Atop the grassy hill, the three figures stood reverently around the burning corpse which lay on a bed of wooden sticks.

One was a short, wrinkled man with a grizzly black beard that covered nearly the entire upper half of his body, the second was a slender, ivory-skinned lady with silk black hair and dark brown eyes, and the third was a man with pale skin, bright silver eyes and matching silver hair. The dwarf-like man wore a loose, dirtied apron that came down his stocky belly, with a once-white cotton shirt underneath. The elegant woman wore a beautiful green gown that fit snugly around her slim build, and the last man wore a long, simple white tunic.

“He was the wisest man I ever knew,” the silver-haired man said. “Maybe if I listened to him a little more, he’d still be around today.”

The three stared at the heart of the fire in silence.

“And a great friend. He was always a great friend.”

The man’s silver eyes glowed to an even brighter gold as he gazed intently at the fire, and he shut them close, hanging his head down low.

From within the pocket of the dwarf-like man, something began to bounce around wildly. The man opened his eyes from his reverent stance, and then quickly ran down the hill, clutching the vibrating object in his meaty fist.

The lady looked up from her prayerful stance to see what the disruption was about, a look of confusion on her face. The silver-haired man stayed unmoved as the bearded man stomped, throwing the object.

It was a tenebrous, amethyst crystal, which continued to tremble wildly as it stopped rolling at the bottom of the hill.

Finally, the crystal stopped, and an oval, man-sized portal stretched outwards from above the coin-sized crystal, matching its dark colour. Around the edges of the portal, the light seemed to bleed and warp into reality.

A tall man with short, dark-blonde hair and light brown eyes stepped out of the portal, the gateway shutting itself behind him.

The short, bearded man hobbled forward to greet the newcomer, and the woman, nose scrunched and eyebrows furrowed, marched down the hill towards them.

“Galero,” the dwarf-like man said. “Good that you’re finally here.”

The taller man, Galero, opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the charging woman.

“Where have you been?” She shouted. “He was one of your best friends and you missed his funeral!”“

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“I’ve been doing the things that need to be done. Fixing the instability that we created,” Galero replied. “It’s what Stanton would have wanted.”

The lady scoffed. “You claim to carry on his will, but you won’t even take the one day to actually respect his legacy.”

The paler man shook his head. “Every day is important now. Just because we messed up, doesn’t mean that the world’s problems suddenly disappear. Do you really want to be like him, mourning and brooding for the rest of your life, but doing nothing about it?” Galero asked, motioning to the silver-haired man who continued to stand still at the top of the hill.

“I can’t believe you,” the woman said, biting her lip. “Without him, we’d all be gone and you know it.”

“Not without him. Without the gems,” the tall man said, shaking his head. “Which is why I came here.”

“Oh, so even coming late, you didn’t come to pay respects to someone who gave you everything, it was to get something from me,” the lady said.

“Stanton will soon realize that I have paid his respects by giving him a gift beyond any other. The gift of true immortality.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “You know, Galero, you coming here made me appreciate the person Stanton was that much more. You’re just as smart as he was, but with none of the wisdom and all the more arrogance.”

“Think whatever you want of me. It does not change what I have to do,” Galero said, reaching out his palm. “Now please, the gem.”

The woman sighed, glaring at the tall man. Finally, she reached into her pocket, handing him a palm-sized blue linen bag.

“Thank you,” he said. “I trust that you both will secure yours away. As for him,” Galero pointed to the silver-haired man, who was still next to the fire. “How are we going to ensure that he keeps his hidden?”

“It isn’t your job to worry about,” the woman said. “We are giving you one to look after, the rest does not concern you.”

“It all concerns me. You have chosen to give up, so I must take the security of the world upon my shoulders. And all four of the gems concern the security of the world,” Galero replied.

“Maybe you should just let the world make the decision for itself,” the woman said. “That was why this all happened in the first place, wasn’t it? We tried to be these mighty protectors, we tried to be gods.”

“The world always needs something to believe in,” the tall man said. “Yes, the world does need gods.”

The woman laughed. “You just love to prove me right, don’t you?”

Galero shook his head. “I don’t do what I do for my ego, I do it to keep the world secure.”

“Come on, Azhir. I will take you back to the Forge,” Galero said, turning, as the tiny crystal on the ground began to shake.

A portal formed above the crystal again, and the bearded man stepped in, disappearing through it.

The tall man turned back to the woman, placing a hand on her shoulder and whispering in her ear.

“Too much damage has been done for us to protect the world as we once did,” he said. “But there are other things we can do to ensure its safety, even when we’re all gone.”

“And I will make sure that they happen.”