It Was Time to Go Home, Night Watchers

Or rather,

within Star Tower Clemence, the last Night Watcher:

Clay Grinda Ulysses.

"Sorry,

I came too late."

The lantern's glow swayed gently in Su Wen's hand, stretching his shadow long.

Then,

that shadow fell across the mottled walls, weaving with the surrounding steam and darkness into scenes of profound, silent stillness.

And the person Su Wen spoke of

was the sender who had contacted them through the Nameless Ones' internal communication channel

when they had reached the Space Elevator inside Star Tower Clemence.

He was also

the one who had once left these final words:

(To keep the last star-route of the City of Breezes from going dark, we must fight to seize our final hope.)

Then, to protect the vital information he had left behind for everyone,

he had willingly gone to his death.

Before such an act,

Su Wen merely placed his right hand over his chest and bowed deeply.

Then,

he silently raised the lantern in his hand, allowing its warm, faint light to illuminate the darkness farther ahead.

Through that motion, he saw something fifty meters away.

In a gap between steam pipes lay a corpse that had nearly withered away entirely.

To the Blood Moon Believers,

the blood of an Extraordinary was perhaps the finest alchemical material.

So even after killing Clay Grinda Ulysses, they would never have spared the last trace of value they could exploit.

Su Wen remained silent for a full ten seconds.

Only then did he quietly say,

"Sorry, but you shouldn't have died here.

It's time to go home."

In an instant, as the lantern's glow brightened,

behind him,

a vast, indifferent figure in a black hood also raised a faint light that seemed reflected from the deepest reaches of endless stars.

I mourn the dead, just as Helen