Bayonetta had witnessed her mother's death more than once.
Yet when faced with the temptation to change the past and alter established history, she remained remarkably calm. Even knowing that she would repeatedly regret her decision in the future, she still used astonishing willpower to face the inner torment she inflicted upon herself—pain ordinary people could never endure—as well as the separation of life and death that would inevitably come. She gazed longingly at Rosa walking ahead, but did not dare tell her what was about to happen.
Rosa seemed to have sensed something as well and said nothing at all about the future. As the previous holder of the Eyes of the World, she naturally knew what this meant.
"I can't go with you." The Arcanist walked beside her. His voice had grown hoarse from dehydration, and his eyes were filled with exhaustion. He had faced the strongest member of the Sage Clan in history twice; even such superhuman battles still left him weary after he shut down the Holy Marks. "I wasn't sent to this point in time by the Eyes of the World, but by the Silver Key. I have to return to our era another way."
"I know," Bayonetta said. "Then may I ask you to do something for me?"
"Yes. I don't think it will disturb history very much, so I can do it." Salomon glanced at Rosa's back and nodded. Bayonetta did not need to say it aloud; he already knew what the Witch wanted. "No one will disturb her. I promise you. But I can't grant every Witch that kind of peace. Do you remember what we saw in that tower?"
Salomon meant the power-generating devices they had discovered in Isabelle Tower five hundred years later.
Those devices resembled iron maidens, with long