"I'm sorry my friend."
Currently the hand of Varsas Gungir is inside his friend's chest. The moment he knew there was someone to protect the rest of the estate, he did not let even the slightest mistake slip past.
That night, the sky above the land of the Gungnir family and the surrounding tremble. The air almost shakes with the impact. And after that a spear like hand found it way into Vaine's rib cage.
Varsas attacked upward and after everything is said and done, all that force passed through Vaine's chest directly.
Only now does he realize what happened.
"Get away from me!" The other man angrily kicked him backward even though both of them know at that moment that kick would have done nothing.
The other man shakily stands up. Varsas looks at his bloodied hand with a hint of regret, though it passed away quickly.
"Since when?"
"For the last three months."
The man still has a bloodied hole in his chest. He can only shakily move away.
"What was your last memory? Of when you die?"
Something is wrong, Varsas decided.
From the mannerism of the person opposite of him, the way his entire being oozes experiences and hardship. It is different from the Vaine he knew who was completely opposite of that. It is also clearer in that fatal exchange, Vaine shy away, cementing his defeat. If he traded everything, blow for blow it would have prolong the battle. He wouldn't win, but Varsas wouldn't have gone so far. It is completely different from the Vaine he knew, who would have stubbornly met the attack head on.
It is as if someone has dealt unrevokable damage to his ego. He is not the man he used to be.
"...I remember walking down the street of Mahaima after a heated battle with a nascent divinity. I was tired." But Varsas doesn't remember dying. He could have died without knowing, but that is probably not what happened. It was tough in that last battle, but he didn't remember being injured that badly.
"Hah. You died in a ditch. And the incident three months ago?"
In a ditch?
Lufa approaches after seeing that everything is over, but Varsas gestures her to stay.
"I fabricate the evidences to not make a scene."
"I knew it was too good to be true. Even though I was hoping that truly fate work in my way for a change, and even though it sounded so like you. Varsas Gungnir fell off a horse, was injured badly and returned home to nurse his health. It sounded just like you doesn't it? Someone who doesn't know how to ride a horse. Back in the day I mean."
It changed when we all grew older, Varsas learnt to ride a few years down the line, but at the start he was truly hopeless.
In another world, truly he could have really fallen off a horse and stayed home nursing his wounds. But this is not that world, this is a world where a miraculous event happened and the future hero who ended the war ended up back in the past.
In a perfect world, they may have never involved each other. Varsas, Vaine and Viola.
The chain of relationship is so complicated that it is better that it never has happened.
At least that is Varsas's philosophy. What he wanted for this life...
He is pretty sure that what he wanted for this life is also what Vaine wanted. That he never met Varsas, and that is why he tried to make sure they never cross path ever again.
Funny how that work.
"It would have been better if you never existed in the first place."
"That is what I'm going for."
"If we have never met, I would never have to compare myself to you."
"Is that..." Finally Lufa standing slightly away from the unconscious madame Gungnir realizes who the person currently in conversation with Varsas Gungnir was.
She wisely backs away to give the longstanding partners some space.
"If we have never met, Viola would have been mine. I would have been king and saved my own kingdom. We wouldn't have gone through that songs and dances with Varsas-reon, that guy was exactly like you, from the mannerism to his personality. He was a nightmare. You could have been the leader that we need and I didn't need to step in. Instead you just have to drive everyone away with your weirdness, why is that?"
Someone once said to Varsas 'You are a strong, but you are a horrible hero you know?'
It applies to most thing that happened in his life, and Vaine was there to witness it. In a perfect world there would be a person with great strength and charisma uniting the world against the existential threat, however Varsas's presence alone causes a lot of strife even among allies. Love triangle, a clash of personality, a person sick of his passiveness...
He is still just human in the end. He may be strong but being a leader is beyond him. He knows how to gather people, but he doesn't know how to lead.
And that is why Vaine is mad
"If you are a horrible person then be horrible. If you are a great person, then rise up to that standard. Don't half-assed that, and be a pseudo horrible great man? Do you know how frustrated I am? That you could never do what is needed. You are horrible Varsas. Even now that you come back, you didn't even contact us, me, Viola or anyone. You didn't do anything, even though you could have done so much more. Even though I'm your friend, I can never understand it."
The man vents his anger, it was all true though. Varsas failed at many things that could have been avoided. They are friends, they have been through many thing. Vaine always looks up to him, but there was one thing Varsas always wanted to say to that friend of his.
"I'm still human you know."
...
The silence was deafening
"...I have had enough of this."
The other man bit his lips. Shakily he moves away.
Both of them know the wound is fatal. If he does not get lucky tonight, he is going to die. But it is beyond both of their hand now.
There was a great rift among the two that cannot be bridged.
Even if Varsas has something to say, nothing is going to reach Vaine. He will accept nothing. He is stubborn that way, always standing with his own two feet.
So he says nothing, but he believes his rival will manage something somehow. A miracle if he does not accept Varsas's help, but they performed miracles all the time.
So one man walked away while one man stays. A little girl approaches the man who stayed and ask
"Aren't you going to do anything?"
"What can I do? He is my friend."
As if he heard the word, the leaving man turned back for one last time.
"For old time sake, let me tell you this. The future is not perfect, we all have burdens on our shoulder. We will not meet again."
The man leaves.
Today battle...
Even though he wins the battle, the one who lost the most was Varsas Gungnir.
In the middle of the night, in the land of the Gungnir and neighboring countries, it was as if the sky has shattered. And in the epic center of all that-