Over the Sky | Image Gallery | Artbooks | Fam Aerial Log | 062
Princess Sophia's expression was dim.
"Miss Sophia!" Lavie and Al greet the princess with a hug after they had disembarked the Exile.
"I'm here too, you know!" Vincent spoke as he raised his arms up, expecting a hug as well.
"Uncle Coffee's here, too?"
"Uncle Coff ... eh? I'm still young, in my twenties!"
"No way?!" a wide-eyed Lavie and Alvis gawked at him.
"Do you think I'd be able to do this if I were in my thirties?" Pulling Alvis up onto his shoulders with ease, the 29-year-and-11-month old Vincent Alzey ran toward the pier. Though puzzled, Al smiled over his shoulder. Lavie and Sophia followed slowly behind them.
"Anything about Claus?"
"I'm sorry ... not yet." Sophia shook her head apologetically.
"I see ... hmm, Miss Sophia, I have a request."
"Anything, if there's something I can do."
"That pendant Al got from Lucciola..."
"The communication equipment they used in the Guild?"
"Yeah, Claus left with it."
"I see. I'll immediately see what I can arrange."
This is good, we might be able to get in touch with Claus now.
Lavie smiled, looking slightly relieved.
"They are the ones who made Lucciola that way." Coccinella's whisper echoed in Dio's mind.
They ... they did that to...
"You must kill them, kill them, kill them, for Lucciola."
Yes. I'll kill them. For my Lucciola.
His white unit fired at a vanship that was trying to escape him. The duralumin alloy body split off, pieces of iron scattered to the wind. A stray screw flew into the windshield of Dio's vanship, a crack forming in the glass. And with the sudden impact, Dio regained his sanity.
"Where am I? What did I just do?" The escaping vanship broke apart before his eyes.
'Are we going to die?' the eyes of the navi that sat behind him appeared to question.
We've been on Prester for a week, already.
They had split up and looked for Claus until the very last moment before sunset, but found absolutely no clues. As the moonlight shone through the clouds. Lavie stood on the terrace of Sophia's quarters, calling out Claus' name.
"Claus, answer me, Claus! Where are you? Hey, Claus!" Her throat was getting sore, and the outline of the moon was blurry through her tears. Holding the pendant to the night sky, Lavie kept calling Claus' name.
"... Lavie." At that moment Alvis, noticing something strange, took the pendant from her.
"It's you, Alvis," a familiar voice spoke from the pendant.
"Di--"
"--o! It's been a few days."
Alvis couldn't speak, her breath taken away when she realized the voice was actually coming from outside the terrace.
Huh? What was that? What floor did it come from?
White shoes tiptoed and leapt along the railing of the stone structure. With a carefree smile, Dio moved as magnificently as a dancer as he embraced both Lavie and Alvis.
"What kind of place is the 'blue star'?" Dio asked while curiously touching the luxurious furnishings of the vast drawing room; it was about two hundred square meters big.
"Hey, hey, that stuff is expensive!" Lavie watched him nervously, and her eyes seemed to say 'Please stop, if anything breaks, I would never be able to pay for it, even if I worked hard for the rest of my life'.
"There's a large lake full of fresh water. People call it the 'Grand Lake', and it's very sacred to them." Alvis answered him to make up for Lavie's lack of response from worry.
"The Grand Lake, huh." Dio's mused as his eyes landed on his next target. "Immelmann tuuuuuurn!" He suddenly jumped onto the plush bed that caught his sight.
"Kyaa!" Alvis, who was sitting on the bed, reacted with a start.
"Immelmann is missing?" Dio shielded a hand over his eyes to block the light shining through the skylights.
"You don't know anything about it?"
"No, I didn't see him." Dio and Lavie sat on the bed, Alvis sandwiched between the two of them.
"Dio ... where's Lucciola?" Alvis asked, unaware that Lucciola had died. "Back then, Lucciola helped us ... I haven't gotten to say thank you yet."
"Lucci ... ola?" Dio muttered, the pupils of his eyes fickering, shrinking.
