"Who are you?..."
Seeing the petite little girl, Chtholly looked confused.
For some reason, she could sense an inexplicable feeling of familiarity from her.
"I'm Elq Hrqstn. I've always been watching all of you!"
The red-haired girl pointed around them.
Countless exquisite picture frames floated in every direction across the starry sky.
At first glance, the images inside seemed to be moving, but upon closer inspection, one could see that they were actually individual windows.
Each frame projected all kinds of strange scenes like a live television broadcast.
"Hm?"
Chtholly leaned closer for a look.
Inside a wooden frame beside her, a little girl with light gray hair tied into twin tails sat on a chair, swinging her feet as she ate dessert.
Several younger fairies were fooling around with her nearby.
"I want this one! I want this one!..."
"Don't fight over them. There's enough for everyone."
An Angeloid gently placed them back into their seats.
"Nephren and Collon? Is this aboard the Astral Express?"
Chtholly froze, then turned her head.
The picture frame beside it showed another perspective.
A blue-haired fairy wearing a headscarf was boarding a spacecraft from another floating island.
"Floating Island No. 76. Two adult fairy soldiers and sixteen juvenile fairies in total. Headcount complete. Preparing to return."
Rita and Raven checked the roster before leading the fairies onto the shuttle to rendezvous with the Astral Express.
Through even more frames and perspectives, she saw everything happening across the floating continents, especially everything involving the Leprechauns.
Most of the fairies were aboard the Astral Express, while others were scattered across different islands, working various jobs for the trading companies or assigned to ruin-salvage teams.
One after another, they encountered members of the Starsea Empire's train crews. Having received orders from the Great Sage, the Winged Guard efficiently completed the transfer procedures.
"You can see everything?"
Chtholly jumped in surprise.
She realized that every picture frame represented the perspective of a different Leprechaun.
Every aspect of every Leprechaun's life and movements lay before her eyes. One frame even reflected her own image.
It showed everything from her meeting Setsuna, being brought aboard the Astral Express, lying down on the bed and being drawn into her consciousness space, all the way to their meeting here.
"Mm. From five hundred years ago until now, I've watched every single one of you and every day of your lives."
The little girl sat on the bed, swaying her head as she spoke.
"You've always been fighting the Beasts, dying, gaining another body and identity, coming back to life, then fighting again... and dying again."
"Over and over, you've repeated that cycle for hundreds of years."
"Everyone was the same. Born, trained, awakened, fought, died, then recreated by the Great Sage and Ebon Candle. Nothing ever changed."
As she spoke, she pointed at Setsuna.
"Until just now! A big brother on a starship arrived! He took all of you away. Mm, now even I don't know what's going to happen next."
Elq moved closer to Setsuna and looked up at him curiously.
"Mm..."
"You look like us, but you aren't one of our kind."
"Huh?!"
Chtholly was shocked.
"What exactly is going on?..."
"She's the last Visitor."
Setsuna crouched in front of Elq and gently patted her head.
"She's also the collective source of all the Leprechauns' souls. Mm... if we're going by seniority, Chtholly, I suppose all of you should call her Mom."
"Huh?!"
Although Leprechauns were products of necromancy, Chtholly simply couldn't bring herself to call a little girl who wasn't even 1.2 meters tall her mother.
"Big Brother, you know everything?"
Elq bounced around happily.
"After Black, Red, and Jade left, no one's played with me for a really long time. All I could do was stay here and watch them live their lives, mm..."
Elq Hrqstn.
She was the final survivor of the Visitors. Five hundred years ago, during humanity's war against the Visitors, the hero's party plunged the Dug Weapon Seniorious into Elq's body, causing her to fall into a long slumber.
At the same time, Elq's soul was shattered. Those fragments retained a portion of the Visitors' power and were used by the Great Sage as the cores of the Leprechauns, allowing them to wield Dug Weapons against the "Beasts."
The soul of every Leprechaun could be regarded as a part of her. As a result, every Leprechaun's soul was incomplete and would gradually fade away.
Elq could also resonate with the Leprechauns' souls, indirectly influencing their memories and emotions.
"Then... why are you still here?"
Chtholly asked.
"I already told you. This is her consciousness space."
"Elq's body is sealed inside a barrier. Only her consciousness can communicate with all of you through the soul fragments."
Setsuna stroked Elq's head.
"Do you want to live as a person again? Together with the Leprechauns."
"But I've already been killed."
Elq tilted her head.
"And Big Brother, if you want to save all the Leprechauns, don't you have to break apart my soul even more? Isn't that why you came here?"
Because she possessed the perspectives of every Leprechaun, she had naturally seen and heard everything Setsuna had done.
"The Leprechauns' souls are incomplete right now. If you want to strengthen them, wouldn't you have to split off even more power from me?"
"...Do all of you have persecution complexes?"
Setsuna was rendered speechless and tapped Elq on the forehead.
The two of them were theoretically only consciousness bodies, yet somehow they physically touched.
Whoosh—
A surge of power poured into the little girl's body.
"I have as much power as I could ever need. I don't need that tiny bit of yours."
"I came here to repair your soul so I can bring you out. From now on, you'll stay together with the Leprechauns. The whole family should stay together."
"Mm—"
A faint radiance began surrounding Elq, making her seem as though she were bathing in sunlight.
The soul of a Visitor was originally vast beyond measure. Ordinary beings on the surface would suffer mental collapse merely from looking directly at one, but before Setsuna, this otherworldly "Aeon," Elq felt like nothing more than a tiny speck.
An immense power poured into her body, gradually filling in the portions of her soul that had once been shattered while also severing the connection between Elq and the other fairies.
That would prevent any further resonance between them from causing the fairies' minds and bodies to break down.
"So warm..."
In a daze, Elq felt as though she had returned to her childhood, nestled in her parents' embrace.
Ever since the heroes shattered her soul, she had remained here alone, watching the countless fairy incarnations formed from her consciousness live their lives.
The spreading power gradually dyed the entire consciousness space pure white.
Her consciousness dissolved into it as well.
No one knew how much time passed.
Whoosh—
Chtholly's vision blurred.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the Astral Express.
She rubbed her head and sat up from the bed, with Herta and a group of train crew members gathered around her.
"Huh? Was I dreaming? What happened?..."
Communication within the consciousness space happened extremely quickly. To everyone else, only a minute or two had passed.
She turned her head and suddenly noticed someone new beside Setsuna.
A little girl with red hair and red eyes was nestled in Setsuna's arms, rubbing her head against his chest as though she were having a pleasant dream.
"???"
"Commander, I blinked once. Where did you suddenly conjure another loli from?!"
Gudako was stunned.
"Weren't you supposed to be treating Chtholly's soul?"
"Mm?..."
Elq slowly opened her eyes, and Setsuna set her down on the floor.
Only then did everyone notice that the little girl was actually in a spiritual state.
"She's the last Visitor, and she's also the mother of all the fairies."
Setsuna cleared his throat.
"If she remained inside the consciousness space, she'd continue resonating with the other Leprechauns' souls and interfere with their minds. So after repairing her soul, I brought her out first."
"Once all the fairies have been gathered together, I'll replenish their mana all at once—no, I mean treat them."
"Also, Elq's physical body is still buried in the underground ruins. Come on. Let's go dig her out and deal with the rest of this world's problems while we're at it."