The wood groaned under the touch of his smooth, pale fingers, his orange eyes gazing over the gilded helm with a joyous twinkle.
Emanating from within the surface, he could feel an impossible power surging at his mere presence, a voice calling out to him.
It's like a living being.
He followed the steps downward and into the main hull of the vessel, the dark and winding hallways stretching on for what felt like kilometers.
Only after descending to the furthest depths could he feel the pulsations of the ship reach their pinnacle, the whispering in his ears turning into a deafening cacophony.
Hundreds of doors lined the hallway, yet only one could truly lead to where the heart of the Ghostship resided, his eyes instantly snapping to it.
Allowing his fingers to gently caress the doorknob, he slowly opened it, a brilliant orange light covering his vision.
Yet as it cleared and a shape came into view at the center of the room, he instinctively took a step forward, his body in a trance.
Creak.
Creak.
Creak.
Boards shattered after he stood on them, their surface quickly regrowing into what appeared to be living trees already cut into slabs of wood.
He ignored the eerie phenomenon as he continued forward, an odd decision for the man who was usually so fascinated with the world itself.
Floating between two pillars, a ball of pure energy oozed with mana, its appearance resembling that of a star.
His hand moved on its own, the very tip of his right middle finger connecting with the core of the Ghostship.
Fwip!
…
Cauron Thorn stood in a vast wheatfield, the blond stalks fluttering in the gentle wind that blew through the area.
The ground pulsed with an almost electric buzz, a thick green moss covering the dirt beneath his feet.
Chrysanthemums sprouted up between the yellowish stalks, the herbal, musky aroma of flowers filling his nostrils even in the brightest of what appeared to be a spring day.
Whispers echoed in his head as he stared at the clear blue sky devoid of a single cloud, the perfect paradise seemingly too good to be true.
Only a moment prior, he had been aboard a Ghostship, reaching out and touching its core; however, now, he was here.
His thoughts were muddled and hazy, yet with a sharp prick from the Emblem of Sphinx carved on his back, he retained a clear mind.
Taking a step forward, he pushed aside the stalks of wheat and continued towards the gentle sun in the distance.
He walked for what felt like hours, his energy fading just like the radiant ball of light that fell behind the horizon.
Slowly, as a moonless sky rose into the heavens and lights far beyond anything he could've ever imagined began to appear, he stopped.
Relaxing his muscles, he fell to the ground, his back facing the sky, and the calm wheatstalks beside him buzzing gently in the breeze.
Even within this trapped reality, he felt at peace, as if he was at the pinnacle of his life—as if time wasn't of the essence.
For, in reality, why should he be controlled by a clock when there would be infinite chances beyond its two ticking hands?
Staring up at the night sky, he pursed his lips, quietly muttering phrases to force himself awake.
"There is no moon in this world; there is only the light of the sun above. There is no ocean in this world, only plots of endless land."
Such a unique space had never been documented anywhere in the Dimension of Waves—the prospect of there being no such thing as water was very surprising to the man.
However, even as he resisted the urge to sleep and fought with all his might to keep his eyelids pried wide, in the end, he was losing miserably.
His eyes were closing, and his mind was drifting off into a world that he could not return from, the infinite landscape drowning his soul.
You are unworthy.
As he was on the cusp of the dreamscape, he felt the words echo through his head, a familiar memory stirring.
His patron, the one who had raised him when even his own parents didn't, muttered the words to himself as he sorted the books in the library.
If some clueless visitor or attendant misplaced one, he would curse quietly then move it to the correct spot with a snap of his fingers, the irritation at human laziness oozing from his form.
When someone left the library with a book, he did not stop them, simply responding under his breath yet again, with a jeer.
"You are unworthy," he would say without hesitation, the weight behind his words never quite connecting with the little Cauron who watched without care.
But, as he drifted off into an unwakeable dream, he could grasp a deeper complexity behind them.
A mortal could not comprehend a god, as they would eventually die, while a god could not comprehend a mortal because they would remain eternal forevermore.
Such was the way of the universe, and an unchangeable fact that only one man in history had dared challenge.
Nonetheless, as Cauron finally gripped the thought in the palm of his hand, he arrived at one question and one question only.
Why couldn't one exist between a mortal and a god?
With those ten words, the fate of the world changed once again, a stifling power now unleashed upon the universe itself.
His thoughts cleared as if a murky pond had been drained, and his fatigue melted away like ice on a furnace.
Opening his eyes into thin slits, he noticed flowers blooming over his body, their pink petals and green stems seemingly sprouting from his flesh.
There was no pain as he stood up and listened to the fields of wheat murmuring his name like a curse.
Flashes of humanoid spirits appeared in the distance, faces he couldn't recognize and emotions he would never know pulsing through his body.
Their anguish, despair, and grief over their pointless lives all converged on one man at the moment of his ascent.
One after another, they vanished as the sun rose fast over the horizon, a gentle humming coming from beyond the wheatfield.
Now, unlike before, he could see a clear spot in the endless fields, his feet moving calmly through the plants until he arrived at the meadow.
Chrysanthemum flowers covered the lush soil in a far denser concentration than what he had seen before, a small table with two chairs at the center.
There, sitting with a porcelain cup of tea between her pale fingers, a woman watched his approach.
She was perhaps 1.6 meters tall, and her long orange hair fell down her back and the sides of the chair, only ending a little above the ground.
If she stood up, perhaps it would reach all the way to the backs of her knees.
The woman's eyes were the same as Cauron's, orange, while her dress was a pure and brilliant white with rings of gold that could make anyone gawk.
Her presence radiated jubilation and vitality, warm emotions bubbling from the depths of the man's chest, and making his eyes gravitate upward.
His breath hitched as he gazed upon a ring of glittering stardust floating weightlessly above her scalp, the solid light condensing into a crown she wore as if she were a queen.
There was only one being he had ever seen wearing a similar ornament to what the woman before him wore.
Bowing his head downward to show his immense respect, he heard a giggle from the table and the setting down of a glass.
"『Come, my child. We have much to discuss.』"
As she spoke, the chrysanthemums swayed gently like a gust of wind had touched their petals, a serene silence falling over the clearing.
Cauron did as he was told, walking through the field as the flowers covering his body fell off like a pink rain, before pulling out the second chair to sit in.
He did not speak; the code of honor when addressing a god was ingrained in his mind from the lessons of his patron.
"『You've done well to find my gift to you within the Lost Cave that I wove from starlight. Furthermore…』"
She smiled, her wonderful white teeth glittering in the dawn's light.
"『You passed my trial while on the verge of failure. Very impressive~』"
Removing her hands from the wooden table, she brought them around her head and threw her orange hair backwards.
She didn't say another word, simply staring straight into Cauron's eyes as if she was waiting for him to speak.
"Goddess… Would you grant me the honor of knowing your title?"
He was rigid in the way he spoke, and an obvious tension spread throughout his entire form as he interacted with a deity far different from the one he had met before.
"『Why of course!』"
Her lips curled up as her form changed rapidly, until a tiny orange puppy appeared in her seat, leaving no tracks of the previous occupant.
"『I am the Goddess of Life and Fertility, the Immortal Witch of Heaven, and the one you may address as…』"
There was a crackling of sparks beneath her paws that extended out and wrapped around the man's body, transmitting a single word into his mind.
"Inanna."
With her truest of names revealed, her form flickered back to that of a humanoid, her head resting gently on her hands.
"『Do you have any other questions before we begin?』"
She smiled, already knowing the answer to her query.
"Where do I happen to be and why am I of all mortals here?"
There was a flash of light in the sky, followed by a thunderous sound, despite the blue firmament being crisp and clear; no storm in sight.
Inanna thought for a moment before pointing up, the sunlight immediately vanishing to be replaced with the beautiful, unknown heavens that had been visible earlier.
"『You are within the Dimension of Life, my seat of power within the cosmos, and one of the few worlds spared by the Dimensional War.』"
She paused only to continue shortly after.
"『You are here to become my eyes and hands, my vessel in the World of Waves. The reason for my choosing of you, Cauron Thorn, the protege of my old friend L■■■■, is simple.』"
The ground shook slightly as she stood up, pushing her chair away from the table and walking out into the surrounding fields.
"『You are the only one I can foresee handling the curse that is given to my incarnations.』"
Bending over and picking one of the chrysanthemums from the soil, she placed it into her long hair, smiling as she did so.
From afar, Cauron pondered her words for a moment before following up.
"What would the terms of such a contract between us be? I am aware of what is required and what you are offering to me; however, the specifics are what truly matter. Am I incorrect?"
Turning her gaze over towards him, she furrowed her brows, a drawn-out sigh escaping her lips.
"『You are not.』"
Instantly, a piece of paper appeared in front of the man's eyes, a simple sheet describing the pros and cons.
There were no long explanations or flowery words meant to hide secret intentions, only a brief description that he read aloud.
"Upon agreement, Cauron Thorn will be granted the power of Divine Interference in the Dimension of Waves through an artifact of his choosing. Furthermore, he will be given ownership over the "『Solar Barque』" and a significant expansion to his current strengths."
The first part was written in sparkling gold with elegant handwriting and beautiful lettering, whereas the words beneath it were drawn in silver and clearly scribbled in haste.
"He will also receive the Curse of Immortality through possession of the Ghostship and be bound to the Dimension of Waves for as long as he is not slain. The act of ending one's own life will also be forbidden through this ordinance."
After that, there was a line for him to sign where the goddess had already placed her own signature.
Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the orange-haired woman who leisurely tended to her flowers as she waited.
"Is this truly the contract?"
She nodded with a slight tinge of confusion appearing on her face.
"How is immortality even a curse? With that much time, I could research anything and everything with infinite time to spare. Not only that, but with my ability to retain information, I wouldn't feel the effects of an aging mind, and therefore, what could possibly be the downsides?"
As he prepared to write his name on the line with a quill sitting upon the table, the woman stopped him with a final plea.
"『You might never feel the effects of the curse as others have, however, if a day shall come where you beg for mercy and a swift death, there is nothing I can do.』"
She looked at him with a somber expression, one of grief and loneliness of a being who had lived forever, an emotion unrecognizable to Cauron Thorn.
He had been burdened with the inevitability of death for the years since Lord Drynch's demise, haunted by the prospect of all his painstakingly built-up knowledge scattering into the winds of time, as insubstantial as ashes.
To him, that was a punishment worse than hell itself.
Holding the quill over the paper, he paused, as a slightly unsettling thought occurred to him.
"What do you get out of this deal? It offers no mention of your incentives."
Watching her place some of the pink flowers onto the wooden table, he heard her exhale slowly, her eyes drifting out into the stars above.
"『I don't ask for much. I wish for you to live a fulfilling, long life. I wish for you to find love. I wish for you to find joy and happiness. All that I require from you is to continue your service, keeping the balance in the Dimension of Waves for what is soon to come.』"
The man's brow furrowed, confusion evident on his face.
"What have you foreseen coming?"
She bit her lip, an eternal grimness hidden behind her eyes.
"『In one, maybe two hundred mortal years, I have seen the return of a being that should never be set free. I also see the rise of a foe so grave that the world itself would fight back against it, freeing yet another thing that should be kept sealed. But I also see you there, Cauron. Standing in front of a fire, the endless blaze consumes you as you weep.』"
He waited for her to finish, yet she was far from done, her tone only getting more frenzied and unnerving.
"『I see you in a broken-down laboratory, a chained figure ahead of you begging for death. I see the voices of those you've befriended calling out your name, a King they'll say. Yet, in the world itself, I see you, standing alone as you watch the sunrise on a new day, alone and afraid. And last of all, I see you, Cauron, covered in blood and calling out my name with betrayal laced with every word as the sun rises on a new dawn for the world.』"
Her body blossomed into a horde of pink flowers, the woman soon fading away into nothingness, similar to how the man's patron occasionally did.
He could sense that she was still there, simply not in the form a human could comprehend.
There was weight behind her words that he wouldn't understand until decades later, her cryptic warnings leaving him unsure whether to sign his name.
Closing his eyes, he thought of a world without inventions that could save millions, tools that could prevent death, disease, hunger, poverty, frost, blaze, or even disaster.
There was no margin for error in his schemes for the future, and if he wished to accomplish it all, he would need the power and resources of a Sea King.
So, as the silent presence gazed down upon him as if standing with solidarity, he signed the contract and walked away into the wheatfields of life.
He would return to the Dimension of Life again, yet only after the years had long since worn away at the man beneath the immortal mask.
The Goddess watched as he vanished into the distance, his soul returning to his physical body, leaving her alone in the world once again.
She felt no joy from his agreement to be her vessel, only a single emotion standing out among all the rest.
Perhaps, if Cauron Thorn had activated the Emblem of Sphinx before leaving, he would've felt it too and come to understand at least a fraction of her heavy heart.
The emotion written across her face and working its way into her chest was simple and concrete.
Guilt.