The sound of flames burning through dead wood echoed, as if from a distant world beyond his reach.
Messmer kept his eyes closed as his thoughts drifted. He saw a sky swallowed by Darkness and a faint flame far away. A man sat upon a throne of fire, yet the firelight could not reveal his face.
The man's face was hidden in shadow. He had become Kindling, a Kindling so impossibly beautiful that it forced the edge of Darkness to arrive a little later.
Yes, only a little later. Everyone knew that Darkness would come sooner or later.
Messmer's heart suddenly jolted. He did not know why he had thought of such things.
Despair swept in like a black storm, blotting out everything as it wrapped tightly around him.
That deep helplessness and hopelessness weighed on his heart like heavy lead, nearly leaving him unable to breathe.
Yet within that Darkness, a magnificent and unmistakably real radiance bloomed.
Everything felt so real, as though he had witnessed that grand legend with his own eyes.
Why did he feel such despair? Messmer realized something was wrong.
He was in the Lands Between, a beautiful world, troubled and chaotic, yet never so desperate that people lost all hope.
Why could he feel only the despair of emptiness and solitude? That world should have been very far from him.
He sat up from the floor. A small, warm flame burned quietly beside the goddess statue, its light spilling over him like a hot spring flowing down a hill.
Messmer looked around. Rellana was nowhere to be found, and the man he was supposed to kill had disappeared as well. The candleholder in the distance, beyond his reach, had gone out. Only he and that man and woman remained here.
He found it strange, yet he did not dare speak. He barely even dared to breathe too loudly. In the small room he had taken for a "safe house," there was a silence no one would dare disturb.
Gold and silver intertwined before his eyes. The man and woman's long hair was beautiful, and their perfect faces carried both joy and vexation.
Messmer could not understand why those "parents," who should have been locked in bitter hatred, looked so relaxed and at ease, as though they were discussing what to have for lunch tomorrow.
And in such a large place, the man and woman just so happened to be standing beside him, as though waiting for him to wake up.
Messmer rose from the floor and walked to his father and mother's side. He simply stood there, silently watching them as time slowly passed, like an ordinary family of three.
"Deal?" his father asked softly.
"What deal?" His mother folded her arms, pretending not to know what he was talking about.
"His life. It was mine anyway. Deal?" his father asked again.
"How is that enough? He is my son... he should be worth more!"
"A Lord still isn't enough? Then forget it." His father slowly turned his head away. Firelight flickered in those blue-green eyes, like two dancing sparks.
"Fine, fine, I agree. Is that good enough? Honestly, you men. Can't you give me even a little ground?" his mother said in annoyance, looking to the side together with the man.
Messmer met his parents' gaze, and in an instant, all his awareness was swallowed by that gold and firelight.
His whole body trembled, as though wrapped in warm light, and he could not help stepping forward.
"Mother!"
Messmer's cry seemed to briefly awaken her maternal love.
Marika reached out to the son she had abandoned.
"My child, you must have suffered. Come, let Mother look at you."
That gentle voice echoed in Messmer's ears, so tender that it made him feel faintly uneasy.
In his memory, his mother's tenderness had always been restrained, subtle, almost mad.
"I'm sorry, Mother. I failed to kill Father," Messmer said apologetically.
The corner of Nolan's eye twitched. As expected, this was a wayward son. He obeyed his mother in everything, yet shouted about killing his father. It was simply outrageous.
"It's all right. Mother has already made up with Father. From now on, you must listen to Father. Do you understand?"
Marika stroked Messmer's head, and the mighty Demigod lost every means of resistance in that moment.
"...Yes." Messmer glanced at Nolan. Though he hesitated, he did not refuse.
Nolan's eyes widened. He could not help wondering whether he should let Marika raise his children in the future, should he ever have any.
Messmer was far too good and obedient in front of Marika. Nolan had never seen any parent manage something like this.
"Good. What a good child. Don't disappoint me," Marika said.
Messmer felt the touch on his head grow lighter and lighter. He looked up and saw his mother's body slowly dissolving into golden motes of light. Tears slipped from the corners of his eyes before he realized it.
"...Father, how did you do that?" Messmer asked.
At first, he too had thought he was dreaming, but the feeling of his mother's presence had been far too real. That was his mother. There was no mistake.
"I actually know a little soul magic. Just think of it as me inviting a god over," Nolan said, spreading his hands.
"Inviting a god? A divine descent ritual?" Messmer frowned.
"You can understand it that way. I only dragged her soul over for a chat. That woman likes messing around in my dreams, so she can at least let me order her around once." Nolan folded his arms.
Messmer looked at Nolan for a while, then said dully, "I don't understand."
"What don't you understand?"
"Everything. How did things become like this?"
"That's what I should be asking." Nolan rolled his eyes. "I want to know why you tried to kill me when this was clearly the first time we had ever met."
Messmer pressed his lips together, seeming unwilling to speak. But remembering his mother's words, that he must listen to Father, he still opened his mouth.
"When I met you in the city, I saw Mother."
"Mother wept to me... She said you had been bewitched by the enchanting Empyrean, and so you abandoned..." Messmer's voice grew softer and softer.
"If it's hard to say, then don't. I understand." Nolan waved a hand. That woman really was full of nonsense. "Looks like I guessed right after all."
Bewitched by an Empyrean? He and Miquella were completely innocent.
Messmer stayed silent. It was not that he found it hard to say. It was just that his parents had finally made up after quarreling, and he did not want to ruin their relationship over some minor matter.
But his father had asked, and his mother's instruction came first, so he had no choice but to answer.
"Aren't you going to ask what the deal between me and your mother was?" Nolan asked.
"Deal?" Messmer froze. He had indeed heard them say something like "deal" earlier.
"It was about your life." Nolan spread his hands. "I have an ability that can turn others into my own power. Did you know that?"
Messmer paused, then shook his head.
"You understand now, don't you? Marika and I never had any... well... romantic entanglement." Nolan paused.
"You were only the sacrifice she gave me, so that I would gain the qualifications to become a Lord. So, how do you feel about that?"
Messmer was silent for a moment.
"Have I disappointed Mother?"
The Demigod's answer left Nolan speechless, and what followed was an even longer silence.