"It's taking a while..."

Keleanos walked next to Titania, his eyes glued to the rift.

"I agree. Still, there is nothing we can do other than wait."

"But it's been more than an hour."

Chelsea joined them, with her sister right behind her.

"And..."

She turned around and looked at Kelsea, who was shivering. Her eyes were darting left and right, as if she were afraid of something.

"We might have some company."

With a serious expression, she looked at Titania.

"..."

At her words, she squinted her eyes slightly. This appeared as a doubtful sign, but in reality, Titania was simply searching for a potential enemy with her aura.

Then, her eyes darted in one direction with extreme bewilderment.

"What a blunder on my part!"

Suddenly, Titania took a few steps back, pushing the others at the same time.

The sound of rubble falling down from a building echoed quite a way further into the city.

Until...

*BOOM*

Pieces of a large, collapsed mansion flew into the air. Its pieces crashed everywhere into Ryghs, destroying the empty houses and shops.

"Dodge!"

As a large chunk of wall fell on them, Titania jumped to the side. Keleanos and the twins followed suit and jumped to avoid the debris.

"Damn it! Why did I not look for traces of corruption? We know that Miasma is not gone for good, so why did I ignore the signs?!"

Titania stood up, blaming herself.

"This is not the time for that! We're in danger right now!"

Shouting at her from the other side, Keleanos helped the twins get back on their feet.

"..."

She glanced at them and straightened. Her gaze sharpened, causing her body and mind to relax.

"Fuuuu~"

Taking a deep breath, she stared forward.

*CRASH*

Houses were crumbling down, suggesting something was marching in their direction.

The aura released by their enemy was something Titania recognized instantly. It was a feeling that gnawed at her for centuries.

"I cannot believe corruption is still present around here..."

With the rest of the rubble crashing down around them, destroying everything behind them, they looked around.

Everything across a fifty-meter range had been flattened, with piles of broken-down buildings hindering all movements.

Still, what was a large road turned into a vast field. Titania confirmed that the sky was freed of falling chunks of wall and straightened her back.

At that moment, the last house separating the intruding corrupt and the group of Remnants broke down, revealing what their opponent was.

"Urk!"

Chelsea and Kelsea both felt a nauseating feeling take over as they looked at the 'thing'.

A humanoid with a frail-looking body, like an older man, walked toward them. What truly disgusted them were the large worms writhing from the body.

The humanoid had no head and a deep hole in its chest. From those places, they could see the sickening worms violently thrash around.

"What is wrong with this thing?!"

Kelsea trembled at the simple sight of this monster. Both sisters were far from fighters, having avoided this kind of life since becoming Remnants.

"Kh..."

Keleanos stood in front of them, but he knew better than anyone else that his knowledge about fighting was barely enough to lift a sword.

Yet, he courageously stood while observing the creature.

For the three of them, it was the first time seeing a corrupt entity this dreadful. Usually, they were mindless beasts, but they were still normal creatures.

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This simple, distinctive visual was enough to speak volumes about what Miasma was working on.

"This is awful..."

Titania stared at the humanoid. Under its skin, she could see the worms move, most likely animating the corpse.

With inhuman and abrupt movements, the corpse's right arm grabbed a piece of wall next to it and, with a throw that broke the ambient air, launched it toward the three non-fighters.

"Damn it!"

In an instinctual move, Keleanos shielded the sisters under his chest and closed his eyes.

As he was preparing himself to be hit, nothing as such happened.

*Crash*

Instead, he noticed two pieces of wall crash on both sides.

Behind him were the sounds of wings flapping and an unusual humming noise, as if countless people were chanting.

The faint but constant sound caught his curiosity, forcing him to release the sisters from his arms.

As the three looked at the source of the noises, their eyes opened widely, astonished.

Titania was floating above the ground, an array of luminous swords slowly revolving behind her back.

In her left hand, a short sword as clear as a mirror vibrated, as if excited after a long slumber.

"T-Titania."

Keleanos picked himself up and approached the fairy.

"Try to stay away. I will handle this monster."

"..."

The situation being what it was, Keleanos nodded. He turned around and picked up both women.

"Ah! Wait!"

"Keleanos?!"

With Kelsea under his right arm and Chelsea over his left shoulder, he turned to look at Titania.

"I'll look for this thing's weaknesses. That's the least I can do while I'm forced to leave this battle to you."

Glancing over her shoulder, Titania nodded. Seeing her response, Keleanos ran away swiftly, stepping and jumping on the piles of ruined buildings.

"..."

Titania looked at her left hand, holding the sword.

"I have not seen you since the death of my mother..."

"Avalon."

~

"So, that's the reason for your presence. I understand."

Inside the dark house built in one part of the space Heto had created, Henrietta finished explaining everything that had happened and her reason for seeking him.

"I understand if you were reticent about coming back with us. I take it you are still afraid of that concept, right?"

He briefly looked downward before nodding.

"You're correct."

"In that case, I'll work on hindering the effect of the disasters happening around you."

His eyes opened wide, showing the beautiful cyan color of his pupils, visible even in such thick darkness.

"Is that even possible?"

"With some tinkering, I should be able to come up with something more useful. It's difficult to control, isn't it?"

Her assumptions were correct. Heto nodded before adding something.

"More than difficult, it is impossible."

"I had very little knowledge of the concept at the time, but after leaving here for so long, I began to understand more."

Looking at Henrietta, he continued.

"Disaster. This encompasses everything related to the world itself and what the factions have brought upon themselves over many years, such as war."

"The problem is, to avoid any of those, I would need to be on the same scale as Nature."

"It is impossible to modify meteorological events, or else many deadlier consequences would happen."

He explained his findings in great detail.

"If I were to stop a flood from happening by stopping a storm, a drought would happen not long after. If I stopped the drought by creating a storm, this time, tornadoes would ravage the land."

"And if I tried again, even more dangerous events would destroy this planet. Earthquakes, typhoons, solar eruptions... I think it could even make stars fall, but not the beautiful kind."

Hearing his explanation, Henrietta nodded.

"I get it. The same would happen with war. Stopping one would result in a larger-scale battle, resulting in even more losses."

"Correct. That's why I sealed myself here. I've tried many things in here, resulting in this... broken world with no light."

He hesitated slightly, fearing that Henrietta would be afraid.

"So that's why. No wonder it felt sickening. It was a good thing you haven't tried this on Triazils."

Instead of being afraid, she appeared to sympathize with him.

"R-Right."

Heto nodded.

"Knowing you, you also came in here to avoid meddling with the factions? I'm pretty sure it would've been difficult to watch the conflicts happening, knowing your simple existence was the cause of them."

"You have a big heart."

Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Heto smiled.

He was happy to finally have someone to talk to after all these years alone.

"But... What can you do to affect this concept? I don't think there is anything that will result from it."

"That is for me to find."

A golden aura shone from Henrietta at its center.

The light broke through the darkness, blinding the tall Remnant, who hadn't seen the sun's rays for centuries.

After meddling with the Book of Destiny for a few minutes, she sighed.

"You're right, that concept is untouchable. There is no way for me to change how it works."

"Alas, that's what I thought."

With a defeated smile, Heto sat on a chair inside the room.

With Henrietta still looking for a way to fix this unfair power, silence returned between them.

...

After thirty minutes, a sweating Henrietta gasped.

"It worked?!"

Heto stood up from his seat in fury.

"Are you serious?!"

"I am! I've managed to bring it under your control!"

It was a basic change, but enough to make the power of disasters diminish greatly.

"It's like a compromise between you and the event. You can lower the damages or casualties caused by a disaster in exchange for a more dangerous one next time."

"Isn't that a bit paradoxical?"

His excitement subsided, as this news wasn't that great overall.

"You don't get it? You can fiddle around with this!"

"How so?"

Henrietta released the aura surrounding her and smiled.

"It's simple. You avoid a large-scale disaster on land, but create a dangerous one in the middle of the sea."

"For example, you lower the range of an earthquake that would've damaged multiple cities, and in exchange, you unleash a dangerous cyclone above the sea."

"Or you unleash a volcano underwater. In that case, there would be no reason to feel bad about your power."

There were still the countless losses of underwater creatures caught in an event, but even in normal circumstances, such occurrences were normal.

With a pondering expression, Heto entered a state of deep thinking. He simulated what Henrietta told him before the frown on his face vanished.

"This! This might work!"

With a relieved expression, the curse placed on him finally disappeared.

"Thank you, Henrietta! I had no idea you were able to create such miracles."

She shook her head.

"Me neither. So, are you ready to follow me back to Triazils?"

Heto looked around him. There was barely anything in this small house beside a bed and some rough furniture.

'I won't be missing any of these.'

Yet, he walked toward the wall on his right. There, he grabbed something that appeared to be covered in dust.

"My duties as the son of a Valkyrie can continue at last."

He picked up a massive hammer that glowed a faint green light.

"I'll come with you. It's time to teach this generation of prodigies what we, the descendants of the most powerful humans, can do."

With heavy but determined footsteps, Heto walked past Henrietta and exited the house he lived in for four thousand years.

With the hammer hanging on his shoulder, Heto walked toward the entrance of the rift, with Henrietta next to him.