“Where are you right now, Anos? Should we meet up with you?” Eleonore asked.
“We descended to Nature’s Keep. We’ve been talking to the God of Depth, Dilfred. He claims I’m the cause of all the destruction in the world, so we’re in the middle of some peaceful negotiations.”
“Wow! That doesn’t sound peaceful at all!”
Zeshia started kicking her feet, so Eleonore set her down. She then hurried over to whisper in Ennessone’s ear.
“Just so you know, Enne... The P in peaceful stands for power trip...”
The wings on Ennessone’s head flapped as she tilted her head in confusion. “Is the Demon King that tyrannical?”
“Not at all. It depends on the opponent. Things only get a little troublesome if negotiations turn unpeaceful. You guys continue the search for Delsgade and Everastanzetta by yourselves.”
“Got it!” Eleonore replied energetically, then brought her finger to her mouth in thought. “But how?”
Zeshia’s hand shot into the air.
“Oh, good on you, Zeshia. What’s your idea?” Eleonore asked.
“We hold an SOSearch!” she declared, beaming from ear to ear.
“Hmm? That doesn’t quite make sense.”
Zeshia frowned, sullen.
“A-Ah, what I mean is that an SOSearch might not be so effective! Let’s think of something else, okay?” Eleonore said in a hurry.
Zeshia’s shoulders slumped. “Is it no good?”
“Ennessone will SOSearch with you!” Ennessone said, taking Zeshia’s hand in hers.
Zeshia brightened immediately, lifting their linked hands high. “Zeshia and Enne will SOSearch...and find them no matter what!”
Eleonore looked at Wenzel for help, lost about how to respond. Wenzel giggled and started to walk quietly. “Come, this way. There are gods in the Celestial Canopy I am on good terms with. I’m sure they’ll be willing to help out of the kindness of their hearts.”
“Huh? But isn’t this overgrown sky the divine domain of Gaetenaros? Are there other gods here too?” Eleonore asked.
“Yes. Gods close in order can benefit from being in this domain. Within the giant mass of Da Qu Kadarte are gods who have created their own smaller domains.”
Just like how Andeluc had benefited from Forslonarleaf when she tried to terminate me as an unwanted life. As fellow orders, gods could interact closely with and benefit from each other.
“Should we hurry a little?” Eleonore asked, casting Fless. She floated for a brief moment, but immediately landed back on the branch. “Huh?”
“No flying?”
The wings on Ennessone’s head and back flapped hard, but she couldn’t fly either.
“Zeshia too...”
Zeshia tried to imitate Ennessone by flapping her arms, but also remained grounded.
“Ah, I don’t think you could fly that way to begin with,” Eleonore mumbled with a strained smile.
“The only one who can fly freely in the Celestial Canopy is the God of Change. Fless in particular has almost no effect at all,” Wenzel explained, before stopping in her tracks. “Have a look over there.”
At the end of her gaze was pure white smoke, drifting in the air.
“That is firedew smoke. From firedew comes all the energy that circulates through Da Qu Kadarte. The firedew flames that burn up in the Withered Desert rise into the Celestial Canopy. Here in the skies of change, it then transforms into wind.”
The moment Wenzel said that, the sunlight that wove through the canopy made contact with the white smoke, dyeing it green.
A gust of wind blew. The smoke—now a green gale—rose through the canopy of the celestial sphere.
“Let’s ride that,” Wenzel said.
“Ride? How?” Eleonore asked.
“Follow me.”
Just as Eleonore was about to ask her to elaborate, Wenzel threw herself off the branch.
“Whoa!” Eleonore exclaimed. “The Goddess of Birth sure doesn’t hesitate!”
“Zeshia will do it too!”
With their hands still linked, Zeshia and Ennessone both jumped into the blue sky.
“Huh. There’s nothing but sky in every direction, so where will we fall?” Eleonore mumbled as she leaped after them.
A gust of wind blew towards them as they fell—the firedew wind they had just witnessed. And as the wind blew past them, their bodies floated upwards, riding the green current.
“Zeshia’s riding the wind!”
“Yup yup, it’s amazing! You’re faster than a horse!” Eleonore said.
“Have you ever ridden a horse, Enne?” Zeshia asked.
“No...” Ennessone’s wings dropped in sadness. “So I don’t know how fast they are...”
Zeshia immediately tried to cheer her up. “It’s okay. I will be your horse!”
“What do you mean by that?!” Eleonore yelped.
Despite riding the wind, Zeshia got down on all fours. “Get on, Enne!”
“Are you sure?” Ennessone asked.
“Zeshia’s the big sister, after all!” Zeshia declared proudly.
“Thank you, big sis!”
Ennessone happily reached out and climbed onto Zeshia’s back.
“Clip-clop... Clip-clop...”
The two continued playing pretend horse while riding the air current.
“Horse or wind...which is faster?” Zeshia asked.
“Um... They’re the same...”
“We have...an answer!”
“Obviously!” Eleonore shouted.
“Clip-clop... Clip-Clop...”
“Yay!”
Zeshia’s and Ennessone’s laughter echoed as they flew through the Celestial Canopy. Not long later, they drew close to a tangle of branches, where a giant bird’s nest sat, one filled with so much water it looked like a lake. Flower beds grew around its perimeter.
“That’s the spot. Let’s jump down,” Wenzel said.
When they got closer to the large bird’s nest, Eleonore raised her voice in question.
“Huh? Isn’t that spot kind of weird? The flowers are all wilted.”
Wenzel looked in the direction Eleonore was pointing at with a grim expression. “Let’s hurry.”
They leaped from the firedew wind and landed inside the giant bird’s nest, by the water and the flowers. The nest looked exactly as it did from high above. The flowers all around them bloomed in a fantastical mix of colors, but as Eleonore had pointed out, there were some flowers here and there that were wilted.
“Who could’ve done this...” Wenzel muttered, her voice thin with barely suppressed panic.
“Is this a bad sign?” Eleonore asked.
“Flowers in the divine domain never wilt. As long as the God of Bloom, Rauzel, hasn’t perished, that is...”
She scanned the area, but there was no sign of any god.
“There’s someone over here, big sis!”
Everyone turned at the sound of Ennessone’s voice. Beneath a grouping of flowers lay a man in rough farmer’s clothes, but there was no doubt he was a god. He was covered in wounds and clearly in critical condition.
“Rauzel!”
Wenzel ran over and helped the man sit up. When she called his name, the God of Bloom groaned and opened his eyes.
“Ah... Wenzel... You made it back safely...”
“What happened?” Wenzel asked.
“The order of the Celestial Canopy has been distorted...” Rauzel said. “A god-killing god has been born. He’s destroyed everyone else.”
Rauzel clenched his fists in anguish, tears in his eyes. Grief over his lost comrades hung heavy around him.
“What kind of god was it?” Wenzel asked.
“He arrived like a storm, calling himself Romuen, the God of Culling... But I don’t know anything else. I didn’t even see him before I was knocked out...”
Rauzel coughed up blood.
“Heal him...!” Zeshia said in a panic, casting Enchel and Ei Chael together with Eleonore.
Blinding light wrapped around him, healing his wounds, but the magic of his source continued to weaken.
“Thank you, ladies, but as the god that governs all things that bloom... The moment this domain began to wilt, my destruction was guaranteed...”
Eleonore looked at Wenzel, who nodded.
“The 130,000 flowers that bloom in this divine domain are his life,” she explained. “Ten percent of these flowers wilting is no problem, but if more than a third started to wilt...”
“What if we made new flowers bloom?” Eleonore suggested, holding up an index finger.
But Wenzel shook her head. “Each divine domain is a miniature copy of the world. Since the world has a fixed number of sources, Da Qu Kadarte has a fixed number of firedew, and so this domain has a fixed number of flowers.”
Since the wilted flowers still counted as a flower, there was no way of increasing the number of flowers with the Goddess of Birth’s power. After all, Wenzel’s power was another cog in the system of order.
“It’s okay! I can do it!” Ennessone said. “I’ll use Ennessone—it’s still incomplete, but Ennessone is the Demon King’s magic, unbound by any order!”
The two pairs of wings on her head and back started glowing.
Eleonore then gasped, as though shocked by realization. “I got it!” she said.
Magic runes floated around her, followed by the holy water flowing out of the runes. A link, much like an umbilical cord, extended from Eleonore’s abdomen to Ennessone’s.
“Ennessone.”
Ennessone spread her arms and drew a magic circle, out of which leaped 10,022 storks. The birds flew through the flower bed, each planting a seed as they did. And all 10,022 seeds, upon entering the ground, sprouted and bloomed.
“I’m shocked,” Rauzel said, slowly sitting up. “What did you do? My power’s retur—”
Rauzel’s eyes suddenly widened in shock. Eleonore followed his gaze to the lake, where a large pillar of water suddenly rose—as though someone had dived into it.
“Found you,” said a deep voice from the bottom of the lake.
At the arrival of such tremendous power, all the flowers trembled. Before their eyes, the water of the lake drained into nothing, drying the lake bed itself to reveal a man with a scimitar, clad in a white cloak and turban.
“Ennessone. You’re the one who stole the firedew, aren’t you?” he said.