A drifting, endless sea stretched in all directions, empty of life, devoid of even the seaborn monsters.

Vanitas was all alone underneath the open sky, his gaze fixed upward as the stars reflected across the dark waters and, in turn, his amethyst eyes.

He was lost in thought, unable to pull himself away from that final image.

Karina.

The way her body had broken apart, dissolving into nothing but scattered particles, replayed in his mind no matter how many times he tried to push it aside.

"...Karina."

Just how many times was he going to lose her?

It was difficult to put into words what Karina Maeril meant to him.

She was the first relationship he had built without relying on Vanitas Astrea’s status and inherited connections. It had been something he constructed himself and chose to maintain.

Because of that, he had watched her more closely than the others, wary of the countless death flags that surrounded him, making sure she would never become one of them.

And yet, in the end, she still did.

She was the first to turn away from him, the first to dismiss his words, the first to look him in the eye and call him a liar.

Did that make him angry?

Not really.

Did it scare him?

...He would not deny that.

But it was not the kind of fear he had grown accustomed to. It was not the fear of exposure, nor the fear of losing control over his carefully maintained facade.

What scared him was something far simpler, something far more human.

It was the fear of seeing her again.

The fear of facing that same gaze filled with disappointment.

Vanitas had already confirmed that Karina was not an incarnation of Kim Minjeong’s soul. That possibility had been put to rest long ago.

Yet even so, that truth did nothing to diminish her place in his life.

She was still important to him in a way that logic could not easily pull apart.

So when he saw that she was doing well, when he saw her moving forward without him, he felt something close to relief.

Even if she hated him, he had never hated her.

If anything, he pitied her.

He understood her sorrow. He understood that not every misunderstanding could be resolved easily. Some things simply remained broken, no matter how much effort was put into fixing them.

That was the nature of people. Humans were complicated, shaped by contradictions that could not always coexist peacefully.

There was a reason humanity had endured for so long, a reason it had risen above everything else.

Because humans were complex creatures capable of thought.

"Why did you have to go and pull off that stunt?"

He had never asked her to do it. Not once had he expected her to go that far, yet she had done it anyway, as if the choice had already been decided long before he could even interfere.

And in the end, what had it actually changed?

When he stopped to think about it, the Iron Lotus had been an anomaly he failed to account for.

It was something he had overlooked in his otherwise meticulous planning. No amount of calculation could have saved him and the Bundesritter. Vanitas realized that simple fact after dealing with it.

...That the strategy he had conducted with confidence was never meant to succeed.

The Iron Lotus had simply been far stronger than he anticipated.

And yet, despite all of that, he was still here.

Vanitas had survived. Not only that, he had consumed it, taken its power into himself, and woven it into his own abilities. Something that should have been impossible had been realized, all because Karina had left behind a single opening.

A single chance.

Was this what she had intended?

Was this the outcome she had hoped for when she made that decision?

Or... had everything that followed, every step he had taken as Vanitas Astrea, every result that came after, been nothing more than the fruits of her resolve?

He wasn’t certain, but...

——Did I earn the right to stand beside you?

That face, that tone, the way she had said it, all of it triggered something buried deep within his memory. As if it were something he had already seen once before.

In the past, Vanitas had killed someone in cold blood for far less. Some woman who had destroyed everything he had painstakingly built, piece by piece, leaving nothing behind.

And so, with no remorse, he had ended her.

Or at least, he thought he did.

"...Vanessa."

For a brief moment, in those final seconds, Karina’s expression overlapped with another. It was the same look Vanessa had shown him just before he killed her.

"That can’t be..."

He shook his head, as if denying it outright would make the thought disappear. It did not.

Because what he remembered did not align with what he was seeing.

Vanessa, the true Queen Killer, the one responsible for Julia Barielle’s death, had been an ice mage.

That was a fact he knew with certainty, something he had confirmed himself while dealing with her in a past he had no control over. There had been no room for doubt then, and there should have been no room for doubt now.

"That’s impossible..."

Yet the more he tried to dismiss it, the more the possibility crept back in.

"Just how..."

Vanitas felt heat rise to his face, his mind going into overload as he struggled reconcile what he knew with what he had just witnessed.

And the more he thought about it, the less certain he became.

"Karina... were you..."

Had Karina Maeril been involved in every moment he walked in life?

It was not an impossible possibility.

If anything, it was only plausible because Karina was the Origin of Time.

An existence like that was not bound by the same constraints as everyone else. With a single snap of her fingers, she could traverse every point in history.

Vanitas clenched his fists.

"...."

If that were true, then everything he had assumed until now could no longer be taken at face value.

And yet, even with that possibility laid bare before him, there was nothing he could do.

There was no way to confirm it.

"Hm?"

Vanitas turned his head to the side. A cthulhu had approached him, pressing close as it huddled beside him like a stray seeking warmth.

The way it looked up at him made it resemble a docile creature that had already been subdued, as if something within it had already been completely tamed by his presence alone.

"Disgusting."

Squelch——

With a simple snap of his fingers, the creature ruptured instantly, collapsing into a grotesque pile of flesh that sank into the ocean.

Up ahead, the shoreline came into view.

After everything, it was finally time to return to reality.

* * *

"It seems the operation was a success, Emperor."

"It would appear so."

Admiral Julius Schneider and Franz surveyed their surroundings. The cthulhus that had tormented them without end, creatures that once seemed endless in number, were now dissolving before their eyes.

One after another, their forms broke apart and faded, leaving behind no trace of their existence.

Whatever phenomenon had caused this disaster... it had been dealt with.

By now, Julius Schneider was certain of one thing. They were most likely dealing with Vanitas Astrea.

And if that was the case, then that was the perfect opportunity.

Out there, in the middle of the endless ocean, bound to the constraints of a ship, Vanitas Astrea had nowhere to run. With no allies to rely on, under these conditions, the outcome was as good as decided.

After all, a Great Power, Iridelle Vermillion, was present, ready to intervene if things went south.

Vanitas Astrea himself had already been acknowledged as one as well. That alone was reason enough to remain cautious. No one could say for certain what he was capable of, and underestimating him would be a mistake they could not afford to make.

"Since the threat has been dealt with," Admiral Julius said, "I suppose I should reward everyone handsomely."

"That is how you keep the people’s loyalty," Franz replied. "Victory means little if it does not leave something behind for those who bled for it."

Julius gave a slight nod at that, acknowledging the point without much thought. His eyes swept across the shore, taking in the exhausted soldiers, the damaged structures, and the tension that had yet to fully dissipate.

Then, he turned to Franz.

"But Emperor, what of Aetherion?"

"What about it?"

Julius let out a quiet breath before continuing. "It seems to be in its dying embers."

"Is that your assessment?" Franz said, meeting his gaze head-on. "Surely you, Admiral, could spend your time far better than worrying over another empire’s affairs."

"It is not the Empire I am concerned about," Julius replied. "It is the aftermath. The consequences of the people’s distress."

"Distress... I wonder if that is the right word. Can it truly be called distress when an entire empire conspires to murder its own Queen?"

"You are a tyrant, Emperor Franz."

Franz scoffed. "I have heard worse."

For a brief moment, silence passed between them.

Then Franz scanned his surroundings. Bundesritter navymen had already moved into position, surrounding him from all sides.

It was not something that required much thought.

He already knew what this meant.

And more importantly, what would follow.

"Do not take this the wrong way, Emperor," Julius said. "I respect your strength, and I respect your convictions. After what I have witnessed in this battle, I can say this much with certainty. You, Franz Barielle, are not incompetent."

"...."

"You are simply misguided."

There was no hostility in his tone.

"I pity you," Julius continued, "for having to clean up the mess left behind by your predecessor. But there are limits to what can be tolerated. There are things that must be brought to an end."

"I take it that this marks the end of our alliance?"

"Do not misunderstand. The Dominion will not abandon Aetherion. That much, we owe to you."

There was no room left for negotiation.

"This, however, is where our paths diverge."

"Pity, indeed—"

Slash——!

In an instant, the formation closed in. Blades moved as one. Steel met flesh with little resistance as weapons pierced through Franz from all directions.

There was no attempt at resistance.

Only the sound of impact, followed by the quiet drip of blood tracing from the corner of his lips.

And yet, standing there, riddled with blades that punctured through his chest, Franz smiled.

Whoosh——

A sudden gust tore through the space, followed by the sound of flesh being cut. For a brief moment, it felt as if time itself had stopped.

Then, in the next instant, it happened.

With a single, unseen sword swipe, every men surrounding them had their heads severed from their bodies. One moment, they stood with weapons drawn, the next their heads were already airborne.

Julius drew in a breath as the scene finally registered before his eyes.

At the very center of it all, a lone figure stood where there should have been none, as if she had appeared out of thin air. Her blade remained drawn, while her gaze cut through the circle with the look of a predator.

Margaret Illenia.

"You..."

The word barely left Admiral Julius’ lips before he felt cold steel pressed against his neck.

"...."

Slowly, he turned his head, only to find Franz standing right behind him with a blade held firmly against his throat.

For a moment, Julius could not process what he was seeing.

Because when he looked forward again, there was still a Franz lying there with his body riddled with swords and blood pooling beneath him.

Two Franzes?

What kind of sorcery was this?

"You’ve made a mistake, Admiral."