The ground shook violently, splitting open and opening wounds at every corner. Fierce winds buffeted everything in their path. Living creatures, whoever they were and wherever they came from, were plunged into endless fear by the enraged pair of gods. Just a simple difference in opinion, the world was engulfed in an apocalyptic disaster. Destroyed beyond repair, corpses scattered across houses, swallowed and flying aimlessly. A figure began to appear in the sky, and another fell right among the rotting corpses.
A tall, black-robed man stood amidst a sea of rotting corpses. A dried, dead tree, used as a suicide site, appeared, with a rope tied around each corpse's neck. The figure raised his sword, pitch-black and stained with blood. The blood flowed down his body, giving the man a terrifying impression.
"Aestria!" the man shouted, a flash of lightning flashing across his sword, making him tremble. His body was charred, but he remained standing, staring up at the gloomy sky filled with lightning. His eyes were fixed with a determined look, as if he were prepared for whatever was to come.
"Our battle isn't over yet! We've been together for three hundred years, and this is what you do to me?" the man growled angrily. He drew his sword left and right, placed his hand on his chest, and spoke loudly to his interlocutor in the sky.
A woman-like figure descended from the lightning-filled sky. Her beautiful white wings were drenched in blood, her long, white hair the same. She carried a sword identical to the man's. She descended and landed on a large rock, right among the decaying corpses.
"Vivian! I will end all our people's suffering here, right with the death of one of us!" She pointed her sword at the man. The woman's face was filled with anger, sadness, and disappointment. Her face was full of disappointment, and her voice, which should have been loud, was deafening to those who heard it. She finally decided to do the same thing: to end all the problems that had occurred.
"I have no intention of dying easily..." Vivian pointed her sword at Aestria, gripping it tightly with both of her strong arms. "But I know one thing, considering what we've both been through, it seems we'll never make it to heaven," he laughed, his body beginning to regenerate the wounds from the lightning strike. Vivian began to attack, his smile frightening even for his fellow gods.
"So am I, let's settle this here!" She took a stance with her sword in hand, ready to deliver the final blow. Her white wings spread, ready to take flight and hurtle towards Vivian.
"Aestria!" Vivian shot towards the woman, drawing her blood-stained sword. A purplish glare and shadowy silhouettes moved with lightning speed, like lightning in a thunderstorm. Vivian zigzagged, finally approaching Aestria at full speed.
"Vivian!" Aestrai took flight with her blood-stained wings. She was as fast as Vivian. Like an eagle swooping down after soaring through the sky, Aestria's movements were like those of a bird as she wholeheartedly thrust her sword toward Vivian a split second after he began his attack.
The two figures killed each other. Vivian severed one of Aestria's wings, while Aestria severed her arm. Both paused after the first attack, then quickly thrust their swords toward each other's hearts. Their chests were pierced, blood pouring from their bodies, and they both stared at each other, dying.
With their bodies both dying, they stared at the backs of their respective opponents. Aestria saw the barren, parched land, with trees burned, uprooted, and destroyed by their fight. Vivian, meanwhile, saw a mountain shattered, erupting, and shattered into pieces. They both finally tried to feel each other's feelings and looked into each other's eyes.
"I've got you..." Aestria looked into Vivian's eyes with a smile, blood leaking from her mouth. Aestria immediately pulled her sword and hand out of Vivian's chest and began to slowly fall to the ground.
"I got you too..." he cried, coughing up blood. "The world isn't for us, we aren't for the world, we only exist for us." Vivian's eyes began to dim, his hands still gently holding Aestria's body, he held Aestria from the right side, keeping his body from falling hard to the ground.
"If you die first, I'll really hate you!" Aestria held Vivian's arm, and she began to heal his fatal wounds. His severed hand had now closed, bleeding, and the wound on his chest quickly closed and closed back together. Aestria smiled, seeing that it was all over.
At the same time, Vivian did the same to her. Vivian held Aestria in his arms, crying between her wounds and her neck. His embrace was tight, he was honest with himself. In that atmosphere, Aestria smiled and looked into Vivian's eyes with happiness. She brought her forehead close to him and pressed it against him. In the land destroyed by their actions, thunder and dark clouds, they loved each other.
"If only we were reborn—" Aestria coughed and blood came from her mouth, her wound still not fully healed. "I want us to meet again, not as enemies, but as friends, and lovers." She cried in Vivian's arms.
"Stop your nonsense, we're dying." He smiled broadly, laughing a little.
But amidst their laughter and smiles, a group of humans arrived carrying arrows. The arrows gleamed with a strange light. Aestria and Vivian watched from a distance, and Vivian, who had recovered slightly, immediately shot away, carrying Aestria away. Vivian knew it wasn't a good sign; it was a group of humans. Aestria didn't know they were being targeted by a group of people who wanted their power.
With the power he possessed, Vivian hid behind the shadows of the corpses in the clearing. HIS divine power was rooted in the concept of darkness; as long as darkness existed, he could access her power in any form. In contrast, Aestria possessed the concept of light, allowing her complete authority over light.
Every second and minute they tried to hide, the humans continued to pursue them. It was strange how these humans could chase after the gods and goddesses who represented light and darkness. These small, fragile mortals held something unusual in their hands. Something that even light and darkness could not neutralize.
While fleeing from the humans, Vivian was stabbed in the back while trying to escape the shadows of the corpses she had entered. Along with being pierced by an arrow fired by the humans, Aestria fell and was thrown several feet from Vivian's side.
"Oh you two, Emperor and Empress of light and darkness, the era of the gods and goddesses' rule has ended. Bow to the era where the gods and goddesses are dead. Your historical records deserve to be buried in your coffins." The humans surrounded Aestria and the dying Vivian, brandishing their arrows, clubs, and swords—and these were no ordinary weapons.
"Aestria was willing to fight me to side with you! Is this your revenge on her? If she hadn't sided with you, Armageddon would have happened 50 years ago!" Vivian, with an angry face, drew his sword towards the human leader, his eyes glowing red. His breath was labored from exhaustion from using all his strength on Aestria in the previous battle.
The human leader only listened to Vivian's words. The other humans, clad in copper and bronze armor, began laughing along with their leader, who was clad in gold armor. They drew their bows towards Aestria and Vivian, their gazes sharp and filled with determination. They saw Aestria and Vivian, who lay prostrate on the ground, as something that must be eradicated from their world.
"In this way, the colonization of the powers that exist on the planet Haneru will soon end, the supremacy that you two lead makes us humans, the weakest race because we do not have any power on this planet, do not have a clear class point of our existence, you argue that humans must submit to verses and books that praise you, even though that is your way of exploiting our freedom! You gods and goddesses and creatures like you are greedy feudals, you judge right and wrong based on your preferences towards the differences that we humans have, you are an obstacle to the diversity of the human race on this planet."
The human leader's speech concluded, and the bowstring was released, sending an arrow flying, striking Aestria and Vivian. With a final scream, Vivian tried to protect Aestria. But unfortunately, this isn't a story focused on them. Aestria perished in the hunt for the gods, and beside her lay a dying Vivian, her eyes blank and her hand clasped in hers. The humans began to depart, leaving them both behind, with their horses and chariots.
"In the end, humanity will find its freedom sooner or later. Whatever the price. Many like them, simply for the power of controlling weaker beings, arbitrarily, as if we had no path of our own as a free and independent people. Now it's time for us to meet the leaders of the Demigods," the human leader said, feeling a little regretful for ending the lives of these two representatives of light and darkness. He and his troops immediately departed, completing what they had set out to do from the beginning.
Meanwhile, Vivian lay dying, gathering her last strength. Concentrating everything he had in his hand which was holding Aestria's dead hand. Between their palms there was a small tree seed that accidentally slipped between their palms.
"O⍑, ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∷ᒷᒲリᔑリℸ ̣ ᓭ 𝙹⎓ ꖎ╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ ᔑリ↸ ↸ᔑ∷ꖌリᒷᓭᓭ, ∷ᒷ!¡ᔑ╎∷ ᔑꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ↸ᔑᒲᔑ⊣ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ ̇/╎ᓭℸ ̣ ᓭ 𝙹リ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ !¡ꖎᔑリᒷℸ ̣. B|| ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᔑ⚍ℸ ̣ ⍑𝙹∷╎ℸ ̣ || 𝙹⎓ ↸ᔑ∷ꖌリᒷᓭᓭ ᔑリ↸ ꖎ╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ , ⊣∷ᔑリℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ ᔑ ℸ ̣ ∷ᒷᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ╎ᓭ ᒷℸ ̣ ᒷ∷リᔑꖎ ᔑリ↸ ⚍リℸ ̣ 𝙹⚍ᓵ⍑ᒷ↸ ʖ|| ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ⍑ᔑリ↸ᓭ 𝙹⎓ ᒷ⍊╎ꖎ, ʖ𝙹ℸ ̣ ⍑ ╎ᒲᒲ𝙹∷ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎ ᔑリ↸ ᒲ𝙹∷ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎ. T⍑╎ᓭ ╎ᓭ ᒲ|| ⎓╎リᔑꖎ ∷ᒷᑑ⚍ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ʖᒷ⎓𝙹∷ᒷ i ↸╎ᒷ."
Vivian slowly closed her eyes after using all the power she had in the tree seeds in their palms.
Those were Vivian's last words. After that, she died right beside Aestria. Miraculously, the power of the gods of light and darkness united in the seed. Immediately, the sprout sprouted. Light and darkness surrounded the sprout, making it grow bigger and began to strengthen the plant. Before long, roots spread into the barren soil, bushes began to grow and large tree branches began to appear. Amidst the rotting corpses scattered across the vast barren land, a new miracle appeared on the planet Haneru, a very large tree, standing among the barren land and the rotting corpses there, the only final miracle and parting gift from Aestria and Vivian to the creatures of planet Haneru as a reminder that they once existed even though their bodies were now consumed by the tree. During the war between mortals and immortals, a miracle was born, the Tree of Life.