widening itself while I collapsed onto the ground. I was losing eyesight at an astonishing rate, testimony to the difficulty of the spell. “And closeth t off with a doth'r, sturdy and keyhole less.” I felt how the place right in front of me changed into a portal, intended as a sole connection point between my purgatory and Aska’s. And then, I felt my bones breaking and my soul crashing as the lines sank into a ground, creating an abyss between the two parts which also functioned as a wall, blocking off everything by separating everything from everything that was mine.

Right away, Bob scooted towards the portal and jumped through it with the staff in his hands ready to activate it at moments notice. Obviously, he didn’t know that would lead to his death … but that wasn’t my problem, was it?

Instead, I focused on the portal once more and felt all the gods’ strength flowing through the shrinking portal. It was the only way the gods could exert their strength in my purgatory and in connection, also Solaris.  

3 seconds remaining.

My purgatory was ejected from the normal pane of existence, floated somewhere unreachable as nothing appeared between the part that was mine and his. Not even a god could cross over nothing and not even a god could create something to cross nothing.

But the just now closed portal functioned as a fine string, allowing every god to keep their fire, their water their life and death in this world … but also to influence it.

Another portal opened close by using the connection of the portal I created as a basis. Death was seeping out of it.

0 seconds to go.

Aska was close to get back here. But thankfully, he wasn’t the only one who died shortly beforehand. A beam of life tore through the portal, causing it to fall into disarray immediately.

The fight between Irminsul and Aska had begun. Thankfully, Irminsul understood that Lucy was already back alive and she also acknowledged that whatever we were planning was probably the best option. As such, she fought for us. To give us the time we needed.

33 after Aska’s death.

Finally, I managed to get a grip on the portal I created and put a firm lock on it. It closed immediately, severing all connections between my purgatory and his and crucially, also every possible way a god could use to get on Solaris.

Purgatory was in a sense just a transportation hub, the only one of its kind. And by taking it apart, I created another realm, separate from the normal one.

Sadly, that also meant that Irminsul couldn’t bring life into this world, that Aska’s death was without a basis, that time wasn’t supported anymore by any god. Everything ceased to exist the moment I closed the portal, but because time was lost, it rather seemed to be frozen while the normal time still went on, while Bob activated the antimatter bomb in purgatory, destroying large swaths of land just for the sake of it. I wanted Aska to feel pain, and that was the only way I knew how … by destroying what was his.

But it didn’t change that my world had stopped working.

All, but two special souls were completely still.

‘This is … it?’ Lucy asked in disbelief.

‘This is it. The world we always wished for. A world without Aska and without any other god trying to influence us. As long as we manage to keep this realm separated from every other, as long as our souls don’t break down, we are safe.’ Sadly, that was our reality. Once our concentration slipped, the walls we created would crumble and the realms would reconnect. As such, we had to give our all so that both of our souls wouldn’t break down at the same time.

‘And now …’ Lucy muttered in my head, still unsure how to proceed. We knew what would happen once we separated everything, but we didn’t plan any further than that.

‘I suspect we should do something about this frozen thingy … it’s quite boring if nothing moves.’ All the gods were able to use every element and as such, they also should be able to support the existence of every element, at least to a minor degree. And for real though, we had two godly souls for one planet. It couldn’t be that hard.

‘Right … is it okay when I take over time?’ Lucy asked, probably going through a very long list in her mind.

‘Sure, can I have space?’ I asked and directly took that element under my wing. Changing it would be difficult, but keeping it as it was before shouldn’t be too hard.

‘I’ll take fire.’ Lucy proposed which did make me panic a lot. We should separate opposites to make it a bit easier for us and if she took fire … we’ll, it meant I had to take water.

‘Hell no. You can have water.’ And so, we went through a long, long list of elements every world consisted of. It was a tedious process … but we managed. And in the end, it wasn’t a very difficult task to keep everything running once again, but it definitely took its toll. I was already at my limit beforehand and adding towards that was now a constant pressure on my soul. As soon as we had started everything again, when time flowed again and life came back into eve of their bodies, my soul was already beyond the breaking point.

Thanks to that, I was incapable of lifting a finger, let alone using any magic whatsoever. I was a prisoner of my own body, at least until Lucy gently nudged me aside and took control.

“I’m sure you have m-“ And she spewed up a mouthful of blood. Not only our souls were under constant stress, but so was this body we shared. And honestly, it had way too much weight on its shoulder. Two souls in one body was already enough to destroy it over time and that was only accelerated thanks to us basically carrying every part of the world on our back.

“Lucinda, what is … your eyes are green.” Hannah mumbled, quite unsure what to make of this change.

“Right … I’m not Lucinda … she is … sleeping … but she can hear you, so don’t complain about her too much. My name is … Lucy. I’m her … sister?” Sister? Well, I was more like her evil sister, if anything.

“I never knew she had one.” Hannah grabbed her sword as if that would change anything, but didn’t strike at the girl laying on the floor yet.

“It’s … complicated. Hannah, would you be so kind and help me up a bit?” Lucy extended her arms towards Hannah who relented after quite some time.

“I want to talk to Lucinda.” She demanded, but sadly that wasn’t possible.

“She is in the process of piercing her soul together … I’m afraid … she isn’t available right now. And … I don’t have much time left either. Keeping this world afloat is … hard … and being awake at the same time is … near impossible.” Lucy explained while I had troubles staying awake already, despite all the pain flooding through our veins.

“What do you want to say?” Hannah asked a bit scared.

“We are … going to be gone for a bit.” Lucy revealed, nearly sinking back to the stony ground.

“No! No! Give her back!” Hannah screamed, grabbed Lucy’s shoulders and shook her violently.

“I’m sorry, Hannah. We can’t … we have to rest.”

“I … what about her promise? That we would be together forever?” Tears left the elves eyes, tears I had never wished to see.

“If there is a will, there is a way. Have you thought … about becoming an angel?”

“What? He …” Lucy pointed towards Schwarz. “Nearly got there … but it was crude … unguided …” With much struggle, Lucy patted the sword on her hip and remembered me about something. Maybe, just maybe I should reclaim the bit of my soul I left in it to strengthen myself a bit. Right away, I started my work and finished within a mere second as I just had to recall the bit of my soul. It would help somewhat, but I didn’t know to which degree. Well, I had no use for that weapon anyways after I had banished Aska, so why keep it in the first place?

As such, the sword fell into pieces right away which not only astonished Hannah and the four heroes, but also Lucy. “… just stay with us and bathe in our presence and … you will turn into our angel. We also …” Once again, another mouthful of blood interrupted her speech. “We also might … be able to talk to you this way.”

“I will stay with her till the bitter end, that’s what I swore myself.” Hannah proclaimed and hugged Lucy tightly, without even knowing if I would also feel it. But I did … and it was heartwarming.

“That’s … relieving to hear.  Schwarz … did I heal your addiction properly? … you shouldn’t feel … the need to …” Lucy’s health wasn’t the best either. Her soul was badly damaged and our body barely held together which did make it quite difficult for her.

“It’s fine … don’t over exert yourself.” Woah, why wasn’t he angry at her in any way? Just because she was pretty or what? Didn’t he remember what this body did? I killed him for fucks sake and this is how he shows that?

“Good … Sofie … do you remember what Lucinda and Irminsul taught you? You need to create a portal … to the world above us.” Lucy looked up, showing me a deep, deep hole in the ground through which I couldn’t even see the sky, even though it had a considerable diameter.

“I … don’t even know what’s going on! Where is Irminsul? Why are we alive? And … why are you in that girls body?” Yup … it did really seem as if she didn’t consider me a friend anymore which kind of hurt if I was honest.

“No … time. Use … your powers …” We had yet to take the ability from her to use life. “Hannah … you must … help …” I was quite sure Lucy wanted to say more than this, but her eyelids were already closing and we both fell into a state where none of us knew what was going on around us.

I was in coma … once more. At least this time, I had someone to spend my time with.

“I sure hope they will make it back to the surface.” Lucy said, appearing on the hill where we usually met right in front of me.

“I’m more worried about their ire. Seriously though, I’m pretty sure they want to eat me alive.” Their gazes towards me while I was still in control of my body were horrifying. If they had a weapon, they might have chosen to stab me at that time.

“Well, murdering each and every one of them was a great way to end your friendship.” Lucy was looking quite strangely at me as if it was my fault my friendship with them was basically over.

“Hey! I didn’t murder Ellie or Louis?” I asked. And even the others were … questionable murders. I was basically forced to do so because of the plan … the plan I worked out but whatever.

“… you get what I wanted to say.” Lucy told me dumbly.

“Right … it doesn’t matter anyways, does it? They will live their lives while we just sleep in an effort to prolong the time this body has.” We had already calculated it through. Being awake drastically reduced the time we could keep this body alive and therefore, we had to avoid it until the time was right to wake up again.

“That’s the plan … until our souls merge completely and the world ends thanks to the massive amount of energy being released because of that.” Lucy said while sitting down on top of the hill, naturally on her beautiful flower patch.

“Yup.” I said, sitting down right next to her. After all, if I could decide between sitting on dead grass or soft flowers … I would take the flowers.

“But we do have a plan for that, don’t we?” Well, I did promise her that the fate of the ending of the world was avoidable, because otherwise she just wouldn’t agree to merging our souls … but I might have lied there. A little bit.

“So about that …” I mumbled quietly.

“Lucinda?” Lucy asked, turned towards me and stared quite stunned at me for quite some time.

“Yes?” I said a bit pleadingly. I knew she would be angry and I really didn’t want to start off living with her in this constrained space like that.

“Please tell me you didn’t blindly accept merging your soul with mine just because it was the only way to beat Aska.” Well … should I lie?

“So … uhm …” I stuttered a little, attempting to look a bit pitiful for her so that she wouldn’t be that angry at me.

“We don’t have a plan to stop the world from ending, do we?” Lucy was more exhausted than everything else and leaned back onto the grass to watch the three stars above us.

“Nope. Not at all.” If we didn’t do anything, the world would end.

Honestly, wasn’t that the best way to start a new adventure?