“This was not how I imagined a parent-child reunion to be like,” Gaius whispered, his head poking out of a corner. “I imagined something more…heart-warming.”

Isabelle, who was doing the same thing, nodded. “Maybe it’s because Lia didn’t know that that’s her mother?”

“I’m ninety percent sure that both of them don’t recognise each other,” General Degurechaff replied. He had led to them to the Memory Sifter’s dwelling, but the sounds of a quarrel had drifted into their ears long before they had arrived. With such a pre-emptive warning, Gaius and Isabelle had continued on with lots of caution, since anyone with a title couldn’t be a simple person.

Or they would have, if not for the fact that the quarrel was about…plants. Fire-spewing plants, to be exact. One side was complaining about how a fire-breathing plant had nearly burned her, while the other was emphatically denying that such a thing existed.

Even without the Canvas of Memory, Gaius himself could tell that the two quarrelling women were related, so he was somewhat baffled as to why they didn’t recognise each other.

“Now what?” Gaius asked.

“How would I know?” Isabelle replied, her voice tinged with dismay. “I don’t think it’ll be a good idea if I were to bounce over to Lia and say hi, before greeting mother.”

“You’re the professional at this,” Gaius said, looking at General Degurechaff. “Any tips?”

“What do you mean, professional?” Degurechaff rolled his eyes. “What, do you think that I’m an old hand at family disputes?”

“Wait, you aren’t?”

“Are you serious?”

Gaius and Isabelle looked at each other, and then chortled.

“Damn this couple. As if those two weren’t enough to torment me and Chamberlain back then.” The general poked his head out of the corner. “Still, do contractors nowadays make it a habit to quarrel with their employer on a regular basis? Or is this the power of a familial bond?”

“To me,” said Gaius, “familial bonds are made up of head pats, honest conversation and lots of hugs. Never heard anything about quarrels before.”

“That last part sounds like a romantic bond to me, though.” Degurechaff eyed Gaius. “You’ve changed a lot in the past few years, haven’t you?”

“I have?”

“In the past, you gave off an aged vibe, but now it feels like you’re a normal teenager with romance on his mind.”

“Huh.” It was an intriguing topic, but since this wasn’t exactly the right time to discuss a regression in his mental age, he had no choice but to shelve the issue. After all, there was a mother-daughter quarrel going on, with a little innocent plant in the crossfire.

“Any ideas?” Isabelle asked.

“We’ll just have to intrude forcibly. Even if your mother doesn’t know who we are, she’ll probably drop the issue, due to Degurechaff’s presence,” said Gaius. “Right, general?”

“Mm. You used to call me sir, didn’t you?” The general rubbed his nose, a nostalgic expression on his face. “The others would be astounded if they knew that the famous Lost Star was once my subordinate, and—”

“Never mind, he’s lost it.” Pulling Isabelle by the hand, Gaius led her towards the Memory Sifter’s home, which looked like a cylinder. Other than the fact that there were no corners to it, it was as tall as the other rectangular buildings around it. Unlike the silvery-grey colour that coated most of the buildings in the rebuilt Ark City, the cylinder was painted red, with some rather familiar looking white stripes on them.

“Her home is…very familiar,” Gaius muttered.

“How so?” Isabelle asked.

“Mm. How do I put this? It looks like a canned drink from my world,” said Gaius. “I think it’s called Coca-co—”

“Isabelle?” Lia’s voice interrupted his sentence. “What are you doing in Ark City?’

“Oh. Erm. Hi, sister.” Isabelle was slightly flustered, but anyone would be if someone in a quarrel stopped the squabble to call out to them. “I’m here to uh, you know. Um.”

Lia, who was ignoring the woman who looked very much like an older version of her, turned to look at Gaius. After making some interesting noises, she bobbed her head up and down, before raising a thumbs-up at them. “Not bad, not bad.”

Gaius wasn’t sure who she was directing this utterance at, but his face was beginning to heat up for some reason. Such a phenomenon naturally existed with a sudden spike in Gaius’ interest, with regards to the silvery-grey coating most buildings had, and he turned to look at them instead.

Lia snickered.

“Sister, um…what are you doing here?” Isabelle asked. “How did you enter Ark City?”

“I’m working at Monoloid Incorporated as a contractor,” Lia replied. “Sent here to build artefacts that are innovative and all. But my customer’s a tough one…”

“Excuse me?”

“What?” Lia shot back. “You ask me to wear this, to do that, to not walk here, and then even pry into my love life. What are you, my mother? And if that’s not all, you even got your plant to shoot fire at me!”

“Erm…”

“What?” Lia snapped.

Isabelle flinched, and the Memory Sifter frowned. “Is that how you—"

“Family affairs,” Lia snapped at the Memory Sifter. “Stay out of it.”

Isabelle shuffled her feet. “Erm…”

“Isabelle, you’ve been hemming and hawing for the past few minutes. What is it? Did something happen? In fact, why are you in Ark City? How did you even get in?"

Degurechaff walked over at this point. “About that…”

“General Degurechaff?” Lia turned to regard him in surprise. “I thought you were busy.”

“Mm. Well, there’s this really important person who used to be part of a top-secret initiative. He recently returned with his wife, to help her look for her long-lost mother,” said Degurechaff. “That’s why I let him enter, even though he isn’t a current resident of Ark City.”

“Huh?” Lia looked at Gaius. “Are you referring to Gaius?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Wait, mother’s here?” Lia asked.

A moment of silence followed, before Gaius found it in himself to break it. “Yes. My mother-in-law is actually in Ark City.”

As those words left his mouth, he could see the Memory Sifter beginning to smile. Given that Lia was facing away from her, she couldn’t see that expression, but if Gaius could, it went without saying that everyone else could too. By now, everyone here — Lia excluded — was probably aware that the Memory Sifter knew who Lia was.

“Huh. Let’s go look for her, then!” She turned to the person behind her. “Sorry, Miss Memory Sifter, I’m going to look for my mother in a bit. We shall resume this quarrel at a later date.”

Everyone’s lips twitched.

“There’s no need to look for her now,” said Isabelle. “Right, mother?

“Mother? Where’s she?”

“You can’t be serious.” Shaking her head, Isabelle turned to the shaking Degurechaff and asked, “General Degurechaff, how long has my sister been here?”

“Quite some time,” Degurechaff replied.

Gaius, who was observing the proceedings, covered his mouth to hide his smile. In Lia’s defence, Emily Lorenze was probably introduced to her with her title, rather than her actual name, as evidenced by how she had politely referred to her mother as ‘Miss Memory Sifter’.

“So…” Isabelle held her head. “You’ve been working with mother for so long, to the point that she’s pointing out things and asking about your life, and you didn’t notice?”

“Wait. Wait.” Lia turned to the Memory Sifter, who had a brilliant grin on her face. “You. I. You’re…you’re mother?”

“I’m beginning to worry about your older sister, Isabelle,” said the Memory Sifter. “How is she this slow? Yes, Lia. I’m your mother.”

The older Lorenze froze up for a moment and made some choked noises. The Memory Sifter chuckled, and then turned to Isabelle, a doting smile on her face. “Isa. It’s been some time, hasn’t it?”

Isabelle trembled, and Gaius took it as a sign to step away. Beckoning for Degurechaff to follow, the two retreated by a good ten metres. Leaving the small family alone, Gaius looked up at the ceiling — which was a projection of the sky above — and sighed.

“What’s wrong, Gaius?”

“Nothing much, general.” Gaius looked at the reunited family, a smile on his lips. “But doesn’t this look great?”

“I used to see this, in the days after Ark City left for the Wildlands,” said the general. “Back then, at the close of the Second Extermination, half of our people had been sent over to the Wildlands. Unfortunately, before we could complete the evacuation, the late Capricorn did something to stop us from progressing our plan.”

A faint smile appeared on his face. “Scenes like these were very common when we brought the whole city over to the Wildlands later.”

“I see.” Gaius looked out at the small family.

The three talked for a long time. Sometimes, he could hear sobs, which were then followed by a round of hugs. Isabelle and Lia’s voices would rise and fall in strength, each of them filled with a profound emotion. The Memory Sifter would pat their heads, a doting smile on her face, saying something at the same time.

At some point in time, General Degurechaff had fallen asleep, a peaceful smile on his face as he leaned on the wall. Gaius could understand why he was that at peace; to see a family reunite was nothing short of comforting.

The scene before him, of a shattered family reuniting under the blue sky, burned itself into his retina, and his heart shuddered. Seconds later, a small warmth began to pulse out from his chest, and Gaius vaguely recognised it as the Human God’s power, the globe of light that the Preserver had pushed into his chest right before he died.

What’s…going on? Gaius, who was still in a trance, stood and felt the nebulous power spread out through his body, flooding every bit of it. The golden tide returned a moment later, gathering around his heart, at the disk that had absorbed every single Engine Gaius had up to date.

“Gaius?” Degurechaff had woken up. “What’s wrong?”

There was no way he could reply, however. Gaius could feel the amalgamation of qi, ether and divinity merge together. The chaotic will of the Crying Abyss went along with the flow, surrounding the mix quietly, and for a time, strength left his body.

“Omnipotence in transcendence,” said a quiet voice spoke in his mind. “Flawed is the narrowed path, the product of transience. For those who seek perpetuity, what is an oath? Cast off your fetters. Open your mind. Be not a Bounded Presence, but a Boundless One.”

Strength returned to Gaius’ body a moment later, and he staggered in shock.

Degurechaff caught him before he could fall on his back. “What happened to you?”

Gaius looked at him. “I’m not sure. But…”

Somehow, observing how that little family had reunited had activated the Human God’s final gift. It wasn’t an advancement in strength; no, it was the product of his ruminations over a hundred thousand years. The golden globe the Preserver had sent into his chest had unified the various competing energies in his body, but that was it.

What was more important was the Preserver’s musings, and as Gaius looked at Isabelle, Lia and the Memory Sifter, a vague understanding began to form. It would not be complete for the months to come; his instincts were telling him that he needed to observe the world if he wanted to truly understand the Human God’s words.

“Be not a Bounded Presence, but a Boundless One,” Gaius murmured. That last bit stood in contradiction with everything he’d known about Orb and the path to a Paragon.

He couldn’t quite understand it yet, but as long as he lived…

Walking towards the three of them, Gaius decided to tuck away that little event into the recesses of his mind. Isabelle was far more important than almost everything else right now; the Human God’s musings could take a backseat, as far as he was concerned.

Besides, he had a feeling that the more he thought about it, the further he would deviate from the truth. It was that kind of mysterious axiom, from what he could tell.