The next morning after they came back from under the Balete tree was calm.

Sids and Epoy hadn’t talked much about their experience—about how the shining symbol brought them to another place, or how they both remembered everything about who they were, their connection, and what they had lost. That night stayed heavy in their hearts, unspoken yet felt in every look they exchanged.

Back at school, everything seemed… noisier. Brighter.

The breeze passed through the leaves of the old tree in the center of the campus—tall, observing, waiting. Under its wide branches, a boy stood quietly, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a neatly arranged folder.

Apolinario “Apollo” Liwayway, the student council president, stood there with a knowing gaze focused on the Balete tree.

He sensed it.

A wave of energy had surged through the ground recently. Ancient, wild, familiar. Although the tree wasn’t his, its light touched something deep inside him—something old and bright, something that once blazed like fire in the sky.

He smiled to himself.

“So… you two found each other,” he whispered softly to the roots of the tree. “You did it, huh? ”

Just then, he heard footsteps approaching from behind.

“Prez! ” a student called out, breathless. “I’ve finished organizing the student organization forms. Can you look them over before we send them in? ”

Apollo blinked and turned back, showing a dazzling smile. Smooth, warm, flawless—like golden sunlight.

“Sure, no problem,” he said, casting one last glance at the tree before walking away with the student. But beneath that smile was something more—awareness.

---

At the same time, Epoy sat under the school’s covered walkway, his sketchbook resting on his lap. His pencil moved slowly, sketching vague shapes. He had drawn Sids once more—he hadn’t intended to, but his hand kept creating the drawings. There was something soothing about it. Something magnetic.

Sids, standing across the courtyard, leaned against the wall, observing.

They both had school to focus on. They both had lives to live. But nothing felt the same now.

They were not just Epoy and Sids anymore.

They had transformed into Libulan and Sidapa.

Back in the student council office, Apollo was browsing through the papers, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He sensed a change in the world. The divine force within him, The Liadlaw, was awakening.

“If Libulan and Sidapa are back…” he thought, his eyes narrowing, “. . . then my time will not be far behind. ”

He closed the folder and grinned once more, this time to no one in particular.

“Let’s find out where this light takes us. ”

And just like the sun that rises every day, he would be there, watching.