Anaxa cleared his throat, trying to reclaim his professorial authority, but a faint, almost imperceptible tremor and excitement laced his voice:
"Phaethon of Aedes Elysia..." It was the first time Anaxa had addressed Phaethon so formally, using his full name and origin.
"The question you posed... is very, very interesting! It touches upon a core blind spot regarding the Titans that we have never before considered!"
He returned to the center of the podium, attempting to continue the lecture. "According to... hm... the confirmed methods for determining Titan numbers in ancient texts... and... the socio-cognitive structures of that era..."
But his speech had noticeably slowed, his eyes frequently losing focus. It was clear his mind was no longer on the lesson at hand.
Anyone could see that this Sage, renowned for his rigorous logic, had his thoughts soaring beyond the clouds, completely captivated by Phaethon's earth-shattering question: "Demi-gods as Titans?"
The question Phaethon posed was like a key, violently jamming itself into and unlocking the most stubborn, and most eagerly-to-be-opened lock in the depths of Anaxa's mind.
The bell signaling the end of class rang like a hurried cadence. Anaxa almost immediately turned on his heel and strode out of the gradually noisier lecture hall without even his customary icy dismissal.
The seemingly casual question Phaethon had tossed out was like a massive boulder dropped into a deep pond, stirring up monstrous waves from the silt that had settled over centuries at the bottom of Anaxa's mental lake. The aftershocks refused to die down, lingering and relentlessly eroding the banks of his understanding.
Hyacine looked worriedly towards the direction the professor had vanished, then at Phaethon.
Phaethon merely shrugged, wearing an innocent expression of "I just asked a question," but a glint of planned understanding flashed deep in his eyes.
Anaxa did not return to his office, nor did he go to his private library.
He moved like a ghost through the massive, intertwining branches of The Grove, arriving at a secluded observation deck, a place almost never visited.
It was far from the noise. Here, there was only the distant, unchanging light of the Dawn Device and the vast, dead, churning sea of clouds below.
"What is a Demi-god? A Golden Descendant who has received the Titan's Flame core, the pinnacle of power in this world..."
"What is a Titan? An eternal existence running through historical records, one that shaped the heavens and the earth, forged the world. The source of power, the cornerstone of faith..."
"If a Demi-god traveled to the past... in that era of ignorant cognition and frail power, the miracles they displayed, how would they differ from Titans? Wouldn't being revered as Titans be... natural?"
"No... This hypothesis is meaningless!" He shook his head violently, trying to dispel the "absurd" thought. "Time cannot flow backwards! Demi-gods cannot travel through time! This is an iron law! It is..."
"Unless..."
An even more horrifying, more subversive idea, like a venomous snake lurking in the darkness, suddenly raised its head and sank its fangs into Anaxa's mind!
He saw—
"What if the Demi-gods... did not go to the past, but rather... proceeded into the future?"
The "Recreation" from the Prophecy: That "reforging of heaven and earth," sung by countless believers, symbolizing hope and rebirth... was its true nature... really... just creation?
Was it possible... it was actually destruction instead? A complete end and reboot?! Like... wiping the canvas clean to paint anew?
The Creator God Kephale, that Kephale revered as the origin of all things, the supremely good and exalted... Was He truly a God of "Creation"?
Could He be... actually... a God of World-Annihilation?! A cold executor ending the old epoch?
Were the Titans the "Golden Descendants" of the previous epoch? And the "Golden Descendants" of this world would ultimately become the "Titans" of the next? A cruel, cold, endless cycle?
Or an even darker conjecture: The Titans... never truly 'died'? They merely exist in another form, lying in wait?
The so-called "Flame-Chase Journey"... could it fundamentally be an elaborately designed deception spanning countless epochs?
A process by which the Titans, to prolong their own long-decayed yet unwilling-to-perish "existence," constantly seek, parasitize, and ultimately devour the bodies of those most powerful Golden Descendants who carry their "Flame Core"?!
Anaxa clutched his chest as if struck by an invisible hammer! He staggered back a step, his spine hitting the cold stone railing with a thud.
The biting cold seeped through his clothes, but it was nothing compared to the soul-freezing icy fear within him.
The excitement and elation that should have erupted like a volcano from unraveling such "Truth" didn't even have time to stir a ripple in his heart before it was instantly swallowed by the ensuing, vaster, more profound, more despairing darkness!
No... No more... He couldn't think about this anymore! Speculation! This is all baseless speculation!
Speculation is meaningless! It only drags one into the quagmire of despair! Practice! Only practice! Is the sole criterion for testing truth!
The confusion and fear in Anaxa's eyes receded like a tide, replaced by a near-fanatic, burning determination.
He had to act! He had to find evidence! Whether to prove the existence of this dark cycle or to completely shatter this suffocating conjecture!
Anaxa took one last, deep look at the churning endless sea of clouds below and the distant Dawn Device, as if searing that devouring dark vision into his heart.
He turned sharply, his black robes fluttering, and strode away from the deck towards his private research chamber.
The Sage of the Nousporism school had already set foot on the thorny path to seek something that could overturn the world's understanding, even if the "Truth" itself was the deepest darkness.
...
Two weeks later,
"Professor, this is the seventh time!" Hyacinthia stood outside Anaxa's research chamber.
"Even if you don't want to teach, you should at least notify the students in adv...!"
The chamber door suddenly swung open. Anaxa stepped out. There was no expected exhaustion, dark circles, or sunken madness. It was as if Anaxa had simply entered his chamber as usual, then directly skipped two weeks inside.
"Hyacinthia, your stubbornness is truly... Forget it. Let's go. Allow me to teach my students their final lesson."
...
"... this concludes your final lesson at The Grove."
"From now on, you all have your own paths to walk. How much the knowledge you've learned from me will aid you depends entirely on your own ability to comprehend it."
"However, I warn you—should you commit any disgraceful acts in the future, do not, under any circumstances, announce to the world that you were my students..."
"Hm... though you could perhaps discredit Aglaea instead."