A Wish

“STEIN!!! RISETTE!!!” Lisa frantically shouted as she hovered over the fallen debris.

The damage was extraordinary. Everything crumbled to obliteration. They were most likely to be alive because if not, this realm would’ve crumbled along but no. The realm was still intact with the exemption of the cave.

Lisa looked left and right in hopes for a response, “STEIN!!! RISETTE!!!” She let out a tired sigh as she glanced to Luke who was tending to the other guy. Apparently the other guy was injured during his stay inside that cave. She let Luke do his job while she continued to look for the two of them. She was stressed over the fact that she can’t seem to get their presence. They had to be somewhere but she couldn’t feel them.

A little later, Gale and his team came rushing into the scene. They were told of the circumstances and immediately responded to the request of search and rescue. Gale ran to Luke and his little brother.

“How?” He said.

Luke just shook his head in confusion, “It all happened too fast.” Luke replied. He glanced at Blind who was busy massaging his hurt wrist. Luke let out a long sigh, “Stein and the little miss are also missing in the midst of destruction.”

“And so I heard...” Gale said. He ran a hand through his hair, “First we lose the immortal... Now we also lose the supervisor.” He tiredly said. He glanced at Blind, “I see that you popped at the wrong place..” He commented at him.

Blind let out a tired chuckle, “I can’t help about that you know...”

“Touché.”

...

It was cold, cramped and hopeless. Even though those were the best description for their situation, neither of them could feel any of it—the space, the proximity, the bodies, their breaths. Nothing.

Both of them had dead eyes. Dead because of their situation. Dead because of their exhaustion. Dead because of excruciating experience.

Dead because

Stein can feel Risette below him. He knows that she is also alive. She just happened to be in the midst of transformation. He knows because he has a clear view of the girl. For some reason, he felt uneasy and anxious. He wanted to stand up that very instant and help her get out of that mess she’s in.

Thump!

He felt something move in his chest.

Ba-bump!

There it was again. Stein wanted to shift his weight and look at whatever was causing it but a slight movement might become fatal for both of them. He wanted to use his magic to get the debris off of him but his chipping body doesn’t approve of his action. Rather, his movements might also cause his body to give away to the weight of the debris.

“S... Stein..?” Risette weakly said. She forcibly rolled her eyes to meet Stein. She let out a weak yet caring smile, “... I’m glad to see that you’re alright...” She managed to breath out. She weakly giggled as though to reassure Stein about something. Then she looked at her chest armor that already had a hole.

Stein also rolled his eyes to that direction. His eyes widened in shock.

There was a red string attached from the skin on the chest of Risette connecting to Stein’s.

Stein looked back at Risette who gave an apologetic smile in return, “You..?”

“I’m so sorry....” Risette plainly replied. She cupped Stein’s face. Her hands hard and leathery as Stein felt. Risette giggled once more, “This is weird.... because... It’s not even seven days...!” She let out a giggle that turned to a hard cough. Her eyes changed shape—especially the iris. It was as though it became sharper and hostile even though it wasn’t supposed to be like that. She let out a smile as blood trickled out of it, “I don’t mind dying... at the same time I do mind dying.... Isn’t that weird..?”

Stein let out a curt denial of her thoughts, “That’s the part of life...” he breathed out. He can feel his arms about to break under pressure but kept silent about it as he frown for the first time in his life, “... I dislike the idea of you dying though...” His vision blurred then let out a little rain.

As though on cue, the outside was already raining—heavily. It was as though to express Stein’s deep distress and grieve. Lisa instantly changed her searching from flying to trudging as the rain was making her wings heavier.

Blind was already under supervision from the other soldier as request of Luke.

Luke joined the search party before the search be called-off because of the heavy rain. He dashed to Lisa, who sighed for the nth time. He went ahead of Lisa then stopped right in front of her, “You should rest...” he suggested to which Lisa rejected.

“Don’t want to... Not until they’re found.” She said in protest, even though she was shaky herself. She greatly inhaled then let it out all in one go, “I have a bad feeling about what’s going to happen next.” After that, she continued to yell out Stein and Risette’s name despite Luke’s effort of having her stop.

“You need to rest, Lisa... please.” Luke begged only to fall deaf on Lisa’s ears. With a sigh, he decided to just help out with the search and rescue. Like the rest of the workers, he began to lift up the debris in hopes of finding any body. He looked left and right, turned every stones and boulders that could be turned. He looked around to see whether there were any more free hands that could help hasten the search since the rain wasn’t getting any lighter.

It was raining, and it has been awhile since this last happened. Rain was very unusual for them because Stein never really sheds a tear.

Until now, that is...

Luke saw a rock move a bit. As though a light of hope lit in his mind, Luke dashed to that rock and threw it over, “I knew you guys—” Luke suddenly went silent as he saw the deranged necromancer giggling at him like a mad man. He grabbed the necromancer by the neck then dragged him to the nearest danger—currently, Lisa. He tightened his grip around the necromancers neck then called out to Lisa, “Guess who I found...” He said as he threw the necromancer to Lisa direction.

Lisa instantly saw a despised flying person. In a heartbeat, her tail whipped it way to the necromancer, piercing him on the spot. Blood spewed the opposite direction. The heavy rain made the color of blood look more gruesome than it is.

Luke took cover from the splash of blood, partly thankful that it was raining so that the rain would wash off any if it ever did come contact with his skin. He dashed to Lisa’s side who was letting out a lethal glare towards the deranged necromancer.

Gi just maniacally chuckled again as gripped Lisa’s tail, “It’s starting!!!!!!!” He burst out into laughter, much to Lisa’s disgust. Lisa opened the mouth of her tail, making the deranged necromancer to burst into bits and pieces. His last words: “The end is STARTING!!!!!” Was he said as those words reverberated around the large space for everyone to hear.

The moment everything went quiet, the world—literally—shook a great magnitude. The ground started to form cracks. Every cracks opened and revealed an endless abyss. Luke and Lisa were lucky since they had wings.

The poor others though.

Some managed to keep themselves out of harm’s way but some were unfortunate enough to fall into the abyss. They were panicky knowing that they might die anytime, and the rain wasn’t even helping. A heavy tail suddenly emerged from below. It was white, thick and leathery. Most of the people died the instant the tail hit the ground. A heavy hand heaved up and used it to fully emerge from underground.

It was a dirty white dragon.

In its free hand was a familiar figure.

“STEIN!” Luke and Lisa flew to that hand, despite the struggle of flying against the heavy rain and winds.

The dragon threw away Stein to Lisa and Luke. The two managed to safely catch the supervisor. Surprisingly, Stein was back to normal. There were no signs of physical damage from the last time. He didn’t even seem to take any damage from the dragon. The two were much surprised of the simple fact that he wasn’t even gathering magic from around him.

Stein was alive, just not awake. He’s weak but not weak to such extent. He was breathing, so smoothly that it was making them raise some questions.

Lisa ran a hand across Stein’s chest. She got surprised as she felt heartbeats. She directed her eyes to Luke then back to Stein. She wasn’t so sure whether to be happy or to be worried. Happy because Stein got what he wanted, worried because it might repeat history.

Luke took Stein in his arms then hoisted back to ground. He went to the shelter where Blind was being kept. Lisa followed in cue.

Gale greeted the two of them with a curt nod as he took Stein from Luke then put him just beside Blind. Lisa let out a high-pitched whistle. Moments later, her minions on patrol assembled before her. She gave out instructions in regards about defence from the dragon.

“I’ll try to keep the dragon here in check.” Lisa said as she followed her flock of minions flying towards the dragon.

Luke wanted to help but there was nothing of help that he could offer. Gale gave Luke a reassuring pat on his shoulder, “You shouldn’t underestimate a queen who has her pawns.”

Luke just dumbly nodded, “I guess so.”