House of Amarin

The sky was still dark purple, thick clouds of energy swirling above the world, flashing with lightning. Still, at least it no longer sent dread through the people living on Meriath, shaking their souls to the core. Lia was still at the scene of their final battle, being reunited with her friends and family, grinning from ear to ear.

The second to arrive was Lucian, who stopped close, taking in his disciple's return slowly before Lia jumped at him, hugging him close, planting a kiss on the side of his face. Next came the Misfits, who, one by one, rushed forward, giving Lia from arm to arm, hugging her repeatedly, and finally ending up in her brothers' arms. It was a reunion they all looked forward to, and every hardship and near-death experience was forgotten in an instant.

"So that was the... leader of the Undead? What the hell happened?" Lakhmu asked in the end, still reeling from the sudden, apocalyptic events that unfolded out of nowhere.

"It is a long story... but I can tell you all about it." Erias chuckled, and it took time for the others to realize who they were talking to. Of course, the moment it happened, people couldn't help but come forward, wanting to at least look at the legendary figure of the past returning from the dead. As to his whole story? Many had to wait multiple decades to learn about it.

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"You want to say that Mother has gone missing?"

Two days later, down in the southern fortress, the leaders were having a meeting, including Lia and Erias. They were just as surprised and worried by the news that Kawu and Parthorn relayed from the western base. Everyone was concerned as Reyra simply disappeared, with only the notice that someone or something close was within their territory.

"Could have been an... Undead...?" Solren asked, his arms crossed, his face calm, but his fingers were digging into her biceps.

"We just don't know." Kawu sighed, trying to look strong but just as worried as his children. The only thing that drew a smile onto his face was that his daughter returned, and if not for the chaos everyone was dealing with, he would have rushed over immediately. "I am planning to head out and look for her the moment people have been settled down..."

"I will head there too!" Solren said, making his brothers nod their heads.

"I'll join you." Lauron added, looking at his eldest brother and then at his youngest sister, "You two should deal with the aftermath."

"You mean...?" Razael furrowed his brows, but Parthorn already spoke up, continuing Lauron's words.

"The House has to have a leader. It was always our laws, and now you will be the new head of House Amarin!"

"Me?!" Razael yelled, snapping his head towards Erias, who simply chuckled, waving his hand.

"Don't look at me! I led you people for a long time; I already died once! I am deserving of some rest! I am retired! I lead nobody, only myself! Don't even try bothering me with issues from back home! I am not here to lead any of you! Heck, it is best if most people don't even know I am back, let's just say... I am an Amarin. That's all. Instead, I will go search for Somia first... I need to find her, and if nothing else... bring her body." He sighed with a bit of melancholy mixing into his joyful tone, "After that, I will help you look for Reyra."

"We have a lot to do..." Sighed Rangi, looking at the present leaders of the Houses and Meriath. "First, we have to talk about the Realm Gate!"

"I visited the top of the mountain... or what remained of it." Lakhmu grunted, shaking his head, "It got mostly erased, and the currents there are still extremely violent. Below the 9th Tier, it is scuicide to go up!"

"That bad?" Erias asked, listening to him with all of his attention focused on Lakhmu.

"Worse... Even I felt endangered being there! It was as if the unnatural winds wanted to suck me out of Meriath and into the abyss! As I felt it, the outside world's energy stopped aggressively flooding in, but the Gate suffered damages."

"You mean the Realm did..." Rangi murmured, making Lakhmu nod.

"Most certainly. I saw cracks that were mending themselves together but ever so slowly. The doors look like something that barely hanging on their hinges, so... all things considered, we barely avoided a disaster."

"What about the Keys?" Razael asked, and Erias pulled out a box that had the three Realm Keys in it. They were ownerless after Lumamon's death, and going by how Lia's ring acted, they would attach themselves to someone whom they deem... compatible.

"Don't look at me!" Lia put her hands up, making Rinzen chuckle a little, standing directly on her left while Lucian stood on her right, smiling. "I already have one; I don't need more!"

"I won't touch them with a stick!" Erias laughed when the heads turned towards him, "I am not fond of cockrings."

"Err..." Nobody really had an answer for him as... he was someone legendary... yet he sounded especially coarse right now. Only Lia nodded rapidly, flashing a thumbs up at him. If she could, she most certainly would give up hers. It somehow felt... too big of a responsibility.

"It is best for them to have an owner!" Hajna interjected, appearing from her golden disc, bowing towards the rest. "If it gets into the wrong hands, it could mean trouble! The more one has, the stronger his control could be over Meriath! You saw what Lumamon did! He used it to manage to seal Meriath and also create his own little space... And... there is the Golden Claw issue."

"The who?" Many asked, making Erias and Lia shrug.

"This... could be a long explanation! Sit, please!" Lia sighed, and as one who had no barriers on her mind, she told them everything.

"So... from one quagmire, we fell into another, eh?" Lakhmu grumbled, rubbing his temples with both hands, "Did we even win?"

"We did." Erias quickly nodded, "Even if they are amongst us, they are not like the Soulbound Sect. They won't try to destroy us; they will try to control us."

"The difference is?" Solren questioned him, his voice cold and telling... he wasn't looking at this new threat any differently.

"There is. The biggest one is that the masses don't need to fear death anymore." His ancestor replied, looking into his eyes, "The Undead is gone... they were destroyed! With the annihilation of their refuge and leader, their souls can't exist anymore! You saw what was happening; their spirits were exterminated by lightning!"

"Yeah, why is that?" Lauron asked, remembering his curiosity about the strange events.

"Imbalance." The answer came not from Erias but from Hajna, "Mostly the imbalance of time. Their creation, where they lived, had a different time flow. Their existence became something that, simply by living there, got desynchronized with the Cosmos. My people knew about this a lot as we were studying the stars and the Cosmos. It is a cardinal sin, one that is punishable by the laws of nature! Of course, they were destroyed the moment they came back! Lumamon thought that this was his tribulation... he was simply delusional. The moment you lose your touch with the Cosmos, you are dead to it!"

"You never shared this with them?" Lia chuckled, making Hajna smile and sound a little bit... vindicated.

"Why would we? Knowledge is the best weapon one can have! We wouldn't share all our secrets even if we were allies on paper, hah! So no, we never told this to anyone! But I guess... the Golden Claw knows this rule, too, as they never retreated like the Soulbound Sect did. They never got desynchronized with Meriath and, through that, with the Cosmos. It is the Law of Harmony, as we called it in my time."

"We will deal with them when the time comes!" Lakhmu's voice boomed as he sat up, clearing his throat, "We need to focus on the here and now! First, let's choose new hosts for the keys! Listening to Hajna, it is best if we control them, and maybe we can use them to help our home recover! Even if the doors are open, we can't really leave, can we?"

"True!" Lia agreed loudly, pushing the box towards Lakhmu, who, after a bit of hesitation, picked one up... but nothing happened. He tried all three, but they simply slipped from his fingers any time he tried them on.

"Well... fuck." Rubbing his bald head, he just couldn't help but smile dejectedly... it seemed he didn't have what Lia had in her. "Is it connected to No-Space?"

"It could be." Hajna hummed, thinking loudly, "We never managed to figure it out. They were fickle... there were times when it was not in our Empress or Emperor's hands but... in a loyal servant's or soldier's... Of course, it wasn't really known by others, but... it did happen."

"Let's see!" Lucian shrugged, grabbing one, and the moment he focused on it, the ring flashed, and by now, it was firmly attached to his ring finger. "Oh... Shit."

"Cool! We have a matching one!" Lia grinned, and when Rinzen heard that, she reached out, touching another that, soon enough, was fitted firmly on her finger just the same. "Ahahahaha! Even better!"

"What about the last one?" Lakhmu asked, watching it unfold, and a moment later, everyone tried it, but nothing happened. "Haaahh... okay, it seems amongst us there is nobody else who is worthy in its eyes... Let's safe-keep it, and when someone promising appears, let them try wielding it!"

"Why are you looking at me?" Erias asked, but after a pleading glance from Lakhmu, he put the box away with a deep grumble, careful not to touch the ring itself. "You should-"

"No!" Lia scoffed, knowing him well enough by now, shielding herself with Rinzen and Lucian, "I am not touching it! I am fine with one!"

"Refusing power... never seen it before," Hajna exclaimed in a soft tone, honestly surprised at the two Amarins' stane, but Lia just winked at her.

"Look at that dumbass! Hogging them all... now he is dead, and all three had been our trophy in one sweep!"

"Hm... true..." She bobbed her head, thinking deeply about it.

"As I said!" Lakhmu raised his voice again, "Let's continue our meeting, as we have much to go over! Besides the state of the Realm Gate, we have another big problem... The sky remains dark and violet, with no signs of clearing up!" While speaking, he looked at Lucian, who took over as an expert on the dealings of No-Space.

"No-Space is still in turmoil; I can't access it... I can't teleport. It is as if it rejects us forcefully, and if I tried it with more aggression on my part, it hit me with a rebounding force, and lightning came down..."

"The explosion and destruction was enormous," Erias explained, telling them what he did with the Academy and with the Soulbound Sect's refuge.

"Sorry!" Albert groaned as the dragons collectively looked away, not wanting to be part of the discussion.

"Nah, it was great!" Erias laughed, winking at his old friends, "It made sure to wipe them fuckers out! But... think of it as throwing a bigass stone into a calm lake! Until the ripples die down, things will be... turbulent."

"It was not like throwing a stone into it; it was like an underwater explosion!" Lia corrected her ancestor, "A big one! A FUUUUCKING big one!"

"That it was..." Rangi agreed with her coarse description. "The land has been broken apart."

"What do you mean?" Erias asked, leaning forward, furrowing his brows.

"We already have confirmation. The continent has experienced cataclysmic shocks, and multiple segments have been simply... broken off. A quarter of my home has submerged into the ocean; more than a 100km long shoreline is gone, and it is still sinking. By our first estimations, we will have multiple islands being formed from the remains there, and it isn't stopping soon! There are still earthquakes daily, and we are still drawing new maps. But... we can already gather the fact that Meriath has been splintered and new contintes are being created. The land is still drifting apart as we speak!"

It was news that was hard to imagine, difficult to see from where they were sitting.

"We will travel around and confirm it," Arcus added as the dragons all nodded in agreement. "Help where we can and move people from the danger zones. But... the death toll will still be... significant if this is true."

"Even if it is..." Erias spoke, his voice reminding Arcus of a time when he was the despot of the surviving people of Meriath, "This time... they won't rise again and can pass into reincarnation peacefully... Whatever happens next... all was worth it. Never... NEVER forget that!"