*Setsuko*

"So, where does this person live?" I asked as the Lan triplets and Eri's siblings packed their stuff.

"I'm not entirely sure other than in this city," the High Priestess of Xian said.

Osamu rolled his eyes. "You could have looked into that before we came here."

She smiled. "Well, look at the bright side. We have plenty of people who can help us look!"

"Are you looking for Ny's mommy?" Lei asked as he walked out of his room.

"Huh? How did you figure that one out?" Ocarina asked.

He smiled. "They got Eri, you, and Papa. So I was thinking, maybe they're gathering the people we ran into during the games."

"This kid is smarter than he looks," Dad said, smiling.

"Th- Hey!" Lei said, pouting.

Anis giggled. "Reminds me of a certain plump kid."

"Formerly plump kid," Serrano said, chuckling. Was he trying to say that Tetsu was still a kid?

Feng patted his youngest son's head. "He just means you look playful and laidback is all."

He grumbled. "What, so playful people can't be smart?"

Kohri scratched his head and sighed. "I know, right? Everyone thinks I'm not very smart until I say something smart. It's basically the opposite of 'a silent person is deemed wise'."

"Well, you aren't exactly silent either," Onami said, nudging him. "Plus, you say a lot of actual dumb stuff every now and then."

My cousin blushed. "I guess you're right."

"So do you know where she lives?" I asked, turning to look at Lei.

The kid nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Her grandpa lives next door to us. Ny goes and visits him sometimes. She lives a little further down the road."

"Uh, remember, we're looking for her mom, not her."

"Oh, right!"

Lei's older sister, Yen, sighed as she and Kun joined us in the living room. "Silly Lei."

The youngest triplet grumbled. "I'm not silly!"

Kun chuckled. "Sometimes you can be, but I'm the silliest!"

Seemed this kid was the weirdest of the bunch too.

"Come, I'll show you!" Lei said, running off.

"Hey! You promised you would take care of yourself!" I said, chasing after him.

"Maybe I can beat him in another round of Orantu trivia," Kohri said. 

"That's if you win. Your last match was a lot closer than one would have expected," Onami said as we caught up to Lei.

I swooped him up. "Don't worry your mom again," I said, putting him on my shoulders. Harmonica had to get him his inhaler as soon as we had returned from the beach. I knew he was a kid, but he should have learned his lesson back on the island. Wait, was I turning into my nana and dad? Pretty certain they used to retort with something akin to how I was a bad learner.

"Okay," he said, leaning on my shoulders.

"Good. Now, lead the way, kiddo!" Kohri said, grinning.

"Continue down this path. It's a blue house with an interesting pattern, like water."

We turned to the right as as red car sped past us. Driving it was a red haired woman with sunglasses. 

"Oh, if it isn't the Zionians," the woman said as she slowed her car down. She laughed. "What brings you lot here?"

"I think you know," Adela's mother said as she walked toward us.

"Oh, if it isn't Her Holiness! Wonder who else might come to visit little old me," she said, chuckling.

Was this woman really my doppelganger?

"She has the same vibe as you," Kun said, glancing back and forth between us.

How could he tell? He recognized Yuko and Tetsuya as the doppelgangers of his parents too.

"Well, we do share the same soul," Ny's mom and I said at the same time. "Jinx! You owe me a soda!"

"They're like twins!" Yen said, eyes wide.

Lei nodded.

"Uh, Mrs. Taiyang. How are the preparations coming along?" I asked.

She leaned on the seat of her car and looked out to the sea where Hideo and his siblings continued to play. "For the portals? On the day of the eclipse, the gates will be wide open, but that's also our best chance to close to portals for a good decade or so. At least in this world. Sadly, I'm the only adult Taiyang around, so I can't spare any people to do the same for your realms."

"How do you do it?" I asked.

Ny's mother looked back at me and smiled. "It isn't easy but, maybe you can do it."

I frowned. But, I was to assist my fellow knights.

"No can do, huh? That's alright. You'll need to send somebody with strong spiritual powers to one of the strongest ley points you know about, if not the strongest. Then you may begin closing the portal."

"Oh, is it like what we did at Grand Crater?" Kohri said, glancing at Anis.

"Sounds like it!"

"Seems you have some experience. However, it will be harder than closing one. You'll need to close all of the portals at once. It'll be a very exhausting effort for me and whoever else is doing it. Chances of survival are extremely low."

"Then you probably shouldn't do it, Anis," Rosemary said as she rolled her wheelchair over to us.

Anis rubbed her belly which was finally starting to show. "I understand, Ma."

"Leave it to me!" Jun said, grinning.

"You?" Rosemary said, furrowing her brow. Her face turned almost as pale as Harmonica's had earlier.

"You sure, Jun?" Rene asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Unlike Anis, Saffron, and you, I won't be leaving any rugrats behind if I pass away. Nor would I have a husband mourning my loss."

"But you will have sisters, a brother, a mother, and a father who will," Father said as he joined us.

"And cousins too!" Uncle said as he put an arm around Father's shoulder.

Jun smiled. "True, but given my experience closing demon gateways, I'm the best one for the job."

Osamu scoffed. "Who says that you have to do it alone?"

"Yeah! Teresa, Takuya, and I helped Lady Anis close Grand Crater. We can surely help you too!" Kohri said.

Ny's mother smiled. "How nice."

"The same goes for you. If non-Taiyang can close the portals, then we can help you," Adela's mother said, beaming.

My other self snickered. "You are as kind as they say. Makes me glad that our goddess has somebody like you as hierophant. In that case, I think I should show you something." She parked the car at the edge of the road and stepped out, jumping over the cliff.

"Think she wants us to follow her," I said as I put Lei down. "You stay here, okay?"

"Aww, I wanted to go too," Lei said, pouting.

"As did I," Kun said, pouting as well.

Yen sighed. "Kids."

"Uh, they are kids and you are too," I said, chuckling. "Well, I'm off!"

Father sighed. "Never thought you would be one to follow people over a cliff."

I laughed and spread out my wings, trailing after my Xelerian counterpart. 

Ny's mom stopped in front of the cliff and held her hand out. If not for my earth powers, I might've been perplexed by her stopping at such a random spot. But in truth, a cavern laid ahead.

The cliff face vanished, unveiling the cave. We walked inside and came across a door with various devices.

"How do you open this?" I asked.

My other self snickered. "There are two ways. One involves the Hoshizora. The other is the way of the Taiyang."

"Wait, the Hoshizora?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed. That boyfriend of your appears to be one."

I blushed. How did she figure that out? Because he resembled her husband?

She held her hand out, causing the gate to creak. The blue gyro sphere in the center spun around almost randomly before detatching from the door. The bottom and the top halves divided, with one part disappearing into the ceiling and the other into the floor.

My eyes widened as a blue bridge of unknown origin laid on the other side of where the door used to be. An ocean blue light filled the place, but there were no lights. The strange stone was emitting it. Emitting, just like some of the stones of Abyssia.

"As an angel, can you feel the immense energy radiating from this place?"

I closed my eyes. There was indeed a lot of mana and it wasn't just flying off into the ether either. It hung around. This place was dangerous. Staying here for too long would give one mana poisoning. Only the gods and pure blooded angels could stand here for ample time.

"Who or what are you," I said, opening my eyes.

My redheaded counterpart giggled. "I am nothing too special."

"Like I buy that. Normal people can't stay here for long."

She shrugged. "And who says that I stay here for very long? I am only here for a few hours at most."

Was that really the case? Even if so, she would have to come here rather sparingly, else the accumulation would start to affect her.

I gasped and turned around. The others weren't behind me. The cliff wall was back where it used to be. Could they not tell where I had gone? Well, at least me disappearing wasn't anything new. So hopefully they were not too concerned regarding my whereabouts.

"Don't worry. I'll reopen it in a bit. Although, I'm sure you could exit this place on your own if you wanted to."

"Do you not trust my comrades?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "The less people know about this place the better." She smirked. "And since you're just another version of me, that technically keeps the number of people who know about this tower the same."

"Oho, so you trust yourself at least."

She chuckled. "You could say that. Anyway, follow me. We still have some ways to go."

I stared at what appeared to be an elevator. "Just how far does this tower go?"

"It's said to go straight to Abyssia."

I furrowed my brow. How many floors would that be? Surely at some point, the tower warped space. As this world was finite in size. Unless it was the planet version of a hyper ring on the inside.

We entered the elevator and went down several floors. My eyes widened once the walls of the tower became glass. It felt like being inside one of those scuba boats. The geography of this tower was unusual. Being built on a cliff with a beach further out should've made such a sight impossible apart from maybe a few underwater caverns here and there.

My other self leaned against one of the metallic counters of the elevator. The front and back were both made up of a strange metal, while the left and right consisted of glass.

"You didn't notice, did you?" she said, glancing out the elevator. "We're no longer in Xeleria."

I gasped. "Where are we then?" I asked.

She stood straight and smiled. "Where else? This is Abyssia."

Abyssia. That made sense, but I'd never seen its water-like space this clearly before. The exterior of the tower must've luminated the darkness.

"My ancestors would refer to this realm as the 'Ocean of the Worlds'. Sights like this remind me why that is."

"It's a strange realm," I said. "We can breath in it, despite it being water."

She snickered. "Water, huh? It's a little more than that."

"Oil?"

She shook her head. "It's neither water nor oil, but Primal Aether."

"Primal Aether?"

"Indeed. Some of my predecessors would also call it 'Proto-Aether' or 'Chaos Aether'. It's the energy which forms our worlds in a strange, liquid form. You angels must've been guided by someone knowledgeable about the realm. Else, you surely would've died not long after setting foot in it. Well, apart from your boyfriend and his kin."

I gulped. So, Kuroshi did know what he was doing.

My eyes grew as I noticed several jade gears and rings moving and spinning in the air like part of some large scale astrolabe.

"What are those?" I asked.

Ny's mom smiled. "They're gears made of refined Abyssite. They take centuries to make. We Taiyang use them to predict cataclysms." The elevator came to a hold.

"It reminds me if Lei's necklace," I muttered as the doors opened.

She looked over her shoulders. "Lei?"

"Yeah, the boy on my back." I had left him with Serrano and the others.

"So that was Ny's little boyfriend."

"Ehh? They're dating? Aren't they like six or seven?"

She chuckled. "I was joking. Well, let's get going." The surface of the floor rippled. Was it made of water?

I joined her, only for the light of the room to vanish except for several tiny spots. It felt like I was inside one of those projector based astronomy rooms like the one my high school had.

"So, how does this place work?"

Ny's mom held her hand in front of herself. The scene changed. A large planet hovered over us. The coast of ones of its southern landmasses aligned with what we had seen on our way from Xian to Wahkan.

"That's Planet Xeleria, right?" I asked.

She nodded, staring at the landmass to the north of Tozan Hoshi. A massive darkness seemed out of it, shrouding it in black mist.

"What's going on?"

"It's the calamity."

I gasped as the planet shook as a blast of energy erupted from the black mist, engulfing all of Vandavale and Tozan Hoshi, the shockwaves the followed sent debris into space and giant waves roaring into the shores of the other continents.

"I-is this a prediction?"

She nodded. "Based on current factors, yes. The continents of Vandavale and Tozan Hoshi are likely to be replaced by a giant oceanic crater which will drain the world's oceans and change its climate and topography forever." The image zoomed out, showing the world spinning irregularly. "It will be knocked out of its axis. Whoever or whatever survives the initial onslaught of disasters will experience erratic seasons within a matter of hours."

"Wait, hours?"

She nodded. "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter will last merely a matter of hours. And that's assuming the vast among of debris isn't recaptured. In that case, a global winter will ensue. Regardless, the length of the days will themselves been irregular. At present, this is the likeliest scenario. As for who will be ruling it, I'm not certain."

"Is this also the worst possibility?"

She closed her eyes. The image changed back to space, but this time, there were no stars. "Xeleria will be no more. Not only the planet, but the universe itself."

I gulped. "And the best one?"

Xeleria reappeared, but Vandavale was but a series of islands, their topography barely resembling what used to be there.

"Our northern neighbor, the birth place of modern Xelerian magic, has no future," my doppelganger said, shaking her head.

This scenario, it was what would happen if we succeeded in containing the war like Hideo wanted. But, it would still come at a heavy price.

"Can we change it? This future of theirs?" I asked.

She smiled. "You care?"

"Of course I do! It might not be my home, but people are still going to suffer."

"True, but sadly, that's how war is."

She sounded just like Dad.

"But we can minimize the casualties!"

"If you want that, you'll need to depend on that Shield Knight of yours."

Tetsuya? Of course! But, was he strong enough to protect an entire continent from a swarm of literal monsters? He and the rest of us had continued to train hard even after our 'final trial'. But I wasn't sure if were at the same level as Daisaru just yet. The more I thought of it, the more I could see why the likeliest scenario was the total destruction of Tozan Hoshi and Vandavale. And if this was the future of Xeleria, what was the future of Zionia like?

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the episode ^^**