Eladia quickly realized she was dreaming.
Because she had returned to her childhood.
Familiar scenes, familiar pain. Stones pelting her shoulders, mud smeared across her face, and laughter echoing from all directions.
Yes, she had long since grown used to it.
She crouched on the ground, hugging her knees, letting them do whatever they pleased. Stones, kicks, insults—it was all the same.
Then, something changed.
A little black-haired girl rushed forward and pushed the crowd away.
With a body smaller than anyone else present, a fierce look on her face, and an unquestionable tone, she drove everyone away.
Then she crouched down and wiped the mud from Eladia's face.
“Eladia.”
She froze for a moment.
“Are... are you calling me...?”
“Yes! You! Eladia! That's your name! Don't you ever forget it!”
Eladia nodded, then opened her mouth.
“Then, what's your name...?”
No one answered her.
The scene shattered.
A stone room.
Cold stone walls, flickering candlelight.
Beatrice's fingers brushed against her cheek, her fingertips carrying a warmth that didn't belong to a child.
“You are a talented child. Your sacrifice can save many, many people. So do not doubt; it is enough for you to simply offer yourself up.”
Eladia nodded.
She had grown used to nodding. She did whatever others told her to do. It was the safest way, the way to avoid being hurt.
“What on earth are you talking about?!”
A voice exploded from behind.
It was that voice again—the voice whose name she couldn't remember, yet instinctively felt warmth and attachment toward.
Eladia turned her head.
It was that girl again. Black hair, an angry face, a body smaller than anyone else's, yet standing straighter than anyone.
She shouldn't have been here.
This was beneath the City of Holy Radiance, the Pope's private chambers, a forbidden ground where no one was allowed to tread.
But Eladia felt that if it were her, she would definitely be here.
If she had known her back then, she would never have left her to her fate.
She would fight even if she couldn't win, and try even if she couldn't succeed.
Because she was her friend, her precious person.
“What she wants to do is her own choice! You have no right to order her to do things she doesn't want to do!”
“Who let her in to get in Beya's way?! Drag this idiot out! So annoying!!!”
Beatrice stomped her feet in frustration. But the girl didn't even look at her.
The girl turned and grabbed Eladia's shoulders.
She was close.
Close enough that she should have been able to see the color of her eyes.
But she couldn't.
As if obscured, her face blurred continuously in her vision, leaving only a warm silhouette.
“Eladia! Do you actually want to do those things? To be made into holy water or holy communion? Are these really your purpose in life, your wish?!”
“I... I don't know...”
“Then that means it's not! Eladia! Think about it! What is your wish? What is your purpose in life?!”
A wish?
A purpose?
Eladia stood in a daze.
The scene shifted again.
The sky darkened. The surroundings became a quiet woodland, with a campfire crackling between the two of them.
She sat side-by-side with the young girl, neither of them speaking.
Time flowed by.
The firelight reflected off the girl's profile. The outline was still blurry, but Eladia could feel that she had a beautiful face.
“...What are you looking at?”
“Nothing... I was just wondering... who you actually are...”
The girl froze. Then she let out a small laugh, a sound that was a bit helpless and amused.
“You didn't remember? Fine, I'll say it one more time. My name is...”
The scene shattered.
A path in the woods. Sunlight filtered through the canopy.
“Eladia. If living only to die cannot bring you happiness, to the point of becoming your reason to live...”
The girl spoke to her, then reached out her hand.
“Then, how about replacing that with me?”
Eladia was stunned.
“Let me change you.”
The world shattered into countless pieces.
Like an exquisite mirror smashed to pieces by a fist, reflecting countless Eladias.
She stood in an endless maze of mirrors, staring blankly at the countless versions of herself.
She was looking at them.
They were looking at her too.
“...Do you know that girl?”
She asked them in a soft voice.
“We do...”
They replied in unison.
“Then... what is her name...?”
She asked softly.
“I don't remember...”
They replied dejectedly.
In unison. Countless Eladias answered her in the same hollow voice.
“Then why do you know... who she is...?”
“Because we... still have a promise with her...”
“A promise...?”
She remembered something.
Those were the things the girl had experienced with her, the words she had spoken to her.
We promised that she would change me.
We promised that she would become my reason to live.
We promised that from now on, my smile would only be shown to her.
We promised to celebrate each other's birthdays from then on.
We promised to gather in the room at night.
Countless promises surged from the countless mirrors, drowning her.
“Eladia... do you really not remember her?”
“...I don't remember.”
“Then why... are you still wearing the shoes she bought for you...?”
She froze, looking down.
The mirrors mended themselves back to normal. The surroundings turned into the streets of Avalon.
Her feet were bare.
Looking up, the girl was holding a newly bought pair of leather shoes and socks, her expression stiff.
“Put them on.”
She hesitantly took them, looked at her feet, and slowly put the shoes on.
They didn't pinch. They were very warm.
“Not bad.”
The girl nodded, turning to leave.
And so, Eladia opened her mouth.
“Excuse me—”
The girl stopped.
“Who are you...?”
She turned around.
Her long black hair swayed in the wind.
A pale face, crimson eyes.
Her face became clear.
All the blurriness vanished in an instant.
“I am Esper, and I am your Hero.”
The next moment, Eladia was pulled into an embrace.
A warm, tight, slightly trembling hug.
“You are Eladia, and you are my Saintess.”
She remembered.
The one who had bought her her first gift, the one who had said she would help her in the night, the one who had promised to be her friend in front of Hart Town, the one who had made her practice smiling and Greek on her own just to be of some help.
The one who had once embraced her in that woodland and wept bitterly in her arms.
The one who was to become her reason to live.
She remembered.
The reason why she wanted freedom.
The reason why she had attacked Esper.
The wish to live on in some place, forever with someone.
The promise that belonged to them.
The reason to live that Esper had become.
“I want... to live on happily and freely... with Esper...”
In an instant, the holy light completely dissipated.
Beatrice's consciousness was forcibly driven out. At this moment, Pride rewrote the rules, forcing all of Eladia's holy light to retreat deep into her body.
Then, with a clatter, the Holy Sword slipped from her hands to the ground, before turning into a shimmer of light and dispersing completely.
With her hands now free, she embraced Esper.
In the Wheat Ear Village of her memories. In that woodland symbolizing an ending. In this temple built within Genesis.
The three scenes overlapped, then shattered into scattered specks of light.
In the end, only the two of them remained, holding each other.
“...Esper.”
There was no trailing off, no pause.
It was a voice just like when she was a child. Flat, soft, yet carrying a warmth that only she could detect.
“...”
No one responded.
The body in her arms was warm, but that warmth was slipping away.
“...Esper?”
She tightened her arms.
Chest pressed against chest. She could feel her own heartbeat.
Only her own.
“...Esper!”
She cried out that name at the top of her lungs.
But the person in her arms was no longer breathing.
The instant she regained consciousness, she had relied on Pride to withdraw all of her holy light.
But she was one step too late.
Tears welled up in her eyes, sliding down her cheeks and dripping onto Esper's carbonized face.
It was exactly the same as in her memories.
“No...”
The space of Genesis was collapsing.
The Black Tide receded, the temple shattered, and the solar disk went out.
Everything was disappearing.
But Eladia no longer cared about any of it.
She simply held that person, kneeling on the charred wasteland that was gradually returning to its original state, weeping.
『Don't forget me again.』
“I will never forget again... It's all my fault... Please, wake up...”
The charred corpse, still holding a remnant of warmth, gave her no response.
“No... Don't leave me again...”
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