« How many times were your plans thwarted during the past ten of years? If you answered ‘More than once’, then congratulations. You lived a good life full of wise lessons. Just… Don’t forget those lessons next time. »

It wasn’t the first time I tore a breach in the fabric of reality to break the separation between the real world and the Limbo.

In the past, I mainly did to quickly travel from one place to another in order to survey and command the vast network setup by the Cult, or opening ephemeral portals so I could allow a plethora of demons to come and pose a threat to mortals.

Recently, it was solely for the purpose of satiating my curiosity.

Ever since I was… Offered to not care about this world anymore, I missed quite a few historical events, incredible achievements coming from the minds of those same mortals.

Civilisation-wise, they didn’t advance that much. The age of iron and castles was still ongoing, and it didn’t seem like they would come out of this disposition before a few more centuries. Still attached to a feudal system of governance, they were living and growing old while being part of someone else’s inheritance through a shared bloodline.

I couldn’t wait to see how this would evolve.

Putting politics and dramas aside, I mostly felt concerned about their currently reached level of technology.

Although I must admit I didn’t know what to expect, for not expecting was the best way to become pleasantly surprised by the outcome, the situation unfolded before my eyes were quite promising.

Observing their environment, trying to understand the principles behind many natural mechanisms, and their obvious desire to grasp any sort of knowledge from the depths of magic. Those motives led by curiosity was what gave them the bravery to push forward and the strength to overcome many obstacles.

Ever since the events following the Fall, I kept monitoring the mortals, giving them under the threat of a dangerous invasion the solid excuse of keeping their head high and walking forward as one.

But now, due to my absence and a lacklustre management from the others cianalas, mortals were set in a sort of dead-end. Or rather than calling it a dead-end, it would probably be more appropriate to say their lack of a shared goal has forced them to fabricate new ones, creating many and many dreams, stories and ideologies which greatly deviated from the main point I wanted them to focus on.

However, even this was fine.

Even today, I held high hopes for the mortals.

After I was done checking on this world, I would like to challenge them again, just to see if they could hold their ground without the help from the nyrhs this time.

But now wasn’t the time.

Right now, a catastrophe was happening in front of our eyes.

Chaalith standing next to me, we were observing through the crack the city of Lagida disappearing from the surface of the continent. Today would mark a grim souvenir in the History of mortals.

“This is… Contrary to everything that was supposed to happen” whimpered Chaalith as she witnessed Haliaetus erasing the city under her mournful gaze “He has always been quite absentminded and exaggeratedly stubborn about his role as a Protector, but he still chose to act this way after a few truths thrown at him?”

“Don’t be mad against his twisted ideals, it is not an easy duty to shoulder a world’s wellbeing.”

I suddenly found myself trying to defend Haliaetus’s tantrum, probably because we both shared the same idea of helping mortals despite our very different approach.

He wanted to protect them, while I wanted to make them grow.

But Chaalith wanted to hear none of those noble excuses.

“He just discarded everything he fought for since the events of the Three Days because he felt betrayed and lost his reason to fight.

If he stopped just once to give a small thought about his actions and their repercussions, maybe he would not have committed such an atrocious tragedy.”

Now she was just scornful about his immaturity.

It was true that as a powerful cianala whose mind was being atrophied by a collar, his capacity and chances to grow were limited or sometimes even stolen from him.

However, on the other side, it was also true that being given the huge responsibility to protect everyone could have given him a hint that he should think before acting.

Such recklessness to show his goodwill towards the whole world was his downfall. Such stupid, sad irony.

“Removing the lash was the mistake our kin has done that led to this situation. I don’t know what made Aederinilitium believe that removing his amnesia could be seen as a benevolent gesture.”

“Perhaps the same words that made you believe that luring him inside the god’s sanctuary to suppress his power would be beneficial to your goal?”

Chaalith remained silent on this one, maybe pouting inside to the fact that I’ve put her in the same boat as the one who unleashed the Fallen.

“Aeder may have been tricked to help Haliaetus. After all she couldn’t have awaken and guided him from his cave to her church alone.

There was also Roi’s case to consider. This thing wasn’t that different from the other mymus, as his intelligence was mostly a product born from living after thousands of years.

But I don’t think such a close aide to Haliaetus, one who was personally fished from the pond of despair by him, could be entrusted with the keys to wake him up while ignoring its primal wish to help him.”

I gave some time to Chaalith to let her digest those information and come up with a hypothesis, before she slowly raised her opinion.

“It must have been Aseraath then. He was the one who proposed this plan to me.

However, I did not expect him to also have contacted others without me noticing. Something’s still wrong, but it’s a start.”

“And what about this other smart fellow? The one with the extravagant clothes.”

“Kerazaetus? He is committed to his plan to use Haliaetus as a protector to fend off all sorts of worldwide problems.

He was also the one who came up with the idea of putting on a leash on him and seal his memory, along with many other measures to keep him under our control.

Honestly, I can’t see why he would decide to throw him away this way. If he wanted to get rid of him, he could just have stabbed him in his sleep or simply put additional layers to prevent him from waking up ever again.

Sacrificing a whole city, just to turn Haliaetus into an enemy, this is just too wasteful. Besides, did you know it was Keraza’s idea to found a city around a school oriented toward magic? Blowing up his own projects isn’t like him at all.”

I laughed a bit at her tirade.

“You seem quite confident about him and his way of doing things.”

“Obviously. He may be manipulative enough to trick Haliaetus into servitude, but I have never seen him dispose of his tools in such a roundabout way.”

“Then I have one question for you.

I remember you accepted Kerazaetus’s plan to use Haliaetus as a shield for this world, yet now you display this animosity toward this same shield.

What did Aseraath told you to make you so resentful towards the Fallen, that you want to go to such lengths to eliminate him?”

“He didn’t told me many words. Since the beginning, I was already harbouring ill feelings towards the Fallen.

I was told that, despite being a fake cianala, he was still the one chosen by gods to serve as an overseer. At first, I fell pity for him because the gods robbed him of his freedom to choose, of his emotions and his youth.

He never had the chance to live under the same roof as his family, he never could enjoy the pleasant giggles of kids, he was just an organic machine designed to maintain order.

After he failed to repel the gods, I thought he would change… Things. But he did not, and all this pity I had turned into resentment, then caution, before melting into fear.

Haliaetus is too innocent at heart and powerful at soul to be kept alive. All he need is to slip away from our control once and this is what happen.”

So she chose to follow Keraza’s plan to subdue Haliaetus because she was scared of what he was capable of.

Fair enough.

Personally, I didn’t see a merit in killing him.

He was dangerous, however, he wasn’t an absolute threat toward mortals.

This may sound idiotic after witnessing him destroying a town by himself, but he would eventually rescind on his violent behaviour and think back with guilt about his deeds.

Who knew? Maybe he would even try and correct things by rebuilding the city and resurrecting every mortals he has accidentally slew here.

From my point of view, he was nothing more than a competitor in this race of helping a civilisation made by short-lived creatures expand.

But if one day we had to face each other… No, there was absolutely no point in doing so.

“What will you do, now that we know it was Keraza’s plan to display Haliaetus’s true nature to the world?”

“… I lost a close friend, and I don’t even have time to mourn for her death.”

I heard her sighing after listening to her complaint.

“I will go there and see if there are any survivors I can still save. I can’t just stand doing nothing after everything that happened here.”

“Very well. Should I prepare a place somewhere for you to rest until mortals forget about your intervention here?”

“I’ve heard they’re now selling those short statue of an ancient hero to many nobles. Because of this, I can’t imagine my face not being recognizable anywhere after a short century.

Besides, I initially intended to be eternally bound to be remembered as an old relic of the Black War, as the spearhead of the third Golden Crusade. I thought about visiting this other land you mentioned once-“

I interrupted her, noticing a new anomaly in Lagida.

Haliaetus was still standing in the center of the crater, yet he wasn’t the source of the fluctuations I was now feeling more and more.

Something was changing in the air. Something big, something familiar.

The winds of magic were stirred.

It was at this moment that Chaalith also noticed a peculiarity in this scene we were observing from afar.

“Is that… Is that Aseraath?”

… Yes, it was him. And he was approaching Haliaetus.