Orion silently brushed the sleeping twins' hair with his fingers.

"..."

The two had fallen asleep next to him, tired by their fluctuating emotions.

'You did well.'

Tetra praised him with a sweet voice.

'Thanks to you.'

'I barely did anything. Your quick thinking and knowledge of their behavior were the reason for your success.'

Shaking his head lightly, Orion's bangs covered his eyes.

(All I can do is promise them a future they have no certainty to see.)

—

"Would you trust me, and follow the same path?"

With a neutral expression, which hid the fact that his next sentence went against his own wishes, he continued.

"Or would you rather end your lives when the time arrives?"

From their previous conversation, the twins understood that this option would deeply hurt him if they were to choose him.

But, they also considered it.

They looked at each other, and made up their minds.

"The future you've promised us..."

Nia entwined her fingers together, with a tint of red on her ears.

"Can we really trust you to make it happen?"

With a moment of hesitation, Orion nodded.

"Sis."

She turned to her twin sister, who had her arms crossed, and her eyes closed, seemingly deep in thought.

"..."

"Sis?"

When she called a second time, Mia finally opened her eyes.

"If I have to be honest..."

Placing her hands on her thighs, Mia gazed into Orion's anthracite eyes. She could see herself inside them, which helped her formulate the words correctly.

All the tension disappeared, and she opened her mouth.

"I don't want to die yet. We've seen nothing of the world. We haven't left a single mark of our presence in the world, either."

Her hands trembled slightly at the simple thought of dying. It was a terrifying notion to both sisters.

"If what you told us is true, then I'll trust you. We'll follow you, even if all of it was a lie."

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Orion was about to reject her words, but he silently smiled instead.

They had made up their minds, and that was all that mattered.

—

'I wonder if Noah is... No, I think he is aware of their fear.'

'They were always special girls. Not anyone managed to breach through his thick armor.'

Agreeing to her statement, he nodded.

Somehow, he could feel Tetra's presence wrapping her arms around his shoulders. In fact, her soul was gently soothing his, which gave him this impression.

'Even with you around, they still appear to have the same dynamic. Like a big brother and his little sisters.'

'That was always the image I got from them. Always wary of me...'

Orion could discern the faint smile that accompanied her tone. She felt nostalgic for this era.

'Anyway, don't you have something to do?'

Shaking off her transient feelings of longing, she helped Orion remember what needed to be done.

He stood up, turned around, and picked up the twins carefully.

Laying them next to each other, he picked up the cover and enveloped the twins with it.

At the last moment, as he retracted his hand, Mia grabbed his sleeve.

"Thank you..."

They shared a brief gaze, before she returned to her sleep, releasing him.

"Sleep well."

With a smile, Orion left their room.

The moment the door closed, Orion turned toward the main room, where Henrietta and Tetra were.

'I guess it's time to talk to them about the plan.'

...

With Noah back from his mission, all that was left was to get through the toughest part.

Three years later, Orion had to make the world believe in Noah's death, and send him back home.

The major problems of this plan were rather complicated to solve.

First, where exactly was this world called 'Earth', Noah's home world, located?

Then, it was the way Orion would create a bridge within the two worlds.

To worsen the entire situation, he had to find a way to do that before Miasma killed Noah, or in that case, before Noah self-destructed trying to create the void element.

He had an overall idea of what to do. Now that his void element was past the threshold of 'normal', all he could do was depend on a certain someone to create a second miracle.

One of the other major concerns was that everyone needed to forget about Orion's existence. Since his presence could put the entire future at risk, Henrietta, Tetra, Tiohr-nam, and the twins needed to forget him.

The few beastmen and humans that saw him were not an issue, since their minds purged his existence automatically after he left their sights.

Those who knew his name wouldn't forget him, but those who didn't, did forget.

Another trouble was Procyon. Her existence was a giant thorn in the plan, as her survival could cause plenty of problems in the future, where she wasn't supposed to be.

Orion had already a good idea of what to do about Procyon thanks to his talk with Tiohr-nam.

The very last major concern was how Orion would actually return home.

From Tetra's input, which correlated with her past self, Orion had to take the 'Corridor of Time' in reverse to arrive in his timeline.

What was particularly troublesome and dangerous was the impossibility to choose the actual year of his return.

Breaching through the 'Corridor of Time's' walls haphazardly could cause him to return before his birth, or at a point where his existence would conflict with his own.

The only window he had was the time when he went away. This short, precise, and incredibly secluded spot in time was his only chance to return home alive.

None of the people around the table knew exactly how long Orion could have been gone.

Since time doesn't exactly work the same once its Remnant is gone, it could have been a few days, weeks, or years at best.

The fear of returning in a time when no one had survived because of his disappearance seriously weighted on Orion's mind.

This had to be a precise control of 'Space' and 'Time', which even Tetra was unable to do without dying from the overload of information needed to be treated.

Three years actually went by quickly while the group proceeded to complete each of the tasks needed to change Noah's fate.

After carefully planning everything, they obtained answers for everything except the last problem.

Orion would have to find a way home by himself. Even if everyone wished to help him, what was impossible would remain so.

The twins were left alone, appreciating their time with the two Heroes before their destined separation.

While Orion continued to help Noah and push his body further through training against Procyon, he also meditated even more seriously.

There was no idea how Miasma would act now that they knew of each other's presence in this era.

On the other side, Miasma continued to throw his forces into the future.

Each time, he lost more and more of his armies of cloned beasts.

Even his greatest attack, launched near the showdown against Noah, was pushed back by the others in the future.

Out of the hundreds of invasions he conducted, not even one succeeded. Even worse, not a single one of his beasts returned.

At the end of it, Miasma was left with two gigantic creatures, and a handful of Lords.

While this looked infuriating, Miasma felt nothing of it. Actually, it only strengthened his conviction that the world actually worked against him in every way.

It wasn't a secret to him that Nature turned the entire set of rules to hinder his progress. Even after constantly finding shortcuts through those rules, it was a matter of time until his plans came to a stop.

With an empty mind, Miasma walked out of his laboratory, and dissipated into the ground.

His giants were killed off by Noah, his attempts to destroy the world were fought off, and his fate was sealed to repeat... Endlessly.

As fate dictated, the final standoff between the Hero and Miasma called.

But this time, two Heroes stood shoulder to shoulder, holding the fate of two worlds in their hands.

The two fought to return home. To reunite with their families.

As they stepped into a piece of land behind the Talviera Mountain Range for the very first time, three women stared at their backs.

Mia and Nia, who were tasked with suffering a single attack, and Tetra, who wished for Noah's survival.

With no choice but to open up, Noah elaborated on his original world to both Remnants, who couldn't believe their ears. They still did their best to support his endeavor, even Tetra.

If he could survive, this was enough for her.

The day had perfectly fine weather. A few clouds hindered the sun's rays, but the wind felt comfortable.

The temperature was slightly higher in this land, but not so much as to be uncomfortable.

And, as the two men approached the center part of the land, fifteen kilometers away from the twins, a dark mass suddenly exploded.

As Mia and Nia grabbed each other's hands in instinctive fear, Tetra began to act accordingly to what was planned.

Henrietta opened her the 'Book of Fate', and patiently observed the battle.

Two hours.

This was the countdown before the end.

With so much at stake, there was no margin for errors.

As Orion glared at the monster that almost killed him and forced him to be away from his family for an eternity, he lifted his hand.

"Yo, Miasma. You're making an incredible expression."

"Aren't you happy to see me?"