"Um… Th-Thank you for your concern…"
Asta nodded shyly, lowering her gaze toward the floor as her fingers unconsciously tightened slightly at her sides.
Honestly, she did not know what had come over her.
From childhood to adulthood, she had met countless people from all kinds of social classes. Nobles, influential figures, wealthy merchants—she had spoken with all of them before, even giving speeches in front of large crowds with complete ease, always carrying herself with confidence and composure.
Yet now, under Lucian's calm gaze alone, she had somehow become awkward and shy, acting almost like an innocent little girl.
Seeing Asta's awkwardness, Lucian casually waved his hand.
"Don't mention it. It was nothing, really."
As he spoke, he sat down across from Asta, then casually picked up the book she had been reading a moment earlier from the table to see what exactly she had been reading.
"Actually... Madam Herta asked me to check whether you need anything—some snacks or something else?"
Wrapped in the small blanket, Asta glanced at him and asked softly and shyly.
"Nah, I don't need anything," Lucian replied casually while shaking his head, then looked up at her. "If I really had to ask for one thing, then I'd say you can keep me company and chat with me for a bit."
"Huh? Just chatting..." Asta blinked her eyes, seemingly not quite understanding why he wanted to chat with her. "Then... what would you like to chat about, Mr. Lucian?"
Before Lucian could respond, the System's voice suddenly rang out in his mind, one notification after another.
[DING! Follower Hysilens requests to borrow BGM and Law of Calamity. Approve?]
[DING! Follower Tribios requests to borrow Disarm and River God. Approve?]
[DING! Follower Mortis requests to borrow Godly Bandage. Approve?]
[DING! Follower Castorice requests to borrow Immortal Kneel. Approve?]
[DING! Follower Polyxia requests to borrow Absolute Hit. Approve?]
A rapid series of prompt voices echoed one after another inside Lucian's mind, causing him to frown slightly as his gaze subtly darkened.
Clearly, for so many followers to request permission to borrow his conceptual abilities at the exact same time, they must have encountered an enormous crisis, and worse, every single one of them was a follower from Amphoreus, a place he currently had no direct control over.
Fortunately, after noticing that Hysilens was among them, he felt a slight sense of relief.
'Looks like Hysilens already recovered the memories from the script... Either they're dealing with the Flame Reaver right now, or they're up against the black tide...'
Still, with everyone requesting so many abilities all at once, the latter possibility was obviously far more likely, which meant the black tide had most likely already begun a large-scale invasion.
With that in mind, Lucian approved all the requests without the slightest hesitation.
As long as BGM remained active, he was not worried about their safety at all.
BGM was, after all, a sound-wave invincible domain that even Nous had no way to counter, let alone a mere Scepter, which was only a fragment of Nous's divine corpus and had once merely served as a Celestial-Body Neuron for THEM.
A mere neuron—could it truly be stronger than an Aeon?
Of course, it was impossible.
"Mr. Lucian? Why are you spacing out?"
As Lucian remained deep in thought, Asta's puzzled voice suddenly resounded beside him, instantly pulling him back to reality.
"It's nothing..." Lucian calmly shook his head before casually replying. "I was just thinking about the future of the cosmos."
===
In Amphoreus, upon the seabed beneath Styxia's dark waters, a deep-sea altar stood in solitude like a forgotten relic abandoned by time itself.
Around the altar, the atmosphere was cold and deathly silent, while the surrounding deep sea, because the enormous bioluminescent corals that once illuminated the underwater world had long since dimmed and withered away, was now completely shrouded in darkness, leaving behind only a faint halo of pale light emitted by the altar itself.
Ancient stone pillars covered in cracks and traces of erosion quietly stood around the altar, as though they had remained there for countless ages, enduring the endless flow of time and the crushing pressure of the deep sea without ever changing.
At the very center of the altar, Hysilens floated quietly like a sleeping amethyst statue, her graceful body encased within a thick layer of amber-like energy crystal that faintly reflected purple light across her skin, making it seem as though her time, space, and even existence itself had been completely sealed away from the outside world.
At this moment, she was immersed within the beautiful dream she herself had created, peacefully drifting through that endless illusion when, suddenly, inside the crystal, a gentle point of green light quietly lit up with a soft and warm glow, like the first spark of life born within endless darkness.
However, immediately afterward, a strange point of crimson light lit up as well.
Unlike the gentle green radiance, however, the crimson light carried an indescribable sense of chaos and lively mischief, flickering restlessly within the crystal as though it possessed a will of its own.
If those familiar with the Paths were here, they would instantly recognize that those lights were none other than the emerald green of Abundance and the scarlet red of Elation!
Right after the two lights lit up simultaneously, the green and crimson radiance intertwined together, slowly revolving above Hysilens's smooth, flat lower abdomen where her womb was located, gradually forming a strange dual-colored light sigil.
At first, the sigil rotated slowly, but as time passed, it spun faster and faster while its brilliance steadily intensified.
Second by second, the sigil grew brighter and clearer before a warm and familiar power suddenly poured forth from it like a flowing tide, spreading throughout her entire body and driving away the coldness of the deep sea along with the countless years of oblivion and silence.
Gradually, the frozen stillness surrounding her body began to loosen.
"Mmm..."
Hysilens's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and then, like butterfly wings finally breaking free from a cocoon after countless ages of slumber, those beautiful eyes that had remained closed for who knew how many years slowly opened once more.
At first, there was only a faint trace of confusion within them, but immediately afterward, countless fragments of memories surged into her mind like a raging tidal wave.
Lucian...
Ocean King...
Styxia...
Holding hands...
Bathing together...
Embracing...
Kissing...
And that unforgettable warmth and love that was etched deep into her soul, as well as that silent vow made before parting.
"Lucian..."
Hysilens softly whispered Lucian's name, then her trembling fingertips slowly brushed against the warm, flowing green-and-red sigil on her lower abdomen—the faint radiance flickered gently beneath her touch, carrying a familiar warmth that spread through her entire body.
It was the blessings of Abundance and Elation, the proof that he truly existed in her life—the true anchor of her memories, and also the evidence that everything she had experienced with him had never been an illusion.
"I... remember..."
Hysilens's voice caught slightly, trembling with emotion, yet it was filled with a strength and certainty she had never possessed before.
At this very moment, two completely different sets of memories stood clearly within her mind, distinct and impossible to confuse.
One was a cruel and bloodstained memory of destruction.
Her homeland had collapsed beneath the black tide, her sisters twisting into horrifying monsters one after another, while she personally raised her blade and killed them all with her own hands.
Afterward, she had gone ashore alone and become Cerydra's sword and general, staining her hands with endless bloodshed as she slaughtered countless enemies across countless battlefields, until in the very end, she personally stabbed Cerydra to death.
Cerydra had once said that a demigod had to be sacrificed, and only then could the world itself be altered through the authority of Law. Yet even after everything had ended, the current state of affairs had still not changed in the slightest.
Compared to that set of memories, the other one was so beautiful that it almost felt unreal.
Her homeland still stood peacefully beneath the sea, her sisters were still lively and joyful as always, and she only needed to remain at Lucian's side every day, acting like a carefree little fish who never needed to worry about anything at all.
More importantly, there was no need to fight, no need to shoulder heavy responsibilities, and no need to constantly remain wary of schemes and conspiracies. All she needed to think about was what song she should sing for him today, what kind of food she should cook for him, and how she could stay by his side a little longer.
Because even if the sky itself were to collapse one day, he would still effortlessly hold it up for her.
"Imperator, I'm not your sword anymore."
"I'm going to fulfill my promise."
"He is my flame, my light..."
*BOOM!*
As soon as Hysilens's words fell, the energy crystal encasing her shattered instantly under the impact of the dual-colored sigil, dissolving into countless motes of light and scattering away.
*Whoosh!*
Her figure, now in the form of a sea siren with a beautiful fish tail instead of a pair of human legs, burst out of the altar like a streak of purple lightning, finally freed from its chains as it tore through the dark seawater at astonishing speed.
A few minutes later, when she finally arrived at the outskirts of her homeland—the kingdom of sea sirens that should have already fallen into ruins—Hysilens was completely stunned, her eyes widening in disbelief as she froze in place.
It couldn't be helped.
Before her eyes, the ancient palace still stood tall and intact, not even showing the slightest sign of collapse, while countless sea sirens gathered throughout the city, taking turns singing soft yet sacred melodies that continuously echoed across the ocean currents.
'Is this Lucian's doing...? He really is protecting us... even when he's not here... he's still protecting us, just like he promised...'
Hysilens could immediately recognize the song being sung by the sea sirens.
It was the one Lucian had personally designated as the background music for BGM in her second set of memories. Back then, he had once smilingly told them that as long as this song continued to resound throughout the kingdom, the sea sirens would become invincible and would be able to withstand any danger that approached them.
At first, she had merely treated those words as a joke, but now, reality was laid bare before her eyes.
Just by looking at the black tide blocked outside the city, it was already obvious enough.
While the surrounding seawater had long since been polluted and transformed into a pitch-black abyss filled with corruption, the city itself remained completely untouched, as though an invisible barrier had isolated it from the outside world.
"Helektra!"
Suddenly, while Hysilens was still standing there blankly in a daze, a group of sea sirens suddenly noticed her presence and immediately swam over in excitement, surrounding her from every direction.
"Hey, where did you go? We couldn't find you anywhere!"
"Weird, I remember Helektra was with us, fighting those black tide monsters together, but I also remember her departing with the Ocean King to Styxia..."
"Right, where's the Ocean King? Isn't he with you, Helektra?"
"More importantly, why is the black tide suddenly everywhere? It's terrifying!"
Hysilens was in a daze as the familiar voices continuously entered her ears one after another.
Looking at her sisters—those same familiar faces that should have long since died, those same familiar voices she had thought she would never hear again—her vision immediately blurred as tears uncontrollably welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"Don't worry, although the Ocean King is away handling something important, he left his protection here," Hysilens said with absolute certainty while wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. "As long as you keep singing, our home won't be swallowed by the black tide."
At this moment, she believed more firmly than ever that Lucian was the only one—the only savior truly capable of saving this world from destruction.
"Good thing we have the Ocean King, or we'd definitely be dead by now."
"All the fish in other places died and turned into monsters. It's so scary."
"Mm, even the queen couldn't deal with the black tide."
Upon hearing Hysilens's words, the sea sirens quietly spoke among themselves in low, uneasy voices, their expressions still carrying lingering fear from the disaster that had nearly consumed everything around them.
Meanwhile, after hearing that Phagousa was actually still alive, Hysilens immediately went to see them once more and briefly exchanged a few words before finally leaving the depths of the sea.
Since there was no immediate danger here thanks to the protection brought by Lucian's BGM, Hysilens decided to shift her attention toward other places, such as Styxia or Okhema, whose situations still remained completely unknown during her absence.
After all, those places were closely connected to her.
No matter what, she had to personally go there and see the situation for herself.
*Splash!*
Hysilens broke through the surface of the sea, but the moment she saw the surrounding scene, her entire body froze slightly in mid-motion.
Within her vision, the sky had already become a solidified, suffocating black, an endless darkness so oppressive and heavy that even breathing felt unusually difficult, while the seawater was no longer the deep blue she remembered but a murky, ominous gray, carrying sinister undercurrents that rolled endlessly beneath the surface, making the entire world feel deathly silent and utterly lifeless, as though everything had been draped beneath a massive, filthy burial shroud.
Not even the sound of the waves remained the same.
Only...
At the farthest edge of the distant horizon, a faint yet stubborn pillar of light still stood alone amidst the endless darkness, barely yet firmly holding the surging black tide at bay.
It was none other than Okhema's Dawn Device.
"The black tide... it has already spread this far?"
Hysilens's heart immediately sank to the bottom, yet the light within her eyes only grew even more resolute, without the slightest trace of fear or hesitation. Instead, the grim scene before her caused the urgency in her heart to intensify even further.
In the very next moment, as she leaped out of the water, droplets scattered through the air around her graceful figure while her beautiful fish tail transformed into a pair of slender human legs in midair, before she landed firmly upon the cold, damp sand with a heavy step.
"Okhema... without the Imperator, I hope Aglaea can hold on a little longer..."
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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