As Elizabeth's voice faded, the giant half-opened crimson eye in the sky closed again as though going back to sleep.
Caelum looked at it as he felt a burning sensation in his chest. It felt like he was missing something, a part of him that connected him directly to the Red Moon.
He wanted to find what it was, but he had no idea how to do it. He sighed as exasperation and frustration tried to overwhelm him. His control over the Red Moon was not as great as he would have liked, but it was definitely enough for what he wanted to do for now.
The scarlet light grew slightly brighter and Caelum was lifted to the skies with ease. He did not release his wings. He did not need to anymore.
The scarlet light was his domain. And anything within its influence was his territory.
And so he stood in the sky and gazed at the world below. He saw the destruction he wrought, the deaths he had caused and the silent suffering he brought upon the world. But he was not moved in the slightest.
It was true that he had lost control over his powers for a few minutes, but he really did not care. Even with Elise's words, Caelum knew that had he retained control of his powers, he would have continued until there was nothing left of this world.
In fact, he would not have stopped with just Earth. He would have surely gone to destroy all the worlds involved in the Great War. To him, they had no reason to continue existing.
They had no merits to bring Reality and Existence. They were nothing but fools manipulated by the enemy to weaken Existence itself. And they were foolish enough to let it happen.
He had no qualms about wiping them out in order to protect what was left. Even now, that urge was almost impossible to resist. It was only Elise's words and presence that stopped him. He did not want to disappoint her, his wife who had sacrificed just as much as him.
Erta felt as though molten metal pierced her heart when Caelum's placid gaze swept past her for a moment. This hurt more than the pity she saw in his eyes before. And she imagined that it hurt more than if he hated her.
His gaze held nothing but indifference, the one thing she never would have expected to receive from him.
She did not know what to do anymore.
Sanctuary has been sealed off, so even if she wanted to go back, she could not. And on Earth, Caelum was her only home. But now, she did not know if he would even welcome her back.
They have not separated physically and yet, over just a few short moments, it felt like they had been apart for years. But she still wanted to go back to him.
The guilt she felt were like shackles to her ankles, but Elizabeth's words rang in her head. She had done this before.
Although Erta did not know the deeper message hidden in those words, she at least knew that Elizabeth trusted her. And despite not knowing Elizabeth at all, Erta felt like she could trust her as well. So she flew up and reached Caelum's side.
"What do you see?"
Caelum's sudden question surprised her. She had literally only reached his side when he suddenly threw her a question. It was as though he had been expecting her to come.
Erta did not know how strong Caelum was right now, but she could tell that he was much stronger than he was before they arrived at the estate.
And for some reason, whatever this power was, the Life Covenant seemed unable to share its fruits with Erta. This meant that there was now a great imbalance between them, a gap in power that was practically inconsequential before.
However, it was only now that she realised that even she could not fully grasp just how powerful he had become.
Still, she wondered what exactly he wanted to hear from her.
She looked at the world below and saw the utter ruin it had become. She trembled for a moment as she somehow overlapped the image of the ruined Earth with that of Sanctuary during the last days of war that led to its sealing.
It was an apocalypse. The worse part of it all was that it was caused not by enemies but by the protector of the world himself.
"I see destruction."
"...And?"
"And… death."
"And?"
"What else… is there to see?"
Erta's heart tightened as Caelum pressed her for answers, but she really could not understand what he wanted her to see.
She felt extremely frustrated that he had not even looked at her all this time. Now she was being treated like a fool who did not understand a single thing she had been taught.
She wanted to get angry, but at the same time, she knew that it would only make Caelum push her away even more. But Caelum did not seem to notice any of her thoughts.
Or perhaps he just did not care anymore even though he could feel it clearly through the Life Covenant. He spoke as he continued to look down on the world.
"I see the truth."
"What…? The truth?"
"This is the truth of this world. The ruin, the deaths, the suffering…. This is what they should have been facing from the very beginning. They were only spared because of my existence. And yet, they took everything for granted."
Caelum turned to face Erta. For the first time, Erta saw the two pits of utter darkness that were his eyes.
They were like an endless abyss inviting her warmly in. And yet, even within that gaping chasm, she could see a creeping darkness that seemed to encroach upon everything, latching onto them with a crippling cold. And now that she had seen it, that pitch black emptiness moved ravenously toward her like a manic beast.
It was like a heedless wraith madly stalking the vulnerable mind that was witness to its dreadful undying. It pulsed with an ominous unspeakable presence from within the depths of his lightless eyes and seemed to breathe onto her frail skin, beckoning her to submit herself willingly to the insatiable void.
She blinked, and it was as though nothing ever happened. Caelum's gaze felt completely empty, but that was all they were. Whatever she saw, it might have been an illusion. But Erta knew that such things often carried at least hint of truth, especially at their level of power.
Visions and illusions were more often than not manifestations of something within them. She did not know what it was that she saw, but Erta knew she had to help Caelum resolve it.
Caelum continued without minding the turmoil she felt.
"I no longer have any intention of playing this game. The Avatars can deal with it. My purpose lies beyond this war."
The same words were uttered again, but Caelum's words this time echoed out across the world. Wherever the scarlet light touched, it carried his voice with it. And despite already realising it earlier through the black flames, everyone was made to truly understand it this time.
They have been abandoned.
Perhaps to most people who knew Caelum, it was a surprise. It had not been long since he began training several Chosen in Aegon, and the sudden change was something they could not keep up with.
And although they had felt his emotions through the black flames, they had still hoped that he would give them a chance.
But how could they know that to Caelum, a mere second could be as vast as millennia.
To him, everything that had happened so far was a mere drop in the ocean called eternity. And yet, it was still so slow. To him, he should have long moved on from this world and this pointless game.
Then Caelum raised his right hand and pointed to the eastern horizon. Erta was confused for a moment before suddenly sensing a shift in the atmosphere.
The scarlet light moved and carried both Caelum and Erta to another place in a different corner of the world.
When she realised that they had just crossed an entire continent without even using the most basic teleportation spell, Erta felt arms tightening around her waist and shivering.
She looked behind her to see Ceres holding onto her for dear life even though she was literally floating in the sky just like Erta.
Meanwhile, Caelum was already descending onto a plot of land scorched black from his even blacker flames. And yet, the ruins of this place were not made by his flames at all.
"Come."
The moment the word left his mouth, a swirl of wraiths, phantoms and spirits formed around him as though to drown him with their cold lifelessness.
These were all the lost souls that were trapped in this place. They were among the few whom Caelum still felt pity for. After all, they had been trapped in this place for the past three years.
They were the people who died from the initial onslaught of Earth's emergence.
They were now in the land where he was raised, the Longgram Isles.