I'll Be Coming For You Next Time

"This... This can't be."

Julian slowly walked to the shocked girl, his own rage and feelings at the sight before him simmering to a trickle as he softly put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's all my fault, isn't it?" Her voice choking up, she laughed bitterly. "It's because of me, that the cult would even..."

"Don't cry, Emilia. It's not over for them yet, not with me here anyway." Stepping past her, he flashed her a small smile.

"What-"

He spread his wings, provoking a gust of wind through the room. Then, lifting his hands, a pulse of red magic emitted from them, washing over the room and erasing any sign of the violence and battle that had taken place. Only after that came the true show, as waves of magic after waves of magic rose from his body in orange light and flashes. Placing his hands over the twin, the magic spread to them. An instant of seemingly infinite stillness later, Life and Death switched place.

Just like that.

Two pairs of confused eyes opened as another watched in glittering amazement and awe at the angel like figure.

—————

"You would do that, for me?" Emilia asked as she paused her petting of the still asleep Puck on her arm and lifted her head to look at Julian with a complicated gaze.

Julian threw a look at the manor, or more precisely at one of the large window where he met the eyes of Roswaal who had recently came back to the clusterfuck of it all, clusterfuck he had cleaned up mainly all by himself. The Archmage seems to chuckle wrily and shake his head to himself as he departed from the window. "I said I would come back and help you realise your dreams, didn't I?"

"I mean, yes. But I don't remember telling you about them." Emilia seemed as flustered over remembering it all as puzzled over his knowledge.

Julian fell in thoughts, trying to find a way to explain it without shattering her view of reality. "You could say I have the ability to peer into the past and future of some people I meet." Such was his answer, left debilatery vague.

Emilia pursed her lips. "Even if it's true, it still doesn't explain, why do all of this for me? Why go through all this trouble? I don't understand. You don't owe me anything, in fact, after saving my life twice, I should be the one in your debt." She lowered her head and whispered the next part, as if embarassed. "Why still keep on giving?"

"Aaah." Julian exhaled, leaning back against his seat. "That's the question, isn't it?" He closed his eyes, searching for the answer within himself. However, he didn't have to search for long. After all, he already knew it. He just didn't know if he should say it.

"However..." Reoppening his eyes, he smiled. "I can tell you the answer, and it's simple. I quite like you, Emilia. And I think you deserve, as a person, what I'm giving you."

"Eh? That's..." She looked shocked, looking away, she seemed as if she didn't know what expression to make or where to look anymore. "I don't know what to say, I- I'm not sure I'm a person who deserve those kind of feelings and praise, but still, thank you. It's the first time anybody said something like that to me." Putting an hand to her cheek, appearing to massage it, at the same time, she dipped her head, a slight smile to her lips and a slight hue to her cheeks.

Restraining himself from chuckling, Julian smile softened a bit. "Well, that's how I feel anyway. But right now, I'm more interested in how you feel, now that I'm here, what's your plans going forward?"

Emilia fell thoughtful at that for a bit before looking at him. "Can you really unfreeze Elior Forest and save the remaining members of my people?"

"Yes, I feel pretty confident about it." Nodding, Julian answered simply.

"Then I'm not certain anymore. I think becoming queen might still be the best option, if only to improve the life of everyone and to give my people a good place to belong to and live. And truthfully, giving up on the throne right now and betraying Roswaal's expectations don't sit well with me."

Julian stayed silent for a bit, before simply saying. "I see."

"D-do you not approve?" She looked worried at the possibility.

Shaking his head, he reassured her. "You do what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you. It's just..." He sighed. "You're not taking me into consideration, while I understand, I'm not used to not take the shortcut, well, not anymore."

She had a look of realisation crossed her face, a bit embarassed, she said. "Right, your situation. I've forgotten abou-"

"That's not what I'm talking about, I'm very much fine on that point. I'm talking about your ambitions." What he wasn't saying is that he had some personal stake in her them.

"Then..." She tried to guess what exactly he was going for. "Julian-kun, exactly how strong are you?" She sent him a curious look, her mind flasbing with what she had seen earlier.

"Oh right, I didn't tell you. Just, heads up. Don't worry, he's just out cold."

"What-"

—————

Looking equally astonished and speechless, Emilia watched as Julian came back shortly after having vanished, Reinhardt, otherwise known as the strongest knight or sword saint, held over his shoulder lile a sac of potato.

"We had some... Disagreement over something." Placing him on the bench besides himself, he tried to make Reinhardt's head stays straight as it kept dropping backward over the back of the seat. "And I was quite angry." Finally giving up, he simply placed one of the redhead's arms over the back of the bench to make it seems he was chilling instead. He even made him crossed his legs and everything.

Only a minute later that Emilia seemed to come back from her shock, upon which she gave Julian a wry but slightly disaproving gaze. "Julian, I know you said you had a 'disagreement', but this is hardly appropriate. And despite his recent failure to uphold his duty, Sir Reinhardt has still worked hard to past two months under myself. So, hum, can you please wake him up?"

"Ah, you're no fun. But fine." Smirking, he booped the knight on the temple and woke him up. But not before expending a commensurable amount of magic to leave a little discrete something behind in the man's mind. A kind of failsafe, we can say.

"Thank you." Upon seeing the redhead stirring awake, Emilia smiled.

"Uh, what - Lady Emilia, you are alive?" Reinhardt muttered confusingly as he woke up and his gaze fell on the silver-haired girl.

"Yeah, she is. And certainly not because of you, that's for sure."

Even Emilia winced at that one.

—————

~A few days later.

"Y-You're already leaving?" Emilia looked surprised as Julian brought the topic of going away.

"After this, yes. I have other things to do, and... people waiting for me. But I'll come back soon, with something to help you in your quest." A small smile crossing his face, Julian inspected the frozen wasteland as well as the iceberg in front of them with a thoughtful look.

"R-Really? Well, I'm glad you've found a place to belong wherever you were after disappearing." Emilia threw a sideway look at him and said genuinely, though an undertone of something complicated could be heard in her words by Julian's fine hearing.

"Hey, you're not alone. You know? Rem and Ram are good friend to have, you just have to go past their servant's front. And Roswaal's will help you with it all, I made sure of it. Besides, it's not like I'm leaving forever, I'll come back. It's just." He sighed. "If I stay with you, I'm not sure I would have the patience to let the people of this kingdom trample over your dignity and name because of your ignorance and simply let it pass."

"I understand." She said after a few seconds before chuckling and turning to face him with a smile. "And you're right, I'm not alone. Still, I think what I'm gonna say next is long overdue."

She looked at him in the eyes, her own glistening like amethists in the sun. But even then, her smile was brighter still, full of peace and gratitude that it was. "Thank you, Julian-Kun. For everything."

Momentarily struck dazed by the sight and by the emotions in her words, Julian's heart became just a bit more full. And taken by that very same feeling, he made a spontaneous decision. He stepped up to her. And after a seemingly timeless moment where both gazed into each other's eyes, he leaned down and kissed the top of her head gently. Brushing her hair behind one of ear, he left behind an ice roze crystalized from his magical power, making it a soft pinkish gold color.

Turning his back on the frozen half-elve, he said. "Next time I comes back, it'll be for you. Not for your dreams." Then, he waved his hand. And in a flash and tsunamis of orange light and dark red magic, he vanished, along with all the ice encompassing the Elior forest.

—————

'Ugh, can't believe she's the one who get this treatment from you.' A sour voice resounded in his head as he was flying toward a particular spot.

"Jealous much, Echidna?" Julian grinned as he felt in a pretty good mood after his grand departure. As for the parting words and actions, it just came to him naturally.

'And what if this fair maiden was?'

Snorting, he replied. "As if, you can't fool me. I know that if I treated you like this, it wouldn't leave you either hot or cold, at most it'd spark some interest for the new experience."

'Ah, it's a bit embarassing if you put it like this. You truly know me well, Julian-Kun.' Echidna, despite her words, was sounding utterly unembarassed.

"Now, if we were to go on a date in a magical library of an another world, and have an exchange of what we each learned and glimpsed from it all. It may be a different story alltogether. What do you think?" Saying that, he smirked.

'... You sure know your ways with words. Don't you? Careful, though, or you might just make me fall in love.'

"Don't tempt me, witch. I have my way with the impossible." Shaking his head, Julian stopped as he localized an entrance to a cavern. Detecting multiple living beings inside of it, most of them having some magic in them. He didn't hesitate as his wings, hair and eyes became a blood red color and he raised his palm toward it.

A small fiery red pebble of magic condensed before that same palm, then it changed to a darker shade of red with a hint of black and orange spark crackled around it.

His gaze cold, he uttered a single word and he unleashed his spell. "Die."

*VOOOOOOOM*

A thunderous groan and piercing sound boomed at the same time as a gargantuan beam of baleful red and black light intersected with ethereal lightning came into existence and descended on the earth like a darker and more destructive condensed supernova. In barely a fraction of a second, it reached the ground. Everything in its path was simply erased from reality. Leaving a beant hole multiple kilometers wide and as many deep in its wake.

Exiting his Blood Angel form and regarding the extent of the destruction he caused, he snorted before shaking his head. "Okay, maybe this was bit too much. No need to waste so much mana on weakling like that."

"Oh well, what's done is done." Shrugging, he continued on his way, on his path to genocide an entire cult.

By his estimation, he should be done before the end of the day. Then he would hopefully get his last needed shard of impossibility and be ready to go back home after finishing his remaining task.

After all, if he could defeat the beast of the end handily and get one over Reinhardt, none of the apostle would be able to defeat him. Though if their authorities could prove themselves a danger was still yet to be seen.