In a quiet forest, bathed in the soft light, two small beds of stones lay side by side, carefully arranged by hand.
Alia knelt before the stone piles, placing one last stone on top with care. Her movent was filled with a quiet reverence, as if she were paying her respects to sothing sacred.
Her normally composed face showed a rare display of emotion—grief mixed with a deep sense of responsibility.
Standing a few steps behind her, Spark watched silently. His aloof deanor was unchanged, but a hint of curiosity flickered in his eyes as he observed her actions.
After a mont, he broke the silence, his voice calm as ever.
"Why are you piling up these stones?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Alia paused, her hand lingering on the smooth surface of one of the stones. She didn't answer right away; instead, she took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts.
Finally, she turned to face Spark, her eyes reflecting the seriousness of the mont.
"These stones are a gift, a sort of grave for the two seniors. It's the least I could do for them," she said, her voice steady but soft.
Spark tilted his head slightly, his expression unreadable.
"A grave? I didn't know that," he remarked, a touch of amazent in his tone.
Alia smiled faintly, though it didn't reach her eyes. "I wanted to leave sothing behind for them here, in this world. A marker, a reminder that they were here."
Spark's gaze shifted to the stone beds, and for a mont, he seed lost in thought.
The idea of creating a grave for those who had passed hadn't occurred to him. In his mind, death was the end, yet he could see how much it ant to Alia.
After a brief silence, he spoke again, his tone more reflective. "It's a kind gesture, I suppose."
Spark continued to watch her, his aloofness softening slightly. There was sothing about the way she honored the dead, acknowledging even the smallest debts, that struck a chord with him.
As Alia finished piling the stones, she stood up and brushed the dirt from her hands.
She took one last look at the stone beds, her gaze lingering on them as if saying a final goodbye. Spark remained silent, respecting the mont.
Finally, Alia turned away from the graves. "Let's go,"
Spark gave a small nod and began to walk alongside her, his usual calmness returning.
But as they moved away from the graves, he could not help but glance back one last ti, a thought lingering in his mind.
Alia had shown him sothing he had not considered before—the significance of small acts, of honoring those who ca before, even in the simplest ways. It was a lesson that, despite his detached nature, he would not forget.
"Honoring the dead, hmm…" he mused quietly to himself.
As they walked away from the stone beds, the forest around them grew quieter, with only the occasional rustling of leaves breaking the silence.
Spark's usual aloof deanor returned, though a trace of the earlier reflection still lingered in his gaze. Alia, on the other hand, couldn't shake the nagging curiosity that had been in her mind for a while.
She glanced over at Spark and asked. "About Chaos…is it okay for you to let him go?"
Spark, who had been lost in his thoughts, looked at her, his expression as calm as ever.
"Yes," he replied, nodding his head slightly. "That place is his ho. He cannot leave it empty."
Alia furrowed her brow in thought. "But you said you tad him. I thought you and Chaos had been companions long before, but it seems I was wrong. You only t him inside, didn't you?"
"I did t him in the forest when I was kidnapped here by those shady people," Spark response was sa as the last ti.
"As for how I managed to ta Chaos? Well, I guess I'm just a natural charr," he boasted with a smirk.
"There you go again," Alia sighed, rolling her eyes. But her curiosity only deepened.
She had assud that Spark and Chaos shared a long history, But The idea that they had only t within that abyssal place was surprising.
She opened her mouth to ask more, but before she could speak, the ground beneath them trembled violently.
A deep, resonating roar echoed through the sparse forest, causing the trees to shudder.
Alia's eyes narrowed as she looked in the direction of the sound, her heart skipping a beat.
Through the gaps in the trees, she saw a large plu of smoke rising into the sky, the thick, dark column twisting like a serpent.
"What's happening there?" she muttered, frowning as her gaze remained fixed on the rising smoke.
Spark, unperturbed by the tremor, observed the scene with mild interest.
Before he could respond, a bright light enveloped his body, causing him to lift off the ground. He looked down at himself, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Oh…" he muttered, as if he had just realized sothing. "I suppose I could use a free ride."
Alia barely registered Spark's words as she flew toward the source of the disturbance.
Spark floated behind her, surrounded by a soft light that gently but firmly pulling him forward.
As they neared the source of the smoke, the dense trees began to thin out, revealing a clearing up ahead.
The roar they had heard earlier grew louder, now mixed with the sound of crackling fire.
They stopped at the edge of a vast, barren plain.
Before them, in a distance not far away, lay a massive crater, its edges charred and smoldering, with smoke billowing from its center.
The air was thick with the sharp stench of burning earth and the lingering traces of magic.
Alia's eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of the scene in front of her.
From their vantage point, they could just barely make out figures surrounding the crater.
Even from a distance, their imposing stature and the sharp precision with which they moved suggested sothing far from ordinary.
These figures were tall, with tan skin and muscular bodies that stood out against the barren landscape.
They moved in perfect unison, their arms raised as they unleashed a relentless barrage of spells toward the smoke-filled center of the crater.
Arrows cut through the air, massive boulders were hurled with incredible force, and countless spells lit up the sky, all aid at an unseen target hidden within the smoke.
"What are they attacking?" Alia muttered, her voice laced with confusion.
She had witnessed battles before, but this was sothing entirely different. The sheer intensity of the assault was overwhelming, yet the target remained obscured beneath the thick veil of smoke.
Just then, a thunderous roar erupted from the center of the crater, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
The sound was disturbingly familiar, a chilling echo of the one they had heard earlier in the forest.
Alia's heart raced as she focused her gaze on the center of the crater, spreading her senses to see through the smoke and dust.
Suddenly, sothing shot up from the center, moving so fast it was nearly impossible for those tanned figures to track.
However, Alia, in the distance, managed to follow its movent. She held her breath as she watched the giant creature ascend into the sky, a blur of motion that disappeared in an instant.
For a mont, the world seed to hold its breath, the only sounds being the distant crackle of flas and the low murmur of the wind.
But the silence didn't last.
In the next mont, screams of agony filled the air as the tan-skinned figures surrounding the crater withdrew in horror.
Alia's eyes widened in shock as she saw what had happened—several of the figures had been reduced to nothing more than splatters of blood and gore, their bodies torn apart by so unseen creature.
The ground around the crater was stained with the grueso remains of the fallen, their once-imposing forms now reduced to re pools of blood.
One of the remaining figures, who had been preparing to cast another spell, suddenly froze in place.
His body stiffened, and his head slowly turned as a large shadow lood over him.
His eyes widened in terror as he stared up at the enormous being that had appeared behind him.
The creature was a towering four-ard monstrosity, its massive body battered and dripping with the blood of its recent victims. The creature's presence was overwhelming, its aura radiating raw, primal power.
The tan-skinned figure, now fully aware of his impending doom, seed paralyzed by fear.
His mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound ca out. The creature's shadow engulfed him, its sheer size dwarfing everything around it.
Without a word, the creature raised one of its bloodied arms and, in a swift, brutal motion, brought it down on the helpless figure.
The impact was so powerful that the ground trembled, and when the dust settled, all that remained of the figure was a crimson stain on the earth.
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