𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐃 || ʸᵘⁿᵒ

XX

—/<3/—

it didn't really occur to elle that the elves would still be rampaging as they stepped out of the shadow palace. she'd honestly thought that since the elves inside had come to their senses that the elves outside automatically would too.

she could've screamed in frustration after seeing explosions still going off and buildings crumbling to the ground.

"let's just knock them all out" mereoleona suggested, pounding her fist onto her open palm. the rest of the group ignored her recommendation, too tired to react.

"with licht here there's a way. with the world tree magic that belongs to william, who's currently sleeping inside of me, we can gather the magic and the life force from people all over the kingdom. but for that we'd need his grimoire" patry began to tell everyone his plan. elle noticeably tensed at the mention of william.

valtos, the guy who previously worked with the eye of the midnight sun, emerged from his portal carrying william's grimoire, he handed it to patry with a curt nod. "thank you valtos".

"your royal highness... we will need your help too, to mend the kingdom's physical damage. I meant what I said when I said you had a pure heart. you were the only other human aside from william that I didn't feel hatred towards. watching you grow up was an honour. you will make a great queen." patry lowered his head in a brief bow, smiling sadly before speaking again. "asta, use your demon-destroyer sword to undo my reincarnation"

"are you sure?" asta asked, though he raised his sword anyway.

patry wraps his fingers around the tip of the sword and pressed it to his chest. "this is already my second life. I may have some regrets, but no fears. if I'm just going to disappear after this, I almost think that's not enough for atonement" he then turned to the third eye members and licht "I'm gonna head out first. sorry licht, you'll have to take care of the rest"

"I will" licht replied sadly.

patry nodded to asta, who nodded back. asta activated the sword and the forbidden magic that bound patry's soul to william's body was lifted, appearing in a red ring around him before it dissipated, leaving behind the body of william.

william said nothing and refused to look anyone in the eye, blatantly ignoring elle's searing stare as he flicked through the pages of his grimoire. he wordlessly cast his world tree magic as elle let out a silent sigh, stepping forward to be at william's side to release her own spell.

"time magic: dea form, auruem vicissim"

elle took the previous form she had taken in the shadow palace, an ethereal golden glow illuminating her features as the glittering crown took its place on her head. ropes of golden magic coiled around the branches of william's magic, the time growing with the tree as elle waited for the right time to release it into the kingdom.

licht kept to his word and conjured his magic through his sword, light filling up the sky as his magic launched upwards, connecting to the souls of the elves and pulling them away from the stolen bodies. the souls were guided to the golden tree thanks to the three-way combo spell licht, elle and william had managed to pull off.

"anti-magic boy, use your sword on the tree!" licht yelled over the waves of sound the magic was producing. asta shouted back in acknowledgement. asta immediately thrust his sword forward piercing the bark of the tree. elle used that moment to unleash her time spell, leaving it to sweep across her kingdom in pulsing golden waves, erecting toppled buildings and piecing together things that were blown to rubble by explosions.

there was one thing she could not fix though, and that was death. no amount of her time magic could ever bring someone back from the dead. once they took their last breath, they were gone forever, remaining nowhere but in people's memories.

with asta's blow to the tree, glowing green magic illuminated the world tree, allowing the souls to be removed from the bodies of those who had been taken over.

"looks like the three of us won't be able to go with you" rhya chuckled sadly, the remaining two of the third eye gazing at their former leader grievously, longing to move onto the afterlife with the rest of their tribe. "our souls are bound to these bodies after our second reincarnation so our souls don't belong to our original bodies anymore"

"I see. that makes things a little lonely. I wanted to talk to you about this long journey filled with hatred. but there might be a good reason for this, please continue to live in this world for our sake too" licht's physical body began to fade, his friends watched with glossy eyes.

"the elf that's in my body... is he your..." yuno began.

"thanks to you, it felt like I was fighting alongside my son. thank you, current owner of the four-leaf grimoire and may luck be with you." licht cut him off before turning to asta.

"that grimoire belongs to you now. please let it accompany you on your journey"

"and you princess," licht turned his gaze to elle "don't let anyone corrupt your kingdom. fight for what you believe in."

licht's soul left his body behind, floating up to finally be with his family after waiting for so long. "thank you, current mages of the clover kingdom"

though of course, not all of them were nice enough to give them a peaceful send-off. rades, one of the guys who previously worked with the eye of the midnight sun, was still livid at how patry had used them, and of course, he wasn't going to let him go live with his tribe in peace after all he had gone through. he conjured his soul-abducting magic and dragged patry's soul back down, settling it into licht's now empty body.

"what the hell do you think you're doing!" asta shouted from beside yuno, an appalled look decorating his features.

"licht... no patry! I'm not just going to let you disappear and live happily ever after! I'm never going to forgive you! now you get to keep thinking about all those humans you tramped"

"thank you rades, you've provided me with the chance to atone."

"shut up! I'm gonna come for your head! let's go valtos!"

and with that, they were gone. elle removed her royal knights' robe and made her way over to fana, who was still shirtless and shivering. she offered her the robe which she took gratefully. elle flashed a small smile before making her way to yuno's side. patry tried to take a step forward but his legs gave out. he was caught by william who was elated to finally get to meet the friend that had resided inside of him for his whole life.

"to think the day would come where I'd be able to see you in person. you are my closest friends and you share my sin. there was so much I wanted to tell you. more importantly, there are a few people I have to apologise to right now even though they may not forgive me." william pulled away from his friends and turned. looking between elle and yami "I know this is a selfish request, I'm sorry. but please take me to julius"

elle scoffed and reached over to her brother, hitting him as hard as she could on the shoulder before pulling him in for a hug. william hugged back immediately, though his dead arm from her punch hung loosely as his side. he let out a shaky breath as tears spilled over his lashline. he buried his face in her dark hair and choked back a sob. yami huffed as he began to walk away, towards where julius was waiting.

—/<3/—

-edited-