A heavy silence fell upon them, weighing down on Alias' shoulders, nearly crushing him, as Acacia's words rang through his head.

A war?

His people had barely survived the first trial, they had lost so many in the pits, and now those very monsters who had slain them were seeking them to finish the job, to annihilate them all. And how was he to warn them: the very people who he had turned his back on, and had extended the generosity towards him?

"Alias," her gentle voice called out. "Alias, what do you want to do?"

His head slowly lifted from the ground covered in glorious flowers dusted in snow, and he met her tender gaze. She watched him carefully, eyes trailing over the tense, concerned creases crossing his face. "It's your choice," she murmured.

"We will tell them. There's no other option." He replied gravely, eyes growing anxious.

"And if they won't listen?"

He stood up to his feet and lifted up his blade, twisting his wrist to watch the light reflect over its silver surface in her glowing presence. Entranced, he gazed at it.

"Then we will make them."

"Alias..."

He looked back up to her. "I will not harm anyone, but if it comes to a challenge or fight I cannot back down, and I will make sure they hear what we have to say. Their lives, our lives, depend on it."

She stood up and walked up to him, placing her hand gingerly on his arm. "They will listen, but to hear us will be another thing."

He fell silent once more, eyes lingering on where her hand rested on his skin.

Alias cleared his throat and stepped away, outside of the meadow, and looked to her, but not quite at her. "We must get moving. The sooner we arrive, the better."

She watched him begin to step back, putting distance between them, and she stepped forward, after him, out of the sweet circle, her enchanted meadow, and as her feet graced the ground, a hum shot through her, sparking the ground, and causing her to jolt and gasp, amazed at the intense power that thrummed through her.

Alias had felt the flash behind him, and he immediately spun around, eyes wild and aware as they gauged her, ending up falling to the ground where her feet touched the dead forest floor, but as her gaze followed his, she noted that where her feet touched was far from lifeless, but an effervescent puddle of green grass and blue clovers that sprouted around her.

She looked up to Alias, her astonishment mirroring his.

She took another leap forward, the same zing ringing through her as she came into contact with the ground, causing her feet and toes to tingle. She looked down at the green trail that pursued her, eager to blossom. She grinned at the flowers and the grass, so beautiful, so green, and so alive. She sprung to life and twirled through the trees, hands skimming their bare, charred trunks, and feet leaving a network of emerald footsteps across the ground, color shooting throughout the once barren woods. She glowed as she danced, face bright and shining, light igniting and stretching out to the trees. She tipped her head back and laughed as she spun, generating vibrant color as she went, purple and blue and green and brown, all rich and deep, an array of hues, dazzled all of the forest in their vicinity, and continued to seep through the woods as she continued.

Alias felt something swell in his chest, in his heart, as he watched her dance, as he desired to reach out and touch her, the twirling brilliant beauty. Her laugh echoed throughout the forest, filling it in bright sound for the first time in ages, an entrancing song all of its own. He felt his lips stretch in a way that caused his muscles to strain as he was so unaccustomed to the motion, as they twisted up into not just a smile, but a grin, a beam. A startling sound rumbled out from deep in his stomach, a rising laugh the shook the trees and harmonized with hers. His feet moved forward, detached from his head, as he sought to reach her, to aid her in her dance, and he did.

Without pausing, she moved to him with poise and ease, allowing him to help her sweep through the clearing, and beyond it, and he held her hand and guided her as she waltzed further and further, the trees springing to life, shooting up towards the dark sky, but in their own litter world in the trees, everything was bright and shining. The dark of night was momentarily forgotten in their joy filled daze. They danced and spun and moved, life leaping from their touch and light bursting from their joined hands.

Acacia smiled up to him, so pure and happy and sweet, eyes large and clear and vivacious, laughing once more as the power swept through her, and then to him, filling him with a light and happiness that he was not used to.

They lost themselves in their little enchantment that spread through the forest, restoring it to its former glory. Trees stretched and strained towards an absent sun, green leaves springing from their extending branches. Grass flourished the forest floor, growing long and wild, and vibrant wild followers of all shapes and colors blossomed throughout it, crooning as a breeze rustled through them. And on and on they went, further and deeper, until the magyk ebbed and they stopped to catch their breaths, and their shining eyes looked up from each other to out and around the gorgeous world they had created.

He laughed again, testing out the fluttery sound, the way it caused his heart to flip in the strangest of sensations. He turned to look at her, face bright and giddy. She looked right back at him, her joy igniting her features in a whole new kind of ethereal beauty.

She beamed at him. "I don't think I've ever heard you do that before." Her voice slightly winded, as they fell from the elevated place they had reached.

He grinned back at her.

She returned the expression. "And I don't think I've ever seen you do that either."

He chuckled. "It's been a long, long time, but you...just being with you and part of you makes me happy, and it's the most absurd thing I've ever felt. It's a foreign experience to me – for me to enjoy myself. But you make me do it."

She laughed herself. "I'm glad, and you make me feel the same. To be mortal is such a unique experience, and you have caused me to see all of the sides to it, both dark and bright, horrid and wonderful." Her eyes pierced his own. "There is much beauty to find in the darkness. You only have to search."

She looked up to the lofty trees, how their vibrant rich browns and greens blocked out the black sky above and bathed them in a canopy of their own brightness. She looked back down to Alias, to his coal eyes. "We must head back to Community. It is time they saw the light."

He blinked for a beat, minding reeling to catch up to where he had once been, to the worry that had coursed through him. "Yes, we must."

She held out her hand for him to take, and hesitantly, he did, and then she set off running through the trees with him at her side.

***

The mouth of the cave was black, a depthless entrance to a depthless world.

They made record time scurrying through it, not pausing to worry about what creatures might lurk near as they had destroyed the fiercest, and knew that time was not their ally. They did not have the blessing of caution, but the need of action, and as they raced through it, Alias began to feel his heart pound in his head. A strange feeling seeped through him, causing his body to tense.

"You're anxious," Acacia explained. "It's understandable considering the circumstances we left it in."

"I've never felt like this before... What's happening to me?"

She smiled at him, an amused knowing smile. "It seems that I did not just reawaken the forest, but I have also reawakened something inside of you. Your heart is beating again. It's not complete yet, but it's less black than before."

She raced past him on the last note, laughing back at him as he struggled to keep up with her, and smirking at her in victory as he pushed past her. He was winning, he always won, and he'd be damned if he let a girl beat him.

But as he hurtled himself forward at a great rate of speed, he was forced to suddenly halt himself in his tracks as he glanced down at the dark, dreary city below, at the identical stone dwellings that lined the streets, and for the first time he saw how empty community was. Empty of color, empty of decoration, empty of people, empty of homes, empty of life.

She stopped behind him, voice delicately rising above his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

He let the air gush from his lungs all at once, hadn't even realized that he had been holding it. He saw visions not just of almost the entirety of Community repelling him, but of the very beginning of when they had locked themselves away here, of how dark and empty those days had been, how everything was built simply out of raw necessity. He wondered how it could've been done, surviving in something so monotonous, and began to understand the ache in his soul that had bloomed and demanded he free himself.

"I'll be okay." He replied, and began to leap down the familiar path he had glided about a million times before, in a past that felt so long ago and so different from now that he found the familiarity of the steps strange in such a different time now than it had been when he crept up them like a predator, stalking through his patrols.

Acacia followed behind him, allowing him to take the lead as this was his home, his people, his Community.

It did not take long for their significant presence to be noticed. It was Elder Amit who approached them first, perhaps found them, and sighed in weariness as he came upon them just as they had entered the section of Community where the dwellings lined the street, a cool shallow river flowing adjacent to them and through the city.

His eyes were watchful as he neared them. He sighed as he took in the two of them, their newly formed bond, their unified stance, and he stiffened as he sensed a rising power, a power that rivaled and might've even surpassed his own. Elder Amit's eyes flashed to Acacia. "Am I right to assume that you have discovered your true self?"

She remained solemn but polite. "In a sense, yes."

His eyes hardened as they landed on Alias. "What are you doing here? Why did you bring the threat to our doorstep? Do you truly resent us that much?"

Alias felt the familiar rage sweep through him as he leveled his eyes with Elder Amit's. "She is not a threat, she is an ally, and she is doing a great favor to us all. I highly suggest you listen to what we say, or else your demise and the demise of everyone and everything you cherish will be quick to follow."

Elder Amit tensed, his nostrils flared, and fire briefly flashed in his hands. "Are you threatening me, boy?"

"My name is Alias, and we are of the same people and vows. I would never harm one of my own, and I have proven that time and time again. Please just listen to what we have to say, and you have my word that we will leave immediately if that is what you still wish. After everything I have done for our people, you owe met that much."

His eyes cut through Alias. "Yes, I have heard your story, but people can change. You are living proof of such." He closed his eyes, silently listening for his peers, and then looked back to the pair with venom. "You will be escorted by me to the meeting hall and then you will have ten minutes to state your message. After that you must leave immediately, or face the consequences." Swift and brutal, as were always the elders' methods.

They reached the meeting hall quickly, Elder Amit casting open the doors with a tremendous force with the simple flick of his hand. He never glanced back at them, assuming his imposing presence would be motivation enough to move them. Alias withheld the urge to scoff.

The people of Community were already assembled, and each held a small flicker of their fire, prepared to pounce on them the moment they showed the monstrous side they all assumed they possessed and were dominated by. If only they could've seen Acacia in the forest, in his house, by his side. If only they could hear her laugh or see her grin, they'd know she was the furthest thing from a monster.

Elder Raygen already was perched in the center and main chair, Elder Edmund flanking her to the right and he glanced quickly towards Acacia, listening for a sting of hurt through the bond but he felt nothing, just slight apprehension, but a larger need to help, to hope, to fix.

"We have been gifted with the presence of the traitor and his beast. Despite it being forbidden, he claims that they have vital information for us. We have been merciful enough to grant them a moment to plead their case." Elder Amit announced, striding across the front of the room and finally placing himself on the top of his throne.

Alias looked out at the faces flickering in the crowd, illuminated by the fires they fed, ready to strike at a moment's notice, and all inclined towards him. These were the people he had fought beside, killed beside, survived beside. But they no longer viewed him as one of them. He was an outsider, someone who had betrayed their sacred code, and it seared him more than it should've, more than he expected, as he gazed out at their faces.

He took in a deep breath, looked to the solemn Acacia that stood near his side and sent a flash of assurance through the bond, and then faced the crowd once more, feeling the weight of the elders baring down on him. "You may be wondering how we left the cave in one piece and managed to come back to it alive. Well, many days ago, the woman you deemed as a monster slayed our monster, and saved my life. Beast is dead, and you are liberated to see the world..." He trailed off as voices swelled in the building, overriding even his thoughts.

"Silence!" Elder Raygen hissed, speaking for the first time. "That is impossible. Beast cannot be killed. Many have tried, and all have failed."

"She did it," Alias defended. He gestured back at Acacia. "She is the daughter of gods, and she more tremendous power than we could ever comprehend, but it is not the power to destroy, but the power of life. She is a pure spirit, purer than all of us, and she comes with a message to save us."

Elder Raygen narrowed her eyes at him. "The gods may have the power to breed life, but they also have the power to destroy, and it is their power that taints them. She is of those putrid beings, and whatever message she has cannot be validated."

Acacia frowned at Elder Raygen, slight shock and hurt echoing through their tie. "My message is a warning, whether or not you choose to receive it. For I have spoken to a god, one that knows more than we could ever grasp at, and she told me of what is to come."

She stepped forward, eyes trailing across the crowd and body facing them. Some dared to flinch back. "A war is brewing. The gods that did all of this to you, the ones that are angry, are seeking the final chapter to humanity. All of the monsters you faced in that hell, the Masters, they're coming. All of them. And it is up to you to prepare for this battle." Her voice rose, bouncing across the stone walls and drowning the room in their gravity.

Murmurs brushed through the crowd and steadily accumulated until it was outright shouting, of protests and panicked fits. Hysteria and disbelief was beginning to seize them all, and the desperate need to deny the truth, to deny that their suffering was just about to renew gripped them the most, choked even him.

"That can't be," Elder Edmund argued. "They are sealed away beneath us. We are safe. We escaped."

"For a length of time, but that does not mean that your struggles are over," Acacia said bluntly. "There is still much more to face, and we must unify our resources to stop it, to overcome it."

Alias looked out at the crowd, at the elders', and felt shaken as he saw the terror that engulfed their faces too. "If we ban together we can defeat it, but we must work side by side. We must take a stand, or we all will be slaughter."

The crowd erupted, people lashed fire out towards him and Acacia, desperate and panicked, rationality fleeing them. He dodged it easily, as did she, and the elders did nothing to stop the assaults from coming, did nothing to quell the screams and the yells of terror and pain and fury at the injustice of it at all, at their own denial.

"Liar! He's a liar!" They screeched, voices smashing together.

He gaped at them, stunned that the people he could have sacrificed so much for could attack him, could doubt him on a matter so grave and imperative to all of their survival.

The people of Community dashed towards them, but the elders finally stepped in, blockading the people before they could reach Alias and Acacia. Elder Raygen was the only one to turn away as Elder Edmund and Elder Amit focused their powers on an invisible wall, keeping their enraged people at bay as they sought to burn him and Acacia to ashes.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot believe your outlandish claims. We are safe here. We always have been, and you are not the most trustworthy of people." Elder Raygen explained, eyes watching them with what appeared to be pity.

"I must ask you to leave, we must ask you to leave, or else we will be forced to unleash Community on you, and that would not be a pleasant experience, and one I wish to avoid. Will you leave willingly?"

Alias jaw clenched as he watched her in disbelief. "Do you not understand what I am saying? Everyone will die if you do not listen! A war is coming to your doorstep!"

She shook her head in annoyance. "Alias, please leave before we must act with force. I do not wish to harm either of you."

Acacia grabbed his hand, eyes capturing his. "They will not listen, Alias, and it is time for us to leave." She leaned close to him, whispering for only him to hear, "In time they will see, in time they will listen, but that time is not now. We must go."

Alias looked from her to Elder Raygen's cold gaze and the two other elders whose body's strained to withhold the mounting power and wrath of Community, of all of his kind that sought to destroy him and send them all to their deaths. It killed him inside to know what he had to do, that now there was nothing more for him to do, and to stay would only make it worse. He had to leave, had to turn his back on his people once again.

His grip tightened around Acacia's hand and he shot one last panicked look back at his people, at his once leaders. He felt Acacia's power swell in accordance with the people of Community's as they began to break through the barrier, and like water breaking and shoving past a dam, they poured through the cracks and at them, gushing and pushing and raving.

But then they were fading, disappearing from sight, as Acacia carried them both off to a faraway place.

e