"Today's the day, eh?"
Marcus laughed as he took a swig of his beer, a smile pulling at the corners of his lips.
"I didn't expect it to be this soon…"
Across from him, now without the company of the Angel of Humility, Eleanor Lynn held a cup of pumpkin juice that sloshed while she spoke.
Her normally flowing blonde hair was tied neatly into a bun at the back of her head, while her gray eyes were focused on a particularly dirty spot of the bar table.
After getting Ariel's lukewarm agreement to assist her with the graveyard investigation tomorrow, she had decided to spend the remainder of the day speaking with her allies in Infinium.
"Have you heard from Norman yet? I told him to come, but he's probably cooped up reading still."
The brown-haired former chairman of the Oceanic Association chuckled as he noticed a blurry figure pushing his way through the crowd.
Following his gaze, Eleanor also saw the approaching Sea King, his purple hair and ragged clothing a clear giveaway.
"Tsk. Late as always."
Letting out a snide remark and taking another sip of his drink, Marcus shook his head in disapproval.
"You're as crude as ever, old man. You were already dead before my time, so you wouldn't understand the upsides of impeccable time management!"
Echoing the sentiment of the chairman, Norman Reed sneered and took a seat beside the geezer who merely appeared to be in his twenties.
Quickly placing an order for a set of sea terror kebabs, he let a scowl overtake his face.
"That damn Belvedere wouldn't let me through without talking my ears off…"
Groaning as he remembered the former King of Wishes and his insistent urge to strike up a conversation with all the other deceased Kings, he shuddered.
Turning his gaze onto the girl who had invited him, he exhaled hard.
"You know Cedar, right? Let's see… He's the grandfather of that current King of Wishes, whatever his name was…"
Marcus interjected as he dropped his beer cup onto the table with a loud thud.
"Oakly Belvedere is what they call the current one. The Light of the East, they say… Personally, I just think of him as Kauri's descendant, just like his father."
For the first time since meeting up, both he and Reed nodded together, united in the way they saw the Belvedere family as a whole.
Generation after generation of the same bloodline, inheriting the same Ghostship, forced them into isolation among the Council of Kings.
With the sole exception of Aspen Belvedere, the current King's father, who had never obtained the Mark of the Sun and only temporarily hosted the Ghostship of Light until his son, Oakly, was old enough, there had never been a King of the Sea of Wishes who was particularly liked.
Whether it be the family itself or their horrifically ignorant opinions when it came to money, this noble bloodline, often considered the greatest of them all, typically only brought displeasure to the other Kings.
"Are they really that bad? I had only heard stories of the Mad King's death and little about his son or grandson. Apparently, he gravely wounded even the great Cauron Thorn!"
Marcus's expression darkened at the name of his dearest friend, who still walked the paths of the living, his eternal contract binding him until someone finally snuffed his life out.
"Eh, if you exclude their idiotic beliefs about money, they ain't the worst of the Kings…"
Norman rolled his eyes while thinking of the worst of their ranks, Smith Trensten, a man so vile that even one of the Goddesses of Luck had banished him to Hell, disregarding the long-standing tradition of guaranteed entry into Infinium for all Sea Kings.
After Reed's brief comment, the trio changed the topic several times—whether it was their daily lives or how Eleanor's anti-corruption plan had been going, they discussed it all.
Only after an hour had passed did Twynam pose the question that the girl had been waiting for.
"Have you been going to the gym lately?"
He gestured towards her somewhat muscular arms that bulged ever so slightly, their size still small compared to his own, but impressive for her age and build.
The former King of Dreams raised his brow as if noticing them for the first time, once again, their appearance not quite enough to impress a man whose figure was more akin to a bronze statue than a human being.
The blonde-haired girl had already prepared for such questions; the time it took them to ask surprised her more than the contents of the query.
Taking a deep breath, she spoke aloud to her two latest friends.
"I came into contact with the man who placed this corruption into my chest, and he seems to have dissolved it into my entire form, making it harder to remove. Though it does make me look like I've been taking care of myself rather well, which I do thoroughly appreciate."
On the second retelling of her story, she had loosened up considerably, even daring to crack a few jokes throughout.
Making sure to exclude details not suited to non-Angels, she left out some points, such as the Insignia or the intrusion of the deities, while playing up the seals and the cores, which she was curious about.
Mr. Reed might know something about how to stabilize the Core of Dreams, and Mr. Twynam might know the location of the Core of Wishes. If these are really seals on that monster, then when I return, I need to secure them from whoever holds the Insignia that can destroy them!
Cementing the future plan in her mind, she watched as both men exchanged uncertain looks, the contents of her explanation clearly more complicated than a simple day at the gym.
Reed, the Hunter of Apexs, began to speak first, his expression wary.
…Isn't the Knowledge Barrier too vast to allow such information to slip through? I know of no human that could possibly transmit so much information through it and survive. Furthermore, it seems that you took extreme amounts of backlash; therefore, he should've as well."
The girl met his troubled gaze with her own puzzled one, wondering why they seemed so baffled by the fact that she had obtained such knowledge, even despite the existence of the barrier.
"I-I think…"
She paused, deciding to word her next sentence carefully.
"I think he might not be from the Dimension of Waves."
Twynam's brow furrowed at this, his mouth moving faster than his thoughts.
"How could that be possible? The Gates of Heaven around the Devil's Triangle are far too powerful for anything stronger than a soul to pass through. You truly think that a human man could bypass such a thing? If he's human, he mustn't be stronger than a Sea King, but in that case, it wouldn't be possible for him to survive such knowledge…"
The thoughts clouded his head, forming a headache—even the mere notion that a being more powerful than a Sea King that wasn't from the Dimension of Waves sounded ridiculous to him.
In a world where the direct disciples of deities were provided with tools of absolute authority, it was hard to picture one where another human could match, if not surpass them without a vessel of their own.
Yet, as he began to speculate further, the anomalies that he had encountered during his life stuck out like a sore thumb.
As he prepared to speak up, Reed beat him to it, seemingly stealing Marcus's theory.
"Could it be… No… He's gone…"
To a Sea King, there was no mortal that they feared, whether it be the strongest of the Hunters' Guild's Marshals or the humanoid monsters that lurked in the void; nothing would stir their nightmares.
That was, of course, with the exception of the man who defied fate itself, the sole person to survive an expedition into the Abyss and the one claiming the title of the First Sea King.
Unlike those of the ancient age who had also been called Kings of the Sea, the First King was the only man who could truly be considered a King.
An irregularity in a world full of weaklings, a force so powerful that his history was clouded in inky myths so great that one could wonder who could've devised them.
The remaining entries from his diary famously spoke of battles against Apex terrors which could obliterate cities with a flap of their tail, or incarnated demigods who towered higher than the sky—whether this or that, he encountered it all and remained alive.
"I don't think so…"
Eleanor broke the tension with her words, consumed by the guilt of knowing the truth yet allowing fear to fester in the two hearts before her.
I could just tell them that he has slain deities… Though… Would they believe me? Would I believe me?
Sighing hard, she focused her gaze on Marcus Twynam, who looked as if he had something to say.
"If the Gates of Heaven are truly so great and powerful to prevent the advent of the gods themselves, then how… How did the Ghostships arrive?"
It was clearly something he had been thinking about for years, the question forever lingering on his mind from the very day he learned of the Gates' existence.
Reed shook his head.
"My vessel, Hypnian, never showed any signs of being from a foreign world. Anything that mysteriously appeared on its deck was clearly native to our world. The only exception would be the Altar of the Nightmare that resides in the cabin. My Lord personally sculpted it in the World of Dreams to allow the vessel eternal access to not only the World Between, but also his divine kingdom."
Marcus nodded at his comrade's words despite his question remaining unanswered— after all, he had never expected it to be.
"Well, disregarding that man who might be a foreigner. Do you have any insights on the locations of the cores themselves? Furthermore, do you have any knowledge of their abilities?"
There was a brief moment of silence as Norman collected his thoughts.
"The Core of Dreams is located in one of the Ten Mausoleums that reside beneath Sea Fallen. Typically, the Church of Dreams has held it under its watch; however, in ancient times, the Ordinance Sect and Church of Depths each took turns with it."
Eleanor remembered the mystical sphere that had driven her to the brink of madness and her miniature mind-world located within the World of Dreams, which forced her to relive the trauma of her past.
She shivered as the images flashed before her once more; however, this time, she did not allow her emotions to overwhelm her, accepting them as the past, not the present or the future.
"I found a Dormyrr King lying dormant within the core during my reign, but I did nothing to stop it as I feared it might trigger a meltdown. Now, from what you've told me, I can assume that if I had done so there would've been a disaster that killed thousands…"
There was no mistaking the disaster on Sea Fallen for anything other than a meltdown of the Core of Dreams, a fact that Reed had pieced together without her help.
Marcus, on the other hand, who had never seen anything similar to the Core of Dreams, spoke on his own, a sad expression on his face.
"I've never encountered such an object, and at least before my death, Cauron hadn't either. We tried, however; nearly every location in the Sea of Mystery had been scouted by both of us. When we had narrowed it down to the undersea caverns, multiple losses occurred in Thorn's life, preventing us from continuing."
Eleanor somewhat understood the struggle of the great immortal's life—everyone around him was destined to die while he retained his youth eternally.
If he weren't immortal, would he be here too? Sipping on a beer with Marcus and enjoying the tavern?
Having continued speaking for a little longer after closing the conversation regarding cores and the Old Man, they parted ways, the young girl's meeting with a god soon approaching.
There was no preparation she could do, only commit to the truth and focus on what mattered most.
She had received directions from Ariel; however, there was intentionally no guide left to help her, something that she found increasingly odd.
The trail first led her through the hallway where the Angels resided, the familiar statue of Maria Elaris staring down at her.
Yet, even with the doors to the chamber where the deity resided standing proud, the path was not so easy.
Walking back through corridor after corridor, she arrived at a ballroom where hundreds of men and women danced together in unison.
The parchment told her to stand still and look towards the sky for ten seconds to get her next direction, but such a command seemed strange to the girl.
How could a ballroom ceiling have any directions?
Doing as she was told, despite her doubts, she watched as the golden chandelier suddenly flashed with a deep black hue, a small shape emerging from its midst.
What the—
Soaring downward, the owl perched itself on her shoulder, cooing loudly as if asking the girl to rub its head.
Exhaling hard from the sudden shock that the bird had given her, she patted it in confusion, wondering how or why that little guy appeared there.
"Are you the guide that I wasn't given?"
Chuckling at her own sarcasm, she didn't quite realize the truth, the yellow-eyed animal cooing louder.
Then, without warning, it pecked at the paper within the girl's hand, a bright light shooting forth, revealing a map on its surface.
"Eh?"
Looking between the newly formed map and the bird on her shoulder, she laughed aloud, the absurdity of it all not clicking well.
Not one to pass up on opportunities, she immediately followed the directions outlined on the paper, avoiding the narrow halls, towering staircases, and endless stretches of pitch-black rooms.
The walk felt like it took hours; the nature of the magical castle was truly something divine compared to anything she had seen before.
On her shoulder, the odd owl stayed silent the entire time, only occasionally pecking at her if she made a wrong turn.
He seems to be some sort of guiding spirit of Death… That would explain his unusual love for me…
Reaching a large glass door that was clouded to prevent onlookers from peeking inside, she felt something stirring behind it.
Beneath her skin, an electric current buzzed, her head rushing with blood and her heart pounding out of her chest.
This is it.
A devout believer in the God of Depths stood with only a single layer of glass between her and a deity that knew her lord on a personal level.
If she asked, it would be possible to confirm his present state, discovering untold mysteries of the universe itself that not even other gods knew.
For that was who Death was.
Older than the deities in Heaven, a figure so powerful, so divine, and so mystical that there was possibly not even a single being who could defy his will.
In the end, there was only one truth that could not be denied, regardless of everything else in existence.
The inevitability of death.