"Take that out, Est!"
At Elise's request, Est quickly nodded, then closed her eyes and reached deep within herself...
No matter the circumstances, Ren's heart was incredibly important. Elise would never place it anywhere that carried even the slightest risk of being destroyed.
The inventory of the Lord God Space was obviously a safe place, but there was one problem. Time and space there were completely frozen.
If Ren's heart were stored inside the inventory, it would have no way to absorb outside power and recover. That would only make the process take even longer.
In order to see Ren again as soon as possible, Elise had chosen a better method.
And that was to store it inside Est's body!
Est and Ren were both elementals from the world of Blade Dance of the Elementalers, and both possessed the power known as Divine Power. Under normal circumstances, Est only needed to supply Ren's heart with some Divine Power every day to accelerate its recovery.
If Est spent an entire day without doing much, she could even give all of the Divine Power she recovered that day to Ren.
That would make the Dark Elemental Lord Ren recover even faster!
That was why Est's presence had been so faint after they arrived in the DanMachi world. Who would have imagined that Est, who always kept her eyes half-closed and looked listless every day, had actually been carrying out such an important mission?
"And now, it's finally time to completely revive Ren!"
Sensing the changes occurring inside Est's body, Elise slowly smiled.
The condition of the heart was extremely stable!
It seemed Est really had put in a great deal of effort recently!
She had probably poured all of her strength into Ren, hadn't she?
"You really have become much more sensible, Est!"
Looking at the little white-haired girl before her, Elise slowly pulled her into an embrace. Her expression was full of tenderness, completely different from how she had acted when dealing with the gods on Mount Olympus.
But that was only natural. How could she possibly treat enemies and companions the same way?
Still...
Est held a special place in Elise's heart. In that regard, she was completely different from Metatron, who had only been born later.
Thump! Thump!
Not long afterward, a pitch-black sphere about the size of a luminous pearl slowly emerged from Est's chest. At that exact moment, the already-dark surroundings became even deeper and more profound!
If one calmed down and listened carefully at this moment, it was even possible to hear a faint heartbeat...
Thump! Thump!
Without a doubt, this was the heart of Ren Ashdoll that had been stored inside Est's body!
"It's completely different from before!"
"Are you getting excited too, Ren?"
Looking at the small sphere before her that seemed almost "overjoyed," Elise reached out and stroked it just as she had once stroked Ren's head.
Ren's heart had never been this large before. But one shouldn't forget that Est had been tirelessly feeding it Divine Power every single day!
Who would have expected it to grow so much?
Still, Elise had one question... Why had it happened so quickly?
Yes, this was far faster than Elise had imagined!
After all, Elise and Est had spent four or five years in the DanMachi world!
Even in that environment, Ren's recovery had still been painfully slow. Elise had originally thought they would need to pass through several more worlds before Ren had any hope of recovering. She hadn't expected it to become possible already in the world of High School DxD.
"Did something happen, Est?"
Since her big sister had asked, Est naturally wouldn't hide anything and explained everything from beginning to end.
"So that's what happened. It was because of Infinity!"
Why had Elise brought Ophis along? Originally, she had simply thought it was because the two little girls had become close, but now it seemed that wasn't the whole story.
Ophis could grant power to others. In the original High School DxD story, most members of the Khaos Brigade possessed power bestowed upon them by Ophis.
But it wasn't merely a gift of power. It could also be regarded as a kind of contract!
That contract connected Ophis and Est together!
That was why Est could draw upon Ophis' infinite power!
Elise could actually give Est power through a contract as well, and she had indeed done so before. However, the results had never been particularly good, so she could only do it once every so often...
She truly hadn't expected this!
While she hadn't been paying attention, such a pleasant "surprise" had actually happened?
"Thank you so much, Ophis!"
No matter what, Elise needed to properly thank Ophis. If Ophis hadn't contributed her power, Ren definitely wouldn't have recovered this quickly!
"You don't need to thank me. Aren't we companions?"
Ophis responded to Elise's gratitude in the same calm manner as usual, though there seemed to be something new in her eyes...
"Since we're companions, we should help each other."
"Besides, you promised me you'd help me deal with the red one. Don't forget."
After hearing Ophis' words, Elise was a little surprised. Even the girl's tone of voice had changed. Just what had she been doing with Est all this time?
"But I can figure that out later!"
"The most important thing right now is reviving Ren!"
After a flash of white light, a sack suddenly appeared in Elise's hand.
It looked no different from an ordinary sack. There was nothing special about the bag itself. What was special was what it contained.
Multicolored light continuously poured out from inside, so bright that the sack couldn't conceal it at all!
"What is that?"
The instant the sack appeared, Est's eyes widened because she sensed a familiar aura from within!
It was a type of energy unique to the world of Blade Dance of the Elementalers. Its name was...
Divine Power!
"Did you collect those back then?"
"That's right! These are the spirit crystals I picked off the walls back in the Demon King's Tomb!"
Back then, Elise had noticed that the spirit crystals had no owner, so she simply took every last one of them for herself! Originally, she had planned to sell them later for a considerable sum, but after remembering that they were unique minerals from the world of Blade Dance of the Elementalers, she abandoned that idea.
If she took them to another world and sold them, wouldn't they be worth even more?
But what Elise hadn't expected was that she would soon encounter one enormous crisis after another. The Sacred Queen and the Dark Elemental Lord appeared in succession, and she also had to assassinate the remaining Elemental Lords.
After that, she never found the time to deal with this batch of spirit crystals, so they had remained in storage all this time without even a single one being used.
"And now, it's finally time to use them!"
Spirit crystals would be top-tier treasures in any world. If auctioned, they could probably fetch an enormous fortune.
But what use was money?
No amount of wealth could restore a lost life!
And now, Elise had the opportunity to exchange all of that wealth for someone precious who had once disappeared. Why wouldn't she do it?
Ren Ashdoll's importance was far beyond anything these crystals could compare to!
"Then next comes the moment when we witness a miracle!"
And also the moment to make a reference...
"Revive, my elemental!"
...
This was a realm of endless darkness, so black that one couldn't even see their own fingers.
And here, there seemed to be no sense of time or space, nor any trace of life...
If not for that girl.
Yes. Floating within this bizarre space was actually a girl whose entire body shimmered with light.
Aside from pitch-black darkness, there was no other color anywhere around her. Yet the girl seemed to glow with a color of her own.
"So comfortable..."
The girl murmured softly to herself, but there was no one around who could hear her.
There was no other life in this place besides the girl herself! She could only drift forever through this darkness.
Until...
The entire space suddenly began to tremble!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The vibrations were like heartbeats. Every so often, another one would sound, and each time it did, a crack appeared within the surrounding darkness.
As the so-called heartbeat grew more frequent and louder, the cracks around her became increasingly terrifying!
Even the profound darkness itself could no longer remain intact!
Because of the abnormal changes around her, the expression on the girl's face vanished completely, and even her adorable brows drew together.
Thump! Thump! Thump...
But the strange sound did not disappear because of that. Instead, it only grew more intense.
Eventually, the black-haired girl could no longer endure the unnatural sound. Her tightly shut eyes slowly opened.
What kind of eyes were they? Completely different from those of an ordinary person, they shone with a dazzling golden color!
Not even the brightest gold could possibly compare to the brilliance of those eyes.
"What happened?"
A crisp voice like the song of a lark emerged from the girl's tiny mouth, adding even more charm to her. Unfortunately, there was no one here to hear such an enchanting voice.
Yet the instant the girl opened her eyes, a sharp pain shot straight into her brain, as though something were trying to churn her mind into pieces. The pain made her clutch her head and cry out.
"Who...am I?"
"Where is this?"
The girl, who had only just awakened, couldn't understand her current situation at all. Why was she in such a strange place?
This was so weird!
Her mind clearly contained many things, yet they were all scattered fragments that couldn't be connected together at all.
Because of that, the girl couldn't even remember her own name.
"Could this condition I'm in be what's called amnesia?"
"But why would I have amnesia?"
The girl wanted to continue thinking about the reason, but whenever she reached that point, the same familiar and violent pain struck her head again, forcing her to give up.
"If I can't remember those important things, maybe I can think about something else?"
At that exact moment, a golden figure appeared within her mind.
Who was that?
When the figure surfaced in her memories, she didn't even react immediately.
She was certain it wasn't herself because her own hair was pure black without the slightest impurity.
But the figure in her mind possessed completely different hair, dazzling and radiant like the sun itself, something no ordinary object could ever compare to.
Not only that, the person in her memories possessed an incomparably beautiful face. Even she herself couldn't help but admire it... Was I close to her?
For some reason, whenever she remembered that beautiful figure, both her mind and body became restless...
Why do I feel like this? Is this person very important to me?
The emotions rising within her heart were like a creature's instincts, constantly battering against the girl's soul.
"Yes, she definitely is!"
"She must be someone incredibly important to me!"
"But...where is she now?"
A wave of anxiety suddenly surged into her heart, rapidly becoming more intense!
At that moment, the girl understood that she had to find that golden figure as quickly as possible! Only then could she unravel the mysteries surrounding herself!
The surrounding space began trembling once again, but this time it was different from before.
Threadlike rays of light began emerging from the cracks. Some resembled blazing flames, others gentle breezes. They possessed all kinds of colors, yet ultimately they all shared the same destination.
They wrapped themselves around the girl before eventually becoming part of her body...
"This is... Divine Power?"
She could clearly name this type of energy, yet somehow she had lost the memories connected to herself...
But that was all right. Very soon, someone would help her remember.
Ren!
Calls echoed through the cracks, instantly causing the girl's eyes to light up!
"Ren... Are they calling me?"
"Is my name Ren?"
It felt a little strange, but if they were calling her, then that was probably her name, right?
The next moment, a smile appeared on Ren's face. She turned and stared at the cracks appearing within the darkness, along with the multicolored light flowing out from them and winding around her body.
The dark figure rushed straight toward the cracks.
"Wait for me. I'm coming to find you right now!"
...
Back in the Netherworld.
"This should be enough, right?"
In order to revive the deceased Dark Elemental Lord, Elise had needed to do far more than just a little.
There was the infinite power provided by Ophis, the highly purified Power of Faith supplied by Elise, the enormous amount of Divine Power contained within the spirit crystals, and Est's own guidance.
At last, the pitch-black sphere began to change. It continuously expanded, quickly becoming larger than a human body, and now it was almost as large as a small boat.
"The energy has already reached saturation. There's no need for any more. We only need to wait for the process to finish, and Ren will revive!"
Est looked at the enormous sphere before her, which resembled a giant century egg, and anticipation gradually appeared in her eyes.
Although she and Ren had experienced a few minor conflicts in the past, at most those could only be considered jealousy. Est herself had never truly held any deep grudge against Ren.
Besides, Est had spent all these years carrying Ren's heart with her and supplying it with energy at every moment. Perhaps she had already developed feelings for Ren long ago and had been looking forward to her return.
Once the final step was completed, Elise and the others only needed to watch the result.
Under the expectant gazes of the three, countless pitch-black cracks began appearing across the surface of the enormous "century egg."
The Divine Power stored within the spirit crystals seized this opportunity to slowly flow through those cracks and into the sphere.
The instant the critical point was reached, the enormous black sphere finally arrived at its ultimate conclusion...
Like an eggshell struck from the outside, it shattered completely!
A pitch-black figure burst out from within and rushed straight toward Elise...
The smile on Elise's face gradually widened. Her efforts had finally paid off. After putting in so much work, she had finally achieved a result!
However, Ren's very next words made Elise's expression completely freeze...
"Mom!"
A newly hatched chick would regard the first person it saw as its mother, and the current situation couldn't be said to be merely similar. It was practically identical.