The white swallowed everything. We were on an endless white void stretching in every direction.
I blinked instinctively, even though I knew it didn't matter in a memory space. The sensation of weight returned under my feet and when I looked down, there was a white floor. Veneri stood beside me, quiet as always but I could tell something was off. He wasn't his usual calm self. His shoulders were stiff and his gaze was distant, like he was replaying everything we had just seen over and over again in his head.
A few meters ahead of us, Elyonari sat on the floor.
She wasn't armored. She wasn't bleeding. She wasn't the terrifying, divine figure we had just watched guiding millions of souls. She looked… small. Her knees were drawn slightly inward with hands resting limply in her lap as she stared into nothing. It was like the memory had stripped her down to just the girl she had been at the end of that night. She had a long white sleeveless dress.
I knew she couldn't see me. Her head tilted slightly and she glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes passed through where I stood without pause and then saw Veneri. He stepped forward without a word and when he reached her, he simply lowered himself and sat beside her.
He just sat there, staring ahead like she had been doing. Seconds passed and then minutes continued to pass.
The silence stretched longer and longer that even I started feeling awkward just watching them. Ely kept glancing at him from the corner of her eye, clearly waiting for him to say something but he didn't. He just sat there.
Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore.
"Are you… going to say something?"
He didn't respond. She nudged his shoulder.
"Veneri. You should at least speak. You saw everything, even my entire life before I met you. Why are you silent—"
She stopped mid-sentence when he finally looked at her. And the moment their eyes met, Ely went completely quiet.
I've seen Veneri angry before but it was extremely rare. He usually handled everything with that calm, almost amused composure of his. But this was different. His eyes weren't just annoyed or frustrated. They were cold. And beneath all of that, there was disappointment.
"For a beloved who keeps telling me to stop risking my life, you don't seem to take your own advice."
She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She had expected sympathy, comfort, maybe even an apology for witnessing her past without permission.
She did not expect this and neither did I.
Veneri let out a long, irritated groan and dragged a hand down his face.
"You're all hiding your past from me just because you think I'll see you differently? Seriously? That might be one of the most deranged thing I've ever heard in my entire life."
Ely flinched.
"What I just saw was how your life actually was. You were abandoned by your own mother. You trained yourself into becoming a Grandmaster in archery because no one else was going to protect you. You endured suffering, humiliation and pain just to survive. And on your Second Birthday, you lost everything you had left. So what? What exactly did you think would happen after I saw that? That I'd suddenly abandon you? That I'd start looking at you like you're broken or pathetic? I didn't have anything to say at first but now, I have a lot."
"Why would I tell you? I'm a woman. My burdens are mine to bear."
He turned his head slowly to look at her. His disbelief was clear on his face.
"Then why do I have to share my burdens with you and the others?"
"Because you're supposed to! You're not in your home world anymore, Veneri. This is Spheraphase. Women dominate here. We don't cry about our problems. We don't go around sharing our weaknesses just to feel better. We endure them. That's how we survive."
And then, for the first time since I had known him…
Veneri slapped her.
We both froze in shock.
Her head had snapped to the side from the impact. A faint red mark bloomed on her cheek where his hand had struck her. She stared at him in pure shock, completely unable to process what had just happened.
I couldn't believe it either.
Veneri has never hit anyone, not even once. He always controlled himself. Seeing him lose control like that literally sent a chill down my spine.
"I wasn't concerned before about the past of my beloveds. I thought you could all handle it. I thought your pasts were just… troublesome. Nothing too serious."
He let out a harsh laugh that held no humor.
"Turns out you all had absolutely shitty childhoods."
Ely's gaze dropped to the floor. Her hand slowly rose to touch her cheek. She didn't look angry. She didn't look like she was about to retaliate. She just looked… stunned.
"And now I finally understand why the World Tree told me to focus more on your pasts. It's holding you back. Every single unresolved piece of trauma you've buried is still affecting you."
Ely's shoulders slumped slightly, but she stayed silent.
"From now on, I'm going to be strict. I've been the nice guy for far too long. Is that how you all see me? You see me as someone so sensitive and fragile that you have to hide your past from me so I won't break?"
She shook her head weakly but he cut her off before she could speak.
"I thought your pasts were just inconvenient. I thought it was something you didn't like talking about and nothing that could truly damage you. But now, I see the real issue."
He leaned back slightly with a scoff.
"I'm basically a therapist now. Seriously. I'm in love with five women whose lives are straight-up hell. Is my Bane really that terrible that it dragged me toward people with this much trauma?"
Ely opened her mouth, trying to speak, but he raised a hand sharply.
"Don't. Just… don't speak right now."
She shut her mouth instantly.
I had never seen Elyonari Mintheris look this submissive before. She sat there quietly with her hands clasped together in her lap and her head slightly bowed like a scolded child.
"I care about this because Divinity isn't a joke. The Fifth Enlightenment isn't just another power-up. It rewrites your body and soul so you can handle godhood. If you go through that transformation while your past is still poisoning you, you'll start losing your emotions. You'll become detached. Eventually… you'll forget why you loved me in the first place."
That hit her. I saw it in the way her fingers tightened.
"And I promised myself that I'm not going to let any of you go. If I have to be the bad guy to drag your trauma out into the open and make you confront it, then so be it. I don't care if you hate me for it. I'm not letting you reach the Fifth Enlightenment without accepting who you really are."
The white space stayed silent.
Ely's mind was clearly struggling to process the fact that the one person she had trusted to always be gentle with her had just crossed a line she never thought he would.
And honestly, I was just as shocked.
Because for the first time since I met him, Veneri wasn't acting like the kind, endlessly patient man we had all grown used to.
He was acting like someone who was terrified of losing the people he loved and was willing to become someone they might hate just to keep them by his side.