177 A Message From Heaven To My—

The only way to move such an enormous construct was to have an equally massive entity force it upwards.

It was as simple as that. 

Reed knew not of another solution that might be able to move the impassable wall of frozen souls. As far as he understood, there were no ships capable of extracting the wall in service at the moment.

The Ancient Mulians might've had vessels for this olympian undertaking, but all I have is...

"We're not going to go any further with that wall in the way, so I'm going to fix that up now," said Reed.

It was without a doubt one of the boldest claims he had made to date, which promptly provoked an immediate look of concern from Lu'um. While she was delighted with his proactive attitude in regard to the fate of Itroch's citizens, she was worried about what he had in mind.

"You... have a plan?" said Lu'um slowly as she stressed the final word in concern.

The words didn't feel right coming out of her mouth. It felt alien to her saying something like that. An unsettling feeling of dread churned in her stomach as she began to formulate a variety of premeditated responses to deter Reed in the event his "idea" was beyond her ability to rectify.

"No, not a plan, per se. But I do have a feeling..."

Oh, no.

It was worse than what she had imagined. But it was already too late; Reed had already sprung into action.

What started as a feeling had taken hold of him, guiding toward the enormous frozen arm in front of them. 

Reed had never revealed it to anyone, but he had always felt something peculiar about the titan that slept beneath the continent. Where most would have only thought of it as an incredible aberration left behind by the Ancient Mulians, Reed thought and felt otherwise about it.

Longing, sadness, and... solace. 

After his initial awe and shock faded into the background, Reed couldn't help but feel a certain way about the injured, comatose titan whenever he thought about it. 

Were those feelings His or his own? Reed couldn't tell. There was still so much he didn't know. Entire millenniums of memories were not privy to him. What he knew amounted to a couple of drops in an ocean of buried history. 

Even so, with his measly knowledge, Reed flew towards the enormous arm as if he was being drawn towards it by an unknown force.

Reed didn't have any proof that'd his plan would work, but that didn't seem to matter to him in the slightest. When he extended his left arm toward the frozen arm, a faint sensation traveled up from his fingertips all the way to his shoulder.

A sharp, frigid chill bit into his arm, despite it being insulated within the environmental suit. And it felt true as could possibly be, enough that Reed flinched slightly from it in response.

And when he did... so, too, did the towering limb in front him.

The massive hand twitched and a brief but tremendous tremor shook the fragile earth in response, heralding the awakening of something truly extraordinary...

Even for Lu'um, who had grown accustomed to Reed's bizarre thought process and decision-making skills, it was too much for her to handle.

Her calm, composed mask broke in the face of what she considered to be the beginning of a terrible nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. A rare thread of real terror had strung itself around her heart.

There were a variety of reasons for her mounting nervousness, but two stood out amongst the crowd of concerns.

The first of those reasons laid in the simple fact that any blunder on Reed's behalf would all but certainly cause untold devastation. It was not an exaggeration that if the titan were to move too much or too suddenly, the frozen barrier of sealed souls would be destroyed.

The sealed souls aside, any major movement from the titan had the distinct possibility of engaging the safety of the continent itself. There was far more at stake than what Lu'um was comfortable with at the moment.

But in the truth, this was only a secondary concern to her compared to what was really on her mind. She was far more terrified over the fact that Reed had bonded with the titan... so effortlessly, to the point that he had not even required a direct, physical connection to it.

...And yet, he thinks himself a worthless liability right now. If he's useless, then... what are we?

It wasn't natural, even by her standards as the chosen bearer of the other half of the Mark of Responsibility. Not evenHe or His Excellency, the late Emperor of the Stars, possessed the raw, natural talent that the youth in front of her had. Although Lu'um very much adored Reed, she couldn't help but find it repulsive how fast a learner he was, even without someone to teach him.

It was for this very reason that she and Lacrima had not dared teach him a lick of the Elder Speech years ago. Nor had they taught him any of the many Anima techniques that the Ancient Mulians had developed either. 

Reed already had a reckless, inquisitive fascination about what interested him — aware of this terrible trait in him, Lu'um and Lacrima feared the worst should he ever learn of what was possible with Anima. 

...And yet, it had not mattered in the end.

In a seemingly natural motion, the titanic arm responded to Reed's will and slowly started to slowly descend further into the fissure's depths until it completely disappeared into the murky darkness below.

Although it was lamentable, the immediate surroundings where the colossal arm had once been encased within the glacial wall of crystals suffered some damage. Reed had tried his best to avoid damage the structure as much as he could but had been unsuccessful in his task.

A lonely few crystal pillars shattered and plummeted into the abyss... until a translucent web of energy coiled around them.

Though his attention was directed towards controlling the colossal arm, Reed called out toward Lu'um and said, "Sorry about that. I don't think I would have been able to manage a clean detachment with how strongly fused the arm had been with the wall."

"...Don't worry about it," responded Lu'um. "In any case, what are you going to do now?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to lift everything. We don't have time to dawdle around here anymore, so it's gotta go. Thought it best to move it all out now — we're going to be closing the fissure anyways, right? I don't want to reopen the city afterward just to excavate all of this out."

It was two parts urgency and one part laziness on Reed's behalf. He simply did not feel like returning to Itroch after their work here was completed. Where some might've taken a delicate approach in extracting the tremendous crystal geode, he saw a project that would have taken decades, if not centuries to complete.

Not one to prolong a task that could be accomplished in a single day, Reed decided on his lonesome to finish the job himself on a much shorter timescale.

And thus with resolved intent, he thrust his right arm towards the heavens in an act of mercy.

That was all that was required of him on his behalf.

Beneath him, a great trembling shook and against all that dictated common sense, the beginning of a future legend erupted from the bowels of the earth.

It was such an energetic event that it could be felt across the entirety of the North. Even the East and the West were affected by the fearsome tremor in some part themselves, though not as intensely. 

Near ground zero where the quake originated, the earth itself was akin to fresh clay, malleable and in constant flux as it warped under the immense forces underneath it. The city of Itroch itself could be seen bobbing up and down, swaying precariously as it endured the best it could. 

For Astor, Horatio, and Ophelia the sudden chaos had proven too dangerous for them to handle. They had retreated on top of an Ancient Mulian skyscraper in hopes that it would endure long enough for the madness to subside. 

The trio were of the same mind, concerned not of their own safety, but of the pair that had entered the fissure not too long ago. What form of danger laid within the fissure capable of such a terrifying display of power, to rend and torture the land so easily?

A flurry of messages from the Spirit of Bountiful Charity had already begun to assault their feeds, ordering them to retreat, but they hadn't even considered it an option for themselves.

They would not leave until they verified whether or not their friends had perished or succeeded. The fear of loss had taken hold of them, rooting the trio in place.

Far away in the command bridge of the Spirit of Bountiful Charity, Velvund and a certain crown prince watched as the ancient city trembled with anticipation in an entirely literal sense. 

But that was not the only thing that caught their attention. In light of the disorder across the lands of Mulia, an abnormal energy signature had been identified — one that'd left them both without words.

It was... immeasurable, at least with the equipment they had available to them. The sudden mega-flare of Anima that had come from the city had completely fried every sensor aboard the Spirit of Bountiful Charity instantaneously. 

For Velvund and Haydn, it'd been a mortifying experience. It was as if they'd seen the sigh of a bonafide diety pass through the ship unchallenged. 

They'd been like two little men on a raft that had brushed across a hurricane in passing. There was nothing they could have done to stop it from destroying them if it had really wanted to do it.

Velvund caught his breath first and immediately released the tension that'd formed on his shoulders before he said, "That was quite the surprise, was it not? It seems that my boy's run into trouble, no doubt."

Haydn pursed his lips and said, "He truly does have a penchant for it, doesn't he? Given everything his record, I'd go as far as to claim that he's been blessed with something truly unfortunate."

Blessed? Velvund almost laughed when he heard the crown prince's interpretation of Reed's innate disposition for misfortune. 

"Were that true, it'd make him Heaven's most beloved child, I wager," said Velvund in jest.

Hadyn chuckled and said, "Heaven? Who said Hell can't give out blessings, mine lord? I'd wager that he's Hell's most beloved, if anything. Still, I cannot deny that whatever he's burdened is among the most interest..."

Haydn's voice trailed off until it sputtered into oblivion as his eyes bulged in abstract terror, not daring to so much as blink. And it was no different for Velvund or the rest of the staff in the Spirit of Bountiful Charity.

Although it had started off somewhat slowly, as seconds turned into minutes, the scenery had begun to dramatically change in the city of Itroch.

At first, it had appeared as nothing more than silvery sheen across the city, but as the tremor continued to intensify, so did the peculiar glitter near the city's center until...

It had finally risen through the fissure, out into the open world, for all to witness. A monument to the sacrifice of a forgotten people brought to light. 

And upon it stood a lonesome pair, standing firmly on what they had unearthed. 

The ominous, crimson nebula above Itroch had transformed. A resplendent starscape colored in the hue of the warmest honey-gold shone radiantly the moment Reed had succeeded, almost as if it was alive. It appeared to be far more gentle than before as it illuminated the city below it in a way that was difficult to describe. 

"...Oh? I wonder what caused the change up there," said Reed in an inquisitive tone. "Was it because we freed the crystal geode or some other reason?"

It made logical sense to Reed, at least in theory. Perhaps the nebula had been some kind of S.O.S in Ancient Mulian that had only recently been activated with the appearance of the fissure in Itroch.

Lu'um sighed and said, "How can you be so dense and yet so..." It continued to baffle her how out of touch he was when it came to the most obvious things.

"What? I mean, what else could it have changed for? There's nothing else here in this city except these guys," said Reed, stamping his left foot on the crystal geode.

Lu'um groaned, clasped Reed's head, and pointed it toward the nebula.

"It's right in your face, you just aren't looking at it correctly. You have to pay attention to the details. Look at the brightest stars and link them together instead of looking at the whole thing.

It was not uncommon for the Ancient Mulians to position stars as they sought it fit in the past. They would, over the course of millions of years, push stars into specific places in space to create an image or write a short message. At one point, it'd been an expensive method of making a grand announcement — usually an amorous declaration of eternal love. 

Starscripture, it was called, though Reed was unaware of the concept. It was his first time seeing it in person.

And such an enormous undertaking always required a vast amount of Anima and skill to accomplish. 

"H-Hey, is that a... massive heart, or am I seeing things?" said Reed as he retraced the path of the brightest stars within the nebula.

Love in its purest form.

It was clear as day for Lu'um who the sender had been, which is why it hurt her to have to spell it out for Reed.

Though it seemed like the blockhead still hadn't gotten the clue, yet. 

Ironically enough, Reed really was blind, just like love itself. 

What a sadistically cruel thread of karma that is...

That was a private reflection that she never let Reed know about, for his sake. Not that she had a say in the matter, anyway...