• World Zero, Hanakawa Village, The Elder’s Residence, The 773rd year after The Great Uprising

The dining hall was filled with warm voices and laughter that accompanied the clinking of dishes and silverware. 

With a booming, hearty chuckle, Isshiki slammed a cup onto the table.

“Hahah! So the ancestors were right! Who would’ve thought? For there to have been an end to the events in sight…”

“Oh, come on dear… are you really going to be drinking this heavily in front of them?”

Harumi vaguely gestured towards Kouki and myself.

“Bah! They’re adults now, so who cares? Anyways, this is a time for celebration!”

He lifted another glass to his lips.

My father would often get quite… crass- like this when drunk. He was still a good person, though. And besides, his yearning for celebration was completely justified given the current situation.

We collectively glanced up at the message that had been hovering in each of our visions since about noon. 

[ Congratulations! Hanakawa Village has cleared the wave events of the 7th cycle! The Finale Event will descend in: 29:05:43:06 ]

It was previously unthinkable for an end to the wave events to exist. At some point in our history, they simply became a part of natural, daily life. Yet, here we were with only one event remaining. Deep down, we all suspected something was amiss due to the inclusion of “the 7th cycle”, yet none of us dared to shatter the mood of such a joyous occasion.

< Wave Events - A regular occurrence of Hanakawa Village that struck periodically at various intervals. Foretold by rippling across the lakefront and a gathering of crimson energy directly above, the wave events summoned forth corrupted beasts of varying threat ranks and numbers. Typically, larger numbers signified lesser threat, while fewer numbers signified greater threat. >

Soon enough we had all finished our portions.

Letting out a deep grunt, my dad began emitting wisps of red mana that vanished as soon as they appeared. Not a hint of alcohol could now be heard in his voice.

 [ “Isshiki” has activated Detoxification ]

Ever since gaining the ability to mirror others’ mana attributes, I had also gained the ability to monitor what abilities others were using via their mana or auras through my messages. In theory it was useful, but I honestly saw the message for my dad removing alcohol from his body more than anything else. 

“Well, now that the festivities are over, let’s get down to business. According to this message, we’ve got just under 30 days to prepare for this ‘Finale Event’. Any ideas on what that might be?”

His question addressed the entire family, but his gaze only addressed me, the only one who had devoted significant portions of my life to retaining all there was to learn in our corruption archives.

“I’ve never heard of any ‘Finale Event’ before… and neither has an end to the wave events ever appeared in any of our logs”

“Exactly. Now, allow me to bring up what we’re all thinking: this ‘7th cycle’. The ‘end’ to the wave events has happened before, six times to be exact, yet here we are, reaching the end once again with no information of what the Finale Event is”

Kouki then chimed in.

“Regardless of what it is, it still is an event, meaning it’s almost certain we’ll be fighting corrupted beasts again… or maybe even a corrupted being- Nonetheless, we have to use these 30 days to prepare the others”

“Yes, you’re right. As the elder of Hanakawa, I can’t forsake our people in blindsighted hope for the better. We won’t know if this ‘finale’ refers to the end of the events or the end of our people until the day arrives”

With those words, a solemn air clung to our minds about the table. It was an unwelcome truth, but dad was right. 

Recognizing the soured mood, he suddenly perked up in a more enthusiastic voice.

“C’mon, dinner’s dismissed. Let’s go watch the sunset together once again”

Our family tradition. Since as early as I could remember, we would always sit together by the shores of Hanakawa and watch the sunset above the forests on the other side of the lake. Despite our matured age, the thought still brightened Kouki’s and my own mood as we dashed towards the door. 

“Isshiki, a word”

We paused. It wasn’t often that mom and dad referred to one another by name, meaning whatever she had to say was a serious concern.

“You two boys go on ahead, we’ll be right out in a minute or two”

Kouki and I complied, silently leaving the room.

As soon as we left, Harumi turned to face Isshiki with a cold gaze.

“You don’t intend to get them involved in this ‘Finale Event’, do you? We have absolutely no idea what it even is! Do you really want to risk something that dangerous?”

“Listen… it could be the end of the events for good, and they’re well past old enough now. I just think they’d want to participate in something that could change all our lives for the better… maybe we’ll even get to see what’s beyond the Horizon-”

“Don’t”

Harumi cut him off with a stern tone.

“It ‘could’ be this, it ‘could’ be that, but have you considered that something even our ancestors didn’t know to record and contradicts our very recorded history could lead to their deaths? They’re not you. They’re not me. They don’t have our experience nor mastery of their auras to the extent we do just yet-”

“When we let Kaito participate in the initiation at 13, did you think it was certain he wouldn’t get hurt? We didn’t know what would come out of that wave event yet we sent him, a person with an unknown and honestly weaker attribute than any of us, but we still sent him off because it's what we do. They both willingly took the initiation against all concern because they were willing to take risks to defend our village. This is our role, the duty of our position, and all of us are willing to do what it takes to protect the lives we hold so dearly”

Harumi remained silent for a while.

“I can’t disagree, but… still- oh, fine! We’ll spend the next 30 days preparing and training them to the best of their abilities. We still haven’t prepared them for threats above rank 9 anyways… then we’ll decide from there”

Isshiki smiled.

“I was already thinking that. Let’s get going, they’ve been waiting for a bit now”