Agnyr's final words fell upon them all like a thunderbolt... that wretch Scythe had been deceiving them the entire time.
Days upon days passed. Scythe was cast out from the people of Crag and exiled. As for Agnyr,
he remained alone beside Valerius's sealed body,
and swore himself an oath: he would not leave this place until the seal was broken — or until it was all over. In the end,
nothing lasts forever, however long it may stretch on,
and days, months, and countless years mean little to a creature such as a dragon...
Agnyr shut his eyes, and continued in his inner voice amid a deep, encompassing darkness:
"Years passed... and truly, no one came near this place — until a stranger arrived. He moved like someone who knew exactly what he was doing, someone who understood the whole matter. He drew far too close to the statue while I wasn't watching — I admit I regret my haste, if only a little. I knew nothing except that the man was after something. He was too grown to simply be causing mischief for its own sake, yet too small to have any real knowledge of something as vast as breaking or unmaking a seal. And so all that rose in me was fury, wild and unrestrained. I honored his wish, once — and I believe that was enough for us both, for humans are, at times, such lowly creatures, blind to their own limits...
And in that single moment of my rage, I found the whole place devoured by roaring flame. In mere instants, the land, as far as the eye could see, turned entirely to ash, and hundreds — perhaps thousands — of bodies lay scattered across it. I felt no remorse in that moment. But neither did I feel at peace. How is it that so many stories, so many ambitions, are left to end as nothing but scattered dust? I never once imagined it would end this way... or end at all..."
Slowly, hesitantly, Agnyr opened his eyes.
He glanced around, as though he already knew something,
then adjusted his stance as if standing for the very last time, and said to himself:
"Who am I fooling... it's already too late. And even if that white-haired boy comes,
would he even know how to undo its effect???
Very well, then — there's no escaping it now, it makes no difference either way..."
He looked down at his own foreleg,
and clenched it hard enough that the muscle beneath the scales trembled.
An image of Raym flashed suddenly through his mind,
and he let out a faint smile whose meaning even he did not fully understand, and said:
"So be it, then. I am neither regretful nor uncertain...
If it was written for us — even as a mere possibility,
even if each of us walked a different path in whatever life comes after — I am not regretful..."
Agnyr lifted his head high, and despite every ache, despite everything that had befallen him, he
cried out in a voice loud enough to reach the whole horizon:
"Let everyone leave this place now! This ground no longer belongs to the world — you would do well to be gone from it before you become part of it as well."
Everyone turned toward Agnyr after those words, for they had not been mere words at all, but
something far greater. Yet there was no time left for thought.
Agnyr looked toward Round and Daniel, who could barely keep pace with the transformed
Valerius, even with Arvela's support, and said in a calm voice:
"I'll ask only one thing of you. Weaken him — enough that he doesn't kill anyone. I want to end this myself, together with him."
Daniel turned to him, smiling with something like admiration:
"Man... can feelings really do something like that??? Consider it done..."
Daniel and Round combined their strength to hold off Valerius's onslaught,
and were barely managing to keep him from advancing.
Daniel taunted, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand:
"Heheh — funny, I could've sworn your strength had faded. Was my hit really that powerful???"
Round smiled, irritated, tightening his grip:
"Heheh — don't flatter yourself. That was only a fraction of my strength,
just to gauge yours."
Vines rose from behind Valerius and coiled around him, binding him in place. Daniel broke into a dreamy smile the instant his eyes met Arvela's:
"Heheh — that's my girl..."
But before they could savor the victory,
Valerius had already torn through the vines,
and as he surged toward them at terrible speed,
a voice screamed from behind:
"Watch out!!!"
A whirling vortex of thundering wind struck Valerius and hurled him aside...
Arvela turned toward its source and found Lyra, and cast her a look brimming with pride. But she glanced around uneasily, and said, her voice heavy with worry:
"Girl, you need to find Raym, and fast. It's time to go."
Lyra shot her an unreadable look, and before she could utter a word, Arvela cut in:
"Don't worry about us — we'll be fine. Don't forget who we are."
Lyra nodded, and rushed off to find him.
In that instant, an immense pressure filled the air.
Valerius stood on his feet with some difficulty,
his body swaying, yet his aura only grew stronger by the moment.
The ground began to shudder beneath them,
cracks spreading through the earth — but then he stopped abruptly,
as though something had held him back...
Shock crossed every face for a moment, before he settled back into his previous stance...
Suddenly, he shifted into a flame-art posture,
and his entire body ignited, wreathed in fire from head to foot. He began advancing toward them
through choking heat and crushing pressure, and with each step, the gravity around him seemed to
grind everything to dust. He had nearly closed the distance to their bodies, which were on the
verge of being fused into the earth beneath them —
but before he could land another blow, his body was hurled backward by a single punch,
and a voice rang out alongside it:
"Now... it's time for round two!!!"