"If the legends passed down to this day contain embellished or distorted elements," Hyacine's gaze was resolute, "then there must be a reason they had to be so. The sights here, and the memory fragments Cyrie previously restored, have given me a strange premonition. After Seliose challenged the god, what exactly did the Children of the Sky encounter? I want to understand the complete truth of what happened. That is true respect for the departed."
Lunabis glanced at the silent Solabis beside him, then looked ahead at Phaethon, who was precisely locating and about to open the next Infinity Gate. As if having made a decision, he answered on behalf of his companion:
"Seliose... she was born as a mixed-blood child of the Sunfolk and Rainfolk tribes, before the large-scale eruption of conflict between them. She should have been beloved by both clans, a symbol of unity in the sky... but, alas..." Lunabis's voice was filled with regret.
"The opposite was true. As the two peoples began to grow suspicious and their relations intensified due to Aquila's incomprehensible 'preferences', both of the tribes began to fear the other half of the blood flowing in Seliose's veins. They never truly saw her as one of their own. She grew up amidst rejection and isolation."
A flicker of shock passed through Hyacine's eyes.
Lunabis continued: "But by nature, she was optimistic and resilient, never abandoning her love for the sky and her people because of it, until she grew into a skilled, passionate young woman with mastery of martial arts. Until... an accident revealed that her body also flowed with a more forbidden, 'God-Slayer' Golden blood. This became the final straw that turned people's dislike of her into fear and hostility."
"What?!" Hyacine was utterly stunned. This was completely different from the history she knew. "The clan's epic says... the hero Seliose left the group to live alone to temper her will and hone her peerless martial skills... To think she was actually driven out of the clan because of her mixed heritage and Golden Descendant lineage?"
"The Golden Descendants of that era," Solabis took over, his voice low and somber, "because of those ominous prophecies about 'God-Slaying,' were only seen by all god-fearing people as incarnations of disaster and sin. They believed Golden Descendants would invite boundless calamity from the gods. Discrimination, expulsion, even persecution... that was the common fate of Golden Descendants in that age."
Solabis's soul halo turned toward Hyacine, as if he could see through time and space to that lonely, resilient figure: "After growing up, the hero Seliose witnessed with her own eyes how the Sunfolk, relying on so-called 'divine favor,' intensified their oppression of other tribes. She was utterly disappointed in the people of her birth. In the end, she made an earth-shattering decision—she would sever the source of all these tragedies! She would slay the blindly worshipped yet unjust god—Aquila!"
"But..." Solabis's voice took on a complex emotion, "at that time, though her words were impassioned by her experiences, her heart was still filled with compassion for mortals. Her initial goal was not destruction, but to... break that suffocating divine authority and bring true justice."
Cyrie was also deeply drawn into this tragic and true story. "Even after experiencing betrayal and expulsion, she was still willing to embark on a god-slaying journey for her people. Seliose, was her love for people also deep and unconditional? ♪"
The two beasts' spirits—Solabis and Lunabis—fell into silence for a moment. Only their soul halos rippled slightly, like silent sighs.
Just then, the spatial energy Phaethon was concentrating stabilized. A new Infinity Gate quietly formed before him, and an aura utterly different from this place emanated from the other side of the portal.
"Everyone... it's time we moved on," Phaethon's urging voice sounded. Beneath the calm surface, a trace of anxiety, difficult to fully conceal, surged like an undercurrent.
Phainon, who had kept part of his attention on Phaethon since earlier, keenly caught his brother's unusual state. This was definitely not just because of what he'd said before—that Mydeimos was fighting a bloody battle against the Black Tide on the ground, buying them time. That sense of urgency... What Phainon sensed from Phaethon was a deeper anxiety. That anxiety... it was like... it was like his own state before facing final exams in his worst subjects at The Grove. A kind of panic and helplessness, knowing full well he was utterly unprepared for this field, with no confidence, yet having to steel himself to face that inevitably difficult test.
Recalling again the truth about the cycle of Golden Descendants and Titan identities that Teacher Anaxa had previously argued and revealed... A profound anxiety for his own blood brother's future also rose in Phainon's heart.
"Everyone... let us proceed," Lunabis seemed to snap out of the silence, his voice breaking the stillness. "We will continue to tell the unsung story of Seliose along the way."
The group passed through the stable yet mysterious Infinity Gate once more.
The other side of the gate opened into a vast scene. Countless shattered domes and arched bridges floated in a sea of clouds. Many structures were half-collapsed, covered in eternal dampness and moss.
"This place... was once the main settlement of the Rainfolk," Lunabis's voice became extremely low, filled with emotion stirred by the scenery. "Here, Seliose witnessed with her own eyes the Titan Aquila's turning a blind eye to the injustice and persecution suffered by the Rainfolk. She also saw clearly the despicable nature of her own people. They only knew how to secretly blame the Titan for its bias and injustice, yet never dared to truly direct their fury at the absolute center of their faith, to launch any substantial resistance."
His voice took on an ineffable sorrow and anger: "They only knew how to turn jealousy and resentment into cold knives, skillfully plunging them into the backs ofbrethren deemed 'outsiders.' Yet they never mustered a shred of courage to pursue the true source of their hatred, to question the high and mighty gods."
"How naive she was... back then," Lunabis seemed to see that lonely, determined figure again. "So powerful, enough to shake a god, yet so naive, believing that simply severing the chains would set everyone free..."
Solabis's soul halo took over the narrative, his voice hoarse and heavy: "We, together with her, embarked on that difficult path of challenging the 「Sky」, clinging to unrealistic hopes."