Lord Kratos was dead. Lloyd Irving and his cohorts are taken into custody and executed for their crimes against Cruxis.
The Four Grand Seraphim are down to one. One turned traitor, one dead for a just cause, and the third still awaiting a revival that seemed more impossible by the day. Forcystus attends the meetings to appoint new Cardinals and handles the change from Sylvarant to Tethe'alla without much reaction.
He and Pronyma are the last two. They swoop in and clean up Tethe'alla's nobility the same way they handled Sylvarant's, taking out anyone who knew too much an appointing fools in their place. They bombard the grand civilization into the dark ages and Forcystus feels disgust well in the pit of his stomach as he realizes what this world has to offer.
As he realizes that the liar had not been lying at all.
It becomes abundantly clear in the following days and weeks that this is their life now. They set up in Tethe'alla - he and Pronyma, taking fledgling Cardinals under their wing and relaying centuries worth of knowledge upon these poor, hapless fools that had no idea that nothing more will come of this than what they see before them.
Four square meals a day, a roof over their heads, protection from harm - they exist within these walls like spirits, afraid to tread into the dawn. This is their prison as surely as it is their haven, and as weeks turn to months, as months turn to years, as years turn to decades - the truth he had been denying becomes all too clear.
One sweet summer day, Forcystus steps out into the brightness and shields his eye against the sun. The tower is high in the sky, the oracle glows, and they are told to pack up their bases and move to Sylvarant once more.
Forcystus does none of that. Instead he gathers his men and says that those who have nothing left to live for should follow him, for they were to make their last, glorious stand against the injustices their people had faced. Some were to massacre Tethe'alla, to rend the laws that bound half-elves to slavery. Others were to follow him. Into their hands he shoves weaponry that will do nothing against an angel, and into their hearts he imparts a somber truth.
They were going to die here as surely as the rest of the human race was.
So he wanted to make his death count.
