They all met at a stone archway near the edge of the town. Behind them, the twinkling marketplace was beginning to quiet, shops closing one by one and vendors waving their farewells. Ahead was the winding cliff path that led back to the mansion, moonlight guiding their way as ocean waves below lapped against the rocky coastline with a rhythmic murmur.
"So," Elyonari asked casually, turning to face the second group, "how much did you guys spend?"
Vastarael raised his hand, casually brushing back his long hair from his cheek.
"A million Enousi."
"A million?!" Peroncerea nearly choked.
"We bought almost 750,000 Enousi worth of meat alone," Eldrigan added, stretching his arms and whistling. "I'm gonna be honest, I think I saw a leg of meat the size of a war hammer. And Vastarael bought enough spices to hex a mountain."
"Totally worth it," Xander smirked.
The others were holding various bags. They were laughing, teasing one another, occasionally bumping shoulders as they ascended the path toward the estate. Farrynelle and Peroncerea were walking side by side, already discussing who would get the best seat at the morning table because no one was going to eat tonight. Adelasta walked near Narisva and Elyonari, the three of them casually teasing each other about how sweaty they'd gotten earlier in the market heat.
But behind them, just a few steps slower was Vastarael. He walked with a more deliberate pace as his white hair fluttered slightly in the breeze. His eyes weren't on the path. They were fixed on the group ahead of him. His feet continued to move but his eyes dimmed. The glow behind his Mystic Eyes of Awareness flickered with the ripple of a memory unbidden.
He was seventeen again and the world had ended.
He remembered those shrieking, high-pitched emergency signals that blasted through the Earth's skies that day. His classmates had screamed when the demons descended, clawed through walls, tore through steel and bodies shattered like twigs. He had barely registered what happened when everything was blood and flame and screaming. And yet… he didn't die. It hadn't felt like a blessing then. It had felt like a punishment.
He had sprinted through the chaos, desperate, frantic and horrified, his heart barely holding together as he ran to the orphanage where he'd grown up. But by then it was too late.
They were all gone.
He didn't remember most of their names anymore. Faces and voices maybe but only two stood out; Stephen and his girlfriend. Stephen had survived. He was holding her in his arms when Vastarael arrived. But then she stopped breathing. And Stephen, broken, took the nearest knife and...
Vastarael closed his eyes, tightening his fist. And after that?
He was trapped, chained and experimented on in a facility that saw him not as a person, but as a subject.
'What if none of this was real? What if I'm still in a coma in one of those pods, dreaming all of this? What if Adelasta, Narisva, Shimmer, Runner… are all fake? What if I never left Earth? What if I never—'
"Vastarael!"
The shout snapped through the air. He blinked and the memories broke apart. Everyone had stopped walking. They were looking at him now.
"Were you spacing out?" Elyonari asked, turning back with her hands on her hips. "You looked like you were about to fall over."
Adelasta squinted at him. "You're not glowing. Your energy's dropping."
He opened his mouth to speak.
"I'm fi—"
But before the word finished, a wave of dizziness hit him like a crashing tide. His vision spun and the path beneath his feet swayed. Narisva teleported right beside him. She held his upper arm with one hand, the other immediately placed flat against his chest. Her eyes narrowed as she focused. Everyone gathered closer, alarm flickering in their gazes. But after a second, Narisva exhaled slowly in relief.
"He's okay. His Omniphage is still restoring his Divine Energy. Killing the Octobehemoth drained a lot more out of him than we thought. It's still regenerating him."
"But it's been a whole day," Peroncerea said. "It should've fully recovered by now."
"Vastarael is different," Narisva muttered. "His body forces the exchange of Divine Energy with Soul Energy… and even if his Omniphage helps, he needs to stabilize, not rush it."
Vastarael stood up straighter, brushing his hair back and adjusting his stance.
"Sorry. Guess I was thinking too much."
Adelasta crossed her arms, a small frown on her lips. "If you collapse, I'm not carrying you."
Xander chuckled. "Damn, imagine dying after nuking a sea monster. That's poetic."
"Dying of an energy deficiency," Eldrigan muttered, rubbing his temple.
"Sounds like something the Dynasty teachers would say," Farrynelle added with a grin.
Despite it all, Vastarael managed a soft smile. He looked at them and sighed with a chuckle.
No. This wasn't a dream. He refused to believe it was. Whatever Spheraphase was, whatever he had become… this life was his now. And he was going to live it.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled as his balance returned.
"Alright. Let's get home."
They nodded, and the group began walking once more toward the mansion on the cliffs.
-------
The warm glow of the wall-mounted lights painted a golden hue across the luxurious bedroom, the largest of the four in the seaside mansion.
Vastarael stood by the window. Behind him, Adelasta, Elyonari, and Narisva had already settled onto the bed covered in layered sheets and feather-stuffed pillows. The bedroom was grand enough for all of them. Still, as he stood ther, it was clear something was off.
He turned to them, offering a small, almost sheepish smile.
"I'll, uh… probably sleep in the lounge or the training basement tonight. You three can have the bed. Besides, Divines don't really need sleep."
His voice carried a light tone but they heard the avoidance. Narisva didn't even blink.
"Are you avoiding us?"
He opened his mouth to deflect but he didn't get the chance. A sudden, brutal wave of dizziness slammed through his senses. His vision twisted and his knees buckled. Before he hit the ground, six hands caught him at once. Narisva's grip was strong, her expression instantly serious. Elyonari had already moved to support his other side. Adelasta grabbed his wrist with urgency, her other hand pressed to his chest, trying to gauge his condition on instinct.
"Shit. It's worse than I thought."
Without delay, they moved him to the bed.
Vastarael didn't protest. Or rather, he couldn't. The dizziness was different this time. It wasn't just fatigue. It felt like the essence of his body was shifting, trying to repair itself in real-time while fraying at the seams. He barely registered it when his head was gently laid on Adelasta's lap.
"I'm fine," he whispered, trying to sit up.
"You're not," Adelasta said, her tone cutting and cold.
She ran a hand through his hair to soothe him but her other was already working. Glowing softly with golden light, she activated her Body Reconstruction. Her power gently flowed into him, scanning everything in his body. Then she saw it.
"Oh."
"What?" Elyonari asked quickly.
"His Omniphage has been weak… for five years."
Narisva's eyes sharpened. "That's a Pinnacle Tether. It's not supposed to weaken."
"That's exactly the problem. The Omniphage is a Pinnacle Tether. Which means it also operates under Divine constraints and functions now that he's a Divine."
She swallowed, holding Vastarael's face a little tighter. Her fingers trembled slightly.
"He's been using his Soul Energy way more than his body is supposed to handle. Even though he's undergone Divinity and Soul-Body Conversion as an Aeterium, Soul Energy is still incorporeal. It's not meant to be sustained physically like this."
"I thought only Aeterium could get away with that," Elyonari murmured, sitting on the edge of the bed with worry in her eyes.
"They can but barely," Adelasta said. "But even I don't push my Soul Energy like this, and I'm an Aeterium too. You do realize what this means, right?"
They all fell quiet.
"The dizziness is his own Body Reconstruction trying to keep up. It's forcibly trying to undo the cellular and soul-damage he keeps accumulating every time he unleashes his power. Especially with the Octobehemoth… he pushed too far."
Vastarael exhaled slowly, his eyes closed, listening to every word.
"The only way to heal it faster is to absorb someone else's Soul Energy."
All three women looked at him.
"You never told us that," Narisva said gently.
"I hate doing it," he replied softly. "You know I don't like taking what isn't mine. Soul Energy is intimate. It literally makes it painful."
"But… we're yours," Elyonari whispered. "We've always been yours."
"Even if that means you take part of us," Adelasta said, stroking his hair. "You've never once used us. You've only ever given. Let us give this time."
He didn't respond but the trembling in his chest said more than words ever could.
A long silence passed.
Elyonari sat on his left, leaning close to him, fingers resting gently on his arm. Narisva lay beside him, head propped by her fist, her free hand resting above his heartbeat. And Adelasta cradled his head in her lap, her face stoic but her gaze filled with unreadable emotion.
"Okay," Narisva said at last, her voice breaking the quiet. "We need to talk logistics."
"Logistics?"
Vastarael echoed weakly, his eyes fluttering open.
"Yes," Elyonari chimed in, "about how four full-sized adults are going to sleep in the same bed. And before you say anything, we are not letting you sleep anywhere else."
"I mean…"
"No," all three said at once.
Adelasta clicked her tongue. "I'll stay in the center. Elyonari, you're the coldest, so far right. Narisva's always warm, so far left."
"I do radiate heat," Narisva admitted. "Space and stars, hello?"
"Where does that put me?" Vastarael asked, half a groan.
Adelasta looked down at him. "You? You're the heating pad, dummy. You're in the middle."