The moment humanity was returned to reality, as though they had never left it in the first place... Frey immediately drove them toward battle.
Opening the gate before them and revealing the enemies they had hated for centuries, the warriors of the Empire charged without hesitation to fight their final war upon Planet Earth.
Battle had always been the greatest refuge for warriors.
The moment one grasped a weapon and swung it amidst the chaos of war, the mind instinctively cast aside everything unnecessary.
Frey’s resurrection of the dead had not been resurrection in the literal sense, where nothing was felt at all.
To them, it had merely seemed as though they had fallen into darkness for a few fleeting seconds.
Yet every single one of them still vividly remembered the terror of Agaroth, the Demon King... and how effortlessly he had slaughtered them.
For many, that nightmare would likely leave scars that would never truly heal.
In such a state, burying themselves in battle was the best thing they could possibly do.
"I can preserve the souls trapped within the Circle of Life and Death and save them by creating new vessels for them... but the souls that slip from my grasp vanish completely. Once they are gone, there is no bringing them back."
Frey explained patiently while watching the distant battlefield where humanity and the Ultras clashed.
Beside him sat Snow, while Sieghart occupied his right side and the Great One of Earth sat to his left, no longer hiding his true identity.
Snow listened carefully, struggling to believe what he had just heard.
Not because of the power over life and death itself... but because of the vessels.
"I had heard before about Nameless creating vessels to preserve the dead... but this body doesn’t feel like a vessel at all. I don’t even feel as though my soul ever left my body to begin with."
Snow spoke with visible unease.
The warmth within his chest, his heartbeat, the blood and aura flowing through him...
Everything pulsed with life. Every inch of his body felt exactly as it always had.
And soon, Snow realized it went even further than that.
His body felt lighter. Far more responsive than before... as though it had somehow become better.
"How exactly did you accomplish something like this? And how did you deal with him... with the Demon King?"
Snow asked question after question, bitterness clear in his voice.
Frey understood completely.
The current Bearer of Light had been defeated by Agaroth in less than a minute, barely capable of doing anything at all.
And now he had been saved by a mysterious power he could not even begin to comprehend.
Once again, the gap between them had widened.
It had always widened... but this time, it felt completely different.
Before, no matter how vast the distance became, Snow could still glimpse Frey’s shadow far ahead and chase after it.
But now...
It felt as though Frey had begun soaring through an entirely different world altogether, and the distance between them had expanded into something that could never again be closed.
Frey answered some of Snow’s questions while remaining silent regarding others.
He explained that both he and Nameless had merely been fragmented parts of a single existence, somewhat similar to the relationship between Snow and Orsted, the current Ruler of Light.
The only difference was that Frey and Nameless could never exist separately.
Unlike Snow and Orsted, who had become entirely different individuals living within the same era.
That much, Frey explained.
But he deliberately avoided speaking about Aether entirely, making the miracle he had performed seem vague and impossible to truly understand.
Snow attempted to press further, but Sieghart interrupted after remaining silent for quite some time.
"That’s enough, Bearer of Light. We’ve already heard more than enough."
"And who exactly are you?" Snow turned toward Sieghart with clear irritation at being interrupted.
Sieghart introduced himself calmly, his eyes having lingered on Frey for most of the conversation.
"Sieghart. Descendant of the human who left this planet hundreds of years ago."
He rose to his feet, placing his left hand behind his back while his right instinctively searched for the hilt of his sword... only for him to remember that he had lost it during his battle against Agaroth.
"Descendant of the human who left Earth? Is that supposed to mean something?" Snow replied coldly.
Sieghart let out a faint sigh before pointing toward him.
"Perhaps I arrived late... but I’m still more human than you are. At the very least, I’m certain of that... Bearer of Light."
He intentionally repeated the title again and again.
From the very beginning, Sieghart had never truly considered Snow human.
Nor Frey either, whose existence felt entirely different from anything human.
"The man standing before us accomplished what none of us could. He drove away the Demon King... and went even further by bringing everyone back."
"We have no right to question his methods."
He gestured toward the Great One of Earth.
"Look. Even the Great One himself hasn’t complained."
Sieghart pointed toward the Great One...
Who, from Snow’s perspective, was still Dawn.
Only recently had Snow learned what Dawn truly was, and where his strange ability, The Last Survivor, had come from.
It turned out that the Great One of Earth had been hiding within their old companion all along.
He had remained silent until now.
But once drawn into the conversation, he finally spoke for the first time.
"There is much I wish to say, but first... allow me to thank you, Nameless... no, Frey Starlight, for saving the last remnants of humanity."
The Great One offered sincere gratitude, and Frey nodded in response.
"There’s no need to thank me. I owe you as well."
"Weren’t you the one who helped Gehrman complete his plan? Without your aid, none of us would have made it this far."
"Indeed..." the Great One admitted, placing weight behind his words.
"I conspired with Saint Gehrman from the very beginning. We planned this together... and because of that, there is something I wish to ask of you."
"You’ll be leaving this planet soon, won’t you?"
"Then allow me to come with you. That is my only request."
The request came suddenly, spoken with complete sincerity, catching all three of them by surprise.
"One of the Great Ones trying to become someone’s subordinate? And here I thought I had already witnessed every absurdity this world had to offer..." Sieghart remarked mockingly.
Frey, however, fell silent for a brief moment before finally answering with complete seriousness.
"If you wish to ask something of me, then stand before me in your true form first... stop using Dawn’s body."
Frey answered coldly, and the Great One of Earth complied with his request.
"Forgive my rudeness. I simply grew accustomed to this body after spending years observing the world through his shadow," the Great One replied with a smile shown through Dawn’s face, before closing his eyes as his body erupted with a blinding radiance.
Only a few seconds passed before a pure white phantom emerged from Dawn’s body, gradually separating itself while the human body collapsed to the ground.
And from within it, an entirely different being appeared.
His hair shone with an immaculate white glow, as though every strand had been woven from countless tiny lights.
The rest of his body radiated with the same brilliance.
His face looked so pale that, for a moment, they mistook him for an actual ghost, almost able to see through him.
And his eyes...
They were blue like the sky itself.