Osian thrust his sword toward the empty air. His only purpose was to save Seren Gracia. Seren had fallen into the rift in spacetime where she had been floating. There was no known way to reach that place at this point in time.
Perhaps even this act of thrusting his sword had no meaning whatsoever. But Osian did not stop.
'I was able to catch Seren's traces even when she disappeared.'
At the time, he thought it was possible because his senses were sharp. However, after hearing about Seren's true ability, he realized it was completely different.
She had been hiding on the other side of dimensions. How had he noticed that, and how had he seen it? Above all, Osian was now looking at the rift where Seren had disappeared.
'Perhaps this power might be an important key to saving her.'
He couldn't just stand still doing nothing. He would do anything he could. Even if it was an utterly absurd action. Even if he might be ridiculed by someone.
Because it was better to regret after doing something than to regret without doing anything.
'The important thing is whether I can open the rift with my sword.'
So before that happened, he had to somehow open the rift again.
Then what was the method?
'What can a knight do?'
A knight is someone who wields a sword. That is all they can do.
Wield a sword.
'That's enough.'
He grasped the light of the sky in his hand. The brilliantly sparkling light of celestial bodies transcends spacetime. It always exists in that place, scattering its light from the distant past to the future.
If you've grasped your sword, swing it. There shall be nothing you cannot cut.
The sword imbued with the energy of the sun, moon, and stars trembled. Osian quickly thrust the sword into the dimensional rift.
Swoosh!
In reality, no sound was made, but there was an illusion that such a sound had occurred. The violently burning flames of the sun, moon, and stars disappeared as if entering somewhere from the tip.
Everyone watched the scene with shocked expressions. Even Cromwell's eyes widened at the strange sight that could not be defined by science.
The sword dug into the empty air where nothing existed. No. That wasn't just empty air. It was a rift in spacetime, a strange dimension not defined by science or magic.
Osian put strength into the thrust sword and.
Scrape.
Struck it downward with all his might. The dimensional rift cut by the trajectory of the sun, moon, and stars opened again and split. The inside reflected this world, but it was a scene where all sorts of strange colors seemed tangled together.
Osian unhesitatingly threw his body inside.
"Oh!"
It was a sudden event that no one could react to. And as soon as Osian entered, the opened dimensional rift sealed up instantly as if rewinding time.
Seren opened her closed eyes. She immediately checked her physical condition. Except for a slight ache, there were no injuries anywhere.
"Am I, alive?"
Seren immediately looked around. It was a gray world. The low-saturation gray and white world was implementing Tirna's appearance as it was.
Within it, she could see pale shadows moving.
The shadows passed by Seren. As if she didn't exist at all.
Seren blankly stared at the gray and white Tirna.
"It would have been better if I had died."
Seren realized that she had fallen into a place she didn't know where it was. What she saw before her eyes was Tirna's scenery, but this was not the Tirna she knew.
Seren naturally tried to move her feet. Just by harboring that will, her body naturally moved. When she came to her senses, she was in front of the Violet Fox tavern.
But this wasn't the Violet Fox. The sign was different and the surrounding streets were also slightly different. When she passed through the door and went inside, she could see several black shadows moving inside.
She couldn't see who they were. But they wouldn't be the people she remembered.
Seren realized that this was Tirna from much further in the past than when the Violet Fox was established. She had fallen into the Tirna of the distant past. In addition, because she was left on the other side of dimensions, it was impossible to have a conversation with anyone.
Even trying to use her abilities was useless. She felt like she was lying in a coffin buried deep underground. All she could do was twist her body slightly, but escape was impossible.
She could only lie still and accept the loneliness and death that gradually crept in.
Seren wandered here and there throughout the city like a ghost. But nowhere in the city could she see any traces she knew. Because this was Tirna of the distant past, before she was even born.
She was left alone in perfect solitude.
Realizing this, Seren plopped down on the spot.
The black shadows passed by ignoring Seren. Nothing could see her or hear her voice.
"So this is what it felt like."
Until now, Seren had not tried to form bonds. She thought they were useless. They were impurities that humans shouldn't have.
Seren couldn't understand why people formed connections and tried to become close to each other.
No, actually she knew well. She couldn't form bonds because of fear, as she lived a life not knowing when she might die. She ridiculed people who formed connections because it was hard to accept the reality that she could never do so herself.
If she didn't demean them like that, she couldn't endure.
But now she couldn't even do that. Because she had fallen alone in a place where no one could find her, left completely alone.
Seren hugged her knees and lowered her head. She thought death was the most frightening thing, but there was something more terrible than that. The loneliness of having only herself seeped into her bones like cold.
She missed them. She longed for her comrades at the Violet Fox. If only she had been friendlier. If only she had opened her heart sincerely. At least when it came time to part, she shouldn't have left regrets.
She realized that keeping distance to avoid leaving sadness was wrong. Only after sending them away, only after losing what she held in her hands, did she belatedly realize their preciousness.
'I'm really a fool.'
Tears flowed endlessly down Seren's cheeks as she lowered her head.
She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. She wanted to laugh and chat and talk about happiness like ordinary people. She wanted to hold someone's hand. She wanted to feel human warmth.
She wanted to see her comrades. She wanted to meet them again and apologize for what had happened until now.
What she wanted to do wasn't to meet Cromwell and take revenge. She just wanted to live like others.
"Someone."
Seren muttered in a tearful voice.
"Please save me."
The moment Seren's words ended.
Flash!
A single massive flash of light brilliantly illuminated the low-saturation Tirna. Seren lifted her lowered head. Her vision was hazy because of tears.
What she saw after wiping away her tears was a single ray of light that pierced through space and protruded.
Crack. Crackle.
The air cracked. Like a bird hatching from an egg, the cracks spread, and the light bursting from the gaps grew stronger. Clang! Along with the sound of glass shattering, space broke apart like fragments. And from inside, a massive light too dazzling to look at burst out.
The light illuminating the gray and white world was incomparably beautiful and warm. Seren couldn't take her eyes off that light. She unknowingly staggered to her feet.
A figure appeared from beyond the light. It walked straight toward where Seren was. Clank. Along with the sound of armor interlocking, the cloak draped over the shoulders fluttered greatly.
It was a pure white knight that might appear in fairy tales.
The knight brought his hand to the helmet he wore on his face. The helmet disappeared like a mirage, revealing his face.
The moment she saw that face, Seren felt the tears she had been holding back about to overflow again.
"I came to save you."
The Sky Knight Osian extended his hand to Seren. The moment Seren heard those words, she felt all tension release. Though she shed tears, her expression contorted with joy.
She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So she just endlessly shed tears while smiling with her mouth.
She wiped away tears with her hand, but they kept overflowing. No matter how much she wiped, there was no end. Though the sight was unseemly, strangely, the laughter wouldn't stop.
Seren finally gave up wiping away tears and grasped Osian's extended hand.
Osian pulled Seren's hand and embraced her. Then he returned through the path he had pierced to save her.
The path he had come through was a vortex where all sorts of things were mixed. But within it, there was one pure white path stretching straight and upright.
The path he had walked, never affected by any of the surrounding vortexes. That path, upright like a single sword, was walked by Osian and Seren.
When they finally reached the end of the path guided by light Osian drew his sword again and swung it with all his might toward the empty air.
The rift in spacetime split and colors flowed out. Not the irregular colors held by spacetime rifts, but the calm and uniform colors held by reality.
Seren felt her floating body being pulled by gravity. She almost sat down unknowingly, but Osian supported her from the side.
All the members of the Violet Fox who saw the two emerge were shocked and opened their eyes wide. They had no choice. From their perspective, less than a minute had passed since Osian split space and disappeared before returning again.
Moreover, Osian hadn't come alone. He was with Seren, whom they thought had disappeared forever.
Seren lost her words seeing her comrades in reality. Now that she unexpectedly saw again the people she had so longed to see, she couldn't grasp what to say first.
Then Lorraine ran to Seren with a tearful face and hugged her.
"Really, thank goodness. That you came back."
The moment Lorraine saw Seren's face, she belatedly realized who had saved her from the slash. Seren, who reflexively hugged Lorraine back, gazed at her other comrades.
Diolan, transformed into a giant cat, wagged his tail as if pleased, and Edgar's eyes reddened as he irritably avoided eye contact for no reason. Mist tried hard to pretend otherwise, but tears flowed endlessly from both eyes.
Seeing that, Seren became aware that this was reality, not a dream. Even the time when Osian came to save her and reached this place, she had worried that it might be her dream.
There was no need for that now. This was reality, and she had returned.
"Yeah. I've, come back."
Seren tightly embraced Lorraine and burst into the tears she had been holding back. Osian watched his comrades warmly.
"Unbelievable."
Cromwell approached, dragging his trembling legs. Perhaps because he had witnessed such an absurd scene in such a short time, strength was leaving his legs.
"To split spacetime. And within it, to find someone who became lost. That's probabilistically impossible. It's an astronomical probability, I tell you. But how......"
Cromwell, who was about to say something, saw Osian's appearance and nodded as if he understood.
"I see. Such things as possibilities and probabilities, these number games are meaningless, is that it?"
Cromwell closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Cromwell, who had tried to research and define everything in the world, faced an unknown realm he still hadn't grasped. And he ultimately couldn't analyze it. It was the moment when the life creed he had held was broken, that is, the moment of defeat.
But it wasn't necessarily a bad feeling. Rather, it felt like being liberated from some chains that had bound him.
"Congratulations on your safe return."
Osian nodded. After looking around at his companions once, he opened his mouth.
"Now, let's go back."
No one asked where to go back to. Everyone present nodded with smiles as if they had been waiting for this.
Let's go. To the place where we should be. To our home.