Blue hair which dangled loosely beneath his shoulders swayed within the wind as Noctis stared at the man in front of him. Luster. The two, throughout their entire time spent in the dream realm had never interacted before, at least not to his knowledge, so the young boy's sudden appearance was surprising even to him.
From what he could tell, Luster was of lazy disposition, never choosing to do things except when absolutely necessary which gave him a level of efficiency that not many within the earth possessed. He could already tell immediately that Luster was strong.
Immensely so.
With a yawn, Luster waved for him to walk alongside him or at least Luster's version of such an event. In reality, what this truly involved was Noctis carrying him away to a secluded area on his back as the young boy deemed it too much effort to move himself.
"Have we gone far enough yet? Golden lion." Noctis commented offhandedly, upon receiving a lazy nod from Luster, he immediately proceeded to drop him on the soft grass like a bag of potatoes without a care in the world, eliciting a yelp from the young boy.
"Hey! What the fuck was that for!" Luster exclaimed, his occasional use of vulgar language when Orion wasn't present piercing into his speech as Noctis cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"Aren't you a bit too young to be swearing to high heavens like that?" He asked, receiving another yawn from Luster as he folded his arms behind his head and stared at the clouds. 'That isn't something you'd do when in front of a man with a sword' Noctis commented internally, choosing to forego any warning in case things went awry.
"Young is just indexed to how mentally advanced people are, I'd say I'm mentally advanced enough to swear to high heavens if I please, no?" Noctis shook his head, muttering under his breathe about 'the kids of this generation' before shrugging.
"I mean, you don't drink, you're lazy to a fault, you don't have a job, you don't have a girlfriend, you don't have a—" As he continued, Luster's growing irritation only continued to rise.
"I get it, I get it ok! Fine, I'm not mentally advanced enough who cares!" Luster grumbled, eliciting a laugh from Noctis. "And plus, I do have a job thank you very much! It's….fighting? Yeah! That's it, I fight for a living! Also, people are adults and don't have all those things."
"If you need to think to yourself what it means to be an adult, then you probably aren't one." Was Noctis' reply. As he said this, a comfortable silence settled between the two, stretching on for five minutes as both took their time gazing at the passing clouds.
"Why are you loyal to Asterion? Be honest."
Luster's sudden question cut through the silence like a knife, yet Noctis didn't visibly react to such an abrupt question of his loyalty as he looked to the sky in what appeared like contemplation.
"Ah, it's a bit hard to explain, no? Initially, it was because he saved me and my family, but then they ended up dying soon after, so it wasn't like he had too much of an impact on that front. Yet, by the time they had died I had already taken three lives in his name, as penance."
As he finished speaking, Luster sat up, his expression not changing in the slightest as he continued to gaze at the clouds. Feigning indifference despite his avid interest in the topic.
"Hm, I see. So, you owed him a debt? And when you repaid it through killing three people, you probably thought to yourself 'Ah, if I abandon him now, what would be the point of killing those three' and then you caught yourself in a cycle. Killing more to make the deaths of those you had killed previously worth it."
Noctis chuckled, smiling wistfully as he remembered the time he first took a life. It was a bloody affair, he didn't know how to use a sword exactly, so he ended up using his eleven-year-old teeth to rip the throat out of a grown man, losing some teeth in the process.
"You're surprisingly perceptive. But that wasn't all, he sold me on his idea. If simply the underworld took over the surface, combining all continents in the world into a single supercontinent under a single rule, would that not be more peaceful? Would more children need to spill blood upon reaching such a goal?"
He paused for a moment, resolve burning in his gaze before he continued.
"Resources being shared, geniuses from multiple places being able to bounce ideas off one another and advance mankind without any thought dedicated towards hate, even immortality would not be far-fetched if mankind came together. That is the faith I have towards people."
Restraining a laugh, Luster allowed silence to overcome them once more, replaying Noctis' sentence within his head repeatedly as he thought of a way to further his ideals. Sighing to himself, Luster yawned, foregoing thinking and letting his thoughts run free.
"And you think the people of the world will simply bend a knee? Say we took Asterion's idea, merging the entire overworld into a gigantic supercontinent that has been forged and funded through his dirty dealings over here, which involve experimentation on children mind you, do you expect them all to just sit down and agree?"
"Then we'll—" Noctis attempted to cut in, but Luster continued speaking.
"You'll kill them? Then you fall into another cycle. If anything, Asterion has done in the underworld comes to light, then everyone will detest him, not a soul would want to follow a man who's willing to freely make weapons out of children, sell drugs to the vulnerable, have slaves."
Noctis thought of speaking, but his breathe hitched in his throat, the words of refutation dying before they could escape his lips, and so Luster pressed forward.
"Wouldn't it make more sense if the world had an enemy? Let's assume Asterion wins the war and goes through with this, to make the world bend a knee, their governments need to disappear, no? And to do that, what better way would there be than blaming it on the man who killed three hundred thousand people?"
"You wish to pin this on Sunless?" Noctis whispered, his composure showing evident cracks as Luster continued to press forward.
"Hate begets hate. If one hates another, especially with such intensity, their minds will become focused, become streamlined. And so, if there is such an unstoppable force in the form of lost from light, they will attempt to bring him to justice and fail, causing their hatred to continuously increase. And with their hatred focused, they'll need someone to direct it.
Asterion.
But to even sweeten the deal, I'll say it like this. People bond over shared hate, we've seen this every world war we've had, no? We've seen this even in the underworld. People seek friendship, seek companionship once they find something they both strongly share. Hatred.
I trust someone of your intelligence could see where I'm going with this. Humanity in a united front facing off against a single foe, and even upon the death of the foe, the ties built while fighting them wouldn't falter."
Noctis felt himself taking a step back, almost terrified of the implications of Luster's speech as he found his voice once more. "And why must it be Sunless? What about him is so special, so unique that he must endure the hatred of the entire world?"
"Ah, isn't that simple? He's the strongest."
--
Sitting underneath the starless skies, Sunny remained surrounded by the Song sisters as they chatted excitedly upon what they learnt from within the citadel and their future plans. Frankly, they didn't get to learn as much as they would have intended, partly due to Eubin razing the entire building to the ground, but they learnt a fair bit.
"My new sword looks like a mixture between steel and something else, whatever it is, it catches fire easily. It's like I'm in an anime!" Clara commented cheerfully as she lit up the dark plain with a single swing of her sword, flames followed the arc of her blade loyally as she smiled witnessing it.
"Woah! It's just like demon slayer!" Hel commented, her eyes widened at the special effects as she shifted to grab the sword for herself. "Hey you greedy slut! This sword is mine! I earnt it fairly!" Clara whined as Hel struggled to take the blade from her.
"Just…let me… use it… once!" Hel groaned, eliciting a sigh from Sunny as Clara pried the blade from her hands, immediately fleeing only to be followed by Hel who was hot on her heels.
To his left, sat Eubin, shifting her head so she could be as close to him as physically possible as she basically bearhugged his waist. Sunny offered her a sheepish smile, ignorant as to what to do in situations like this, he simply shifted his hand to stroke her hair gently.
And to his right, sat Nephis, who had been trying her hardest not to make eye contact with him throughout the entire time since his return. Frankly, it was making things extremely awkward. And so, in the spirit of taking the first step, Sunny decided to speak.
"Are you all right, Neph?" At this, Nephis raised her head slowly, meeting his eyes before shifting towards him enveloping him in a tight hug as she pressed her eyes into the nape of his neck. "They branded you… they branded you… they burnt you… she abused you!"
Her seemingly incoherent mumbles were understood perfectly by Sunny as he watched her grab his right arm, gently running her hand across the skin which contained his infamous tattoo. Witnessing the roughness of his typically smooth skin, Nephis winced, tears flowing freely as she intertwined her fingers with his.
"I'm not going to ask how you know that, but for what it's worth, I'm fine now." Sunny whispered, however his whispers only caused Nephis' wails to grow in intensity as she tightened her grip around him further, causing Sunny to yelp in surprise.
"Nep—"
His speech was cut off as a pair of soft lips pressing against his own, Nephis hand snaked behind his head, gripping his hair as though he would disappear should she let him go as his lips parted allowing her tongue entry.
Thankfully for both, Eubin was asleep, and the Song sisters continued to test out the capabilities of their new weapons as the two continued to kiss with a thousand emotions being transferred between one another with a simple touch of their lips.
Finally, they disconnected, with Nephis leaning forward and licking his lips gently, cutting off the saliva that connected the two before smiling. "Just let me have this. Just this once." She whispered.
And he did, as she laid down her head on his thigh, relaxing her body and quickly drifting to sleep, Sunny could only high with a warm smile on his face.
"How have I managed to fall in love with three people?"