Episode 4 : The Lost Great Beings 2 (Flashbacks 1)

“Lia...halia...Thalia!” Vita shouted trying to get her friend back into reality.

“Huh?” Thalia looked at Vita who is holding her shoulders. Confusion filled her eyes as quick as thunder.

“Thalia, I know that all of this is hard for you but we need your power” Vita thought that her words would soon get Thalia's spirits up but Thalia's focus seems to be on a different matter

“Oh my, the story doesn't seem to be on a good path now” Cyiel said while shaking his head. “Its thrilling at least” Lucius commented as he tucked his body on a blanket. ‘That isn't exactly what you should be feeling right now..’ Emperor Aldric thought as he facepalmed hearing Lucius.

“Vita, the one who was sent by the empire 17 years ago, was it her?”

After hearing this question Vita dare not look into the eyes of Thalia. How hard must it be for her tell to her friend the fact that the little girl her friend has long treated as her own child was the same girl that has been spying them since she had a mind? Nonetheless she knew she needed to tell the truth to her friend, even if it would hurt her.

“As per the reports result, it is indeed Seofhine” Vita said almost stuttering. “I understand, let's not focus on this, now tell me the casualties and all the remaining available people, prepare for war because I know that we can't solve this verbally, there's no more talking, it was a trap from the very beginning” Thalia pushes back all the emotions she held for that young girl and only thought about their problem now.

“So she's a traitor from the very beginning” Said the grand duke.

Vita sighed as she watches her friend slowly regain her senses. She knew how hard this is for her but as she said herself: this won't be solved verbally.

“Let's begin with the journey, we brought a total of 90 elementalist and 110 witches and lost over 5 witches and 7 elementalists on our way to the gates and then on the fight at the border, we lost a total of 43 elementalists and 56 witches so this leaves us with 40 elementalists and 49 witches by our side. Moving on, there was a total of 300 elementalists and 500 witches when we left our base here but now there's only 104 elementalist, 57 of them are injured; and 234 witches, 92 of them are injured, and almost 39% of our injured are dying. As for the missing numbers I know you know where they are now” Vita read the report as her frown continuously deepens word by word. She skip the total numbers of death and only read the living counts as she wanted to lighten Thalia's mood even by just a little bit.

‘Now that's some bad casualty’ Thought the group leader, Celius, behind Cyiel.

Thalia hearing the report also couldn't help but frown but then she remembered something. “What about Livia? Why isn't she here or perhaps she's at her base? What's the condition of her base here? Is it that bad that she needs to go there herself?”. Vita shook her head before explaining. “All of her base here are now under the empire and they listen only to the command of that sh*tty emperor” Vita visibly gulped her anger. “How can that be? That's only possible if-” Thalia begin shaking her head in slow motion as the realization hit her. “Oh no, dear heavens, please- she- she isn't” Thalia covered her mouth with her two trembling hands.

“According to the article 678 of the empire, once a commander of a powerful force inside the empire dies and has no delegated new commander after 5 hours, complete authority would be given to the emperor before getting a successor to inherit the force's power but as Livia and her 3 successors are all dead and not just anybody can inherit the tower, all the power would be given to the emperor for as long as the tower has a new successor and according to the towers rules, it must take a mage a complete 100 years to become a candidate successor and one would need the highest talent for 100 years straight or else the whole thing would restart and we aren't exactly in the position to wait for all those hundred years” Gosh! How much she hated those kind of rules and now they're all coming for her which was not good.

“Then what about Serenity's Aquila's? They must send a delegated successor, for all I know they aren't the ones who would let the empire get their towers power, right?” Thalia said with a troubled expression. “Serenity or Aquila's are in no opinion of that for now, almost all of the Aquila's and a large portion of serenity were massacred by demons and all portal connecting to our realms to this (Leseche) are also all closed” Answered Vita.

“Okay, now they're in the biggest trouble, no help from home can reach them this time” Emperor Aldric said with a stoic face. “Stop making that face, you look bad” Stated the Anugus kid, ‘This piece of sh*t’ Veins started popping on the emperors face as Lucius tried distancing himself from him for fear of getting harmed. (A/N: You caused that yourself fool 🙄)

Thalia finally couldn't contain her tears while Vita hugged her in comfort. That night they spent their time crying and remembering their times with Livia.

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Flashbacks

“Lithy! Vity!” Shouted by a little Livia to a little Thalia and a little Vita.

“Livia, why are you here, shouldn't you be practicing with your Juniors and seniors?” Asked Thalia.

“Running around the corridors is prohibited in our academy Livia and do not call me with such disgusting names” Reminded by the little Vita who had a poker face, she could never understand why this little girl, called Livia, from the mage peak (aka tower) was always smiling everywhere she spread her trouble. She doesn't particularly hate the smile but that doesn't mean she like it either, or she would just never admit. (A/N: I think its the third option)

“She definitely just doesn't want to admit it!” Said by Lucius with determined eyes”

“Aw, aren't they cute, gl?” Cyiel pointed at the chubby little girls, “I can agree” Celius nodded with a fond smile.

The little girl, Livia, pouted and complained to her other friend, Thalia. She showed Thalia her most adorable and wronged face. “Lithy look shes bullying me again!”, Little Thalia could only sigh at her friend's daily dose of cute fights. “Alright alright, stop arguing you two. Vita don't nag her just this time, okay? And you little troublemaker, you shouldn't run next time” Thalia negotiated to the two. She knew that as long as she talks this two would eventually stop.

“She seems like their negotiator from the beginning, huh?” The elven grand duke settled with a fond smile. He doesn't let anyone know but he really loves kids no matter what race they are.

Hearing this, the little mage pouted before nodding, she didn't want to stop but she didn't want to make Thalia upset or mad either. On the other hand Vita had an annoyed face, “We all know this won't be the last time” She whispered in annoyance, well, she was technically right.

The arrogant little mage looked at Vita with an unhappy face while thinking: ‘Hmph, just because you're my friend i'll forgive your words to me this time’.

“What an arrogant little brat she is” Emperor Aldric laughed in visible delight. He hadn't seen such presumptuous little kid for a long time. ‘Of course the little sh*t besides me doesn't count, he's more than presumptuous’ He though as he rolled his eyes.

“Alright let just all just go back to our places or else the instructors might get mad after noticing our disappearance, it's almost our next class” The little elementalist reminded, fearing different possible outcomes.

- Flashback ends -

The witch Vita had a small smile while reminiscing this event. Eventually she started laughing after she remembered how puff Livia's cheeks were when she was trying to get Thalia's sympathy. It was so big that she thought it would pop at any second.

The elementalist looked at her weirdly and asked “Why are you laughing?”. Laughing isn't really what you would see your friend do when another friend dies, right?

“Yeah, it isn't” Lucius said with distaste in his face. On the other hand the elven grand duke nodded his head in pure agreement.

“Do you remember when we were younger, Livia would always run at the academy's hallways to meet us after cutting her classes while we're on our way on delivering some things? I never exactly knew how she knows we're out and where we are” Vita explained with fond eyes, she didn't notice how the lower part of her eyes and her nose became redder and redder nor did she notice how water started dripping from her eyes like waterfalls.

“She would always shout our names with ‘ty’ in the end and of course I'll lecture her and then you'll stops us then she'll nod like a little aggrieve kid trying to earn your sympathy. How fun were our early days when we did not need to worry about the darkness of this world and we could still enjoy every single bit of our lives” Continued the great witch. For /another/ moment she wished she could go back to the past and hugged that arrogant ball of sunshine. (A/N: Aww! I knew she liked Livia's smiles from the very beginning!)

“I knew it!” Lucius pointed at the screen in glee. “Ugh! Kid we all k-” Just as emperor Aldric was about to taunt the kid again he felt a cold hand on his left shoulder. For a moment he felt bugs crawling on his left arm. When he looked at his left he saw a (creepy) smiling elven grand duke.

‘Haha, all of them must be getting along’ Thought the group leader, Celius. As he ignored the fact that Aldric was trembling all over.

(A/N: This is their seats:

[Cyiel][Lucius][Aldric][Saphfine-elven gd]

[Celius], The rest of the seats are empty |Celius is behind Cyiel btw|)

“Truly our youth will always be the best of our lives, we fall and fall but stand up. How I wish she was still here” The elementalist said as she poured all her sorrow out.

Oh, how fun was their early ages must be.

“What a great friendship” Commented by the syrria archimage who was taking notes of everything that's happening. “Yeah, truly a great friendship” Lucius said while nodding at the archimage. “Wise words they have there” Added by the Cibiades emperor, Aldric, he showed a fond smile for once.

“Falling and standing up, isn't that what life is?" And yet again another meaningful phrase from the elven grand duke which was yet again praised by everyone.

The group leader at the back nodded and he also couldn't help but murmur: “Speaking of friendship, everybody is opening up, isn't that a good sign for friendship?”.

“Did you say anything, mr. gl?” Asked the Cibiades emperor who seemed to have heard the gl say something. “No, I said nothing, let's continue” Celius explained and then pressed the start button and everyone was once again emersed in the movie aside from the elven grand duke who looked back at him. “It is” Saphfine mouthed to the stunned other.

-

“Di di di ... system successfully opened ... the system needs to inform the gl that the people here do not need to sleep even if it night time since they've died once ... di di di ... system turning off” A mechanical voice sounded once again without anybody hearing. (A/N: This guy needs to learn not to spoil things to the readers, duh, not me being rude af at this chap 💀)

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“Haha, if that girl sees me crying she'll laugh for sure” Vita said trying her best to laugh but anyone can tell that wasn't a credible happy laugh. It was nothing but a useless way of cheering someone around her or simply herself.

Seeing this the elementalist also tried her best to ease the mood by telling more stories of their childhood. “I do remember your daily dose of cute fights, but do you remember that one particular day that you cried?”, This new story that the elementalist brought up confused the witch greatly, “Was there ever such day?”. “How could you forget that? let me retell you!” Thalia looked at her weirdly before continuing once more.

-: Flashback :-

Little sobs from a certain corner was heard, two little heads passed by and seemed to recognize the crying child. The two little heads ran at the dark corner, one blond, another brown.

“What happened Vita? Why are crying?” The blonde head asked. “Nothing” Vita hid her face on her knees while she tries to stop her crying noises.

But unlike the blonde (Thalia), the brown head (aka Livia) was harsher, “Could it be nothing you little coward, haha, you can't even say who bullied you, what a cowardly little witch”, Livia rolled her eyes as she looks down at Vita.

“I believe you don't just tell that to someone” Emperor Aldric once again facepalmed, “That's basic manner, your majesty” Lucius said smugly. “Do you expect me to not know that, your highness?” The emperor looked at the younger coldly. “Well, I apologize if I did” The Anugus prince looked back daringly. ‘I swear if the other seniors weren't here I would have committed a crime! I swear!’ The emperor felt veins popping out of his face once again while the crown prince beside him revealed a small smirk.

After hearing this, without any further a do the little witch was provoked and instantly couldn't help but spoke out loud the reason she was crying, “I'm not a coward! I'm not a coward! It's that d*mn human cultivator who made me step a realm lower! Huh?!”. When Vita realize that she said something she didn't want anyone to know, she hurriedly ran away. After witnessing all this the little elementalist ran after her in worry, leaving the little mage all alone "Hmph, coward".

“That seems by far a little too harsh” Cyiel pointed out in worry. “They're kids let them figure it out” The elven grand duke said. “Well, both of you aren't exactly wrong” Celius said, he could see the two people's point.

...To be Continued!...

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...Goodbye!...

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