…His heart ached. Why did it ache so much today?
"I was a warrior once, true. But I never chose to be a warrior. I just became one to survive. In the Kingdom of Hope, you don't need to fight, suffer, and kill others to live a long and happy life. Why would you still want to be a warrior?
The boy fell silent, a comically thoughtful frown appearing on his face. He turned away and didn't say anything else for a while.
Sunny doubted that his son really understood what he meant. And he hoped that the boy never would.
Closing his eyes, he said a silent prayer:
"Hail to you, Desire, Demon of Hope. Please, hear my yearning. Protect my son from all the horrors of the world and save him, as you have saved me…"
Silently, the three of them — the man, the boy, and the horse — left the forest and climbed the tall hill. From its top, a breathtaking sight opened before them.
In front of them, a vast plain was bathed in sunlight, emerald grass shining with the morning due. Here and there, farmsteads and fields stood, golden wheat swaying in the wind. Sparkling ribbons of rivers cut the plain, and in the distance, a beautiful city built of white stone rose from the ground, with a magnificent pagoda towering above it.
Sunny couldn't help but smile.
No matter how many times he saw it, he could help but feel a little bit sentimental.
"...Hey, do you want to wave to your mother? I'm sure she's looking in this direction right now!"
His son glanced at him with a pitying expression.
"Are you crazy? She won't see us. We're too far away!"
Sunny laughed.
"Says who?"
He turned around and looked back, at a similar landscape that lay behind them. Gazing past the forest, he saw the small town and a humble stone manor standing near it. From this distance, the building looked like a toy…
He raised his hand and waved.
"Hey, dad…"
Sunny scoffed.
"What? Are you going to mock me some more?"
The boy shook his head.
"No. It's just... what is wrong with the sky? It looks funny."
'...Huh?'
Sunny raised his head, then frowned in confusion.
The sky, indeed, looked funny.
The sun was still climbing up, but there seemed to be a second one right above them, swelling with incandescent light. The sky itself was growing brighter and brighter, as if permeated with intense heat. The clouds were all gone…
A gust of hot wind suddenly blew past them.
His eyes suddenly narrowed.
"W—wait!"
In the next second, a colossal pillar of incandescent flame suddenly fell from the sky, piercing the plain and shattering the land like glass. A blinding flash drowned the world in white, and through it, a terrible sound rolled across the forest. Deafened, Sunny felt his son screaming, but could not hear his voice.
At the point where the pillar of flame fell, the ground itself was split open and thrown into the air, colossal pieces of melted earth raining down fire, ash, and death.
The hill on which they stood shook, and then shifted, throwing Sunny off the horse.
'No, no, no…'
Still dazed, he tried to find his son, but failed.
Instead, his gaze fell on the small town and the stone manor that stood in the distance.
As Sunny watched in horror, the ground opened up, with fountains of fire shooting into the sky. The houses were instantly devoured by the flames and incinerated, turning into clouds of ash.
'No, no, no!'
In the next moment, the whole hill crumbled.
The last thing Sunny saw before being smothered by the avalanche of scorching earth was the fragile figure of his son being swallowed by flames.
'No!'
And then, he died.
***
Pain, pain, pain…
Why did his heart hurt so much?
Sunny opened his eyes in the darkness and sat down, throwing the furs aside. He stared at his feeble chest, then touched it with a shaking hand, surprised. Since when did his chest start to ache during the night?
'Ah, being old is not fun…'
Chasing the remnants of a terrible nightmare away, he struggled to sit up and massaged his joints for a while, waiting until some flexibility returned to them. Then, he slowly stood up and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the Sacred Grove that enveloped him.
Well, at least he woke up alive. At his age, that was already an accomplishment!
If only his heart didn't ache so much…
But that was just what being old meant. Every dawn brought a new ache... actually, Sunny would have been more scared if he woke up and suddenly felt perfectly fine.
In any case…
It was time to face a new day.