The Last Link

"From the moment you deflected The Pinnacle with your left hand, to this moment now, you've had explosive growth. You've been able to surge past the limits of what I perceived to be possible, yet you still cannot match me. This fight would be over before it started if you dare try attacking me. So, before you do something even more stupid than attacking the World Leaders, why don't we take a minute to calm down and consider the possibilities?" Eirikr asked Sky, looking back at the World Leaders.

"There are no possibilities. Your group that I murdered in this very city took somebody I grew up with in The First Trial. I had known her significantly longer than the others, that was my sister after a certain point. My sister gave her life to preserve mine for one thing and one thing only... to kill you, Eirikr," Sky pointed his golden saber at Eirikr, neither of the two flinching as it glimmered between them.

"That's funny because Illya was your wife, not your sister. You cast aside her feelings and now you think they matter that much? You're the worst, aren't you? Well, that doesn't matter, concerning yourself with love is not what an Arkian is supposed to do. Arkians are meant to explosively enhance their power by using strands to dominate humanity, or what's left of it after your little altercation here," Eirikr revealed to Sky. Sky didn't drop the golden saber, barely making a reaction to the information he just learned.

"Don't misunderstand me, Sky Asterio, I don't believe you're the villain of this story. I've never believed you to be the villain. After all, look what you've done for the people of Zealous. I'm here for two things. The body of my brother, Genesis Asterio, and Avie Asterio. I know you are within possession of both, hand them over and I will not hurt you," Eirikr told Sky, holding his hand out right under the saber.

"I don't know or care about Genesis Asterio, but you will not take Avie from me," Sky said bluntly. Eirikr nodded with a smile, grabbing onto Sky's golden saber, and pulling his body closer to his hand.

"Come here, there's something I have to tell you," Eirikr whispered to Sky, pulling his head right over his shoulder.

"You will never amount to me because you cannot manipulate dimensions as I can. Observe," Eirikr said.

He sank his fist into Sky's chest. The hit itself didn't hurt, but reality severely warped around Sky's vision, turning his Gaze of Wrath off, and throwing him into a cluster of Iridescent Strands that outlined his path as he moved forward. Sky saw a plethora of things he couldn't identify or make sense of, watching alternate realities of him flash by where his death was replaced by all of the ones his friends suffered.

During the last reality, Sky was able to perceive through the mess of overwhelming emotions, he looked into two sets of eyes with very unique colors.

Blue and green eyes, as piercing as Sky's but with even more glow to them, along with red and purple eyes right beside the other girl's eyes. The shapes of their faces were too identical to assume they were anything but sisters. Sky was met with a sense of dread as they opened their mouths while holding their hands out.

"DAD!" They screamed.

Sky was pushed back into reality at Eirikr's will, pulling him out of a crack in the ground and sliding him against the floor as he was thrown.

"The difference in our strength is dimensions apart. From the seven that I showed you, the only one you could perceive was the future of this one. You do not have the Dimensional Perceiving Eyes as Cynthia Asterio does. You cannot see what I see every day. If you want to know why I need Genesis and Avie Asterio, then I'll tell you right now that the reasons precede this dimension and what it needs to stay afloat," Eirikr explained to Sky. He was lost, thinking of the faces of the two girls who called out to him while floating between dimensions.

"I will not let you have Avie. I don't care what bullshit reasons you have... I don't care if you're talking about dimensions I don't understand... you will not take another thing from me. I will kill you," Sky muttered while clutching his knees on the floor.

"You won't. Four hundred years ago, you couldn't. Now, you can't. I am inevitable in every iteration of your life. Hand to me what belongs to me," Eirikr held out his hand toward Sky, waiting for him to hand over Avie.

At that moment, Sky started to think about what would happen if he ran, what would happen if he gave Avie up, or what would happen if he took up arms against Eirikr. Would he see other dimensions once more?

While lost in his own thought, a large bird started to fly around in the sky from his vision. It appeared as blue as the sky and granted Sky an additional set of eyes from above. At first, he couldn't tell, but after seeing himself through the vision of the bird, he understood what was happening.

"Ten, Nine," Eirikr started to countdown, getting closer to Sky's position while holding out his hand.

The bird, flying high in the sky, granted Sky the ability to see everything around him by peering around with his current set of eyes. He could turn off the vision at will and experimented with it a few times before spotting a significant part of Zealous. The White Stone Transporter. A machine that could move White Stones between certain areas. Sky thought about it for a moment, watching the bird lock onto the machine and dive down from the top of the sky to the machine.

Sky caught onto the will of the bird, understanding the pattern of its thinking closely resembled Avie's thought process.