Part 26: Epilogue
EpilogueC'mon, now. You know this tune.
My dearest Trog. How are you? I hope this letter finds you well. Not much has changed since I last wrote. As I've mentioned before, my homecoming went quite swimmingly...
Honey... I'm home.
...but my spouse and I have been cooking feverishly ever since. We've taken to donating our leftovers to the town, and the demand is such that we may very well open a restaurant. How about that! Life continues in our sleepy little village, even with the tower fully open. Base Town has come to serve as a boot camp for the Neo-Atlantis marines. Even with her promotion to Master Gunnery Sargent, Elly insists on personally training new recruits. She's blended her own military training with Ryu-O's ongoing lessons to create an approach that is... unique, to say the least.
Listen up you collective piles of slime puke, I am going to make soldiers out of you if it kills me and/or you 
Ma'am yes ma'am Who here needs more training ... Do I stutter, maggots?! WHO HERE NEEDS MORE TRAINING *raises hand slowly?* YOU! Dark armor! What's your name, son Private Jennings, ma'am! Water in a bamboo pail at night M—ma'am? I said, water in a bamboo pail at night, do not make me repeat myself a second time or you will come to regret it, private ... What do you have to say for yourself It's... uh... it's... someone doing chores? DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY Ma'am yes ma'am The rest of you are on KP duty! Dismissed! ... Heh. Kid in the dark armor's got potential. But, enough about us. How goes the rebuilding process in Cloud World? I was delighted to hear you taking a more active role. I know you've expressed no interest in ruling, but your status among your fellow Cloud Worlders can nevertheless lend a certain amount of gravitas to whichever leader emerges. I'm also happy to hear Sayaka is still assisting you. The two of you make a formidable pair.
The election results just came in! Mileille won!
As Trog thought! Ran good phone bank. Stayed away from negative ads. Hee hee. Let's be honest, having you say nice things about her in public did the trick. Pah! What Trog care for politics? Would rather drink! Fight! You know... I'm glad you asked me to help. Even though I... I... No, is like Trog said before. Is not friend Sayaka's fault. Did not know honor. Trog teach. Sayaka help rebuild. Now is fixed, yes? Yeah. Is fixed. Then matter settled! C'mere, you. 
Trog enjoy kiss! Is like hug, but better! Neo-Atlantis is slowly recovering with the help of Seaside. Vast reserves with no buyers met high demand with useless amounts of gold, and the result was rather predictable. Still, there's a certain amount of culture clash to be expected.
Ah. Now here's a man who looks like—
Don't need nothin' a'tall from you, young'un. I got my saw. O...kay. Elly has split her time between her trainees and pushing for further disarmament in Neo-Atlantis. With the threat of fiends gone, she sees no reason to have such weapons of mass destruction lying in wait—a opinion with which I readily concur. We've discussed it before, but so long as people are people, she believes war will never truly be gone from this world. The best we can do is be ready for it and fight in such a way that we can feel proud giving our lives. I'm not entirely in agreement, but I can certainly respect her opinion. Honey! We're having Elly and her parents over for dinner! What are you doing up there? Just writing an old friend, m'love. I'll be along shortly! It's truly amazing to me how people have rallied around Rezen in her absence. I suppose one only truly appreciates what they have when it's gone.
(Here lies Sofia and Alex Vox, Beloved Parents.) It's still a shock every time I see you, Ryzen. You'll forgive me if I call you the wrong name at times. Your sister left quite the impression on all of us.
It's okay. You know, it baffles me. She could've taken her revenge, and I wouldn't have blamed her for it one bit. Instead, she just hit me with some sort of illusion. Once I figured out what was going on, it didn't hurt at all. It was most likely a harmless hallucination created by her ESP. That's our Rezen—a prankster to the end. I wish I would've treated her better. I see now that it was jealousy. Everyone in town may have hated her, but at least they knew who she was. No one ever talked to me. There wasn't anything special about me at all. Tsk tsk. You are every bit an Esper as your sister was. Perhaps your powers are just late in developing. Or maybe I don't have them. Dad was human. Whatever your genetics, you are most definitely something special. You are your mother's daughter, after all. Mom? C'mon. As much as I loved her, she was a regular person like the rest of us. I'm not so sure. Ryu-O once said the Aeons hid themselves throughout this world. I don't doubt your mother was of mortal birth, but... Well, we're part of this world, aren't we? Who's to say we're not hiding places in and of ourselves?
... ...Dente? What was my sister like? Ah, Ryzen. The stories I have to tell... It's funny how her legend is still growing. They already pray to her for protection! "Our Lady of the Sacred Saw," they've taken to calling her.
(artwork courtesy of Megane)
She's a saint now, but in two generations, she'll be a demi-god. In ten... Who knows? She may be a goddess. And who are we to say otherwise? She's out there now, protecting all of us, growing more powerful by the day. I know she'll come back—sooner, rather than later. She made a promise, and Rezen is not one to break promises. But, it has been a few years now. And every now and then, as I'm out strolling with my spouse, I can't help but look into the blue sky and wonder... Whatever happened to the girl who found Paradise?
IS SHAME ABOUT SPOUSE OF DENTE THOUGH.
It really was.
Indeed. The taste was just awful. 
HA HA HA HA HA ...wait. Did you hear that?
*rev*
WHAT'S UP AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHFIN!
(ehn ehn ehn, doot doot doo, deet deedle-deedle-dee)