Transcendence?

***Nation of Mist, Great Sea***

Fingulf starts pushing us into the direction of the altar and I get a dreadful feeling that I experienced this once before. Is this what people call a deja vu?

Raegnir leaves the ship in a haste as the seamen start to launch the ship. We will head towards a small island on the horizon. Celestial links arms with me and starts to smile.

“Fingulf. Are you sure it's okay to hold the wedding now? Isn't this a little abrupt?” I try to stall the inevitable but Fingulf doesn't care.

“It's better to do it now while I can still jump into the sea and swim back!” Fingulf steps behind the altar and grabs an old book.

“The others are still under deck!” I smile at my perfect counter argument.

“No worries, we are all here.”

I turn around and see Den with the other coming from below. Damn. Someone must have called them.

“We gathered here on this day to celebrate the marriage of Ascathon Asceron and Celestial Jasmine. May they be happy together and blessed with luck by the gods. Is there anyone here who wants to object this bond.” Fingulf takes a look around but everybody is silent.

Then he starts to speak again. “Well, I have to warn the bride in that case. Do you know the personality of this guy? Are you aware of wha.......”

Somehow Celestial's grab tightens down on me and I feel a really dangerous aura at my side. “Mr. Fingulf. I ~am~ aware. So please continue.”

“.... ah... sure. So may you be blessed by the gods. May you love and treasure each other in times of pain as much as in times of pleasure. So do you take this worthless guy as your husband, miss Celestial?” Fingulf looks towards Celestial.

Hey!? Did he just call me worthless?

“~Sure!~”

Then he looks towards me. “And do you take this woman as your wife?”

Actually I have to think about this for a little longer. It could be that I am getting cold feet? What if I happen to meet her in another life? Will she hold me responsible for this one?

Then I feel my arm being twisted onto my back. Aaaahh! “It will break!” *snap* Graah! Forget that! It's dislocated!

“YES!”

“Then I declare both of you as husband and wife until death may part you. You may kiss each other now.” Fingulf closes the book and runs towards the rail-guard to make a perfect jump into the sea. He actually looked a little frightened? I wonder what Celestial's face looked like?

*snap* Ooohh... thank you! She set my shoulder right again. That bitch! I turn towards her to say something not very nice. But my face is grabbed and pulled down towards hers.

“Mmmm?”

Hah? What's wrong with her? What's she doing with her tongue in my mouth!? Ah, that actually feels nice.

I am pushed away again and Celes smiles at our guests. “~So shall we eat now?~”

A small storm of applause and clapping is heard from everyone and we head under deck where the best cook I could find made some nice food for us.

***Celestial's POV***

It's mine! My own principality! I had to convince him in the end but everything went according to plan. What did he even hesitate for? Stupid hermit! Right now we are standing on the deck and are looking at the approximating island

God, he is still rubbing his shoulder even after we have eaten. “Dear, how is your shoulder?”

“You dislocated it!” He gives me a scornful expression.

“I am so sorry, but it took you so long to answer. I feared that you might have gotten cold feet. Do you want me to give you a massage when we arrive at the island?” I take another bite from the fish-sticks in my hand.

They are very good and I reserved an entire plate of them just for myself.

“No.”

“Aw. Come on. You don't have to be grumpy. Even if it is a marriage of convenience we will have to deal with each other somehow.” That's right. We have clean up many things between us.

“Haah. Fine. Then tell me how you wish to redeem yourself.” Ascathon looks into the sky while the seamen are anchoring the ship. There is no pier and we will have to go on land with a small boat.

“Even if you say it like that I wouldn't know? I guess you will simply have to tell me your wishes. Mine should be obvious since I already forced you into that marriage.” I smile at Ascathon while I take another bite from the fish-stick.

“You want money and power to protect your little sister and search for your parents.” He sighs. “I just want to do what I want in this world. Nobody should be allowed to tell me what I have to do.”

I take another bite and look into the sky myself. “You will have to rule the world in order to do that. Otherwise there will always be someone who is able to cause problems to you.”

“Oh. I never would have thought about that.” Ascathon claps his hands together with an astounded expression.

“......fine... Then we will take over the world. Just for the fun of it. Should be an interesting game. Especially with the Immortal Empress on the other side of the table.” I shrug my shoulders and grab for the last fish-stick on my plate.

But my fingers just scratch over an empty plate.

“mmm..mm... Those are really good.” I look to my side and see that Ascathon is chewing with full cheeks while giving me a satisfied grin.

“Th... That was mine!” I feel a vein popping on my head.

He gulps and my last fish-stick is gone. “You will turn fat if you eat too much of those anyway.”

“You will compensate me for that fish stick.” I stab my plate at his chest while I am talking to underline my words.

“Fine. Fine. Whatever. Look. They are done. We can go to the shore.” he points at a few small boats which are close to the ship.

Some minutes later we are at the shore and can inspect the small villa which is located on this island. From what I heard it belongs to Fingulf.

It's a nice little house with just enough room for everyone. After I am done with inspecting our accommodation I realize that everyone else is gone.

Some minutes later I find them on the beach in various states of relaxing. Kane and Tanith are taking a sunbath together while Den and Sarah are playing with a ball. Stefan is reading a book.

Liandra and Violetta are building a castle of sand and Ascathon is sitting a few meters from them while doing something like a meditation exercise.

I join Liandra and Violetta with their sand-castle. It got already an impressive size. “Wow. You are already pretty far. How about me helping you two? I am am actually a master of building sand castles!”

Both of them look at me. “That would be pretty nice! Actually we decided to have a match against Ascathon.” Liandra pats the ground beside her and I join them.

“A match? What are the rules?” I look at Ascathon who is just sitting there.

“Both sides have an hour to build a sand-castle. When the time is up we start the fight. Each side has to destroy the other side's castle. Allowed are just fist-sized water ball-spells.” Violetta gives me a short explanation of the rules.

I wince at the last rule. I am no good at spells any more since I started my new training. “We will win! I may not be able to cast spells with you, but we will build the strongest castle ever!”

Both of them cheer and we start building. An hour later we are done. Ascathon didn't twitch a single muscle since then. “Looks like we will win by default.” I smile at Liandra and Violetta.

Suddenly the ground starts to shake and I hear a crazy laugh behind me.

“Mwahahaha! Fear me mortals! Behold the might of the great demon lord!” Ascathon raises his hands in a theatrical gesture and a magic circle appears at his feet.

Then the ground under him starts to move and lifts him higher and higher. I watch agape as a gigantic sand castle is forming under his feet while lifting him to a level about five meters above us.

“Tremble with fear mortals! I will show you the difference between you and me.” Dozens of fist sized water-balls appear all around Ascathon.

“Noooo!” “NOO!” “Noo!”

We throw ourselves in front of our castle as the bombardment starts.

***Phenex Empire, Capital***

“What do you mean with -intercepted-!?” I scream at the shivering mortals to my feet. “Why do I, the Immortal Empress, have to deal with everything by myself!? Is it too much to win a single naval victory against the Nation of Mist?”

One of my generals crawls closer. “Your highness! We are doing everything in our might. But they are simply superior to our naval forces. Somehow they always find our fleets and disturb our advance. And their spells are simply too strong. Our strongest ships simply sink and vanish in the depths of the ocean.”

“Haah... I guess I will have to take action myself....”

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