As Rabbit Girl made her choice, soft light enveloped the three of them.
The next second, their consciousness seemed to leave their bodies and plunge into a winding, uncanny passage.
They drifted downward like three leaves caught in an invisible current. Ripples spread through the void beside them, revealing one scene after another.
They themselves were the stars of those scenes: Gray Porcelain concentrating as he anticipated an attack, Rabbit Girl springing nimbly toward a turret, Angel calmly controlling his illusions...
Every scene came from their earlier battle with Nereid, playing along both sides of the passage like a silent film.
Drawn in by the images, Gray Porcelain and Rabbit Girl lost themselves in the replay of the battle. Even their breathing slowed to match its rhythm.
Angel's consciousness, however, quietly pulled free.
No longer bound to his "falling leaf," his viewpoint rose until he reached the familiar bird's-eye view.
From this almost higher-dimensional vantage, he could clearly see that their bodies remained curled up inside the same bubble, unmoving. It was the bubble itself that moved, drawn by an invisible force toward a dazzling light deep in the void.
At the heart of that light, he could just make out a vast space. That was where the True Nereid lay.
The instant the bubble plunged into the light, the battle scenes along the passage reached their end.
The final image froze on the three of them celebrating with a high five, then shattered like glass. Their consciousness sank sharply through the glare, and at last they felt solid ground beneath them...
The three opened their eyes.
As far as they could tell, their bodies had been forced through a journey of "revisiting" the past, and they could finally control them again.
In truth, their bodies had been curled up