Greyashe chapter 336 is entitled 'Progression.'

Previous chapter 335: Memories in Rain.

Next chapter 337: Reveal.

Summary page

-Short summary-

Is the rise of a common enemy enough for two longtime foes to forge an unlikely alliance?

-Long summary-

Van and Radam stand mere steps away from one another as if the cold temperature and soft snow falling around them means absolutely nothing. Roysé patiently waits to the side of the two men, understanding that this meeting is no matter of happenstance. This ‘Radam’ person apparently wanted to meet her ‘brother’ and has painstakingly followed him to do so. Considering her brother does not seem to refute him in any way, it means that at some level he at least acknowledges he is a person he needs to respond to on some level. She’s able to understand all of this from her years –centuries of interacting with different humans despite her inability to see, and that beings with hearts, souls and desires operate similarly on basic foundations. Whether people are inherently ‘good’ or ‘evil’ is not something even with her long life behind or ahead of her that she can competently understand or answer, but the foundation of ‘action’, ‘probing’, and movement are in the possession of both sides of the ideological debate. People act because they want to understand themselves, others and their world. As such they make ‘moves’ to take ‘action’ and ‘probe.’ At some point the two crossed paths, because of these ‘foundations’, and now have been brought to one another again because of them.

Van closes his eyes and shakes his head, and asks if he’s really the right person to ask his inquiry? While maybe it’s true that he saved Claire for his sake, the fact remains that she is her own person, free to pursue what it is she wants. As such whether her actions ‘benefit’ him or not are wholly up to her. He can’t speak for someone else, especially if they’re not here.

Radam breathes a heavy sigh, like someone who knows something that should be obvious. He knows that the boy –no man, before him has a clarity that he didn’t before because he saved this ‘universe’ known as ‘Claire’. Would he still have that clarity if she had perished way back then? Van shoots him a sharp look that seems to stab him hard enough for him to shirk backwards. Although he had referred to Van as a ‘man’ slightly out of jest, the truth remains that the boy has undergone a maturation far beyond his years. What has he seen, or done to cause this much growth in such a short amount of time?

Van turns to his ‘sister’ and gestures to her gently indicating that they are going now. Roysé nods slowly and the two walk past Radam, who remains still not even turning to watch the duo leave. Van stops suddenly and asks if he truly doesn’t understand yet? Radam remains silent and does not move as the farseeing boy continues speaking. People and universes are not things that remain ‘constant’! He will not know what the Claire of now means to him unless they meet again. He can only speak of what the Claire of before means to him. As someone who claims they are seeking ‘Universes’, it seems he has misunderstood a basic fact. These universes grow and change as they take breath, live and eventually die. If he continues to seek the universes he ‘once’ knew he will never find them. Truly a ‘universe’ is ‘change’ eternal. Perhaps the Claire of now is completely different than the one he knew, and the one he knew will never appear again.

The farseeing boy turns to Radam and with a sad smile remarks that he shouldn’t misunderstand….it is human nature to yearn for what came before. He does ‘yearn’ for that past Claire, and admire her bravery ---which is where his own clarity comes from. To yearn, and to understand are two different emotions however and he won’t become one who yearns without understanding. With this he thanks Radam for saving Claire before, and bids him farewell.

Radam stands in the snow alone for some time before inhaling sharply and looking up at the sky with a mournful and clear expression. It seems there is no longer a reason to follow him ---Van anymore. The universes he seeks are out there somewhere, changing, evolving and living to the extent they are able. He can find one that accepts him only if he understands that universe…understands that it will continue to expand with or without him. He takes a look back at Van and Roysé  as they recede into the distance and thanks Van for shouldering what he couldn’t for so long.

A barren landscape houses a lone Cathedral where the Challengers of Eternity have set up their HQ. Unfortunately with the current tides of the world, the group has found themselves grasping for survival. The goddesses that they opposed had disappeared from existence (apparently), and even supposing if they were still around, the true enemy of the people had reared it’s head –and it’s the very magic they had been using to fight against their ‘foes’. Worse yet, their commander and double agent within the Goddess supporters Niels Aschner had apparently been killed by the Kaiser mage’s right hand man. It appeared that this man ---Langston Hydon had been killed in turn so they needn’t worry of his fury, but with the death not too long before of Joel Lupine, and the disappearance of the Goddess killer prototype, and the fact that many of their members had gone mad due to the ‘recall’ and either killed themselves or were killed by others trying to subjugate them it would be no contest to say that the Challengers had seen better days. A distinct lack of leadership is another problem among many, and the few still left are having problems committing to the cause and staving off a sense of frenzied helplessness.

So when a certain ‘visitor’ came to the cathedral, it is actually awe inspiring to find that the sleeping giant despite being broken down could still move as a unit.

This is the situation now as Claire stands boredly in the entrance of the cathedral and the Challengers (few as they may be), stand weapons in hand expressing the human equivalent of scared wolves bearing their fangs at a predator much more powerful in hope that it will back away out of pity.

Claire heaves a sigh and walks in despite the open hostility, and asks if they really must do this? She thought with their leaders and targets mostly dispatched or unreachable that they’d be a little less…annoying.

A man snarls that she’s not welcome here, and she gives him a hostile glare laced with just a bit of boredom and pity. The ex-Goddess killer waves the group aside and perches herself on a throne-like seat probably utilized by Aschner in the middle of the cathedral under a broken stain glass window.

Once comfortable in the too big seat she crosses her legs in a ladylike manner, and activates her wings and rests her head on the top of her hands waiting patiently for the fervor to die down before asking if there are any further questions?

A woman this time demands to know why she’s here and…well what exactly happened to her that she’s….

Claire is amused at the audacity of their questions despite the display and answers despite the question not being fully asked. Turns out before they had rudely modified her into being their weapon against the Goddesses that she’ had been a higher deity. Who would have thought it? Is what she considered for a while, but after some consideration she gets the idea that someone knew a little more than they were letting on when the experiment on her commenced. She had generally believed before her memory had been wiped due to the experimentation that she was just some unlucky street urchin, but it seems she was targeted probably due to her unusual ‘aura’, aka the ‘Angel remanance’. Of course when she originally came down, she wouldn’t have known she gave off such a distinctive ‘aura’. To anyone else who’s well versed in agape, she must have been a walking enigma. It’s no wonder that pervert Lupine had been so fervent in his efforts to keep her from leaving through fear and subjugation. No matter, he’s dead and due to her status as an angel, she’s not allowed to speak ill of the deceased even if she’d quite like to. As for why she’s here, well it’s obviously to help them.

The group clamors amongst themselves and Claire allows this for a moment before directing them to ask her the questions.

Another man this time manages to hold his bile towards the angel to ask why she thinks they need her help? Claire makes a disgusted expression and opens her arms asking them to look around. Do they really think this is proper? That this is right? Despite bearing a general dislike for who they are and what they do, she gives them credit for fighting for a cause they generally believe in! If a man has that much then even if he is wrong he will still be strong. This is no longer a world where one can simply go by what is ‘right’ and ‘good’ if they want to survive! Magicians afflicted by Butcher’s ‘recall’ are marauding and murdering without distinguishing between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. For every criminal killed, there are just as many innocents who are being slaughtered if not more and vice versa. What one has in a time like this their beliefs. She knows them as people who steadfastly held on to their beliefs despite being in the minority. People who want to protect those who are important to them, the ideals that create their moral fibre. Human beings who fight for other human beings! It is this person that is most necessary in a time like this when law has been tossed on it’s head and the ones who have power rule with strength and deny those who do not have it. She did not come here as their enemy or their ally, but out of a sense of ‘progression’. They need to proceed past such narrow minded thinking and position themselves between a grand enemy and what is most important. It is there that she will help them, as she has others who she is inciting to fight against Butcher and his tyranny.

This time there is silence, as one young man –probably the youngest in their group going by his soft features and voice, asks the ex Goddess killer if she really believes they can do it? He only recently came into their ranks after people who were like family to him were murdered at the hands of magicians who were Goddess supporters so he doesn’t understand the details of their fighting, but he has a desire to end it all. For someone like him who doesn’t know peace, he wants to learn it, to understand it. To once again see the lands that the elderly people who had taken care of him had once told him. So he’s willing to put aside years of hatred if she really believes they –the humans can defeat Butcher.

Claire grins mirthfully and points to the young man, answering his question with her own. ‘If there is nothing else we can do but progress, what else can we do but defeat him?’ The young man nods and says he will join her cause, which gains speed as others cast aside their weapons and agree to join

Claire. The angel thinks to herself that this is the humanity she wants to protect, the one she has gotten to know and love over the years, and hopes that Dio will find a means to convince the angels to lend support, no matter how trivial.

Van and Roysé stand over a cape leading to Greyashe, as the former comments that it feels like both an eternity and a moment since they’ve been away. To be honest although he has an idea of what needs to be done, he’s nervous and wonders if he can pull it off? Roysé offers him a comforting hand and responds that he’s not alone. That’s why they’re returning to Greyashe to inform everyone of his decision and next actions.

Van thanks her for the support and then with his arms stretched outward proclaims that he is truly home.