The man had brown hair and blue eyes, while the woman had white hair and brown eyes, her face now streaked with tears.
"Khaslana! Where are you! Khaslana! Answer us!" Their voices were drowned out by the screams and cries around them.
By the time they suddenly noticed the light above them darken and a nauseating, foul wind bore down on them, it was already too late.
A monstrous creature, three meters tall, with a grotesque form coalesced from the Black Tide, had already raised a twisted, filthy greatsword. With an aura of utter destruction, it swung down towards them!
The blue-eyed man let out a desperate roar, using all his strength to shield his wife beneath him, even though he knew it was futile, he still made one final effort.
The expected tearing and pain did not come immediately.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely in that moment, or perhaps only a brief instant passed.
A few seconds later, the couple trembled as they opened their tightly shut eyes.
A gentle yet powerful force, like the most resilient barrier, enveloped them tenderly.
This power radiated an ancient, weathered, yet deeply protective aura.
It not only shielded the couple who had nearly been slain by the sword but also rippled outwards, enveloping all the fleeing villagers nearby.
At the same time, it immobilized all the rampaging Black Tide constructs in their places.
The world seemed to have been paused.
"...What is this..." the white-haired woman murmured in a daze, nestled in her husband's arms, gazing at the faint light surrounding them. "Is this the protection of Oronyx?"
Behind them, the villagers who had survived the catastrophe had already fallen to their knees, reaching their hands towards the sky, tears of gratitude and awe streaming down their faces as they began to praise the miracle belonging to the Titan of Time.
At that moment, two figures burst in like meteors tearing through the gloom!
Sword light crisscrossed, waves of heat blazing like the scorching sun intertwined with silvery moonlight's cold radiance. Wherever they passed, the ferocious Black Tide constructs scattered and disintegrated like fragile, withered grass.
With an unstoppable momentum, they brutally tore a gaping hole in the Black Tide that was about to engulf Aedes Elysia.
Phainon's parents in this cycle—Hieronymus and Audata—were stunned by this sudden turn of events.
They huddled behind a broken wall, watching the two god-like figures with disbelief.
"That... that is..." Phainon's father, Hieronymus, the brown-haired, blue-eyed man, stammered, his voice trembling with extreme shock, barely able to form words.
He stared fixedly at the youth wielding the silver greatsword, his body burning with scorching aura. "That face... those features... is that our... Khaslana?"
He rubbed his eyes fiercely, wondering if the immense pressure had caused him to hallucinate. "But I... am I seeing double? How can there be... two?"
However, beside him, his white-haired, brown-eyed wife, Audata, did not answer any of her husband's questions.
Her gaze was locked firmly on the other of the two figures, the one wielding the ferocious crimson greatsword, whose eyes were as profound and distant as the starry sky.
Without any reason, her tears burst forth like a breached dam, instantly streaming down her dust-covered cheeks.
A sharp, visceral tremor from the depths of her bloodline seized her heart violently.
"No..." she choked out, her voice soft as a whisper, yet carrying a maternal instinct's unmistakable, profound sorrow. "They are not... not our Khaslana..."
Audata could not see their full faces clearly, but she could keenly sense the immense weight, almost crushing, borne by those two powerful forms.
It was a weariness and vicissitude that could only come from traversing endless time and space, experiencing countless losses, and accumulating unimaginable pain.
"They..." Her fingers clutched tightly at the clothes over her chest, as if only that could ease the inexplicable yet intense heartache. "They look... so much like our child... but also completely different... They... they seem to be suffering a thousand, ten thousand times more than our Khaslana..."
She did not know where this heartache came from, nor why she could be so certain.
But at that moment, gazing upon the two figures who had descended like heroes yet seemed to carry the sorrow of the entire world on their shoulders, a mother's heart ached with indescribable pain for the "children" she had never met.
***
After ensuring the villagers of Aedes Elysia would face no further danger, Phainon and Phaethon arrived at the entrance to the Membrance Maze.
It was here they encountered the Phainon of this cycle (let's call him Phainon-1), who had rushed out in a panic, intent on saving his homeland.
"Your people have already been saved. No one lost their life in this disaster," Phaethon explained first, calming Phainon-1's heart.
"You... who are you, really?" Phainon-1's voice trembled slightly.
He held a hoe stained with mud tightly in front of him, eyeing the two who had appeared so abruptly with deep wariness.
Phainon-1's gaze darted rapidly between the visitors, his heart pounding wildly from both inexplicable fear and a hard-to-define sense of familiarity.
One of them held a ferocious-looking crimson greatsword, its blade radiating disconcerting heat. The other grasped an exquisitely crafted silver greatsword with a cold sheen, his demeanor seemingly calm, but his eyes as deep as an ancient well.
No matter how he looked at it, these two men who had suddenly appeared at the maze entrance, with their startlingly similar features to his own, were anything but simple, honest folk.
Phainon-1's knuckles were white from gripping the hoe. Any normal person faced with such a bizarre situation would find it impossible to let their guard down.
Yet, the two before him seemed to ignore his guarded stance.
Phainon, holding the silver greatsword, wasn't looking at Phainon-1. Instead, his gaze was fixed intently on something at the other youth's feet—a well-preserved 「Deliverer」 card, different from the one in his own memory.
Ever since the youth before them had seen them, he had thrown down that card symbolizing fate and picked up the hoe instead.
*What was Phainon thinking at this moment? Perhaps no one could guess.*
As for Phaethon, holding the crimson greatsword, after explaining to Phainon-1, he seemed struck by an invisible lightning bolt.
His gaze went past the tense Phainon-1, landing on a spot not far behind him.
There, a young girl with pink hair and blue eyes stood gracefully, her hands behind her back, a gentle smile on her face that he knew intimately, yet felt as if from a past life, as she watched him quietly.
That was... the Cyrene of this recurrence.
(Note: Cyrene is still alive until flame reaver kill her)