{ AHT }

"Is that...? Er..." Theo stammers.

"A higher spirit," I murmur. The goldie... readies himself to launch his-!! "GET OUT OF THE CAR!"

The three of us hurry out and tumble on the asphalt-in a split second, Goldie throws his spear at the car, tearing it in half! The car creaks and melts in a gold liquid.

Theo struggles to stand. "God help us!"

"God won't help you after what they've done." Goldie shoots Ki and me a death glare.

"What have we done!?" Ki retaliates.

Goldie conjures another spear, and we both stand in front of Theo when—!

"Run!"

Taq, appearing out of thin air, leaps in and fights the spirit off with a glaive. Ki picks Theo up and we run down a street, looking for anywhere that is safe. An apartment construction site is just dozens of metres away and we pace to the field behind it.

"Who is that!? Where are we going?" Theo panics.

Ki shakes her head. "I don't know and I don't know. Either way, we have to hide somewhere safer. Why would Taq—?"

What appears in front of us is— "Hello, old friend," Esj greets.

No... "What are you doing here?" I ask in an even voice.

"Wow, your temper has been settled," he chuckles. "Can't I greet my former colleague?"

"Not after you danced with joy when I was banished."

His prideful face alters into the cruellest visage. "By hoping you'd learn your lesson! You have no shame in living this life."

"A life you have no business with," I snarl.

"No business?" Fucking great, Wuni shows up. "As I recall, Ki was dragged to banishment because of you."

...She pulls out my old fear.

Ki steps beside me and spits out, "I wanted to. You have no business in my life. Who are you to speak about my banishment?"

"We are Calamities—"

"I fuck one for fifty years. Big deal."

I bite my lip and stifle my laughter, given how affronted they are with curses. Wrong timing. Theo hides behind us, shaking and praying to God.

{ KI }

"No business!" I shout.

Numerous mobile spirits approach and encircle us. Their auras are a blend of anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.

Wuni harrumphs. "Because of that 'sex', it has put you in a spot and no way out." Her finger points to my... abdomen.

My Aht stares at my stomach, confused. I don't know what's going on either.

"The abomination," Wuni sneers, "growing inside you need to be exterminated."

....

The world shifts under my feet. Aht's eyes snap up to me, astonished. What on Earth—

"I'm pregnant??" Clutching my belly, I continue, "Impossible! I have no ova. Aht has no sperms."

"Don't care about whether you have or have not. And I don't think that thing has been growing for a day or two qualifies you to be called pregnant."

A sense of warm elation blooms in my chest. Aht's eyes water from happiness, but soon replaced with fear. I rub my belly softly as worry leaks in...

Aht chokes out, "That 'thing' is our child. What have they ever done to be exterminated?"

"BECAUSE YOU TWO ARE NOT FULL HUMANS!" Esj barks. "Imagine a baby with powers like us and possesses desires like humans. A child grows up being evil with powers at will. Their aura has spread far and wide, more powerful than you both."

"If, not when. We'll take good care of them," Aht exclaims.

"You have so much faith in yourselves, thinking you two can guide them. The human world turns everything corrupt whether you like it or not."

I say, "We've been living in it. Are we evil?"

Some spirits seem uncomfortable by my question. Esj shakes his head from disappointment and retorts, "Because you both always have been spirits, even in these... lowly, dirty bodies. We all can't risk having faith that your child will act the same as their parents."

"Humans have spirits too."

The crowd whispers among themselves and Esj shushes them, looking slightly conflicted. But his face then hardens. "Which they always forget to take care of. Nurture of. Acknowledged of."

"Not all."

"But most. And most influence the world." He motions for other spirits to surround us. "I don't get why you two gave it all up. You had worlds in your hands. You had power! Humans worshiped us!"

"Why are you still unsatisfied?" I inquire slowly.

He frowns, watching us wordlessly. The cruelty residing in the lines of his face decays into something else. Something that Aht and I had seen in ourselves through a mirror from time to time. Tears rise to Esj's eyes, but he soon jeers, "You laid low for years and we didn't even know. Shame that little thing came in and signaled you two like a darn pair of beacons."

"You really are going to kill our baby?" Aht asks in disbelief.

"Tch, not a fetus yet. Kill it and separate you two. Forever. We can't afford to have another offspring."

No. NO! "NO! DAMN YOU!"

"AAAHHH!!" What—? Fomu breaks out from the crowd and attacks them with a sizable swift gale, close to a hurricane. The windows and flimsy grasses are shattered and flinging about. Not as powerful as a Calamity, though enough to distract the spirits. A force behind my eyes threatens me to cry. Taq and Fomu help us... after all these years.

Mentally shaking my head, I yank Aht's arm— He won't budge! "What are you doing?"

He manifests a pair of large daggers. "Taq, take Ki and Theo to some place far and safe. Don't stop moving. I'll hold them off."

Is he playing!? I snap, "I won't leave you!"

His forehead scrunches and he kisses me deeply... Leaving his phantom taste for hours to come.

Begging me with those watery eyes.

Pushing me to Theo, he then faces them again. "For our child's sake, go!"

I feel another hand on my arm. Taq. She snatches Theo and me off the field and onto a street, pulling us to run.

"No, I don't want to leave him!" I wrench my arm away from her hold.

"For your child—!"

"I know!" Gasping, I search for the site. "For decades we wanted this baby, but if the cost is my Aht for a baby who I don't even love yet... I had dealt with sterility. I can never handle losing him."

She watches me with concern. Theo trembles more than before. With a double-take, her focus moves to him. "Who are you?"

"Me? Theodore, remember?"

"You're...?" Surprise decorates her. "You are old."

He sighs from exhaustion, "Don't I know it."

Finally, I've found the site at the end of this street. I run—

"Wait, Ki!" Taq raises her hand to stop me. "Fomu and Aht can fight them. You have to be safe. You choose him but his cost will be losing you and the baby."

"Neither of the costs are acceptable. If we go down fighting, I want to be beside him."

She stomps her feet. "You are so stubborn!"

A rumble beneath us when... a stench of smoke is in the air. The sky above the apartment is glowing red from the field.

"Taq, please take Theo away. I can fight them." Theo seems upset and opens his mouth to speak, but I hold his cheeks. "Aht has gone volcanic and it's dangerous for your health. Think about your family. Please."

A flash of distress in his eyes as Taq holds his arm.

"Try not to get stabbed before I come for you."

"No promises, Taq."

As they fly away to the wind, I conjure my old sword. Red poppies, does it feel good to use it. Modern times didn't let us carry our natural choice of weapons, hence the guns. Until now.

I sprint towards the field and... Aht. He fights with liquid fire and brimstone dripping from his hair and enveloping his body. His fiery daggers blast lava at the spirits, mainly at Wuni when she attempts to snuff out his fire by controlling the flood. A rushing sound of broken glasses emanates from him. Fomu glides above, wrestling with the spirits who try to get away and presumably search for me.

I swing my sword and attack.

Aht burns brighter. "What are you doing!?"

I answer, "Fighting!"

"You should be running!"

"Yes, to you!" I headbutt a spirit, making my way closer to him. His widespread heat licks my skin. "Think about what I'd feel if we switched places!"

His matching set of suns darts in chaos while his fire shoots everywhere. "I'm sorry! I didn't think—!"

"Make it up to me after this!"

He spins and the daggers slice other spirits. Those who went down before regenerate at a fast speed. I see a spirit—a bow and arrow, targeting Aht! She shoots—!

I jump in front of him and hurl my sword at her. Two arrows strike my left elbow... Overhang awkwardly. I pull them out and my nerves scream from pain.

My fury turns cold.

My beloved sees it. "Ki, remember wrath and spite to conjure!"

He elbows another spirit who dashes toward me and zaps lightning bolts at Wuni. Thunderclaps sweep some spirits away. I fend off others after materializing my sword in hand once more.

Aht's safety. Our plans. Our child. Their entitlement. Their intentions.

...

A scathing chill surges from the depth and flows through my body. Before I know it, they literally do. I'm in my elements. The mobile spirits and Calamities alike are shocked to see my state.

I coat myself with water and bubbles from my hair, snatch two handfuls of the grass field, and float up to the sky, simultaneously raining down and shooting grass upwards of the whole damn area. I slam them onto the spirits except for Aht, Fomu, and incoming Taq, but these spirits are mostly air and water, bouncing back often. My slams fall into repetition as I shove Esj away from Aht.

Esj comes for me! God damn him!

"KI!" my fire warns me.

"Got it!"

Esj's howling winds collide with me in full force! I rush forward and swing my sword to his head. Dodging, he leaves his right temple open and I bash it with the butt of the sword. I then slash his chest, deep enough to make him scream in anger while jets of wind escape him. He staggers and surrounds me with... suffocating air. A small tornado.

"What are you trying to do!?" I gasp as my lungs are crushing.

He shouts, "Without water, you're nothing!"

It hurts when his winds turn hot and vaporize my coated water, as his cutting wind aims at my belly. I see Aht down there is almost drowned by Wuni. Taq and Fomu are nearly overpowered by dozens of spirits.

Fine.

You want me dried up? You got it.

I suck in my water, leaving me as pure stone. I throw the sword at Esj, and his outraged roar echoes when I fall through the winds and down, down to the field. Straightening myself up, I plunge through the dirt by the sheer weight of my figure. A boom follows suit. The wet dirt cools me down, and my lungs are relieved. I dig my way to Aht's spot and swiftly pull him underground before Wuni does more damage, dragging him far.

"Aht, talk to me. Are you okay, love?"

"I'll be fine, sweetheart. It's... exhausting." His breaths are laboured, and I hold him close. "I have an idea."

"Whatever it is, I follow."

His forehead touches mine. "We are the only earth spirits here. I can quake them without you being seriously affected, albeit they have to be underground somehow."

"I can slam them down. Bury them long enough."

"Hope to heavens I reel in the quake to this area."

I will the earth to rise and bury all the spirits and Calamities underground. Trapped, they head in our way and their distant noises encroach. Aht sucks in his lava and becomes pure stone too, and embraces me so tightly.

His throat clicks.

...Tremoring my very core.

The crack reverberates. Everything quakes in the dark. Not only crowded shrieks ring in our ears, but the sound of structures crashing above the ground.

As if it's the end of the world.

It takes a long time before the quake subsides. After that, everything is silent. Aht and I dig our way up with caution and take in the view.

No more apartments. Its rubbles are embedded in the field. The fissured field, where fires are everywhere.

We slip away from the ruins and hit the pavement. I look at other houses nearby and they seem unaffected by the battle. Aht and I share a relieved look. Taq and Fomu gawk at us from the sky and dive in our direction.

There are muffled screams below the field.

"We better run before they catch up to us." I grasp my love's hands.

"Your fires, Aht... It'll spread," Fomu worries.

I assure him, "I'll rain it down."

"Your rain isn't enough for the whole field. You're not a Calamity."

Aht shakes his head. "Maybe I can—"

Lightning.

Black clouds roll into this neighborhood, lit by several flashes of lightning. This aura feels like... Muhl's.

"Muhl?" Aht questions to the sky.

The clouds rain on us, diminishing the fires but not Aht. Seems she doesn't side with other spirits, fortunately. "I... I received a command," her voice echoes along the thunder.

"From whom?"

"Their Highness."

Her lightning strikes us both. No pain.

The world fades into black.