Aftermath Briefing (2)

Illya and Ellie were both covered with sheets and lowered into the graves, which Carl and Sky had filled and marked with respective flowers. Sky sunk the Broken Mahina Armament into the ground at Ellie's grave, and placed the remaining parts of his jacket over Illya's grave.

Carl took a deep breath, watching Sky clutch a handful of white hair close to his face. He didn't smell it, he just watched it flow in the wind.

"That's sweet of you, to keep a bit of her hair. It shouldn't decay or anything like that. If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave the Mahina Armament with Ellie? Won't you need it to fight?" Carl asked Sky.

As the graves were finished up, the remaining Arkians who weren't too injured to move grouped up at the graves to mourn the death of Illya and Ellie.

It was silent, almost everybody communicated through nods or small head shakes for around ten minutes until Sky spoke up.

"Eirikr returned. I sent him away with a Transporter. Cynthia is my sister from The First Trial. I sacrificed my lifespan thinking that as long as Cole couldn't retrieve my body, it would mean you all get to live safely. Faith revealed to me my memories from all that time ago, in exchange for damaging her the same way I would've damaged Cole. I unlocked the Gaze of Wrath, which was probably the pressure you felt from earlier. Ultima is Red's sister, I fought the World Leaders, and it's my fault that Ellie died," Sky rapidly confessed, breaking down into tears over the two graves, clutching his arms as he felt cold.

The cold world Sky had been born into started to affect him. He used to be full of warmth and compassion, but he found it impossible to act the same way as he used to.

"We don't blame you! Not at all... we didn't fight because we owe you anything, Sky, we fought because we love you the same way you love us," Belle explained. She held her hand close to her chest with Shike's arm over her shoulders.

"Our interests have always aligned the same way as they did in The First Trial," Boo said. She wiped her eyes, keeping an emotionless face while staring at Sky. Boo thought to herself that it was okay to be vulnerable, but couldn't find it in her heart to feel anything.

"Those World Leaders are nice people, we can depend on them for protection from here on out... we don't have to fight Ultima, Sky," Charlotte told him. Charlotte was the girl Charlie brought with him to Zealous after their encounter with Genesis.

"I don't believe we have formally met. I'm Sky Asterio, the Deity of Wrath. Charlotte, I believe I heard your name was, right?" Sky asked, learning he was right and continuing, "All my life, I've spent hunting people for revenge, I'm a person who can't just let somebody who killed my friends live..." He said, becoming silent as he gazed upon Illya's grave.

"Ultima was a person Lily and I idolized as kids, that's why we have the dye in our hair, even as minimal as it is now, she was a Hero to us," Lia mentioned, pointing toward Lily as the two had been reunited.

"I said was for a reason... sure, we could let her run free, be free from all, but we could also stop hopeful kids such as myself from worshipping such a dull idol. Maybe killing her wouldn't be the right idea, maybe saving her like we did with Illya would be a better idea... I'm not sure," Lia added, looking along at everybody standing beside her, waiting for another person to add in.

"I'll be the monster she wants me to be. Ultima is nowhere near my league at all. I've become the strongest person left on Earth, and killing her wouldn't be a challenge for me at all. All I have to do is find her, and she'll be dead. There doesn't need to be a whole conflict with Quake, a whole city being destroyed... it just needs to be her and me," Sky clarified. He stood up, snapping the Mahina Armament in half over Ellie's grave and sheathing it.

"And I'm going to kill her with half of the weapon Ellie gave me all that time ago," He said.

"You're sure you want to do this alone?" Dani asked next. She stayed relatively silent during the meeting until Sky mentioned that he wanted to go off on his own again.

"Not yet... not for a long, long time. I need time to decide what's right to do. I have to repair what I've broken and make sure people are safe before I head out, with you," Sky told Dani. She nodded, instantly agreeing to follow him on a mission.

"Sky!" Ruby shouted out toward the group of Arkians, alerting them of news that she received from the doctors and World Leaders.

Khalil and Acchi had brought Faith back to consciousness and alerted Ruby to retrieve Sky and the other Arkians to meet with her. At the slightest sound of the beginning of her name, Sky shot toward Ruby and ran as far as he could to get to Faith, moving past her as the Arkians followed distantly behind.

Sky ventured into a camp set up on the innards of rocks that were blown out of the ground from his last impact into Cole's body, sliding down beside a bedroll to find Faith with her eyes opened, staring at the sky.

"Faith! You're okay?!" Sky shouted out. He placed his hand on her forehead to feel her temperature.

Khalil interrupted him, lifting up the corner of Faith's shirt by her hip to reveal a swirling, red tattoo shooting up from her thigh to her arm on the right side of her body.

"What is that? I've never seen that before," Sky mentioned.

From Sky's back, blue strands shot out of him, and beside him, Avie formed her own body that she used to fight against Cole to lean beside Faith as well.

"I won't even ask you why I'm still alive, not yet, what matters is Faith. Those are Asterio Markings. You've become a Pure Asterio, Faithy," Avie commented.