"Wake up. What's so fun about killing yourself? Look at the state you've gotten yourself into."
Melina opened her eyes.
Everything around her was pitch-black. A robe had been draped over her body, and the pain from her burns had completely subsided. The horrific scars and the wound in her chest had both healed.
She didn't even need to turn her head to know that Skyl had arrived. Every time he showed up, he somehow managed to save people from their suffering, acting even more merciful than Jesus himself.
"You saved me again." There was an unconscious note of delight in her voice, accompanied by a faint trace of resentment.
"No, you haven't been resurrected yet. I've been waiting here for you."
"Where are we?"
Melina looked around. As the darkness receded, she discovered that the plains were covered in white asphodel flowers, while the sky overhead was crimson.
It looked exactly like the underworld described in ancient legends.
"This is the place before time began and after history ends. This is my mental world, the inside of my mind."
Skyl was sitting beside Melina.
When she turned to look at him, she was startled to discover that his face was extraordinarily strange. He appeared as young as a child and as ancient as a skeleton at the same time.
Every appearance he could have possessed throughout his entire life was imprinted upon that single face. From the moment of his birth to his death in old age, all those different versions of him existed simultaneously.
Melina shuddered.
Gods possessed an inherent quality of being beyond mortal comprehension, and the most incomprehensible thing about them was their true nature.
Mortals could neither withstand nor willingly acknowledge such truths. Some would even descend into madness after being exposed to too much of them.
"If this is your mind, then who am I? What am I?" Melina asked softly. "Am I just an illusion you've imagined?"
"You are yourself. The 'real' you. There are plenty of other people inside my mind besides you. Would you like to meet them?"
Skyl waved his hand.
One figure after another materialized from nothingness.
Millicent, Ranni, Snape, Harry Potter, Tony Stark, Brelyna, J'zargo...
Apart from actual gods, Skyl's mind contained everyone. It held the combined souls of an entire Marvel universe, along with thousands of additional individuals from several other universes.
Every single one of them was alive.
The first thing they asked upon appearing was where they were. Neither their consciousness nor their individual abilities had suffered the slightest loss.
Skyl waved his hand again, and they all dispersed.
"This is what I am," he explained. "You've seen it for yourself. I'm a collective, an echo of a historical subject. I preserve the time and destiny of every one of you within myself, but none of you are me. You cannot influence me, interfere with me, or control my decisions.
"To become a god, one must maintain a stable sense of self. I use all of you to remember who I am, and in turn, I look back through history to remember all of you. In this way, my existence is established through circular reasoning, making my sense of self unbreakable."
Melina felt a growing sense of dread.
She didn't want to hear any more truths about the nature of gods.
Besides, to be perfectly honest, she didn't particularly care about these secrets of ascension that so many people desperately sought.
"Has the Frenzied Flame been destroyed?"
She was afraid that she might still be trapped in an illusion. Asking Skyl to confirm what had happened was the only thing that could offer her any comfort.
Skyl praised her gently.
"You did very well, Melina. You transformed your finite life into something infinitely great. The people of the Lands Between may never know about your sacrifice, but they will be able to continue living because of what you've done."
"That's good. That's good..."
Melina didn't know what else to say.
Her mind was a complete mess. The vicious psychological attacks the Frenzied Flame had subjected her to were still haunting her.
Those cruel, cutting words had exposed emotions buried deep within her heart, feelings she had never wanted to confront.
"Melina, you've accomplished every great deed a mortal could possibly achieve. From this day forward, you should hold your head high and live for yourself.
"Be a little selfish. There's nothing wrong with that. An excessively noble sense of responsibility can make your life terribly shallow. Have you ever lived even a single day for yourself? If you don't even know what you want, then what exactly does your sacrifice represent? Is it the sacrifice of a person, or merely the self-destruction of an object?"
Melina clutched her robe and wrapped her arms tightly around her thin body.
"Stop talking!" she cried wearily.
"All of you just keep talking and talking! I'm told to sacrifice myself and set the Erdtree ablaze. I'm told I should experience a complete life. I'm expected to stand by and watch you fall in love with someone else. And now you're telling me to be selfish!
"What exactly am I in your eyes? A puppet? A block of wood? Some kind of object?
"Why can't I be doing this of my own free will? Why does everything have to be something someone else arranged for me? Before you came to this world, who else in the Lands Between could have set the Erdtree ablaze? Who else could have destroyed the Frenzied Flame? Apart from me, who possessed both the ability and the determination to do these things? Nobody! There was nobody but me!
"You don't love the lives of the people in the Lands Between, but I do! You live in your divine kingdom high above the clouds, occasionally descending to the mortal world to help with some disaster whenever the mood strikes you. But I stand here on the ground, trying to rebuild this devastated homeland with my own hands. I would rather rely on myself than beg you for help! I accomplished my mission without you!
"It's not that I lack self-awareness. I know perfectly well what I should be doing. But do you, Skyl?
"And now you get to swoop down from your lofty position and save me yet again. You're going to talk about giving me a complete life, dismiss everything I've worked for, ridicule my sacrifice, and pity my miserable existence as a mere tool.
"But I don't need your pity! Whether you're here or not, what I've chosen to do will never change!"
Skyl broke into a broad grin.
"Good. That's exactly the kind of anger you need. It proves that your heart is alive."
"...Aren't you angry? I said some pretty awful things."
"Angry with you? How could I be? You're absolutely right. I've always been an arrogant asshole who thinks the world revolves around him. That's my personality, and it's an accurate reflection of what happens when an insignificant little guy like me acquires tremendous power.
"I'll never be as compassionate as Chauntea, the Earthmother, as lecherous as Zeus, or as noble as Jesus. I'm just an ordinary guy who happens to be incredibly powerful. It's perfectly normal for me to make mistakes."
Melina relaxed.
She shifted a little closer to Skyl and sat beside him, accompanying him as he gazed out over the vast field of flowers.
"It's beautiful here."
"Are you trying to say I have a beautiful soul? Well, I'll gladly accept the compliment."
"Skyl, please let me go. If I continue staying by your side, I'll only become an obstacle between you and Millicent. Wouldn't it be a perfectly good ending if you simply let me leave quietly?"
"I always keep my promises. I told you I'd give you a complete life, birth, aging, illness, and death. You've only experienced two of those so far."
"I'd rather do without the rest."
Melina gave a brief laugh.
"Plenty of children die shortly after they're born. I've already been incredibly fortunate. I accomplished something great. I met someone I loved. I experienced a romance that ended before it could even begin, and I traveled to different worlds.
"With such an eventful life, what more could I possibly ask for?"
"But how old are you this year? Twenty? That's dying far too young. I want to stand among the crowd and watch you smile, not stare at a black-and-white photograph of you at your memorial service."
"Oh. You would miss me, wouldn't you?"
"Of course I would. Just thinking about how I once traveled with such a wonderful girl, only to know that I'll never be able to laugh and joke with her again, makes me miss her already.
"Life really is absurd. Even though I possess the power to change almost anything, I still can't make everything in my life turn out perfectly. As long as I have a mortal heart, I'll inevitably get hurt.
"If I were as much of an asshole as Zeus, I'd probably have a house full of children and grandchildren by now. But I'm not going to betray the woman I love."
"What are you planning to do?"
Melina suddenly became alarmed.
"Are you going to make me forget you? No! You can't! I can't forget you! That would be the same as killing me!"
"Then what do you want?"
"I don't know..."
Melina's voice trembled.
"Let the world forget me. You should forget me too. You have so many other people who love you, but I've only ever loved you.
"If you take away my memories, I'll truly have nothing left."
Melina resembled a beggar dressed in rags, pleading with a billionaire not to take away the last penny in her possession.
She had carefully polished that little copper coin until it gleamed, treasuring it as though it were a dazzling piece of gold.
"Suppose, Skyl, I mean, just suppose..."
She hesitated.
"If I'd confessed my feelings to you before Millicent did, would you have chosen me?"
"Yes."
"So the only reason you rejected me really is because you're faithful to the woman you love."
"That's right."
"Then couldn't you tell how I felt about you?"
"..."
"I hate that you're such a blockhead."
The boomerang Skyl had thrown all those years ago had finally come flying back and smacked him square in the face.
All he could do was smile helplessly, torn between laughter and tears.
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