The black-haired angel looked at the young noble with amiability, like a silent observer. They did not say anything more than that. Unlike the Monarch of Gold's grand and extensive monologues and dialogues, Longel didn't seem like the type to speak too much.
Anastasia wiped her tears and tried not to look at her dead friend. She looked back at the angelic figure and hesitated before speaking.
A sense of responsibility surged forward in her chest. She had long walked past the stage of crying at every event, no, she was stronger than that.
"I am terribly sorry, Longel. It seems the situation is putting me in quite the emotions…" Anastasia chuckled nervously, like a laugh of despair or unease. "I also long to ask, are you a 'He' or a 'She'?"
Anastasia observed once more the Angel of the Remote's body. She was totally unable to determine the gender of the angel, if it even had one.
"Do not worry, I perfectly understand your predicament. As for your question, I suppose I would classify myself as a 'She.' I do not have a lot of memories of my soul's past, but I certainly feel a sense of familiarity when evoking the word." Her look was still blank, as if the angel possessed no expression of Her own.
Do angels not have memories, or is She just a special case?
Anastasia did not dare ask too many questions to the angelic figure. She may have been confident that the Sun God would not punish her for stepping out of line, but she had no idea how the Angel of the Remote would react.
The count's daughter also found herself interested in the angel's origin and symbolism.
Angel of the Remote…
What is the "Remote"? Everything this God does is indeed interesting to analyze. The more I understand the world, the better I can rule it!
Going purely by the textbook definition, remote would represent something far from our location. But would the Sun God truly create a situation with such a boring answer?
No.
Remote…
Anastasia could not quite put her hand on the signification of such a word, but she was certain it had a more profound meaning than what was on the surface.
I don't think the answer would be something so easy I could resolve it as of now. I should probably learn to familiarize myself with Her.
"It seems this person is dead. Was he someone dear to you?" She asked with an impressively monotone voice, as if the death of a human was nothing special.
Weirdly enough, even though Her voice was unexpressive and bored, it did not come out as arrogant like Solatin's.
"Yes… he was a friend of mine…" Anastasia tried not to look at the corpse of her colleague, but she ultimately turned her attention back to it.
Longel did not speak for a while, simply and silently observing the scene in front of Her. Anastasia appreciated the silence the angel offered her, whether it was intentional or not was another matter.
After a few minutes, the angel chose to continue to talk, still in Her naturally unnatural voice.
"Would you prefer if we changed our location? Perhaps this will help you get back to an adequate emotional state."
Anastasia nodded to the angel's proposition.
The monotone voice began to speak again, this time unrelated to the discussion with Anastasia.
"The room I seek, my heart desires, the threshold opens and retires."
Suddenly, a door provoking an indescribable feeling in Anastasia's chest appeared out of thin air and opened, showing her chamber on the other side.
She tried looking on both sides of the door, but nothing hid behind it.
Is that what magic looks like?
Could I also do something like that?
The angel signaled for her to follow Her into the other room.
Both of them passed through the door and into the bedroom.
The door closed behind her and went back to null once again, as if it had never existed.
"Is that magic?" Anastasia couldn't hold back the question devouring her.
Longel tilted Her head and looked at the young woman.
"You would be correct. This is indeed what you would address as 'magic.'" She spoke very politely and was as calm as a doll.
"Mr. Sun God also said something about 'realms.' Do you perhaps have any idea about it?" Anastasia, seeing how Longel wasn't becoming aggressive at her questions or being annoyed, continued with another question that had roamed her mind ever since the encounter with the divine being.
Longel took some time to think up an answer before responding. Explaining such complex subjects was not something everyone could do, especially for one who knew as little as Longel.
"I believe it is something akin to a natural talent, or your soul's natural bias towards a certain place. It is like when you know you belong somewhere, your soul naturally feels it belongs to a certain dimension. My soul naturally feels more at ease in the dimension of Space, meaning I naturally have talent for spells and authorities concerning the nature of Space."
Your soul's natural belonging…
So this means that my soul belongs to the dimension of Fate, but why?
I guess one could interpret Fate in numerous ways, but I don't see how I relate to that.
Maybe it doesn't really matter, or maybe there's another reason I do not know about…
This is all so complex…
"I am terribly sorry if my explanation wasn't clear enough. I do not know enough about the matter to come up with a proper explanation. Would you prefer for me to ask Him instead?"
Ask Him…
That could be a great idea, but knowing how He is, He might just give me a whole bunch of nothing…
Anastasia bowed slightly to the deity's angel as a display of respect. "No, thank you very much. Your answer has helped me greatly."
"I am most happy to hear so." She turned around and repeated the same chant as before to come to this room. This time, the other side of the door showed a room made of pure white that she did not recognize.
"Wait!" Anastasia asked her to halt, which She did, looking back at her.
"What should I do about Vlad?" The man's corpse suddenly came back to her mind, and the only person who might have the answer was Her.
For the first time, Longel's expression changed slightly. Not much, but just enough for Anastasia to notice.
"You're the one with Fate powers, not me." She turned around once more, not looking back as She marched forward and opened the door.
"Follow your heart, dear prophet."
"…"
"So thou have returned, Longel." The monarch of gold was already awaiting the return of His angel. Standing on His throne in the white fog.
Solatin had His eyes closed, as though He was thinking about something deeply important.
"I have indeed master." The angel with the blue robe bowed in front of Her God. She did not dare look up at the moment to observe the Sun God.
Solatin reopened His eyes and looked at the angel, who He asked to lift Her head up. His golden eyes were so divine, Longel felt as if the Monarch of gold was looking at Her very soul.
"It seems this world has many mysteries. I have never encountered such a universe beforehand, I wonder if I simply did not notice such a key point in the previous games, or if this game is indeed of another caliber than the previous ones."
The Sun God formed a sphere in His hands, growing into a beautiful bouquet of dirt, water and flowers before burning to the ground.
"Ancient Gods and traces of modern civilizations. The pre-existence of magic and a world with seemingly no guiding rule…" He had never seen such a world in His 254 million years of existence.
"Longel, do thou also believe there is a possibility that discovering the truth of this world is a part of the necessary conditions to claim victory?"
The Angel of the Remote was shook by this sudden question from Her master. She did not dare express Her opinion, instead affirming Her master's idea.
"I believe you are right master."
Solatin's face changed expression rapidly.
"Of course you'd say so…" Solatin's voice was so low a fly could make more noise
He looked at His angel with a pain expression before continuing as before.
"Well, I am not in a position to interfere with this world myself, I shall ask the prophet to investigate in my stead, I believe she will do excellent work.