7.17 Volume 7 Epilogue
January 2385
The sliding door hissed as it opened, allowing Annie to drag her tired body through the opening and into her old apartment. She groaned as she headed straight for the sleeping niche and let herself fall face-down on the mattress. She was now the COO of Hayder-Katsuya, but only in an unofficial capacity. While she helped Katsuya with the daily operations, she was in truth just the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head. She was given his old smart gun, with strict instructions to execute him, should he ever stray from the path he laid out the moment he took power.
She didn't move into a fancy corpo neighborhood, closer to HQ, but remained here, among the ‘proles', among her people.
The past few weeks were the most hectic ones of all; Katsuya's fears that the crew of the aircraft carrier that currently operated somewhere across the ocean would rebel came true, though not out of misguided loyalty. Instead, the captain sensed the power vacuum and promptly went ahead with trying to establish a micro nation under a military government in the Middle East – something that Katsuya had to respond to, if he didn't want to cause suspicion. A job for Carl and several pilots, among them now a few orcs, once they finished basic mech combat training.
The space colonies were still reliant on supplies from Earth, so their cooperation was at least ensured, no matter how much they may object to the change in leadership.
On top of all that was the additional pile of work, caused by the partial merging of worlds. Miori introduced them to a man called Stevyn, who offered the construction of permanent gateways between Prosperity City and Tokyo, to let people traverse back if they were spirited away by the new dimensional anomalies – and to start diplomacy.
The most important instruction given to them was to keep quiet about World of Infinity – that there would be trouble if the governments of Earth learned where the holographic soldiers came from, and to her understanding, the other world involved in the attack on Earth was also given the same instructions. The attacks on Earth were carried out by unknown third parties, that was the story everyone had to go with.
Annie closed her eyes and attempted to sleep, letting the patter of the rain against her window lull her to sleep. However, just as she was about to fall asleep, a face flashed in front of her eyes and she shot up, now wide awake.
Zach…
Tears filled her eyes and she quickly jumped out of the bed, pacing up and down in her living room. Feelings of guilt still gnawed at her, and worst of all, she still saw his ruined body in front of her mind's eye. She remembered his final words vividly.
“Your teasing never really bothered me. And… I guess I still like you, after all. Goodbye, Annie.”
She sighed and stopped in front of her couch as something shimmering caught her attention. It was a key, with a little note attached.
Was that here yesterday?
Annie grabbed the note and unfolded it, letting her eyes dart over the words written on the piece of paper.
‘Use this on your front door. Go as soon as possible! – Mana’
“Is this one of those dimension key things…?”she asked, looking at the object and rotating it between her fingers. It was a keycard, for the readers that the hab-building's doors came with, there was no doubt about it.
She swallowed heavily and walked over to the door, holding the key to its reader. It beeped, acknowledging the card as legit. Normally, this would lock or unlock the door from the inside, but in this case, it slid open, revealing not the busy floor of her hab-level, but a white void full of nothing.
She slowly stepped inside and had a look around; there was nothing but doors of different make in every direction, with the space between them being just more of the white void, which she vaguely remembered catching a glimpse of when Mana and her friends brought their people back home. She considered simply walking back into her apartment, but the door closed with a hiss and suddenly vanished, leaving Annie stranded, while the key in her hand changed from its sophisticated chip construction into a simple, large bronze key.
She stood there, stunned, until someone touched her shoulder and spoke with a gentle voice.
“Welcome, traveler. Please present your key.”
***
???
Annie stepped out of a rustic gate, throwing a glance over her shoulder. The two-faced giant of a man gave her two friendly smiles and waved as the door closed. In retrospect, she was a little embarrassed by how she acted when she turned around and saw him for the first time.
She screamed and tried to run away, and he had to execute his power over his domain, making her run in place until she exhausted herself and finally calmed down enough to hear him out. He was Janus, the god of doors and time, and, apparently, a relative of Bellona's, and when he took Annie's key, he promptly took her to the gate to urge her through. He wouldn't tell her where he was taking her, however, insisting that she would figure it out on her own.
She drew a blank, however. This word she found herself in defied all logic: there was a sun, but it was visibly crammed into a carriage and racing across the sky while a wolf followed it, and speaking of wolves, there were two giant ones in the courtyard with her, keeping a distance as they watched her every step. The house in front of her was a primitive thing, though it was impossibly huge, and its roof tiled with round wooden shields, like those medieval warriors used.
She heard shouting and laughter from inside, so she gathered her courage and approached, grabbing the slightly ajar door and pushing it open. It took all her strength to get the heavy, giant door to move and she groaned, but suddenly it simply swung open, making her lose her balance and causing her to fall over.
As she lifted her head, she saw a large feast hall. Armored men and similarly armored women with wings mingled, sharing food and drink. There were a few brawls, though Annie got the impression that they were in good fun, rather than proper fights.
An impossibly tall woman wearing a bridal gown stepped outside, with a hood obscuring her face. From Annie’s low position, however, the truth was soon revealed to her that this was a man, with fiery-red hair and a braided beard underneath. He noticed her curious gaze and turned his head around, making eye contact.
“Don’t ask!” he growled, slowly articulating every syllable as he sensed her question, and Annie nodded in affirmation.
A second man, smaller than him, with a mischievous expression, stepped out, wearing a colorful dress himself. He pushed the tall man forward.
“Come now, great Thunderer! Oh, I mean… Freyja, of course! If we don’t attend the wedding, you will never see that hammer of yours again!”
“I know, trickster. This doesn’t make this any less humiliating,” the man’s thunderous voice replied, even as the odd pair already left Annie’s view, leaving her entirely befuddled.
Just then, a hand reached out to her, and she absentmindedly grabbed it, letting the helpful stranger pull her on her feet.
“Where…?” she started, and a familiar voice answered her.
“Valhalla. The realm of those who died fighting.”
Annie quickly turned her head, and tears gathered in her eyes as she saw Zach's face. He was wearing strange armor, like the rest of the men, and his body looked intact, without any signs of it ever having been the bloody mess that it was after the sewer attack.
“Zach…! You…”
“I died. But Odin watched over me. When I killed Hayder, he sent his Valkyries to collect my soul and gave me a new body. I can't leave this world, but I am alive. Sort of,” he explained with an awkward smile, then his eyes went wide as Annie closed the gap and simply sealed his lips with a kiss.
There were many words still unsaid between them, and she was glad for the opportunity to finally tell Zach how she felt.
???
A young girl woke up in a comfortable bed, inside her own room – or at least it looked like it. Stuffed animals and various books were cluttered around her, just like they were in her home, but she noticed a white haze permeating everything.
She saw the door of her room, but there were no walls. Everything beyond the borders of her bedroom just vanished into emptiness. It was scary.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” she asked quietly. She wanted to call for her parents, too, but something in her subconscious stopped her from doing so, as if she knew that they wouldn't answer.
She collected all her courage and reached out for the doorknob, but it already turned. The door swung open, and behind it was a girl she didn't recognize, but felt a strange feeling of familiarity towards.
She had pitch-black hair, and her eyes appeared to pierce straight through her. What was the strangest of all about this girl, however, was her ears: they were pointy, unlike anything she had ever seen before.
“Who are you…?” the girl spoke quietly, uncertain about this stranger.
“…you chose to forget, then,” the girl replied with a certain sadness in her words. She took a deep breath, but then she smiled regardless as she looked her in the eyes.
“I am Taenya,” the pointy-eared girl introduced herself.
“May I know your name as well?” she followed up, though with a tone that implied that she already knew.
“I am Maria,” the girl now introduced herself, then she looked around, into the strange fog that engulfed her bedroom.
“What is this? I remember going to bed… mama and papa promised to watch my rehearsal today,” Maria spoke full of uncertainty, and Taenya shifted in place uncomfortably.
“There is no way to tell you this in a gentle way, Maria, but… you are dead,” the elf spoke, and Maria turned around towards her. Her body shivered, and she struggled to find the words to express her terror at this revelation.
“I… but I was just fine yesterday… and… I have a rehearsal. I am Prospero… it's a super important role…! And if I died, then… mama and papa will be sad…! I don’t want that!”
Taenya stepped closer and grabbed her shoulders, looking her in the eyes.
“It is fine, Maria. You lived a life far beyond the night you remember. But when you entered the thousand-year dream, you were presented with a choice. To continue into our afterlife as you were or forgetting everything after a certain point in time.”
Maria looked at the girl with doubt.
“...do you know me from after?”
“I do. We were… well, we knew each other. Maybe even liked each other, and we weren't entirely honest,” the elf admitted bashfully.
“And did you forget?”
Taenya shook her head.
“I was tempted to, but… I just couldn't forget you, as strange as it may seem. All I got granted by the tree was to be turned into a young girl again, so I can stand by your side and grow with you.”
“The tree…” Maria repeated doubtfully.
“Anyway… how about I show you around? We will spend a lot of time here. Until we're ready to fully move on.”
Taenya held out her hand, and Maria readily grabbed it, letting the familiar stranger guide her out of the conjured room and into a wide-open space. Maria's eyes had to adjust to the light hitting her yes, but once she could see ahead, she witnessed a beautiful scene.
They were in a forest, with elaborately decorated houses carved into the ancient trunks of trees. More elves like Taenya, of all age groups wandered the paths between the houses. She saw couples sitting close, saw groups of children playing, and saw elders watching over them under the warm ray of the day's gentle sun.
“What is this…?” Maria whispered, and Taenya turned towards her.
“This is your second chance at a peaceful life. Unburdened by everything that happened in your lifetime. Now, come. You're an aspiring actress, aren't you? Let me show you to our theater…”
***
Cousin Frost's Retreat, 6311
Ayame didn't quite know what drove her to visit Maria's grave, but here she was. The villainess was unmasked and reported as dead back home, and soon after, a package arrived for Ayame, naming her as one of the recipients of Maria’s remaining worldly possessions after her company, now bereft of its sole private owner, was liquidated. She was almost tempted to throw it all out, until she remembered Mana, and the difficulty she had with clothing, thanks to her tail. And now that many people on Earth suffered from the same problem, it would be prudent to make use of the opportunity she was given, so she used the new riches to buy out Atelier Antoinette instead and work on creating affordable fashion for mutated humans.
There was also a note attached to the package, for her eyes only. A letter that was apologizing to her over and over for what happened between them, fully lacking the usual justifications and twists to fit Maria's narrative.
Ayame wondered if it was written before or after Maria came for her a few months ago, but it didn't matter much in the end.
She heard from Seika what the Deogemma did to her, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't pitying her ex-girlfriend a little, even if she couldn't ever forgive her.
“She is now in the thousand-year dream, living a life she never had. From what Taenya whispered to me, she chose to forget her life and restart from the last time she used to be an innocent girl,” Caelon spoke next to her, and she scoffed quietly.
“How convenient that she gets to forget everything…”
Ayame looked at the face in the bark. It was younger, smaller than Maria's face used to be. There was an innocence on the sleeping face that Maria lacked her whole adult life.
“You don't approve?” Caelon asked as Ayame turned around and walked away. She stopped to consider it for a moment.
“Maria as she was doesn't deserve a second chance. But the child she used to be…”
Ayame glanced over her shoulder to look at the sleeping face for the last time.
“I think she deserves to experience the happiness that was stolen from her, so that she can grow up to become a different person, even if it’s just in your afterlife.”
(Volume 7 End)