Light reford before my eyes, slow and gentle like dawn breaking after the longest night.
When my vision cleared, I found myself standing in the middle of a vast adow that stretched endlessly in every direction. The air shimred faintly, filled with golden dust motes that drifted like lazy stars. The grass beneath my boots was soft as silk, each blade humming with quiet life.
Flowers of every shape and color carpeted the landscape crimson blossoms that breathed warmth like embers, pale violets that glittered with dew even in the sunlight, silver roses whose petals whispered like windchis when the breeze passed. It was beauty so pure it almost hurt to look at.
Above , the sky was impossibly wide, painted in hues of dawn and dusk at once, streaks of gold lting into lilac and deep blue. It didn’t feel real. It felt like I’d stepped into the dream of a god.
Then I saw them.
Three orbs floated gently above a field of golden lilies, one black, one red, and one green. Each pulsed softly, alive, like heartbeats made of light. Their presence filled the air with emotion, warm, almost childlike joy.
I could feel it even from here. That pure, overwhelming happiness.
It washed over like sunlight through glass, and despite myself, a small smile tugged at my lips.
"...Well," I murmured, tucking my hands into my pockets as I took a step forward, "soone’s in a good mood."
The air shimred faintly as I took a slow breath, the scent of flowers washing over sweet, cool, and strangely alive. All around, the adow stretched endlessly, painted in every color imaginable.
Blossoms glowed softly under an unseen sun, petals swaying to a breeze that didn’t exist. It was serene, impossibly so, like the world itself was holding its breath.
But as I looked around, a thought tugged at the back of my mind, this wasn’t what her realm was supposed to look like.
The last ti I’d stood here, it had been nothing but ruin. A black, forsaken city.A starless, midnight sky that swallowed all light. Cracked obsidian ground beneath my boots, whispering like broken glass.
That was the domain I rembered the desolation fitting of the Goddess of Life and Death. Not this vibrant field blooming with impossible life.
I sighed quietly, my mood dipping sowhere between curiosity and disbelief.
"Quite the redecorating job," I muttered.
For a mont, I just stood there, taking it in. Then, with a soft exhale, I started walking toward the golden orb, its light pulsing softly like a heartbeat.
"...Let’s see what you’ve got for this ti," I murmured, my reflection warping across its radiant surface as I drew closer.
Just as my fingers brushed the edge of the golden light, a voice soft, wistful, and painfully familiar drifted through the adow.
And unbeknownst to , a single tear slipped from my eyes.
"Ah... how I miss those days."
I froze. The air stilled. Every petal in the endless field seed to pause mid-sway. Slowly, I turned around.
She stood there, the Goddess, and for a mont, everything else ceased to exist.
Her hair flowed down her back in a silken cascade, half obsidian black, half purest white, like night and dawn divided down the middle.
Her eyes shimred with both sorrow and warmth, galaxies of light and darkness dancing within them. She was breathtaking, not beautiful in a mortal way, but sothing beyond comprehension. Too perfect. Too divine.
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, she lifted a hand, graceful, weightless.
"Don’t speak," she said softly, a faint, lancholic smile touching her lips. "This is only a recording."
The words settled in the air like dust, and suddenly, I understood the faint translucence of her figure, the way her aura didn’t quite touch the world around her.
For a long ti, she said nothing else. She simply stood there, gazing at as if morizing every detail every flaw, every scar, every mont that had passed since the last ti we’d t.
There was sothing achingly human in her silence. Sothing that almost hurt to see.
When she finally moved, it was slow, deliberate. Her bare feet glided over the adow, not bending a single blade of grass as she approached.
"I called you here," she said, her voice quiet but certain, "just to see your face one last ti."
Sothing in my chest twisted. I wanted to ask why, but the words refused to co.
"This will be the last ti you see , Sebastian."
Her tone was calm. The kind that only cos when the end has already been accepted.
"I know you have questions," she continued, stopping just before . "And I wish I had ti to answer them. But you must rember what I told you before... about reaching the S-Rank."
Her eyes softened, sadness flickering across them like the fading light of dusk.
"You must grow stronger," she whispered. "You must be ready for when the war with the gods begins. Ready to protect the ones you love. Don’t make the sa mistake as ."
Her words carried no divine command, no pressure of authority, only quiet concern. A tenderness that made it all the more unbearable.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I just stood there, staring at her as the silence between us stretched thin, fragile as glass.
Then, she stepped closer, close enough that I could sll her. She didn’t sll of flowers or perfu, but of sothing raw and pure like the mont before rain, like life itself.
Her hand rose gently to my cheek, warm against my skin. With her other hand, she brushed aside my bangs, her touch impossibly light.
"You’ve changed," she murmured, almost to herself. "You’ve seen so much already."
And then, before I could react, she leaned forward and kissed my forehead.
For a heartbeat, the entire adow glowed, black, red, and gold light swirling together around us in a slow, beautiful storm.
Her fingers slipped away. Her form began to dissolve, petal by petal, fragnt by fragnt—into a mist of crimson and shadow.
"You must be strong."
Her voice echoed softly through the endless garden, fading with every repetition until there was nothing left but the whisper of wind and the hum of light.
Then she was gone.
And I was alone again, standing in that impossible vast adow, staring at where she had once stood, her warmth still lingering faintly against my skin.
I stood there for a long ti after she disappeared, staring at the space where she’d been as if her outline might still linger there, shimring faintly in the light.
The adow was too quiet now. The soft hum of mana in the air, the lazy sway of countless flowers, it all felt like a painting that had lost its warmth. Even the wind, which monts ago had seed to sing, now moved in silence.
I exhaled slowly, a sound that ca out more like a sigh than I’d intended.
"...Well," I muttered, forcing my lips into a crooked grin, "guess she’s... uh, ghosting for real this ti."
Nothing. No laugh. Not even a chuckle. The joke landed like a brick, and I huffed out sothing between a groan and a laugh, rubbing the back of my neck.
I didn’t know why I felt this way. Sad, heavy like soone had taken a part of and quietly walked away with it. It made no sense.
This was only the second ti I’d t her.
But the way she looked at ... the way her voice trembled at the end... it felt like saying goodbye to soone who had been with my entire life.
I closed my eyes for a second, pressing my fingers against the spot on my forehead where she’d kissed . It was still warm. Still... there.
"Damn it," I whispered under my breath. "You really had to make it emotional, didn’t you?"
When I finally opened my eyes, I noticed the adow had changed again.
The three orbs that floated gently above the field were no longer just glowing spheres of color, they pulsed with purpose.
In front of the black orb, glowing words shimred into existence: Judgnt.
Before the green orb, the letters curved gracefully: Future.
And in front of the golden orb, the word glowed brightest of all: Existence.
Each radiated sothing different—
The black one felt heavy, suffocating, ancient.
The green one humd with life, unpredictable yet soft.
But the golden one... the golden one called to .
It wasn’t loud. It didn’t demand attention.
It simply was. Calm, endless, warm. Like the first light of dawn after a storm.
I took a step forward, my boots brushing against the flowers. Another step, and I could feel the pulse of energy humming in my bones.
"Alrighty then," I said softly, half to the adow, half to myself. "Let’s see what kind of madness you’ve got waiting this ti."
The golden orb seed to flicker in response, almost playfully. I hesitated for a mont, then smiled, a small, tired smile and reached out my hand.
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