Chapter Text
What is a friend?
Friends are people who share a close connection; a mutual affection, of sorts.
Friends come and form through many means: a slow burn build-up, fire-forged ferocity, or even an act of salvation. They can be people of many colorful identities: good-hearted people, stubbornly-defiant authorities, cool and collected thieves, or even the darkest of villains.
Whatever the reasons, there will always be those willing to put their hearts out to gain a closer relationship – and whoever the people, there will always be those willing to accept it.
…and there’s no denying the power that such friendship can hold.
It doesn’t matter what comes one’s way—be it simple matters, like a mere collectible out of reach… or a grave difficulty, such as the incoming end of the world—so long as one has their friends by their side, there is nothing they cannot accomplish.
But what if a friend has become distorted, no longer the person they used to be?
Would it still be worth holding on to the remnants of the past then, merely out of old affections?
Or, in the end… would breaking one’s ties be the right choice to make?
…even despite all the things he had done for you?
(There’s no easy answer, and no easy way forward. There can never be, with a question so broad—and so difficult.
But perhaps, if a determined soul, empowered by the happiness in his soul and the friends by his side, were to come in to give one final chance…
…there might be hope remaining after all.)
He had renewed his chanting.
Day after day, night after night, he stood in front of the altar where the Jamba Heart once resided, utterly oblivious to anything that might be in his surroundings.
Hour after hour, minute after minute, he pleaded to the stars above that his desires may be granted, that his dethroned Dark Lord of Destruction may rise again, with a vigor that no one—not even Zan Partizanne, his once closest confidant—had ever seen.
He barely stopped to eat. He barely stopped to sleep.
All that mattered to him was to salvage the only things he knew.
No matter what, he would revive Void Termina.
No matter what, he would prove the Ancients wrong.
No matter what, he would salvage his faith and bring forth a new era—the era that was so ungraciously denied to his beloved Destroyer of Worlds— …even if he had to rip apart the space between dimensions in order to do so.
And if it required the damaging of his very soul as well?
…then so be it.
“Oh, Dark Lord of Destruction… Oh, our glorious Void Termina… For your sake—
“I SHALL OPEN THE GATES TO UNTOLD DIMENSIONS, AND RESTORE TO YOU THE GREATNESS YOU WERE DENIED! HEAR MY PRAYERS, AND COME TO ME!”
“Something’s wrong with Lord Hyness,” Zan Partizanne said, just outside the altar to the Divine Terminus.
The normally reserved Bringer of Shock was noticeably far more worried than usual, her hands trembling in fear of what could happen.
“We can see that, Zan!” Flamberge exclaimed, raising her arms to the air—though she was equally as anxious as her elder sister. “He’s been like that ever since that stubby little pink thing and his stupid ‘friends’ came in and wrecked the place! That’s… That’s nothing unusual!”
Francisca paced around nervously from behind her hotheaded sibling.
“But you must admit,” the Frozen General said, “Lord Hyness has certainly been chanting at a faster rate as of late. Ever since we gave him those documents relating to crossing time and space, he hasn’t moved from the altar. I fear for his health, as I’m sure you do, Zan.”
Zan Partizanne had no discomfort admitting that. It was she who was the most devout of Hyness’s followers, having been the first of the sisters to be reunited under the officiant’s banner. Even if Hyness treated her with disrespect – something the Bringer of Shock would deny to the very end – she remained loyal to her leader, far more so than Francisca and Flamberge could ever hope to be, even though they too had been similarly rescued from precarious situations.
And to stand here, right outside her lord’s gate, unable to help or do anything as he stood wasting away in that NOVA-forsaken altar…
…well, it most certainly weighed on her nerves.
“…then we should not be standing here,” she stated quietly. “If Lord Hyness is performing another of his ritual, then we—the Mage-Sisters of Jambandra—should be by his side!”
She lifted her head, eyes steeled in resolute determination.
“We may have failed him before, but we will not do so again! Come what may, we will stand by his side and oversee the achieving of his desires!”
“But Zan—you know he’ll just yell at you again!” Flamberge cut in. “Lord Hyness hasn’t treated you with any real kindness for years! If we distract him now, when he’s in the middle of something important…!”
She didn’t bother to finish.
Though their loyalty to their leader was unquestionable, despite some misgivings, the topic of his treatment toward them was a sore spot between Flamberge and Zan, especially since Zan was enamored with the so-called Officiant of Doom. Often, the two sisters would quarrel over it, with Francisca acting as mediator.
Had this been any other day—precisely, a day prior to the Star Allies’ trouncing of Void Termina, the same thing would have occurred, just as it always had.
But today was not such a day.
Zan hesitated for a moment, before balling up her hands in fists.
“…for Lord Hyness, I will endure it all,” she declared softly. “There is no danger we cannot overcome in the service of our lord. I will stand by him, no matter what happens.”
More quietly, she added, “…it is all I can do after all he has done for me.”
“…Zan…”
“Berge! Zan!” Francisca suddenly spoke up, catching the two sisters’ attention. “I think something’s happened to Lord Hyness! Listen!”
The two generals complied. Indeed, if they listened closely, they could hear a low, warbling hum echo out from the altar door—a hum that spoke of malice and darkness. And it was getting louder by the second.
Zan’s eyes widened.
“Lord Hyness!” she screamed, and—whipping out her spear—bust down the door and ran inside.
Startled, Francisca and Flamberge glanced at each other before running into the altar after their elder sister. “Zan! W-Wait up!”
The altar was unchanged from its state following the Star Allies’ first visit to the Divine Terminus. Under ordinary circumstances, nothing should have been any different from usual – but what Zan was witnessing before her eyes had petrified her where she stood.
Francisca rushed to Zan Partizanne’s side and asked, “Z-Zan! What… What are you…”
When she noticed her elder sister not responding, she turned to look at where she was gawking—
—and gasped just as well.
Flamberge followed suit, once she managed to stand alongside her siblings –and the three could only stare helplessly as the whole terminus began to rumble and roar all about them. The sight before them was unlike any ritual their leader had ever done before—
—and the results of this latest one… terrified them to an almost wordless degree.
“Lord Hyness…” Zan said breathlessly. “…what have you done?”