At this, Hila opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no sound came out.
Phylannor, however, seemed utterly unaware of Mobius's movements and continued staring at the blazing flames.
But before Mobius could reach the stairs, the pitch-black sky changed once more—
A flash like the Big Bang lit the entire world in an instant, turning everything a blinding white. Even the flames, the only thing illuminating the world within that darkness, were obscured by the light.
At that moment, the entire world fell silent. Time, space, even the thoughts of those within it all came to a halt. Even the dancing flames stopped flickering, as though the world intended to devote this single moment entirely to engraving this scene into memory.
A moment later, the dazzling radiance faded, and the light from the dancing flames once again filled the world.
Yet when the four of them looked up at the sky together, they discovered that the boundless darkness which had seemed ready to swallow the entire world had become an infinite galaxy. Stars glittered one after another, giving off their own light. Though unimaginably distant, their rays still left their marks upon the four beneath the nearby firelight.
At the same time, within the Forest of Twilight in Elysian Realm, Gwen, whose entire body felt incomparably comfortable and whose condition had never been better, had no time to pay attention to the changes in himself—
Although his consciousness had just been in a strange, empty state and he had no idea what had happened, his heart still felt utterly hollow.
And when Gwen tried to trace the source of that feeling, the answer surfaced in his mind at once—
Eden!
Shining Among the Stars
In an instant, the hollow feeling in his