Kyrie looks at Maya walking back and forth from the kitchen as she sets up the table cheerfully. This entire time, all the people that he encountered have been Maya rather than individual people. Luna and Fondrick are real people, but they have already moved on from this world. Maya has been acting as them all along.
"Dinner is ready!!!" Maya shouts as she puts down the last dish for dinner.
She sits on her seat happily as she waits for all of them to join in. She has prepared an extravagant dinner. The dishes crowd the entire table since Maya has gone overboard with the amount of food for just five people.
Casseroles, steaks, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, roast chicken, and salad.
Everyone can relate to the warmth of homemade food. There are deep rich sentiments behind tasty food that is hard to ignore even if a stranger makes the dishes for them. So, knowing this, Kyrie watches the people who are starting to join the table, touched by Maya's cooking.
Phanes caresses Maya's head with a smile. At first, Maya shies away from the hand because she doesn't know what Phanes was trying to do, but her eyes twinkle when she feels the warmth of Phanes's hand.
"Thanks for the food," Erebus says.
"Let's eat before the food gets cold!" Eric is already lifting a fork and knife, ready to dig in.
"Thanks for the food!" Ian and Kyrie say simultaneously.
They smile at Maya, who swings her legs as she starts to eat. Her eyes damp with tears, but she tries to hold them in, afraid of spoiling the atmosphere.
Everyone stuff themselves brim till they feel their stomach swell up. The food has been great because all of the ingredients are fresh. Maya has kept a farm, growing vegetables and rearing animals so that she can cook whatever she wants.
Phanes lifts her teacup and takes a sip of tea.
"What are you guys doing tomorrow?"
Maya rests on Kyrie's lap, already defenselessly asleep. Kyrie caresses her hair.
"We are planning to go around different places to look at her work and the farm. She wants to show us the things she was doing all these years," says Kyrie while lifting his eyes to look at Phanes.
"How about you?"
"We came into the dungeon to look for missing people, so now, we will focus on finding them. Plus, I am not sure what happened to the rest of the group," Phanes responds.
"More importantly… You guys don't seem to be from this place, or should I say, from this time. What is your intention to be here?"
Kyrie looks at Eric, enjoying his beer while talking cheerfully at Ian and Erebus, who are quietly listening to him. Unlike Eric, the other two only reply with one or two-word answers. At the same time, Eric keeps rambling around about his adventures. Eric has taken the two of them as his victims to hear about his greatness.
"Yeah… We were supposed to be doing something else, but somehow we got in this place."
Phanes places her finger on the rim of the cup, circling it as she thinks.
'Since Kyrie is using light magic and he knows who I am, maybe he is someone I have blessed in the future. So, either I am the one restricting Kyrie from talking in the future or my descendants. I am so curious, but I guess it is reasonable that Kyrie cannot talk about anything that can change the future.'
"I am curious about something, though," says Kyrie.
Phanes's chain of thoughts break, and her finger stops circling the cup.
"What is it? I can only answer certain questions," says Phanes.
"I have a hard time distinguishing if you, Erebus, and Eric are illusions. After all, we have entered into this place because of this kid. Maya is a relic that creates dimensions and illusions. Yet, you feel so real," asks Kyrie as he looks at Maya.
"Illusion? This city is an illusion."
"No… I mean you, Erebus, and Eric."
"Huh? We are not illusions." Phanes lifts one of her brows in confusion.
"Then, how…" Kyrie feels tingling sensations running through his skin.
"You have returned on time. This is not an illusion. I know because I am bestowed with the power of time. No one would know this better than me,"
"Wait… What? Time?"
"Yes?"
[Then… Why does Vita have this power? Aren't gods assigned with powers that are unique to them?]
Phanes understands Kyrie's confusion because she is also struggling with the same question. A possibility enters into her mind, but nothing like that has ever happened in the entire history of the god realm.
'Is it possible… No, no way. There is no way…'
She immediately discards it. There can only be one thing that could cause this.
"It can be that you are looking at my descendants…" says Phanes bitterly.
She bites her bottom lip in anxiety that makes her stomach turn. What could have happened for her to lose her essence?
The thought that she might have lost all her essence before the time where Kyrie exists becomes hard to swallow. For a god, that is not much time despite that is more than two thousand years. She wonders about what could have made her lose her entire reserves of essence. There are just so few examples of that ever happening to a god.
The only way for a god's power to transmit to another entity is through inheritance. However, this ability is only possible when the gods are near their 'death,' and their inheritors are their children.
Kyrie frowns even deeper.
[Vita is Phanes's descendant?]
Kyrie glances at Erebus, who notices his stare. Erebus glances back, but Kyrie immediately looks away as if he has not gazed.
[Why is Vita fighting Erebus then? Phanes does not tie her knot with Erebus? But the scriptures say that Erebus only loves one goddess… Or… Is this something like Imogen's case?]
Imogen has a unique case because although she lost all her essence, she was able to keep her life as a semi-mortal. Using her demi-god status and essence, she separated her powers and status into another completely different mindless entity. That entity functions like the mechanisms of fate, but its functions are simpler than fate.
The mechanisms of fate are complicated, and it almost functions like it has its own consciousness. The entity Imogen created only has one function, to loop her back in time if she does not accomplish her goal. Nonetheless, when Imogen separated herself from her powers and demigod status, she can no longer control those powers.
If Phanes did the same thing and separated her powers, it would explain why Kyrie and Ian traveled back in time. However, why would Phanes separate her powers and put them inside a statue in a dungeon?
[There is more mystery in Phanes's death than I thought.]