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A month had passed since the battle with vegna.

Holima was well underway to being fully restored with every citizen doing their part to clean up and rebuild.

Drake decided that the hard work should be rewarded to help boost morale and for one day everyone was encouraged to rest and relax at the town centre.

Jeff set up a large portable bar and some of the local musicians played on rubi’s stage.

The city had a huge buzz about it. The whole gang was there. Kinarog lay down next to a tree. Azura and drake were slow dancing while star was trying to come to terms with the repercussions of her transformation.

Rubi was running around like a maniac l, the excitement from the citizens only made her more excited and she started performing insane magic tricks.

Fred handed the great hammer of Kinarog back to him and took his twin hammers back, much to kinarog’s surprise.

“Why?” Kinarog asked

“I’m going to forge my own great hammer, but I want to use my twin hammers as a material sacrifice” fred replied

“I see” Kinarog replied

Ori sat at Jeff’s bar in his human form where he sat and drank quietly

“I’m surprised Orichalcos” Jeff said

“By what?”

“How much you’ve changed”

“Well, I’m not a whelping” Ori replied

“That’s not what I meant, how come you haven’t gone back to being a whelp?”

“If my human form is badly injured and I transform, I won’t heal properly. Although Azura healed most of my wounds vegna did break some of my ribs and lots of my muscle groups were torn.”

“But once they’ve healed you’ll be transforming back?”

“Yeah, turns out being a 7 ft human is slightly more inconvenient than being a 1.5ft tall whelp”

“Suppose that’s true”

There was a long pause while Jeff served other citizens waiting at the bar. They glanced over at Ori who didn’t pay much attention, instead looking at his glass of whiskey

Jeff came back over once the customers had been served

“As I was saying earlier, you’ve changed Orichalcos”

“In What way?”

“You care for us, in your own way of course”

Ori rolled his eyes

“I didn’t forget what you said, when you fought vegna

‘I won’t let you do to them what you did to me, I won’t let you do to the people of this world what you did to mine

I am Orichalcos and I will not lose!’”

“I was caught up in the moment, that’s all” Ori replied getting up

He needed the support of his katana as he couldn’t fully walk on his own terms just yet

The citizens he walked past treated him with respect as he made his way around the city

He saw fred sitting by a forge, staring into it

“Your eyes will melt if you stare any harder” Ori said sitting next to fred

“Oh, hi orichalcos”

“What are you doing here? Ori asked

“I’m going to forge a weapon”

“Didn’t you have kinarog’s?”

“Yeah but...I’d prefer my own now”

“What changed?”

“When vegna crushed drake, we were all bound by avatars of vegna and when drake somehow pushed vegna’s giant claw back and screamed for us to fight.”

“Yeah?” Ori interrupted

“Out of the 6 of us able to fight, only 3 of us showed any will to, you got straight up and tackled vegna and me and star broke out from the shackles that bound us, I ran as fast as I could to catch drake before he hit the ground, star used her magic to make me run faster too.

But Azura..Rubi and Kinarog just sat there”

“I see” Ori replied pouring fred a glass of whiskey and handing him it

“And you’ve lost respect for them?” Ori continued

Fred nodded as he took a sip

“Me and star had more passion in our little finger than the 3 of them combined....don’t get me wrong, I love them like family but I’ve lost all respect for them”

“Azura has been a total mess since the visions, I don’t blame her. She cares for drake and for this world and seeing drake get crushed must have hit her hard, rubi was still in her stupid child form so I’m not surprised she couldn’t move

And Kinarog...he just doesn’t care for much in the world” Ori said

“But then there’s you, when drake got hit Kinarog said you were at your limit. But you got up and fought, you even chased him down and went human

And THEN you took the fight to vegna, where was that passion for any of them!?” Fred was starting to get seriously annoyed

“It’s a bit different, I’ve wanted that moment for 20,000 years and I wasn’t going to stop until I killed him, you know  the feeling all too well”

“Was there ever a moment you doubted yourself?”

Ori paused and took a swig from his bottle and then nodded

“Partially, when I set vegna up for the 7 slashes it felt...too easy, like he wanted it you know? I thought to myself ‘are the 7 slashes enough?’

As I jumped though, I noticed star’s rune and you know how badly she wanted a combination attack.

I was unsure of the 7 slashes’ but I knew damn well enough the seal would fuck him up so I used the 7 slashes to draw it and then I channeled power into the ground

I had to bend the knee to distract vegna long enough to charge the seal and to try and send a message to Star, I told her the day o ask for her help is the day I bend the knee

Luckily she realised what was going on before vegna”

“She put all her power into that rune” fred said

Ori nodded

“When the seal hit all I saw was a white light and my eyes shut, when they opened again everything near us was obliterated and I saw vegna a few hundred meters away lying on his back.

My body was numb and I had to use my katana to support my weight and then....it happened”

“What did?”

“Every single person from my old home appeared, i recognised all of their faces and they made a guard of honour for me.

It felt like they were supporting me, helping me make that last push and when I finally killed vegna they all just....disappeared you know”

“Their tormented souls finally finding peace?” Fred asked

“Yeah”

“It happened with my family too when I killed the bandits”

“A giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders, I closed my eyes and I actually slept fred, I wasn’t tormented, I was...at peace”

“To peace” fred said raising his glass

“To peace” Ori replied

He got up and walked through the smithing district up towards a bench that overlooked the city

Afternoon had turned to night and the skies were clear, the stars shone brightly

Ori noticed star sitting on the bench looking at the city, Ori sat next to her

“Hey” Ori said

“...hey” Star replied

They sat quietly for a while

“With everything that’s happened in the past month I hadn’t really had time to think but it’s hit me now”

“Oh?” Ori asked

“Ori, What am I?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like...I was Star Fulke, rank D student, little girl that fell out of the sky...but now it’s like I’m not her anymore I’m just vegna’s replacement”

Ori paused for a while, he was really thinking about what to say to star

“You’re still the same person, sure you have vegna’s powers but you’re still that shitty rank D student, you still fell out of the sky

I can’t begin to understand how it feels to go from a small village to a big city, big school then to be put into a situation where a god wants to kill you and pulls out all the stops to try and make it happen and then to replace him.

A lot has happened in this year but we survived it and whatever happens next we’ll face it together”

Star had tears in her eyes

“You really mean it?” She sobbed

“I made a vow to protect you and I will until the end of time if needs be”

Star hugged Ori who took a very deep breath

“Listen carefully because I’m only going to say this once” Ori said

Star let go and looked at Ori

“We’re a pretty good team” Ori said getting up

Star gasped

“OH!!! I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS FOR COMBINATION MOVES!!”

“Nope”

“MAYBE WE COULD HAVE A SUPER SEAL CALLED THE SEAL OF STARICALCHOS!? WOULDNT THAT BE AWESOME!?”

“Nope, I’m not listening to you” Ori said hobbling away

Star chased after him

“OR YOU COULD TRAP EM IN A CAGE OF THUNDER AND ILL BE LIKE TWLIGHT
BOLT! AND THEN THEY BOTH EXPLODE!”

“Nope”

“WELL WE NEED AT LEAST 1 COMBO!”

“How about you pour my drink and I’ll drink it”

Star was in much better spirits as they both headed back to the city centre and back to Jeff’s portable bar