Chapter 96: Celebration
The streets of Renar erupted with celebration.
Banners of the torch hung from every building, Ryteline's colors flying proudly against the autumn sky. People crowded along the parade route, cheering, throwing flowers, celebrating not just survival but victory.
Their long-time enemy, Zankur, was gone. Destroyed from within by revolt and external pressures.
The war was over.
At the front of the procession rode Auger Maxwell on a white horse, looking every bit the legendary hero the stories painted him as. Soldiers marched behind him, wounded but alive, bearing the scars of battle with pride.
From the castle balcony, Dawn stood beside her father, King Alberto, and her brother, Crown Prince Lindel, watching the parade. Her expression was carefully neutral, the face of a princess celebrating her kingdom's victory, but Lea could read the exhaustion in her surface thoughts even from a distance.
The war might be over, but Dawn's work was just beginning.
Lea herself wasn't part of the parade.
Shadow Guards didn't get public celebrations. Their work was secretive by nature, necessities that kept kingdoms functioning. The civilians cheering in the streets had no idea she'd stood alone against an army, that she'd pushed her powers to the breaking point, that she'd nearly died buying time for their evacuation.
And that was fine.
She stood on a rooftop overlooking the parade route, wearing her bird mask out of habit, her crude Cursed Construct clothing having been replaced with proper Shadow Guard attire. The cheering felt distant, unreal.
"There you are.", a familiar voice called.
Jim appeared beside her in a flash of black and yellow lightning, grinning that Trailblazer grin, "Figured you'd be hiding up here instead of enjoying the party."
"I'm not hiding.", Lea said, looking at other groups on different rooftops, "I'm observing."
There are surprisingly a lot of them.
"Sure you are.", Jim sat down on the rooftop edge, legs dangling over the side, "You know, you could go down there. People would cheer for you too, if they knew what you did."
"They don't need to know."
A moment later, a small black cat appeared from nowhere, jumping onto the roof with impossible grace. It sat down primly, looking at Lea with eyes that held far too much intelligence.
"Solafant?", Lea asked.
The cat nodded, an entirely too human gesture for a feline.
"They wanted to join our celebration.", Jim explained, "Figured a cat would be less conspicuous than their usual form."
"You call this a celebration?", Lea gestured at the three of them alone on a rooftop.
"Intimate gathering between people in the same boat.", Jim corrected, then pulled out a flask, "Besides, I brought drinks."
Lea couldn't help but smile slightly beneath her mask. She removed it, accepting the flask and taking a sip. Strong alcohol burned down her throat, exactly what she needed.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the parade continue below. Auger waved to the crowds with practiced ease, and soldiers marched in formation.
And the kingdom celebrated.
"So.", Jim said eventually, "what's next for you?"
Lea looked toward the horizon, where the ocean lay beyond the city limits. "Australia, the Divine Domain of Unconscious is three thousand meters underwater off the west coast."
"Underwater, huh?" Jim rubbed the back of his neck. "That's going to be tricky. I still don't know where my Divine Domain is. Fate and Destiny don't exactly have obvious physical locations."
Solafant the cat meowed, and somehow both Lea and Jim understood the meaning 'I'll come with you.'
"You want to join us?", Lea asked.
Another nod. The cat's tail swished. More meaning conveyed wordlessly, 'Device V can function without me for a while. And someone needs to make sure you two don't die doing something stupid.'
Jim laughed, "Heh, fair point. We do have a track record."
Lea considered it. Having a Sixth Step demigod along would make the journey safer, and Solafant's Void could potentially nullify threats they encountered.
It was practical.
"Alright.", she agreed, "After things settle here. Give me time to recover fully and prepare, maybe a few weeks."
"Give Dawn time to stop having existential crises about Charlotte.", Jim added with a smile.
"That too.", she chuckled, taking another sip.
They passed the flask around, even Solafant taking a symbolic lick (which shouldn't have worked for a cat but somehow did). The parade continued below, the kingdom celebrated, and three demigods planned their next impossible journey.
"To Fifth Step!!", Jim raised the flask.
"To Divine Domains!!", Lea added.
Solafant meowed in agreement.
They drank, and the city cheered below, unaware of the quiet celebration happening above.
=0=0=
Far from Renar, in a wilderness untouched by civilization, Charlotte sat beneath an ancient oak tree.
Animals surrounded her, birds perched on branches above, rabbits nestled near her feet, a deer watched from nearby, and even a fox sat close enough to touch. They showed no fear, drawn to her presence like she was some kind of fairy tale figure.
She had always been good with animals, regardless of what world she was in. They just found her existence restful.
Charlotte held a book, not from the Monochrome Library, but one she'd written herself. A record of this world's development, her observations, her experiments. She turned a page, reading her own notes with mild interest.
"And so concludes this chapter.", she murmured to herself, "War ended, Heroes celebrated, Pieces moving into position."
A small bird landed on her shoulder, chirping curiously.
"The next page of this Paean shall begin soon.", Charlotte continued, speaking to the bird as if it could understand. Perhaps it could, reality worked strangely around her, "The Dreamer will seek her Domain. The Trailblazer will find his path. The Architect will claim her throne fully."
She turned another page, smiling at something written there.
"And in the New World, something wonderful and terrible will be born. A Savior, they call it. How delightfully vague.", she laughed softly, "I do love when prophecies leave room for interpretation."
The bird chirped again, and Charlotte reached up to gently stroke its feathers.
"Yes, yes, I know I'm being cryptic. It's a habit.", she closed the book, displaying the title 'Secret of Life', "But the story is far from over. In fact, I'd say it's barely begun."
She leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes, surrounded by animals who simply existed in her presence without fear or judgment.
"Let's see what happens next, shall we?"
Her azure eyes stare at the error of reality in front of her, standing there without so much as a twitch.
=0=0=
In the New World, the Land of Crimson Tree stirred.
The massive tree that had absorbed the Crown of Thorns weeks ago began to move. Not swaying in the wind but pulsing, breathing, as if it had become something alive beyond simple plant matter.
The bone cage surrounding it cracked. The eyeball fruits that had wept blood now glowed with internal light. And at the center, within the cocoon of flesh and divine energy...
Something opened its eyes.
The Saintess Olivier, who had been maintaining vigil nearby, fell to her knees immediately.
"The child...", she whispered, tears streaming down her face, "The Savior. The Goddess' gift to this world."
The cocoon split open.
And the prophesied child of the Goddess of Madness took its first breath.
The world trembled as one god moved her piece on the chessboard.
The next page had turned. The Paean continued. And nothing would ever be quite the same again.