As the black tide that had engulfed the entirety of Amphoreus finally vanished, the waters of Styxia underwent a visible transformation as well.
Now, the oppressive gloom that had long shrouded the ocean gradually dispersed into nothingness, allowing the seawater to regain its former clarity once more while faint, shimmering ripples of light quietly drifted beneath the surface.
Noticing the change within the sea, the sea sirens who had remained hidden for so long ultimately swam out from the underwater city, cautiously testing the safety of the outside world by carefully observing the currents, listening to the movements within the ocean, and probing the surrounding waters for quite some time.
After finally confirming that the sea had truly returned to peace, all of them, without any prior agreement, immediately turned toward the direction of a certain palace and began to offer prayers and praises in voices that sounded almost like songs.
"Praise the ocean guardian~!"
"Praise the Ocean King~!"
"It was you who drove away the darkness~!"
"It was you who sheltered our home~!"
One after another, the sea sirens swayed their beautiful fish tails as they sang ethereal melodies filled with gratitude and devotion that continuously spread throughout the seawater.
Their graceful figures danced freely beneath the ocean while they waved their arms, struck the currents, and spun in circles, causing countless ripples to spread across the surrounding sea.
Across the entire seafloor, the name Ocean King echoed relentlessly without cease, accompanied by songs of reverence that seemed to envelop the whole ocean itself.
Phagousa floated silently before their throne, their gaze quietly fixed upon the homeland that had finally been restored to vitality after enduring the long encroachment of darkness, while the heartfelt praises of her Titankin continuously entered their ears.
A relieved smile gradually appeared upon their noble and magnificent face, yet deep within their eyes, there still lingered a faint trace of complexity that could not be concealed completely.
"Lucian..."
"Thank you..."
"Thank you for saving us once again..."
Phagousa murmured softly, their voice blending into the flowing ocean currents, so quiet that only they themself were capable of hearing it.
===
In the nether realm, the cold River of Souls flowed slowly and endlessly through the darkness, while the countless flowers within the vast sea of blossoms swayed gently beneath the dim starlight.
Within these silent surroundings, where only the faint sound of the River of Souls flowing could be heard echoing through the nether realm, Polyxia stood alone amidst the endless flower sea.
Her gaze remained fixed upon the dark sky above, while the sea of flowers illuminated beneath the scattered starlight reflected quietly within her eyes.
"The black tide... seems to have passed..."
"Has he come back...?"
"When will he come to see me?"
Carrying an eternal chill that seemed capable of freezing even time itself, the cold wind of the nether realm lifted Polyxia's pale lavender hair and brushed gently across her delicate figure, scattering her quiet sigh into the darkness along with the fleeting trace of softness hidden deep within her eyes.
===
Okhema, Twilight Courtyard.
Inside his room, Anaxa sat quietly on a high-backed chair with an upright posture and his chin slightly raised, still carrying his usual sharpness and arrogance as though nothing in the world could force him to lower his head.
Only, his entire body was now wrapped in layers of white bandages from head to toe, making him resemble a severely injured patient recovering from a near-fatal wound.
Because he was alone in the room, the surroundings were deathly quiet, so quiet that only the faint sound of his breathing echoed softly through the air.
Soon enough, after several long moments of silence, the bandages wrapped around his body finally began to unravel on their own before gradually vanishing into scattered particles of light, revealing Anaxa beneath them as he slowly opened his eyes once more, his gaze bright, sharp, and filled with his usual intelligence.
"What a miraculous ability... even an eye lost to alchemy's law of equivalent exchange can actually be restored..."
Anaxa muttered to himself in a low voice, a faint trace of awe appearing on his normally arrogant face.
"Now that's what you call a god. Screw those Titans, they're absolutely useless."
Right after he finished mocking the Titans, Anaxa casually reached for the clothes beside him and calmly began getting dressed.
Not long after the black tide had completely disappeared, he immediately returned to the city center after hearing that Mortis had borrowed the divine ability Castorice used before, Godly Bandage.
For the sake of his elder sister, he had reluctantly put aside his pride, maintained a stiff expression the entire time, and personally went to Mortis to request that she restore his left eye, and fortunately, the final result turned out to be far more satisfying than he had expected.
Now, he could once again sacrifice his eye through alchemy and see his elder sister one more time.
After finally finishing dressing, Anaxa pushed open the door and walked out of his room, only to find Mortis and Hyacine already standing outside waiting for him.
"Professor Anaxa, your left eye is really healed!"
Hyacine immediately spoke while clapping her hands together, her face filled with genuine happiness for him.
"Assistant Instructor, I'll teach you another lesson: Lucian is the true god, and the Titans are nothing!"
Anaxa declared proudly as he pointed at his restored left eye before extending his hand toward the city visible outside the window.
"All of this is proof—they are all proof!"
Indeed, when people truly needed salvation and help, the Titans were nowhere to be found. Instead, it was Lucian, someone who was not even physically present in Amphoreus, who ultimately saved everyone.
Even someone as sharp-tongued and stubborn as Anaxa, someone who hated the so-called gods to the very bone, could not help feeling that Lucian, who now seemed like the true god in his eyes—the very existence he should have despised the most—was someone he could genuinely rely on, or at the very least, far more reliable than those useless Titans.
"A-Ah... Is that so...? Maybe..."
Hyacine clearly did not know how she was supposed to respond to that, so she could only give a vague and perfunctory reply while smiling awkwardly.
"Mr. Anaxagoras, if this were the past, then for insulting the Titans like this, I would have smashed your head without hesitation. However, since you are praising Lucian, I will forgive you."
Mortis chimed in with a gentle smile, though it was obvious that the smile on her face was not directed toward Anaxa at all, but toward Lucian instead.
"Mm, thank you, Lady Mortis, for sparing my life. If you happen to see him, please pass along a message for me: Anaxagoras requests an audience."
Anaxa showed Mortis a considerable amount of respect while speaking.
Putting aside her identity as a holy maiden, merely helping him restore his eye alone was already a tremendous favor that he would not easily forget.
"I will send the thank-you gift later. For now, I must take my leave."
Just like that, Anaxa turned around and left, returning to continue his alchemy once more so he could sacrifice one eye again, see his deceased elder sister one more time, and personally tell her to rest easy and patiently wait for the day she would finally be resurrected.
However, there was still one remaining question lingering in his mind.
When exactly would Lucian finally come to Amphoreus?
===
Herta Space Station.
Inside his temporary room, Lucian, after sneezing and wondering who might be complaining about him behind his back, leaned comfortably against the soft sofa while casually holding a cup of hot cocoa in his hand.
Asta sat across from him, her small face slightly flushed as she enthusiastically spoke about her dream, her bright eyes filled with excitement whenever the topic shifted toward astronomy.
"I wanted to become an astronomer, but my family treated it like some kind of heretical side path."
"Until one day, Madam Herta's puppet appeared, and those overbearing elders immediately acted all meek and obedient in front of her."
"Madam Herta said: 'This little girl will do. I traveled all this way just to listen to your incomprehensible academic reports? I'd rather listen to this little girl argue with you. Within three days, I want to see her on my space station.'"
As she spoke, Asta vividly imitated Herta's manner of speaking, doing it so perfectly that even her expression, posture, and tone were almost identical to Herta's—the arrogance in her voice and the dismissive look in her eyes were reproduced with surprising accuracy.
Lucian silently watched her animated expression, a faint smile gradually appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"In that case, I really have to thank Herta. If she hadn't dragged you onto this space station by force, I probably never would've gotten the chance to meet you, let alone have a chat this nice with you."
As soon as Lucian finished speaking, Asta visibly flinched for a moment, clearly feeling a little embarrassed by his straightforward words.
"Uh… I guess… that's true…"
Asta pressed her lips together and responded with a somewhat shy smile, her gaze subconsciously drifting to the side.
However, just as her words fell—
*Beep—Beep—Beep—*
Suddenly, the portable communicator on Asta's wrist rang, the crisp electronic sound immediately breaking the warm atmosphere between them.
When she looked at the screen, she saw that it was a call from Arlan.
[Lady Asta, the limited-edition interstellar plant cultivation pod you ordered has arrived. It requires your personal signature.]
As soon as she heard that, Asta's eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
"Oh! It's here! I'll be right there!"
Almost instantly, Asta stood up from the sofa.
However, because she had moved too quickly after sitting in the same position for quite a while, a numb sensation suddenly spread through her legs.
"Ah!"
As expected, the moment she fully stood up, her right leg suddenly gave out beneath her, causing her body to lose balance and topple to the side!
"Careful."
Lucian reacted extremely quickly.
Almost at the exact same moment, he was already on his feet, stretching out his long arm to firmly wrap it around Asta's slender waist before drawing her into his arms with a gentle pull—the entire motion was smooth and natural, completed in one fluid movement without the slightest hesitation.
Asta only felt her waist tighten before a warm and powerful support came from behind her, instantly dispelling the dizzy sensation that had briefly overtaken her. By the time she regained her senses, she had already landed steadily within his embrace, the faint and pleasant scent from his body lingering softly at the tip of her nose.
Very close.
Extremely close.
Her back was completely pressed against Lucian's solid chest, allowing her to clearly feel his steady heartbeat even through the thin layer of fabric, while the warmth radiating from his body quietly spread across her back, causing the heat already lingering on her flushed face to grow even more intense.
*Ba-dump—!*
*Ba-dump—!*
*Ba-dump—!*
Realizing the position she was currently in, Asta's face turned bright red almost instantly, and even her heartbeat began pounding wildly inside her chest as though it was about to leap out at any moment.
"Th-Thank you!"
Asta jolted violently as if she had just been electrocuted, hurriedly pulling herself out of Lucian's arms before immediately lowering her head in panic and nervously fumbling with her clothes despite the fact that they were not messy in the slightest.
"M-My legs went numb… that's why…"
Not even daring to raise her head to look at Lucian directly, she hurriedly tried to explain herself in a small, embarrassed voice, yet the more she spoke, the more it sounded like she was simply trying to convince herself of that excuse.
Lucian, meanwhile, remained calm from beginning to end, his expression showing almost no change at all as he quietly looked at Asta's thoroughly flustered appearance for a brief moment before slowly withdrawing the hand that had been supporting her waist.
"Mm, next time, slow down a little, okay? If I hadn't been here just now, you probably would've ended up falling pretty hard."
Lucian's voice remained even and tranquil throughout the entire exchange, without the slightest trace of emotional fluctuation, as though the situation just now had been nothing particularly unusual to him.
Honestly, his reaction was only natural, considering this kind of incident was already far from the first time he had experienced something like it.
After encountering the same sort of situation over and over again, he had long since become somewhat accustomed to it and could already remain calm even when a woman suddenly stumbled straight into his arms without any warning.
In fact, ever since transmigrating into this world, the number of women who had somehow stumbled directly into his arms was no longer something that could be counted with merely ten fingers, but had already easily exceeded a hundred.
And the reasons behind those incidents were also astonishingly similar every single time: inexplicable ankle twists, numb legs, sudden slipping, being accidentally pushed over by someone nearby, random dizziness, and various other strange accidents.
It was precisely because of those repeated experiences that he had gradually begun suspecting that he might genuinely possess some kind of lucky pervert trait similar to the ones often possessed by certain protagonists in anime.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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