"What do you want, Error Angel?"
John stared directly into his eyes.
"A catastrophe."
The Master of Mechanic leaned against the metal railing behind him. The heat radiating from the six eyes of the giant metal head behind him cast an orange glow like a sunset, swallowing his shadow. "A catastrophe? You came to the wrong place, old stranger... I'm the Industry Archangel, not Chaos!"
John's faint smile faded.
"Stranger?... Oh, right. You and I are just two old strangers."
He continued, "This old stranger has a favor to ask you, so why don't you look at him as an old friend instead?"
The Master of Mechanic let out a deep breath, lowered his head, and looked at the ground.
"I don't think I can really call you a friend..."
He raised his head slightly and glanced at John from the corner of his eye.
"Can I... Arath?"
John's faint smile returned, as though he were genuinely pleased. "Looks like... you still remember this stranger's name!!"
The Master remained silent, so John continued.
"Then why won't you help this stranger? Old stranger!!"
Suddenly, the Master of Mechanic pushed away from the railing and walked several steps toward him, holding his head high with pride.
"I expected you to break after I reminded you of who you really are... You came to terms with it?"
John raised a hand and waved it casually. "Come to terms with it? What are you talking about... I'm simply what I've always been!"
The Master of Mechanic held his head, as though he had expected something completely different from John.
John?
Perhaps it was time to stop calling him by that name.
Arath.
The Master walked past Arath and said, "I was serious when I said I can't create a catastrophe... If by catastrophe you mean one powerful enough to destroy the Divine Pillar of Gold and bring down all the Divine Pillars... I can't create something on that scale!"
Arath turned toward the Master and quietly muttered, "Then we really do need that Symbolism..."
The Master turned his head slightly.
"Yeah... We need the Abyss Symbolism..."
"You mean the Five Rings of Time?"
The Master turned fully toward Arath.
"Yeah... The Five Rings of Time. Abyss Symbolism."
Arath tilted his head. "But after the death of the Hidden Wise, that Symbolism was lost... You know exactly what that means!"
The Master slowly raised his hand, then suddenly clenched it into a fist.
"That Symbolism is probably inside the Hidden Wise's private Space..."
Arath smiled strangely.
"There's no point thinking about the hardest solution... The simplest way is for a God to appear."
The Master immediately continued, "Or for a God whose Will hasn't died to be reborn inside a human body."
Silence settled between them. The only sound in the metallic space was the ringing of hammers striking brass, iron, and copper plates.
And there they stood, accompanied by the terrifying smile of the Master of Mechanic and the familiar smile of the long blond-haired man with the ponytail.
Arath.
Meanwhile, Elias was in the Gray Expanse.
Elias floated above the endless gray ocean of mist, lost in thought. The Dark Hand was nowhere beside him. He had gone somewhere into the boundless sea of fog.
As Elias stared up at the mist-filled sky of the Gray Expanse, he suddenly shot upward toward the clouds.
"If it's endless in length... then is the ceiling endless too? And the bottom?"
He spoke to himself as he plunged into the mist.
All he could see was fog. Gray, cold, and lifeless.
There was nothing else.
Still, he continued, pushing farther and farther upward in an attempt to reach the ceiling of this mist-covered world.
Suddenly, the cold became less intense.
The lifelessness of the mist gave way to something far more unsettling.
The sky.
Still.
Dark.
Motionless.
No stars.
No light.
And...
Silent.
Elias stared at the dark sky in confusion. There was no longer any mist above him, only darkness. Perhaps it was the dark ceiling of this world.
Or perhaps it was something else.
He stared at it for a moment, then calmly muttered to himself, "That's it?"
He continued, "I expected to find something strange. Maybe a galaxy... or some special planet... I can see darkness whenever I turn off the lights. This is just a little more of it!"
He released himself.
Elias began falling rapidly toward the depths.
Once again, he returned to the space he had been in before. The sky was covered in mist again, with an ocean of fog beneath him.
This time, he dove downward.
Something hurled him backward.
He tried again.
Again, he was thrown back.
Something beneath the mist was blocking his way.
The strange calm Elias had maintained above the mist finally disappeared.
"Is there... something down there?"
He swallowed and thought of something from his former life.
The mist did not recreate it.
Elias grew thoroughly annoyed and imagined the largest, sharpest thing he had seen nearby.
Suddenly, the misty sky split open.
Big Ben, the London clock tower, came crashing down from the misty sky.
It sank slightly into the depths of the fog before suddenly collapsing into mist itself and dispersing.
Elias gave a nervous, irritated smirk. Still staring in disbelief at Big Ben's disappearance, he spoke aloud.
"So there really is something beneath here... Should I be upset or... happy?"
After a brief silence, he continued in a quieter voice.
"Maybe... like right now, I should just be afraid... of whatever might be down there... Maybe there's nothing at all, but... I've got a really bad feeling about this!"
───────────────────────────
Two weeks later.
Liam set his bag down on the clean ceramic floor of the express train station. Julien leaned against one of the station's metal pillars, waiting for the train to arrive.
Liam's mind was elsewhere. "Did my letter reach my master? The post office said they sent it nearly a week ago... So why haven't I received a reply in all this time?"
Before he could think any further, Julien's untimely hand landed on his shoulder. Julien yawned and said, "I don't understand why every express train has to leave in the morning. Is there some kind of shortage of time?!"
"You're starting to criticize everything again?"
"Am I wrong?"
"Yes. Very much so."
"Thank you so much for your support."
"You're welcome. A detective has to look after his assistant, after all."
Julien muttered under his breath, "You really care about me that much!"
"Did you say something?"
"No, I'm just criticizing the train."
"Don't."
"Yes, sir!"
Suddenly, the distant whistle of the train echoed through the station. Liam picked up his bag again, while Julien straightened himself and let out his final yawn in Mortaine.
The train screeched to a stop. A small amount of steam escaped from its front, and everyone boarded.
The train began moving.
Within seconds, they were already several hundred meters away from the station.
Liam leaned back against his warm red seat and glanced at Julien, who was sitting by the window and staring outside with strange excitement.
"How long does the express train take to reach Loy?"
Still staring out the window, Julien answered, "Well, Loy is several dozen kilometers south of Paris... Maybe five or six hours!"
Liam asked nothing more. He closed his eyes and prepared to sleep, while grumbling to himself,
"Six hours on an express train? We would've been better off taking a regular one..."