After explaining what she remembered, Amelia, Orion, and Karteira all walked away of the destroyed Bandir.


    Just as they were getting back on the dirt path, the rain finally began to fall.


    Taking shelter under a tree for the time being, they had multiple options at the moment.


    "What do we do now? We can return to Horizon if you want?"


    The first one to talk was Karteira.


    "We can do that. At first, I thought about moving south immediately, but I should learn to take breaks. I also have a few things to tell you."


    While agreeing with her, Orion now wanted to tell them what happened with Velridar.


    "Can we... enjoy the rain for a moment?"


    The meek voice of Amelia was almost drown as the rainfall fell louder each passing seconds. It began to become harder to hear her words.


    Orion and Karteira both knew that she still had to process and register what had happened. After twenty-three years, she found her real home, but completely destroyed. For some reasons unknown to them, she even managed to remember details that should be impossible to remember, as she was only one year old.


    Letting her back slide on the tree trunk, she ended up sitting on the dirt.


    "Sure, we can take our time. It has been a while since we''ve seen rain."


    Nodding, Orion placed his back on the tree''s trunk, crossing his arms.


    "Last time was when we trained in the morning in our realm. You sure were strong during that training. Now that I think of it, if it had been a one-on-one during our fight, I would have probably lost."


    Karteira said, sitting next to Amelia.


    The cold air, paired with the sound of the rain, caused their body to relax. It was similar to laying on a cold bed.


    "Don''t fret about the past. That goes for both of you."


    Orion closed his eyes, reminiscing on everything that happened in an instant.


    "There is nothing in this world that will ever force us apart. Since the moment both of you decided to follow me, and become important to me, I decided to never betray your feelings."


    "So, if you have anything on your mind, speak up. There is nothing wrong in depending on me."


    ''I already depend a lot on them both, even though I won''t say it.''


    He knew that his life in Horizon would be a horrible experience without everyone. This wouldn''t be a home for him in that case.


    ''I get to eat great meals, talk with people I recently met, some even previously enemies. I can train to my heart''s content, and enjoy my time with these two as much as I want.''


    ''There has not been a single day where I regretted having them with me. But again, I won''t say it.''


    Hiding a little smile, Orion opened his eyes and stared at the grey clouds in the sky in silence.


    Karteira and Amelia also looked at the sky, sat on the ground.


    Even their mind was calm in front of that curtain of rain.


    Luckily, there wasn''t any signs of a thunderstorm anywhere near. If there was, Orion would have returned to Horizon already.


    Staying under a tree during a storm is a terrible idea, which could cost you your life for that matter.


    "I don''t regret coming to Bandir."


    Amelia''s voice suddenly broke the silence, taking Orion by surprise.


    "There was a part of me that felt like running away. I had no reason to confirm that I was from Bandir. No personal attachments, no need to return, no memories..."


    Her eyes moved on Orion. With a grateful smile, she said to him.


    "But because you and Karteira helped me get other my concerns, I managed to saw my mother, even if it was in my memories. I can speak for certain now, that I had a loving mother too."


    "It is too bad I couldn''t get memories of my father though."


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Even while saying that, her smile didn''t die down. For Amelia, simply knowing who her mother was and what she looked like was relief.


    Karteira knew that if she hadn''t had that discussion with her before they moved out of Auro, she wouldn''t have showed the same reaction.


    ''Am I acting like a good friend? Am I able to support her as much as she supported me back then?''


    Hugging her knees, she smiled too.


    "Then this little trip had been worth it. I believe we won''t return to this place, but I''ll try to get either Kamala or Florian to send people to bury the bodies. This is the least we can do for walking in here uninvited."


    With a nod, Amelia''s expression changed back to neutral.


    "Yes, that would be for the best. They can''t stay like this forever."


    There was a little more than a hundred corpses littered all over the town, buried under the destroyed building, or in the middle of what was supposed to be streets.


    It was sickening to think they stayed in the open without anyone properly burying them.


    "And to think a human town ended up like this too."


    Karteira was amazed at how bad the state of it was. But for Orion, it remained him only one thing.


    ''That was similar to how the last stand of the angels and demons ended. Corpses everywhere, destroyed environment, and a single human ravaging the people.''


    The picture of Reon and Orianne standing in front of Elliot, with the tremendous amount of sacrificed faction members, just for the pretense of justice.


    ''It sickens me.''


    That is why he understood the her pain. Amelia''s people had died a long time ago, and she was the last survivor of this tragedy.


    This type of tragedy was something that many who were acquainted to Orion had in common.


    Orion lost everything because of Elliot.


    Amelia lost her hometown and mother thanks to an Apostle.


    Dramia and Drania were left behind due to an invasion of corrupted beast.


    Because of her mother losing her mind, Kamala almost ended up broken forever.


    Karteira was constantly struggling to fight against forces that were impossible to fight alone, going as far as to come back with injuries so bad it affected her judgment.


    Deveralna had to remain hidden from the world from her birth to just recently, because otherwise, she would have being assaulted by the Apostle like many of her faction members.


    Florian had fought all of his life to break the troubling relationships between the factions the humans so wrongfully armed for no reason other than the Apostles'' orders.


    And last but not least, Sirius, the abandoned dog that found his way inside Horizon.


    All of them had trouble that were impossible to resolve by any normal means.


    ...


    The time flew by as they talked under the tree, until the rain finally stopped.


    "Alright, let''s return home."


    Orion moved away from the tree, and opened a portal back to Horizon.


    "Sure. You had something to tell us right?"


    "About the the roar and large beam of light."


    Amelia and Karteira walked through without wasting any more time, before stopping on the other side.


    "What''s happening?"


    Closing the portal behind him, Orion looked over their shoulders.


    *Woof*


    Sirius had been waiting for them at the portal hub patiently.


    "Have you been waiting all this time, Sirius?"


    Amelia dropped to her knees and patted the top of his head. Karteira did the same but caressed his back.


    He wagged his tail in happiness while letting himself be caressed, but keeping his gaze on Orion.


    "Have you been good while we were away?"


    The dog tilted his head and barked, before leaving in a rush toward the house.


    They all chuckled while walking back to their house.


    "He looks healthier than before isn''t it?"


    "Sure does. You haven''t told us, how was it sleeping with a dog yesterday?"


    Orion stared at them.


    "It was nothing special."


    He walked past them, as they both smirked.


    "You liked it, but you don''t want to say it."


    "That''s what happens when you give a grown man a companion.


    His back turned to them, they noticed a little red hue on his ears.


    "Shut it, both of you."


    Following Sirius, Orion left the two girls behind.


    "He can be so cute sometimes."


    "I''m beginning to understand too."


    Amelia and Karteira laughed together, before joining back Orion.


    ...


    An hour later.


    "The Remnant of Power... I can''t believe you''ve built another connection to one of them."


    "Mother won''t be happy about it."


    While Amelia was more amazed knowing the identity of the dragons and lamias creator, Karteira was more concerned about her mother.


    "Velridar said that she would ration the mana between them, but I think they will find a common ground soon enough."


    "It''s mother were talking about, she can be quite troublesome to deal with when someone get in between of her children. I believe she considers you as important as us, so she will be hard to deal with for a while."


    "Leave that part to the twins, they will be able to find common ground, because they told me that this Remnant also helped them during their errand in the Northern Sea."


    Orion believed Dramia and Drania capable of making her acknowledge that he was not trying to overtake her boundaries.


    In fact, if Orion decided to not help, he would have vanished for hundreds, even thousands of years before reappearing, and that could also be troublesome for his creations.


    Also, Orion had to thank him for saving the sisters from the anomaly before.


    "But I can''t believe the corruption is even able to block someone''s perception. Isn''t that trouble?"


    Knowing this, a few things were noticed by the girls.


    "Does that mean many Remnants, the ones that stayed on Triazils, were all corrupted in some ways that affected them without straight up corruption them?"


    Karteira said, understanding the corruption more and more each days.


    "The range at which it encroach itself to any being is more defined each time we get infos on it. Corruption had a wider range than we expected. If it can corrupt your feeling but not your body, it is definitely worse. You would know about it, just like the Remnant of Power."


    With a hand on her chin, Amelia said what the two other thought.


    "Let''s keep that information in a part of our mind, and just relax today."


    Orion relaxed his body on the couch, and stopped bothering with what had happened.


    "Sure, I''ll go prepare some coffee for you."


    "I''ll keep you company. What do you want to do?"


    Amelia stood up and walked to the kitchen, while Karteira worked toward getting closer to him.


    Their day ended with them forgetting an important event that was about to happen in Triazils.


    ~


    "Everyone! Get ready! They will appear at any moment!"


    "YES!"


    Twenty minutes later.


    *BOOM*


    *ROAR!*


    "Here they come! Everyone!"


    "CHARGE!"


    Eric Layman, Turric''s Lord, and Apostle, was about to fight his yearly battle at the edge of the Frigoria Plains to push back the Corrupted Beasts'' Invasion.