A few days after Christmas, New Year's came and went.
Not much happened, honestly.
If anything, instead of doing something meaningful, we just ended up loafing around the house, even after New Year's had already passed.
And now, after telling Mom and the others we were going for a walk, we somehow found ourselves building sandcastles on a beach in the middle of nowhere.
Even that didn't last long.
By the time we arrived, there were already three people waiting for us.
Two women.
And a man.
"Ah—Miss Veridielle," the woman with long honey-blonde hair said as she stood up from beneath a large beach umbrella, opening her arms wide. "And the Fragment Bearer of Stillness as well."
She had been lounging on a bench, relaxed, sun-kissed, and far too comfortable for my liking.
"You…" Anathasia paused, scanning the woman from head to toe before scoffing. "…what exactly do you gain from showing that much skin?"
"Roselia?" she added.
Roselia… right. The Fourth Outer God.
The realization hit me a moment later.
Wait… then does that mean—
I slowly turned my gaze.
Not far from us, beneath the shade of a tree, another woman with pale, almost white-blonde hair was calmly flipping barbecue skewers over a portable grill.
Nearby, a man wearing glasses watched the process with intense focus, as if it were the most important task in existence.
My expression flattened a bit.
The Third Outer God is here too…?
"Sharp as always, Miss Veridielle," Roselia spoke up, forcing an awkward smile as she stepped aside.
"That said… Kagariel and Rania are already here, so please, help yourselves."
"Kagariel…?" I murmured, following closely behind Anathasia as she headed straight for the grill.
"He's the Second Outer God," she replied, casually teleporting beside it before picking up a kebab.
"And The Finality itself."
"This looks really good…"
Beside her, holding a pair of tongs, Rania nodded.
"I simply followed Sir Kyle's manner of seasoning," she said. "Just as he did the last time."
She glanced at me, offering a gentle smile.
The man from earlier suddenly appeared a few steps in front of me and inclined his head respectfully.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you," he said calmly.
"The Stillness… and the Daughter of Absence's partner."
He placed a hand over his chest as he lifted his gaze.
"Sir Kyle Ruzen Abe."
My eyes widened briefly.
Something about his presence, calm, and steady, felt strangely comforting compared to the others.
"Yeah…" I replied with an awkward smile. "Likewise."
His expression softened, reminding me of my grandfather for reasons I couldn't quite place. He stepped aside, gesturing toward the grill.
"Please, help yourself," he said. "This is a rare occasion, after all."
Kagariel looked around.
Roselia slowly making her way back toward us.
Rania tending to the grill.
Anathasia eating freely, entirely unbothered.
And then there was himself.
And me.
Simply observing.
"After the Recreation of existence,"
"this is the first gathering of the five Fragments."
The surroundings went still, almost as if the world itself had settled in response.
Then Kagariel looked down at me, a gentle smile forming on his face.
"With that being said," he continued, a pair of kebabs materializing in his hands as he offered one to me,
"I believe humans have this custom of sharing food during occasions such as this. Am I mistaken?"
I paused briefly before nodding, accepting one of them.
"Well… Filipinos do, and plenty of other cultures too," I replied quietly. "Humanity as a whole, sometimes."
I took a small bite.
The umami flavor paired with mild pepper and heavier spices blended together perfectly.
It's good…
A beat passed.
I glanced around again. Each of them carried a different presence, distinct, unmistakable.
Then there was Anathasia.
Who felt like some kind of ticking time bomb—
"I am not a ticking time bomb."
She shot me a look.
"I'm actively suppressing myself, alright? That's all."
Rania and Kagariel continued eating without comment, while Roselia suddenly manifested beside the grill. She placed a piece of meat onto her plate.
"Speaking of which," Roselia said casually, "that does make sense. Miss Veridielle's authority overflowing alone does create entire totalities."
She set her plate on a nearby table. With a snap of her fingers, the meat neatly sliced itself into smaller pieces.
"Although I'm not particularly surprised," she added, grains of sand gathering in her palm before shaping into a fork.
"She is something else entirely."
"And she did defeat me with a single finger, eons ago."
I nearly choked.
I immediately turned to Anathasia, who was already working on her third kebab.
"…What?" she said flatly after swallowing.
"What did you expect?"
She shrugged.
"I'm the reason they're even what they are now," she added.
"Isn't it obvious I'd be on an entirely different level than my own students?"
"Still…" I tried to argue. "Why did you fight the Causality—"
"Roselia is fine, Abe—" Roselia tried to interject.
"—in the first place?"
Anathasia glanced briefly at Roselia, then back at me with a flat look.
"She asked for it," she replied dryly.
"Said she wanted to test her own mentor. I warned her not to. She didn't listen."
She finished off her third kebab without missing a beat.
"And the causal flow at the time got distorted," she continued.
"She was destabilized pretty badly after that."
I looked back at Roselia, who let out a slightly shaky laugh.
"Miss Veridielle… I don't think you could call that a fight," she said.
"I would argue it was very much a one-sided beatdown," Kagariel added calmly from beside me.
"In human terms, at least."
He paused.
"In truth, there was no battle at all."
"The Collective Sphere where it took place was reduced to ruins once its causal flow collapsed, resulting in its implosion."
My eyes narrowed as they drifted back to Anathasia, who was holding a kebab in each hand.
"Collective Spheres…" I said slowly.
"Those are the incomprehensibly huge bubbles with smaller bubbles inside them, which contain even more bubbles, and so on… right?"
She looked at me innocently and nodded, taking another bite.
"Thash right."
"More or less," she added after swallowing. "Why?"
I let out a dry laugh.
"And you're telling me a confrontation between two Outer Gods destroyed an entire thing like that?"
She nodded again.
Before I could say anything else—
"No," Roselia cut in carefully, "it would be far more accurate to assume it was caused by Miss Veridielle's authority alone—"
"Oi," Anathasia interrupted immediately.
"You also had your own contribution to that disaster."
Rania continued placing more meat onto the grill like none of this mattered, while Kagariel casually reached past me to grab another skewer.
"…You people are crazy…" I muttered, letting out a long sigh.
"I repaired it right after," Anathasia said, resting her free hand on her hip.
"Restored it the same way I repaired the rest of the ruins that Kagariel himself ended back then."
She finished off her fifth kebab and dusted her hands.
"So it's fine, isn't it?" she shrugged.
"Aside from us Outer Gods, no one even knew in the first place."
She materialized a plate in her hand, then casually asked Rania to borrow her tongs.
"And besides… that specific Collective Sphere was already fractured," she continued.
"So recreating it was the most logical solution."
She trailed off, her gaze drifting toward the meat on the grill as she picked up a few pieces, deliberately avoiding my eyes.
"After destroying it, at least."
At this point, I couldn't even bring myself to act surprised. I just ran a hand through my hair and sighed.
After a brief silence, I glanced at all of them.
"Where are we anyway?"
All three—Rania, Roselia, and Kagariel looked at Anathasia.
She glanced back at them, then down at her plate.
"We're in Aegea."
A distant roar echoed from deep within the mountains behind us. A massive shadow passed overhead as the creature flew away.
The moment I looked up—
"…A dragon…?"
"Rania's home planet."