One Year Later: Year 501
"I thought you should know, your Sky-God has transferred a new soul to the Smiling Tree to replace it."
"Is that so?" Celeste rumbled as Myra stood before her, hands on her hips. "Why?"
After a series of explanations, going back and forth with Ira resting nearby with a bored expression, Celeste sighed.
"Then, as our role as guardians of this world, we must watch the Smiling Tree- no, this new creature."
Myra frowned. "Don't you feel angry? He lied to you, and now you have to guard another-"
"It is his will," Celeste rumbled. "We've been blessed since our beginning. Look down- you should have sensed the power of this world's magical nexus."
It was true. When she swapped forms to her ruby-red state and gazed down, she saw beneath, coursing through the mountain, weaving motions of blue mana. It laced and intertwined, becoming a solid blue core before dispersing. With enough time, perhaps more power, as the "god" said, the blue rotating sphere of this world's mana would stabilize. But as it happened now, every few hours it would reform and disperse after just a few minutes.
"Have you heard anything from him since I left?" Myra asked.
"No. I have not heard his will since your words the last time we met."
"Tsk. Sounds about right."
"You should not doubt god. He may have erred, but he is the creator of this world."
"Is he?" Myra asked, and Celeste's eyes narrowed. "When I looked upon him, he appeared... normal. Weak, frail- a child from my people could defeat him."
"If he takes on different forms, perhaps he took that one purposefully. Thunder amongst my people, darkness with yours, earth with the elves- your eyes cannot see everything. Several cycles ago, would you have thought any of this was a possibility?"
"No," Myra admitted. "If I were never blessed by our God of Tenebris, my people would've fallen. But that was before he told me what he did. My people's suffering was entirely his fault. He has much to answer for."
"That he does. But keep in mind that centuries ago, the Sky-God could only speak. Now, the Sky-God gives blessings of power and grants rewards," Celeste said, settling herself into a more comfortable position. "We are both mothers. These are signs of growth, of youth maturing. He may be an infant god in his growth stage, but he is still our god. Older than both of us, yet youthful compared to other gods."
"He mentioned a war to come," Celeste pointedly said, resting her head atop a pile of gems. "A lack of power, wars to come- promises can be broken."
"As we know," Ira sniped, earning only a passing glance.
Myra, meeting Celeste's gaze head-on, swapped back to her normal dark elf form with black hair and ruby eyes. Her expression tightened with disdain and distrust as she looked down.
"That doesn't explain the green-skins appearing on the western continent."
"No, it doesn't. I cannot explain that."
"Hah!" Ira snorted. "Isn't it obvious?! Those soft-skins are pathetic. Would it be a surprise, in the face of war, that the Sky-God wanted to accelerate their growth?! Did you not feel disgust toward their weakness?"
"I..." Myra's mind wandered to their shocked and frightened expressions as they flew over the settlements. Some had prepared magical spells to launch, but they were pitiful compared to her people—easily identifiable, easily avoidable.
"Their growth will come from war. As all growth should."
"What a foolish mentality," Celeste snorted with her own disdain. "And you wonder why I chose him over you."
"You chose sparkles over strength!" Ira roared, rising up and drawing the ire of the Primordials again. It was only Myra's red mist forming around her eyes as she glared at him that made him flinch and growl, settling back down.
Shaking her head, Myra turned back to Celeste, who was now agitated.
"Speaking of, how did your people fare after the battle?" Myra asked, trying to change the topic.
Still glaring at Ira, Celeste spoke with a sharp and angry tone. "You submit to a foreign Queen but not your own?!"
"Myra's power is respectable and built on hardship. Yours is petty in my eyes—gifted by mere luck." Ira's cold gaze slowly drifted to Myra, whose eyes widened with surprise. "Even mine is luck of birth. But what we have chosen to do with our beginnings is what makes us different."
The stone of the mountaintop cracked, and onlookers backed up uneasily. Never before had they seen Celeste this enraged. For the first time, she unleashed a torrent of flames into the air in a display of fury.
"The other female Primordials and I have been tasked since birth to nurture our people and defend our home! We guard An-Ki's summit! We guard the magical nexus of the world! We defended An-Ki from destruction as we will again in the future! How is this not enough for you and your petty jealousy?!"
"Who's jealous now?"
In a split second, Celeste released a fireball of Dragon's Breath. Myra immediately changed form. A sharp spike of red mana erupted from her palm and collided with the fire, engulfing it before shooting straight up into the sky. With a thunderous explosion as she released its hold, the clouds around the mountain parted.
"Enough!" Myra shouted as Celeste looked up, stunned that her Dragon's Breath had been caught. "Why are you releasing your anger here on the one place you should be guarding?!"
Celeste blinked, her head lowering as her sapphire eyes shook with emotion. Ira, still unable to control himself, burst out in laughter until Myra sent a wave of red mana into him, cutting off his laughter and sending him tumbling off the Summit's peak.
"When the day comes that your god- my god- wants him dead, I will gladly hand him over. But until then don't touch him," Myra warned.
"Indeed... My apologies for this uncharacteristic behavior from me... It is not like me," Celeste apologized. "The losses of my people have made me..."
Slowly fading from her ruby form, Myra nodded sympathetically and stepped forward.
"I understand you well," Myra whispered, resting a hand on her snout. "Too well. Please confide in me for I am familiar with your pain. The same goes for your female companions."
Celeste, breathing out slowly, began to converse with Myra not as a queen, but as one female to another. A mother to a mother. A friend to a friend.
All the while, Ira tumbled and roared angrily as he regained his balance, circling the mountain in agitation. After several hours, they would meet up again with Ira bellowing black smoke in annoyance.
"Did you enjoy yourselves?"
"Hardly," Myra said with a wry smile. "Several of her children died."
"Then perhaps she should've chosen a stronger-"
Another wave crashed down upon him, and he roared out in pain as a new crater was made at the base of the mountain.
"I can see why she has an issue with you. You lack understanding. One more word about strength for mating and I'll rip your wings out," Myra snarled, to which Ira breathed out angrily.
"You hate my words but it is the truth."
"I don't care how true it is. Our kin have sympathy and empathy. The qualities you lack."
"Those are not needed in battle."
"But they are for attracting a mate," Myra sarcastically replied, and Ira visibly deflated upon hearing it. When her wave of mana lifted, he rose silently back to his feet.
"If we are settled here then it's time to return to our homes."