The first sensation that penetrated my slowly waking consciousness was the crackling of a nearby fire. After that, I felt the aching soreness of my body. Then, I opened my eyes to bear witness to the starry sky above. Back in Hanakawa, I had frequently laid atop the grass and watched the stars, yet the cosmic canvas spilt before me now felt unfamiliar.
With some effort, I propped myself up to find that I had been carefully placed on a makeshift mattress with a blanket over me. Looking around, I saw that this campsite had been set up just a small distance away from the earlier ruins. I judged that night had recently fallen from the moon’s position. It was at this point that I noticed Yukiko silently waiting for me, sitting atop a fallen log across the campfire.
“Oh- Thank you for all of this”
So it wasn’t a hallucination that someone had caught me after that fight. Taking a look at the supplies set up around the campsite, it was easy to figure out that she had been the one taking care of me after my reckless gamble.
“Save your thanks for when they’re needed. It was you who nearly single handedly defeated that beast. I was only trying to repay the favor, so… thank you for protecting me”
She avoided making eye contact as she hesitantly brought up another topic.
“How’s your arm feeling?”
My arm? I looked down and noticed that the entirety of my right arm had been wrapped in bandages. Right… That was the arm I had used to channel ‘Spiritburner’ at the end of the fight.
I attempted to move it as normal, but instantly felt a burning sensation rippling across my skin.
“The burns were pretty severe… I don’t know what kind of technique you used back there, but it wasn’t something my standard potions could take care of”
She gestured towards the pile of empty potion bottles next to my feet.
“The appearance is rather… displeasing… and it wouldn’t do you any good to have the wounds exposed to open air, so I took the precaution of bandaging them”
“Do you mind if I take a look?”
“It’s your body, so do as you please”
I gently unwrapped the bandages to see the damage I had caused myself. Indeed, the wounds were reminiscent of traditional burns, yet the feeling made me sure that the damage festered deep below the skin. Aeolus did tell me that this technique was the equivalent of consuming one’s own essence as fuel.
“I could take you back to the Snow Guild’s headquarters. I’m sure there’s someone there more knowledgeable than me who’s able to pinpoint the proper treatment. However, for now, wear this”
She tossed me a long glove that seemed like it would be able to fit my entire arm up to my shoulder.
“It integrates magetech and armor. The principle that drives it is similar to how the spearstaff passively takes in and cycles natural mana. That glove does the same, but on a smaller scale, using the mana to soothe and aid the person wearing it”
I slipped the glove over my arm and quickly felt a gentle breeze of mana flowing through it. Sure enough, I had regained some of my arm’s original capacity for movement and the pain wasn’t as much of a bother.
“Still, it’s not perfect. Try not to strain that arm too much until we can get it healed”
“Thank you so much… I promise I’ll repay you one day-”
“There’s no need. After all, you did save my life. And seeing how you fought that beast makes me certain that you were holding back a lot during our fight from before”
She chuckled slightly.
“By the way, that reminds me. Why were you so aggressive towards me at the beginning of our encounter?”
“Oh… that… You said you were the one who broke the barrier, so I naturally assumed you were an enemy of the Snow Guild. We’ve got a few oppositions that’re trying to weaken our leadership of Synoria, and damaging our relationship with the Heralds is one of their methods”
“Heralds?”
“Wait, you don’t know? Huh, I didn’t think there was anyone that didn’t know… Must be a foreigner thing”
I could barely hear her mumbling the last part.
“Anyways, in short, the Heralds are powerful, intelligent corrupted beings that form pacts with major regions of human society. In exchange for their protection from other, more aggressive corrupted, we vow to not interfere with their ‘barrier zones’ and usually other terms they may raise in negotiation”
I was deeply shocked.
“You work with corrupted beings…? Those things responsible for our suffering?”
“Well… I personally don’t agree with it, but my brother says Synoria would’ve long fallen if we didn’t have a presiding Herald. Seraphim’s been keeping our standing stable for over a decade now, but corrupted activity has been on the rise as of the last few days…”
That’s right… The worlds within and beyond the barrier were different- Wait, Seraphim?
“I fear something has occurred within the realm of the corrupted and Orientalis will once more be plunged into war and chaos… It might not seem like it to you citizens, but the reparations from the Third Calamity Event still aren’t perfect”
No, maybe our worlds weren’t wholly different. Perhaps there were more connections between either side of the barrier than I had previously thought. Hanakawa had already progressed through seven cycles, all of which I now assume ended in an event similar to our cycle’s. However, the outside world had only undergone three such Calamity Events. There was more to be learned, and moreover, there was the possibility of preventing the damage of their future Calamity Events. I pondered the situation further. If we pursued the true end of this world’s Calamity Events, could we ensure humanity’s peace from the corruption?
…And would I be able to encounter the corrupted who single handedly began my troubles and pains to finish what I had resolved to do?
“By any chance, does the Seraphim of your knowledge bear six wings and a narcissistic personality?”
“Oh, yeah. So you do know about him. What about it?”
I took a deep breath before steeling my resolve. She needed to know the truth if we were to become true allies and ever uncover the secrets that connected our worlds.
“I came from within the barrier. For the last several centuries, my village had been sealed within that barrier and was subjected to waves of corrupted onslaught. The final enemy standing in my way before liberating the barrier zone was Seraphim… I am the last survivor of Hanakawa, and the one who killed your Herald”
Since their initial meeting, each of the three gods who had shown interest in the development of World Zero had remained within the Conference for their own reasons. The once empty tabletop now supported a holographic display that outlined the entirety of World Zero, yet the majority of the display remained uncharted.
Aether was the only one to still be sitting at the table, now deftly wielding numerous consoles in the air around him while furiously typing away. So far, the process of properly establishing World Zero’s connection was progressing smoothly.
Off in one ‘corner’ of the sky, Aeolus had manifested a small ‘relaxation zone’ for himself, which now bore the appearance of a breezy tropical beach. While his main body was relaxing on a hammock situated between two palm trees, other fragments of himself were dotted around the scenery, engaging in idle conversation to pass the time. Just as Aeolus had once commanded the Four Winds in ancient times, the Aeolus of the present had divided his self into various pieces that characterized aspects of his personality and abilities, nearly half of which still remained sealed away in fragments on World Zero. In one spot, an elderly version of Aeolus was getting into an argument with his child version, while in another, a suave version of himself was trying to hit on his genderbent version. The main Aeolus found the whole situation rather amusing.
Meanwhile, Ares had manifested a field of training dummies for him to continue honing his skills even while watching over World Zero. These dummies, infused by the will of combat, possessed immense strength and acted on their own, each strike easily shattering the ground of Ares’ manifested terrain, yet Ares simply broke each of their bodies in simple, effortless movements. Each repetition of the training consisted of the dummies acting in previously unseen formations, yet Ares flawlessly adapted to each scenario despite having no prior knowledge on how the dummies would try to defeat him next. As he defeated another round of training, he scowled at the memory of a recent conversation with Aeolus.
***
“Wow, to think you’d be the first to officially offer him the opportunity to be your Prelude! Tell me, why’d ya’ do it?”
“The blessings of war and combat were best suited to his current situation. That is all”
“Awh, you’re sure you didn’t have some deeper, sentimental reason?”
“Hmph”
***
Aether’s voice suddenly snapped both Aeolus and Ares into an attentive state.
“Hey, you two. I’ve found another”
The two gods hurriedly rushed over to Aether’s spot at the table, Aeolus doing so in exaggerated excitement while Ares attempted to nonchalantly conceal his interest.
“You two still remember the first signal I picked up, right?”
Aether swiped over the hologram away from Kaito’s current position outside the ruins to reveal a nearby town labeled “Synoria Outlook”.
The other two gods nodded.
“Now, here’s the other”
In a grand gesture, Aether swiped over the hologram once more, rotating the map across a large ocean to another continental formation, separate from the landmass the previous two marks occupied. On the other landmass, a similar circular mark hovered over an uncharted location.
Aeolus was the first to speak up.
“Wait, no. That’s not a single signal, there’s many of them overlaid on the same spot”
Aether fiddled around with a few consoles, recalibrating the system, before zooming in on the hologram. Sure enough, there were multiple miniature marks densely packed together, that when zoomed out, registered only as one mark.
“That many shards in one area..? For what purpose…”
“That’ll be an issue we worry about later, but it’s good to keep in mind a destination as he continues his journey”
Aether returned the hologram’s positioning to its original spot, gesturing towards the first mark that had appeared on the map.
Aeolus glanced towards the previously labeled town. For whatever reason, the shardbearer there demonstrated no interest in concealing the shard’s positioning, allowing them to prematurely gain the lay of the land.
“The first destination… Let’s hope whoever this shardbearer is will be cooperative”
As Aeolus prepared to return to his relaxation, a sudden blaring noise caused him to jump up like a startled cat. Turning around, he noticed a system window had appeared before Ares.
“Hermes..? What purpose does he have for sending such a-”
After the age of the system took over the gods’ primitive methods, Hermes’ previous position as the ‘messenger of the gods’ became rather obsolete. Now, he bore the responsibility and power of managing the system’s announcements, capable of forcibly sending direct messages to any god or mortal regardless of the system’s usual regulations.
“What is it?”
“The Eternal Battlefield… Its outcome has just been decided…”
“Outcome?! It’s in the name- how could its outcome have been decided with you absent from the frontlines?!”
“Hermes says the corrupted forces ‘just retreated and vanished’… But for what reason..?”
The Eternal Battlefield, the title given by the gods to the supposed never ending war between divinity and the corruption. As hordes upon hordes of endless corrupted beasts poured out across existence to seize control of the gods’ domain, Ares, the battlefield’s representative of the gods, would summon an equal endless onslaught of soldiers. A war of never ending bloodshed that had no resolution in sight had just been ‘concluded’ due to the mysterious disappearance of the corruption.
Just then, a barrage of alerts clouded Aether’s view of the hologram.
[ Warning! Numerous unregistered entities are approaching the Possibilities of World Zero! ]
“So that’s where they’re headed…”
Outstretching his arm, Ares summoned his helmet into his hands.
“We’re leaving. Now. If their target is World Zero, we have to stop them before anything happens to the anomaly”
Aeolus looked baffled.
“Us too? Aren’t we not supposed to trespass on your domain?”
“I’m making an exception just this once. Don’t make me regret it. Aether will monitor the condition of World Zero, and you… you’re here, so you can come along, I suppose”
“Tch, this guy is always taking jabs at me”
Ares stood in silence for a few seconds, seemingly staring into empty space.
[ Authority accepted. Transporting < Three > targets to < Realm of Possibility >, < World Zero > ]
The air surrounding the Conference began to glow with the light of boundless worlds and stars.
As the transport began, Aeolus took a final look at the marks dotting the mapped out regions of the World Zero hologram, thinking to himself, “Hope you won’t miss me too much, kid”.
In the next instant, the sky beneath them shattered into a gateway.
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