The Withered Desert.
I sat on a coffin of darkness, floating with Fless as the coffin descended the sand staircase. I was descending the well of the holo, the outer wall of the well occasionally flickering and distorting like a glitching mirage. After sealing Anahem in the Behelius I was currently sitting on, I had traveled to the well while sending Leaks to Eleonore.
The holo children had gone into hiding at Anahem’s appearance, and Dilfred hadn’t replied when I sent him a Leaks just now. I made my way through the complex well without any guide, and eventually the staircase came to an end. Burning white sand soon came into view. Just like the desert outside, pure white flames rose from the sand, and faint sparks of fire danced through the air. Those sparks were being drawn into a single point—the azure oasis at the center of the sand.
Any spark that came into contact with the water vanished. Was this where the firedew sparks originally meant for the Celestial Canopy ended up, transforming into water at the bottom of the well?
High-pitched giggles rang through the air—by the oasis, the holo children were splashing each other with water. Dilfred stood by himself a short distance away, starting at the azure oasis with his Divine Eyes of Depth.
“Figure anything out?” I asked, approaching him from behind.
But Dilfred showed no reaction.
“It’s no good. Mr. God of Depth said he’d think for a bit, then completely stopped responding to everything.”
The holo boy wrapped in rags—Vade—came up to us and replied in Dilfred’s stead. Hmm. So he’s lost in his thoughts again.
Dilfred’s body was frozen in place, the only notable activity being the tremendous amount of magic that was gathering in his Divine Eyes. He had become so focused on his thoughts that he could no longer hear the outside world.
“Is this where the holo are born?” I asked Vade.
“Pshwaaah!” Vade shouted, leaping into the air. “The water bursts from the oasis, and we float up to the surface. Cool, isn’t it?”
He grinned smugly.
Dilfred was gazing into both the abyss of the vanishing firedew and the holo born from the oasis. It’d probably be best to wait until he reached a conclusion.
“By the way, Mr. Misfit. What’s that?” Vade asked, approaching the coffin I was riding with a curious look.
“Where did you hear that word from?” I asked.
“Mr. God of Depth called you that,” he replied, before asking again, “so what’s this?”
Vade knocked on the lid of the coffin.
“It’s Anahem’s coffin,” I said.
“Gyaaah!” Vade leaped back in panic. “Y-You brought him here?! Wh-What are you going to do to us?!”
“There’s nothing to fear. He’s dead.”
“Huh?”
Vade blinked, then nervously inched forward. “Did you kill Anahem, Mr. Misfit?”
“It was easy enough,” I replied.
“But he revives even if he perishes, you know? Did you really destroy him?” he asked in amazement.
“He’s sealed in this coffin, fated to die over and over again,” I explained. “He can’t perish if he never stops dying. And if he can’t perish, he can never reach the demise that he controls.”
“Seriously? I don’t really understand what you just said...but wow! You’re a really cool misfit, mister. Awesome!”
Now totally relieved, Vade approached the coffin again and knocked a fist against the lid.
“Serves you right for scaring us so many times!” he taunted the coffin. “Take that, zombie Anahem! Don’t look down on the holo!”
Hmm. Childish, but that was to be expected. Yet what Vade said contradicted Anahem’s denial of the holo’s existence.
“Have you met Anahem before?” I asked.
“No, never. They say he’ll kill anyone he finds alive in the Withered Desert. If we meet him, we’ll die!”
Considering Anahem’s personality, that was no surprise.
“How did you escape from him? It couldn’t have been easy to hide from the God of Demise.”
“Heh heh heh! If we run to the bottom of this well, Anahem will think the holo village is just a mirage. It’s a holo trick! Cool, right?”
A holo trick, huh? Who could have taught them that? They also knew about Anahem despite never meeting him. Their births couldn’t be a mere coincidence either.
“Does the God of Demise know about the holo children?”
“I don’t think so! He might have noticed something weird now and then, but from what I can tell, he’s stupid.”
I burst out laughing at those words. “That would be correct.”
In which case, Anahem was only here to chase Dilfred out of the Withered Desert.
“Say, Mr. Misfit.”
Vade knocked on the coffin as though to draw my attention.
“Please make me your disciple!” he said.
I looked over at him. “Oh?”
“Can you teach me how to make this coffin? If I know how to beat up Anahem, we can go outside and walk anywhere we want! And I want to know what the outside world is like!”
“What would you do outside?”
“The outside is amazing, isn’t it? So much to see and lots of fun stuff to do. And I want to do it all! There’s nothing in the Withered Desert.”
Vade wiggled his arms in excitement and gave me a look.
“What’s outside like, Mr. Misfit? You’ve done a bunch of traveling, right? So you must have seen a lot. Tell me all about it!” he said in quick succession.
“Hmm. Well, outside has a lot of things. You guys were born in the Withered Desert, one of the areas of the Round Garden, Da Qu Kadarte. There are another three divine domains in the Round Garden, and countless other domains outside that. The whole place is called the Firmament of the Gods, the nation of the gods. If you go through the gate of the Divine Realm, you’ll end up in either the nation of the demons, where I was born, or the nation of the humans.”
I drew a three-dimensional map with magic particles, showing him the Firmament and the earth.
“The village is here,” I said, pointing.
“Awesome! So the world is this big?! That’s so cool!” Vade said excitedly. He stared intently at the map with sparkling eyes for a long moment, then turned back to me with a gasp. “Come on, Mr. Misfit. Make me your disciple and show me the world!”
“Then let me teach you one thing.”
I slowly drew a magic circle in the air. Particles of magic gathered, forming the coffin of darkness, Behelius.
“Copy that if you want to be my disciple.”
Vade imitated my gestures, manipulating his magic power as he did. It was clear he had talent; his fingertips moved the magic with almost practiced ease. He drew a magic circle identical to the one I had just made, and upon completing the circle particles began gathering to form Behelius.
“Oh?”
“How’s that? I did it! I’m not the elder for nothing! I’m amazing!” Vade shouted in excitement.
I had my suspicions that he was no normal human, but in no way did I think he could copy Behelius perfectly in one try. How curious.
Who created the holo, and for what purpose? What did their existence in Da Qu Kadarte mean?
“Hey! Say something already, Mr. Misfit!” Vade exclaimed, interrupting my thoughts. “Is it no good?”
“Your talent left me speechless for a moment.”
Vade grinned smugly. “Then you’ll make me your disciple, right?”
“I have some business to attend to, but I’ll consider your request. And if I do end up agreeing, it’ll have to wait until afterwards.”
“When will you be done? In an hour?” Vade asked, climbing onto Anahem’s floating coffin.
“Bwa ha ha. Don’t rush me. We can’t do anything until Dilfred returns from the abyss of his thoughts.”
Just then, a serious voice called out.
“Did you defeat Anahem, Misfit?”
I looked over to see Dilfred had turned his head our way.
“I see you sentenced the God of Demise to an endless death. You truly are a master at frightening the gods.”
“It doesn’t feel like I do when you tell me with such a deadpan face, Dilfred,” I replied.
I made the coffin of darkness fly towards the God of Depth.
“Well? Did you see the abyss?” I asked.
Dilfred turned to the oasis once more. “This water gathers the firedew that remains after the flames disappear and transforms it into life. Over time, little by little, the holo children come into being. It’s clear that the firedew of the Withered Desert is being stolen here.”
“Who’s behind it?”
“As they are being formed in the Withered Desert, the first suspect would be the God of Demise, Anahem.”
“I see.”
I rose from the coffin of darkness using Fless.
“Get back, Vade.”
“Wah! Waaah!”
Vade jumped off Anahem’s coffin in a hurry as it tilted to stand vertically upright, sticking into the sand.
“The perpetually dying God of Demise is having a recurring nightmare through Nedneliaz. If I connect that dream here, we can speak to him directly,” I said.
I sent magic into Behelius and a small window opened, revealing Anahem’s face. He opened his eyes immediately.
“What a dull dream,” Anahem said, glancing at Vade and the other holo children. “It is impossible for there to be life in the Withered Desert that I am unaware of.”
“Unfortunately, this is real, God of Demise. There’s something I want to ask you, so I’m temporarily projecting reality into your nightmare,” I said.
Anahem’s brows furrowed.
“Anahem,” Dilfred said, taking over the questioning. “As the master of the Withered Desert, you have defied order to create the holo children. That is what I have surmised from this situation.” He stared into Anahem’s abyss. “Why have you, a god of the Four Principles, chosen to disturb order?”
“You dare make such foolish, false accusations against me?”
Behelius rattled loudly as it vibrated.
“I will crawl out of here and end every life in the Withered Desert myself.”
The coffin of darkness creaked in protest at his struggles. Even though he was dying at this very moment, the God of Demise was as stubborn as ever.
“Now, let’s check how true that really is,” I said.
The window of the coffin slammed shut, silencing Anahem. I then altered Nedneliaz to show him a new dream.
“Hmm... I see,” I said. “I changed his dream to show his current desires, and he immediately destroyed the holo children and the well after leaving the coffin.”
Dilfred folded his hands together in thought.
“Anahem may be the god governing this divine domain, but I cannot see that headstrong man putting up such an elaborate act to fool us,” I said.
“Aye, that thought is worth consideration.”
“The holo children were able to avoid Anahem’s notice by hiding in this well. In other words, there’s a trick here that can evade the God of Demise’s Divine Eyes.”
“Aye,” Dilfred agreed. “Change surpasses demise. If the God of Change, Gaetenaros, was behind this, then it would be possible indeed.”