"Hueh!?" Lem and I looked around all perplexed, "What the? But we were just up there...? Woah~, disorienting!"
"You morons!" Cecily ran up to give not only me, but Lem a good whack to the face as well, "Does it make you feel happy to have people worry about you?! Huh?!"
"Owowow, hey!" I tried calming her down, "Sorry for making you worry, it was my plan, so don't go hurting Lem over it, okay?"
"Regardless, he shouldn't have agreed to fight!" She kept shouting at him, "What the hell would we have told your dad if something went wrong, huh!? Your goddamned son is dead!? Don't you care at all about the people that care about you?! Nelly was worried sick!"
"You were!?" Lem hurriedly gave Nelly an expectant yet smug stare.
"Hell no, she made that part up." Nelly disappointed him with a bitter truth, delivered in a very ambivalent tone.
Sulkingly, he sighed and backed off as Cecily kept chewing him out. After such a bombastic letdown, he couldn't seem to care less about the woman quite literally shouting his ear off. The others just awkwardly sat there, waiting for Cecily to finish telling Lem off before they could give their input in. As all this was happening, Shillianna was still mourning her friend in silence.
"Oh right! Almost forgot!" I noticed the twin Books lying flat on the ground behind us, "I'm still not done yet!"
"What now, Grim? Plan's still not over?" Ed grumbled.
"Nope! Not until... I write this!" I finished writing in the prompt Shaid told me to write in once we swapped places, "Alright, with this, we should be done-!"
I was about to close the Books in a flashy manner at the same time with both hands, but just as the two respective sides were about to meet, the Books exploded into confetti. That's weird, I don't remember writing anything about this happening in there.
"What's with all the confetti...?" Anna asked, "In any case, what did you write in, Lune?"
"Probably to have the Books get destroyed or something, genius." Issei retorted.
"I'm telling your wives you verbally abused me." Anna threatened.
"What the-!? That's so unfair, hyperbolizing a bit of lighthearted fun is cruel!"
"Ah, better include Cecily too." She smugly crossed her arms, "If we're lucky, they might even consider divorce."
"Ed, please get her to stop! My marriage is in jeopardy!"
"Mn, I dunno. Having my sister get freed from the evil otherworlder's clutches sounds more like a blessing than anything else..." He replied just as smugly.
"You two are demons! Demons I say!"
Whacky as usual, they kept tossing jokes and disses at each other until I explained the truth about my prompt. The Books weren't supposed to disappear, in fact the only thing I wished for was for Olya to return to his mortal self for a random amount of time. That was the plan, but the Books just decided to vanish into thin air.
"Ah, perhaps that bastard Olyahim had something to do with it?" A pack of Voices suddenly spoke up before us.
"You guys! Nice job on sending us sky high!" Lem praised them.
"Yeah, that was some crazy air we got!" I excitedly tacked on.
"You guys, back to the topic." Cecily kept pushing us to not stray from the topic, "This could be very bad. What if Olya's gonna power up again?"
"At that point, I say we just quit." Ed merely suggested.
Confused, worried, nervous and scared were the emotions he was met with in response to such a sad idea. Who the hell says that in this situation? After coming so far, to just give up and die?
"What?" He shrugged, "We did all we could. You even turned him mortal, so when he falls to the ground, he'll go splat for sure."
"Yeah, but he might become mortal again if the timer runs out." Nelly reminded him.
"Gah! You're right! Why'd you not make it permanent, you idiot!?" Ed shook me by the shoulders.
Violently shaking me whilst panicking like a pansie, Ed actually seemed more nervous than all of us, ironically. The man who had just previously suggested we be at peace with the situation no matter how bad it got ended up being the only one screaming and shaking like a little girl. And why's he getting mad at me for? I was just writing what Shaid instructed me to! Oh, Issei seemed to have gotten a clue as to the real reason, though.
"Ah, I get it." He realized, "The Gods said they dislike changing the timeline too much, so maybe Shaid wanted to leave it up to fate to decide, that way freeing "us" of any responsibility for whatever happened."
"...That..." Ed stopped shaking me to address him, "Makes sense, actually. Hey, when'd you get so smart?"
"I was always a genius, you just only focused on my perverted side."
"So you admit you're a damned lecherous bastard!" Ed raised his voice.
"Yep. And that lecherous bastard is your brother-in-law~!"
As the two began a silly little background chase, the rest of us responsible folk actually discussed the ramifications of Shaid's wish. Right, what Issei said made sense, and it would also explain why Shaid wished to swap us out with him while we were in the sky. He wanted to save us, and also to give Olya the insight necessary so that he wouldn't spend his possible last moments confused out of his mind. How thoughtful of him.
"That guy, he really is..." Anna smiled warmly, "Huh? W-Wait, is that them...!?"
"Oh shit!" Ed screamed in horror as we heard a bone-chillingly deep thud echo a few seconds after we saw two bodies hit the island across from us.
T-They're... Shaid and Olya... No, just Shaid is dead, surely. Olya on the other hand, is he gonna survive this? Could he have turned back to his old, immortal self before he hit the ground? If so, is he gonna chase us again? No, maybe Shaid used the situation to persuade him to leave us alone? Too many questions...
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"May he rest in peace." Issei solemnly bowed down to a full 90 degrees, "The man that made everyone happy."
"R-Right..." Cecily agreed, "Now's not the time to be worrying about some old man. The one that we should be mourning is Shaid."
"May his soul reach the Heavens forever more." The rest of us prayed as well.
"..." And Shillianna kept looking at the ground, as if lost in thought.
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"Shaid..." Lem looked down.
"Hey, it's alright. Look on the bright side." The Voices tried consoling him, "Now you all are free to go back home!"
"Ah." We raised our heads in astonishment and surprise.
That's right. Now that Olya is supposedly dealt with, and the Books are destroyed, even if he were to have survived the fall, he'd no longer have any reason to go after us anymore. Essentially, Shaid also made sure to free us from any future run-ins we may have with Olya. Geez, now I'm gonna cry over him...
"Wait, before that, we should go retrieve Meil and the Generals." Ed turned to run towards them, only to stop dead in his tracks immediately, "Shit. Shit, fuck!"
"What? Is there really a need to cuss in front of the kids so much?" Anna annoyedly turned to look at what had Ed so mad, "Ah, piss."
On the hill where the dome was previously, the one where Ed and the Generals were defeated by Olya, stood a small army of tanned scantily clad individuals. The island's residents, as it were. Having picked up all of our unconscious allies, they sternly approached us from all sides until we were completely surrounded.
"Heh, guess we forgot about you guys!" I raised my fists.
"Dammit, I already fought my heart out!" Issei also begrudgingly stuck 'em up.
"I really didn't do shit, so at least this'll suffice." Ed confidently stood in front of Anna to crack his neck, "Have at thee!"
The hundreds upon hundreds of islanders saw our last stand and merely tilted their heads in confusion. Slowly, carefully, the ones that carried our friends handed them to us before scurrying away, as if wanting to make sure they didn't get punched in the face. These guys, they weren't planning to jump us at all. What the hell...?
"Alright, thanks guys." A familiar voice said from the silent crowd, "I'll take it from here. So hey guys, I-"
"Dad!?" Lem jolted, scaring the crowd a bit with his sudden loud voice.
"...So hey guys, you haven't forgotten about me, did ya'?" Lee continued as the crowd made way for him.
"Ah." Anna bashfully admitted, "I'll be honest, I kinda did."
"...Well, be thankful. 'Cause while you just left me to go check on Ed, I actually did something productive and went and negotiated some peace with these people. They understood our situation all too well and offered their full help in the fight."
Wow, you did all that so quickly!? Well, then again, Lee does have a way with words. I guess he is the guy that raised the natural leader Lem to such heights, so it would make sense in a way. Ah, but I guess his efforts were kinda wasted if that's the case.
"We kinda already dealt with the problem." Ed shrugged, "We can go home now."
"...Okay, I'm trying to be calm here, but seriously—What the hell." He frowned, "I-In any case! Without me, you guys would definitely start a war with these guys even though they're peaceful! Just look at you, raising your fists preemptively and all that crap!"
Immediately, Issei, Ed and I rushed to put our stances down. Guess we were caught Red handed, he really did get that part right.
"Well, I was just about to say these guys aren't our enemies." Nelly raised her hand.
"Right! We would never hurt the Fairy!" One of the islanders protested.
"I agree! In fact, anyone that chooses to potentially throw their lives away for the Fairy is alright in my book!" Another one added.
Suddenly, the sheepish crowd erupted into loud cheers and praises all aimed at Nelly, their "Fairy". Needless to say, Cecily and I glared at her suspiciously.
"What did you make them believe?" Cecily asked threateningly.
"I-It was their idea!" She tried defending herself desperately, "Showa can vouch for me! Hey, you lot! Did anyone happen to spot her, by chance?!"
"Showa? Ah, that girl." Lem recalled, "Right now, she's with Schocco fighting..."
Before he could finish though, the crowd once again diverged to show three people, a man and a woman both with White hair holding another tied up and bruised man by viny leash. They seemed to be getting along, from the looks of it.
"Ah, you guys, don't put me in the center of attention!" The tied up guy got angry with the crowd.
"You were vehemently defending Olya even after we told you his wrongdoings." The girl tugged his bindings, "You deserve at least a little bit of shame."
Upon seeing the three of them, Shillianna immediately "woke up" just to attack the boy and girl. Taking out her knife with anger unparalleled, she ran to stab the girl first, however she was quickly stopped by the tied up guy of all people. Jumping to action, he stood in front of the girl that had presumably tied him up, refusing to move for Shillianna no matter what.
"Shakram, I'm killing this bitch no matter what!" Shillianna shouted through tears, "Sheila's dead!"
"Dead?" All three of them gasped.
And not only them, but the entire crowd of people that knew her started whispering and murmuring. It seems the girl that got crushed by the dome's explosion was well-liked among the community. Right, a youth's life was lost on this day, and we mustn't gloss over it.
"...That's why we said not to trust the old man..." The girl named Showa clicked her tongue.
May she rest in peace as well. She, as well as Shaid.