Glykerios is flipping through the varieties of magic tomes and figuring out how to get back to where his friends were, but all becomes naught as he sees the gate quickly dissipating and disappearing from sight. Using whatever remaining magic power to try and sustain its connection to the other side only for it to suddenly implode and force him further away from it, corroding more of his right hand. The forceful collapse of the gate has flung him so hard that he travels through a crack in space caused by the very same implosion, arriving at the new world that Hemlock has made. Unfortunately, with the velocity he was already on and the height he was at, he became a comet streaking across the sky, yearning for the ground. Deploying every possible sequence of contraptions and reducing his impact against the ground through magic, albeit with heavy difficulties as each magic circle he rams through only slows him so much.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Not yet… Not YET! Promise, keep the only promise you have left! You FOOL!” He screamed at himself before landing, body first, into the ground. If not for all the tricks and magics Glykerios deployed, he would have become a fine tomato paste. However, he survived with almost every bone in his body fracturing, wind out of his lungs and eyes wide apart, wondering who he should be thanking for surviving. Sharpened by the pain screaming throughout his entire body, he focused his internal magic power to uniformly relocate all of his bones together and turned his own magic into puppet string to pick himself up. Using another spell and embedding it on his body to promote natural recovery.
”… Fuck…” He’s quietly taking an exasperated but very painful breath, raising himself upward, taking a quick scan, and spotting a familiar silhouette.
Oceris was on a forceful break as Ogonsky had blocked her from the workshop. With nothing she can do, Oceris takes herself on a walk along the shoreline between her home and a small forest. Listening to the shimmering leaves harmonizing with the ocean waves, she takes a breather. This is the only time one can see Oceris rest, as the small lady would usually breathe at an odd tempo in fear of failed projects and agonizing over which direction a cogwheel turns, now breathing slowly and calmly. At this moment, she let her mind go, reminiscing about the past.
”… I promise you I will be with you back… I got to you the first time by Witherstorm… by the same path I will be there… my dear Oceris…” Omega’s words flickered through her mind today. It has been a year since she’s been here through her grief and loneliness.
“Promise…” she scoffed lightly under her breath, and as she was about to click her tongue, the sound of glass breaking rippled through the air as something crash-landed near her location. She quietly investigates the impact area, spotting familiar silhouettes.
Glykerios had a more serious face as he was investigating his surroundings, looking at the person before himself. His once expressionless face faded into a warm smile, unlike the time they parted ways and unlike the time they were together in Elysium. His somber yet caring gaze wraps Oceris in an invisible love that a parent would give to their children. He walks toward the merfolk, in shock and daze at the situation before her. Each step feels strange, ever so stuttering and ‘lagging’ in its movement, like an untrained puppeteer moving their puppet for the first time with string. Before Oceris even comes out of her stupor, Glykerios hands palm Oceris’s face and caresses her with every tenderness he can muster through the pain.
“Oceris… my dear… Oh, how you’ve grown…” he said with tears starting to build up through his eyes before forming a line down his face. Flashes of information and images process through his mind, and he forms an answer to what has happened. He notices Oceris’s changes, how she grew over an estimated amount of time, which he has ‘abandoned’ her, and how her gaze feels more empty than before. It hurts him, these conclusions that he has inferred in a fraction of a moment, yet to push through his pain, he continues to smile.
“How are you? How is my sweet girl? Are you ok? Are you eating well?” He said in quick succession, “I’m sorry… I’m late… I broke my promise…” He said with his last few breaths, at which Oceris broke her silence as she came back to reality from his words.
“DAD!-” she quickly said as he fainted, slumping on her shoulder.