The man was seated on the Overseer's throne amidst the cheers of the people. He completely reshaped the decaying and ruined Schicksal.
For some reason, the man built the newly born Schicksal into a highly sophisticated organization that could continue to function even after the Overseer left, following a brief period of chaos.
Perhaps he once held a beautiful fantasy that one morning, he would wake up and a peerless white-haired heroine would scale the high castle walls of the Apocalypse family and appear before him once again.
And his children could frolic and play carefreely on the castle lawn, circling around him and her.
The man had this dream for a hundred years. The notebook that Snow Apocalypse had stumbled upon long ago in a virtual reality simulation within Schicksal's database still lay quietly in the Apocalypse Family castle.
However, if anyone were to actually open that notebook, they would likely discover that the date of its final entry was a full four hundred years ago.
[I dreamed of you again, Kallen, and our children... Theresa, and Snow...]
The man gently brushed the dust off the book's cover. This ancient notebook had undergone extremely excellent preservation and weatherproofing, allowing its owner to flip through it freely.
And this time, after more than four hundred years, the owner of the book took out his pen for the first time in a long time, sketching new characters on the paper.
[It's been so long since I've had a dream like this... Family, children, friends... everything that was once within reach yet out of reach appeared before me... Perhaps I'm just too nervous... But there's one thing I can be sure of...]
[This will likely be my last diary entry.... If you find this diary, then I think, you must be one of my two children.... Snow Apocalypse, or Theresa Apocalypse....]
[But, no matter who reveals this diary..... please promise or help me convey one thing to me—children of the Apocalypse family.... please do not grieve for me, I am not worth anyone's tears or remembrance.]
"She will ascend to the highest heavens, I will lift her throne upon the stars of the divine assembly, she will sit on that mountain of gathering, in the uttermost north, she will be equal to the Supreme Being...."
"Yet I must fall into the underworld, to the deepest part of that pit....."
The man sat at the desk humming softly, writing the final line of the diary; the pen fell, the humming stopped, the man's originally anxious and uneasy emotions returned to calm as the final stroke of the diary fell; he sat in the chair, stroking a few photographs in his hand, then picked up the scissors nearby and carefully trimmed them.
Those were photographs that spanned five hundred years of light and shadow, belonging to his lover, his former students, and his few recognized friends... as well as his children—
All originating from different periods of the man's life, from ancient, yellowed, and faded ones to brand new and glossy ones, they had all been carefully trimmed by him. The man cut off the edges of the photos, leaving only the people in them. Then he pasted these individual photographs onto the last page of the notebook: himself, Kallen, Eleanor, Theresa, Snow... The blonde man thought for a moment, then rummaged through the desk drawer and found a few more photos...
"Azure Empyrea... Li Sushang... and Welt Joyce..."
It seemed the final puzzle piece had fallen into place. The man carefully arranged the pasted photographs in the diary. Then he closed the diary, seemed to remember something, and hurriedly reopened it to tear off his own photo—
Please do not grieve for me, my family, my friends. The meanness, I will take it to the grave. The Light will reach the future because of you...
Please do not mourn me. I accept my own death. Above me, below you:
His fingers traced each carefully trimmed photograph. This was an album that could hardly be defined as a family portrait. His gaze finally came to rest on the few color photographs, those of the youngest person in this collection and the last one to enter the man's life.
In the photographs, the blonde girl's expression was inexplicably sorrowful. She seemed to be staring at him right before his eyes: Snow Apocalypse, the final gift this man received in his life.
"It's snowing again... Is it that time of year already?"
At the very end of the original diary, the man decided on a name for his second daughter on a snowy day. In the snowy night before the millennium of the year 1999, by a whim of the man or the arrangement of fate, he stepped into the laboratory. An invisible God rolled a hundred-sided die for this man's luck and came up with a one.
The embryo, born of his own whim and inheriting the bloodlines of both himself and Kallen, emitted its first spark of thought-wave at the stroke of midnight, witnessed by the man's own eyes. This child, who truly came into the world on that snowy night, inherited the name the man had long prepared for her:
[Snow]
Snow Apocalypse: the Revelation and Holy Child born on a snowy night.
It was also in this same year that the man faced his first real dilemma as he watched the girl climb up and down his body. And in this same year, amidst the sobs of a child crying for her mother, the man truly solidified his resolve. In the Millennium's Catastrophe, countless people vanished from the world forever at this very moment, and countless others were left homeless.
"Do not stand at my grave and weep, for I am not there, I do not sleep."
"I am the sweeping wind, a thousand threads; I am the diamond in the snow, shining brightly; I am the warm sunlight, caressing the rice stalks; I am the gentle rain of autumn, soft and tender."
The blonde God and the white-haired Saintess did not come to St. Freya Academy's secret underground base, nor did they visit the Academy's Academic Building. Instead, the God held a golden bouquet of flowers in his hand as they arrived at the most solemn place in the Academy.
"When you awaken to the morning's peace, amidst the quiet circling of birds; I soar with unrestrained passion; and in the night lit by stars; I am the gentle radiance of the countless constellations."
Kallen accepted one of the bouquets the young girl handed her. The Saintess, having heard the story of the Second Eruption, had requested to come here. Two people from different eras stood before the solemn black monument erected to commemorate all the victims of the Second Eruption, performing the same action for different reasons...
"Do not stand at my grave and weep, for I am not there, I have not gone away."