Journey's Crescendo

Sometimes I need to be alone—♪

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

"Where did you get another one of those sound-diamonds, Kage,

Didn't we leave everything back in sweepstake?"

"I saw this one lying around the cas— city hall, so I took it."

"So, you're stealing now?

Very Pinoki of you,"

"I didn't steal it."

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

"Whatever you say," Lyra whistles doubtfully

"Bitch don't kill my vibe"

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

"What did you say to me, Kage?"

"I wasn't…

It was the song...

I was signing it." I sigh frustratedly, trying to diffuse the hot-tempered girl,

"Well change it then,"

"You know that's not how it works,

What ever comes on is at random,"

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

"Poetic, isn't it?" Karina suddenly interjects, day-dreamily,

"The song?"

"No, the art itself,

No one knows who or exactly how long ago these tunes were made, but despite the fact that, their civilization is one that has been long since forgotten, their art never died it lived on and eventually integrated itself with the very magic of this ring,

Which in turn, is our form of art,"

Bitch don't kill my vibe♪

"It is when you put it that way," I say agreeingly,

"Though we will all die eventually, the art we create is immortal,"

"Slow down there Kage, no need to get all deep with it, I was just sharing a random thought,

You are not wrong,

But slow down,"

"Ughhhh!" Claude groans loudly,

"Is this all we've left to do,

Talk about boring stuff?"

"Is there a problem Claude?" Apollo asks, looking back from up front of the carriage,

"Yes, we have been traveling for days now,

I haven't even yet got a chance to properly practice my new evolved magic,"

"Ok,

So what?" Lyra monotones,

"I have to get stronger fast, so that I can avenge, Giichi, and everyone else that is currently suffering by Ginobelucci right now,"

"Claude, listen," Apollo starts with a preachy voice,

(Here we go)

"After Murdoc took over Soterra, we waited for ten years,

And I can't stretch enough, how long those ten years were,

Ten years…

We suffered, fought, used each other," He eyes Karina

"Each with some hope, or goal that one day we would bring Murdoc down, "

"And you did, what is your point?" Claude presses

"Let me finish, we did eventually, I even had the final blow,

Do you know how I felt after?

How we felt?

Because it wasn't happiness, just emptiness,"

"What do you mean emptiness, you took down the main source of your problems?"

"Yes and no, Murdoc was our main source of despair, sadness, anger, not the other emotions, yet we made it feel like he was holding them all back,

So when he died, we expected, hoped, that maybe our joy would return, will would be revived,

But nothing happened, it just left us now hollow, he was dead and so were our excuses,"

"What does that have to do with me?" Claude still not getting it

"hhhhh" Apollo sighs,

"Moral of the story, don't place all of your hopes and dreams into you slaying Ginobelucci,

Instead still try to enjoy what you have,

We never had this kind of freedom you have now,"

....

Claude ponders Apollo's words with a slightly confused look on his face still processing the information, meanwhile his siter Amelia had been listening intently, seems to have understood, as she nods softly to Apollo,

(Who doesn't even notice)

"One more thing" Karina adding on to Apollo's speech

"Why do you think none of us cried after losing Pinoki,

Our main goal was to defeat Murdoc and be free,

Anything past that is only a plus,"

.....

"Slow down there Karina, no need to get all deep with it," I joke

"You were waiting to get me back for that,"

"I wasn't, the opportunity just presented itself,"

...

*****

"Do you see anything Amelia?" Lyra notices the girl, peering intently into the requiem map

"Umm,

I don't think we need to map to show us this," Apollo points out of the window ahead of us,

"What—"

It was the most spectacular thing I'd ever seen at that point,

We had been traveling for days, for what feels like, endlessly, through fields, forests, swamps, all manners of mother nature's offspring,

The longer we traveled for, the more I realized how barren….

No that's not the right word,

...How harmonized the people were with nature,

It soon became common for me to see lush forests and bushy fields with quaint houses and little villages built perfectly into them,

But this,

This is totally different.