"He disappears, but for a moment, I see a girl in purple. I think it has to be something with the light, right?" Avidia says, unsure about what she just saw.
"No," Elga replies. "I feel her as well, Madam Gluttony." Her pulse quickens. "How could I forget a formidable, insane person like you?" she murmurs to herself, wiping the sweat off her chin.
"What are you going on about?" Avidia looks at her with concern, while all the blood drains from Ricka's face. "Are you two okay?"
"I have a feeling while he's using that dagger, something is familiar," Elga voices.
"Once a woman who carried out the first triumphant war, now trapped in a dagger she can't escape—hoping to bring her master back so she can end him and become free," Elga clarifies.
"She can't bring him back; that's impossible. I'm sure what remains of him is—" Ricka cuts himself off, stupefied. "The daggers."
"That's right. Everything has a loophole, even this presumed 'perfect world.' He will be brought back. That is something I know for a fact. It's just a matter of who will bring him back and for what reasons."
"So you're saying there are others after it?" Avidia asks.
"Yes," she answers. "Things are unraveling so fast; I guess that's why the path ends." Elga murmurs softly, her voice fading like a whisper in the wind. "It didn't foresee me continuing like this, here. I have more issues to attend to." Her red cloak fades into dust.
She pauses, her eyes glancing over Avidia and Ricka as if seeing beyond the present moment. "There are many forces at play in this era, some even beyond this world. Now that we've come near the Village of Longevity, I must depart—for now. Until the moment is right."
With a deep sigh, she steps forward, the back of her shirt opening out in a diamond shape, beginning to shimmer. Slowly, golden wings materialize, their radiant feathers unfurling in opposite directions. As they beat in unison, the sheer force of the wind pushes them back, making Avidia and Ricka shield their eyes from the brilliant light and energy.
"I will leave you with a few truths." Her voice, now resonating with a divine echo, fills the air. "When the Monarchs are reborn, so too shall the next god. The one of mana will seek Cipher, and when he does, he cannot refuse."
Elga's form begins to dissolve, her body turning to golden dust. "One among you," her voice now like a distant prophecy, "will not be able to move forward as you are and..." She tries to withhold her words. "Take care of yourself and Cipher..." She fully disappears, her sorrow-filled voice lingering in the air as they stare blankly into space.
"She...was." Ricka feels his stomach turn and turns to the side, vomiting up everything he has eaten before.
"A god," Avidia finishes, her fingers tightening around her staff. "There's one thing we must not do, and that is tell Cipher."
"Why?" Ricka rises, cleaning his mouth. "He has to know!"
"No," she says firmly. "Cipher looks up to her in a way. So let him kill her when the time comes, and let it end there. Hate is something we must not bring into that. Do you understand, Ricka?"
"Okay." He hangs his head, still trying to control his own emotions, which are becoming strange to him.
Sometimes he feels this overwhelming rush of rage and anger taking over him, like cracks appearing in a wall he has unconsciously placed around himself. Yet for the slightest moment, when he sees the wings on her back, he feels the urge to do something.
Something inhumane.
As the same vision of a blurred woman glitches in his mind again, followed by a headache, Avidia feels differently. She knows she must not let Cipher know at all costs, since she understands his background and knows it would destroy him.
And it is also a weapon for her, something that will push him when the time comes.
"Hopefully it doesn't," she voices to herself, looking at the dagger.