Chapter 129 - Walk through Pantheon Eternal

  Adam’s mind spun momentarily as he stared at the girl seated quietly on the grass. Of all the people who could have appeared beside him in this strange, divine plane, Kazue was not the one he would have expected. Her presence here made no immediate sense. He blinked once, then carefully approached her, noticing the faint confusion painted across her expression. She looked around in awe, her wide eyes reflecting the warm, golden hues of the celestial garden that stretched endlessly in every direction.

  He extended a hand toward her, his tone still wary from the shock.

  “Kazue… I don’t know what you are doing here either.”

  The girl blinked up at him, and for a moment her eyes were blank—processing, adjusting—before she reached out and let him help her to her feet. She brushed her hair back clumsily with her good arm and glanced around again, visibly overwhelmed.

  “Then… I have no idea! I was with the others in Velmoria, and then there was that light and—wait, where are we?”

  She asked, her voice tinged with both excitement and bewilderment. Adam took a deep breath, still trying to accept the absurdity of it himself. He motioned for her to look around, gesturing at the seemingly infinite landscape of gentle rolling hills and trees made of silver-blue leaves. The air shimmered with quiet, divine stillness.

  “This is Pantheon Eternal.”

  The boy said, his tone flat but heavy.

  “Or… at least a part of it. According to Malzaphir, we’re in one of its lower sections. It’s the land of the gods. Their actual realm.”

  Kazue froze. Her eyes widened again, but this time not in confusion. This time it was sheer awe. Her jaw dropped slightly, and her breath caught in her throat. She spun slowly in place to take in the scenery again, her hand rising to her chest as if it might stop her heart from leaping out of it.

  “We’re… in the world of the gods?”

  She whispered, voice trembling.

  “Like, for real? Not, like, a dream sequence or illusion or—like, the actual god realm?!”

  Adam exhaled with a hint of a sigh. He knew what was coming. Kazue immediately erupted into a mess of giggles and clenched fists.

  “This is so cool! This is peak isekai territory! This is what every main character dreams of!”

  She practically jumped in place with barely contained glee.

  “Maybe we’re the secret chosen ones after all! Maybe the goddess herself called us! Maybe I’ll get a divine sword!”

  “Calm down…”

  Adam muttered dryly, raising a hand.

  “Seriously. You’re going to attract something just by yelling that much.”

  But Kazue was already caught in a whirlwind of nerd-fueled enthusiasm.

  “What if there’s a divine test? Like a trial of faith?! Oh! Maybe we have a latent divine skill that only unlocks in the holy lands! Or—or maybe this is when we awaken our true form!”

  Adam rubbed his temples, already regretting his decision to speak.

  Eventually, though, he managed to calm her down. Or rather, she wore herself out after several minutes of hopping, spinning, and throwing her hands in the air like she was conjuring lightning. Once she slowed to a quieter pace and sat back down with a heavy exhale, he crouched beside her and noticed something strange.

  Kazue’s arm—her right arm, the one that had been mauled and glowing with golden veins just earlier—was intact. No wound, no swelling, no bruising, healed most probably by Drake’s medicinal pill. But something still wasn’t right. His eyes narrowed, and without asking for permission, he reached out and gently took her wrist, pulling her arm toward him.

  “Wha—w-wait, Adam?”

  Kazue stammered, flinching slightly as he leaned closer, bringing her arm close to his face.

  “Stay still.”

  He said with an analytical voice. His expression tightened as he observed the area where the bite had been. The skin was unbroken. But those golden veins remained—faint, glowing in pulses every few seconds, like light filtered through water.

  “Your wound’s healed, but this… isn’t normal.”

  At his words, Kazue looked down at her arm, frowning now that the excitement had worn off.

  “Huh… Do you think it’s dangerous?”

  Adam didn’t respond at first. He was checking system prompts, inspecting energy traces, trying to sense any remaining contamination. But nothing came up. The [Arianka’s Infection] skill didn’t appear on a system window like with Drake, nor was there any indication of active divine corruption. Still, the residual light was there, and it wasn’t ordinary. He spoke aloud more to himself than to her.

  “No active infection… but something’s still inside. Residual divine energy, maybe a memory imprint. I don’t know. It might be the reason you ended up here.”

  He asked mentally if Malzaphir had an answer, but as expected, the devil’s voice only laughed in his mind and offered no help. Standing up again, Adam sighed.

  “Well, we’re here. We might as well make use of it.”

  He looked around, eyes narrowing slightly.

  “Angela’s Plot Device brought us to ‘what we needed’, not what we wanted. That means there’s something in this realm we’re meant to find. Information, a clue, maybe something else entirely.”

  Kazue dusted herself off and nodded eagerly.

  “So… we’re exploring divine territory for plot-critical answers? Count me in!”

  And so they began to walk. The garden stretched on in all directions, with softly glowing trees and bizarre plants that looked like a fusion of crystalline geometry and living matter. The air smelled of flowers Adam couldn’t name, sweet and sharp at once. The grass beneath their feet was soft and springy, almost unnaturally perfect. There were no paths, no trails, only instinct and curiosity to guide them.

  Along the way, they reached a still, oval-shaped pond nestled between two enormous white-petaled trees. The surface was impossibly smooth, untouched by wind or falling leaves, its glass-like sheen reflecting the sky above in perfect clarity. Without a word, both Adam and Kazue stepped closer, drawn by something instinctive, and then looked down.

  The boy’s breath hitched.

  Staring back at him from the water weren’t his own eyes, but two familiar faces—his parents, not as they were when he last saw them, but as he remembered them at their best. His mother, with her tired but gentle smile, and his father standing tall with pride behind her. They weren’t speaking, but they didn’t need to. Just seeing them again brought a warmth that spread through his chest. He allowed himself a small smile—brief, private, full of that quiet promise he had made to return to them no matter what. That he would survive.

  But as he turned his gaze slightly to glance at Kazue beside him, his smile faded.

  Her face was tense, confused. She stared into the pond, but there was nothing reflected back. No image, no distortion. Just smooth, perfect water—empty.

  “…Kazue?”

  Adam asked quietly. She blinked, as if waking up from a trance, and stepped back with an awkward laugh.

  “Huh. Weird… maybe it’s broken?”

  She said, clearly trying to mask the unease in her voice. Adam didn’t answer. He only looked at the pond one more time before turning to continue walking. He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew better than to ignore it.

  Continuing their journey, they passed a tree with golden leaves that whispered in a language neither of them understood and another that grew upside-down from the sky itself, its roots dangling just above their heads like chandelier vines.

  At one point, Kazue tried to eat a petal that floated down onto her shoulder, only to spit it out a second later with a disgusted sound.

  “Blegh—okay, that tasted like soap and regret.”

  Adam snorted.

  “You just ate a flower from the god’s realm. What were you expecting?”

  Kazue grinned.

  “I don’t know. Something enlightening? Or at least strawberry flavor.”

  Despite everything, despite the stress and the looming unknowns, there was something peaceful—almost healing—about walking in that place. The chaos of Velmoria, the screams of divine monsters, the weight of survival and strategy… it all seemed distant here. For a little while, they could just walk and talk like people. Not users, just two strange souls in a stranger garden.

  As they moved deeper into the surreal beauty of the garden, the air remained warm and tranquil, the atmosphere so far removed from anything they'd experienced in the system that it felt like another reality entirely. The canopy overhead filtered soft golden light over the stone paths, and every now and then, a petal from one of the high arching trees would drift down like snow, dissolving into sparkles the moment it touched the ground. The strange, beautiful features of the garden continued—leaves that chimed when brushed, roots that retracted politely as they passed, clusters of glowing insects that mimicked their movements. It was peaceful, like a dream crafted to ease a soul rather than test it.

  But Adam noticed something odd. Kazue had stopped skipping ahead or peppering the air with random commentary. She was walking beside him, hands clasped tightly in front of her, head slightly down. Her usual energetic rhythm was replaced by something more uncertain. Nervous, even. So the boy narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced over.

  “You good?”

  Kazue jumped slightly.

  “W-What? Oh! Yeah! Totally! It’s just that…”

  She paused, biting her lip, then looked at him out of the corner of her eye with an expression he couldn’t quite pin down.

  “You know, I just realized… It’s kinda silly but… I think this is the first time I’ve ever walked around alone like this with a boy.”

  Adam blinked, clearly confused.

  “That’s what’s got you acting weird?”

  “I’m not acting weird!”

  She protested instantly, cheeks flushing pink.

  “It’s just… it kinda hit me. This really feels like one of those scenes. You know? The kind where the guy and the girl wander through a mystical place and the girl says something dumb and cute and then she falls over and he catches her and—”

  “Please don’t fall.”

  Adam said flatly, lifting an eyebrow.

  “I’m just saying!”

  She muttered with a tiny puff in her cheeks.

  “It’s almost like a da—”

  But she never finished the sentence. Adam suddenly raised his arm in front of her and stepped forward cautiously.

  “Wait. Look.”

  Kazue stopped, instantly forgetting her own embarrassment. Her eyes followed his gesture, and for the first time since arriving, the beauty around them didn’t seem perfectly harmonious. Several patches of the garden up ahead looked… wrong. Thorny vines were wrapping around the trunks of certain trees—sharp, needle-like, but still glimmering with divine luminescence. A nearby flowerbed appeared to shimmer unnaturally, the petals twitching in erratic rhythms instead of flowing with the breeze. The soil beneath some bushes looked cracked and dry, breaking the seamless perfection of the path they followed.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Adam murmured, narrowing his eyes. Kazue crouched beside a spiraled vine and squinted.

  “It looks like a rose bush… but those thorns are, like, seriously aggressive. And weirdly symmetrical.”

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  They shared a glance and continued forward, cautiously stepping over a distorted root that twitched slightly as they passed. It didn’t take long before they heard something—soft voices, high-pitched, and not quite human. Adam instantly raised a hand, signaling Kazue to stay quiet.

  She nodded. However, five steps later, she tripped on a root, nearly shouted, caught herself, and then whispered dramatically.

  “I’m stealthy! I swear!”

  Adam pressed a hand to his face. But despite the chaos that was Kazue’s attempt at stealth, they managed to move behind a wide floral structure that looked like a weeping willow made of glass, peeking around its crystalline leaves. There, they saw them.

  Two small creatures hovered above the ground just a few meters away. They were humanoid in shape, no taller than a child, and their entire bodies radiated pure light. Wings like drifting sunlight fluttered behind their backs, and their hair glowed like melted gold. Their features were delicate and faintly elven, with large glowing eyes and flowing garments woven from strands of ethereal light. It was like watching fairies sculpted from the divine essence of stars themselves.

  “…We can’t keep reinforcing that section forever!”

  One of them said, her voice like chimes on the wind.

  “The garden’s responding worse each cycle.”

  “We must!”

  Replied the other, whose glow flickered faintly.

  “If the upper circles get wind of this instability, it won’t be containment they send next—it’ll be a regulator.”

  “But the corruption is spreading.”

  The first one whispered.

  “Even the border groves are warping. If it reaches the core…”

  Adam’s breath caught. He understood now. The inconsistencies in the garden. They were talking about whatever was infecting this place, not with darkness, but with something wrong nonetheless. He turned his head slightly, ready to think, to calculate, to find the best—

  “Hi there!”

  Kazue said loudly, stepping right out from cover and waving with both hands. Adam stared in frozen horror.

  The two luminous figures shrieked in alarm, their forms flickering wildly as they recoiled in midair. One of them actually raised a small spear of light as if to defend themselves, while the other backed toward a glowing cluster of roots.

  “Wait! Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! You just looked really pretty and I wanted to say hi!”

  Kazue waved her hands frantically.

  “…What is she doing?!”

  Adam groaned, dragging a hand down his face and stepping out as well with his hands raised. But before the two entities could flee, something about Kazue caught their attention. They paused, their light dimming slightly as they stared at her more closely.

  “Wait, she’s… She’s not from here. But she doesn’t carry the scent of intrusion.”

  Whispered one of them.

  “She’s an invitee! She must be. No mortal could be here otherwise.”

  The other said softly. They turned fully to face her, floating a little closer now.

  “You startled us, but it is pleasant to greet a guest after so long.”

  Said the first, lowering her luminous weapon. Kazue beamed.

  “Hehe… sorry again. I just kind of say things when I get excited.”

  Kazue turned slightly over her shoulder, beaming as if this were the most natural thing in the world.

  “Oh! And this is my friend—uh, teammate—Adam! He’s super smart and not as grumpy as he looks, I swear!”

  Adam, still half-hidden behind the luminous willow, let out a slow, defeated exhale. His eyes narrowed as he met Kazue’s overly enthusiastic expression, then reluctantly stepped out into view, hands raised halfway in a gesture of harmlessness. The two radiant beings immediately shifted their gaze to him, curious and unthreatened, but still cautious.

  “I was trying not to do the whole ‘burst into someone’s conversation uninvited’ thing.”

  He muttered as he approached, casting a sidelong glare at Kazue.

  “But that ship has clearly sailed.”

  The girl gave a tiny shrug.

  “Well, I mean… we’re already in divine territory, right? Can’t get more awkward than this.”

  Adam resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead turning his attention to the two glowing figures.

  “Sorry for the surprise. She means well. Just doesn’t always think about consequences before jumping in headfirst.”

  The two beings tilted their heads again, still hovering effortlessly. Their expressions were serene, almost unreadable beneath the glow, but one of them offered a slight nod.

  “She carries no malice.”

  One said.

  “And neither do you. So long as that remains true… welcome.”

  Added the other with a smile. Adam and Kazue stood side by side, thinking, their gazes lifted to the two radiant figures of light hovering before them like fragments of dawn. The smaller of the two gently swirled in the air, her glow rippling as she spoke with a soft, bell-like voice.

  “We are the caretakers of this place. Gardeners, you might say.”

  She said, twirling once in the air before continuing.

  “I am Auralis, and she is Thimerea. We are two of many who tend the Eternal Garden of Lady Arianka.”

  Adam tilted his head slightly, absorbing the information with the same skeptical care he applied to everything in this strange world.

  “Then… maybe you can help us. We’ve noticed oddities in the terrain—thorns where they don’t belong, twisted growth, pockets of imbalance. Something’s wrong here, isn’t it?”

  At his words, the two fairies stilled. Their glow dimmed just slightly as they exchanged a glance, their expressions no longer cheerful but touched with unease. Auralis was the first to speak again.

  “It has been happening for some time now… far longer than we know how to measure.”

  Thimerea added in a hush.

  “We do not know the reason. We only mend what we can.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes.

  “And Arianka? She lives here, right? This whole place is hers?”

  The fairies nodded solemnly.

  “Then has she done anything about it? Has she given you any guidance?”

  They paused again, and for the first time since they arrived, Kazue’s excited spark faded slightly at the fairie’s words.

  “We haven’t seen the Lady in… a long time. She has remained in her palace. Her doors do not open. No visitors, no orders.”

  Auralis folded her tiny hands together and looked down.

  “Was the garden already changing before she locked herself away? Or did this start afterward?”

  Adam asked. The question seemed to catch them off guard. They floated silently for several seconds before Thimerea answered with hesitation.

  “After… Yes. Shortly after. It began small. We didn’t even notice at first.”

  Adam rubbed his chin, gears turning behind his focused eyes.

  “That might be it, then. That’s where we need to go. To her palace.”

  Auralis blinked, surprised.

  “You wish to see the Lady? Normally, that would be impossible. But… you were invited into her domains. You have the right to request her audience.”

  Kazue nearly squealed.

  “Oh my god, are you serious? Like… an actual divine audience with the goddess? That’s… that’s totally protagonist material!”

  Adam shot her a dry look, but his tone was earnest as he faced the fairies again.

  “Then please. Take us to her.”

  Without another word, the fairies turned and began to float forward, and the two humans followed behind them. The journey through the garden stretched in winding paths bordered by even more impossible beauty. Crimson flowers that glowed under a nonexistent sun curled toward them as they passed. At one point, they crossed a narrow stream on stepping stones that sang in soft melodies with each step. As they walked, Kazue couldn’t contain her curiosity.

  “So… do you two live here all the time? Do you have fairy houses or something? How does that work?”

  Auralis giggled.

  “We are not bound by walls. This garden is our home, and it needs tending. It must remain pure. The Lady used to walk these paths herself, admiring the quiet. She had a fondness for sleeping in odd places—under a moss curtain, inside a flower field, atop a tree’s highest branch…”

  Kazue’s eyes sparkled.

  “That’s adorable. Like a divine catnapper.”

  Adam, however, remained silent for a while, his eyes tracing the soft curves of the path ahead, the air fragrant with something too perfect to be natural. His thoughts, however, had drifted away from the scenery entirely. Eventually, his voice broke the quiet with a low, firm tone.

  “Was there anything unusual that happened before she shut herself away? Anything out of the ordinary?”

  Thimerea, who had been fluttering just slightly above a patch of glowing moss, paused mid-flight. The gentle light around her seemed to flicker, her delicate features contorting with hesitation.

  “I… don’t think so? At least, not that we were told of.”

  She murmured after a moment. But before Adam could probe further, Auralis suddenly straightened in mid-air, her wings fluttering faster, her eyes wide with realization.

  “Wait—yes. There was something. Someone else came here before you.”

  Both Adam and Kazue froze in place, their steps halted by the weight of those words. Adam’s voice was calm, but tense.

  “Someone else? You mean… another human?”

  “Yes.”

  Thimerea said, her glow softening into something almost nostalgic.

  “He was tall, and his hair was like the sun itself—golden and bright. He carried himself with grace and manners, far more composed than most visitors we’ve ever seen.”

  “Oh! And he gave us sweets. Crunchy, sugary things. He called them candy, but they were unlike anything in this plane. They crumbled and melted at the same time. I really liked them!”

  Auralis added with a delighted spin. Adam’s jaw tightened slightly, and a sharp breath caught in his throat. He already knew the answer before he even asked; it was a user.

  “What was his name?”

  Auralis drifted downward a bit, her expression pensive for a heartbeat, and then brightened with recognition.

  “Gilgamesh. He said his name was Gilgamesh.”

  Adam’s brow furrowed, and he instinctively leaned forward, the name lingering uneasily in his mind.

  “Gilgamesh…?”

  He echoed slowly, testing the weight of the name on his tongue. Kazue blinked and tilted her head slightly, just as confused.

  “That doesn’t ring any bells for me. Did he say anything else? Like, maybe what team he belonged to? Or where did he come from?”

  The girl said. Thimerea and Auralis looked at each other again, wings fluttering in sync. Auralis floated slightly closer, her glow dimming just a little with thought.

  “No, I don’t think so. He just said his name. Nothing more.”

  Thimerea shook her head.

  “He didn’t seem in a hurry. And we didn’t press him. It’s rare to receive visitors with such… calm energy. We just assumed he had been invited, like all proper guests.”

  Adam nodded slowly, but a tight feeling had begun to build in his chest. He didn’t recognize the name, but something about it made the back of his mind itch—as if it should’ve meant something. And the fact that someone else had come here, someone who had been in this divine realm before everything had gone wrong… that couldn’t be a coincidence, it could very well be another instance of user interference in a scenario.

  “Exactly how long ago was that?”

  Adam asked suddenly, though he had a sinking feeling in his gut that the answer would be anything but straightforward. Thimerea twirled absently in the air, her face thoughtful.

  “Not long ago.”

  She said, but the vagueness in her tone was already enough to make Adam frown.

  “But how long is ‘not long’ to you?”

  He pressed. The two fairies glanced at one another, their wings falling still. Auralis answered this time, her voice gentler than before.

  “It’s… difficult to say. Time doesn’t flow here the way it does for you. We experience it differently. For all we know, only a minute has passed—or a hundred years.”

  Kazue’s mouth opened slightly as she blinked, visibly confused.

  “Wait. So you're saying… we don’t even know how much time has gone by? That it could’ve been—”

  But Auralis interrupted with a small, apologetic tilt of her head.

  “Time here does not obey mortal rules. In this garden, what feels like a breath might be an age. Or the opposite. Even we can’t always tell.”

  That realization hit them like cold water. Kazue slowly turned to Adam, her eyes wide with unease. The boy met her gaze and said nothing, but the tension in his jaw, tightening his shoulders, and subtle darkening of his expression told her everything she needed to know.

  For the first time since arriving in that divine garden, since stepping into a realm of wonder and brilliance, an unspoken weight pressed down on both of them—a sudden reminder that even paradise might be a deathly trap they needed to escape as soon as possible.

  Adam didn’t take his eyes off the path ahead as he spoke, his voice steady but urgent.

  “We need to finish whatever we came here to do, Kazue. Fast. I don’t like how long we’ve been here… and the fact that time doesn’t work the same way in this realm can be a real problem.”

  His tone was serious, but there was something more than worry in it—genuine fear.

  “For all we know, while we’re here, a week could pass outside… or a year. Maybe more.”

  Kazue, who had been skipping a little as they walked, slowed her steps until she matched his pace. Her smile faded as the weight of his words sank in.

  “You’re right. That’s… actually really scary. Let’s hurry.”

  She folded her arms, the glow of the divine garden casting silver highlights through her hair. Adam turned to the two glowing fairies ahead of them.

  “How much further is it to the castle?”

  Auralis spun midair and pointed ahead with one small, glowing hand.

  “Not far! We just need to reach the crystal path up ahead. Walk straight along it and it’ll take you right to the palace gates.”

  Adam nodded, but his thoughts remained on everything that could be happening outside. He didn’t like the idea of things spiraling out of control while they were wandering through a divine garden with no sense of time. Every second here might be costing them something vital, especially with the other team just a couple of days from appearing.

  As they made their way forward, the shimmering crystal path finally came into view. It stretched like a glowing ribbon across a field of surreal beauty, leading straight toward the hazy silhouette of Arianka’s divine castle in the distance. Adam felt something shift in the air the moment they stepped toward it. And then, from the opposite end of the crystalline trail, another group appeared.

  They stopped almost simultaneously as they noticed each other.

  It wasn’t just more fairies this time. Two other glowing figures, similar in form to Auralis and Thimerea, floated just ahead of a tall woman who stepped calmly beside them. Her presence was striking and confident, commanding even. She wore a long tan coat that fluttered lightly around her figure, her white blouse tight against her chest and tucked into dark jeans. Golden hoops swung from her ears, and her dark, voluminous hair was tied back with practiced carelessness.

  A red mark shone on her forehead, perfectly centered, and her smirk seemed carved in place like a badge of pride. She looked like she belonged in the middle of a battlefield or an interrogation chamber, not a celestial garden. Her sharp eyes locked onto Adam the moment she saw him, narrowing slightly.

  The fairies, oblivious to the building tension between the two humans, fluttered excitedly around each other.

  “Oh, more guests! This is wonderful! It’s been so long since anyone came through.”

  Thimerea chirped while Kazue turned toward Adam with a puzzled smile, whispering,

  “Who is she?”

  But Adam didn’t answer. The moment his eyes landed on the woman, his ‘Cursed Vision’ activated on instinct, overlaying her with the pale, translucent shimmer of a system window. He didn’t need to blink—he saw everything instantly, the name, the details... And he knew exactly who she was.

  There was a long pause. And then, as if struck by the same realization at the same time, both of them pointed at each other and shouted in perfect unison:

  “You!”