Lithica watched the small pond within the cave that Volaris had made his home countless years ago.
The water was ancient, and there wasn't very much of it... In fact, calling it a pond was the utmost exaggeration, when in reality it was just a puddle.
Yet, there was something enchanting about watching the water within the puddle swish and bubble throughout the day and night.
"May I ask you something?" Lithica spoke up, turning towards Volaris... Who had not moved from his resting place since he had thrown his spear into the heart of Olympia.
Volaris shrugged, his legs dangling off of the edge of the cliffs as the eternal lightning continued to rumble from the colossal mountain range around them.
"What is it that you and Luna see in these kids? Now, don't get me wrong. Chase of House Phoenix is master for the rest of my lifetime, but is there a reason beings like us have been so drawn to this generation?" Lithica asked, feeling the thunder shake the rocks above them, causing pebbles to be freed from their grips, and several to splash into the small puddle.
Volaris took several minutes before saying anything, let alone moving. Which was weird, because for one of the mightiest lesser gods, it seemed that he had little to no energy within his form.
"We will have to wait." He said simply, causing Lithica to shake his head in refusal.
"I cannot wait, sir... You know as well as I that something is different, and it will only grow more obvious once more and more lesser gods begin to break their pacts just for a chance to survive the coming war..." Lithica grumbled, pressing the bottom of his foot against the ground and pushing himself to stand tall within the cave.
This time, it only took a second for Volaris to speak, but even more than that... He stood, looking onward at the valleys between the many mountains of the distant North.
"Come here." He demanded with his stoic demeaner.
Lithica dejectedly responded to his demand, slowly walking over and standing next to the lesser god.
"From up here, Vallmora looks no more smaller than a farming town..." Volaris spoke with casualness, but there was nothing casual about the strange look in his stormy eyes.
He continued.
"How can you be so certain that a war is coming? This question I find myself asking all of the time, especially when I am around Luna or even Prometheus, who greatly refused the thought of war when he was alive." Volaris sighed, letting the boiling storm in his eyes come to a calm.
"Can't you feel it? The growing tension in the world, the violent tremors that run through the underworld every night, I myself have no connection to the underworld and yet I can feel them, can't you?" Lithica felt himself getting slightly heated in the moment, but he took a breath and let himself fall back down to earth.
"Boy... I have lived for eons... I was the first being formed from the first thought of thunder... I was the first response of the wrath that took hold of ships trying to leave Vallmora, and I myself have protected these borders since before humans even knew of fire... These tremors run deep and eternal... Now, I would be a fool to refuse a great storm brewing in the near future, but to call it a great war... Is blasphemy... Which is why I am dead set on denying it... I have seen true war... I have seen beings of death easily erase continents off of the face of the earth, and yet we are still here to this day..." Volaris let out a tired sigh.
Lithica did not know how to respond to the ancient god, and instead asked another question.
"Why did you revive the archer? And why go as far as forming a sinful pact in the act of breaking your own sacred pact just to do so?"
Then...
Volaris let out a stiff chuckle...
"You could say nostalgia, I suppose..." Volaris wore a soft grin on his ancient face, as the white hair of his beard gently blew along with the breeze atop the mountain.
Lithica looked at the rocky ground below and shook his head.
"To go that length for someone, would have to mean that you have already owed them something then... Am I correct?" Lithica asked, somewhat understanding of where Volaris was coming from.
Volaris only nodded slowly in response...
"May I ask why it is that I cannot leave this place, and what it is exactly that you are making me wait for...?" Lithica followed up, turning his head towards Volaris.
His stormy eyes narrowed, and his breath blew cold over the cliffside.
"I cannot tell you... But you should not worry, as there will without a doubt come a time when your master requires your aid again... But for now, you are of no use to him, and would only act as another soul that he needs to take accountability for... Before you respond, you must also understand that while I deny the idea of a coming war greater than any before, lineage is a powerful thing, and I believe that the lands of Vallmora need a great change to undo the wrongs done under the rule of a terrible man... So, I will do what I must to indirectly nurture the heroes that will one day come of age..." Lithica was left speechless in response to Volaris, unable to even get a slight read on what was going on under his ancient crown...
"However, the boy I have marked as my champion... If it is how I have treated him after that fact that you disapprove of so much... Then you do not understand what it is that drives the boy, and just how much potential he has... But potential is a strange thing, because millions have died before even reaching half of that... So to say that one has great potential... Is to truly deny the idea of reaching said potential in any near future... But that I can disagree with... Because just like a path... Once you start sprinting as fast as you can... The path suddenly shrinks..."
Lithica shook his head in response.
"But Volaris... When you sprint down a path long enough... You suddenly begin to drain out, and you are left panting and struggling barely halfway down said path."
This seemed to cause the storms in Volaris's eyes to grow rageful.
He grit his teeth but took a deep breath and took his left away from Lithica and returned his gaze on the lands of Vallmora that truly did look quite small below them.
"You aren't wrong... But my friend... Ambition is a funny thing..."