Anastiades steps into the great circle of light caused by the temple on the island of Delos, and he visits a future in which Achilles is an old man who is about to die in the shadows of anonymity. He realizes that the aged Achilles must help him defeat the future Anastiades, who destroys all the temples devoted to Apollo. He believes that once Achilles helps him achieve this goal, Achilles will return to Troy and die young. "Ageless glory once greeted him from afar, but now it recedes from memory and drifts back into the bleakest point on the horizon. The aged Achilles observes the sea once more, waiting for Thetis to rise from the restless waters in order to help immortalize him. But it is too late. He survived the Trojan war and watched his former life gradually move into the phantom embrace of anonymity. Now, he is no one. Achilles feels his aching bones more than ever, and he struggles to make his joints relax for a moment. Then he sees her. The woman who triggered the war stands before him, as elusive as ever to the fingertips of time. Her beauty remains untouched by the years, shining before him as it did in his youth. 'Helen, ' his inner voice calls out. She remains silent, watching him as he fights fruitlessly against the fact of old age. Achilles imagines her voice, mellifluous and serene, as it rises and restores his youth and glory. He wants her to take him back to the time when his blade tore through a mass of Trojan soldiers. Achilles looks at her with nostalgic yearning. But her eyes are cold, far removed from the flame of his desperate heart. Helen appears to him from time to time, and he feels as though she is merely a reminder of how his name has long faded from the world's memory.
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