The moment he stepped outside, Caelum realised he was no longer in the Longgram Isles. He knew as much just from seeing the people in the hospital, but it had not really cemented itself in his head until this moment.
The scenery and the atmosphere were very different from what he was used to, not that he could remember much to begin with. Although he was born in the Aegon Kingdom, he was raised in his father's home in Longgram for eighteen years.
It was where most of his life on Earth had been spent. To him, Aegon was nothing more than a foreign place.
Some people serving their family arrived with a car to take them home. They were the same people who accompanied his sister on her visit to the hospital. He wondered if it had always been like this.
His life was a blur in his mind. Any memory he had was a thin white ice that could crumble with his touch or melt with his warmth. The price he had been forced to pay to receive the blessings of the Imaginary Tree was far too great to bear for most people.
But Caelum was not most people.
His heart burned with resentment toward the Imaginary Tree. Without his consent, it pushed him on a path he never wanted. And all he could do now was walk it, unable to escape.
Now, he was determined to see it through to the end despite knowing the strings attached to him. The key to everything's undoing, he knew, lies at the end of the path.
Everyone was silent for most of the ride. The atmosphere was awkward while Ceres just stared at her brother worryingly. The person in question, however, only watched the scenery outside as it moved past.
His contemplations looked to others as an overly calm mood. One could even say he looked indifferent. To Ceres who had been very close to her brother all those years before his coma, his change in personality was too jarring.
Could losing one's memories really change them so much? She could only guess that something fundamental within him, not just the stigmata, had changed. Finally breaking the silence, Caelum spoke, much to his sister's surprise.
"What happened to our home?"
The servants did not know how to answer the question and just looked at each other in worry. Ceres, on the other hand, had a grim expression. Caelum easily deduced the answer and sighed.
"How much was lost?"
"...Most of the country. Some of the islands have either been destroyed or sunk. Those that survived…, some of them sought refuge in other countries like us. The rest stayed."
"I expected as much…."
Hearing his response that could only be described as cold, Ceres looked at Caelum in disbelief. She resisted the urge to yell at him, wondering whether he simply did not understand the gravity of the situation. But as she observed him, she realised she misunderstood.
Caelum was seething inside. The moment the car came across a park, he made them pull over. He left the car and arrived at an empty bench where he sat down for a moment of escape.
The park was large enough that despite there being quite a number of people, there was still a lot of space one could choose to be alone in. Ceres rushed after him only to find him staring silently into the distance, or more precisely, at the giant tree looming over the world.
"I'm sorry. I'm just not used to being in a small confined space after all these years. It was suffocating."
"What do you mean?"
Caelum looked at his confused little sister. It was like he knew her, but at the same time, he knew absolutely nothing about her at all. He only knew that she was his sister.
He could not remember much about their relationship, but something told him that she had changed as well. She had grown into an adult before he even knew. He smiled sadly as he spoke.
"Would you believe me if I said that I was trapped somewhere else in these past three years?"
Her expression was all the answer he needed. Caelum knew that it was impossible for anyone to believe such a story. That was why it was even more frustrating. The world had changed within a span of three years. To him, that time was infinitely long, yet also infinitely short.
One moment he was awake amidst the chaos, and the next, he was in a hospital. The interlude in between took too much time from him that he felt as though he was lagging behind. No one could ever understand these complex feelings.
"It's nothing. Just let me catch my breath here for a while."
The sun was still high in the sky. This was a scene he could never witness in the Imaginary Space. He smiled joyfully as he basked in the sunlight with the wind blowing all around as though caressing his skin.
The beauty of harmony reminded him of the enlightenment he received after countless years of imprisonment.
Peace truly is the most precious thing.
Yet so often do people take it for granted.
To anyone who saw him at this moment, he appeared to be the greatest piece of art, as though an angel had descended to bless this miraculous instance. Even Ceres, his own sister, could not help but blush at his magnificent visage. But like all things, even this moment of reprieve he had earned had to come to an end.
Caelum's cold eyes suddenly glared menacingly toward an area of the park. There were a few people there who were watching him, all of whom became flustered when he looked in their direction. However, his words made them question his sanity.
"If you don't want to die, then get out of this park. Everyone, leave now!"
"Brother, what are you talking about?"
The people's reactions were understandably negative. They took his words as an offense. Even Ceres was confused, but he could not worry about them now. The only thing he cared about was getting his sister back into the car and as far away from here as possible.
"Ceres, get back to the car!"
"I don't know what's going on with you, but okay. Let's go."
"No, you go alone! You have to get as far away from here as possible!"
"What are you talking about? Do you still feel sick? We really should have left you in the hospital for at least a wee-"
"Ceres!"
He could not argue anymore. Time has run out.
From the space in the middle of the park, a wound opened up as though it was tearing through flesh. The air bled crimson, and the pungent smell of rusted iron slowly spread outward.
Looking at the slowly dripping blood from the torn gash in space, the people started backing away, their faces pale and frightened. Ceres looked as though she was reliving a nightmare. And then someone screamed.
"It's a gate! Everyone, run!"
As though it was the signal everyone had been waiting for, they fled in fear while screaming at the top of their lungs. But it was already too late as savage hands ripped open the wound in the air. Vicious and vile creatures that could only be described as monsters began flooding out. Caelum, who saw their family's servants running toward them, shouted impatiently.
"Get her out of here quickly!"
"No! Let me go! Brother! Brother!"
As they dragged Ceres back into the car, she kept resisting and calling for her brother. It was truly the same nightmare she often had ever since three years ago.
Seeing her wailing figure, Caelum seemed to recall a fragment of a memory. It was of Ceres crying under a cover made of corpses of their parents and his own bloodied body. He shook his head and refocused.
All around him, people were screaming in fear and pain. The monsters had grown in numbers quite rapidly in the few seconds that his attention left them.
He could see at least ten humanoid monsters running around in a brutal hunt for prey, and a few more still trying to pass through the gate. He had prepared for this moment for a very long time, yet still he cursed the world.
"It's like you specifically tracked me down to give me a homecoming present."
His words were more of self-ridicule, but it seems the monsters thought it was a provocation as the two that just came out of the gate rushed toward him. Caelum sighed. From the beginning, his role had been set in stone. If all he could do was play it, then he would play it to perfection.
"Come at me then, you bastards!"
The humanoid monsters had two pairs of arms, each with long and sharp claws perfect for dismembering their prey. And right now, there were eight sets of claws aimed for his head and body.
Caelum closed his eyes at the sight of them. To anyone who saw this, they would think he had been too terrified to even face his death despite having given up. However, his words betrayed their expectations, particularly the two monsters charging toward him.
"O Serenity, long have I waited..."
In an instant, bright light burst out from his body. The monsters were blinded, but their claws were already near enough to touch his skin, so it didn't matter. However, they couldn't feel the familiar sensation of ripping through flesh nor hear the familiar scream of pain from their mangled prey.
When the light died down, the monsters found their claws stuck on a glowing tendril of energy wrapped around the human they had marked as prey. Then Caelum spoke again.
"Yet Chaos comes so swiftly still."
In a flash of black, the two monsters burst apart and vanished. In their place was an indescribable thing made of pure energy. Caelum walked forward and the white and black moved.
The white tendril unraveled and spread to his left while the black energy reformed itself into a more discernible figure and spread to his right as a tentacle oozing of black tar. What appeared was a man with wings of white and black.
"Let's begin."