"T-this is a joke, right? A ruse? A game you kids are playing on me?" Mom uttered, trying to keep a straight face.

"It's not," Delta replied.

"But... how? How is this possible?" Cassandra asked, her voice trembling.

"It's a really long story," Delta said. "But the short version is that my soul was fused, nearly became fully absorbed by Dante's. Dr. Kerenski separated us using his magic and Great Aunt Delta designed this body for me."

"But," our mom uttered. There were tears sparkling at the corners of her silver-blue eyes again.

"I'm alive," Delta said. "Ishira never got my soul. I'm alive and I've been waiting to talk to you for thirteen years mom. The Ishira priestess failed to kill me."

Cassandra's face crumpled and she started to cry, whispering apologies without an end.

Delta stepped forward and hugged her. I watched them with a smile. I wasn't wrong this time. I didn't make a mistake. Telling mom that Delta was her daughter was the right thing to do.

Kliss stared at us.

"Wait a minute," she uttered and stared at me. "The book of the Overseer, the name there... a girl. By Equality!"

I grinned at her.

"You better explain this bullshit to me," she whisper-growled at me, showing me her dragon canines.

"Let's go into the garden and talk," I whispered back. Delta needed to connect with our mom, to speak daughter to mother for the first time ever and likely we would just get in the way.

. . .

I nodded to Kliss and both of us walked downstairs, the stairwell creaking under our boots. It was the same stairwell Kliss had used to murder me. The very same stairwell, which I had used against her to break her and put a Vow onto her. It was amusing to think how we had started as mortal enemies and our fortunes became intertwined, led us to this strange turn of events.

"So," Kliss said staring at me as I sat down onto a bench framed by lilac trees.

"So?"

"Explain," she waved a hand in the direction of the house.

“Delta was a girl who was supposed to be born to the Alan family thirteen years ago. From what I understand after I died on Earth, goddess Ishira grabbed my soul from the Astral Ocean and shoved me into the girl's body in an attempt to kill her,” I said.

“I see,” Kliss demurred as she rubbed her chin. “So your appearance on Novazem was the end result of the machinations of Goddess Ishira.”

I nodded.

“That’s the God you spoke to?” She asked.

I nodded again. “I believe so. Right after I died, I saw a vision of a man dressed in… a suit of armor intended for flying through the void of space. I’m pretty sure now that this was simply Ishira using my memories to lure me to Novazem.”

“A suit to fly through… the void?” Kliss blinked.

“The Soviet people accomplished a lot of things,” I nodded. “Our greatest hero was Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. We were the first nation to send a man past the atmosphere of our planet into the airless, infinite abyss above us. Remember? I spoke about this when I made your Overseers' Vow bind itself.”

“You sent a hero to the stars... without magic... right?” She asked.

“Without magic,” I nodded. “In a tube forged from metal and glass propelled upwards via burning of extremely combustive fluid.”

“Incroyable,” Kliss muttered. “According to ancient archives at Cessna Arcanarium, a thousand years before the Age of Darkness... we too sent magitek engines towards the skies, trying to figure out what mysteries lie in the endless ruins of Lunaria.”

“There’s ruins there?” I blinked.

“It’s nothing but ruins,” Kliss nodded. “A whole world made from ruins without an end. The scholars speculated that the entire world is one endless magogenic fault.”

“I see,” I mulled.

"Why did you save me?" She asked. "Why did you turn me into... this?"

The girl with the gemstone mane pointed at her glittering, ruby hair.

I looked at her and smiled. "Because I wanted to give you a chance," I said. "A chance to be something more. A chance to be something more than a slave to a Vow. A chance to be something more than a tool or a servant of the Empire of Equality. I gave you a new life. You can be whatever you wish now."

"Really?" She asked with a smirk. "You won't force me to lug rocks?"

"Really," I nodded. "If you don't want to stay with us in Skyisle, you're free to go. You gave us a chance, a chance to build up, to grow, to get strong enough."

"I saw," her expression suddenly darkened. "You put an Almn-Inian obelisk in the center of town. Are you seriously considering bringing back Necromage dominion or something?"

"I am not," I shook my head. "I'm using the tools they left lying around, yes, but I have no intention to put human souls into their artifacts or whatever.”

“What are you doing here exactly?” She asked.

“I’m uplifting Skyisle,” I said. “In every possible way.”

“D-do you think you can oppose the might of the entire Empire?” She asked, clearly fretting. “They will destroy you, send an entire fleet or warships if they find out about this obelisk and the other things… you’re giving children weapons of war meant to be in the hands of Imperial Overseers, Dante!”

“Let them come,” I shrug. “We will repel them. Are you with us? Will you aid us? Will you stand up with us against the might of the Vow-bound Empire?”

“I…” Kliss opened her mouth and froze.