Martyr looked confused on how to answer her. "I would support you on the way but I think Flügel set that bar a little high."
"Maybe in strength, but not in terms of being a hero." Vanagloria responded.
"I want to be the "greatest", not the best. I want to do so much good that people can't find something to argue against my legacy. I want to become somebody that inspires other heroes after me to be the best they can be. I want my image to stand in the hall of fame as a challenge to every other hero to be as great as me."
"Huh."
Vanagloria told this to Martyr as he slurped up his cereal, still trying to process what she was saying.
"I know it seems a little unrealistic but like I've spent so much time like… like I've been training through track and basketball and combat. I worked so hard just to get into my A ranked combat class. I've even thought about fighting moves and techniques I can do for when I got my element."
Vanagloria had been dreaming about the idea of being the greatest all her life. She knew she could justify to him how she could accomplish it, but trying to collect even some of those thoughts right now was getting hard.
"I have so many ideas on like everything around how I can become the greatest. Like I have a… Okay, wait hold on just a second, I have something to show you. I'll be back in like… I don't know, like three seconds, hold on."
Vanagloria shoots out of her chair and runs out to the living room, leaving her food on the table.
There was no way she was gonna be able to explain what she was thinking without her notebooks.
As quickly as she can, Vanagloria snatches her backpack up from the floor and runs back into the kitchen, flying back into the seat across from Martyr.
"Hold on one more second. I promise this is important and relevant to what we were saying and stuff."
Ripping through her front pocket she pulls out a handful of her little dairy sized notebooks. They were all beaten and torn up from Vanagloria using them for so long but they were almost priceless to her.
Sorting through them she finds her gold and light blue one. Her two favorite colors.
They were her 'Glory Notebooks' and contained all of her important thoughts about becoming a hero she would scribble down before she forgot them.
"These are notebooks filled with random ideas centered all around becoming stronger and a good hero. Hold up, I'll find a good example for you."
Vanagloria flips through the pages trying to find a really good idea. Honestly she didn't even know what she wanted to tell him, there were so many different ideas swirling around in her brain and scribbled on the paper. Trying to pick from just one was gonna be insane.
"Can I look through one of them?" Martyr asked.
He was still sitting there, just eating his cereal as he listened.
"Oh… uh… yeah, I guess. I don't know if you'll be able to read it though. Or really even understand what's going on. It's a little chaotic."
It really was a mess to any one else that laid eyes on it. To Vanagloria it mostly made sense, or at least she could understand why she thought what she did.
The notes weren't really intended for anyone else to read them. The notebook's purpose was for Vanagloria to scribble down whatever good idea she had as quickly as possible. Before she got interrupted or the thought slipped away. They weren't really made for other people to understand.
Vanagloria didn't even know if there was something in the notebook that she didn't want him to see. She wanted him to get an idea of what her mind was like when she thought of it. She was worried if he would think she was crazy after just a glance.
"That's fine. I got bad handwriting too, I can probably understand it. Plus I'm kinda curious."
Martyr did look genuinely intrigued. He said it with a welcoming smile too. Vanagloria wondered if he could tell that it was a big deal to her.
"Okay." Vanagloria cautiously slides over the blue notebook to his side of the table.
"Oh wow, you weren't kidding." Martyr said with a small laugh.
It stung Vanagloria a little bit to hear that.
She knew he wasn't trying to be judgemental and he was just joking around but it still didn't feel great.
It wasn't really the first time someone else had seen one of the notebooks.
Most of the time she wrote in them was when she zoned out in class or group conversations. So naturally people wanted to know and see what it was.
Pretty much every time they either made fun of her or just stopped caring after one quick look.
Even when Vanagloria had shown Blair the notebooks, Blair seemed a little disinterested in them.
"Wait, is that PI?" Martyr held the book a little closer to his eye.
"Oh yeah, I learned like 50 digits of PI and I just sometimes write them down when I'm bored." Vanagloria was actually quite proud of that.
"That's crazy… In a good way of course." Martyr flipped a few pages ahead.
"Thanks."
"This whole thing is like an ADHD thing right?" Martyr paused on reading to look up at her.
"Yeah… wait, you know about that?"
"Yeah, Blair mentioned it to me through one of her old letters. I don't think I've ever met anyone with it though." Martyr said, taking another bite of cereal.
"Oh, that makes sense. But yeah I think these notebooks does… do help with my ADHD now that I think about it. I try my best to put all of them in here as quickly as I get the thoughts. That's why they're so unreadable, sorry."
"No, don't be sorry. This, honestly, is pretty incredible. Like some of the ideas I can read are things I would've never thought of. Like taming a baby dragon. That's insane but might actually benefit us a lot if we can pull it off. Or all of these crazy hand movements we can use to shoot out element. Or even this schedule on how we should use our breaks effectively. You even have a drawing of a full set of armor." Mad says, as he points to certain parts of the page.
"Vanagloria, this could actually be a goldmine of ideas we should consider." He said.
"T-Thanks. I think they really can be important." Vanagloria responded.
"Maybe ADHD is actually some sort of thinking superpower." Martyr says nonchalantly, leaning back to continue reading.
Vanagloria really didn't know how to respond to that.
She had always loved how her mind worked, but the outside world always seemed to resent it.
All of her teachers got frustrated when she couldn't listen in class, all of her friends thought her impulsive thoughts were weird, all of her report cards showed her disinterest in class work, all of her past relationships had been ruined because of her overthinking every little detail. Even she herself hated her stutters sometimes, even she hated losing her train of thought when she talked, she hated how those gave her social anxiety despite being an extrovert.
She hated how it made it impossible to read or how it would demotivate her from doing 'productive' work at school.
But she loved how it would distract her from that and get to day-dream all day long. She loved how excited it would make her think about becoming the greatest. She loved her dumb random thoughts. She loved making up dumb funny senarios in her head that only she would get.
She loved her little superpower.
And it was so strange that somebody else that had been let in, praised and seemed to understand it.
It was a really nice feeling.
"Oh no." Vanagloria thought to herself as she looked back up at the guy, still reading through the notebook.
She mentally slapped herself. "That's the exact type of thinking that gets you to like him."
But he really was turning out to be a really cool guy.
"But I'm just gonna get myself hurt."
"…nk I'll read the rest later."
Martyr had his hands extended out with the book in one hand and the pen in the other.
"Oh, uh… thanks." Vanagloria said, quickly snapping out of her thoughts and back to reality.
Then she realized she had the pen she kept on the side of the notebook in her hand.
"Wait, did you write in it?"
"Yeah. I signed the back page."
Vanagloria flipped to the back page of the book and saw his signature on the very last line, written down with surprisingly good handwriting.
'Martyraveli L. Catharsis'
"Why?" She asked him, as he picked up his bowl and got out of his chair.
"I don't know… just a random idea."
"Huh." Vanagloria sat there for a second, looking at the page.
"Y'know, you're not the only one who has ambitions to be the strongest." Martyr flipped the handle of the sink, turning it on.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I don't know how far the other three are planning to go with the Vying, but I've always wanted to see how far I can push my potential."
Vanagloria turned her chair around to face him. "No way. Wait, don't tell me we're gonna be competing."
"Well… not really. Ugh, how do I explain this…"
Martyr pauses for a few seconds.
"My namesake. right?"
"Tupac Shakur?" Vanagloria already started to get where he was coming from.
"Yes. I mean, there are times I wish I wasn't bared after him because… y'know it's kinda nerdy to be into earth entertainment and I get made fun of for that a lot. But, that guy in my mind was the absolute definition of a hero. He was such an inspiring image of fighting oppresion and discrimination on earth that he became like the black jesus down there."
"Yeah, I've seen earth magazines call him that before." Vanagloria said.
"But he was almost too much of a fighter. Which is pretty much why his image stands so strong, even on the islands. Whenever somebody would threaten or hit him, shoot him whatever him he would hit back. He wouldn't worry about the consequences to himself because he only thought of what good it would do to help make the world a better place. But ultimately it was that mindset that killed him. Because at the end of the day he was only human."
"Uh-huh."
"But then that's where I come in. I have powers that he didn't. Powers to become the best there is. Not the greatest or most accomplished, but a force so invincible I could cast away any sort of oppression without dying and leaving only my image to help people."
"Damn." The idea was making Vanagloria giddy.
"And it's not in the same way that Kratos used his power to become the Executor Void and judge people based on their morals. But instead to rid the island of dictators like him."
"Holy shit, that's amazing. I would absolutely help you do that." Vanagloria was getting super excited.
"Yeah, although I know Spec and Sam aren't really trying to do much more than get rich and famous." Martyr said, turning off the sink.
"Yeah Blair always wanted to become a big famous light knight so she could find out who her parents were. And also to have a say in how they take care of poor towns like ours. She never really cared much about getting strong like me. She almost seemed scared about it sometimes…"
"Vanagloria." Martyr said, putting his hands on the table to get her attention.
"Y-Yeah?"
"Screw those guys. We should become this hero duo where we just train each other to be the strongest we can be. You become the greatest, I become the strongest." Martyr had a massive grin.
"Yeah!" Vanagloria jumped out of her chair. "Wait… we aren't abandoning them right?"
"No, we just train together while they… I don't know. Whatever they are gonna do during our break weeks." Martyr reiterated.
"Oh ok. We should train right now then."
"Yeah, grab your food, we're going back down." Martyr started to walk out of the kitchen in excitement.
"Hell yeah! We're getting this endorsement!" Vanagloria said, following his instructions.
"So you two are trying to get an endorsement?"
A female voice Vanagloria had never heard before came from the entrance of the house. The voice seemed to shake Martyr down to his core, causing him to freeze in the doorframe of the kitchen into the living room.
Vanagloria walked up behind him and looked around his side to see a familiar looking woman closing the front door with her gloved hand.
The woman had full brown archery clothes. She had big brown boots and the most insane tactical strap pants with a crap ton of pockets.
She had a scary looking leather mantle with an even scarier looking hood with a sharp beak-like part of the cloth coming down over the tip of her nose, covered in a green cloth mask.
With her mask and hood on, the only thing showing on her face was her tan skin and angry dark green eyes that had bright green element smoldering up in them as she glared over at the two of them.
She was holding a gargantuan silver bow, along with a whole quiver of arrows that was slung across her back.
Sure, the forest champion looked intimidating but Vanagloria still didn't really get why Martyr was so shaken.
"It's time for your trail." Vega said with a menacingly raspy voice.
"Oh great." Martyr said. He sounded normal. Maybe he wasn't that shaken down, or he was just a good actor.
Vanagloria definitely felt that tension in the air but honestly she wasn't too intimidated. Maybe it was because he had seen Vega in action and Vanagloria hadn't but she wasn't feeling nearly as scared.
Plus it made her feel really cool when she slipped past Martyr in doorway and walked up to the champion.
"I'm ready." She said to Vega with genuine confidence.
"No you're not." Vega responded bluntly after taking a good look at her.
Vanagloria was so caught up in feeling cool that she completely forgot that she really didn't know what she just said she was ready for.
"Where's your survival gear? Do you have a bag with food and water packed? Are you gonna go out in the jungle with running shorts that show off your ass like that? Do you have any weapons? Where's the rest of your team?"
Vanagloria was so caught off guard by the onslaught of questions. She felt like a teacher had just scolded her in front of her whole class for not listening. She really wasn't prepared. She wasn't even able to process half of the things Vega just said.
"I-I uh… I d-d…"
"Sorry, if you give us an hour we can get all of those things ready. We didn't really know when you were gonna show up." Martyr quickly responded for Vanagloria, which really relieved her.
Vega turned her attention back over to the fire boy.
"Imagine this as a hypothetical situation..." Vega walks up to Martyr and glares up at him right in his face.
"A forest dragon goes on a rampage in one of my villages. As my knights, I call for your immediate help."
Out of one of the hundreds of pockets Vega has, she tosses two medieval satchels onto the ground in front of her. One for Vanagloria and one for Martyr.
"You have three minutes to gather together something you will need to survive in the wild to track down and hunt this dragon. It has to fit in this bag."
"Starting now."
The next three minutes were probably the most chaotic three minutes Vanagloria had experienced in a while.
The first thing she did was rush to her bag to grab a new pair of clothes. The comment about her shorts really embarrassed her a lot, especially right in front of Martyr. She made sure to get the baggiest pair of pants she could find. She found a pair of her light blue and yellow flannel pajamas pants with massive pockets Blair had got her. She also made sure to get a longer sleeved shirt to protect her arms. Blair also got her those.
Blair got all of her clothes now that she thought about it.
After a quick change she ran out of the kitchen bathroom to see Spectre stuffing a ton of food into his satchel. It was the first time seeing him since he got mad at her, which was kind of awkward but thankfully Spectre seemed too busy to notice her.
As she went back into the living room for her bag, she saw Vega sitting on the couch sadistically watching Martyr search through the two different backpacks he had brought.
"Ugh, I hate her." Vanagloria thought to herself. Vanagloria could feel anger boil up inside her chest. She held it back though, not wanting to say anything impulse. Vega had all the power in the situation, all it took was one slip up and Vanagloria couldn't get her perfect endorsement record she had dreamt of.
Vanagloria snatched up her Satchel, grabbed her bag and started pulling stuff out.
Another pair of clothes, deodorant, her black scribble notebook, a hoodie in case it gets cold, a pillow she stuffed in there, a few water bottles, her yellow blanket that now probably smelled like Martyr, a few silver coins she found at the very bottom, some more stuff and…
"Wait, where's my iPod?" Vanagloria found her earbuds but couldn't find the actual device itself.
"3… 2… 1… done. Get up, we're leaving." Vega stood up from the couch as she announced this.
Vanagloria actually was pretty happy with what she was able to gather but she still didn't know where her most valuable item was.
The front door swings right open, startling Vanagloria.
"Yo guys come outside of the cave there's a giant d…" Blair pauses as she notices the situation.
Samsara comes running in right after her with a lot of energy but immediately stops when she sees her brother standing over by the TV.
They both looked completely embarrassing right now, with the insane amount of bags and over the top outfits. The pink wigs and detective outfits looked super out of place. They clearly had a very fun time.
And the embarrassment didn't stop there, Blair had all sorts of random makeup samples on her face and Samsara had a giant marker goutte and monocle drawn on her face.
None of the bags had anything of substance in any of them either. The most survival-like thing they had in there were boxes of fun unhealthy foods and empty plastic coffee cups.
Everything else looked like they just got for fun like new fun clothes and makeup for interviews or the bag that looked like it was just filled with DVDs and games for their new TV.
It wasn't like they did anything wrong, it was just the horrendous timing.
"Are we leaving already?" Blair asked innocently, as she covered up her face.
Vega studied them for a second and seemingly came to a conclusion.
"So this is the rest of your team?"
Vanagloria had a feeling Vega was smiling at them under her mask. But not in a fun "going along with the joke" way but instead she felt like Vega was laughing at them.
"Yeah." Spectre answered from the kitchen door.
His satchel was completely stuffed with food to the point where it looked like the button would fly off at any minute.
He looked pissed off at the fact that Vega was making fun of his girlfriend.
"Figures." Vega said after a sigh.
"Well if we had known you would come so soon…"
"No complaining to the champion. Knights don't get that privilege." Vega interrupted Samsara's sassy remark as she walked by her.
Vega stops to turn around after she walks through the front door.
"Well are you coming? If you don't make it on the ride in time you won't get to participate in the trail."
Vega turned back around and started walking to the front of the cave.
"I'm waiting for no one."
Blair and Samsara immediately drop their bags and run to the kitchen bathroom to wash their faces off.
"Don't wait for us, we'll make it in time." Blair told Vanagloria as they ran by.
Martyr and Spectre were already making their way out of the house so Vanagloria followed them, making sure to grab her staff.
"This is so bad." She thought to herself. Vanagloria thought she was gonna be prepared for this trail. There's no way this type of treatment should even be allowed in the competition.
Blair and Samsara caught up to them right as they got to the waterfall. Samsaras face still had traces of marker on it but Blair's face was completely washed off. She looked extremely pretty like usual.
They each had their backpacks with them and had taken off their disguises, wearing the same clothes they had on in the morning.
"What's her problem?" Blair whispered to Vanagloria after Vega was the first to go through the waterfall.
"I'll explain later. Just don't get her mad. She controls if we get an endorsement or not." Vanagloria whispered before she walked through the waterfall.
She had just taken a shower so her hair was already pretty damp but it got wet all over again once she went through the waterfall.
It would've bothered her more if the forest looking so pretty hadn't distracted her annoyance.
The midday sunlight was shining down on the stream of the water, making it sparkle. Light beams crept through the leaves of the trees leaving patches of lit up grass in the shadows of the trees. Colors in the flowers and berry bushes she hadn't noticed yet were showing themselves on full display.
"Ugh, this sucks." Blair said, wiping water off her.
Vega stops abruptly, putting her hand out motioning them to stop.
She then turns around and looks straight up towards the top of the mountain, putting her hands where her mouth would be under the mask, getting ready to shout.
"QUETZALCOATL!!!"
The mountain starts to shake.
Seconds later a colossal shadow covers the whole forest around the heroes.
Vanagloria looks up to see a gargantuan green amphiptere diving down directly towards them, cutting through the clouds at a ridiculous speed. The head must've been halfway down the ground while the tail was still unraveling itself around the top of the mountain, touching the low laying clouds.
Not only was it the biggest creature Vanagloria had even seen but also the most beautiful. Vanagloria loved dragons a crap ton and this one was really showing off why, in the most majestic way possible.
Being the amphiptere queen herself, the dragon had no legs or arms, but three pairs of massive wings carrying the serpent-like body through the air.
It's whole body was covered in luscious leaf green feathers from its head to its tail. The tips of its wings and mane were a beautiful sky blue, warm orange and a sharp scarlet red with a hint of pink at the very end.
The tail had one giant purple fur puff at the very end and was following the rest of the dragon's snake-like body as it unwrapped itself from hugging the mountain.
Vanagloria had seen pictures of this deity in history books and pictures of old Aztec artworks in her earth studies class, but she never thought she would actually see the real thing.
This was Quetzacoatl, the current avatar of the forest god.
As she swooped down from the heavens, the whole forest seemed to come alive and reach towards her as she laid down onto the ground in front of Vega. The champion seemed completely unfazed by the literal god in front of her. The other two-thirds of goddess's body slowly followed after her torso, crashing down further and further into the forest until the purple tip finally hit the ground.
Screw the skyscrapers in Phobos. Queztalcoatl could've easily towered way over them. Where her head stood right now was enough to make it halfway up one of those buildings. Stretched out fully? Who even knows.
She laid her wings down onto the ground with the rest of her tail, somehow not crushing every tree behind her.
Queztalcoatl looked down at Vega and made a small rumbling noise at her, like she was communicating.
"Get on, this is our ride to the wildlands." Vega said as she climbed through the rainbow feathers of the goddess.
"You can understand her?" Martyr asked her. He hopped on the limb of the goddess, following Vega up to the back of the beast.
"The only people who can communicate with the elemental gods are their respective champions, no one else." Vega told him.
"Where are we going?" Martyr said as Vanagloria and the rest of the group hopped on the wings behind them.
"I just said. Alfhiem's wildlands."
"The wildlands? Like the ones filled with magical monsters?" Samsara asked, catching up to the two of them with Spectre. Vega and Martyr were already halfway up the limb.
"If you want an endorsement then yes that's where we are going."
"Wait, I didn't sign up for this. I wasn't really going for an endorsement. It would be cool to get one but if it means we're going into the wildlands I'm good." Samsara looked worried.
"Yeah neither was I." Spectre said. He was using Samsara's shoulder for balance, he almost looked dizzy.
"Me neither." Blair said as she ran up right behind them.
Vanagloria hadn't really thought about the possibility of her team not having the same scale of ambitions as her.
Vanagloria was at the back of the group but after hearing her teammates saying they don't want an endorsement, she started to panic.
"I want one." Vanagloria heard Martyr tell Vega.
Vega stopped and turned around on the back of Quetzalcoatl to look at the group of elemental prodigies.
'BOOM'
"I-I also want to go for one." Vanagloria said after bolting right behind Blair who looked very shocked to see Vanagloria right next to her.
"Oh, 'You' want an endorsement?" Vega said as she started walking down to Vanagloria from the back of the beast, shoulder checking Spectre who almost fell completely off the wing of the dragon.
"Y-Yes." Vanagloria tried to say as confidently as she could. She tried to keep her back as straight as she could and make as much eye contact with Vega while she came down.
"From me?"
"Yes."
Vega stopped right in front of Vanagloria, making her take a step back. She was only a little taller than Vanagloria, but she was especially tall now with the slight boost in elevation Quetzalcoatl's shoulder was giving Vega.
Vanagloria tried to hold her head up confidently as Vega's intense green eyes bore down on her. It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her hunting mask on.
"Okay. We will split up into two groups then." Vega turned around and started her ascend up to the dragon's beautiful mane.
"One group will be with a knight of mine, she will keep you safe. Quetzalcoatl will drop you off in a forest by El Dorado. Your goal simply is to make it to El Dorado alive within a week. Your reward will be 25 gold coins and the accomplishment of completing my trail."
"The other group will be with me. We will travel to the Draconic Rainforest. Your goal will be to slay any creature I deem worthy of your reward, which is my endorsement."
"Choose your team now before we leave."
Vanagloria tries her best to comprehend everything she just said.
"Am I really willing to risk death for an endorsement?" She thought.
This was the real deal.
Vanagloria could die.
Until now she had only pondered situations like these, where she had to choose between life and glory. But now a decision like this was staring at her head on, right now.
"Yeah, I'll still do it." Martyr said casually.
"Okay that's one for my team." Vega stopped at the furry mane to look towards Vanagloria.
"How about you?"
Time seemed to stop as Vanagloria looked back up at Vega.
This trail could kill her.
This really wasn't anything to mess around with.
But also…
This was it.
This was the decision that would start her legacy.
If she didn't choose it, her dreams of being the greatest,
They could fade away if she didn't take this risk.
She could just not go for the endorsement and settle with a half decent legacy through the Vying. But that's not what she wanted.
All of those late nights with Blair, all of those daydreams that would distract her in school, all of those ambitions to become the legendary hero she had dreamed of becoming…
Vanagloria wasn't gonna let them slip by her in this moment.
"I'll do it."
Vanagloria felt genuine confidence flowing through her as she said that.
"Yeah this was the right decision." She thought to herself.
Vega on the other hand, hesitated at Vanagloria's response. She seemed to be studying her, looking at her up and down.
She clearly didn't believe in Vanagloria, that wasn't gonna stop her though.
It wouldn't be the first time he encountered somebody showing doubt at her dreams.
But that never stopped her from dreaming, especially right now.
If anything Vanagloria wanted to prove Vega wrong.
She could feel adrenaline start pumping up in her body as she thought of all the ways she was gonna shove it in Vega's face.
"Okay. Anyone else?"
"Wait…" Blair was looking at Vanagloria with a worried look. "Will you keep her… them safe?"
"I will be looking after them in case they are in real danger. But there are no promises." Vega responded.
"So are these are the only two going for an endorsement? No? Okay let's go."
Vanagloria walked up onto the back of Quetzalcoatl up to Blair.
"I'll be fine, I'm not going out there to die."
Vanagloria had never seen Blair look this worried in her life. Vanagloria knew she disapproved of her going but didn't want to say no.
Blair had always been there to support her dreams, but this decision must've been testing whether Blair wanted to go through with it.
"Promise?"
"Yeah I promise."
Blair then tackled her up in a big hug.
"If you get in any serious danger, just run, don't test your luck."
"I will." Vanagloria wasn't sure how well she would stick to that, but she didn't want to give Blair a mixed answer right now.
"Sit down. We're leaving." Vega said. Her fingerless-gloved hand was raised up to a nearby tree. The beaches and leaves of it were extending out and weaving into six securely strapped seats, attaching to the back of the dragon behind its mane.
As Vanagloria and Blair got out of the hug they sat next to each other in the back seats behind Samsara and Spectre who took the middle ones. Blair still insisted on holding Vanagloria's hand.
Vanagloria noticed Vega eyeing Martyr as he walked up on the dragon's back.
Maybe it was something to do with how casually confident he was in getting an endorsement or something but something about him was spiking some sort of curiosity from the ice cold champion.
Vega whispered something to Martyr as he walked by her, making him hault completely in his tracks. His expression turned completely serious, and almost scared.
"Nevermind, forget I asked. Do you want to signal to Quetzacoatl?" Vega said as she sat down on the left front chair.
Her intimidating thick brown eyebrows were still menacing, but seemed slightly more playful towards him.
"Uh… yeah, yes actually." Martyr responded. He looked very uncomfortable.
"Oh now she likes him?!" Vanagloria fumed in her mind. It felt like just a minute ago she had been all up in his face and sadistically watching him pack his bag. Or maybe she was a dom.
"I don't wanna think of thaaaaaaaaaat!" She yelled in her mind. She hated how quickly it could go to something unpleasant like that.
"I'm just overthinking it, just calm down."
Vanagloria tried her hardest not to squeeze Blair's hand as this ear went on in her head. Watching Vega talk to Martyr wasn't helping either. Honestly she wasn't even listening to what they were saying.
"Are we all ready?" Martyr turned around to look at everybody.
"No." Spectre and Samsara both collectively answered.
"Yup, we're ready." Vega told him.
"Aight then…
"LETSSSSS RIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!"
Martyr snapped his fingers up to the sky making a firework just above Quetzalcoatl's head.
The goddess then started to flap her wings, kicking up winds and dust all around them.
The dragon's whole body started to rise faster and faster with each beat of her wings.
Blair's hand was shaking in Vanagloria's hand as they rose. Most likely cause of heights or something.
Vanagloria's fear wasn't acting up though. Maybe it was because she was so pissed off at Vega right now, but at the same time it was just cool that this was happening. She was literally riding a dragon right now.
The waterfall started to get farther and farther away from her vision as they left Vanagloria's new home she hadn't even been in for a day.
Samsara and Spectre seemed to be trying to talk to each other over the gusts of wind overloading Vanagloria's sense of hearing.
Everyone seemed incredibly excited at the moment.
Except…
Blair's hand was really shaking now.
Like violently shaking.
"Bla…"
Vanagloria looked over at her best friend and her heart almost stopped.
Blair was completely unconscious.
Her eyes had rolled behind her head and her whole body was completely limp.
"Blair?!"
She got no response.
"Guys!"
"GUYS!"
Vanagloria kicked the back of Spectre's seat to get his attention.
Spectre turned around with at first an annoyed expression that instantly turned to pure horror at the sight.
Now he was shouting and trying to get the attention of Martyr and Samsara.
Vanagloria had no idea what to do.
She hadn't been in a situation like this before.
As Martyr and Samsara looked back, a godly purple light came out of Blair's eyes and mouth.
Her whole body was glowing.
And that's when it happened…
All of a sudden Vanagloria was standing in the middle of a giant metallic purple hallway.
Everything had become blissfully still and quiet.
The walls were ancient and mystical, inscribed with ancient languages in jet black and silver white.
Thick purple pillars were placed alongside the void black carpet Vanagloria stood on, holding up the impossibly high ceiling.
She looked down at herself to see the coolest looking armor she had ever seen. Made out of shimmering gold and rusty bronze aerolite, lines of sky blue mythrill decorated and wove together the armor.
A design she had drawn in her gold notebook, brought to life right before her.
On her left forearm she had a giant shiny gold dragon scale attached to it. Serving as her shield.
In her right hand she held Gungir, the legendary spear of Odin.
Her left eye was covered by an eye patch, obscuring her vision to just her right eye.
There were 8 other figures standing in front of Vanagloria, who stood in the center of the whole hallway.
Two figures stood directly in front of her, Vega to her left and to her right a 5' 10 boy she had never seen before.
His face was completely covered with a weird mist. It was completely clear like she was looking through a really blurry window, preventing Vanagloria from seeing what he looked like.
In front of them stood Samsara to her left and Martyr standing to her right with a colossal fiery sledgehammer in his hand and a holy crown of thorns atop his head.
In front of them stood Spectre to her right and to her left a 5' 6 biracial girl she had never seen before. She had long wavy hair, black on one side and white on the other, perfectly split on the part in the middle of her head. Her face was also completely covered in mist.
All of these 6 were facing away from Vanagloria and towards the end of the hallway, where Blair stood.
Blair's eyes were still glowing with godly purple light. She had an insane amount of purple and pitch black eyeshadow and eyeliner on, something she put on often but this time overdone to perfection.
She also donned a massive black dress that looked like it was woven together by the universe itself.
Bright specks of stars, colorful galaxies and dreamy nebulas danced upon the black fabric of the void.
The outfit was giving Vanagloria a very strange sense of deja vu. A feeling Vanagloria got occasionally around Blair despite knowing her for 15 years.
This whole room was giving deja vu, like she had been here before.
Next to her stood another figure. Although this figure was completely covered in mist. It was horrifically glitching out, like its presence here was breaking some galactic law.
They stood in front of a beautiful purple, black and white stained glass painting that almost covered up the whole wall behind them.
The painting was beautiful yet incomprehensible.
Vanagloria was drawn to it yet she could not even make out what it was depicting.
But the thing that caught her eye the most was the person kneeling before Blair and the misty figure, the only other person not standing to the side of the carpet besides Vanagloria.
He was holding the shaft of a giant black and crimson red one-sided axe planted on the ground next to him. It was easily the most brutal weapon Vanagloria had ever seen.
His whole body was head to toe completely covered in black smoke, creeping further and further away from him, spreading across the ground he kneeled on.
Although she didn't need to see his face to know who this was.
This was the most infamous murderer to walk the islands.
This was Flügel Vanguard.
The reincarnation of Kratos.
Blair, much to Vanagloria's surprise started gracefully walking up to the murderer.
Vanagloria wanted to stop her but couldn't, her whole body felt frozen, like she was in a dream.
As Blair approached Flügel he stood up and lifted up his axe effortlessly.
He then turned around to face Vanagloria, his face still fully covered in the black smoke. Crimson red fire pierced steadfast through the dark element, coming from where his eyes should be.
Flügel then lifted up his axe and pointed it directly towards Vanagloria as he stared her down with steadfast resolve.
Then a cosmic, godly voice came directly from Blair, speaking to murderer facing away from her, and speaking telepathically to Vanagloria.
"Fate will be balanced by your sins, murdering under a facade.
First Divergence, then the Crimson Terrorist and every elemental god.
The millions you kille…"