Mitsuki collapsed, his erasure bolt winking out before it reached Yogiri. His friend Alexia was still frozen.
“So, uh...is it over?” Tomochika asked tentatively, looking around.
“Looks like it. The world didn’t end, so I guess this is good.”
“What was with this guy, anyway?” she asked, looking down at the Great Sage. He had said the world was a dream he was seeing, but she didn’t understand what that meant.
This world has been full of nothing but people like him, Mokomoko commented.
That was true. Tomochika could list off all kinds of arrogant people who had popped up out of nowhere and died immediately.
“So...beating him is cool and all, but what do we do now?”
They had completed their immediate objective of returning to the surface, but she had no idea how to go about finding a way home from there. A number of people they knew might be willing to help, like the goddess Luu, the Sage Sion, or the fallen god Kouryu, but she had no idea how to find any of them.
“I’d appreciate it if you went home as soon as possible, actually.” As Tomochika went down the list, one of those very people called out to them. The boy named Kouryu was now standing beside them.
“Yeah, how are we going to do that, though?” Yogiri replied. “We’ve been trying to find a way to go home from the start.”
“I’ll do it. I can guarantee you a safe return, one hundred percent. And I’d like to ask that you never come back here either.”
“Not like we came here the first time because we wanted to!” Tomochika retorted.
“You aren’t starting to get a little attached to this place, are you?” Kouryu asked.
“Not at all,” Yogiri replied.
“Of course not!” Tomochika shouted at the same time, a bit of anger starting to tinge her voice. She didn’t want to spend a single second more here than she had to.
“Okay, then let’s get the finishing touches squared away.” Kouryu stepped over to Alexia and touched her. As he did, she started moving again.
“You...” She immediately glared at him.
“Hey, please don’t attack me or anything. I’m not all that strong.”
However, she realized immediately she had no time to waste on Kouryu, instead running to the fallen Sage’s side. “Lord Mitsuki!”
“Yeah, it’s exactly what it looks like. The Great Sage Mitsuki is asleep. He’ll stay asleep forever, existing only to keep dreaming of this world,” Kouryu explained.
“Huh? He’s not dead?” Tomochika asked, surprised. She had assumed that Yogiri had killed him, but now that she looked closer, he did seem to be breathing.
“But that’s good for you, right?” Kouryu said. “Now he’ll never look at another woman. From now on, he’ll be all yours, for the rest of time.”
Though she panicked at first, it seemed Kouryu’s words were slowly making their way through to Alexia, as she began regaining her composure.
“So there’s no problem here at all, right? I may be the god of this world, but I can run it without messing with the Sages. If you went off to find some place no one would ever bother you, you should be able to enjoy your happy life alone with him.”
“Very well. I shall accept your suggestion. Then we agree not to interfere with each other in any capacity, yes?”
“Yeah. It’s a win for both of us.”
Alexia gently lifted Mitsuki off the ground before vanishing.
“That’s one big problem out of the way, though with Luu being erased, Alexia was the only big problem left.”
“Luu was erased?!” Tomochika cried.
“She lost a fight to the Demon Lord Gorbagion. But, well, she’s still a god. The concept of ‘death’ doesn’t really apply to her, so you don’t need to worry. She’ll pop up again somewhere sooner or later.”
“I don’t know. That sounds too easy...” But trying to understand how gods worked from a human perspective was a losing battle from the outset, Tomochika told herself, so maybe all she could do was accept what Kouryu told her.
“So, was the Great Sage the one who turned her into Philosopher’s Stones?” Yogiri asked.
“Yeah. Basically, the whole situation in this world was caused by three goddesses fighting over him. After the painfully long battle, it ended with Alexia winning and the other two being sealed away.”
It sounded to Tomochika like an event happening on an unbelievable scale, yet Kouryu made it sound like an everyday occurrence.
“If the Sages aren’t going to interfere with the world anymore, what’ll happen with the Aggressors?” she asked. It may have not mattered much to her personally if they were going to make it back home, but she couldn’t help but be curious. The Sages had been responsible for fighting off the Aggressors, so she was worried what would happen without them around.
“Ah. Most of the Aggressors were here looking for Luu and the UEG, so with them gone, there probably won’t be any more. I guess there’s still the possibility of invasions from other worlds, but that’s a different issue.”
“So basically...everything was the Great Sage’s fault! Got it!” Tomochika concluded.
“Anyway, strike while the iron’s hot, as they say.”
As Kouryu spoke, the world around them changed. The ground beneath them turned into a bluish-black material, with a wall of the same stuff standing in front of them. Looking up, the wall seemed to stretch on forever. There were lights stuck to it here and there, but no sign of a ceiling. Looking to the right and left, the wall seemed to be curved. Looking backwards, they found the ground they were standing quickly came to an abrupt end, nothing but empty blackness beyond it. It was like they were standing on the inside of a huge cylinder, the ground only lining its interior wall.
“I guess I’m kind of used to being teleported all over the place by now, but where exactly are we?” Tomochika asked with a sigh. After all she had been through, the only thing that came to mind was “oh, this again.”
“This is the Celestial Axis. It connects Celestial Foundations to each other. By going through here, you can visit all sorts of worlds. There are other worlds not connected by this Axis, but we should be able to reach yours, no problem.”
“It was this easy the whole time?!”
“Not everyone can use this place,” Kouryu explained. “It’s managed by the gods, so I couldn’t use it until I had my authority back.”
“Huh? So you’re saying any time after we beat Malnarilna, you could have sent us back?!” Tomochika cried.
“Yes, but with the Great Sage around, he could have brought you back any time the mood struck him, so beating him was necessary too.”
“I feel like we’ve been pretty thoroughly used...” Tomochika said, giving Kouryu a suspicious look.
“You see that sphere there, right? That’s how you move around the Axis. I already put in the instructions for it to take you home, so please get going.”
“Jeez, how rude do you need to be?!”
Kouryu pointed to a spherical object that had appeared on the edge of the platform. It was about ten meters across, made of what looked like metal, and had a door on the outside.