The Battle Begins

When Richard arrived at the floating island, Alice had already been there for a day. As heads of their own family branches, the two met at the Archeron tombs.

Alice seemed to be filled with nostalgia as she walked up the side of the volcano, reading every engraving on every tombstone without missing a single word. Even though he could recall every letter here perfectly with how much time he had spent reading himself, Richard didn’t rush her and just followed behind. Even now these words could leave him overwhelmed, as though the lives of these great ancestors were playing out right before his eyes.

The Archerons were a family of oddities, of contradiction. All members sought to break past the traditions they were...