Present Day: November 33rd, 3125.
After 193 days, Eleanor Lynn would awake in a bright hospital chamber alongside the King of Mystery, Cauron Thorn, and her comrade, Aaron Grimstall.
There had been no goodbyes between her and the other Angels, simply a sudden tug on her heart and a whirl of feeling.
It had happened during a conversation between her and Prudentia, their topic, ironically, being that of Eleanor's impending return.
There had been no telling when it would take place, yet, with only a single blink, the blonde-haired Angel of Justice had vanished, replaced with a similar but also different figure.
His face was far tanner than before, the weak baby fat that had clung to his cheeks erased by a tight, toned jawline that revealed his vast strength.
She could hardly think straight as she tried to speak.
"A-Aaron…"
Her voice was shaky, an unfamiliar warmth falling from her eyelids fast and hard, the sheer magnitude of what she felt in that moment outweighing anything else.
After staring upon a god and meeting a fate akin to death, she was back, truly back, alive once again and breathing the same air that she had taken for granted for years.
The emotions still amplified by the Emblem of Circe that had finally activated on her physical form ate away at her carefully prepared sternness.
Even if it were only for a moment in time, she wished to keep feeling what she felt forever, nothing better than the sight of the person before her.
Only after collecting herself to an extent that wouldn't bring her any further shame did she sit up in her hospital bed.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a man she could only suspect to be her doctor, a thin man with bright orange hair.
He exuded a presence akin to that of Marcus Twynam; however, she couldn't place why, a soothing aura from the man driving her attention back to Aaron.
Staring at the substances being pumped into her body, she thought quietly before addressing the one who had saved her from death.
"Y-you…"
She realized her voice didn't match the calm appearance that she thought she had, a startled response from the boy driving her into further embarrassment.
"Is there something wrong…?"
Aaron said it without any deeper meaning, but to the girl, she wanted to shout out, to yell everything that bubbled within her heart.
Day after day, she had begged the gods of Heaven that he was alive, that the third trial was just a mistake, a fluke meant to deceive her.
And now, as she watched him smile weakly at her, she only wished to say what had been on her mind ever since that day.
"Y-you need to go home…"
Noticing concern on his face, she tried to place a smile on her own.
"Home? Return to the Sea of Dreams?"
Once more, the man in the corner stirred awake, his eyes studying the blonde-haired priestess curiously as if she were an experiment.
She wanted to explain it all: the mission she had been given, the Angels and their teachings, Death and his knowledge, the Old Man's crimes, and the name that rang loudly in the back of her throat.
Yet, that was impossible as her mind began to drift off, the overwhelming amount of mana in her true core needing time to acclimate to the strange changes that had occurred over the months of slumber.
Nevertheless, she wouldn't fall without uttering one last thing, the place where it had all started for Aaron and the place where their goals now intersected.
"Strava."
…
『She oozes Divine Authority akin to that of an Angel…』
Penelope whispered the words through Aaron's skull as he watched her sleeping form breathe in and then out peacefully.
He couldn't respond to her directly as the Sea King remained present, and even with the knowledge of the Ghostship revealed, it was never a bad idea to have something up one's sleeve.
"Lord Thorn… I don't know how I can even repay you for this…"
Bowing his head to the relaxed man who was pale and sweaty from two weeks' work, he heard a chuckle grace his ears.
"Don't be daft. You helped bring my wife back from her half-dead state; granted me the right to study you, a Ghostship wielder like no other; returned the memories of my distant past, which, unlike your own, were restrained by the Knowledge Barrier; and finally, saved my life from the pits of Nautilus. There is nothing that you owe me; in fact, I likely will owe you for the remainder of eternity."
Aaron gazed upward in surprise, his turquoise eyes twinkling with relief.
"Please don't feel obliged…"
Even as he said it, he made a secret wish internally that he couldn't dare be caught saying aloud.
Thank you, Mr. Crab, for granting me the favor of a Sea King! I'll never forget this miracle!
Returning his gaze to the sleeping girl, the blond-haired child asked Cauron a question that had been bothering him.
"Have you heard anything about that rumor going around town?"
The orange-haired man furrowed his brow, grumbling out a response.
"The Trials of God aren't planned until next year for the inheritance of Cosmoti's Ghostship, so that so-called 'Miracle Man' who has been decupling the luck of these random civilians is likely nothing but a lingering effect of that monster in the skies."
Referencing the creature revealed during Masaru Kurogane's 'Heaven Defying Slash' as the locals had begun to call it, he continued aloud.
"If it is not that, then perhaps it is akin to a mystery. After all…"
He grinned.
"This is the Sea of Mystery."
Aaron groaned at the terrible half-joke that he could tell the Sea King was trying to make, inwardly lamenting his skills.
You could practically reverse death, but can't tell a joke? Lord Thorn… You might be inept at comedy…
Blissfully unaware of the hypocrisy in his words, he reclined backwards in his chair, feeling a tight pain in his chest.
Dammit…
Cauron noticed his shock of agony but said nothing, his knowledge of his condition through their close contact preventing him from intervening.
The mysterious egg that he had brought from within the Vault of Nautilus continued the work left by its predecessor, siphoning the lifeforce of the child to fuel its own growth.
Never before had the Sea King seen an Ancient Naelith in person; however, he knew of their habits to steal life for the unlikely day that they would reproduce.
But even within the Sea of Mystery, the single Apex-terror that had roamed its waters in ancient times had been slain long ago, and the occasional rogue that slipped through during Abyssal Convergence hadn't shown signs of fertilizing an egg.
Back when it was still restrained to Aaron's consciousness, there had been a way to separate the two beings and prevent the siphon, but now, with the egg directly tied to his soul, one would have to destroy the egg to cease the connection.
Cauron, rightfully so, was against such a possibility with the implications that a creature that could illuminate the heavens themselves and steal lifeforce on a global scale would become vastly more useful in a fight against one of the Ten Great Ones than any physical weapon.
Hold firm, Grimstall… There isn't much time left…
Turning his gaze downtrodden, he allowed his mind to work on other problems rather than what sat before him, because in the end, the future was easier to see than the present for the man burdened with such genius.
…
"You wish to travel to Strava…? But why?"
Aaron spoke to the recently roused Eleanor, who was extremely groggy and hardly in the mood for conversation.
Blinking twice, she groaned and relaxed while speaking a single word.
"Ruby."
The turquoise-eyed boy furrowed his brow at her reveal, the name familiar to him but also foreign.
"Ruby…"
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mr. Crab appear out of the darkness, acknowledging Eleanor's return but also listening intently to what she would say.
"Well…"
He thought for a moment before beginning his response, watching as the priestess followed his speech carefully.
"I was planning on heading southward towards the Sea of Polar Storms anyway, so stopping at Strava wouldn't be too far-fetched."
Eleanor perked up, a smile tugging at her expression.
"But."
Aaron spoke up again, freezing the sight of joy on the girl's face.
"I need to know what you want to do afterward. Right now you're still confused about what's happened in the world since your slumber, and I'll explain that in time, but soon you'll need to decide where you want to go."
He hadn't said it yet out of fear for the gray-eyed girl's reaction, but the destruction of Sea Fallen hadn't been global news before her death, so it was unlikely that she…
"I-I know about Sea Fallen…"
The blond-haired boy blinked once, then twice, then thrice, before finally rubbing the bridge of his nose hard.
"Of course you do…"