Cetas’ eyes were wide upon seeing the sight of a perfect butterfly-shaped ship. So many coincidences already happened in a single day, and all of them attribute to something related to being perfect.

The butterfly shape reminded Cetas of a certain creature in the depths, fluttering its wings whilst sending out gushes of water.

Still, Cetas focused on the present.

He thought of the coincidences that transpired.

The way that Skadi’s fingers move and the time that Skadi mentioned before.

All of them formed a right angle when symbolized. It seemed akin to the crops back in the Historian’s farm.

Additionally, there were still the numbers that the crazed man screamed.

Although he didn’t know what they meant, Cetas knew that it was connected somehow.

And now!

The off-putting symmetry of the ship and its odd shape served as the evidence that fueled Cetas’ mind.

He instantly became wary, looking at the crowd for any source of peculiarities. But, Cetas was as clueless as they are!

Even if there was someone that seemed suspicious, Cetas simply didn’t have the power to do anything.

Still, he deemed it better to do something, at the very least.

But what was there to do?

I am too weak!

He looked towards Skadi.

Right now, Skadi looked busy talking to the Harbor Master, figuring out the issue of symmetry at hand.

He wanted to run towards them and ask them for help, however, Cetas’s gut feeling stated otherwise.

Something about Skadi and the others seemed off.

Very off.

Cetas activated his Zeal, hoping to release Sands of History but before he could do so, Elishia appeared right in front of him.

"Hey, are you sure that you’re alright? You didn’t get to answer me before.."

Cetas couldn’t answer for a second.

So, Elishia bugged her again and waved her hands in front of his face, "Hey! Cetas!"

His eyes gradually focused on her, cleansing the overbearing thoughts in his mind and stopping him from activating Sands of History.

"Elishia.."

He thought for a moment and then slowly said, "Do you remember the woman we saw back at the cathedral?"

Elishia’s face turned sour.

"Ugh, that again.. What woman are you even talk-"

"Listen to me!"

Cetas raised his voice for the very first time, startling Elishia completely.

"I can’t quite explain it but my instincts are telling me that something’s completely wrong. It’s as if we are being tricked.."

"Tricked? What do you mean?" Elishia asked.

"I-I don’t know!"

The two turned silent for a while.

The crowds remained noisy, whispering rumors every now and then.

Then, Cetas looked towards the looming cathedral in the fourth layer, its shadow cast on some parts of the third and fourth layer.

He slowly looked towards Elishia, softly letting out his voice.

"We have to go back to the Cathedral.. I’m going back, whatever’s going on, the origin has to be in there."

"Cetas, wait. You can’t just go on your own, we have to call Skadi or someone to come with us.."

Cetas looked over to the crew’s direction. The four of them are still engaging in talks over the Harbor Master.

"They’re busy, we have to go.."

Elishia frowned, "You’re so persistent, we can’t do anything! If what you’re saying is true, we can’t do anything about it because we are not strong enough."

Cetas knew that what she said was true.. They simply lacked strength.

However, Cetas trusted his instinct.

Instead of listening to Elishia and heading back to ask for help, he ran towards the crowd and headed towards the fourth layer.

"Cetas, wait!"

Elishia turned around and stared at Skadi and the others. She contemplated whether to trust Cetas, whom she’d only known for a short while, or to trust Skadi, who she knew for long.

She was conflicted.

Yet, despite her struggle, Elishia ran towards Cetas.

’I can’t just leave him alone! I’ll just apologize to Skadi and the others later.’

As she ran, Elishia uttered regrets under her breath, "Ah, I hope I won’t regret this later!"

She reached into her coat’s pocket and grabbed a flintlock pistol, holding it firm in her right hand.

*

Catching his breath, Cetas stopped at the top of the stairs leading up to the Fourth Layer. He held one of the railings and gasped for air.

Just then, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Cetas, Wait!"

Turning around, Cetas noticed Elishia chasing after him, a flintlock pistol held in her right hand. The red bandana on her forehead was full of sweat.

Her auburn hair swayed as she ran, strands of it were revealed under the bandana.

"Cetas.. Huff- Damn it! Why’d you go and run away like that.."

She sat on the ground, catching her breath.

"Huff.. Huff.. I really should invest in Physical Zeal soon.."

After a few moments or so, she glared directly at Cetas’ eyes.

"You better not make me regret this!"

The two of them rested for a while, gasping for air as sweat protruded out of their foreheads.

Climbing from the Sixth to the Fourth Layer in a matter of minutes is not something that a normal person would do!

It was only natural that they would exhaust themselves in doing so.

Raising her left eyebrow, Elishia looked at Cetas, "So? What is really happening?"

"I think.." Cetas crouched down with her, "..the Prophet of Perfection is here."

Immediately, Elishia’s body tensed, "Who?"

"The Prophet of Perfection.. Did the Historian not tell you?"

Elishia shook her head.

Cetas sighed.

"..the Prophet of Perfection, as the Historian has told me, is an individual that has mastered Their Zeal. Simply put, They are someone probably at the level of Skadi, or even higher.."

"They are an individual that takes the form of insects, almost as if They are bug-like Dreadspawns."

Elishia’s mouth pursed.

"Eek! That’s creepy."

Cetas nodded.

"Anyways," Cetas looked down at the Sixth Layer where the 24-Sail Schooner was anchored, "The reason I am telling you this is because I have been experiencing weird coincidences all day round."

"Hmm.. Like?" Elishia focused on Cetas.

"Earlier this morning, Skadi’s finger moved in a linear path to the left and then straight forward, as if illustrating a right angle. The time that she mentioned, ’3 hours before noon’ means 9:00 AM right? If that is the case then that, too, is a right angle."

He thought back to the events this early morning.

"Then there was the crazed man screaming all sorts of random numbers, it seemed too weird to just be something that is a normal thing to do. And lastly, the new ship.. If you’ve heard what Skadi said, the sails were too symmetrical, like they were perfectly so.."

Cetas then turned silent for a second.

"But what sealed my suspicions though is.."

He looked towards the ship once more, pointing at it to show Elishia.

"The ship, when viewed from the front.. looks like a butterfly with perfectly symmetrical wings. Given the nature of the Prophet of Perfection’s relationship with insect-like creatures, I knew that something was clearly off.."

Elishia’s face turned frozen, Cetas’ deductions slowly creeping in her mind as realization hits her.

"So all these coincidences, along with the odd shape of the ship.. All of them are aligned with what.. the Prophet of Perfection is, or as you’ve explained Them to me," Elishia concluded

"Precisely," Cetas nodded.

The two grew quiet, only broken when Elishia spoke.

"I didn’t know you spoke this much, I thought you were always edgy like Reid."

She laughed while covering her mouth, finding the scene of a talkative Cetas amusing.

Despite the peril that they were in, Elishia managed to lighten the mood.

Cetas’ tense nerves calmed down a little.

He, himself, didn’t know that he had already spoken so much. Perhaps he was already like this in the past.

Alas, his memories failed him.

He paused for a while, and then thought of something. His usually aloof face growing concerned.

"Hey.. Elishia, can I ask you something?"

"Yes? What is it?"

Cetas looked towards the Cathedral, then back at Elishia.

"What happened in the last five days?"

"Oh that’s easy, I believe that we.."

Elishia paused.

Her face squinted as if she had a difficult time thinking of something.

"We.."

Her head tilted upwards, facing Cetas with a terrified look.

"I.. can’t remember."

"I knew it. I don’t remember anything too.."

Cetas already had suspicions about his failing memory of the past five days. Since Elishia was at the Cathedral with him, he guessed that she would have some problems remembering too.

That’s why his gut feeling stopped him from telling Skadi and the others. He felt that with whatever is happening, they had to be part of it, or rather, influenced by something.

"We have to go back! Let’s ask Skadi and the others for help!"

Elishia turned around, wanting to head back to the Sixth Layer.

However, Cetas reached out to her and grabbed her arm.

"No, we can’t!"

"Cetas-"

"We can’t trust them for now, we don’t even know what’s going on!"

Elishia’s face turned sour, puzzled about what Cetas was saying.

"Even more the reason why we should ask them!"

"Listen to m-"

Turning around, Elishia pointed at Cetas and raised her voice.

"No, you listen to me! You’ve only been at our crew for weeks! Why should I trust you?!"

Cetas opened his mouth and closed it again.

He knew that she was right..

Why would she trust Cetas over Skadi?

Realizing what she had just said, Elishia calmed herself down.

"I’m sorry I said that, Cetas.."

Cetas looked down, dejected and powerless.

"I’m not gonna trust you blindly, Cetas. I get what you’re saying but the best course for us right now is to call on Skadi and the others." Elishia said, her voice becoming more serious.

"You may or may not understand my position, but I am letting you know that."

Cetas remained silent.

He was akin to a kid losing enthusiasm after failing the first time and realizing that the world is not all sunshine and sparkles.

"But.." Elishia let out a deep breath, "..I am not going to leave you alone either. You’re part of Aegir Pirates, and you chose that."

Cetas slowly raised his head and noticed Elishia’s pained expression.

"Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Cetas."

She looked distressed, as if in deep contemplation on the choices she had to make.

It was understandable in Cetas’ perspective.

A dangerous event was transpiring and a junior member of the crew suddenly ran off to face such an event—without the necessary power to face it.

As a senior member, Cetas knew Elishia couldn’t just let her junior run off to kill themselves. Even more so, trust the junior member who had just joined for weeks.

He knew she was right and yet.. he had a gut feeling that going back to Skadi and the others would only put them in more danger.

"Let’s go back, okay? We can figure this out as a crew." Elishia softly stated, with a glint of kindness in her voice.

Cetas gritted his teeth.

Why was his instincts preventing him from coming back and getting help? It was the most logical thing to do in this situation.

Skadi is the most prominent individual that he knew, she beat the captain of the Red Bandana pirates after all!

Of course with the help of Cetas, but no normal person could pull such a feat!

But still!

Every cell of Cetas body was screaming to come back to the cathedral!

With conflicting options facing itself against him, Cetas could only come up with one solution.

He activated his Zeal and used Sands of Time.

Instantly, his vision shifted to the Metaphysical Realm. He saw wave-like grains of sand trailing towards a direction.

It flowed like the cascading waters of the depths, slow and graceful.

He looked towards the direction it pointed.

Then, within a moment’s reach, the sands pointed to the direction of the Cathedral.

Cetas hoped that it would at least trail down towards the Sixth Layer, proving his instincts wrong.

But alas, the evidence and his gut feeling proved to be right.

He faced Elishia and muttered under his breath, "I’m sorry."

"What?"

Before Elishia could process what he said, Cetas ran off to chase the trail of sand leading to the cathedral.

Surprised, Elishia didn’t move for a while.

She, too, was confused by Cetas’ persistence. Faced with a hard decision, Elishia decided to run after Cetas.

She screamed curses in her mind.

’Ahhh! Damn it! Why does he always run off without a warning?!’

*

"Huff, huff."

In front of the Cathedral, Elishia gasped for air. She hadn’t run this much in a day before.

"Damn it! Cetas! Why are you so persistent!?"

She walked towards Cetas, looking frustrated by his impulsive decisions.

Cetas raised his hand signaling for her to stop. He turned his head around and mouthed the words, "Someone’s inside."

Elishia furrowed her brows.

In the Metaphysical Realm, Cetas saw an individual of regal status—standing upright and straight as he looked towards the altar inside the cathedral.

Cetas reached into his coat and held the ivory flintlock. He then gestured for Cetas to come close.

When she did, Cetas whispered to her, "Let’s push the door open at the same time."

Elishia let out a deep breath of annoyance.

"Alright, but if we experience some sort of danger or something we can’t deal with, I’m carrying you behind me and running the hell away out of here."

Cetas nodded.

"Let’s do it in the count of three."

Once Elishia agreed, Cetas began counting.

"3...2...1..."

Using the full power of their legs, Cetas and Elishia pushed over the large wooden door of the cathedral, swinging it with enough for to create a loud bang upon crashing its inner edges with the wall.

They both revealed their weapons and pointed it at an individual inside.

The individual had golden hair and golden eyes. He wore a royal tunic woven from silver threads, catching the light outside like rippling water. The tunic was embroidered with golden ornaments and a golden insignia on his chest.

He held a silver sword in his left hand, one that looked dull and unsharpened—unfitting that of someone with a royal look.

He turned around and looked at Cetas and Elishia, his eyes cold and dreary as he studied them.

Then, he sheathed his sword.

With a click of his scabbard, the individual began to talk.

"Put your weapon down, Spark. I am not your enemy." He said, his voice as clear as the skies on a starry night.

Within a second of gazing upon the individual, Cetas realized who he was.

Cetas looked over to Elishia as if to confirm his identity but she already beat him to it.

She looked straight ahead, her face looked charmed in admiration.

"P-Prince Aurus!?"