Night fell over the Sinking Void for the first time in a way that felt… gentle.
It was artificial but it was convincing enough to make the lie feel real. Above the meadows Luke had shaped, stars shimmered into existence. A full moon hung low. Its light spilled over the hills in silver waves, softening the scars that battle had carved into the land only hours ago.
The Sinking Void no longer felt like a grave. It felt like an afterlife.
Vastarael sat alone on a gentle slope overlooking the endless grasslands. His knees were drawn up slightly with his elbows resting against them. His Nanorunes had finally stabilized, forming a simple robe around his body. Sapphire threads faintly pulsed as they finished repairing the damage he had forced them to endure.
The battle was over and in its aftermath, truths had surfaced. Luke, now fully ascended, had become the Reniatsus of the Sinking Void.
A Landscape Turtle who had endured millennia of isolation, consuming void simply to survive, now elevated to a position that made him rule an afterlife. With the Divine Core gone and Diov erased beyond recovery, authority had passed cleanly without resistance. And Luke, true to his nature, had immediately tried to give most of it away.
Vastarael had watched it happen with a tired smile.
Miranda had raised Luke, protected him, fed him and talked to him when no one else could hear his voice. Losing him to ascension would have meant losing her farm, her purpose and her quiet life as a farmer. Vastarael didn't allowed that. Instead, Luke shared his authority.
Miranda became a Regent Reniatsus. She would be the public face. She would be the one who spoke for the realm while Luke remained its true foundation. To the souls and beings who passed through the Sinking Void, she would be the ruler they saw, the one they addressed and the one who listened. Luke would simply be.
Asenane, Shimmer, Reynolds, and Phaenora hadn't understood a word of the exchange.
To them, Luke's deep, reverberating groans were nothing more than the sounds of a massive creature settling into its place. Only Runner, Vastarael and Miranda could hear meaning in them. Now, the Sinking Void had structure.
As a Reniatsus, Luke possessed full authority over the realm's boundaries. Anyone he permitted could leave. Anyone he denied could not. The prison had become a gate. They could return to Spheraphase at any time, especially Vastarael.
With the Mystic Eye of Time now his, remaining here was no longer necessary. The Dynasty awaited him. Months—six months—had passed. Responsibilities had piled up and looming over everything was the one truth he could not ignore.
Five years were left until Mopheria would move and that we being generous. War would came crashing down on Spheraphase again but larger and more catastrophic than the Destras Cataclysm. Preparations had to begin now. Systems had to be reinforced. Alliances had to be secured. Weapons had to be forged. Enlightenments needed to be pushed further. Every rational part of him knew this and yet, he didn't move.
Vastarael leaned back slightly, letting the cool artificial moonlight wash over his face. His eyes were fixed on the sky Luke had made. His thoughts drifted back to amethyst eyes and pale skin..Greshina Emberforge... no, Edarea Avinaris. If he left now, access would become… complicated and dangerous. The Citadel did not open easily to those outside its intricate hierarchies and returning would require more than power. It would require permission.
If he left, he might never get answers. He would never know why fate seemed so determined to drag her back into his life wearing different names. He wasn't afraid of Edarea Avinaris. He was afraid of what he would learn if he stayed and of what he might lose if he didn't.
Asenane's hands came down over his eyes without warning. Her cold palms pressed lightly against his face. Her claws were carefully retracted so she wouldn't scratch him.
"Guess who?"
Vastarael didn't even flinch. He let out a tired huff of a laugh instead.
"I recognize that mature voice anywhere. You could whisper from across a collapsing realm and I'd still know it was you."
She clicked her tongue. "You really like calling me mature, don't you?"
"Back on Earth, mature women were rare. And to put it casually? You're a mommy figure."
"I have absolutely no idea what that means."
She removed her hands and sat beside him anyway. She was close enough that their shoulders brushed. Her wings folded neatly behind her. The fake moonlight reflected softly off the faint frost patterns still clinging to her scales. She didn't joke after that.
"You've been silent. What are you thinking about?"
"Greshina Emberforge," he said.
Asenane's head turned toward him instantly but she didn't interrupt. She knew better than that. He laughed under his breath, but there was no humor in it.
"I have so many questions. However, I'm terrified of the answers."
Asenane turned fully toward him now.
"Why?"
He hesitated before he said it.
"Because I'm afraid I'll fall for her."
For a moment, she looked genuinely lost.
"What?"
Vastarael didn't look at her.
"She was my past lover. Back on Earth, before everything ended, after everything she did, I still loved her."
Asenane's lips parted but no words came out.
"She left me, in that facility for sixty years. I endured sixty years of experiments, isolation, sensory deprivation and pain designed to break a human mind and rebuild it into something useful. And while I was rotting underground, she was out there, ruling the apocalypse."
His voice wasn't angry. That was the worst part.
"She dominated it. While I was chained to a metal slab and called by a subject name, she was untouchable.I thought I was over her. Turns out I wasn't."
Asenane finally spoke.
"Vastarael… I—"
"There's more."
She stopped.
"When I transmigrated," he went on, "some of my memories were missing. She erased parts of me before I died. Or as I died. I don't know how but I know she was the only one capable of it. She did it for a reason which means whatever happened between us and whatever made her leave me there was bad enough that she didn't want me remembering it."
He finally turned to her again. He pressed a hand against his chest.
"That's my dilemma. If I try to recover those memories, I might become the man I was back on Earth again. I'm scared I'll be back to the one who trusted too easily and let himself be used. I would turn back to someone who who loved her without question. And I don't know if that man can survive in Spheraphase."
He looked away.
"But if I don't recover them, I'll never know the truth. I'll never know what really happened to me. I'll never know whether I was betrayed or whether I deserved what happened. I'm afraid of remembering who I was and realizing I still am my past self."