"Timeless Eternal Land."
Amosta repeated the words with difficulty.
It had existed for a long time?
What exactly did that mean? He had existed in the Timeless Eternal Land for a long time?
Did the Timeless Eternal Land refer to that Realm of Death he had just seen—the 'Jellyfish World' among the nine carvings he had seen in the temple on Avalon?
"Ariana."
The sudden change had shocked Dumbledore as well. Tears still streaked his aged face as he stared at Ariana, breathing rapidly.
"Do you know Amosta?"
The crescent moon rose higher, and moonlight rippled through the forest like water.
"Albus—"
The lovely young girl said only that to Amosta before turning her gaze back to Dumbledore, her eyes gentle.
"I do not resent you or Aberforth. Do not summon me again. You belong to the world of the living, while I have already gone far away."
A smile bloomed on the girl's lips, more radiant than the sun in a clear summer sky. Then, amid a mysterious invisible fluctuation, her illusory spirit rapidly faded.
"Ariana!"
"Wait!"
Dumbledore and Amosta shouted at the same time, but their calls could not keep the girl who had returned to the world.
Under their unwilling gazes, Ariana disappeared completely.
The wandering night wind, the rustling leaves, and the insects chirping in dark corners all vanished. The entire world fell silent, leaving only the melancholy breaths of the two men in the woods.
Dumbledore was looking at Amosta, while Amosta stared at the spot where Ariana had just vanished. Neither moved for a long while.
"Was that... Ariana?"
It was not Amosta who asked that question, but Dumbledore, whose mind had cleared.
Now, Amosta was the one standing there like a paving stone.
He neither answered Dumbledore's question nor could he. Instead, he