Few more days passed, and in the room where Rei and the others usually woke up, there were two people peacefully asleep on the large bed. It was an unusual sight because, typically, Rei would be in the middle, his wings draped over the two of them like a soft, comforting blanket.
"Mmm..." Lyria slowly began to wake up, feeling the absence of Rei's wings that usually wrapped around her. She glanced around, but there was no one in sight except for Orchid, who was still sleeping beside her.
"Rei...?" she mumbled softly, trying to find him.
"You're awake, Lyria?" Sandalphon said as she entered the room, carrying her usual morning tea.
"Sandalphon? Where's Rei?"
"Rei? He mentioned wanting to go back to that place again earlier."
Hearing this, Lyria could only sigh. Ever since they discovered the archives with the indecipherable books, Rei had been constantly going there every day. He even asked Lucifer if he could postpone his training to spend more time researching Astral knowledge.
So every morning when she woke up, Rei was nowhere to be found until late at night when he would return to the room to rest. It frustrated her as he was constantly neglecting her and barely spoke to her anymore.
But what could she do? Perhaps if Rei kept reading, he might find clues on how to better control his Astral form.
"Well, there's nothing I can do then. And we can't read the text either, so we can't help him too..." Lyria muttered, lying back down on the bed.
"So, do you have any plans for today?" Sandalphon asked again, sitting in her usual chair.
Lyria thought for a while, trying to come up with an idea, but eventually, she shook her head. "No... Nothing comes mind, at the moment."
Seeing that, Sandalphon felt a bit sorry for her. Lyria had shared her past with Sandalphon and the other Archangels, along with stories of her adventures. She knew Lyria disliked staying in one place for too long and had a strong desire to visit different places.
"How about we go to another island and meet the Singularity?" Sandalphon suggested.
Hearing that, Lyria perked up, turning her head toward her. "You mean Gran and the other me? But how can we get there? Besides, do we even know where they are?"
"Well, that's not a problem since I'm pretty sure they're helping people rebuild towns somewhere. And we can make Rei come out of that place and take a break instead of being a recluse." Sandalphon reasoned.
"Sure, that sounds like a great idea! We can think of it as a vacation~!" Lyria agreed enthusiastically, visibly excited by Sandalphon's suggestion.
It seemed like a good plan—an opportunity to lift everyone's spirits, especially Rei's. Maybe a change of scenery would help him find answers in ways he hadn't expected.
Time passed quickly until night fell, and Rei finally returned to their room, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I really didn't need to know that Astrals are actually bisexual..." he muttered to himself.
He had discovered that Astrals could change their bodies at will, making it irrelevant whether they were attracted to someone of the same gender. This was something he never knew, even when he was playing the game back then. But at least now, he was learning more about the Astrals.
"Rei, you're back!" he heard Lyria's voice from ahead of him.
"Huh? Lyria, you're still up?"
He noticed that Sandalphon and Orchid were already asleep, while Lyria was sitting in a chair, waiting for him.
"Yeah, I've been waiting for you. We've barely talked these days because you keep disappearing." Lyria pouted as she said this to him.
Rei could see the hint of frustration on her face. It had been a while since they had a proper conversation, and he knew she was feeling neglected.
Rei quickly moved closer to her. "I'm sorry, Lyria... I've been too caught up with reading through all those archives."
Lyria still pouted, not responding to his words at all.
Seeing that, Rei knew exactly what she wanted as they've been through this before. He asked her the same question he had asked when they had a disagreement in the past.
"What can I do so you'll forgive me?" Rei knelt in front of her, looking straight into her eyes while holding both of her hands.
Hearing that, Lyria immediately smiled and squeezed his hands in return. "Then I want to meet the others and my other self!"
"Huh? You want to meet Gran and the other Lyria?"
"Yes! I'm bored here. I want to go out, see new sights, and meet them too!"
Hearing that, Rei hesitated. He hadn't finished reading all the archives in that place... And for some reason, he felt uneasy about leaving them unfinished. Something within him was urging him to read everything and try out what was written in those books. Like creating an entirely new Primal Beast from scratch...
"You don't want to...?" Lyria asked, her face turning sad when Rei didn't respond to her request.
"No, no, I do want to! Of course, we can go to them." Rei quickly said when he saw the sadness in Lyria's expression.
Lyria immediately beamed with happiness upon hearing that, as if she had never looked sad at all.
"Yaaayyy!" She threw her arms around Rei in delight, hugging him tightly.
After that, the two of them decided to spend some time talking with each other. It had been a few days since they last had a proper conversation.
Lyria excitedly shared stories about all the things she and the others had been doing in the shrine, while Rei recounted what he had discovered from the archives he'd been reading.
"Huh? You mean you can become female?" Lyria looked genuinely surprised when she heard that Astrals could change their bodies.
"Yeah, I found out they actually have that ability. It even surprised me too." Rei replied.
"Hmm. But from everything we've heard about the Astrals, I'm not really shocked they have an ability like that, especially when they can make Primal Beasts like Tiamat and the others."
Rei knew that the Astrals had blessings from the Astral God with the power of creation, so he should technically have that ability too. But when he tried to use it during his investigation, he could never get it to work. He didn't know the requirements for using such power, so for now, he just gave up.
He wanted to create a proper body for Orchid so she wouldn't need to rely on that golem body like in the game.
If he still couldn't make a body for Orchid, his other choice was to find the place where Cagliostro was sealed and free her. Cagliostro was the smartest person in the Sky Realm—she even managed to create a homunculus body to keep herself from aging, even though she was actually 500 years old.
"Anyway, changing gender, huh... I wonder what you'd look like as a female..." Lyria said, imagining what Rei would look like if he were a woman.
"Haha, you'd definitely be beautiful, Rei."
"Heh, I hope I never find out..." Rei could only shake his head with a chuckle.
They continued chatting for a while longer, exchanging stories and thoughts, before Rei realized that Lyria had fallen asleep, leaning against his shoulder.
"Pyuhh..." Lyria breathed softly, indicating she was deeply asleep.
Rei just smiled at the sight and gently stroked her cheek. "Good night, Lyria."
He carefully picked her up and placed her on the bed, making sure she was comfortable. Then, he slowly moved to his usual sleeping position.
Because of his wings, Rei found it troublesome to sleep comfortably, so he usually slept on his stomach.
"Me as a female, huh... I mean, Sandalphon is female in this timeline. I wonder if there's a timeline where Lucilius or Lucifer is female." Rei murmured to himself.
He slowly closed his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep, his thoughts lingering on the idea of a female Lucilius.
~~~~~
Early in the morning, Rei could feel someone shaking his body.
But for some reason, today he felt too lazy to get up, so he ignored whoever was trying to wake him.
"Rei! Wake up, Rei! Something happened!" He started to hear Lyria and Orchid's panicked voices, which made him slowly open his eyes.
"What's wrong...? Let me sleep more..." Rei tried to tell them, but strangely, his voice sounded different than usual.
"Wake up, Rei!" Sandalphon said this time.
Reluctantly, he finally sat up in bed, eyes still closed, turning around to look at them.
"What?" He rubbed his eyes.
"Your body..."
Hearing Lyria, he opened his eyes to see Lyria and Orchid in front of him, looking worried. Sandalphon stood beside the bed, observing him closely.
"My body?" He looked down, right at his own body.
When Rei looked down at his body, he froze. Instead of his usual form, he saw a very different shape—smaller, slimmer, with clearly more feminine curves.
He paused, observing himself with a bewildered expression. His hair, normally short and a bit messy, now appeared longer and smoother. The clothes he wore felt looser in some areas while tighter in others, most notably in the chest area.
"What the...?" Rei muttered softly, his voice now noticeably higher-pitched, making his even more aware of the change.
Lyria, still worried, getting closer and touched his shoulder. "Rei... You've turned into a girl!"
Rei looked at Lyria with an expression that was hard to read, a mix of shock and disbelief. "How did this happen...?"
"You said that Astrals can change their bodies, right? Could this have something to do with that?"
Rei tried to recall. It was true that she had read about the Astrals' ability to change their form, but she didn't remember trying or even intending to do it.
"That doesn't make sense... I never tried to change my body." Rei replied, still puzzled by the situation.
Sandalphon, who had been watching intently, approached Rei. "Maybe this happened because of something you read or learned from those archives." she suggested calmly. "There might be some knowledge or magic there that affected your body."
"What!? How does this even work!? Magic? I've never even tried to use magic before!" Rei looked panicked, not knowing what to do.
"Calm down, Rei! Panicking won't help!" Orchid tried to calm her down.
"But Orchid, I suddenly changed to female like this!! What am I supposed to do next!? What if I need to—!" Rei started to ramble, her mind racing, until Lyria quickly covered her mouth to stop her from talking.
"Calm down, Rei!"
Rei slowly began to take deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. After a few moments, she managed to regain some composure. "Sorry, everyone... I'm just really shocked right now..."
"It's fine. I mean, if I suddenly changed like that, I'd definitely panic too." Sandalphon said to her reassuringly.
"Yeah. For now, how about we call Lucifer and ask him?" Lyria suggested.
"But how can we call him? Lucifer said he won't be around for a few days." Orchid reminded them, recalling that Lucifer had mentioned he'd be busy for the next few days.
"Well, for now, let's get you some new clothes!" Lyria grinned, eyeing Rei's body and her now long white hair.
Rei blinked, a bit taken aback. "Wait, new clothes? Is that really necessary right now?"
Lyria nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! You can't walk around like that. Those clothes don't fit you anymore!"
Orchid chuckled. "And who knows, maybe some new clothes will help you relax a bit."
Sandalphon smirked slightly. "I suppose there's no harm in that. Besides, it might be fun to see you in a different outfit, Rei."
Rei sighed, realizing there was no winning against them on this matter. "Fine, fine... Let's get this over with."
The girls smiled, happy to see Rei calming down. Despite the chaos of the situation, their supportive and light-hearted approach helped Rei feel a bit better about the unexpected transformation.