"Hello, brother," Kiefer greeted with a crooked smile, "it took you longer than I expected for you to reach here. You're not growing old, are you?"

Octavian didn't answer a word of his as his eyes preyed on Kiefer. Just by that, Kiefer knew that today either one of them would have to die. He had stolen what shouldn't have been touched, but he didn't plan to give it up. Not his plan nor his newly obtained prize.

"You know where this will ends," Octavian's eyes turned pure gold with 3 pairs of massive wings unfurled on his back.

"Yes, surely," Kiefer's eyes became fully red, dripping a streak of blood onto his cheeks as demonic patterns formed on his face. A pair of thick strong horns grew on his head, "I will thoroughly take care of everything once you're gone. Including him."

"Fate will never side with you."

The two of them vanished from their spot with a gust of violent wind. Once they struck their first blow, the sky split apart with an ear-piercing thunder. The space shook and rippled with their every exchange.

Every creature under the sky felt the intense murderous pressure of the higher beings. The animals fled, the children wailed, while the rest trembled and hid. The pious worshippers of any god either prayed for protection or prostrated to quench their presumed wrath of their god.

The effect was even worse for August, Godford, and the heroes who were in the vicinity. They couldn't even stand from the pressure and their body burned hot and froze at the same time. All the hairs on their body stood with goosebumps crawling on their shivering skin.

That was, except for Rye.

Rye was also trembling. His body couldn't help it. But what made him tremble wasn't fear. His heart and body sensed the familiar energy enveloping the air and his mind went into disarray.

He clutched his head as real and fake memories battled for dominance inside him. His heart stirred, overwhelmed and confused by the emotions it was supposed to feel and to whom it should feel. He dropped to his knees with dripping nosebleeds.

"Rye!?" Ludric heaved with heavy breaths as he grabbed Rye's shoulder in worry.

"Don't touch me!!" Rye roared like a wounded beast with fearsome eyes.

"!"

Ludric was stunned to see the color of Rye's eyes. His left was engulfed in a complete blackness while his right has turned into bright gold. The blood running down his nose has metallic gold mixed in them, gradually overthrowing the red.

Octavian heard Rye's voice and saw what was happening below. Kiefer took the chance while he was distracted to attack, but his arm was effortlessly caught by Octavian and brutally ripped apart by him. Kiefer didn't let out any pained groan as he regenerated a new arm.

"You have gone too far. I would not have to kill you if you keep your sinful hands off my dearest bride. Why must you do this?"

"Someone like you won't understand."

"…" Octavian summoned out a huge golden spear, "…Then so be it."

The spear filled out the sky as it crackled with white lightning. In half a blink, it flew into Kiefer and smashed him through several mountains with a speed faster than light. Octavian transformed into a 10 kilometers long white dragon and chased after the spear.

Kiefer was nailed into a cliff wall like a ragdoll. His horns were broken, he lost an eye, and his abdomen has a gaping hole from the spear which was unhealable. As he witnessed Octavian's dragon form charging his divine flame, he chuckled under his breath.

"Come, protect me, my love."

Rye heard the call in his head and his heart prompted him to comply. When he tried to refuse the command, his heart burst into unbearable pain, and his flight spell activated in instinct. With almost his full speed, he reached Kiefer in a breath to shield him from the upcoming attack.

Seeing the agony in Rye's face, the smile on Kiefer's face lowered a subtle degree.

Octavian's dragon pupil shrunk. It was too late for him to stop his attack, so he quickly raised his head up and launched the flame into the sky. The night became daylight for a brief moment as the column of white flame radiated with high intensity.

After answering Kiefer's call, Rye's heart and mind were finally relieved as he fell down. Octavian changed back into his humanoid form in an instant and caught Rye in his arms before Rye crashed to the ground.

Rage and heartache burned in his heart when he saw the state Rye was in. Rye didn't deserve this. He already vowed to not let Rye experience any suffering anymore. He pledged to himself to only give the most beautiful things and joyful moments to Rye. What kind of a god was he to not be able to fulfill the promises he made to his most beloved person?

Vines of flowers popped out from the ground and intertwined into a sphere in front of him. He gently placed Rye inside on the cotton flower bed and tightly closed the sphere. 2 angels were summoned to keep the precious person inside safe before he returned to Kiefer.

"Rendering him into such a state, was that what you want?"

Kiefer stared at Octavian with an unreadable emotion in his eyes. After a long silence, Kiefer opened his mouth, "We gods are not capable of desire and emotion. You do not love him."

"And yet you went on a rampage in the mortal world because of envy and your yearning for light. Is that not an emotion itself? Foolish brother, who are you currently denying in truth?"

A compact light orb formed above Octavian. All spectrum of colors swam inside the small bead-like worms inside clear water.

"But you do not deserve him. You do not deserve to claim either him or the mortal realm."

"Heh," Kiefer scoffed in mocking, "in your eyes, in the world's eyes, I never deserve anything. What's wrong with obtaining what I want with my own hands then?"

"Your desire is evil and chaos itself. The world should not have created you," Octavian shot the orb towards Kiefer, "goodbye, Julian."

"I will always exist, Octavian. As long as any creature exists, there will always be me within," Kiefer grinned maliciously.

His figure dissolved into ash and disappeared before the light orb could touch him.

–––

–

Rye opened his eyes to see his vision was filled with deep blue color. It took him a moment to realize he was currently underwater. He couldn't breathe any air, but somehow his lungs were still functioning properly.

He slowly raised his hand and saw wisps of black flowing out of it. His mind was blank, not capable of thinking about anything yet. All he knew was that instead of sinking down, it seems like he was floating up.

Where is this?

Is he dead?

The last thing he remembered was being forced to answer Kiefer's call to his mind and he blanked out after that. Did he die protecting Kiefer?

He still has the memories of the time he spent with Kiefer. He first thought that Kiefer was the demon lord, but he soon figured he was another god. A god with so much anger and resentment in him.

It would be a lie if he said he didn't feel upset about what Kiefer did to him, but he couldn't bring himself to hate the evil god. In some ways, the two of them were similar. He could understand some of the pain inside Kiefer which unfortunately materialized into evil.

If Kiefer had someone to accompany him by his side like what Godford did for him, would his loneliness evolve into something different?

Rye closed his eyes back and drowned in the coolness of the unknown liquid. He missed Octavian. If it was possible, he wanted to see him to apologize and maybe kiss him one last time if he was forgiven, but it was impossible, right?

An unknown time passed when Rye felt the pressure around his body slowly lowered until he reached the surface of the water. His eyes were exposed to a bright light passing through his eyelids which forced him to open his eyes again.

His prayers were actually heard.

"Octavian…" Rye choked out his name.

Octavian stepped onto the surface of the pool with light steps and knelt down next to Rye. He gently brushed Rye's wet bangs away from his eyes, "My dearest sun, how are you feeling?"

Rye felt the familiar warmth touching his skin and leaned towards it with a tear of relief, "I miss you."

Octavian gave Rye a tender smile and helped him up, "Everything is alright now. Let's have you dried and changed first."

"…" Rye clenched his fist and hugged Octavian's waist, "…No."

"My dear?" Octavian caressed Rye's head in comfort.

Rye's hold tightened, "…I wish to be claimed."