They were no longer weak.
There was no need to fight anymore.
How those words reached the Silver Clock—Isaac couldn't know.
Whether they unshackled a chain she had carried for ages…
Or made her feel as if her very reason for existence was being denied.
He didn't know which.
But regardless, Isaac believed it was the right thing.
"Isaac… are you really… okay with this?"
Clarice asked carefully.
"We know now. We know the future you saw."
"..."
"Even if you chose to act on your emotions—lashed out in anger and swung your sword—no one could blame you for it."
She was genuinely worried.
Worried that Isaac might be suppressing the burning fury in his chest.
That he might be bottling it up, enduring it quietly, making calm, rational decisions just to hold himself together.
"Especially in this situation…"
Clarice stopped herself.
It was all too simple, really.
All they had to do was wait.
And the sorcery would end.
The Silver Clock would return to her world.
And in the end, the transcendent beings would be wiped out by her hand.
Just like in the future Isaac had witnessed, where every human had been slaughtered without mercy.
In the silence, Isaac felt her gaze.
— ...
The Silver Clock, too, was watching him in stillness, as though awaiting his answer.
After all, he was the one who had suffered most at the hands of the transcendent beings—
The one who had lost the most.
He had even reversed time and reclaimed what had been lost…
Yet there were things that had been lost for good.
Millie—
That girl still occupied a corner of Isaac's heart.
In the story of this man called Isaac, she was a mark, a memory that could never be erased.
Even if he wanted to move on and pretend the past and future he remembered had never happened—
The fact that he had lost his dearest friend…
That alone gave Isaac every right to be angry.
But—
"It's because I saw it."
It was precisely because he had seen that future that Isaac didn't want it.
"Because I experienced it. Because I've known that kind of loss. That's why I'm choosing this path."
The Silent Sword—Isaac Logan.
The man who had chased after stars.
He wasn't the kind to collapse beneath failure or despair, even when people mocked his dreams as impossible.
No.
The time he had once spent with the woman he loved too deeply had given him something close to enlightenment.
That staying down was meaningless.
That moving forward was the only path.
Having lived both the future and the past, he could now say it clearly:
Repeating the same mistakes would only lead to an endless cycle.
"I've always looked forward as I ran."
He saw the past through the lens of the future.
That's what regression was.
Even in that warped and twisted flow of time, Isaac had always pushed ahead—steadfast and true.
Now too, he had simply made the same choice as always:
To move forward.
— …Understood.
A soft voice from the Silver Clock, as if she had finally let something go, resonated gently in the air.
— I can't even remember when I stopped wishing for this role to end…
She felt a mix of sorrow and subtle relief as it all came to a close.
A star descended from the sky.
Its brilliance dimmed the closer it drew to the earth.
Eventually, it took the shape of a person.
A woman with snow-white hair.
Time seemed to have stopped around her.
Nothing could sully her.
Whether it was the burden of her role, Or the weight of the life she had lived—
The pressure surrounding the Silver Clock was far more intense than the suffocating air of the Abyss.
Even the fragile Clarice found herself involuntarily stepping back.
"…Could you come down… this easily?"
Isaac, honestly, was surprised.
After all, she had become a star through sorcery.
He had expected some magical mechanism or ritual…
He had thought the situation would be far more complicated—that they'd need to work through it gradually.
Yet, contrary to expectations, the Silver Clock had cast aside her role as a star far more easily than anticipated.
"That too… was part of the price of the sorcery."
"…?"
Came her soft reply.
At first, Isaac couldn't quite understand.
But when he recalled the time she had endured, it quickly became clear.
"Because you could give it up at any moment… the weight of time must've been all the heavier."
The Silver Clock silently nodded.
She had always been in a position where she could let go.
She had done it all for humanity.
Truly, for the greater good.
But people are fragile beings.
Passion that burns bright can fade within just an hour—that's what it means to be human.
And so, over countless years, perhaps too many moments to even count, the Silver Clock must have constantly wrestled with the temptation.
'Should I just give up?'
'Should I just let go?'
But in the end, she never did.
You couldn't classify her actions as good or evil.
But her will—
That deserved respect, without question.
Then—
"Ah…"
A cry, almost a scream, rang out from a distance.
A pair of red eyes was fixed on them—
No, fixed on the Silver Clock.
"You… you bitch…"
A voice, ragged and cracking.
As Helik's eyes trembled and met the Silver Clock's—
She returned his gaze and gently nodded.
"…It's been a while, Helik."
"To greet me like that—!"
In an instant, crimson energy erupted around Helik.
His hair rose upward, power condensing into the staff gripped in his left hand.
"To think I could hate someone this much…"
"Lia—!"
Isaac shouted urgently.
But Liana had already moved.
Her Ragnavel intercepted Helik, and as her crimson aura clashed with his, a violent shockwave rippled outward.
But that wasn't all.
With the help of the Grandmaster and Sharen, Silverna—who had just defeated the woman with the crescent blade—threw her spear like a stake straight at Helik's back.
Powerful opponents attacking from both front and rear.
And yet, Helik's gaze never once wavered from the Silver Clock.
"Get out of my wayyyy—!"
Miracles were not reserved only for humans.
Thud!
Crack!
The flying spear pierced his back, and a greatsword slashed open his abdomen, blood spilling everywhere.
Even so, Helik didn't stop.
"Damn it—!"
"Stop him!"
No—
He took their attacks head-on.
The spear, shaking from the sheer force emanating from his body, was wrenched out.
Liana, unable to hold her ground, collapsed to the floor.
Helik had broken through the onslaught of two of the strongest warriors.
He now charged forward like a beast consumed by crimson hatred.
Neither Lohengrin nor Jonathan could stop him.
They were cast aside like fallen leaves, tumbling helplessly away.
At last—
Just before Helik reached her, Isaac saw the emotions in his eyes.
And in that moment, memories came flooding back.
Helmut.
It had always been a complicated family.
But there was one thing they all had in common.
Something Isaac could now clearly define, even if it felt out of place.
Love.
And thus—ruin.
Galenia, who loved Arandel.
Alois, who loved his sister.
Liana, who loved Isaac.
And—
Helik, who loved the Silver Clock.
Maybe it was because they were all people of such resolute strength.
Their love was unwavering—
And thus, it was blind. Obsessive.
Isaac, who had taken a step forward, stopped in place.
Helik's staff, thrust to kill the woman he loathed more than anyone, was now—
Right in front of the Silver Clock's nape—
Helik stood frozen, unable to take a single step forward.
Once, they had been lovers.
And now, the two stood facing each other.
Helik breathed heavily.
If he moved even slightly, he could sever the Silver Clock's neck in an instant.
Yet she did not move. As if ready to accept death, she did not flinch.
The woman he had claimed to hate more than anything.
But now, seeing her close her eyes in quiet surrender, the crimson aura that had raged from Helik's entire body slowly began to fade.
"It always puzzled me."
He spoke with a bitter, self-mocking tone.
"What would I feel… if I ever saw you again?"
"…"
"I could never answer that question. That's why—unlike the others—I never discarded my emotions, using my role in the sorcery as an excuse."
The Silver Clock slowly opened her eyes.
"I hated you…"
The hatred in Helik's gaze was already beginning to fade.
"But now that I see you again—"
He let out a pained sigh, as if something deep inside had cracked.
"…You're truly beautiful."
For just a moment, the unshaken resolve in the Silver Clock's eyes wavered.
An unexpected confession.
Helik slowly lowered his staff and took a breath, as if clearing the dust from his throat.
"…Did you ever—"
The question he had wanted to ask for hundreds of years—
One he had never been able to voice—
At last, he let it out.
"…Did you love me?"
He just wanted an answer.
Had all that time together been a lie?
Was the love she gave him meaningless?
Was the warmth of that night they spent together just fleeting?
In this moment, more than anything, he wanted a true, honest answer.
And the tears that rolled down the Silver Clock's cheeks—
Told him her words were genuine.
"As naturally as breathing."
"…?"
"I loved you."
Helik's body slowly collapsed.
The wounds he had sustained were too deep.
In truth, it was a miracle he'd lasted this long.
"…I see."
And yet—
A faint smile formed on his lips.
As Helik fell to his knees, the Silver Clock gently caught him in her arms.
The more she loved, the more she came to understand the Abyss Realm.
Its overwhelming potential.
The power of the Transcendents.
The giants who had once been her friends.
The monsters that lived there.
A place teeming with beings that could, if they so wished, trample over humanity in an instant.
And even so, despite her love—
The Silver Clock had made her choice.
"Isaac Logan."
Cradling Helik in her arms, the Silver Clock called to him.
"You said that with the passage of time, a new era has arrived."
Isaac already knew what she would ask of him.
He tightened his grip on his sword.
"A remnant of the old world."
"…"
"Cut it down—and move forward."
No words were spoken.
No hesitation.
Toward these two lovers—who had been born into the wrong era, the wrong fate, the wrong world—
Isaac swung his sword.
Light pierced through the pitch-black sky.
It was dawn.
Obvious as that may sound, with the lingering effects of the sorcery still in place—
This sky over Evergard had been that of the Abyssal Realm.
So, in truth, they were witnessing the first sunrise the world had seen in hundreds of years.
The boy who once chased the stars—
At last, had cleaved one in two.
And light returned to the world.