An hour must've gone by. Suzaku still hadn’t woken up. As Yushia sat beside her resting body fidgeting with his fingers, he’d begun to think about the real issue at hand: how would he escape the cavern?

Remembering Shiashia was alive drove him to act. He rose to his feet and faced the altar. If one had been made here in honor of the Suzaku, that had to have meant there was an exit.

Though he liked the idea, the chances were slim. Suzaku had been sealed away for over a thousand years, and with the constant disturbance within the mountains, it wasn’t impossible for the entrance to have been blocked off or wrecked.

He analyzed the shrine further. “Where do I even start?”

One of the sealing talismans stuck on the altar fell off and fell on his feet. He bent to pick it up, but it turned to dust as soon as it made contact with his fingers. Looking closer, an image appeared on the other side. He ripped talisman after talisman, unveiling a mural of the hero Siru Secant clashing against Laplace. He’d seen an image like this before. It was Buford who had shown him a similar scene.

Yushia felt a sting at his ankle.

“Do not do as you please while my greatness recovers,” Suzaku said through tired eyes, half awake and pinching.

“Gyaah!” Yushia yelled, nearly tripping over himself.

“Excuse my greatness for giving you a shock.” Suzaku rubbed her eyes. “It seems my greatness has overexerted herself.” She sat up and turned her head to face the mural. “Curse that demon. My greatness cannot fathom the idea of being defeated by such a threat...”

Yushia raised an eyebrow. “That’s Laplace, right? But you and Siru Secant defeated him.”

“My greatness would hate to explain the incident, but since you freed her, she has no choice but to explain.” She was hesitant to despite her words but gave in. “We never defeated him.”

“What?”

Suzaku’s eyes squeezed a small margin. The topic was a sore one, and discussing it made her upset. “In the final battle against Laplace, my greatness and Siru were more than on track to killing the bastard, ridding his wrath from Kratia. It had been over a year of continuous battle, and it was toward the end when he was on his last leg that he revealed his ace: a beast far surpassing the ether we take from Inanis.” Her memory had become hazy, but she did her best to recall everything. “That beast severed the pact formed by Siru and my greatness. My greatness was already weakened at that point, and far too weak to protect her wielder. Siru was slain by Laplace, but weakened him enough to the point where he could not finish off my greatness.”

The stories were a lie then?

Suzaku set her gaze elsewhere from the altar with a sorrowful expression. “My greatness remembered being taken away by a group of hands, but beyond that, she can hardly remember anything else. That bastard had spared my greatness, and my greatness let him escape.” She had enough of reminding herself of her mistakes and turned to the boy. “It is your turn now. Tell of your story.”

“Uhh...”

Yushia hesitated initially but told his story of the Cerulean genocide and becoming a slave. Telling it to Buford—thank Inanis it was Buford—made it easier to do it a second time. Suzaku was a good listener, polite and without judgement.

“So, your people were killed because of what they did 200 years ago?” Suzaku asked. “What did they do to still face prosecution today?”

“I'm not so sure myself. I’m afraid to find out, honestly.”

“Perhaps your people came to be after my sealing. It has been over a thousand years, after all.” If the boy didn’t know, then there was no point in prying further. Suddenly, a fire lit in her eyes as she got up. “After a thousand years, my greatness wishes to fill her empty stomach.”

“Is that so?” Yushia said plainly. What was he supposed to do about that?

His tone made Suzaku agitated. “Well... Do you by chance have anything to eat?”

Fortunately for Yushia, there was a singular beef stick still in the pocket of his overalls. He rummaged through his pockets and took it out, showing it to Suzaku. “How about this?”

She leaned back. “What’s that?”

“A stick of meat,” Yushia answered, breaking off a small piece before popping it in his mouth. “It tastes alright. If you’re hungry, you can have the rest.”

“Never mind then, you can keep that abomination of suspicious meat to yourself. My greatness does not require food from mortals to stay alive, anyway.”

What was the point in asking then? Yushia thought. “So, what do you eat then?”

A smug grin appeared on her face. “What does my greatness eat? Only the highest grade of life.”

“I don’t know what that means.” Yushia finished the rest of the beef stick. All this talk about ‘my greatness’ had made him curious, and it was about time he asked about it. “Sorry if this is rude, but why do you address yourself the way you do?”

“Because my greatness is great,” she said confidently. “If you knew you were the greatest, it would make sense for you to do the same.”

Yushia disagreed at the thought and shook his head. If anything, it seemed too arrogant and too mighty to call yourself something as brave as ‘my greatness.’

“My greatness is leaving!” Suzaku shouted suddenly. She turned her back on the boy, her long red twin tails slapping him across the face. “It has been a thousand years, and that means I have to catch up with a thousand years of work!”

She was definitely an interesting girl, a bit strange, but Yushia didn’t mind that at all. At least she wasn’t afraid of him. “How do you plan on leaving?”

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“You idiot, where else would I leave from!” Suzaku shouted. She strutted through the shrine gates, her movements full of grace with a dash of swagger. “The exit of course!”

Despite her greatness, it was evident that she, like Yushia, didn’t know how to leave.

Together, they searched every nook and cranny, every rock and boulder, all for the smallest hints of a possible way out. Instead, the only things to discover were the burned corpses of Tribulars and other small critters that were caught in Suzaku’s earlier heat blast. To Yushia’s surprise, Suzaku’s petite frame was exceptionally athletic as demonstrated when she effortlessly climbed up the mountain of rubble, but that was to be expected from someone of her caliber. She might’ve only been slightly slower than him if they raced on foot.

Even after removing dozens of boulders to reveal more of the cavern’s walls, there still wasn’t anything. In the end, there would be no exit to be found.

“We are stuck in here forever,” Suzaku said as she sat slumped against the altar. “My greatness is once again trapped in another prison.”

“Your Mansions,” Yushia said, seating himself next to Suzaku, “you have another Mansion that can get us out, right?” He hoped that she still had enough ether to blast open an exit. Anything would be fine.

“My greatness’ powers have been stripped away after her fight with Laplace,” Suzaku said. “Six of the seven have vanished. What remains is the Ghost Mansion, and it will not be my greatness’ blade that will dig us out.”

Yushia suddenly spotted vines growing along the walls to the right of the altar. Strangely, it had only grown on one side of the cavern. What made it stranger was how could it grow without any light.

“Suzaku,” he said, pointing at the vines. “Did you check there?”

“My greatness has checked everywhere!” she exclaimed. She got up and stomped her foot before smashing her fists down on the altar in a fit of rage. “Let us out already, Inanis!”

A click, followed by a series of falling rocks perked Yushia’s ears. He turned to the altar and watched sink artially in the ground. He then turned to the sound of tumbling rocks, which had come from where the vines were. The thick vines untangle themselves, moving on their own as they revealed a tight passage still unchecked.

Yushia’s eyes remained on it as he grabbed Suzaku’s arm to stop her from angrily smashing the altar. “Look.”

Suzaku gasped and shouted once she saw what the boy saw. “Did my greatness do that?” She sprinted toward the newly discovered passage with a wide smile on her face. Freedom was just a few more steps away! As she was about to leave, she slammed against an invisible wall of ether—briefly showing its geometric patterning—that knocked her down on her bottom. Her brain bounced inside her skull, giving her a slight dizziness and blur in her vision. “Owww!”

Following close behind, Yushia made sure to be careful. He brought his arm through the tunnel, and shockingly, no barrier appeared. He stepped inside, and soon after, his entire body had left the cavern.

Suzaku banged furiously against the ether barrier keeping her out. “Let my greatness through, damn it! Let her through, let her through!”

Suzaku stood back and activated her Ghost Mansion, wrapping her forearm in red threads of ether than replaced it with a blade. She thrust at the barrier with her tip, then hacked and slashed against it with desperation. “Inanis, damn you!”

The barrier remained sturdy as Suzaku fell to her knees, deactivating her Ghost Mansion. Her breath was heavy. She looked up expecting the boy to have left, but he stayed. His hand reached out to her.

“Let me pull you through,” he suggested.

There was hesitation on Suzaku’s face, but she took his hand. The boy smiled and pulled her forward. As her hand was about to pass through, the barrier pushed her back, knocking her hand out of the boy’s.

“My greatness knew it wouldn’t work.” She turned her back and began walking away. Deep down, she felt a pang of worry, fearful that she would be stuck another thousand years. “It is not your responsibility to help my greatness any further. My greatness will find another way out herself.”

It was an obvious lie. Her voice was weak and unsure, and it was clear she was putting on a brave front.

“Wait!” Yushia yelled, running back into the cavern. He caught up to Suzaku and grabbed her shoulder, turning her around. “There has to be another way for you to great through—”

Suzaku flashed her jaws, clenching her teeth as she held back tears. Then, she slapped the boy’s hand off her shoulder. “Take your hands off my greatness! Leave at once!”

Was it her dignity of being the Vermillion Bird that stopped her from receiving help? It felt wrong—so wrong to leave her like this.

“You want to defeat Laplace for sure this time, don’t you?” he said. “Why are you giving up so easily?”

She stopped moving and remained still, wiping her face. “That barrier is far beyond my greatness’ current powers. Had my greatness retained a sliver of her former strength, escaping would be easy. Now, there is no way for her to escape.”

Yushia remembered Buford’s puppet shows again, remembering the story of how Siru Secant and the Vermillion Bird created a pact to become one. Mustering all of his courage, he threw his embarrassment on the line and shouted. “Form a pact with me!”

“What?” Suzaku said, baffled. “You must not go spouting nonsense! You aren’t nearly worthy enough to wield my greatness.”

"Then let me show you my worth.”

Suzaku turned around, semi-curious as to what he meant. An idiot who speaks so boldly is just another—

Yushia took out his pocket knife and looked at himself through the reflection of his blade. His dull eyes hadn’t shone bright like they once had. He had nothing to lose now and all to gain. “This is my resolve.”

He aligned the knife’s sharpened edge with his wrist. In one swift slice, blood poured like a fountain.

“You idiot, what do you think you’re doing!” Suzaku yelled.

“Back in those slave camps, I have no future. I won’t be able to do anything but work until the day I die. I’ll live with the guilt of surviving while my people died. I’ll live knowing Shiashia’s eyes will never meet mine again, and I’ll live as a disgrace to the Ceruleans and the rest of the world!” Yushia grew lightheaded and pale from his actions. He knew he seriously messed up. “I want to see Shiashia again. My wife is all I have left, so if I can’t do that without your help, I will gladly die here.”

Your resolve? Suzaku thought. Her palms opened as she stepped forward. You are just being selfish.

“If it means seeing her again... I’ll do anything to help you...”

The blood loss had become too great for Yushia as he fell on his side. His eyelids were heavier than any rock he’d lifted before, and he felt his strength leave his body. But even then, he didn’t regret what he did. If he died now, he’d get to see his family again at the very least.

A warm sensation surrounded him. Had death taken him already?

“You are just an idiot,” Suzaku whispered, kneeling beside the Cerulean. “You will die if it means your goals are not met? It is a selfish thing for you to say, but that means my greatness can expect you to do well if you become her wielder, correct?”

Suzaku had conjured a flame out the tip of her finger and wrapped it around the Cerulean’s bleeding wrist. It cauterized the severed skin, stopping the gash from bleeding.

Yushia looked up at her with his weak blue eyes. Before falling unconscious, he saw a wicked smile and listened to her voice.

“Challenges greater than death will face you ahead. You best not perish before you fulfill your promises.”

As the boy’s eyelids fell, Suzaku couldn’t believe what she saw. The boy’s eyes glowed a bright-blue briefly, something she had never seen before. She knew it was a fact that he would’ve died had it not been for her flames, but it was also true that something within him would have given an attempt at stopping his death. Something external, something the boy was likely unaware of.

But perhaps that was just her greatness’ imagination. It’d make sense that being sealed for over a thousand years would have done something to her head. Not even a being like her greatness could deny that.