Why did he ever think, even for a second, that Pyre would save him?

Phos clinged onto Pyre’s black jacket as if his life depended on it.

Which… in a sense, it did.

As the two Lords fell, each looking about for anything to hold onto, a steady stream of water untangled itself from a nearby cloud and worked its way to Pyre’s ankle, wrapping around like a seaweed. Pyre’s head jerked down, surprised by and searching for the sudden sensation.

Phos thought Pyre a man possessed.

“What’s wrong?” The Lord of Light tugged at Pyre’s coat.

Pyre opened his mouth, intending to answer. However, before he could even get a sound out, the anchor of water pulled Pyre down into the abyss.

Vaguely, Kass thought he heard Phos screaming.

“Did you hear that?” He turned to Nymph.

“Hear what?” Engrossed in her thoughts, freaking out over how she was linking arms with the Kass, Nymph didn’t hear anything at all.

And beside them, a smaller Lord sighed.

Ornis had clearly heard everything. Birds’ hearing was second only to their sight, and of course, the Lord of Birds was no exception. A sound of water surprised him though: It was too much for someone to be crying, yet too little to be a waterfall. Ornis wondered what it was.

Pyre tugged forcefully at the Light Lord’s scarf. Phos was so terrified that he was practically choking Pyre.

“Let go, I’m going to pass out—” Surprisingly, Pyre stayed quite calm, even as the strange source of water was pulling him to his surefire death.

“I’m going to pass away before you get to!” Phos tightened his hug around Pyre’s head, refusing to let go for even a second.

With a small scoff, Pyre grabbed Phos’s shirt, easily pulling the Light Lord away from his head and positioning him securely in his arms. “There. Happy now?”

When Pyre looked down, he received a wide-eyed glare in response.

So the Light Lord is afraid of heights?

Pyre’s eyes narrowed. His self-imposed title of ‘Little Light Lord’ truly fit Phos.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Who told you to set Nephele on fire? Now I understand why filament light bulbs cause so many house fires.” With a slight tilt of his head and a small eye roll, Pyre actively provoked the terrified Phos.

“How else was I going to fly up to Aer’s castle?”

Phos’s tense voice, laced with a hint of aggrievedness, poked at Pyre’s heart. Feeling all-of-a-sudden uncomfortable, Pyre held Phos a bit further away from himself.

This evoked a dissatisfied growl from the Light Lord, who wrapped his arms around Pyre’s neck again with a threatening stare.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let go.” Pyre suppressed his troubled emotions and embraced Phos. “Aren’t you curious to know how I found you?”

Almost immediately, Phos deadpanned. “No, not at all.”

“Well, I’ll tell you anyway.” Ignoring Phos’s grimace, Pyre turned to the vast, endless blue below and continued to talk.

“You created such huge flames; I could see the fire from so far away.

“Lords relating to the element of Fire can surely create flames, but what about you, a Lord of Light?”

Refusing to listen to any more of Pyre’s philosophical ramblings, Phos released one hand tight and trembling on Pyre’s jacket and raised it to the man’s mouth. He knew that the Lord of Fire was an unbearable chatterbox, but now that the man had begun to reason, Phos felt something akin to the Uncanny Valley phenomenon.

“You hate my voice that much?” Pyre’s voice came muffled under Phos’s palm.

This made Phos think for a moment.

Pyre’s voice wasn’t bad at all. Rather, when he wasn’t babbling about stupid topics, it was quite soothing.

Pyre took the chance to grab Phos’s wrist and pull it away from his mouth.

Still stranded, falling in the air, Pyre’s action made Phos experience an almost free-falling effect, and he began shaking in silent fear.

Pyre’s spirited gaze grew dim. He dropped Phos’s wrist and hugged his waist, strengthening the sense of security. Phos’s small trembles gradually eased, and he breathed a cold sigh of relief.

“Are you…” Pyre swallowed down his question:

Are you alright?

To Phos, Pyre must have seemed like a great antagonist who tried to kill him for no reason. Where Pyre usually wouldn’t care about how his targets saw him, when it came to Phos, he felt suffocated. But why?

In the end, he’d still have to get rid of the Light Lord. They would never meet again. But in the span of just 150 years, hearing about this young Lord with such an interesting personality, Pyre found himself intrigued.

Lost in thought, Pyre didn’t catch Phos’s weary eyes.

The Light Lord had his own concerns. One, why did Pyre stop mid-sentence? Two, why did he have a complicated expression? Pyre only had one brain cell… is what Phos believed. But after spending more time with the normally cheery and annoying Fire Lord, Phos felt more inclined to believe that it was all an act.

If so, Phos would have to force his nemesis’s true face out. He had so many unanswered questions related to this man.

It was unfair. Pyre seemed to know all about Phos, while the Light Lord himself was being kept in the dark.

The two Lords spent a long portion of their descent in silence, neither looking at the other. Phos had long gotten used to the stomach-lifting sense of falling, and his arms loosened around Pyre. From a distance, if one saw that scene—the Lord of Fire holding the Lord of Light by the waist, both of them comfortably close to each other—they might have presumed the two as lovers.

Breaking the silence, the water around Pyre’s ankle disappeared with a splash, and he looked down in confusion. His eyes widened in terror.

Phos glanced at Pyre and followed his gaze.

He, too, had to stifle a gasp.

Because, what greeted them just seconds away was not a bottomless abyss, but rather…

A sea.