Born From a Forbidden Union, Humanity hates me.

The family has survived this moment of weakness, where the two most important people supporting them until now, Orion and Amelia, have left them to their own perils.

Inside a room of the house, a woman walked through the doorway and closed the door gently behind her.

"Tetra..."

Henrietta approached the bed with a faint smile, hiding the grief in her heart behind it.

On the bed laid Tetra's soulless body, with its heart still beating, although very lightly. Without her source, all that she was now was an empty recipient with no chance of coming back.

Her pink and lustrous hair, which she took extreme care of continuously, had lost its glittery appearance, now rough and messy.

The room she was staying in was quite normal, with just one mirror in the shape of a heart stuck to the wall.

Naturally, one would expect the master of love to have a saturated bedroom with plenty of pink accessories and decorations, but it was the opposite.

Tetra was simple at heart. All she had, except the necessary pieces of furniture, was a picture of a man placed on top of a drawer next to the mirror.

A tall man with short, messy hair. His red shirt and white pants looked very different from what the inhabitants of Triazils wore, but wore it very well.

The feeling emanating from this man was one word: Seriousness.

There was no trace of a smile on his face, nor was he even looking at the source of the photograph.

Yet, his gaze was filled with kindness. His eyes were locked on something that wasn't visible in the picture.

This was the only, perfectly preserved, picture of the Hero Noah, that not even Dramia and Drania were aware of.

Looking at her friend's resting face, Henrietta bit her lower lip.

"What are we going to do?"

The older woman, as hold as the continent at this point, placed her head between the palms of her hands, and sighed.

"From the looks of it, Miasma is probably still alive. And if what the intel on our enemy is true, then..."

"Miasma managed to go back in time..."

"But even if Miasma did return in the past, it doesn't mean anything for us."

Both Henrietta and Tetra had no secrets for each others. After living together for thousands of years, they knew everything about each other, even how their powers worked, and how they would influence the world.

Tetra was able to do many things, but it required her to consume her soul in the process. A one-time use power that placed restrictions on such a dangerous ability.

If it was simply looking into the future for a brief instant, like she did, to get a general idea of the casualties each time Orion appeared in a war, she ended up with only a severe headache.

But, anything going past that, which meant directly playing with time, was a death sentence. Only Henrietta was able to use her power to return from divergent timelines that ended tragically.

And each time, Henrietta used her own abilities as a Remnant to change ever so slightly the path leading to today's events.

"What I am afraid of... is not being able to change the present anymore. Without you, we are locked into this cycle for good."

Henrietta straightened.

"I've been way too used to using your abilities until now."

She was on the verge of crying, but contained it.

"With our last resort being you gone, I have to trudge on a path I do not know, with the fear of failure ever present..."

"This is... tough."

Swallowing the pain making her voice weaken, she glanced at her friend.

"Where are your witty remarks when I need them the most?"

Staying in front of the bed without moving an inch, Henrietta closed her eyes.

~

In some strange and gut-churning space, a lone child floated with no sense of direction whatsoever.

"Where am I?!"

Stella looked around her frenetically, confused as to where she was. She remembered being in that wide building with her sketchbook in hand, right before being found out by the adults that came to find her.

She was now in a colorful but dizzying corridor of light, falling, or maybe levitating, endlessly.

Even though this scene could be incredibly enchanting or mind-bending to a curious child like her, this was the last of her interest currently.

Her chest was still filled with regret and sorrow. The wound caused by the news of her father being gone was still fresh to care for such a view, or to feel excited toward.

Yet, as she felt a sudden force pull on her body, the colorful view disappeared, replaced by a dark and moist cavern the moment her feet touched solid ground.

Confused, and a bit scared, Stella glanced around her.

"---"

Whispering voices echoed through the brightly lit path of the cavern.

Even though scary, they weren't sounding threatening to Stella. Still, she was unable to understand a single word from them.

Feeling a need to continue down the cavern, Stella walked forward, alternating her gaze left to right as she carefully treaded inside the elemental realm with no idea of where she was.

'Bright crystals on the walls... They're pretty.'

The colorful crystals distracted her from her thoughts. There were blue, green, purple, brown, and red crystals illuminating the place.

But as soon as the narrow pathway widened, tiny white and dark crystals lightly shimmered under the vibrant light of the others.

As Stella continued further in, the sound of her footsteps echoed louder. Instead of looking to her sides, she looked in front of her.

"!"

Opening her mouth wide, she stumbled upon the largest room she had ever seen. Crystallized statues of animals and creatures of various shapes entered her sight.

The marvelous view enthralled her heart, but it was nothing yet. There was one last part she had yet to see.

"---"

"---"

The whispers became even louder as she made her way past the first set of naturally formed rocky pillars.

Water flowed on both sides of her through carved trenches, running infinitely from even deeper.

At this point, the most captivating crystal entered her sight.

"Woah!"

Unable to contain the amazement in her voice, Stella took a step back while shifting her gaze upward.

A radiant white crystal of massive size was firmly stuck inside the back wall, halfway embedded through the ceiling.

Inside of it, were two elements being refined, spinning around each other without end.

But, the instant Stella noticed it, it was too late.

The two elements gathered in a single point inside the crystal, before being flung at her.

Almost instantaneously, they sunk inside her chest, pushing the little girl backward, who fumbled a few steps back, before falling on her behind.

'Is the girl fine?'

'She should be...'

'What if she's not?'

'Look, she's fine.'

'Really?'

Countless voices entered her ears. The whispers turned into real voices she could understand.

"E-Eh? W-Who are you?"

Confused, Stella looked frantically in every direction, trying to track down the sources of the voices.

'It worked?'

'It worked.'

'The girl can hear our voice.'

'Good.'

After standing up, she took a few steps back. Her chest was burning up, which she was unable to ignore. Placing her hand on it, she began to find it increasingly difficult to breathe.

'Child, breathe in, and out. Slowly.'

'Yes. Relax, and let the elements sink into your core.'

With a faint nod, Stella listened to the voices, who appeared to kindly help her.

"Fuuuuuuuh... Haaaaaaah..."

Stella did that for a minute, until the pain in her chest began to subside greatly. Though, a lingering unease could still be felt from the intruding elements now inside her.

Yet, she felt a sense of familiarity with them. Without truly understanding that these elements were the same as her father used, Stella asked a question.

"Who are you?"

Cautiously, she looked around her. Then, as she scanned her surroundings, a crystal statue in the shape of a sheep glowed.

From its color alone, its element appeared to be fire. A voice echoed from deep within the statue, catching her attention.

'We are the elementals.'

Then, another statue, this time green, looking like a large bird, glowed.

'We give magic to the world.'

More crystallized animals began to light up one after the other.

'We help those drowning in despair.'

'We know what a horrible fate came down on you.'

'We will support you, but also nurture you.'

'We should tell you that your future is still bright.'

All the statues were brightly glowing at this point, before all of them spoke at the same time.

'For our Savior, who has left us to the Corridors of Time.'

'Until the return of our Savior, the Remnant of Progress you will become.'

Confused, Stella tilted her head.

"Remnant? Me?"

Unanimously, the voices confirmed her question.

'Yes.'

Suddenly, a part of the back wall, right under the massive white crystal, cracked and broke loudly.

The stones crumbled into a pile of rubble, revealing a new path leading deeper into the elementals' realm.

'Walk forward. We will instruct everything you need to know to become like our Savior.'

Stella took a step forward, starting her long, perilous, but fruitful journey.

Her small frame walked past the pile of rubble. With one last question on her mind, she turned around after entering the dark corridor.

"Who's your Savior?"

A long silence answered her question.

*Crack*

Suddenly, the stones that were pilled around the entrance began to return to their original spot, sealing the little girl behind them.

'Your father.'

A single voice finally answered her as she disappeared behind the stone wall.