Chapter 11 - Long Goodbyes
And so, many years went by.
At the massive, shimmering golden gates that marked the boundary of the Divine Realm, the sound of uncontrollable sobbing echoed through the clouds.
Maribelle was clutching onto Vincent with desperate strength, her face buried into her son’s chest as she practically drowned his shirt in her tears. Behind them, Natasha’s and Deina’s usual fierce and playful countenances completely melted as they stood still and watched the scene in front of them with expressions of profound sadness.
"Please, Vinny... *Sob* Please stay just a little bit longer. Mama can’t bear the thought of losing you again... *Sniff* F-Five hundred years is too soon... it feels like my heart is being ripped out of my chest."
Vincent’s own eyes welled up with tears as he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, burying his face in her fragrant blue hair.
"You’re not losing me, Mama... I promise you, you’re not. But I have to go back. Dad and Katherine are waiting for me. Plus... I have to start university soon. My mortal life is still waiting for me.
"B-But you could live a much better life if you just stayed here with us!" Maribelle pulled her head back to look into his eyes, her face flushed and wet. "We’ve barely even explored one percent of the Divine Realm together! There are beautiful crystal oceans, singing forests, floating castles... and.. and!"
"I wish I could stay, Mama. I really do. But I can’t just abandon my life down there. Throwing that away is irresponsible."
"Did you forget the time dilation?! One single day out there equals an entire century here! If you leave for just a week, I will have to sit in this empty mansion for seven hundred years without my baby!"
Vincent squeezed her hand reassuringly. "That’s why I promise to visit you as frequently as humanly possible. Think about it – there are weekends, public holidays, university spring breaks, and summer vacations.
"And honestly, with the way the time works, I can fly down here to see you at the end of every single one of my mortal days. To you, it’ll feel like a few weeks or months, but I will always come back."
"No... Baby, I can’t...I need you! I wish... I wish the earth’s time and the Divine Realm’s time were just synced together! It’s so unfair!"
"Oh, for crying out loud, Mari, pull yourself together!" Natasha scolded, taking one step forward. "Stop trying to force Little Demi to stay here against his will. He has another family, another life in the mortal realm that he has a responsibility to live. Besides... he literally just promised he would visit us as much as he can! So please... Stop begging him..."
"Hahaha. You know, Nat..." Deina spoke up. "You would sound a whole lot more convincing if you yourself weren’t currently crying your eyes out."
"Hah?!" Shocked, Natasha aggressively reached up and rubbed her eyes. To her utter bewilderment, her fingertips indeed came away wet with tears.
"What the... what is this? Why are there tears coming out of my eyes?" She furiously tried to wipe them away, but the more she rubbed, the more the droplets continued to fall down her flushed cheeks.
Trying to make light of the situation, Deina let out a shaky, half-hearted chuckle as a tear finally slipped down her own cheek.
"W-Well... look at it this way, Mari. Once his mortal dad finally kicks the bucket, your daughter will be well over eighteen, and by that time, Little Bird’ll be long finished with his university degrees anyway. Once that happens, the three of us can ’convince’ Vinny and Katherine to move up here p-permanently... So... see? Don’t cry..."
But the weight of the departure was too much.
Deina couldn’t hold it back anymore; her voice broke completely, and she covered her face with her hands, openly sobbing alongside Maribelle and Natasha.
Right at that miserable moment, a low shuffling sound caught their attention. Floating slowly toward the grand golden gates was the Way Guide. However, the old man looked out of sorts.
His face was suspiciously red, his white beard was slightly tangled, and his white robes were disheveled.
Floating up to his podium, he gripped the edges to steady his swaying body, and let out a loud–
HICCUP!
"... Well, looks like it’s time for me to leave now..."
All three Goddesses flinched violently at his words. Maribelle dug her finger into his back as her body began to tremble uncontrollably against him.
"Come on, Mama... aren’t you going to give me a see-you-later chu chu?"
Maribelle stopped trembling. She swallowed her tears and stared up into his eyes, putting on the bravest, most determined face she could possibly muster.
*Sniff* "O-Okay."
She threw her arms around his neck, and Vincent pulled her voluptuous, warm body flush against his chest, holding her closer than he ever had before.
They leaned in and joined their lips in a deeply passionate, wet French kiss. Their tongues tangled into desperate, sloppy, and emotional sounds that echoed around them as they poured five hundred years of shared love and attachment into one final embrace.
Finally, Vincent slowly pulled his lips away. He turned his head to look at Natasha and Deina, who were watching him with longing expressions.
"Mama?"
Maribelle sniffled, wiping her eyes as she looked at her two friends. "Fine... only this one time. I’ll share."
Vincent nodded gratefully, releasing his mother and walking over to Deina first. He reached out and gently held both of her warm hands in his. Staring into her golden eyes, his expression changed into one full of immense gratitude.
"Dee... Thank you for everything. Thank you for being patient with me, for teaching me how to finally unlock my divine core, and for always making me laugh when the training got too brutal. I know from my perspective it won’t be all that long, but just know, I’m going to miss you so much."
"L-Litttle Bird... *Sob* Me too..."
Vincent stepped closer and dropped his voice into a gentle whisper. "May I?"
Deina nodded.
She wiped her teary eyes and aggressively threw her arms around his neck. Their lips crashed together in a fiercely sensual French kiss. Their tongues intertwined with an intense passion, both of them savoring the taste of each other until Vincent finally, gently, had to let go.
As he stepped back, Deina’s hands instinctively tried to pull him back but reached out into the empty air. She reluctantly caught herself and pulled her hands back to her chest, sobbing quietly.
Vincent walked over to the red-haired Goddess next.
Natasha was standing perfectly still; her head tilted downward as her fiery red hair completely obscured her pained face.
He reached out and gently took both of her tightly clenched fists into his hands. However, she refused to look up. As he held her, Vincent noticed a steady stream of clear tears that dripped from her chin, splashing onto his boots below.
As her chest heaved, her hitching and sniffling grew increasingly louder and more erratic by the second.
"Nat... thank you. Thank you for pushing me past my limits every single day for all these years. You made me strong. You turned me into someone who can actually stand on his own two feet. Training with you... Talking to you... Laughing with you... it really was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life."
Vincent’s voice cracked as he spoke softly to her. "Please... look at me, Nat."
Slowly, Natasha lifted her head. Over the last five centuries, Vincent had grown significantly, now standing a full head taller than her.
Natasha’s beautiful face was an absolute mess of tears and smudged pride, but as she looked up, she saw that Vincent’s handsome face was equally covered in tears.
"N-Nat. May I?"
Completely abandoning any form of embarrassment, she nodded at his request.
As Vincent leaned down, they gently joined their lips together.
The kiss was incredibly soft and tender at first. But as the realisation that this was the absolute last time, she would get to hold him or feel his warmth for a very, very long time, Natasha lost all control.
She let out a muffled sob against his mouth, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him so close that not a single inch of space remained between their bodies. She hungrily kissed him, their wet, sensual movements fueled by pure longing as their tears mingled together on their cheeks.
Finally, with a heavy heart, Vincent gently broke the kiss.
The sudden loss of his support caused Natasha to stumble forward a step. Her legs shook with loneliness as she stared at him through blurry vision.
Vincent turned away and walked toward the stone podium where the Way Guide was standing. As he walked, he consciously channeled his newly mastered divine power. Then, in a shimmer of light, his massive white wings retracted completely into his back, his blue hair shifted back to a chestnut brown, and his eyes reverted to their original green.
He turned back to the three Goddesses, delivering one final bow. "Thank you all for everything! I’ll see you very soon! So please... please wait for me."
He turned back to the old man at the podium. "Sir? I’m ready to go back."
*Zzzzzzzzzz* "H-Huh!? Who... Who are you again? Where am I?"
"Uh... are you okay, sir?"
"Oh, it’s you, Mama’s boy! Hahaha! I’m great! Absolutely fantastic, kiddo!" the old man laughed boisterously as he slapped the podium.
"I just came back from the sickest, most legendary party in the whole of the Divine Realm, yo! The wine was flowing like rivers, man!"
"Riiiggghhht... Look, do you need some time to sober up? Because I really need to go back to Earth right now."
"Earth? Earth! No problem at all, my boy!" the Way Guide shouted in a slur.
He waved a shaky hand toward a massive, glowing blue teleportation circle on the floor beside the podium. "Just go stand right in the middle of the circle. Once you’re ready, I’ll send you right on your way!"
Vincent let out a sigh of relief. He walked over and stepped directly into the center of the glowing blue runes. It was time to go home.
"No! I can’t do this! I can’t let him leave!" Maribelle screamed suddenly as her sanity completely snapped. "I need my baby!"
With a frantic flap of her wings, she lunged forward toward the circle, but Natasha and Deina quickly intercepted her, wrapping their arms around her waist and desperately holding her back.
"NO! PLEASE! PLEASE, I NEED MY BABY! VINNY! PLEASE COME TO MAMA! VINNY!"
Maribelle let out a series of agonising shrieks, crying out his name over and over again. The raw pain in her voice reverberated deep within Vincent’s chest, making his own tears flow freely once more.
"... Sir, please. I’m ready. Activate it now."
The Way Guide snapped his head up, his drunken daze briefly clearing as he looked at the flashing light on his console.
"Slacking?! I’m not slacking! Right! Right! Got it! No slacking off on the job!" he yelled defensively to no one in particular.
He then grabbed a golden stamp, lifted it high into the air, and slammed it down onto a random sheet of paper on his desk
THUD!
The blue runes beneath Vincent’s feet erupted into a blinding pillar of light. And in a fraction of a second, his body dissolved into pure energy, vanishing from the Divine Realm.
The moment the light faded and the circle went empty, Maribelle stopped screaming. She stared at the vacant cloudy floor. "Where... where is my baby? Where did he go...?"
Her legs gave out completely.
Falling to her knees, she wrapped her arms tightly around her body, trying to simulate the warmth of his embrace, but there was nothing left but empty air.
The devastating realisation crushed her soul, and her eyes rolled back into her head as she fainted from pure grief.
""MARI!!!""
Natasha and Deina immediately lifted her up her limp body and quickly carried her back toward her estate.
The old Way Guide watched them fly off, letting out another slurred chuckle as he rested his chin on his hand. "Hehe... youth is so dramatic. Well... I’ll be praying for that kid’s swift return."
FLASH!
Suddenly, the teleportation circle flashed a bright purple color, where a confused and disoriented glowing soul materialised in the center of the runes.
The soul looked around, speaking in a reverberating voice. "Uh... hello? Where the hell am I?"
The old man blinked his blurry eyes and looked down at his sheet of paper. "Oh! Well, look at that! You’re just in time, buddy! Any later, and you would’ve had to wait another ten whole years in the void for the Princess to try and summon a familiar again."
"Huh? Ten years? Princess? What the hell are you talking about, old man?! Also, you didn’t answer my question. Where the hell am I– Wait... Didn’t I die?"
"Ah, don’t worry about it, kiddo! You’ll figure it out as you go! It’s all part of the grand adventure!"
"Wait a minute! Aren’t you going to explain what’s happening to me?! Didn’t I just die?! I got hit by a literal truck while crossing the street!"
The old man completely ignored the protests. He lifted his golden stamp again, ready to slam it down on the destination sheet for the fantasy realm summon.
But just as the stamp hovered in the air, his eyes accidentally grazed the name on the paper he had previously stamped for Vincent.
The old man’s drunken smile froze. His bloodshot eyes went wide with absolute horror as his brain finally realised what his drunken hands had done.
"Oh no... I... I sent the wrong person."