"You... don't you hate me?"
"Your future is about to be taken away by someone else. The story that should have belonged to you might disappear completely."
"Don't you feel even a little resentment?"
"But aren't you me?"
"We were always the same person."
"You only said that you took a different path in the future, but making different choices doesn't mean we suddenly stopped being the same person."
"Besides, isn't your story also my story?"
Elysia smiled and turned toward Caelus.
"Caelus, what kind of relationship do you have with the future me?"
"She is my one and only."
"The companion who will walk with me into an eternal future."
"My other half, now and forever."
"Wow! That's such a passionate confession!"
"That's amazing! Even with that expressionless face of yours, I can still feel how intense those emotions are!"
"What a beautiful kind of love!"
Elysia smiled brightly.
"The future has countless possibilities. Not even Oronyx can determine the course of every future."
"The future you described is only one of those possibilities."
"Maybe it would change."
"Maybe things would turn out differently."
"But now, since you already have someone you love most, the determination to save the world, and the ability to make everything better, then I don't see anything wrong with taking back the self you left behind in the past."
"We were always the same person."
"No matter how different your future self and past self may become, that doesn't change the fact that we're still one and the same..."
Elysia smiled as she spoke.
Then she stepped forward until she stood before Caelus.
She looked at the companion who had once been so familiar in her memories, yet who now seemed increasingly unfamiliar.
She opened her arms toward him.
"Caelus, could you hug me?"
"With all the love you have for me."
Caelus froze for a moment.
Then he extended his arms and pulled her into his embrace.
Elysia closed her eyes and felt the warmth surrounding her.
She smiled.
"Tens of millions of cycles."
"Tens of millions of apocalypses."
"The pressure accumulated from tens of millions of deaths, along with the weight of a future that seemed like it would never arrive..."
"That must have been incredibly difficult to endure."
"Sad stories always make people want to change them."
"Everyone loves happy stories too, of course, but tragedies filled with separation and regret are often the ones people remember most clearly."
"Because they make us want so badly to change how they end."
"Caelus, and the future me..."
"You have to be happy."
"You have to change that sorrowful story and give everyone a future where they can smile from the bottom of their hearts!"
"I will."
"I'll save this world."
"I promise you."
"Mm."
Cyrene nodded.
"I'll stay with Partner and make sure everyone reaches a real tomorrow."
Elysia released Caelus from the embrace.
Then she walked over to Cyrene and smiled.
"Then take back the self you left in the past."
"Future me."
Cyrene stepped forward and embraced her past self.
Countless strands of pink light emerged from Elysia's body.
Like flowing ribbons, they gathered together and entered Cyrene.
When every phenomenon finally faded, Cyrene opened her eyes.
Nothing about her appearance had changed.
She looked exactly the same as before.
"This should have been my burden to bear."
Caelus spoke quietly.
"No, Partner."
"From the very beginning, this was my decision."
Cyrene walked forward and wrapped her arms around Caelus.
She buried her face against his chest, her voice slightly muffled.
"Caelus..."
"Am I a bad woman?"
"I don't know."
"Aren't you supposed to comfort me at a time like this?"
"Shouldn't you say something like, 'It's not your fault'?"
"I can't accurately judge whether what happened was right or wrong."
"So all I can say is that I don't know."
"There's no need to obsess too much over whether something makes you good or bad."
"I've never particularly wanted to be a good person either."
"I simply do what feels right to me."
"Cyrene, no matter what, I also played a part in this."
"So if there's guilt to bear for what happened, then part of it belongs to me too."
"...I love you more than anything!"
Cyrene kept rubbing her face against Caelus's chest, looking for all the world like someone who had buried their face in a cat and refused to stop cuddling it.
"Mm."
"I love you too."
After her excitement gradually subsided, Cyrene finally lifted her head from his chest.
She looked up at Caelus, who had been watching her the entire time.
"Partner, what do we do next?"
"How are we going to save Amphoreus?"
"Defeating that Emperor's Scepter probably won't be much of a problem, but how are we supposed to save all the people living inside Amphoreus?"
"When I inherited the causality and existence of the eternal cycles from Phainon, it wasn't only so I could return to the past and let you completely merge with the version of yourself from the original timeline."
"It was also because I needed the immeasurable amount of time contained within those eternal cycles."
Caelus revealed the cumbersome solution he had devised.
It was also a plan that sounded almost impossible.
"Throughout these endless cycles, I will record every flower and every blade of grass in Amphoreus."
"I will record every change experienced by every living being, every trace of their existence, and even the complete self and personality of every individual."
"Over the course of that immense span of time, I will record all of it."
"Not merely the epics of heroes."
"I'll also record the countless ordinary people who live upon this land."
"Every single person will become a character within my records."
"The growth of every flower and every blade of grass will be preserved as well."
"Once everything in this world has been recorded, once every part of it has completely become part of my memories, I will break this endless cycle."
"I will allow every intelligent being to recover all the memories and knowledge they accumulated across those countless cycles."
"Then I'll lead them out of Amphoreus together."
"They will face the creator who gave them life, yet also condemned them to destruction."
"After that, because I carry the laws of the Type-Moon universe within me, along with the Servant system interface the System gave me before, I only need to return to the Type-Moon universe once."
"There, I can transform this entire story into a legendary epic and crystallize it into a Noble Phantasm belonging to Amphoreus."
"When that happens, every living being will become part of that Noble Phantasm."
"Those virtual lives will become existences similar to Servants."
"They will possess souls."
"They will possess wills of their own."
"Under the laws of the Type-Moon universe, even if their existence initially depends upon that Noble Phantasm, they will still become genuine living beings."
"Finally, I only need to return to this universe and deploy that Noble Phantasm."
"Then, using the powers of Abundance and Finality, I can grant those beings true life."
"Afterward, on a suitable planet, I can use the complete Amphoreus preserved within my memories to recreate everything that once existed upon this land."
"At that point, every living being in this world will finally be freed."
"They'll see a real sky filled with stars."
"They'll feel the light of a real sun."
"They'll live in a real world."
"And everyone will finally be able to welcome a true tomorrow."
After hearing the entire plan, Cyrene stared at Caelus with her mouth slightly open.
Only after a long while did she finally speak.
"How much time would it take to record absolutely everything?"
"That sounds incredibly exhausting."
"But as long as you're by my side, it won't feel exhausting at all."
The words were simple and completely straightforward.
Yet Cyrene's mind instantly went blank.
By the time she recovered, she realized that her entire body had already gone limp in Caelus's arms.
That one sentence had been far too devastating.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)