Returning from the volcano, Skyl had now dealt with every Shardbearer in the Lands Between except Godrick.
This world no longer possessed any objects he considered truly precious. Its people, however, remained treasures he valued deeply.
Gods were a peculiar kind of life-form that sustained themselves on thoughts and devotion. That was why stories about gods fighting viciously over followers were so common.
Skyl, however, had little need for worshippers.
He had condensed the outer shell of his thoughtform into a Gem of Self (Self Stone), granting himself an eternal, unchanging identity. Much like the indestructible diamond described in ancient scriptures, his essence could neither increase nor diminish.
Although this prevented his power from growing through conventional means, it also meant he wouldn't drop dead from a lack of worshippers.
Essentially, he had secured himself a divine pension. Whether times were good or bad, his basic needs were guaranteed, and he would never have to worry about making ends meet.
Consequently, Skyl didn't value the people of the Lands Between because he wanted to raise them like livestock and harvest the thought-strings they produced.
He simply appreciated their intelligence and ingenuity.
The more devastated a land became, and the more suffering its people endured, the greater their potential to create an extraordinary new era.
That was one of life's peculiar paradoxes. Laughter born from the depths of sorrow could be the most infectious, while the death of something truly beautiful could break a person's heart more completely than anything else.
According to the reports, when Rykard finally died, the mournful songs of the departed spirits echoed throughout the skies above the volcano.
One by one, they faded away, following their vanished ideals into oblivion.
Before departing, however, they entrusted a tattered military banner to Godfrey and asked him to deliver it to Skyl.
When waved, the banner could summon the Gelmir Knights to fight for its bearer.
Skyl turned it into a reward for clearing the volcano instanced plane.
As for the surviving members of Volcano Manor, they would have to stand trial.
The sole exception was the Tarnished. She had only recently joined the organization and hadn't even had time to begin working before the entire enterprise collapsed, so she was released without charges.
A small-time merchant named Patches had also been arrested at Volcano Manor.
He loudly protested his innocence, claiming that he had merely been running a street stall outside the company's headquarters and had absolutely nothing to do with its employees.
Unfortunately, his shifty eyes kept darting toward Tanith. It was obvious that the fellow had taken a fancy to the company's beautiful CEO.
Although he called himself a humble merchant, most of his merchandise consisted of odds and ends scavenged from battlefields.
Evidently, he made his living by looting and scavenging, with a healthy side business in swindling, cheating, and occasionally luring unsuspecting victims into elaborate traps.
After the Tarnished identified him, Patches was also ordered to be escorted to the royal capital.
Of course, given his particular talents, he would probably escape somewhere along the road.
This fellow had originally come from Dark Souls to make a guest appearance. Someone capable of wandering between entire worlds was not to be underestimated.
After bidding farewell to the heroic spirits, Skyl said goodbye to Godfrey as well.
"Farewell, young man. You still have a long road ahead of you, but this old man will be staying here. I'm getting too old to keep wandering. When I die, I intend to be buried in my homeland."
Godfrey spoke with heartfelt sincerity.
"Take good care of yourself, lad. Stay healthy, and whenever you have some spare time, come visit us in Leyndell. Morgott and I will treat you to the finest, strongest wine, the fattest lambs, and the plumpest squabs we can find."
Skyl knew that they would meet twice more.
The first reunion would occur in his heavily modified version of The Lord of the Elden Rings, where Godfrey would appear as an NPC.
The second would come shortly before Godfrey's death, when Skyl would visit him one final time to bid him farewell.
Parting was a strange thing.
At the moment of an initial farewell, another reunion always seemed possible. The future appeared to contain an endless number of opportunities to meet again.
But as the days passed, there would eventually come a moment when one realized that another meeting would never happen.
Only then was the farewell truly complete.
Before that moment, two people were merely separated by time and space.
In the years to come, Skyl would make countless new friends and experience countless more farewells with old ones.
He was like a rock standing beside a river, watching the water flow endlessly past him.
Every single droplet was bidding him goodbye.
Millicent seemed to have guessed what he was thinking.
Throughout their return journey, she stayed close beside him, her body gently pressed against his arm.
She said nothing.
She was like a sentient weapon from a fantasy novel, one that would tremble softly whenever its master was in danger.
After leaving the volcano, they still had another day or two of traveling ahead of them, so the group set up camp on the Altus Plateau.
They were in no hurry and spent each day taking their time.
Technically, they were faculty members and students from a magic academy enjoying a trip together, but their school certainly wasn't going to send them letters demanding that they return.
Thops and Doniel frequently took Moli into instanced planes.
The three spent their days shouting and cheering excitedly, behaving like a bunch of gaming nerds.
Naturally, their strength also improved considerably.
One evening, a bitterly cold wind swept across the campsite, making the tents howl and rattle.
Skyl lay beneath the blankets.
Millicent's cool, honey-colored eyes, reminiscent of a tiger's amber gaze, wandered over his face.
A fine sheen of sweat had dampened her bangs. When a cold draft slipped through a gap in the tent, goosebumps spread across her entire body.
Her skin felt like the soft, springy surface of an orange peel.
Skyl noticed immediately.
He raised a finger toward the tent.
All three tents suddenly began to tremble. Thick layers of fur sprouted across their outer surfaces, completely blocking the wind.
Inside, a gentle magical breeze began circulating, continuously supplying fresh, pleasantly warm air.
"Mmm."
Millicent murmured softly.
She got up to wash and used a dry towel to wipe away the sticky sweat covering her body.
Then she sat down at the little desk inside the tent, opened a notebook, and resumed studying.
Skyl turned his head.
Through the gaps in the back of her chair, he caught glimpses of her slender, pale figure, like a delicate white fish swimming through clear water.
Her red hair swayed beneath the lamplight like strands of seaweed floating in a sunlit sea.
To reassure Millicent, Skyl had spent a great deal of time discussing his own experiences with her.
He explained how to conduct oneself in front of a classroom, prepare lesson plans, and organize lectures.
The Academy of Raya Lucaria was relatively flexible when it came to academic subjects.
Professors could teach whatever they wanted. Students were free to attend their lectures or leave whenever they pleased.
Whether they actually learned anything was their own responsibility.
A professor's job wasn't necessarily to ensure that every student mastered the material. More often, the task was simply to point students in the right direction and introduce them to new ways of thinking.
After all, the sorcerers of Raya Lucaria weren't young witches and wizards from Hogwarts.
Most of them possessed the ability to conduct completely independent research.
Compared with their instructors, what they primarily lacked was a broader intellectual perspective.
Millicent looked thoroughly miserable.
She was completely unqualified for this sort of work.
Her knowledge was still at the level of basic arithmetic, while the material she was expected to teach was practically advanced calculus.
It was like lying on a résumé, somehow landing the job, and then realizing that everyone would discover the deception the moment she walked into the office.
Nevertheless, she had no intention of backing down.
Whenever she had free time, she entered instanced planes to farm Candle Coins, hoping to purchase advanced glintstone sorcery skills as soon as possible.
Skyl suddenly felt as though he were a kept man living off the generosity of a female professor.
Millicent spent her evenings studying diligently beneath the lamplight, burying herself in lesson plans whenever she had a spare moment.
Meanwhile, he lay beside her like a retired old man, watching her work.
Come to think of it, wasn't he living the American dream?
A beautiful, hardworking wife with a prestigious career, while he stayed home and enjoyed the benefits.
The thought made Skyl chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Millicent asked, turning her head sharply.
"I was just thinking. Suppose you continue working as a professor at Raya Lucaria. Meanwhile, I'll settle down in the town outside the Academy and open a restaurant."
He smiled as he imagined the scene.
"Every day, I'll wait for you to finish work and come home. We'll sit together at the dining table while our customers enjoy their meals, laughing and chatting in the dining room."
"You'll rub your temples wearily and tell me about all the annoying things that happened at the Academy. Meanwhile, I'll put food on your plate and listen attentively, behaving like a cautious, middle-aged husband who earns less than his wife..."
Millicent's eyes lit up.
"Yes! And there should be children in the restaurant, too!"
She eagerly continued painting the picture.
"They'll run around everywhere. Every now and then, they'll come over and beg us for something to eat, but after taking just a couple of bites, they'll run off to play again."
"Eventually, they'll get so tired that they'll be panting like puppies. Only then will they finally sit down and behave themselves."
"We can talk about that when we return to Skylrael," Skyl replied. "That's my city, the hometown I've prepared for all of you."
"All right. Anywhere is fine with me."
The following morning, the grasslands outside the tents were blanketed in white frost.
"Winter's coming. It's been such a long time since I've seen winter."
"Time and space have been behaving strangely ever since the Shattering. The Altus Plateau has been trapped in autumn for years. Now that the Erdtree has fallen, winter is finally arriving."
Millicent ran across the frost-covered landscape with little Moli riding on her back.
Skyl stood alone on the grasslands, surrounded by the pale dew of late autumn.
He heard footsteps approaching.
Melina came to stand beside him.
Together, they gazed toward the sun hanging above the horizon.
"Skyl, are you afraid of saying goodbye?"
She had remained silent for a long time before suddenly asking the question.
"Of course not. To you, time is a river that flows in only one direction. But history is merely my memory. Whenever I recall something from the past, I return to that very moment in time and space."
"Then is the person you are right now simply a memory belonging to some future version of yourself?"
"Always, and never. I have neither a future nor a past. I am history itself."
"That sounds wonderful. Then you'll never have to feel sad."
"Melina, there isn't anyone who never feels sadness."
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