Chapter 374
They decided to bind their promise not only in battle, but also in life.
Officially, they held an engagement, a simple celebration set against the backdrop of a universe still in recovery.
From their union, six sons were born as a beginning, beings brought into existence with a unique bloodline—a mixture of human essence that had touched cosmic mysteries and the soul of an observer who had reincarnated.
With their power and knowledge now nearly equal to that of the Archangels, Myra and Xavier did not remain idle.
Through their own hands, they created a new realm.
This realm was designed to be a dwelling place for their family, a domain of existence positioned slightly lower than the Heavenly Realm and Hell, yet far higher and more complex than any human world that had ever existed.
To those who resided within this new realm, all realms of life beneath it appeared like drifting grains of dust, a mere play of particles that could be brushed aside or arranged as easily as swatting an irritating fly.
It was an entirely new perspective of power—a responsibility as well as an exile from ordinary humanity.
Year after year, century after century passed at a different tempo within that realm.
What had once been nothing more than a vast field with a simple wooden house, where they raised their first children, underwent a drastic and magnificent transformation.
A colossal castle made of matter neither stone nor ordinary metal stood firmly, surrounded by gardens that obeyed laws of their own design.
All inhabitants of this territory were descendants of Myra Astrielle and Xavier XVII.
And that lineage did not end with the first six children.
Myra gave birth to many more, in numbers that surpassed even the most basic mathematical concepts known in her original world—exceeding what was referred to as the Berkeley cardinal, a raw foundation even for one-dimensional reality.
Yet despite bearing beings of unimaginable might in unimaginable quantities, Myra felt no excessive pain or suffocation.
Her body and soul had evolved beyond the biological limits of ordinary humans.
Yes, the realm they inhabited and developed came to be known by a name filled with authority: the Land of the Gods.
And all descendants of Xavier XVII and Myra Astrielle directly inherited a percentage of the extraordinary power possessed by their parents.
They were neither ordinary humans nor angels.
They occupied a unique stratum—powerful beings who ruled their own realm, worthy of being called Children of the Gods.
The title "God" was deliberately not used by them, for in the cosmology they understood, that title belonged only to one entity—Quil-Hasa, the source of all things, with whom their relationship remained complex and shadowed by dark history.
'Suicide.'
Of course, as year after year sped forward in the recovering universe, Xavier XVII decided to take on a greater role.
With Quil-Hasa remaining absent, never revealing Himself again after the defeat of His avatar in the Second Heavenly Betrayal, the void of supreme leadership in the cosmos felt vast and open.
Xavier, with his matured power and profound cosmic understanding, driven by the responsibility he felt, chose to take control.
He did not declare himself a replacement God, but rather a leader, a guardian—or more precisely, an administrator of a multiverse still traumatized.
The results of his leadership were brilliant.
Under his guidance and oversight—often unseen yet always present—prosperity spread in every direction.
Civilizations flourished once more across many worlds, and well-being could be said to have been experienced by approximately eighty percent of living beings within the layered boxes of universes.
Xavier resolved conflicts among peoples in each universe with the wisdom gained from his long journey, often through subtle yet effective interventions.
The splendor of this era, later remembered as the Era of Human Heroism, became inseparable from his name.
For in addition to being a father to many Children of the Gods in the Land of the Gods, Xavier personally supervised the development of universes that faced misfortune—such as worlds struck by residual cosmic bursts or afflicted with strange diseases of reality.
That era was filled with hope and a tranquility rare in the turbulent history of the cosmos.
Yet therein lay the most regrettable tragedy.
All the glory, all the balance painstakingly built, had to end in an unexpected and bitter way.
The triumph of the Era of Human Heroism—the reign of King Xavier XVII—came to a sudden and final halt.
The discovery was made by their own descendants, at the heart of the Land of the Gods.
Xavier XVII and his wife, Myra Astrielle, were found dead.
There were no signs of struggle, no traces of external intervention.
The condition and evidence pointed to one bitter and difficult conclusion—a blunt phrase for a tragic decision: they had chosen to commit suicide.
"A promise to be together."
Before taking their final, irreversible step, within the silence of their chamber in the magnificent castle of the Land of the Gods, Xavier and Myra Astrielle shared one last moment.
It was not a farewell filled with loud despair, but a calmness deep and conscious.
There, amid the shadows of their boundless achievements and the burden of eternity that may have begun to feel suffocating, they expressed one final promise.
Not a promise to endure, but a promise to meet again.
That promise was an agreement of hearts, a bond that transcended the death they chose for themselves.
They agreed—with conviction perhaps born from their understanding of the soul, reincarnation, and the flow of the multiverse—that they would be bound together once more.
Precisely in the life to come, somewhere within the endless cycle of birth and death, their souls would seek and find each other again.
'How many men's hearts have I broken?'
Back inside the rumbling train cabin, within the young body of Erietta Bathee with her long green hair like fertile grass in spring, the consciousness that had plunged into the ocean of past memories narrowed once more.
Erietta blinked twice, slowly, as though clearing the lenses of her eyes from shadows of lives that were not hers—or perhaps were her deepest self.
From her thin lips escaped a soft murmur, nearly drowned by the hum of the engine.
She confessed—or perhaps questioned herself—how many men's hearts she had broken.
After that murmur drifted and dissolved into the stifling cabin air, Erietta did not resist the current of memory pulling her back.
She allowed herself to be carried once more, diving again into the most bitter recollection, just after the act of suicide had been carried out.
'To keep chasing his soul, Xavier. And always end up loving the wrong person.'
Returning to the repetitive and exhausting memories of her past, Erietta felt once more the trace of Myra Astrielle's soul tossed about in a tormenting cycle.
After their shared death, the promise to reunite became a curse.
Myra's soul—or the essence that had become Erietta—continued endlessly searching for Xavier XVII's soul in every new birth.
She reincarnated from one world to another, from one era to the next, always with a single blind purpose.
To be continued…