[Video]

[bound_skyward]

[Kain is still a little pale and sick-looking, but... he's alive.]

I've returned from true death twice now. I wonder whether this makes my luck better than average... or far worse.

[Worse for the dying in the first place, but better because... well, twice now he's faced what he thought was an eternal end for him, and come back both times. Kain pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Going through death again reminds him though, of an important thing about what he saw.]

That dragon in the dream... I've encountered it before. All of Cosmos' warriors would have at the end of every cycle, whether they recall it or not. Its significance cannot be underestimated.

Comments

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

Oh? Does your world not have any crystals at all?

[Video]

[dies]

I've heard tales of such things, but there's no proof to make them anything more than tales. They certainly weren't enshrines and protected as they are here.

...I suppose I ought to be glad for that. Had the Emperor's hands fallen on such power, we would have known certain destruction.

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

This world almost saw destruction through these Crystals being in the wrong hands. I understand your concern all too well.

[Especially since he'd been helping the side of evil with stealing those crystals, oops.]

They're far more powerful than even I'd known of. I had no idea that the dead could be returned from them...

[Or really, that the dead went inside them at all.]

[Video]

[dies]

Perhaps it is best that such power is kept away from human hands. The tyrant who sought to subjugate my home world continued after death even without that power. With it, he may have proved truly unstoppable.

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

That's why they're so heavily guarded here, and kept apart, so it'd be more difficult to collect them all...

It seems that all worlds have undergone their share of threats... What was that tyrant like?

[He wonders really how similar that situation was to here.]

[Video]

[dies]

I see. You keep their power in separate lands so that no one may turn on the others.

He was a man who sold his soul to devils in return for great power. Eventually, he came to earn their servitude and became more fiend than man himself. He was once named Mateus but long since ceased to answer to anything but his title of Emperor. His crimes were immense, he could live out a thousand eternities in hell and the blood on his hands would still never be burned away.

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

Yes. If one person or even nation held them, their power would be unspeakable...

...Wait... a powerful man twisted by evil who calls himself the Emperor? The same one who comes from Firion's world?

[Video]

[dies]

...Firion? You know the messenger boy?

[Yup, this is Firion's designation. Messenger boy.]

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

He was one of my comrades during the war of the gods. It didn't happen on this world, or yours, but another entirely.

[Video]

[dies]

I see.

[He's heard a few references to this war now. It seems unthinkable that a mere child would be selected by the gods to fight, but he has no reason to doubt.]

...you seem to be familiar with the Emperor, as well.

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

He was on the side of Chaos- the enemy. I fought plenty of his imitations during the course of the battle.

Re: [Video]

[dies]

I see.

There is a saying about the enemy of my enemy, I believe. I am Scott Kashuan. It is good to meet on who has faced the emperor and lived to speak of it.

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

Likewise, it's good to meet an ally. I'm Kain Highwind.

[Video]

[dies]

...Highwind?

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

You say that as if it's familiar.

[Video]

[dies]

It is. ...this may seem odd, this is a different world, but are you familiar with a man named Ricard Highwind?

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

My father... how do you know his name?

[Video]

[dies]

I fought the Emperor at his side before being brought here, but- he can't exist in two different worlds, surely. Is there any way I could speak to him?

[Video]

[bound_skyward]

...

He died, several years ago.

[But if Kain came back, could that mean... No. He'll ask Porom about it perhaps, but he's sure there's some catch to it. For one, Kain had been aware enough to call out to the living. He's never had such contact with his father.]