Tales of Zestiria: The World Beyond

Chapter 21

Regrouped, the entire party listened to the story about what happened in the tower. Mikleo was interested in the book Celica had so asked to see it, when he opened it, he found that the words were in a completely different language than he'd ever seen before, something that wasn't a surprise to the others. Magilou just remained seated, but the expression on her face told them that something was on her mind.

Celica took back the book and read some of the pages to the group. One sentence intrigued Sorey: "the fallen angel was once the shining star but fell when power consumed him. The lords gave him a second chance to redeem himself, to which he manipulated them into giving him the power he needed to fill the world with hate."

"This isn't anything like the Celestial Record," Sorey exclaimed.

"No, it's not." Velvet agreed.

"They call him an angel," Vanessa was thinking out loud again. "I wonder if it's anything like the creatures of my book."

"Does your book have a passage about this 'fallen angel'?"

"Not exactly, but some of the pages are worn and the text is hard to read."

"Then we're at square one." Rose sighed.

"You all are worried." Crowe saw their expressions and was concerned. She had walked in to see them all around a book and an empty seat. "What are you doing?"

"That's right," Sorey whispered. "She can't see seraphim."

"This is just something we don't get to see every day," Vanessa said.

Vanessa stood up and left the room. Outside, where it was still pouring, she stood under the hood of the house and opened her book. She looked through it repeatedly only to find nothing about a "fallen angel." She closed the book and let out a deep sigh. She put the book back in her bag and entered the house. At that time, Edna and Zaveid were fighting, she was sitting at the table with her feet on the table and Zaveid was laying on it.

Apparently, Zaveid tried to ask Celica out and she slapped him. That went into Eizen's power making him trip over a chair, hit the table, and cause a plate to fall on him. He then got up and was shoved on the table by Edna. Mikleo had his hand over his face and Sorey wasn't entirely sure what to do. Velvet and Eleanor were staring at the scene and Magilou held up a card as she examined Zaveid to see if he was okay. The others had gone out to cool off and in Rokurou's case, do some sparing with the ones who had the energy to fight.

Vanessa shivered, those few minutes outside might have given her a cold. Sorey took off his cloak and wrapped it around her as he led her to the couch. Crowe followed them, medicine in hand, just in case they needed help.

Yet another day went by and the party gathered around the table. To their surprise, Arthur was back, he joined them and was met by some confused glances. He was out for a good three days. He said he felt fine and thanks to Crowe's help, was up and running again. Vanessa was also back to shape with some help, she really shouldn't have been outside without proper clothing. It was cold and raining and didn't look like it was about to give up.

"What am I looking at?" He asked when Celica gave him the book that was found in the tower.

"It's an ancient book of sorts," Edna replied.

"It seems only Lady Celica can read it," Alisha said.

"Actually," Arthur started. "I can read it."

"How?!" Mikleo asked as if in a panic.

"Even I couldn't read it." Magilou chipped in.

"It's a language my family was taught." Arthur set the book down.

"What is this language?" Velvet asked.

"I don't know the name, that was lost in the years. But I do know how to read it." He then pointed to a symbol. "Lucilius. This name is all over the place."

"We haven't been able to decipher who he is or was," Eizen said.

"Celica was having a hard time reading it so, we didn't get that far." Vanessa put her hand on her head.

"I'll read through this. Maybe we'll find something that's important." Arthur took the book and went into another room.

"Is he really okay? He just got up and started working."

"He's fine." Crowe stepped in. "I'm quite good at medicine."

Crowe had a smile on her face as she and Laphi began talking with the human members of the group. The seraphim and Celica wandered outside as the rain had let up a bit. Arthur re-entered the room and Sorey was there to greet him; he was told not to acknowledge the seraphim as Crowe couldn't see them. Arthur nodded and set the book down on the table. There was a passage that bothered him. Half of it was what Celica already readout, but the other half was more disturbing than the first.

Lucilius was exiled from his home and left to fend for himself with no power or weapons. His wings were torn, and his body was sliced to pieces. He put himself back together again and again until the day he was fed up with it all. He stole back his power and used it to kill his family; he sent the world into an infinite cycle of destruction and abandoned it when he was done.

Velvet asked about the tower they found the book in, trying to shake off what she heard. Arthur said the tower was indeed the burial ground Lucilius was sealed in. One of his kind found him and for the punishment of his crimes and he was trapped. Arthur turned the page to see the next had black ink all over it. Rose explained that Celica found it that way and tried to use the light to see through it but couldn't. Arthur sighed and went to the page after that.

The words made no sense without the context of the last page. It was a completely different story at that point. Someone had written all over it to hide something. He guessed it was Lucilius since no one else was in there before the group arrived. Between the lines of the blocked page, there was something visible. The name "Ma'ano," Vanessa perked up when she heard the name.

She opened her book for the first time in front of them and turned to a page. She compared the writing to the one in the Requiem. The name was the same and the text looked similar. Arthur asked who Ma'ano was, and she explained it was a figure of hope and faith. Sorey was clueless about the deity and asked for more information. Vanessa's face turned red as she had just shown the book to them on accident. She had kept its contents a secret for some time and hadn't thought about it.

Velvet stopped Sorey from asking any more questions as the Requiem's information was already enough for then. Arthur closed the book and put it away. The rest of its contents wasn't needed at that time. Eleanor suggested they ask Maotelus to which the rest of the group agreed. While Crowe and Laphi wanted to go, they weren't allowed to. Velvet told them it was too dangerous, and she didn't want them to get hurt. Crowe commented on how grown up Velvet was and let them go while holding onto Laphi's arm to keep him from running off.

They left the second the rain was completely gone and showed no signs of coming back. They were to meet with the fifth Empyrean and find out exactly what was going on.

(Hello, hello, this is the finale of the Berseria arc, which outdoes the Zestiria arc by a mile. I didn't think the arc was going to be this long. And it also looks like we missed Arthur's birthday. I'm reading everything through so I can copy everything for the fan fiction site's version and found I had planned Arthur's birthday. Oh well. You'll get it Wonders of Mysteria's Future arc anyways.

Until the next time we see each other when Vanessa's arc starts up in September.)