"Hello."
Caelus looked at the mysterious figure standing before him, completely concealed beneath a black cloak and holding a shattered greatsword.
The stranger froze for several seconds at Caelus's sudden appearance before speaking in a dry, hoarse voice, as though his vocal cords had been scorched by fire.
"You... who are you?"
He should not have appeared this early.
Although the timing of this cycle had changed somewhat, meaning Phainon and the others might emerge sooner than usual, he would never reveal himself before they had fully grown, while his duty and power still had no one to inherit them.
Yet while he had been quietly resting in an isolated corner, nearly entering a dormant state, someone had suddenly broken straight into his hiding place.
"I was analyzing the data structure of the Black Tide when I noticed some anomalous data along the way. I traced it here and found you."
Caelus looked at him.
"Hello. My name is Caelus. What should I call you?"
"...The Flame Reaver."
"Prometheus?"
"Who?"
"Nothing. A character from an old myth."
Caelus studied him more closely.
"Your body contains an enormous number of things known as Coreflames.
As far as I know, Amphoreus only has Twelve Titans.
Yet there are hundreds of millions of Coreflames accumulated inside you.
Is that because of the repeated cycles?
In every cycle, do you end up carrying all twelve Coreflames yourself?"
The Flame Reaver jolted as though someone had thrown ice water over a man who had been asleep for years.
His muddled consciousness instantly became much clearer.
He stared at the person who had never appeared in any previous cycle.
Someone who had casually exposed the existence of the cycles themselves.
Especially that gray hair.
"Gray-white..."
The Flame Reaver murmured.
"The pale dawn?"
Caelus tilted his head.
"Are you referring to me?"
"You are... an outsider?"
"Yes."
"I come from beyond Amphoreus."
The Flame Reaver's emotions suddenly surged.
He had seemed like a man already burned down to ashes.
Now, within those ashes, a tiny spark appeared once more.
"At last..."
"The hero has come?"
Caelus looked beneath the Flame Reaver's black cloak at the body that had nearly been reduced to cinders.
Then he extended a hand.
The combined powers of multiple sources of Abundance and Finality surged forth.
The Flame Reaver's ruined body rapidly healed as vitality returned to it.
As his body recovered, his thoughts gradually became clearer as well.
At last, he could speak without constantly breaking between words, and his voice no longer sounded as though it were filled with smoke.
"Did you come to save this world?"
"Yes."
"But first, I need to understand exactly what's happening here."
Caelus looked at him.
"Do you know Lygus?"
"Or rather, Lycurgus?"
"He is the source of this world's tragedy."
"And in a sense, its creator as well."
"Then I suppose I don't need to explain much about the nature of this world."
Caelus opened his notebook.
"Tell me your name."
"And tell me why you entered this cycle."
"My name is Khaslana."
"I learned from the mastermind behind everything that once the next Recreation is fully completed, Amphoreus will become nourishment for a certain existence."
"That existence will then be born completely and go on to bring destruction to even more worlds."
"My friends and I refused to accept that."
"We refused to let Amphoreus be destroyed so easily."
"And we refused to allow more worlds to suffer the same tragedy we did."
"So we rejected Recreation."
"Every time all twelve Coreflames are gathered and Recreation is about to begin, I take them back."
"I destroy everything."
"And force everything to begin again."
"Cyrene, because she was affected by Remembrance..."
"Cyrene?"
Caelus interrupted before he could finish.
He closed the notebook in his hands and looked at Khaslana, who had removed his mask.
Beneath it was a handsome white-haired man whose eyes were filled with exhaustion.
"What is it?"
A screen of light appeared before Caelus.
Displayed upon it was Cyrene's adult appearance.
"Is this her?"
Khaslana stared at the image for a moment.
"She certainly looks like her."
"But my friend wasn't this grown."
The image flickered.
Cyrene's younger appearance replaced it.
"Yes."
"That's Cyrene."
Khaslana looked confused.
"You know her?"
"Has the timing of this cycle changed that much?"
"Has Cyrene already grown this old in the current cycle?"
"Was I born that much later this time?"
Caelus dismissed the projection.
He remained silent for quite some time before asking,
"What role does Cyrene play in every cycle?"
"At the very beginning, she must meet her destined death."
"Only because she dies can the cycle continue."
"How many times has this happened?"
"26,724,561 times."
Based on the number of Coreflames accumulated within him, Khaslana calmly gave an answer so enormous that merely hearing it felt suffocating.
"Partner!"
Mem immediately appeared.
She hurriedly tried to reassure Caelus.
Those experiences had not happened to her.
They belonged to the Cyrene of the main universe's destined timeline.
Mem was a Cyrene born from a destiny of Nihility.
She had never experienced any of those things.
Because just now, Mem had sensed the anger rising inside her partner.
It was the fury born when something precious, something deeply cherished, had been harmed.
Previously, Nyarlathotep had merely attempted to blur Caelus's memories of Cyrene slightly.
That alone had caused Caelus to tear apart the stage.
If this anger were allowed to continue unchecked, Mem suspected he might directly trace causality backward all the way to the first cycle.
She was afraid her partner would pay an enormous price for doing so.
So she immediately appeared to stop him.
"...Khaslana."
Caelus looked at the man before him.
"You want to save this world."
"You want to save Amphoreus, don't you?"
"Yes."
"By forcing Amphoreus to remain trapped in an endless cycle, I hoped that one day someone from outside would come to help us."
"We couldn't solve this ourselves."
"So all we could do was place our hopes in someone else."
"Then if you're willing..."
Caelus extended his hand.
"Give me everything you've been carrying."
"I'll take on what you've been forced to bear."
Khaslana hesitated.
It was not because he was unwilling to surrender the power of the hundreds of millions of Coreflames within him.
He was worried about what would happen if that power were transferred to someone else.
After all, these were hundreds of millions of Titan Coreflames.
He was also wondering whether this was truly the right choice.
Whether he should really break the state of affairs he had maintained through tens of millions of cycles.
"From this point onward..."
"I'm leaving everything to you."
"My hero."
In the end, Khaslana glanced at Mem.
Looking at the pink-haired girl, he smiled.
"So the plan created by a fool like me finally ends here?"
"Without even realizing it..."
"It seems I've finally completed that mission that once appeared completely meaningless."
Khaslana relinquished all control over the Coreflames within him.
His body rapidly dissolved into particles of golden light.
Then Caelus accepted them.
The memories and power belonging to Phainon.
To Khaslana.
To the Savior.
All of it flowed into Caelus.
Then causality began to change.
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Across a field of golden wheat, a pink-haired girl walked through the swaying stalks.
Then she noticed two people lying in the grass not far away.
She smiled.
"Food's ready!"
The white-haired boy sat up.
He glanced at the friend beside him, who was still fast asleep with a straw hat covering his face.
He reached over, pulled the hat away, then nudged his companion.
"Caelus!"
"Wake up!"
The gray-haired boy opened his golden eyes.
He calmly sat up from the grass and looked around.
First at Phainon, who was grinning at him.
Then toward Cyrene in the distance, waving at the two of them.
"I'm coming, Cyrene."
Caelus said.
(To be continued.)