ALFG 153

EPILOGUE

“For real? You actually killed her?”

Sapphrel Angeles sighed, far more dramatic than they needed to be so Eridan could clock that this was an insincere, exaggerated reaction, and proceeded to slump over their dining table. He clicked his tongue, unamused, crossing his arms as he observed them. A perpetual liar indeed, even down to their emotions. He wondered if they were ever honest, if they ever let their guard down, or if William took all the sincerity with his aspect.

Probably.

“Aaaahhh, I actually lost,” they moaned. “I usually never do, with these things.”

“You said you were up against the Heir of Doom.”

“And? I should be able to outsmart the bitch easily. They’re me.” They snorted, sitting back up. “I can run circles around myself, trust me.”

Eridan scoffed. “Sure. Whatever floats your boat.” After a pause, he inclined his head to the side. “Though to be fair, if it wasn’t for Cronus trying to assassinate us, we probably would have never managed to get out of the denizen’s trap.”

“That’s what you’re calling it?”

“It feels disrespectful to your brother to call it by his title, just because he’s stolen his abilities.” He lifted a shoulder. “I know you don’t like being called the Heir of Doom.”

They nodded. “Yeah, it just…someone else has it, and I don’t like feeling like I’m wearing it secondhand.” They sighed again. “Yeah, you’re right. And Hal’s alive and sane, so that’s a plus.”

Anshu chose the moment to return to the room, a tray of steaming mugs in hand. Both Angeles and Eridan eyed in her concern, though Angeles’ immediately turned to delight at the sight of hot chocolate. The house had been barren of food before Eridan and Anshu had arrived, something about food being a luxury of the living, and so their afterlife hadn’t thought to stock it for death incarnate.

“Should you be walking around?” Eridan asked, standing to take the tray from her hands.

“I’m not hurt,” Anshu said, rolling blank empty eyes, and the only indication that she did so was her tone and her chuckle as she sat, letting Eridan set their drinks down. “And I’ve gotten bored of just sleeping.”

“Fair enough, there’s not much to do here,” Angeles said.

This island was the only thing in the middle of the ocean for miles and miles and miles. There was nothing to do here but recuperate and sleep. For the moment, anyway. Angeles had mentioned something about an Afterlife project that the Heir of Doom was doing and had already started on.

“What is this place, anyway?” Eridan asked. “I know it’s your Afterlife, but what is it? It’s not a dream bubble.”

“It’s not. Nereus Ampora asked Diosci Captor to make it for the Heir of Doom,” they said, and for once, they actually sounded like they were telling the truth. They had a small, fond smile on their face as they looked around the small room, and then out the window to their side. “After he figured out the Heir was their session’s successor session, he knew they couldn’t actually be together at the moment, considering, you know. Time linearity, blah blah blah, kinda like yours came before John’s, and you guys had to wait until they played the game to interact with them at the present.”

“So, what is this, a gift?”

“A rendezvous point,” Angeles said. “An Heir of Doom is at their strongest when they become death, when they die, and so Nereus had this place prepared. When the Heir dies, their soul would come here, and he’d meet them here, in this little house.”

Oh.

Eridan took in the sight of the modest little kitchen, with its wooden walls and its blue paint, the ceiling decorated with markings of gold like the stars.

“And it would have functioned as that, if the timeloop properly closed, but as you know, shit broke, so now technically this place is for me,” Angeles said. “It’s why I ended up here when I died.”

“And the Knight of Light?” Anshu asked, motioning to the mirage of a two-story house in a grassy patch of land on the other side of the island.

“Oh, that guy’s our new neighbor. The Heir of Doom moved him here after you guys fixed the universe. We’re kicking off the afterlife for realsies.” Angeles chuckled. “It’s gonna take a while for this place to get crowded, though.”

Eridan hummed as he glanced out the window. He didn’t mind it too much. If anything, the silence was preferred right now, for everyone’s peace of mind. Anshu needed some time for invasive forces drowning her out, Eridan needed some space from shit constantly happening so much.

“Time shit?” he asked. “Why it’s gonna take a while for this place to get crowded, I mean.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Time never works right in death.” Angeles said.

“So how long as it been, since we’ve died?” Anshu asked, blowing steam off her drink before taking a sip.

“I don’t know,” Angeles said. “I only know when you guys died, but not how long it’s been since. And even then, your universe’s time was already wonky as shit.”

“When did we die?”

“February 14, 2014,” they said. “Technically. If we could find a realtime calendar for the living world, we can track how long’s passed.”

“Maybe the Knight has some,” Anshu said. “We should visit again.”

Eridan only made a noise of agreement absentmindedly, instead tipping his chair back on its hind legs and leaning back, angling his head so he could look at the ceiling. Now that he got a good look of it, it looked to be a map of some sorts. A star map, likely. Nereus only knew, and he was with Kanaya right now and keeping her safe. He wondered how the others were, if they’d been given up by the pocket dimensions that had swallowed them, the second Anshu had fixed the world. They must be, unless it’s only been five minutes since they’ve died and the universe was still healing.

“We got all the time in the world here, right?” Eridan tipped his chair back on all four of its legs, settling it on the floor.

“Yeah,” Angeles said, pausing from their conversation with Anshu to respond.

He jerked a thumb towards the window. “And the ocean’s not like, some freaky reality thing? Like that Kisaragi place you were talking about?”

“Oh, no, that’s just ocean,” they said. “Other-me didn’t say, but I personally think the real Nereus is asleep at the bottom of that thing.”

Well, if he was, the man had the right idea. The whole life cycle of a universe was a long time to wait for the love of your life. He’d sleep too.

Eridan didn’t need that reason to take a nap, though. It’d been a long few months. He rose from his chair and stretched.

“Alright, well, if you need me, I’ll be in the ocean,” he said.

“Oh, why?” Angeles asked.

He made his way to the back door, yawning as he pushed it open.

“I,” he said. “Am going to sleep.”