- Lift our Spirits and Raise our Pride

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A/N: Warning, this chapter contains the mentions of suicide and the acceptance of one's death. If you cannot handle this, please move on.

Reader discretion is advised.

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The birds chirped where there was silence, the wind blew in a calm and soundless chill that ran against the skin, sending your heart beating to warm you. The smell of the woods was in the air, as the feeling of grass was beneath the fingertips. The sun peeked behind the cloud of leaves that shaded the ground and glinted in the eyes of those who looked up.

It was a mesmerizing world for any who witnessed it, and it was a peace that echoed like the soundlessness of the mind as they took their first breath in this world, in this life.

Lia was one of them, and she was lost within The Forest.

Its smell was filling her nose with the scent of the trees and the ground, the feeling of grass under her hands as it brushed against her skin. The world was like an angel before her as she peered up at the sun beyond the leaves.

She felt so at peace, as she laid there amongst the grass, an echo in the soundlessness of the angels.

She didn't want to leave; she wanted to close her eyes and fall back into the sleep that the world called to her.

Her heart wasn't beating in her chest, she could feel that no blood was rushing through her body. She could feel no air in her lungs, nor could she feel her mind wavering and wandering amongst the thoughts and mindlessness that took over her.

She felt it, she was dead.

But then again, she wasn't. She could feel it, like the air that brushed against her skin - she had feelings to her body as much as she could feel the grass beneath her, the cold hard ground she laid down upon. The shadow that passed over her as the sun glinted and glimmered against her skin.

Only words can describe what she felt then, words that not even I could describe then.

Lia could hear the world calling to her, like the deep sound of a violin as it played through the air, the sound one would hear when they fell into a deep sleep.

But then that sound was gone as a voice spoke through the silence, broke through the nature and the sleep she felt over taking her. She wanted that darkness to consume her again, but the voice was there in her ears as she lifted herself from the ground to peer at the man standing afar.

"Wake up Lia, your time ends tomorrow, not today."

Through the light that spilled from the cracks in the leaves, the trees swaying in the wind, she saw past the glimmering rays of light, to stare into the eyes of a man.

"Al Shir…"

"Get up child, this life isn't over for you yet."

She stood, the blades of grass falling from her body as she walked closer and closer, the wind swaying her darkly colored…

Hair. She couldn't see the color of her own hair. She couldn't even remember what color it was.

"I think it's a little too late for that. My heart no longer beats with life."

"A world always has a place for everyone, and yours was never destined to end on that rock."

She chuckled, thinking back to that moment with the Dragon, with Tryannus' open maw as his teeth raked across her skin. She didn't feel any pain, strangely enough. She only felt emptiness.

"That was kind of stupid."

Al Shir had his hands behind his back, standing where he stood the last time, she met him here in this forest. There were no arrows on the ground though, and he held no bow in his arms. There was nothing but the two of them in this peaceful bliss that surrounded them.

"What were you thinking?"

He wasn't mad, his tone did not become harsh, but Lia could tell that he was berating her. She should have known better in his eyes, but she willingly let death come for her.

"I wasn't. At the time, all I could think about was how I would die. What life I had lived."

"You still have a lot to live for. Death is a cold grasp that you don't need to feel holding your hand."

"Yes…I know that. But I'm not afraid."

Al Shir shook his head, his silver hair swaying the cool wind that blew through the leaves and across the grass. The Forest moved with the air, and the wind moved with the forest.

"It doesn't matter if you're afraid, girl. This world isn't done with you yet."

"I have nothing to live for anymore. I died for my friends, my family. If I go back, what's left for me?"

"A world that is yours for the taking. A place where you are not alone, like dust in the wind."

"To protect my family?"

"To protect yourself."

He placed a hand to her chest just along her collarbone, as he watched the life slowly drain from the crimson color of her own.

"You live for this heart here, and this heart alone. A heart that still has some spirit left in it. How can you die now?"

"Life is to be lived with purpose, never the irrelevance of one's existence. If one cannot live without purpose, one cannot live at all."

"Are those your words or his?"

She looked at him, really looked at him as she was lost in his eyes, the shimmering silver hair that blew in the wind and the cool atmosphere of the Forest beyond his face. It was all peace of mind then, but still he spoke.

"This is your life to live, not his. Live until your last breath, because until you do how can you live at all?"

"...are those your words, or Al Shir's?"

Al Shir took his hand from his chest slowly, carefully, his eyes watching her as the color of crimson fire slowly returned to her dull gray eyes that now frowned where there had been the emotionless.

They stood there, for several moments, watching one another as the other watched the other, the wind blowing their hair apart, and then Lia remembered its color as it swayed before her eye.

Black, like the night she lived on the day she died.

".... Mine."

The man finally said, his face hardening to a serious look as the wind blew stronger now against their backs, the sun shining through the cracks of the trees and across their pale faces.

"How did you figure it out?"

"When we were talking about my death, about how I wanted to die?"

"Yes?"

Lia smiled, a wicked grin that shone in the sunlight, painting her face in the golden glow of the tar that shined against her eyes behind her, blinding her face from Al Shir's glance.

All he saw was the smile of the demon's mask.

"He never would have let me say that."

Al Shir was silent for a moment, watching the sunset behind her - how the day had quickly vanished before their eyes, soon to be consumed by the dark and endless night that would creep from over the mountains and across the horizon.

Then, suddenly, as Lia blinked, she felt the world go dark as the sky turned to night, the stars shimmering from the black abyss above her.

Then she saw the crimson eyes staring at her from afar, and it was until she threw herself in his arms and against his chest, did Lia ever realize she was running towards him.

She buried her face against his skin, his moth shirt smelling of his scent, his warm heat beneath his skin like a comfort that drove her heart to beat again. Her mind was back, back from the mindlessness that it escaped from, returning to her like a lost mentor, comforting her in the darkness.

She looked up, and saw Cain's face staring deep into the darkness, deep into the white eyed man whose eyes looked like demons to match his own.

Cain's face was blank, sheetless and emotionless as he stared at the man, whose only color to his eyes were two clean white circles around his black pupils. The rest of his eyes were black where there should have been white.

Then the white eyed figure spoke, and his voice was like nothing Lia had ever heard. Emotionless like Cain's, but far more looming and imposing of the world around it than even the Dragon's deep and seamless voice.

He spoke with caution, he spoke with pose, as the two stared at each other against the darkness. Red eyed versus the white.

"So, you will die, and commit yourself to the suicidal side of life? You will let the world throw you into the abyss?"

He was looking at her, and through her pounding heart she felt a chill run down her spine as his eyes peered out from the distant darkness. He was far, but he was close at the same time, like the unanswerable question that lied in the shadows.

She held Cain's hand as she stared at the man, all the fear leaving her as her skin touched his, his warmth against her fear.

"No. I won't let the world pass me by. I won't let the darkness swallow me up. But whoever you are, whatever you are, know this: I will walk along the edge of death until my end, and until my end I will not live for myself, but for others. For those who love me and for those that I love."

The fear was gone as Lia felt the sun rise against the horizon, painting the tips of the mountains in its golden hue. Soon it would reach the forest before her, and soon the man's face would be seen.

She only needed to wait. Wait and watch.

"But when I do die, when that time comes for me to meet my end, I won't die for them. I won't live for myself, but I will die by my own hands. So, neither you, Cain, or anyone else in this world will hold weight over that choice. Not even the gods can stop me."

Her eyes shone with crimson flame and might, the sun reaching the tips of the trees and the leaves as they painted themselves in a golden hue of the sun's grasp.

"So, whoever you are, crawl back into the darkness that bred you, and leave my deathless sleep-in peace!"

The sun shone past the trees and painted the ground, but like a wall or a rift in the light, darkness was casted against the world from the man's shadow, even as the sun rose and hit him with its grasp. Lia only saw half of his face at that moment, only half.

But it was enough for her to see his pale skin, his black hair, and the look of a god along his features. And in his last words, his voice no longer the immense and looming sound that made her feel weightless, she heard the voice of a man, and he was no longer Al Shir.

"As you wish, Lia of the Endless."

He was a god amongst men.

And then he was gone.

***

The world was consumed in a sea of flames, the fire that danced with the shadows it casted, over the meadows and along the forest, the valley was lit in fire. The Army's eyes watched as the Dragon's maw closed shut, his head tearing through the rock and the ground beneath him as a sea of fire and smoke covered the ground before him.

He raised his head, the smoke parting in his way, as he looked to the sky with eyes in vain, watching the night as it consumed the daylight in the distance.

"Lia…"

Rian crumpled to his feet as Bekca wrapped her arms around his shoulder, tears flowing from her eyes. He couldn't cry, he couldn't say anything as the others of the army all held their breaths, some holding their hands over their hearts, others with a hand to their voice as they sobbed silently. The fire continued to tear apart the sky.

Then the tears came as Rian held his face against Becka's shoulders, tears streaming down his cheeks as his mind parted ways to reveal the flood of memories that tore apart his mind. His heart was being torn apart as the memories that flashed of him and Lia did not help as they fueled the machine that he was.

He was no more inside, and he could feel his soul cracking as he crumpled to the ground.

Lukali was hidden amongst the trees, his hand against the trunk of a mighty pine that folded and swayed with the force of the Dragon's might.

He couldn't breathe, his lungs refusing to fill his chest with air as he held a hand to his mouth as sobs began echoing through the night air, the sounds of the army's hopes and dreams crumbling into pieces.

He could see his father beside him as a child, and his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, his back against a tree as tears rolled down his face. His eyes were red, and his heart was broken, his soul was shattered, and he had no one to comfort him.

He watched as his father played with him as a child, as he took him on the back of his horse, and they rode through the meadows together. He saw the memories of his mother and his smiling father, he felt their warmth as they embraced him, he felt their love as he dreamed of them.

He missed them. Both of them.

He missed Lia.

In the far distance, the world was alight with fire that burned against the mountain, the sight of the Dragon's head high in the air as his breath tore through the night against the sky. The villagers watched in fear as whispers were heard through the carts and carriages.

They worried the Dragon would find them, how he would burn them like he did the mountain's side.

They were afraid because they were sitting in the open along the road, within the forest, hiding amongst its shadows. But they would not last for long, as the sun rose from the horizon like a rose of fire.

None of them noticed how the driver of their caravan was crumbling to the ground, a hand over his chest as he watched the sky lit in flames. He had seen it, even when none of them did.

And as Totalac saw Lia's figure in the distance disappear in the Dragon's maw, he felt the world crash around him. Tears flowed from his cheeks and the sound of his whimpering echoed across the world as the villagers turned to silence, watching the scene unfold before them.

He was dying inside, and they knew this moment had broken him.

But within the woods, and amongst the souls that shattered, a man ran through the woods with his sword raised high as he left the safety of the shadows. The Dragon saw him, as his head came down or the stars, the fire on his breath no more as he watched the fire pour over his face as he ran.

Gilbert was strong, he never felt sadness over Arnold's death, despite the brother he had lost. But now his heart broke when he felt the world fall around him.

He wasn't going to die, not without a fight.

And as the Dragon reared back his head, ready to tear apart the world before him and burn the fearless man to ash, he watched another follow from the forest. Then another, and another, and another and soon the army was racing forward, their war cry on their lips as they teared through the meadows and the flowers, their weapons raised and their spirits lifted high, tears in their eyes.

They lend themselves on, with the world at their back and the sun on the horizon, the Dragon watched as a sea of mortals flung themselves at him with nothing more than hopes and dreams, and the selflessness of humans.

'Just how much did she mean to them?'

He asked himself as he heard the war cry echoing amongst the world, blurring and melding together until there was silence ringing in his ears as his empty fiery eyes stared at them from the looming shadow of the mountain side.

'But it doesn't matter…'

Then fire was in his throat as smoke was in his mouth, bellowing for the depth of hell where he crawled from.

'They will burn like any other…'

Then he felt the chill that ran down his spine, as the friend died out in his chest like water to a flame, his head spinning with a founding idea that haunted his mind like a poison as he turned his head to the world before him. To the sea of flames that bended and blew in the wind. They didn't listen to him.

The war party held their ground, for they sensed it too as tears stopped spilling down their cheeks, their eyes turned towards the sea of flames that sat before them as the darkness danced with the firelight like two lovers in the night.

They all held their breath, like a pin in the silence between them, they all watched as a figure walked from the shadows of the darkness beyond, through the fire that bends to the will of one.

Like a Queen, Lia walked with her sword drawn.