"You've become far more divine since the last time we met."
Spitting towards her feet, Nautilus circled the chair where Eleanor sat stiffly, her eyes darting around in fear.
H-he's going to kill me.
Under the forced removal of the Mind Weaver spell woven by Lady Ariel after her arrival in the city, the child's horrific encounter with the Wanderer surfaced once more: the feeling of his hand around her throat, the cracking of her bone, her all-consuming death.
Now, her fear had manifested again, and this time, there weren't any Angels coming to help her, at least not for multiple hours.
Taking a step directly behind where she sat, he stomped his foot on the ground, making her flinch.
"Tell me. What is it that you desire with your newfound strength?"
Eleanor's brow furrowed, cold sweat forming on the side of her forehead.
Still shaking slightly, she parted her lips, speaking in a voice quieter than a murmur and more broken than a non-native Nordic speaker.
"I-I need to save s-someone."
The footsteps behind her stopped.
"Save someone from what?"
His tone was cold, chilling almost to the point where the girl shivered anytime his mouth moved.
"T-the God Slayer…"
There was a flicker in the perfectly controlled aura of the man behind her, a flash of absolute hatred seeping forth.
Slowly, he rounded the corner back into Eleanor's line of sight, his turquoise eye falling onto her own.
"Good. Then we are allies."
Reducing his voice to that of a whisper, he pulled another ruined chair from the rotten table positioned in the center of the shack.
It was deceivingly large on the inside, yet built as a single room with a bed, a small kitchen corner, and a living-room-like space.
Sitting down in the chair, the burly man crossed his legs, his black eyepatch not perfectly covering his wound, causing a fragment of a horrific scar to be revealed to the child.
Swallowing hard, she tried to suppress her dread, talking like a frightened animal.
"...A-ally?"
Nautilus smiled, then chuckled lightly.
"An enemy of my enemy is my friend, eh? No matter your connection with that bastard, if you seek to fight against him, then you are as good as an ally to me. When we met previously, you exuded such a pungent aura of him that I couldn't quite contain my own mental issues…"
Scratching his beard, he trailed off while peering at the young girl before him.
She, having begun to sort through her thoughts, came to three rough conclusions about what had happened.
He acts as if he personally knows the God Slayer himself… His power exceeds that of a former Sea King, who, even while missing his Ghostship, is still far more powerful than I… Mr. Reed and Mr. Twynam will be regenerating in Infinium soon, and when they do, I'll almost certainly be rescued by the Angels whenever they can arrive.
Determining that the best course of action was to follow along with what the crazed man was saying, she nodded her head.
"When I first met you, you told me you had no name. Why did you say such a thing if, in reality, you do have one?"
He squinted his eyes, seemingly puzzled.
"You haven't pieced it together yet? I pegged you for a wise girl, but I seem to have been mistaken…"
Eleanor felt a pang of annoyance at the insult, but shrugged it off for the sake of self-preservation and satisfying her curiosity.
"I am stuck in what you might call a loop. My memories, my sense of self, and everything else that makes me who I am are stripped away whenever they return. Usually, the process takes multiple days, causing excruciating pain; however, it can be accelerated by my body being killed, such as what happened that day."
As if on cue, he gripped the side of his head, where, crawling out of his ear, maggots fell onto the floor, dying soon after.
"These fellows are pieces of my brain matter. Once enough falls out, I'll die and be looped back here once more. Every so often, I'll remember and go through the same cycle once more."
Her expression deflated at his response, her stomach almost as uneasy as her mind after what she had just seen.
When he remembers his life, he might become a danger to others, forcing the Angelic Order to establish a seal on his memories… Yes… Lady Prudentia mentioned something of the sort once…
The man laughed, interrupting her train of thought.
"You know, I never quite expected us to meet again. At least, not in your lifetime."
As he rolled the word off his tongue like a magical chant, his bright smile tightened.
The gray-eyed teenager wished to grumble out some sarcastic response to his words, yet this was no time for such banter.
He could kill her with a flick of his wrist, a fact that she was well aware of.
"Well then, I assume you'd like to know why I came all this way to see you once more, correct?"
The Wanderer known as Nautilus nodded slowly, his fingers still twirling the slight curls of his beard as he spoke.
"You sent me a letter mentioning that you'd search for more details about me within the city; however, I doubt you came to any meaningful conclusions."
Eleanor perked up, her response coming swiftly after.
"I was contacted by the man you despise weeks ago."
The turquoise-eyed man frowned, his fingers rasping across his rough cheek as he patiently awaited the complete story.
Taking it as a sign to continue, the gray-eyed girl followed up with the knowledge that the elderly man had provided that day, describing the seeds of his plan falling into shape, and the eventual corruption he stabbed through her body.
She avoided anything mentioning Aaron, as the man before her likely would wish to escape the Great Beyond and hunt down anyone trying to help the God Slayer, even if it killed him.
After reciting everything she deemed important, the Wanderer still sat silent, the tension hanging in the air.
His single functioning eye was turned to the floor, flickering with a mix of malice and sadness.
Eleanor, who sat quietly, was afraid of what the man might do next if he decided that she was no longer of any use—her next action was a risky one.
Deploying a light dusting of probing mana that circulated the room at a similar constitution to air, she felt tiny vibrations move through her form.
He's thinking of what to do next…
Applying Holy Magic in ways that she had learned from the nuns of the northern Sea Fallen cathedral, the non-vocal spell acted as a lie detector of sorts, able to discern someone's general emotional reflexes.
Nautilus, still not speaking, looked up and moved his finger away from his face, holding it out in front of him.
In an instant, the fragments of mana floating throughout the chamber vanished as if they had never existed, the man's voice coming out soon after.
"You'll act to stop him?"
Eleanor, who had paled slightly after his effortless erasure of the mana, found confidence in her next words that had commonly eluded her in conversations with those far more powerful than herself.
"I will do anything and everything in my power to stop him from being freed."
The Wanderer's neutral expression rose into a grin.
"Ask any questions you desire, and I will answer them as best as I can."
Heaving a long sigh of relief, which was met with a chuckle from the man, Eleanor slipped into a state of professionalism that she had previously only showcased in front of Lady Ariel and Death himself.
"I have been given a mission to decipher the incident regarding Lady Esmerelda, who vanished upon descent back to the Dimension of Waves. The Angelic Order is completely unaware of any details after her departure, and we haven't even the faintest clue who she could've reincarnated as."
Nautilus stroked his beard yet again, thinking hard before responding.
"Esmerelda was a kind woman. She visited me often during one of my episodes, refraining from doing the horrible forced reset that the other Angels would bestow. Her voice was as beautiful as a thousand mockingbirds together and even comparable to the original Goddess of Song herself. I had heard she was to be reincarnated earlier this year and watched as she left this world through the Great Root; however, after that, anomalies began to occur."
He paused, a flicker of something dark appearing behind his previously calm expression, leaving Eleanor with a knot in her chest.
"The Angels were far too focused on her disappearance in and of itself to notice the changes to the land outside their walls. My exiled self noticed the spirits hiding, the grass beginning to wither, and larger and larger Spores being produced. After that day, it was impossible to deny that events were set in motion; the entire Great Beyond and likely the Dimension of Waves were affected as well."
The pale girl pondered his words for a moment.
He seems to have had a close relationship with Lady Esmerelda… More importantly, he watched her departure himself and immediately noticed abnormalities afterward. Spirits, Spores, and plant life all showed signs of anomalies, yet not a single Angel nor Death noticed such a thing…?
To fool an Angel could be expected, but a god?
Eleanor needed more answers, and with her next question, she hoped to pin down as much information as possible.
"She was reborn on the island of Strava in the Sea of Dreams, where she overrode the form of an unknown woman. In this case, it should be certain that the original inhabitant arrived here, and as such, is there any possible way you might've seen them as you did with me?"
It would've been a long shot if the number of souls was limited to even one thousand, yet in a world to which all dimensions spilled, there were almost certainly millions every day, an amount impossible to keep track of without being the God of Death himself.
Watching her expression carefully, Nautilus pursed his lips.
"I do not believe so, no. However, if she were reincarnated on Strava, then it would be simple to find her name, would it not?"
Eleanor furrowed her brow.
"What do you mean? How does knowing the island where she was reincarnated help?"
The eyepatch-wearing brute actually snickered, a tinge of disbelief behind his voice.
"Does the Angelic Order really remain that incompetent? Death is incapable of seeing such a thing, but I truly feel sorry for the man if his servants are that foolish."
Moving with the agility of someone half his weight, he leaped from his seat and quickly reached a closet that was in desperate need of repair.
Reaching inside, he dug around for a few seconds before pulling out what appeared to be a folded piece of parchment.
"Here."
Turning around, he launched the scroll across the room with enough force to bypass any type of friction that would slow the paper down.
Relying on her good instincts, Eleanor caught it by the tips of her fingers and gently unfurled it.
She stared down at a mess of Ancient Nordic runes for a short while before looking up in surprise.
"What is this…?
Nautilus responded almost immediately.
"It's a set of directions through the catacombs. It'll lead you to the Chamber of Eternal Rest and, by proxy, the answer to your question."
The words he thought helpful were, in fact, not helpful at all.
"Eh…? Am I still speaking a foreign language?"
When she just stared at him, blinking, he rubbed his eyes and then his jaw, and began again.
"It. Is. A. Set. Of—"
He was cut off.
"I heard what you said, but why would this so-called Chamber of Eternal Rest in the catacombs answer my question? Is there some type of genie or miracle-granting device there?"
The burly man shook his head with a weak smile.
"You Angels and your love for miracles… The Chamber of Eternal Rest is a broken-off piece of Death's Divine Authority that he used as the foundation for this Great Beyond. When there was nothing in this universe but the seedling of the World Tree and the three primordials, they each divided a portion of themselves to create something."
Returning to his chair, he sat down with a light groan.
"Effectively acting as a separate piece of the God of Death, the Chamber of Eternal Rest carries the information that he cannot easily store within himself, the hard wiring of this dimension, as you might say. Every soul that enters this world is inscribed there, and with a simple tracking spell, one can bring forth what they are looking for."
Eleanor's eyes widened.
What he was saying was something that she had already heard once before, albeit in a slightly different way.
It's similar to how the gods split off portions of their Divine Authority to seal the God Slayer…
She looked up at the man curiously.
"If all the information is recorded there, then why doesn't the Lord visit it himself?"
Nautilus sighed.
"Didn't you hear me the first time? It's a piece of his Divine Authority, and if he were to approach it in any capacity, it would be reabsorbed, effectively destroying the entire foundation of the Great Beyond and erasing all deceased souls for all eternity."
Not even trying to make a fluffed-up description of what would transpire, he awaited the further questions that he could smell from a kilometer away.
"What of Angels then? Surely they could—"
Not allowing her to waste her breath, he pointed out another issue.
"True Angels are imbued with fragments of Divine Authority as well, acting as weaker versions of Envoys that normal gods only have one of. For false Angels, they are both far too unpredictable and far too weak to make it that deep in the catacombs."
He paused, holding up his finger before she could ask yet another question.
"And before you must ask, the reason why they didn't send you there is that they believe you to be weaker than a false Angel. Haven't you seen as much in how they treat you? Your mentor, Lady Prudentia, didn't believe you could even solve the puzzle she assigned, even while bearing the Emblem of Circe."
Eleanor took a heavy breath, his words making complete sense even if she wished to deny them.
"Ariel holds resentment that she can't even see, forcing her to look past the obvious power you hold. And finally, the god himself sees you as a bargaining chip to use against the God Slayer if necessary. Your life is obviously of some interest to him, or whoever that blotch of turquoise light is in the back of your memories."
Finishing with a mention of Aaron, he relaxed against the chair, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Face it, Eleanor. Even if they have every good intention in the world, which, overall, is true, the subconscious actions they take discriminate against you in every way that harms your own goal, your own missions."
The blonde-haired girl was left speechless, her voice shaky.
"T-then you suggest that I shouldn't only rely on them? That even the Great God of Death himself isn't someone I should listen to?"
He shook his head.
"I'm simply stating the truth. If you wish to have a chance at completing what the highest authority of this realm could not, then you'll have to take matters into your own hands. I've seen enough of your memories to know that you allow yourself to be beaten again and again without any effort to stop it. Now, I'll tell you to forge your own path. Don't be restrained by what others want you to conform to; rather, exceed their expectations and rise above. For, in the end, isn't that what makes someone special?"