The five people's spirit bodies appeared before the bronze table amid crimson light, each of them bewildered and tense.
"Don't be nervous."
A "double"—forged through Transfiguration and [False Reality]—sat in a chair to the left and smiled. "This is the Lord I believe in, the great Being who extended a hand to help you."
"I'll be taking my leave."
With that, his figure vanished.
The five instinctively looked at Edward's true body, then lowered their heads in unison. Even Frunziar Edward understood the principle that one must not gaze directly upon a deity.
Although the giants, the elf, and the ascetic each had their own faith—Siatas even went so far as to bluntly label any god other than the Elven King a "false god"—when they were truly faced with a "deity," especially one who had just saved them, not a single one of them dared show the slightest disrespect.
"Thank You, great Being."
Edward said mildly, "No need to thank Me. My intention wasn't to help you. At most, I went along with things for Pallez's sake."
Silence fell. All eyes turned to Mobet.
Mobet scratched his head and feigned ignorance. "Ah…Thank You."
At that moment Edward raised a hand, condensing a "screen" out of the depths of the grey fog. On it played the scene of their physical bodies lying on the Sea of Ruins.
Their forms were rapidly withering, aging, and decaying, collapsing to the ground one after another:
Mobet's flaxen hair turned white at alarming speed, and obvious wrinkles surfaced on his once-smooth face.
Siatas's hair withered and fell out in clumps; in the blink of an eye she became an emaciated old woman.
Frunziar changed fastest and most dramatically. As he aged, the flesh on his body began to rot away, leaving only stark white bones.
Groselle and Snowman likewise rotted swiftly, their flesh vaporising until only skeletons and precipitated Beyonder characteristics remained.
The five members of Groselle's team had never feared death, yet watching themselves die like this still sent a chill rising from the depths of their hearts.
Had this great Being not brought their spirit bodies into this mysterious place, their spirits would surely have dissipated entirely along with the decay of their flesh.
Edward waved the screen away, looked down at the five, and fell into thought.
"How should I deal with them next?"
First off, he definitely couldn't just toss them somewhere and let them do as they pleased. After all, some of them were from the Third Epoch, some from the Fourth…and Frunziar was even from thirty years in the future.
But he couldn't very well spend his days carting around five evil spirits either.
Propping his chin with one hand, he idly flipped a gold coin with his fingers. Suddenly, a thought stirred in his heart. His gaze shifted to the star deep within the grey fog that represented Pallez.
He lifted his hand and infused it with Spirituality, dragging Him straight into the Sefirah Castle.
Clearly, Old Man Pallez had been caught off guard by the sudden summons. Before He could react, an excited voice rang out by His ear: "Old man!"
He turned at once. A face both familiar and distant—one from long ago—entered his vision. Even His heart couldn't help but ripple. "Mobet…You really are still alive."
Pallez then turned to Edward and bowed his head. "Thank you, Mr. Chairman."
He had thought the "Chairman" meant to "use" his great-grandson again and again to make Him do things. He hadn't expected the man to quietly bring Mobet back without a word.
"There's no need to look at Me like that," Edward replied with a faint smile. "I merely played a game with Adam and Amon, and brought him out along the way."
Before Adam, Edward behaved timidly; before Pallez, he of course had to "strike hard."
After all, in the original story Klein had been toyed with by Amon and could still nonchalantly call it "playing a game with Amon." I only got manoeuvred around a bit—naturally I can also call it a game.
Sure enough, Pallez harboured no suspicion. He merely hesitated and asked, "You…played a game with Adam?"
Edward smiled faintly. "Heh. You remember where your great-grandson used to be, don't you?"
"…I remember. In a book left behind by the Dragon King Ankewelt."
Edward nodded. "That book contained Ankewelt's contingency for resurrection. My recent cooperation with Adam was precisely to eliminate Ankewelt once and for all."
The five members of the adventurer team instantly widened their eyes.
What?!
We just sat in a cave for a few hours—and that happened?
"..."
Pallez fell silent. Even knowing that a Dragon King stripped of his Beyonder characteristics was no longer a true deity, He had still once been one. Any backup left behind by such an existence could not possibly be simple—and yet it was gone, just like that?
"All that is in the past now," Edward continued. "I summoned you here to entrust these five to your care. Mobet is your great-grandson; the other four are his friends—or lovers."
Siatas instinctively opened her mouth to protest: Who's Mobet's lover?!
But before she could speak, Mobet's hand closed around hers. Though in their spiritual state there was no warmth in the touch, she could still sense the emotion surging in his heart.
This bastard…!
Edward went on calmly, "Three of the four come from the Third Epoch, and one—from thirty years in the future."
Pallez could understand those from the Third Epoch, but thirty years in the future? What kind of nonsense was that?
Edward turned to Frunziar. "It's the year 1160 now."
"!!!"
Frunziar froze. He didn't remember exactly how long he had spent inside the book's world, but he clearly remembered entering it in 1190.
He was utterly dazed. How could he have spent so many years inside the book, only to emerge earlier than when he'd entered?
The good news: his family—including his younger self—were still living safely in Backlund.
The bad news: to them, he was now a complete stranger…and his wife and children had not even been born yet.
The other four looked on in shock—and envy. "Earlier" was obviously far better than "later."
Earlier meant there was still a chance to change certain things, to see people they longed to meet once more. Later would mean returning to a world that no longer knew them.
After a long pause, Pallez said quietly, "I understand."
Edward nodded. "Good. Once you leave, pray to Me and open the gate to My divine kingdom."
With that, he waved his hand, severing the connection to Pallez and dismissing him from the Sefirah Castle. Turning back to the five, he said evenly, "Follow Pallez's arrangements."
The five bowed their heads together. "As You command."
A few minutes later, accompanied by Pallez's deep, resonant prayer, a hazy, ethereal door slowly emerged from the depths of the grey fog. Layers of Spiritual power rippled outward in waves, stirring the surrounding grey-white mist.
Under that spiritual vibration, the five spirits felt as though they were standing naked in a freezing gale—on the verge of being torn apart at any moment.
Edward extended his own Spirituality, blending it into the trembling and resonance of that illusory door.
Clang!
With a sound that seemed unreal, the hazy door slowly opened.
Edward flicked his hand, sweeping up their spirit bodies and casting them through the ephemeral gateway. The instant their figures vanished, he cut off the Spiritual connection and closed the door.
He immediately reached out again to sense the five crimson stars representing them, observing their states after leaving the Castle. He discovered that the five had indeed transformed into evil spirits—and not mindless ones, but intelligent, rational evil spirits.
Was it because of the Sefirah Castle?
Or…
Edward suddenly recalled something. According to the original story, every being who died would become a wandering soul along the River of Eternal Darkness—even the miracles of a Miracle Invoker or an Undying could not escape that.
But now…the River of Eternal Darkness was nearly dried up. Could that be the reason?
Moments later, he sensed a faint, elusive revelation—The advancement ritual for Sequence 3…
Was complete.
A deep breath left his chest. "Finally done."
As expected, making a story walk into reality wasn't simply about stepping into it—it was about anchoring it in reality. If he hadn't brought them into the Sefirah Castle and preserved them as evil spirits, the ritual might have failed.
"Whew…Now all that's left is the Wanderer's Beyonder characteristic—and a few auxiliary materials."
But it had already been a whole day since he entered Groselle's Travels. He had no idea what was happening in Trier now.
'Intis' wouldn't go back on the deal just because I took away the brass staff…right?
Clap, clap, clap!
Suddenly, crisp applause echoed through the empty Sefirah Castle.
At some point, another figure had appeared within it—
He wore a long, black, old-fashioned robe and a matching pointed hat.
Black curly hair, black eyes, a broad forehead, a thin face—and a crystal monocle over His right eye.
Amon.
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.