The world returned slowly like a candle being relit in a vast dark room.
Solance opened his eyes to a sky washed in soft lavender, clouds drifting like long sighs across the horizon.
He lay on warm, glowing earth, the grass beneath him swaying gently as though greeting him back to existence.
He blinked, disoriented.
No collapsing birthplace.
No system tearing the sky apart.
No Ariasen screaming in sacrifice.
For the first time since entering this unfinished world, there was silence.
Real silence.
A silence wide enough to fit hope into.
Solance slowly sat up, pressing a trembling hand to his chest.
The shard inside him pulsed a storm of four radiant colors swirling in quiet harmony:
Remembrance.
Balance.
Healing.
Compassion.
Every breath felt heavier now not painful, but meaningful, as if every inhale carried the memory of Ariasen's gift.
He whispered into the soft air:
"Aurelianth…?
Lioren…?"
His voice floated across a meadow blooming with star-shaped flowers their petals rising upward like glowing sparks before dissolving into the sky.
A soft groan answered from behind him.
Solance spun around.
Aurelianth was waking slowly, half-sprawled on his side, his golden hair spread like sunlight over the grass.
His wings curled protectively around him, still shimmering faintly even while unconscious.
"Aurelianth!"
Solance stumbled over the glowing grass and dropped to his knees beside him.
He shook his shoulder gently.
"Aurelianth...please wake up..."
Golden eyes cracked open.
At the sight of Solance, Aurelianth exhaled shakily a breath that sounded like pure relief.
"Solance…"
Solance didn't wait.
He threw himself into Aurelianth's arms.
"I thought you were gone...
I thought the system erased everything...
I thought..."
Aurelianth wrapped him tightly in a trembling embrace.
"I'm here.
I'm right here.
We're alive."
Solance pressed his face into Aurelianth's shoulder, relief washing over him in waves until his body shook.
Aurelianth held him closer.
"You kept us alive.
Don't forget that."
Before Solance could respond, a second voice groaned nearby:
"Oh stars…
I feel like I've been punched by a newborn sun…"
Lioren slowly pushed herself up, arms shaking, hair messy enough to frighten small wildlife.
Solance darted over and hugged her too.
"Lioren!"
She blinked, startled then scoffed softly and hugged him back.
"Okay, okay you're crushing my ribs actually wait, I think my ribs are already crushed, go easy on me..."
Aurelianth joined them, placing a hand on both of their shoulders.
They were bruised.
Exhausted.
Shaken.
But alive.
The meadow stretched endlessly a calm sea of blue grass, the air shimmering with soft particles like drifting memory-light.
Lioren squinted.
"…Where are we?"
Aurelianth knelt, pressing his palm to the ground.
A faint golden hum answered.
"This place is ancient.
Older than the system.
Older than most of Ariasen's creation."
Solance touched the grass gently.
"It feels warm."
"Because it's breathing,"
Aurelianth murmured.
Solance's breath caught he'd heard that warmth before.
"Ariasen…
Did they bring us here?"
A faint whisper brushed the edge of Solance's hearing:
"…Little dawn…
Walk forward…"
His heart clenched.
He rose, turning toward the direction the whisper came from.
The grass parted softly as something approached.
A shape coalesced out of shimmering particles first a swirl, then a form, then a creature.
It stepped forward with silent grace:
A deer-like being sculpted from wind and pale starlight, its body a constant swirl of luminous mist, its antlers branching like constellations.
It was breathtakingly beautiful and undeniably alive.
Solance gasped softly.
Aurelianth stepped protectively in front of him but did not summon his shield.
Lioren conjured small amber blades just in case.
The creature bowed its head.
Aurelianth whispered:
"…It's greeting us."
Lioren lowered her blades.
"So… not hostile."
Solance reached toward it instinctively.
The creature stepped forward and lowered its luminous head until its antlers brushed his palm.
Warm light flooded Solance's fingers not burning, not shocking.
Just warm.
Comforting.
The creature's voice wasn't sound.
It was sensation.
Emotion.
A pulse of reassurance.
A promise of guidance.
A gentle whisper:
You are not lost.
Walk.
Follow.
Breathe.
Solance's eyes softened.
"I understand…"
Aurelianth exhaled.
"You… can read it?"
"I don't know how,"
Solance admitted.
"But it feels like… a memory speaking to me."
Lioren smirked.
"That's what happens when you eat four god-fragments for breakfast."
Solance flushed crimson.
"Lioren!"
The creature stepped back and turned facing the distant horizon.
There, rising like a spine of light, was a mountain unlike any Solance had ever seen.
Not rocky.
Not grey.
Golden.
Violet.
Breathing with gentle pulses of light.
Aurelianth straightened.
"The Mountain of Second Breath."
Lioren folded her arms.
"So that's our next hell destination."
Solance gazed at it, breath trembling.
"That's… where the final purpose sleeps."
The shard pulsed as if confirming his words.
"…Yes."
The creature of starlight began walking, each step forming a soft wind ripple that pushed the grass aside.
Solance followed without hesitation.
Aurelianth walked at his right,
Lioren at his left.
The air grew warmer, brighter charged with meaning.
But before they reached the meadow's edge, the creature halted.
Solance paused.
"What's wrong?"
The creature looked upward.
All three followed its gaze.
Then froze.
The sky above the mountain rippled not cracking, not breaking, but… shivering.
Like something enormous was breathing behind it.
Solance whispered:
"…Is that…?"
Aurelianth's voice dropped into a hush.
"Yes.
The world's second breath…"
The creature turned back to Solance, pressing its forehead gently against his chest.
A rush of emotion surged through him.
Warmth.
Guidance.
Caution.
And one more thing...
Do not climb it as you are now.
Prepare.
Solance blinked.
"What does that mean?"
Aurelianth frowned.
"The mountain tests anyone who approaches the Fifth Purpose.
The guide is warning us."
Lioren groaned.
"Great.
A training arc before the mountain arc."
But Solance felt something else a soft tug inside his heart.
A quiet voice, not Ariasen's, not the system's…
Something deeper.
Something waiting.
Something watching from the mountain's peak.
Solance shivered.
"I think… whatever sleeps there… already knows I'm coming."
Aurelianth placed a warm hand on his back.
"Then we'll face it together."
Lioren nodded.
"And punch it if necessary."
The creature turned again, leading them toward a forest at the mountain's base.
Unlike the meadow, this forest pulsed with ancient light its trees spiraling upward as though stretching toward forgotten stars.
Solance stepped closer.
The air changed instantly.
It felt… thick.
Heavy with emotion.
Filled with echoes.
Aurelianth whispered:
"…This forest remembers footsteps."
Solance swallowed.
"Whose?"
Aurelianth's golden eyes narrowed.
"Ariasen's.
And the Architect's."
Lioren tensed.
"So this is the battlefield of their first argument?"
Solance touched a nearby tree.
A faint memory flickered:
Ariasen's hand.
A gentle stroke on the bark.
A whisper:
"You will grow beautifully."
He jerked his hand back, startled.
"I... I felt them..."
Aurelianth nodded.
"You're connected to their memory now."
Solance pressed his chest, steadying his breath.
"I can't waste this.
Not after everything Ariasen lost."
The creature nudged him softly.
A single message pulsed through its antlers:
Walk forward.
The past is here.
Learn it.
The path ahead darkened not in danger, but in depth.
A forest of spiraling starlight trees opened its mouth for the trio to enter.
Solance took the first step.
Aurelianth followed.
Lioren grinned.
"Volume Two, huh?
Let's make it twice as epic."
And with the guide leading the way, they walked into the forest where the final purpose slept, and where the truth of creation's second breath would reveal itself.