Years later, gazing up the vast starry night sky,
I often ponder.
What does the Permanence truly mean?

The countless souls entrusted by Terravox
Still surged within my chest,
Like an eternally burning furnace.

I once thought about finding them a home,
And tried to communicate with them in my heart.

And yet, the living beings of this world, they are now inseparable from me.
As if from the very beginning,
the were a branch of my own bloodline.^[1]

“Inseparable?”^[2]
After I told everyone,
A heated discussion broke out in the Express car.

“Will you turn into a Little Chimera,
And snuggle up in our arms…?”
March 7th lets her imagination run wild.

“Maybe he'll become a baby seal.”
A magical beast would be fine too… I've always wanted to see that species.“
These are the reassuring words from Himeko and Mr Yang.

“No matter what he becomes, Dan Heng will always be Dan Heng.”
Hmm… Their^[3] words are unusually poetic.

“But if you become a dromas,
You absolutely must let me feed you redsoil!”

”… Don't you even think about it.“

Sometimes I have dreams like this —
Countless beings flee alongside me,
Behind us,
Black floods blot out the sky,
As if to devour all signs of life.

In our darkest hour,
The living beings form a bridge of dragons,
And I lead them limping towards the starry sky.

At the end of the vast procession,
A lone giant dragon comes to a halt,
Watching us depart into the distance.

“The children of Earth will always find their own path…
Thank you for being their bridge.”^[4]

Something stirs within me
At the moment of awakening.
Perhaps the legacy of Permanence
Lies not in recreating flesh,
Nor in the merging of bloodlines.