"Something feels strange."
Phainon looked at Caelus, who was standing on higher ground painting a complete view of the small village of Aedes Elysiae.
Ever since the day Caelus said he wanted to write something, he had become almost obsessed.
From morning to night, he always carried notebooks and pens with him.
Phainon had no idea where he kept getting so many notebooks from, nor why his ink never seemed to run out.
In any case, whenever Caelus met someone, he wanted to hear their story.
Whenever he encountered someone new, he would ask about their life and experiences.
Whenever he had free time, he would find somewhere quiet and begin drawing flowers, grass, trees, and anything else he saw.
Even completely ordinary trees would be drawn over and over again.
Phainon truly had no idea what he was trying to accomplish.
Naturally, he had asked Caelus about it before.
But Caelus's answers never made much sense to him.
He always said that it was "part of creation."
Phainon had absolutely no idea what that meant.
Still, after confirming that there was nothing wrong with his friend's health, and that this almost obsessive hobby was not interfering with his daily life, Phainon gradually stopped worrying about it.
Several more peaceful years passed.
Then even their remote village began receiving news that the Black Tide disaster had erupted across the world.
To resolve this apocalyptic crisis, the Chrysos Heirs would have to obtain the twelve Coreflames from the Titans and complete the great undertaking known as Recreation.
Phainon was a Chrysos Heir.
He understood that there was something special about him, and he also knew that the world was becoming increasingly dangerous.
After thinking about it for a long time, he decided to persuade his parents and the rest of the village to leave Aedes Elysiae and seek shelter in one of the great city-states.
At first, the villagers opposed the idea.
So Phainon brought Caelus and Cyrene with him.
Over the past few years, Cyrene had become a priestess of Oronyx.
She had even received a portion of the Titan's power and could briefly reverse the flow of time.
Caelus, meanwhile, had become a famous painter.
Every painting he created seemed almost indistinguishable from reality.
If he painted scenery, viewers would feel as though they had been transported directly into it.
If he painted a person, people would genuinely feel as though the subject were standing right in front of them.
With two such respected figures supporting Phainon's proposal, the villagers finally agreed to leave their home and travel to Okhema, the City of Dawn.
They encountered several dangers along the way.
But Phainon had practiced swordsmanship since childhood, and as a Chrysos Heir, he handled those threats with relative ease.
Of course, Phainon himself believed that he had only been able to deal with those bandits and monsters so easily because of the equipment his best friend had given him.
Without a good weapon, fighting powerful enemies would have been much harder.
Even while traveling, Phainon would occasionally take out the greatsword his friend had given him and admire it.
No matter how he looked at it, the weapon was incredibly impressive.
It looked exactly like the kind of legendary weapon that would belong exclusively to the hero of an epic.
He had even started inventing stories about it.
What he did not know was that the sword already possessed a history of its own.
It had once been the weapon wielded by the Savior.
After arriving in Okhema, the group was granted an audience with the city's current ruler, the Goldweaver, Aglaea.
Phainon, Cyrene, and Caelus would all participate in the Flame-Chase Journey.
According to the prophecy, Caelus would even become the Savior who ultimately rescued everything.
"I never expected this, Partner!"
"You're actually going to be the Savior who saves the entire world!"
"That's such an incredible title!"
"And that means I'm one of the Savior's companions."
"That sounds like the title of a hero too!"
Phainon felt no jealousy or resentment whatsoever over the fact that his childhood friend had become the prophesied Savior.
Instead, he happily congratulated Caelus.
He even reassured him afterward, telling Caelus not to put too much pressure on himself and promising that he would always support and help him.
Later, Mydei, the newly crowned ruler of Castrum Kremnos, personally came to meet the legendary Savior.
"...You're a very unusual person."
"I can't immediately tell what kind of person you really are."
"Perhaps only someone as unusual as you could become the Savior."
That was Mydei's assessment.
From the first moment he saw Caelus, he felt that there was something strangely empty about him.
Something almost nihilistic.
It was as though Caelus existed within this world while simultaneously standing apart from it.
And yet, if one looked closely, he undeniably existed there.
His presence was so strong that it was impossible to ignore.
And so the Flame-Chase Journey began once more.
In truth, the Black Tide had existed for many years already.
People had undertaken a previous Flame-Chase Journey in an attempt to save the world.
During that earlier journey, several Titan Coreflames had already been recovered.
They were:
Phagousa, the Ocean Titan.
Georios, the Earth Titan.
Talanthon, the Titan of Law.
Janus, the Titan of Passage.
Mnestia, the Titan of Romance.
Zagreus, the Titan of Deception.
The Titan Coreflames that had yet to be collected were:
Aquila, the Sky Titan.
Oronyx, the Titan of Time.
Cerces, the Titan of Reason.
Kephale, the Worldbearing Titan.
Nikador, the Titan of Strife.
Thanatos, the Titan of Death.
Kephale's Coreflame had actually been secured long ago.
It was being carefully preserved until all the other Titan Coreflames had been collected.
Once that happened, the final Coreflame would be offered and the ritual of Recreation could begin.
And now, with the Flame-Chase Journey beginning again, everyone's attention turned toward Nikador, the Titan of Strife.
Mydei, the new king of Castrum Kremnos, declared that he would lead the charge personally.
The Titan of Strife that his people had once worshiped had already lost itself after being consumed by the Black Tide.
Now it would be Mydei, the new king, who granted that god the ending a warrior deserved.
The group traveled to Castrum Kremnos.
The process was difficult and filled with complications.
Even Caelus, the Savior himself, struggled to hold his ground during the battle against Nikador.
In the end, with Mydei receiving aid from the remnants of Nikador's humanity, the group discovered the Titan's weakness.
Together, they defeated Nikador and successfully obtained the Coreflame of Strife.
The trial of the Coreflame was completed naturally as well.
The group had obtained another Titan Coreflame in remarkably little time.
Their outstanding performance greatly encouraged the people of Okhema.
Confidence in the Flame-Chase Journey rose sharply, and morale increased throughout the city.
During the battles they fought together, Caelus's performance as the legendary Savior also earned the admiration of his companions.
At first, when they heard that the Savior was merely a painter, many had been skeptical.
Could a painter whose hands were meant to hold brushes truly fight against Titans and bear the responsibilities of the Savior?
But during the battle against Nikador, Caelus displayed graceful, fluid, and extraordinarily powerful swordsmanship.
Everyone quickly understood that the Savior was not merely a painter.
He was also a warrior capable of confronting a Titan head-on.
His strength and courage in facing a Titan earned everyone's recognition and respect.
The name of the Savior spread rapidly, and his popularity soared.
Still, people could not understand why, whenever he had free time, the Savior would seek out all sorts of people and ask them strange questions before recording their answers and drawing their portraits.
He seemed to possess pure curiosity toward everything around him.
Whenever he saw something new, he wanted to record it or paint it.
People were astonished to discover traces of the Savior's presence throughout every corner of Okhema.
It was almost as though he intended to record the entire city.
Obtaining Oronyx's Coreflame also went smoothly.
As a priestess of Oronyx, Cyrene received the Titan's recognition.
After passing the trial, she successfully recovered the Coreflame.
After that, the group advanced with unstoppable momentum.
Even though the Titan of Death had concealed itself, they eventually managed to discover its traces.
Castorice, the Saintess of Death, crossed the River of Souls in search of the meaning of her existence.
She eventually found the Titan of Death and successfully recovered its Coreflame.
But she remained in that world forever.
In the Grove of Epiphany, the most controversial scholar of all, a man regarded by many as a heretic, Anaxagoras, better known as Anaxa, successfully gained an audience with Cerces, the Titan of Reason.
Through his own wisdom, he passed the Titan's trial and obtained its Coreflame.
The Sky Titan was confronted by Hyacine, descendant of the legendary Sunstorm Knight.
With her assistance, the group discovered a way to reach the city in the sky.
After battling the Sky Titan, they successfully retrieved its Coreflame as well.
With that, the great undertaking of Recreation was nearly complete.
Only the final Coreflame remained.
Once the Coreflame belonging to Kephale, the Worldbearing Titan, was offered, everything would end.
The Black Tide would disappear.
Humanity would finally welcome a better tomorrow.
A completely new tomorrow.
But naturally, reality would not be so simple.
Caelus stood within the Vortex of Genesis.
Kephale's Coreflame floated above his palm.
Cyrene stood close beside him.
Then a voice suddenly rang out.
It belonged to Lygus, the self-proclaimed observer of the divine ritual.
His arrival revealed a cruel truth.
Amphoreus was a false world.
However, something occurred that Lygus had not anticipated.
After revealing the truth, he looked at the two people before him.
Philia 093.
And...
Chaos 776?
The moment Lygus saw the designation representing that existence, he froze.
That identification code.
Was it correct?
(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.)