At last, Volume 5 reached its conclusion just in time for Alice's birthday. Although I wrote the ending only recently, I started thinking about what to write for these closing remarks ages ago (?).
Ahem, just kidding. Mainly, I kept putting it off and off, leaving me with that crushing feeling of the finish line being both right in front of me and impossibly far away...
This should be the second-to-last volume in the plan. The next volume will be the ending. Like the previous volume, didn't understand, and this volume, Light Chaser, I actually decided on the opening remarks first, then spent ages racking my brain without coming up with a volume title. In the end, I opened Volume 6 of Lord of Mysteries and, upon seeing the Chief collapse just before touching the light again, slapped my forehead and wrote down "Light Chaser."
By this point, you may have realized how I understand "Light Chaser"—light is visible, yet impossible to grasp.
Combined with the opening remarks, the "light" I wanted to write about was actually not hard to guess (really?)—I wanted to write about "Elusive Hope."
And the kind that gets shattered.
When I mentioned Alice's advancement while chatting with friends, the example I used was that she was really a dish on Key of Light's plate. By the time she became a "Soothsayer," she would be the most perfect dish.
The ritual is the cooking technique, and the Beyonder Characteristic is the seasoning. Now, for our dear Key of Light, there is no more perfect vessel for resurrection than Little Alice (wipes sweat).
And she had completely lost one of the simplest solutions to the problem, which was... dying! Dying properly! Dying and returning to her original world!
Back to the volume title: among those chasing "Elusive