Saviour Complex

Fire is a chemical process in which heat is introduced to the air and the fuel to burn the fire. This process is called combustion.

Ceres Fauna would call it parasitism because that was how her relationship with the Everlasting Phoenix was. She tolerated humanity for their blunders and set them straight whenever they got out of line. Natural disasters were a form of her disciplining them.

But as they began to worship fire, the wildlife and flora began to wither away through the pyromancy they practised. Fauna first descended when the Great Blaze began to plague the lands as a disease of human combustion. It was more akin to a curse, spread by malice. The technique that the Everlasting Phoenix bestowed upon them in its 'mercy'.

A good deal of corruption laid beneath the holiness of worshipping flames, immortality tainting the hearts of men, seen as a luxury by the higher class. Death to the peasants who already have nowhere to go, let them rot in the fire that will fuel your immortality even more.

And every time humanity would go out of hand with these teachings the Everlasting Phoenix bestowed upon them, Ceres Fauna would unleash the full brunt of mother nature's wrath upon them. Yet, she used to only be angry at the subjects of the Everlasting Phoenix, but not the Everlasting Phoenix itself.

She tolerated humanity, she treated the phoenix as her friend to some degree.

The phoenix's vessel delivered a flaming sweep into the air with his leg, covering Fauna's vision with smoke from the aftermath of them. In return, Fauna ushered in a roaring wind that pushed the fire and the vessel himself back to the walls layered with root spikes. They wither away from the sheer presence of the phoenix, leaving him mostly unscathed.

She used to, anyway.

"You cannot possibly expect me to bring harm to you, Fauna." Through Aephery, the Everlasting Phoenix spoke. "Please, stand aside. Without nature, life cannot be nurtured."

"But life can be nurtured without fire." The leaking water from the ceiling suddenly broke apart from the sudden growth of tree roots, the lake from above pouring down upon them. "Be extinguished, and never return, Everlasting Phoenix."

The ceremonial room was quickly poured in with water, swiftly turning into steam and mist underneath the bright flame that the phoenix produced. Not a single drop of water upon the vessel's head.

"Fauna, I beg of you one more time." Solemn, the phoenix mournfully asked. "Let me save this world."

The water raked Fauna's green hair, she only raised her hand as the downpouring water began to freeze unnaturally. A chilling cold, that she remembered so vividly after the fires decayed.

"My children begged, but you did not answer either. How can I answer yours?"

Then, a large rumble that shook the very core of the earth. It was as if all of the trees surrounding the area had suddenly started crying and flailing themselves around the forest, quaking the solid soil until the ground cracked in half from their efforts. This was their cry.

From the surface, it was as if a sinkhole had occurred, a massive one that buried the entire leftovers of the settlement and the temple itself. The lake was now nothing but shards of ice, buried alongside the dirt and soil. As if the whole forest had been swallowed and indeed they were swallowed with despair.

Fauna's despair over the suffering fire had caused her.

Coldly, the incarnation of mother nature effortlessly materialized around the edges of the site as if she were a blade of grass. The trees were all crying, the trees were all calling for their mother. Was it just Fauna's perception of their grief or was it just her own grief reflected upon them instead?

Extending her hand to her side and gesturing it upwards, the ground near her rumbled a little before it split open to spit out Mumei still restrained by the roots from before. They've covered her up like a cocoon.

And soon, they untangled and slithered away from Mumei's body, leaving her relatively unharmed besides a couple of bruises that she could heal. She opened her eyes and breathed.

"Where—"

"Quiet now, Mumei. You're with me now." Fauna cooed, lowering herself down to the owl's laying figure. Mumei's pupils shrunk immediately at the approaching hand before pushing herself away from her.

"S-stay back!" She warned.

Fauna did not heed as she thought there was no need to. "Mumei, it's me, Fauna—"

"I said stay back!" A second time, her voice boomed with fear. Mother nature was stunned to see her reaction like this. So frightened by her to the point that she was foaming by the mouth.

"M…Mumei, do you still recognize me?" Fauna gave her sincerest smile upon the shivering owl, a smile that would usually incite another warm smile back every time they'd meet. Mumei's hands were shaking.

The guardian of civilisation once thought of mother nature as one of her closest friends within the council. She'd always be there for her when she had troubles, she'd always be willing to listen to her, she'd always be there to stave away the loneliness on her journeys.

"H-here. Do you at least recall this?" Mother nature produced a pure white Chrysanthemum in the palm of her hand, sprouting and blooming in front of Mumei. "I used to give this flower to you all the time. For every kindness, you spread to your humans even to the edge of their life. To give you comfort in the times you are lonely—"

"Then why did you end all of their lives so quickly?" Mumei interjected, almost shouting at Fauna's face. "You destroyed all of them, and not left a single one to live, to redeem. Why?"

"That's because…"

The trees were all still mourning, still crying, she can see their faces, they all want to be loved. "Mother, mother," they called and Fauna would respond, "Yes, my child, I am here."

"Why?" The owl asked again, quieter as she looked away. Usually, she could look at Fauna's warm golden eyes with comfort and joy, admiration even. But after that day, when the world itself burned everything away, she saw them sullen and rot like a fruit on the base of a tree.

"Mumei… I'm sorry. You're scared, I know that." Whispered the druid. "You don't need to wander anymore, I'll be here with you from today onwards. Every moment that I missed, every mistake that I made, I'll redeem them from now on, until you're gone. Just like what you did with the humans."

"No…" Mumei began to back away again. "There's a way to save them. There's a way to bring them back!"

Fauna sighed. "You've been deceived, Mumei. That phoenix just wants to set the world ablaze all over again and by that point, you'd have long vanished with all of the remaining manuscripts burnt. I can take care of you, make sure you live out the happy life that you deserve, Mumei."

"No… no no. That's not true."

"Oh, yes indeed, you have been lied to. Just like how I was lied to by her." Fauna reached forward to cup Mumei's face, splitting the owl's brown hair in between her slender fingers. "There is no more rebirth, there is no more immortality, and it's best it stays that way. How can you be so assured that whatever the phoenix will do will bring back the humans definitely?"

It was true, some of it was at least. How could she be so assuringly known that the Everlasting Phoenix was going to revive humanity the way it should be? She was grasping at straws, she knows that.

But still,

"No!" She moved Fauna's soft hands away from her face. "I don't know if the phoenix will bring them back, I don't know if I'll live to see it, but it's still something rather than wait until I wither away!"

Fauna's eyes narrowed sharply, unamused. "Has her lies gone so deep into you as well? Don't let desperation—"

"Fauna, please!" Mumei had suddenly grabbed her by her white collar, her fingers digging deep into the silk woven cloth. "Please… give me a chance to live. Please, trust me on this just this once..!"

Her voice was croaking. Upon the patch of grass that they sat on, they were watered by tears. Mumei, who had grieved over her failure to protect humanity, came to a breaking point. Ceres Fauna usually would hug her, comfort her, but this time, she was a part of the reason to blame for her grief.

For a moment, Nanashi Mumei sobbed. For a moment, Ceres Fauna's eyes softened after the decades of unrelenting anger. For a moment, mother nature's arms went to kindly embrace the crying owl, ignoring the made-up sobs of the trees around them.

Until a geyser of flames interrupted them.

The ice that buried him, the land that cemented him, all broken through by the holy flame. Ice turned to mist, ground turned to dust as the Everlasting Phoenix stood up from his coffin.

Ceres Fauna's eyes hardened as Nanashi Mumei's tears suddenly dried upon the brilliant display of power. Mother nature stood up, the owl loosened her grip as she watched Fauna march towards the massive sinkhole she herself created.

"Could you have not?" Fauna spat, her golden rotten eyes reflected upon the light brighter than the sun.

The phoenix held a solemn look. He had burned through the tree encasing the golden chalice. Inside, one would usually find the ash of a phoenix, alongside the casing that would keep the previous corpse. They smelled of myrrh, created with amber, just like the gem inside Aephery's sternum.

And Aephery swallowed the hardened sap whole down his throat. A piece of the phoenix's old power returned, yellow lines hailing from the tips of his hair like the tails of flames.

Fauna was more than aggravated at the sight. "Why are you so persistent? Do you not accept peace until every single thing has been burned down in your glory, phoenix?"

"Fauna." The vessel muttered the phoenix's thoughts. "I recognize, that it is my fault. But how can I fix my mistake if you do not allow me?"

Despite the distance, the two managed to hear each other's words. Words delivered by flame and insults hissed by the ground and plants.

"Your solution is madness. I'm delivering mercy upon you, I'm delivering mercy upon any others that are as delusional as you."

The vessel lowered his head, his eyes coveting shame. A look that Fauna had seen far too many times to the point that she was sick of it.

"You won't save anyone anymore."

The earth began to rumble once again, hatred towards the flames that plague its surface. Fauna extended her arms, orchestrating her rage for everyone to see.

The phoenix incinerated all thoughts and incinerated all regrets as he prepared himself to face the old friend he thought he had.

"I'll save you from yourself this time, Kiara." Fauna spat.