At the ceremony venue for the Hydra Kingdom Founding Anniversary Festival, all the scheduled events had concluded. Laguna, the king, and Lilia had finally returned to the Royal Castle.
A party was slated to be held at the castle after a short intermission, giving them a brief window of peace until then.
"Phew... Well, we managed to get through the ceremony at least. Fortunately, since the Gods were so well-prepared, there were very few incidents that required our direct intervention. Or rather, there were things that would have been beyond our control even if we had tried to handle them..."
"It was also a relief that Kaito-san and Shallow Vernal-sama had no intention of attending the ceremony from the start," Lilia added. "At the very least, we avoided a situation where something happened during the proceedings. Um, by the way, how much longer must I stay?"
"See this through with me until the very end, I beg you. Simply having someone nearby who can sympathize with my complaints makes all the difference."
"Well, I suppose I understand the feeling, but..."
In the end, Lilia had spent the entire day acting as an advisor to Laguna. Since she understood all too well the exhaustion of being jerked around by sudden incidents, she could only offer a bitter smile with an indecipherable expression.
"Still, the Gods truly have maintained a state of strict alert. Unless something extraordinary happens, there shouldn't be any need for us to move. Besides, I cannot imagine we could do anything about a situation that even the God race, including the Supreme God-sama, could not handle."
"Hahaha, you are right about that. In the first place, I cannot even conceive of a phenomenon that the Gods could not handle when they are being this vigilant."
"That is true—Wait!?"
"Wh-What is this presence!?"
Lilia and Laguna, who had been conversing peacefully, suddenly turned pale and whipped their heads toward the window. They felt an presence that was utterly alien.
For a fleeting moment, they experienced an illusion as if the world itself had shuddered... yet they sensed absolutely no magic power. It was a sensation that could only be described as the manifestation of something heterogenous. Furthermore, that presence lasted only an instant, vanishing immediately as if nothing had ever happened.
"I have never felt anything like that before. What was that just now?"
"I don't know," Lilia muttered, her voice trembling with unease. "But for some reason, I feel strangely unsettled..."
Watching the window with anxious expressions, the two stood in silence for a while.
At the edge of the Hydra Kingdom's capital, in a small, deserted square, the being who had just manifested let out a heavy sigh.
"Good grief... honestly, this world is just too small. I thought I suppressed it quite a bit, but even so, it almost warped from my Existence Pressure. I hope Shallow Vernal doesn't complain... No, wait, the only reason I'm even here is Shallow Vernal's fault in the first place. Sigh, why do I have to do things like this?"
Stirring her mechanical single wing, the manifested existence—the God of an Otherworld known as Machina—let out another deep sigh. Then, shifting her gaze slightly, she turned a disinterested eye toward the Gods who were watching her from a distance.
"God of Fate, you should know this is futile. Even with my power, she is someone I cannot hope to stand against."
The God of Life nodded in agreement as the God of Fate muttered this with a tense expression. Life had temporarily entrusted the support of Shallow Vernal-sama to the God of Space-Time to investigate this arrival, but she realized that against such an opponent, numbers were meaningless. She quietly approached Machina, dropped to one knee, and bowed her head.
The visitor was a God of World Creation on the same level as Shallow Vernal, and her power was quite literally in a different league. While they wished to inquire about her business, she was a being of such magnitude that even speaking to her carelessly was not permitted. They could only wait for Machina to react.
"You may speak."
"Then, with your leave, Earth God-sama. May we confirm the nature of your business for this visit?"
"Shallow Vernal asked me to. Even if it was part of a trade-off, it's a terrible thing to make me do such chores... Well, this is fine. Can you help me set this up? It would be problematic for me to exercise too much Authority in this world."
"This is... I see. But where shall we place it?"
"Who knows? For now, I'll head to the Royal Palace to give them notice. Talking to meat slabs is unpleasant, though... Oh, Lilia is there. I suppose I can just give the notice to Lilia."
As Machina muttered to herself, Fate, who had knelt beside Life, ventured a question.
"By the way, Earth God-sama. May I ask just one thing?"
"Hm? Ah, you're the lover of My Beloved Child... Fate, was it? Very well. Since you are someone close to My Beloved Child, I will show a certain amount of consideration. What is it?"
"I was simply curious because your appearance is different than before."
"Ah, this body? It's a body I made recently. I obtained permission from Shallow Vernal and adjusted it to access power closer to my original self. I could have come as Paradise (Eden), but I used this for the founding festivals of both Symphonia and Alcreasia, so I figured I might as well use it for the Hydra Kingdom Founding Anniversary Festival too."
"I see. I am grateful for your answer."
"Don't worry about it. Please continue to get along well with My Beloved Child. Now then, I'm going to the Royal Palace for a bit."
With those words, Machina vanished, and Fate and Life finally breathed a sigh of relief.