In a brief moment of thought, Galeon deliberated how to approach this meeting. When they last met, he had made it pretty obvious that he did not trust Vivi. Her words had given him doubts and made him wary of her. It was safe to say that they were not entirely on the best of terms, but they were also not on bad terms.

Vivi knew about the Vernal Bloom to some extent and Galeon wanted to make sure that she was the only other one besides him who knew of it. He had no reason to antagonise her when she made it clear that she was not his enemy. Although she was suspicious, Galeon decided to give her a chance. This was all before he descended to Trustad Plains.

High up in the sky, Galeon noticed that his thread was deeply entangled with another. He followed it all the way here, and when he used his Eyes of Clarity to read the thread, he found that it was Vivi. And he found out more about her than he previously knew. For one, he now realised that Shine had been correct in her assumption all this time.

"Vivi, turn back now. Or should I call you Verena?"

The Divine Blade of Beauty, Galeon initially dismissed the idea of Vivi being the one this title referred to. After all, while Shine knew her as Verena, he knew her as Vivi. It was another layer to the mystery of this suspicious sister of his. He did not even know which was her real name, but it no longer mattered. There was something that trumped over even the doubts and suspicions he had. Their entwined threads, this Galeon trusted more than what he heard or learned.

Did he know what it meant for threads to be so intricately entangled? No, but he was certain that their meetings would grow beyond just simple conversation filled with suspicion. Whether it would be for good or bad, that was for them to find out. And it is precisely because of this entanglement that he wanted Vivi to turn back. Because out of everyone that he was connected to, Vivi was currently the wild card.

Latonai was clearly hostile and would likely do anything to kill him. That makes it easier to anticipate what he would do. Fury seemed neutral at the moment and only wanted to keep a good number of fighters prepared for whatever awaited them on the heaven-reaching mountain. The other people present in the field would matter little once a battle truly begun between them, and with the way this particularly treacherous landscape changes by the minute, Galeon could already tell that less than half of them would even make it out alive.

And even with so many people heading toward the heaven-reaching mountain, only Vivi had a thread that entwined with Galeon's to the point that it seemed practically inseparable. It was such that he was beginning to wonder whether they really were actual siblings. Hearing his words, however, Vivi's brows furrowed as she spoke with an unamused tone.

"Call me Vivi. I don't want my own brother acting so distant."

The people around them were shocked to hear her words, but they did not have time to digest it as the surroundings began trembling once more. The scenery was about to shift again. Seeing this, Vivi waved her hand, releasing an ethereal flame that seemed more like paint swirling around her and spreading out into the surroundings. The flames were of a myriad colours, but the one that stood out the most was dirt brown.

As the ethereal flames spread, the trembling earth seemed to calm and settle. The surroundings remained the stone ground and the ravine, unchanged even as the rest of the Trustad Plains had shifted already. This was the power of the Divine Blade of Beauty. Those who witnessed her battles before called it a realistic illusion. Only Galeon knew how wrong they were. It seemed that it was not only him who sought the essence of reality as his own sister seemed to command it in a manner not too dissimilar to his own. How she arrived at such a level, however, was another matter entirely.

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"I can hold it off for a few minutes so we can talk. First of all, did you always have a third eye on your head?"

Vivi had noticed Galeon's third eye from the moment he appeared and she had been wanting to ask about it. She wanted to say that it did not quite suit him, but she could not bring herself to do so. After all, the feeling she was getting from that eye was a sense of vulnerability one can only feel in the face of something they could not understand. It emanated a power beyond her knowledge. She could not quite reconcile that a single eye could make her feel so naked and defenceless.

"Yes. You just didn't see it last time because of my helmet."

They both knew that he was lying, but Vivi could not do anything about it. She understood that Galeon did not want anyone knowing about his secrets. No one would want to spill their own, but Galeon's case necessitated silence even more. From his words alone, Vivi could already guess that it was related to the emerald amber. And if that was true, then she should stop asking. In any case, her brother would likely not use it on her... or at least, not with ill intent.

"Vivi, there's not much time. Turn back now. You're not too deep into the Trustad Plains yet. You'll be able to get out without much problem."

"Why? Why are you telling me to leave when you yourself are going deeper in?"

Why? This was the same question Galeon had been asking himself since he made his decision to make peace with his sister. Why did he make that choice? Why did he now accept her as family in a sudden whim? Images flashed past his mind – memories. He saw the city he died in as a child, barren and in ruins. The mark of destruction had clouded it from his recollection for a long time only to be dredged out of the dirt by that unfathomable entity. And then he saw entire worlds and galaxies at war. They were at the mercy of destruction as well. It was not a matter of if, but of when. And these two memories reminded him of one thing.

He had always been alone.

"Something will happen further ahead. I might not be able to do anything to stop it. So please, just turn back. I don't..."

'I don't want to lose you too.'

The unspoken words rang much louder than even the shifting earth. It was so deafening that it was practically making his ears bleed, but his heart ached more. Vivi did not know what he left unsaid, but his gaze was enough to tell her what she needed to know. He was being serious. This was not out of some pettiness or distrust. Her brother was making her leave so that she would be protected from whatever was to come. She smiled sweetly as she finally felt that she was connecting with him, but the smile soon turned bitter.

"I can't. I must go to the mountain, Gale."

Vivi's eyes shone with a sharp light, the gravity in her voice not escaping Galeon's notice. She knew what she was doing, what danger she was putting herself into. But even then, she could not turn back. In her eyes, it was not duty that Galeon saw kindling the flames. It was something that he himself was only starting to understand. It was the same reason he wanted her to leave.

Bonds, the shackles that free us from the freedom of solitude – It is perhaps the greatest tool of enslavement, but to those who had tasted the stale waters of a solitary island, they would gladly shackle themselves with it. Freedom, in some eyes, is a lonely prison, a cage with only one bird. The illusion of space comes only from the lack of company. And knowing this, Galeon could no longer bring himself to force Vivi to leave. Instead, he just wanted to know who she was journeying there for.

"Who is waiting for you there?"

"Us, Gale. Before the mountain appeared, while the world shook, I felt her presence for a brief moment.... She's waiting for us... Mother."

Vivi's words struck him like a bolt of lightning. Mother, how long has it been since he last saw her? He should be happy, jumping in joy or giddy with excitement. He had always been a child in front of her. But not this time. He could not help but look toward the distant mountain with surging dread as he repeated the words that he was slowly beginning to reconsider the true meaning of.

"Crowning glory, greatest shame, the heaven-reaching mountain that rises in my name...."

As he spoke, he saw a tangled thread in the distance. It entwined with his own for but a brief moment before forever slipping away, vanishing behind the veil of shifting landscapes and Prismatic aurora.

Bonds, they are the shackles that free us from the freedom of solitude....