Erta sat in the middle of the garden as she bathed in scarlet light from the crimson moon that hung high above.
She gathered the light into her body, cultivating it into a seed that would sprout within her Source. She nurtured it well with the divinity contained within her feather kept safely within her soul. And as it sprouted, the golden and silver lights danced in merriment.
This was truly the best way for her to regain her Light of Truth. In fact, because the Scarlet Light was among the purest manifestations of the Truth, her Light of Truth in this life would be much more powerful than it was in her previous life.
And because of its purity, it even allowed her to further enhance her comprehension of her other aspects as she dove deeper into her cultivation.
Seeing that there were no complications on Erta's condition, Caelum prepared to leave. He first released his Wing of Reason to send out twelve funnels.
He had created a few more during his stay in Longgram while Erta was asleep. Although Ciel was still assimilating with the benefits she received from the Scarlet Moon, it did not mean that he could not do anything without her. Ciel just made it a lot easier and more convenient.
Besides, the completed blueprint for the funnels was stored in his Wing anyway. He could access it along with the materials at any time.
Caelum controlled the funnels, positioning them in different points surrounding Erta. And with the Scarlet Moon giving them the power they needed, the funnels shone a resplendent red.
Soon, a giant scarlet lotus flower appeared over the garden. It was a mere conjuration, but the power it held was greater than what any S-rank Chosen could ever unleash.
It was equivalent to the Primary Avatars who were usually given a special category by the Global Alliance as SS-rank or SSS-rank. And there were very few such people. In fact, only Caelum and Erta were registered as SSS-rank Chosen by the GA.
Caelum looked at the lotus thoughtfully. He sighed in defeat. Despite it being created through his power, such a thing would have been impossible had he not recovered his memories as Li Xing Yue.
This was a formation called the Twelve Paths Sword Lotus Formation. Each of the twelve funnels served as swords forming three layers of protection.
Three swords surrounded Erta the closest, forming the inner layer. Four swords further away from the inner layer forming the middle layer. And five swords formed the outer layer. Each of the swords represented a petal of the lotus, thus creating the scarlet lotus conjuration.
It was a strong defensive formation that had been taught to him by his Master who had adopted him as her son in a previous cycle, the very same Master who trained Erta or rather Himeragi Shizuna since she was old enough to hold a sword.
She was a very important person to him. In all his past lives, at least from all those that he had remembered, she was the only mother he ever had.
He looked at Erta once again. He heard from her that his mother's soul fragment was within her due to the feather, the Fenghuang Down.
So he swore to himself that not only will he end this Great War, he will also find a way to resurrect both Elise and his mother.
After ensuring that everything was working well and that Erta was safe, he flew away heading toward Halo.
Not all of the buildings on Earth had crumbled to ash and dust like the House of Grace's estate. That place received the full brunt of his rampage, after all.
Halo's main headquarters was one of the few that survived the onslaught with relatively functional facilities. The others that survived were either of the same magic engineering business owing to their strengthened building materials or just the lucky ones.
He did not want to alert everyone since they were all busy rebuilding so he instead he silently entered his room. It was a bit damaged due to his rampage, but it did not bother him at all.
He went to Ceres' room from there. He could clearly feel her aura pulsing harshly. It was like a bull battering a wall over and over again, trying to break it down.
She seemed desperate to get stronger, but doing such a thing will not only have no effect, it could even hurt her badly. So he released his Serenity, and like a cloud of tranquilizer, it calmed her down.
Her aura became steady albeit a little weak from overexertion. But Ceres recognised the power, so she jumped out of bed and opened the door. Without even checking to see who it was, she tackled Caelum in an embrace.
"You brat, what the hell were you thinking ramming your head on the wall?"
She did not reply. Only a soft sniffling could be heard. Caelum sighed as he hugged her back, comforting his little sister. His heart ached as he remembered how he treated her after awakening from his coma.
Why did he have to treat her that way just because he did not remember who she was other than being his sister? Was that reason not enough to care for her and love her unconditionally? Was that not what he did when he met his other sister for the first time in a previous life?
A sister that he did not even know he had… the memory of her was like a knife that plunged into his heart. She died in his arms. His little twin sister who looked up to him and loved him more than anything... died protecting him when it should have been him protecting her.
His arms tightened around Ceres as he remembered her proud smile in the end.
"Brother, you're hurting me."
"Ah… I'm sorry."
After being freed from his tight embrace, Ceres looked at her brother in worry. The fact that he was here meant that he must have recovered already, but that did not mean he would be perfectly fine.
Just that moment earlier told her that there was something still plaguing his mind. But she was not aware of his past lives nor Erta's. To her, reincarnation was a fantasy.
Even after hearing Reynor speak at length about how her brother was the reincarnation of the Ancestor of Grace, to her it sounded like delusion. He could not begin to imagine her brother as some ancient being who has lived countless lives prior to this one. It was simply to farfetched for her.
Even with mana and all the miraculous things that had happened in the world, she could still not believe in the existence of such a thing. So she could not know what was troubling Caelum.
"Are you okay, Brother?"
"I'll be okay. Don't worry about me. But you, do not do that again unless you really want to cripple yourself. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but… I feel so useless. I'm too weak. Back there, I couldn't do anything even as Sister nearly died! I can't wait for the Ancestor of Grace to be born! I need to get stronger now!"
Caelum smiled bitterly as he listened to her. He was not surprised to hear that Erta nearly died. Erta herself had told him about it. What made him speechless was that the Ceres he knew was a scared little girl who could not escape from the shadow of the past.
And yet now, that same little girl was angry at herself for being too weak, for not being able to get stronger no matter how much she wished for it.
Perhaps it was not fear that held tight her throat all this time after all. It was helplessness. And Caelum knew that feeling all too well. He raised his hand and patted her head gently. As she calmed down, he spoke.
"You won't have to wait for long. I will make you stronger. But first, I need you to do something for me."
~~~
How does one remember their life?
Was it happy? Did you share many joys and laughter with the people around you? The scenery you pass by each day, are they painted with a beautiful filter in your mind?
Do they make your heart ache with nostalgia? Do you long to relive the moments, whether big or small? Does it entice you? Or are you satisfied, not wanting to sully that precious memory with the indulgence of time?
There was a being that lived off the opulence of nature. It never starved nor was it ever in danger. It saw the lives of the beasts that roamed the land through their own eyes. A frog, a snake, an eagle, a deer, a lion… they were not the last.
The being only knew what the beasts knew. Its ignorance was born of nature. And so it indulged in the sweetness of the little girl it chanced upon in the forest.
And it too saw the life of the girl through its own eyes.
And it too knew what the girl knew.
For the first time, the being could think just as any human could. And it could love just as any human could.
It loved the people who welcomed the girl back. And she was loved by them for it. It pained her to see them riddled with the imperfections of life, the plague of pain. And so she healed them the only way she knew how.
She made them perfect yet still capable of all the good in the world, all the love in the world.
But in the eyes of the world, they were all the evils that should never exist. They were demons spawned from a witch of infernal blood. And so they gave them a baptism of fire.
And as her children screamed, the girl… the being, she too baptised the world.
All the evil in the world gathered to fuel her tortured heart. And she screamed out the agony she held deep. And the skies cried out the black and red pus that tainted her heart.
How does it remember its life? Was it distraught?
Did it not shed enough tears and blood for those it loved? The scenery it swore to protect, can it no longer be painted with anything but fire and blood?
Did it want to turn back time? Or did it wish it never learned of love, never took the life that would eventually break it?
Did it fall into desperation? Or did it give up, becoming all the evil it never wished to be?
It wailed amidst the rain. Because life should have been filled with love.