"Oh, right. Will I run into Phoenix from this period?"
A thought crossed Edward's mind, and he shifted into spirit form.
"Homecoming."
In an instant, he vanished from the villa. After less than a second of blurred vision, he had arrived in Calderón City, deep in the Spirit World. The abandoned, collapsed wall nearby seemed exactly the same as it would be two hundred years later, without any difference at all.
He quickly looked around, trying to find a little black bird. Unfortunately, he saw nothing.
Was it not here, or had it not been born yet at this point?
Two hundred years was a long time for most ordinary people, but to an ancient city like this, it seemed to be no more than an instant.
"Using Homecoming requires no windup, and it doesn't involve traveling through the Spirit World. It's teleportation in the truest sense. It probably won't be affected by 'teleportation prohibited' restrictions. It couldn't be more suitable for escaping."
"No cooldown and no restrictions-no, being limited to spirit form is the biggest restriction of all."
After quickly summing up his experience with [Homecoming], Edward keenly sensed a faint force eroding his body.
He tried stealing this erosion away, but fresh erosion followed right on its heels.
Fortunately, it would take quite some time for this erosion to truly threaten him at Sequence 4, more than enough for him to get far away.
With that thought, Edward floated up, quickly ascending above the ancient city. Enormous, pale stone pillars came into view, displaying the city's former grandeur.
As he continued rising, he once again saw the nearly dried-up river in the darkness, with countless departed souls wandering its parched bed.
"...So the tributary of the River of Eternal Darkness was already like this two hundred years ago?"