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Phainon laughed as he swung his wooden sword, only to be parried by Mydei’s gauntlets. The Kremnoan smirked as he clenched his free hand into a fist and swung at the other. Phainon leaned backwards to dodge, smiling as they both jumped back, putting distance between themselves again. Phainon looked up from where he stood with his sword at the ready and smiled.

“Tired already, Mydei?” he teased.

The blond scoffed. “Only you would be tired after merely an hour of sparring, Deliverer.”

“I didn’t say I was tired! But that punch of yours was slower than usual!” he singsonged back. “Are you out of practice now that we’ve ushered in the Era Nova?”

“HKS! Perhaps it is your senses that have dulled, Deliverer.”

“That’s nonsense, I’ll have you know…” Phainon trailed off as his vision blurred. It wasn’t unusual for him to experience bouts of discomfort after the Era Nova. The weight of 400 million Coreflames was heavy on his body. Check ups with Hyacine were a frequent occurrence when the Trailblazer had told them all the truth of the Eternal Recurrence. At first, it had been all but a miracle that he had survived, between losing an arm, a wing, fighting Zephyro and Nanook, and being absorbed by Irontomb. Hyacine’s expression had been a picture of horror with every word that had spilled from his lips as he recounted what had happened to him.

It had been months since then. Hyacine had given him a clean bill of health, or at least as clean as it could be after everything that he had gone through. He should’ve been fine. He had to be fine.

“Deliverer…?”

Phainon grimaced as he clutched at one of his eyes with his hand. His vision was flickering and when he looked back up, tears in his eyes, he sucked in a breath. Across from him, Mydei did the same.

“Deliverer, your eyes…” But Phainon paid no attention to him. He was far too preoccupied with what he saw now. Apparitions of him and Mydei in various states of combat littered the training ground.

This was…

What he had started to see in the 108,642^nd cycle. When he fought Mydei in Castrum Kremnos. But why…

Were these memories? Holograms? He didn’t know anymore.

Weren’t the cycles over?

“A-ah…” he gasped as the pain intensified.

“Deliverer!”

Glitches in the training arena appeared next. That’s right. Amphoreus was a simulation. He wasn’t real. Mydei wasn’t real. Nothing was real.

“N-no… I…”

Hands on his shoulders. Firm and insistent shaking. Then a hand cupping his face. Mydei’s distorted voice shouting at him from underwater, tinged with what sounded like fear.

And then it wasn’t Mydei who had a hold of him, but Nikador, in its full Titan form. The Titan hissed as it pulled away, the smell of burnt flesh pungent in the air. Phainon’s dropped his wooden sword and summoned Dawnmaker, gripping the hilt hard enough to bleed.

That’s right.

He was drowning. Drowning in the heat of 33,550,336 cycles. Crushed under the burden of his “fate”.

He would never be free.

The Eternal Recurrence was his prison and his prison alone.

Until Amphoreus ushered in the true dawn…

He would never be able to rest.

“I… need to remember… how this feels…” Khaslana mumbled as he trudged slowly towards Nikador, reluctance painted in his every limb. His free hand crept towards his chest, clutching the flesh.

“Phainon, stop!”

Khaslana screamed as he tore open his chest, allowing himself to be consumed by the heat and divinity of 400 million Coreflames. It felt like slipping on an old coat, the way his wings spread behind him and the blackened skin crawled up his limbs. The sheer heat coming off his form set the grass below him ablaze, spreading slowly in a circle around him.

That’s right. He was an Emanator of Destruction. All he could do was bring about Destruction.

Floating gently off the scorched ground, he pointed Dawnmaker at the Titan. But Nikador did not draw its lance. Confused, his sword arm dipped. Mydei had never given him the Coreflame peacefully. This behaviour was strange. But he soon understood why he had yet to move as from his left, he heard hurried footsteps approaching, as another Titan emerged from the entryway. Khaslana’s eyes widened.

“Thanatos…” In all his cycles, he had never had to fight two of them at the same time.

“What…” the newly arrived Titan gasped. “Lord Phainon…”

“Get Hyacine, Castorice!”

“O-Of course!”

Khaslana watched as Thanatos slunk away. No matter. He would retrieve the Coreflame of Death at a later date. It was better this way too. Now he didn’t have to fight both Titans at the same time. Turning his full attention back to Nikador, he raised his sword once again.

Mydei cursed as Phainon leveled his sword at him. The prince slowly circled, watching as Phainon did the same. Even hallucinating as he was, the Deliverer was still a formidable foe.

No. Perhaps even more so.

“Deliverer…” Mydei began. One of Phainon’s fingers on his sword twitched. “Lower your weapon. Our spar is over. It’s only me.”

Phainon frowned. “I… No. It’s not… over. Not until… you give me… the Coreflame… Nikador.”

Oh, Titans.

“Deliverer… It’s me, Mydeimos.” The words tasted like glass in his throat.

“I… know that. But you… need to give me… the Coreflame. The cycles must… reset.”

Mydei cursed. He didn’t know what brought this sudden episode on, but he should have heeded Hyacine’s words about Phainon’s mental state more carefully. The healer had brought all the Chrysos Heirs but Phainon together and explained in no uncertain terms that Phainon suffered from all the memories of the Eternal Recurrence. Lifetime after lifetime of his comrades dying. Era after era of agony. The memories were suppressed for the most part, Hyacine had assured, but it wasn’t out of the question for him to suffer flashbacks or lose himself to them. If that were to happen, they were to send for her immediately and do all they could to keep him calm. But nowhere had she mentioned how to actually keep him calm. An especially difficult feat when Phainon had a sword in his hand.

“Phainon,” he tried. “The cycles are over. You don’t need to keep resetting time.”

“No,” the other insisted. To Mydei’s horror, a tear traced down Phainon’s cheek, only to turn to steam as it fell. “I’ll never be free.”

With that he lunged.

Cursing, Mydei blocked with his gauntlets, only to realized with muted horror that his gauntlets were beginning to heat. He leapt back, focusing on dodging instead of blocking. Even though he had been burned earlier when he had tried to gently shake Phainon out of it, this heat felt impossibly hotter. If Phainon now burned hot enough to heat metal, there was no telling what kind of damage he would do to flesh.

It definitely wasn’t at all because the idiot would feel bad when he returned to his senses.

They continued this game of cat and mouse for a while, only for Phainon to pause and look at him pensively.

“You… aren’t like… the Mydei I know… at all. Why… don’t you attack?”

Mydei straightened out of his stance. “You aren’t yourself, Phainon. I am telling you the truth. The cycles are over. Put down your sword,” he tried gently.

“Give me… the Coreflame.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Mydei noticed Castorice return with Hyacine. Turning his attention back to Phainon, he held his hands up in surrender, an action so unlike him that it had the Deliverer’s hazy, golden eyes widening.

“I will give you the Coreflame, Deliverer,” he said softly, as if speaking to a frightened animal. “But only if you revert back to your original form. You are safe here.”

Hesitantly, disbelievingly, Phainon’s blond hair bled back to white and the cracks on his skin began to mend. His wings retracted back into his back as he slowly lowered back down to the ground and Dawnmaker faded away into the pocket dimension Phainon stored it in. But to Mydei’s dismay, his Deliverer’s eyes remained gold and distant, lost in images of countless pasts. Tears continued to stream down his cheeks, but Phainon seemed unaware of the mark of his pain that had spilled over. It brought out a rage in Mydei that he rarely felt, to see someone he loved suffering so much, but nevertheless, all he could do was smile softly and try to coax the other back into the present.

“Very good, Deliverer.”

“The Coreflame… Mydei… please… don’t want… to hurt…”

Mydei cast a quick glance at Hyacine behind Phainon. He was sure that Phainon knew that she was there, but whether or not he recognised her as his friend and not Aquila… Mydei didn’t know. For now, Phainon seemed to have his focus trained on him, and Mydei would endeavor to keep it that way, until it was safe for Hyacine to intervene. Luckily, it seemed that she was on the same page as him and following his lead. Turning his attention back to Phainon, he slowly walked towards him, arms spread in front of him to show that he meant no harm.

“You won’t hurt me, Phainon.”

“There’s… so much blood… Mydei…” Phainon whimpered.

Mydei grit his teeth as he fought to keep his hatred for the Eternal Recurrence from seeping through.

“Your hands are clean, Deliverer,” he promised. As he reached Phainon, he gingerly held the other’s trembling hands, gently caressing them. Phainon casted his eyes down to their hands, shaking and looking more fragile than Mydei had ever remembered seeing him. “You are safe. The Eternal Recurrence has ended, and you can rest now. It’s only you and me here. Hyacine is behind you. You are free from your role as the ‘Deliverer’, Phainon. You know I would not lie to you about this. I swear it on my mother’s name.”

Slowly, Phainon looked up back up towards Mydei and brought one of his hands to cup the prince’s face. Tearfully he begged,

“Is this real? Can I trust you? Which Mydei are you?”

Mydei slowly held the hand that cupped his cheek in his own and moved it to press against his heart. Under their palms, his strong heartbeat thrummed. His other hand moved to the back of Phainon’s neck as he pressed their foreheads together.

“I’m your Mydei,” he promised, quiet for just the two of them to hear. “I’m the one you saved. The one who lives the Era Nova with you.

And you are my Phainon. Saviour of Amphoreus. Bringer of the dawn and above all, my equal. I cannot begin to understand what those 33 million cycles have done to you. What you have lived, and fought, and bled for. All I can promise is that I will stay with you until our last breaths, in this era. And even at the end, I will find you again where the west winds meet. This is my oath to you, Phainon.”

Finally, he saw the gold in the Deliverer’s eyes give way to sky blue and the haze that had settled over them recede. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Phainon sagged into him, but Mydei gently caught him and turned him over to lie with his head in his lap. Phainon opened his eyes slowly, and Mydei was relieved to see him lucid and present.

“Mydei…”

“There you are, Phainon.”

“Mydei… I’m sorry…”

“None of that, HKS. Let Hyacine check you over and then we can talk about what happened.”

“Lord Mydei! Lord Phainon!” Hyacine shouted as she made her way over to them. She knelt to the ground, her hands already glowing as she hovered them carefully over Phainon’s body.

“What happened to Castorice, Hyacine?” Mydei asked.

“She went to guard the entrance to the training ground to ensure that no one came in,” she answered. “Are you both alright? What happened?”

“I-I’m fine, Miss Hyacine. Really—” Phainon was about to insist when a metal finger flicked him in the forehead. “Ow! Mydeimos, what was that for?”

“You should know better than to lie about your health like this, Deliverer.”

“But I really- ow!” he cried as he was flicked again.

“You may be fine now, but you were fully dissociated, Phainon. You attacked me and transformed into your other form. If it were anyone other than me, they’d be seriously hurt, if not dead. We need to know what triggered this.”

He could see the guilt creeping into Phainon’s eyes. He sighed. “Focus on healing, Phainon. There is no ill will between us.”

The guilt didn’t disappear, but it lessened as Phainon’s eyes softened and he nestled further into Mydei’s lap.

“It seems like you’re always the one saving me, Mydeimos,” he lamented.

“And I’d do it a thousand times more if it meant that you would be safe. Now tell her the truth.”

Phainon sighed as he smiled embarrassedly up at Hyacine. The healer gave him a reassuring smile back as he opened his mouth to speak.

Through halting words and heavy silences, Mydei stayed with him, hand held firmly in his.

Anchored, in the present.