Greshina sat beside him now but neither of them immediately spoke. After a while, Greshina let out a slow breath and turned her gaze forward.
"There's something you need to know and I'm not going to sugarcoat it because you hate that."
Veneri glanced at her from the corner of his eye but didn't interrupt, so she continued,
"The Second Epoch Cycle isn't just some natural phenomenon or some random disaster system that kicks in when the world feels like it. Everything happening right now is meant to prepare all of you for what's coming, and that includes the Krepsunas and the Mopherian Pantheon."
"Preparation implies design, so who exactly is designing something on that scale?"
"An ancient race called the Phonoroxans are responsible for it and before you ask, yes, they exist outside of what most people consider the Four Ancient Races. Officially, there are only four but there's always been a fifth that isn't openly discussed even though the higher existences all know about them."
She paused briefly before continuing.
"The Phonoroxans weren't born or evolved like other races. They were created directly by the Creation and Life Primordial for one purpose only, which is to protect worlds that have developed civilizations, not just from external threats but from the beings inside the world as well."
"So you're telling me every advanced world has one of these people watching over it like a caretaker?"
"Yes, and Earth had one too. She was assigned to it long before any of the major recorded calamities and she was the reason why humanity survived things it never should have. Ragnarok didn't end the world because of her, the Titanomachy didn't wipe everything out because of her, and even Armageddon was contained because she interfered before it could reach its full scale. That's why the loops exist."
"..."
"Those events weren't just myths or isolated disasters. They were cycles, just like the Epoch Cycles here in Spheraphase. It was meant to push a world forward without letting it collapse completely. Back to what I was saying, Phonoroxans aren't supposed to have children unless they're granted permission by the Creation Primordial. That permission is rarely given because it creates complications in their role. But the one assigned to Earth fell in love anyway."
There was a faint pause before she added, "She fell in love with a human man and had a child with him without permission."
"And I'm guessing that didn't go well."
Greshina let out a quiet, humorless breath and replied:
"The Phonoroxans killed him as punishment and it wasn't symbolic or delayed. He erased him immediately, right in front of her, as a reminder that Phonoroxans don't get to live like the beings they protect. She broke after that. She renounced her role, abandoned her duties and chose to live as a mother instead of a protector, even though she knew exactly what that meant for the world she was tied to."
Veneri's expression didn't change.
"Phonoroxans are directly linked to the world they protect, so if that world is destroyed, they are destroyed with it. That connection isn't optional and it doesn't weaken just because they walk away. It's absolute. The apocalypse for Earth was set to happen when her daughter turned seven years old, and she knew that. She had always known that. So when that moment came, she sacrificed herself. She used everything she had left to delay the collapse of Earth, to give it more time to endure, even if it meant removing herself from existence."
Veneri finally spoke, his voice quieter now as he said.
"And the daughter took her place."
"Yes, because that's how it works. The role doesn't disappear. It's transferred. And that daughter wasn't unprepared either, because she had already been chosen long before that moment ever arrived. She was chosen by the Death Primordial."
"Don't tell me…"
Greshina didn't let him finish,
"I'm a Phonoroxan, Veneri."
He had questions but she continued without giving him time to interrupt.
"Powerful bloodlines dominate weaker ones over time. My Phonoroxan lineage eventually overtook my human side completely, so I stopped being half anything and became what I was meant to be. It's also why I became Empress of Earth."
"Right. You ruled the planet."
"I stabilized it, which in practice meant ruling it, because there wasn't any other way to maintain control during that stage. The apocalypse still happened, just not in the way it was supposed to. I had to enforce a system that kept everything from collapsing entirely. Call it dystopian if you want, because it was, but it was the only option I had at the time."
Veneri didn't argue with that. Considering how chaotic the world was, it really was the only option.
"I erased your memories during that period right after you got out of that facility. I also didn't again when the world started turning against me. That's why there's a gap in your memory after you were freed. I made sure you wouldn't remember anything that came after."
"You made that decision for me."
"Yes, because when we were together, you never had a death mark."
That made his eyes widen.
"Everyone has one and it determines what happens to them after they die, whether they reincarnate, get erased, or something else entirely. But you didn't have one at all, and that meant your existence was different."
"Different how?"
Greshina looked at him and said, "It meant you were going to retain your memories no matter where you ended up, and that made you a risk if those memories contained anything classified as a Hidden Truth."
"So you erased them to prevent that."
"Hidden Truths aren't exclusive to Spheraphase. They exist everywhere, and if certain information spreads, it destabilizes entire systems, not just worlds. So I removed what I had to."
Veneri leaned back slightly, absorbing everything, then said, "And while I was missing all of that, I just moved on."
"You built a new life, got stronger, adapted to this world, and apparently gathered a group of women around you along the way. A whole harem— no, since this is a matriarchal world, I'd say a reverse harem of five, if I counted correctly."
Veneri didn't respond to that directly, but his silence said enough.
"I expected it, because from your perspective, I abandoned you. I left you in that place to be experimented on, and then I disappeared completely. And that part is true. I had my reasons, but having a reason doesn't erase what I did."
The silence between them didn't last long this time. Greshina leaned back slightly as she looked ahead at the frozen park. Her expression was calmer now, like she had crossed the hardest part of what she needed to say.
"EPOCH is the Phonoroxan of Spheraphase."
Veneri glanced at her, listening closely.
"She's been doing this since civilization here even began. Every time something should have wiped this world out completely, she stepped in just enough to keep it going. She might not look like it, but she favors you a lot."
That made him frown.
"In fact, she's one of the main reasons you're as strong as you are now. Phonoroxans don't just sit around and watch. When they create a Cycle, they act like cosmic directors, in a sense. They guide certain events, adjust certain outcomes and then leave the rest to Destiny and Fate."
Her tone became slightly more explanatory.
"They can't interfere too much, though. There's a limit. If they cross it, they start overriding Destiny and Fate entirely, and that's not allowed. My mother told me about the Titanomachy. She said that when Kronos was ruling, she deliberately made sure he didn't find Zeus until he was old enough to actually challenge him."
Veneri was slightly amazed by that. She just admitted that pantheons on Earth existed.
"She could have done more. She could have ended it early but she didn't, because that would have broken the natural course of Destiny. So she only intervened when it was necessary. For EPOCH, it's the same thing. During your First Epoch Cycle, the reason the Frozen God didn't attack all of you when you were all still weak was because of her. She delayed it just enough so you could grow into something capable of facing it."
There was a pause then she continued, shifting the topic.
"When I was transmigrated to Spheraphase, I split myself into two. One version became my Spheraphasian body. That one carries only a fragment of my soul. It's the one you know as Edarea Avinaris. The other… is me. My original self. I'm the one with my full Divinity. I adapted to this world pretty quickly. The gravity, the environment, the energy system, it wasn't really a problem. Being a Deity makes that kind of thing easy. And after that, I just… didn't check on my other self."
That made him look at her more directly.
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want to be a Phonoroxan for Spheraphase. And besides, there's no rule saying a world can't have two beings protecting it. EPOCH already had it covered and I don't want that responsibility. So, I'm a free Phonoroxan."
Veneri stayed silent.
"I gave Edarea some of my abilities. They were enough for her to function but beyond that I left her alone. I didn't monitor her, guide her or interfere with anything she did. I just… roamed around and followed you."
That made him blink.
"What?"
Greshina's lips curved slightly.
"That's how you've been able to survive all this time."
"How?"
She looked at him and sighed.
"When you were six and you went through a Reversal Ascension, you were supposed to die. You remember how unstable that was. Your body couldn't handle it so I stopped it."
She said it like it was obvious.
"I prevented your death from happening. That's not exactly difficult for someone who represents Death."
Veneri stared at her. She continued before he could respond.
"When you were thirteen, Stephos used that nuke blast that wiped out Upper Rise. You were caught in that. You and Adelasta should have been erased completely. Did you seriously think an Essentia-level body could tank the attack of a Minor Deity?"
He didn't answer. Greshina gave him a look that said she already knew the answer.
"I shielded you two. That's why you're still here."
She didn't pause long before continuing.
"When you were seventeen and EPOCH marked all of you and your group for the First Epoch Cycle, you died but I didn't let Death take you. I held it back. That's why you all came back. You didn't survive that on your own nor did the world help."
Greshina kept going.
"When you were in that temple on the snow island with the Raukerai Tribe, fighting that statue, your body got corrupted. You were seconds away from dying so I absorbed most of that corruption myself. That's why you stabilized and woke up fine, thinking that your body adapted to it."
She didn't stop.
"In the Obsidian Runic Spire, you died more than once. Again, did you really believe those Amorphous Souls revived you? Or that the tower had some kind of built-in resurrection system?"
There was a small pause before she answered her own question.
"It was me. Every single time you were about to die or actually died, I stopped it. The only time I couldn't interfere was when you saved Narisva Starisnova. That death was tied to Fate and I can't interfere with that. Even as a Split of Death, I can't override deaths that are bound by Destiny or Fate."