The King's Beloved

~ [Music Recommendation: "Suteki Da Ne" by Nobuo Uematsu - John Oeth version (Instrumental only) - available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this scene ~

"Luna … wherever you are, please be okay," Rania whispered a silent prayer to herself. It was dawn and she could be seen standing at the balcony near its rails, staring at the beautiful sky with a worried-stricken face. Her heart ached for her lost friend … the closest friend she ever had ever since she came to the Floating Kingdom. If sighs could reach the heavens, then she already sighed enough.

"Rania," Ducis called her from inside the room. "It's time. Let us head to the forest to train Elliot. Once done, we will proceed to the next gate".

Rania turned around to face him. Her eyes, still pleading.

"I'm sorry …," were the only words Ducis managed to reply with as he shook his head. Same with Rania, he himself sighed more than enough to reach the heavens. But there was not much they could do. They could only wait for her to come back as they moved forward through the rest of the gates.

"Why the long faces?" Elliot suddenly appeared behind Ducis. "She'll be fine. I'm sure the Supreme won't let any harm befall her. Besides, she's strong enough herself. Even if she meets some enemies, she could either fight them or flee. But she'll probably flee first".

At these words, Rania let out a laugh.

"Pft! That's right. She does always hide from troubles".

Ducis, too, chuckled. "That's very true".

"So stop worrying. She'll come back - for sure!," Elliot encouraged them. His smile sent hope to their fretting hearts.

Afterwards, they headed out to the Forbidden Forest where they usually train. Elliot called Eres, the new Ignis, from his Zweihänder and he came out of the sword like a ball of red light, transforming into the shape of a boy.

"Greetings, Anointed King!" Eres smiled gleefully despite the red puffiness that could be seen at the lower part of his eyes - an obvious sign of nonstop crying.

Rania, Elliot and Ducis noticed it, and they unconsciously looked at each other. Thinking the same thing, they figured he needed more time to lament his master's death.

"Good morning," Elliot smiled at the little boy and patted his head. "I believe I told you to stop being formal with me".

"Ack! R-right. He he he … I'm sorry. I'm still trying to get used to it".

"Alright, do it at your own pace. Did you manage to get some sleep, though? Because if not, we can train some other day -"

"N-No!" Eres crossed his hands frantically. "I mean yes! I managed to sleep! Brother Caligo visited me last night! I'm alright. Let's continue the training! Though I'm not so sure if I can teach as great as my late master".

"Of course, you can," Rania encouraged him. "You're his chosen successor after all. I'm sure he chose right!"

Eres smiled shyly and scratched his head. 

"In that case, please bear with me".

And so, Eres began demonstrating the skills he learned from his late master.

"B-basically, everything that has to do with fire are the skills I learned. I can do fireballs, fire breath, fire claw, fire strike, fire golem, fire wall, firestorm, magma, explosion, fire scourge, and the most difficult one which I haven't mastered, 'Holy Fire' - it has the ability to purge any other elements bypassing the boundaries of elemental weaknesses and compatibility! Well, except for the spiritual corruption since only holy powers work on it".

His voice trembled at the beginning but as he continued, it stabilized and became more confident.

"Holy Fire skill is really awesome! I saw my late master do it twice and it was so cool!" Eres continued, his eyes shimmering as he remembered the day it happened. "He did it so easily too! He was just standing there," he pointed at a position 1 meter away from him, "then, with just a wave of his hands, a giant chimera made of flames with golden sparkles came out from his hands! It jumped around the place and purged several high level monsters in one go! They had different elements with them, too, so ideally they wouldn't be swept away all at once but he managed to purge them and wipe the area clean!"

"That's convenient. It can bypass any elemental weakness. I can do the same in case I encounter the same scenario," Elliot pondered to himself. "Even if you haven't mastered it, do you know how it works?"

"Yes!" Eres nodded enthusiastically. Then, with a more serious face, he said, "The reason why it's hard to do is because you're supposed to combine all elements you want to purge and envelop them all in fire magic".

Eres demonstrated it by casting different elements from each of his fingers. They were small and floated separately like ten different colored balls of magic in the air. One was a ball of fire, the other, water, then wind, thunder, earth, sand, darkness, ice, nature, and light.

"Usually, we combine two or three elements to form a more concentrated and powerful magic. One sample is a cyclone - you combine water and wind or even add thunder to form a very powerful cyclone. But for Holy Fire, you have to do ALL of them! And not only that … when you combine them, you have to make sure to put equal amounts so not one element will overtake the other and cancel them out. Lastly, you cover them in fire and form it in a way you want it to be. My master liked making it into a chimera but you can make it into a dragon or a phoenix, or something else".

Then, Eres tried combining all the small balls of magic one by one. He managed to combine up to the sixth element but on the seventh, the ball of magic popped out and exploded, leaving only the spiritual particles floating like dusts in the air.

"Arghhh! I still can't do it," Eres hit his face with the palm of his hands. "It always gets hard on the seventh element. I'm sorry, I wanted to show you but ...".

"It's fine, let me try," Elliot patted his head again.

Indeed, Elliot gave it a try. He cast the same small balls of magic like Eres did and tried combining them one by one. With full concentration, he managed to combine them up to the eighth element. But like Eres, it exploded and turned into sparkling dusts in the air.

"This is really hard," Elliot commented. Despite the difficulty of the magic, his face remained calm and collected. "Hmm … if only I could see it once, I'll be able to see the spiritual pattern and -" suddenly, an idea crossed his mind.

Elliot turned around where Rania was and stared at her intently.

"???" Rania raised both of her eyebrows. "Yes? Anything I can help you with?"

"Rania, try it - the Holy Fire skill," Elliot told her with confidence in his voice as if he was so sure that she could pull it off.

"Huh? But that's a very complex skill that even you are having trouble doing. How can I possibly -?"

"You can," Elliot smiled smugly. "Just say it. The elements obey your command when you speak".

Rania blinked a couple of times. In her mind she thought it would be a miracle if she managed to pull it off. But Elliot was right, her magic was indeed voice activated. So maybe … just maybe, it would work?

"Okay~ I'll give it a try," she said in a sing-song tone, obviously skeptical about the whole idea. She gathered spiritual energy in her fingertips and said, "Fire, water, wind, thunder, sand, earth, ice, nature, darkness, and light," each element appeared as she called them, forming themselves into a ball like what Eres and Elliot did.

"Woah, the way she casts magic is amazing," Eres marvelled at Rania's abilities.

"She's a human, too, in case you didn't notice," Ducis added.

"What?! For real? Woaaaah!"

While they were discussing, Rania thought, "Hmm … So how do I combine them? Do I just say combine? Or …," then, with her lips she said, "... Elemental Fusion".

As soon as she said those words, the elements floating in front of her combined themselves one after another until they formed one large multi-colored ball of elements. Lastly, she commanded ,"Holy Fire" and the last ball of fire combined to the giant one, enveloping its whole surface with fire. In remembrance of Luna, she formed the Holy Fire with multicolored elements inside it, into the legendary flower, Verus Amor. 

"I knew you could do it," Elliot smiled proudly at Rania. "Thank you".

"I didn't think I could until I tried it," Rania chuckled.

Elliot stared at the Holy Fire shaped like a flower in front of him, studying everything in it with his eyes.

"Got it … so that's how it works," Elliot commented after a few moments of silence. Then, he tried casting the magic again. "... Holy Fire," he said in one go, not even creating different balls of elements anymore.

And just as he said it, a giant ball of fire with all the ten elements inside it, came out from his palms until it formed a beautiful, multi-colored dragon with wings like that of an eagle.