Keylah's eyes were wide open, as was her mouth. She felt like she was seeing Gilgamesh for the first time.
His majestic golden hair, the undertones of power in his stance and stature, the way the wind seemed to glide around him in an attempt to avoid hitting him directly.
The long black cloak trailed off behind him, softly whipping.
Most mesmerizing were his eyes, which Keylah could not forget. The image of them was burned into her memory.
She would never forget.
"I suddenly feel like talking a walk," Gilgamesh spoke in a placid voice, as though there were no emotions within him. His eyes scoured the sky of the Library; his back to the Empress was unwavering in the face of a world far larger than his tiny frame.
"What continent will you go to?" Keylah asked, curiously.
Gilgamesh took a step, and a strange aura of true energy appeared under his foot. When it appeared, he stepped onto it and was able to take a single step up into the air.
The Empress gasped.
"Whatever continent is up there," He said jokingly.
"You're going further into the Library!?" Keylah was alarmed, and she took a few steps forward.
"I think so. I'm not sure if its because I'm being drawn to something, but ever since I saw that destroyed Book Collection, I felt myself being pulled into this enormous sky."
"But you're not a cultivator! You don't have any way to protect yourself against the dangers of the Library!" Keylah tried to grab at Gilgamesh's cloak, but it slipped through her fingers before she could firmly hold it.
Gilgamesh took further steps, and slowly rose higher and higher into the air.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine without those things. I am going to forge my own path regardless."
"I just need to figure out what I want to walk toward."
Keylah seemed reluctant to see Gilgamesh go. Whether she feared for his life or wanted him to stick around and teach her more, no one could say. "Then you don't have to leave right now, do you? If you don't know where you're going, then you'll get there no matter where you go, right?"
"So you can stay here, can't you? Just until you learn more about yourself."
Gilgamesh stopped walking, and just stood there in the air. He slowly turned around, and his cloak floated up behind him before slowly descending. Under the light of the sky, his body seemed to stand out much more than usual.
Keylah was speechless when she saw him, and for a time she felt her desire to keep him there with her fading. To her, in that short moment, there was an essence to Gilgamesh that just barely revealed itself. In her eyes, Gilgamesh looked like...
Like he did not belong.
Staring right at her with his glowing red eyes, Gilgamesh smiled warmly.
"Work hard on your cultivation, Keylah. I believe in you."
Saying that, he turned around. "I may not know what I'm walking toward. It may just be nothing, it may also be something."
"Either way, I am going to walk. I have to know what I am being pulled toward. I need to know where the path I may or may not choose to create will lead."
"Until I know that, I will do nothing but walk. I will keep on walking, and never stop. Whether toward something, nothing, or both, I do not care."
"I just want to know where this feeling leads."
Keylah listened to his words, and when she thought about how she felt in that moment, she could not bear to try to keep Gilgamesh there any longer. All she knew was what she felt.
Gilgamesh did not belong, and that was all there was to it. He had to go, not because he wanted to, but because there was nothing anywhere for him. He had to go where he belonged.
Keylah held on tightly to the stasis field in her hand, and shed a few more silent tears. "Goodbye, Master Gilgamesh. I will never forget you."
Gilgamesh kept walking, not looking back. With a hand raised, he bade her farewell. "We may just meet again, Empress. Work hard till then."
Further and further, he rose into the sky and left the starting ground behind. His long black cloak spread out fully, obscuring his path as he walked and hiding the rest of his body from Keylah's sight.
Following him with her eyes until she could no longer see him, Keylah stood in her Oasis in a daze.
"I wish we could have become friends first..."
Sadly, her words would never reach Gilgamesh's ears. He was much too far away, walking into the boundless sky of the Beginningless Library. Like a lost, wandering soul, he traversed the world of Book Collections.
The closer he got to them, the clearer it became that he was the tiniest most insignificant insect in the face of them. Just a single speck of glitter that fell from one of the Book Collections was as big as a planet to him, meaning that the Book Collection itself was, on the surface, bigger than a universe.
And that was just physically. What the Book Collection actually contained was a collection of countless multiverses-- an Omniverse of life.
Gilgamesh soon fell into thought, and lost all idea of the passage of time. Absentmindedly, he ventured toward somewhere he could not see, with nothing but a feeling to guide him.
_________________________
The Sanctity Seal of a certain Book Collection was broken, causing the light to waver for just a second.
In that moment, a furious roar sounded as a figure fell through, crashing toward one of the many multiverses present.
Space congealed in an attempt to slow that person's descent, but their speed was already too great, causing a tremor in the void that continuously ripped holes in space. Consequently, that person passed through those spatial tears and teleported further and further across space, their speed only increasing.
When they eventually descended onto a universe, crashing into a star, the resulting boom was so loud it could be heard throughout the entire multiverse, even across times.
That star was destroyed in a devastating supernova, and that person kept falling uncontrollably. Planets, asteroids, stars and moons were all destroyed the instant they were hit by that person's rapidly falling body.
Yet, they were entirely unharmed. They flitted across the universe, crashing into whatever was unfortunate enough to be in their path.
Finally, their descent had slowed enough to allow them to land on something. A world teeming with life, somewhere within a universe of that Book Collection.
Near a giant volcano that was emitting terrible black smoke, that person hit the ground with a dreadful thud and created a crater the size of a moon, even though their speed had already been greatly reduced.
They were already unconscious from the moment they broke the Sanctity Seal, which took the last of their remaining energy to do. After crashing their way down to this planet, that person was sure to be out cold.
Laying in the center of that crater was a woman, her long scarlet hair laid out on the floor like a draping curtain, making her appear to have a wave of red above her head. Poking out from that curtain of red were two strange ears, like fox's ears, twitching occasionally as she groaned.
Her skin was slightly tanned, but the area around her eyes was significantly darker than the rest of her face, having an almost peachy kind of color to them that spread to her cheeks.
Her brows were a darker shade of red, and perfectly kept, with not a single hair out of place despite all that she had been through. There were two slits made in her right brow, which added a touch of wildness to her delicate sleeping face.
Her lips seemed painted, but upon closer inspection it was clear to see that there were naturally of a deep crimson color.
The rest of her was covered in jewels ranging from necklaces, waist beads, anklets, piercings and otherwise-- she was pretty much covered in jewelry.
Her top was short, revealing everything beneath her well proportioned chest. A piercing on her belly button was plain to see, and the jewelry adorning it was just as stunning as the rest of her.
Beneath her clothes, some tattoos peeked out, showing that there was one beneath her breasts that was barely visible with the top she wore.
Her tight shorts also revealed a leg tattoo, but only partially.
As she lay on the ground, under the light of a star, in an unpopulated forest near an active volcano, she seemed to attain a distinctly fey attribute, betraying an aura of unearthliness.
There was a shift in the naturality of the world around her, and she suddenly gasped for air as her deep yellow eyes opened, revealing a trace of alarm.
She sat up, breathing rapidly as she looked around. Only when she was absolutely sure of her situation did she seem relieved, and she fell on her back once more.
"Ah..." She panted, licked her lips and tried to swallow some saliva; her mouth and throat were dry. "So... not even the Great Asmodeus was... a match for me..."
Thinking back on something, the woman snickered for a moment before bursting into unmanageable laughter. That laughter was mischievous and- dare I say- purely evil, yet the very image of her laughing self was adorable, enticing, cute, arousing, sexy--
...and I'm getting carried away...
When she was done laughing, the woman slowly sat up again and looked around. Then, she grabbed one of the many jewels adorning her hot body and brought it before her eyes before smashing it to pieces.
Out of that jewel, spatial natures escaped in fragments before regurgitating the items that were contained within them.
Platinum coins, diamonds, true energy pills, seedlings of natures, and a single golden scroll. Looking at the items, the woman gave a final triumphant laugh.
Her laughter filled the forest, causing countless birds to become startled and fly off. Following that, a peculiar aura appeared that spread throughout all the world, bringing a sense of unease.
This was not an unease that came from her, but came as a result of her appearance.
The universe, the multiverse, or perhaps the entire Book Collection was wary of her.
Throwing her head back, the woman gave a prideful, glorious shout.
"In the end, only I, Florence, can be victorious!"