The three Apostles had barely begun their journey toward the Control Room at the Central Module when the cyborg suddenly paused.
Luke, who had been leading the group, narrowed his eyes, looking over his shoulder.
He looked at the holographic projection of ORIGIN that Mushroom-nimi held in their open palm, which emitted a dim, bluish glow as it hung motionless over the Hologram Mushroom.
The three dots still blinked in it, tiny hints of redness appearing and disappearing, matching the trio's heartbeats.
"What?" Luke asked.
Mushroom, instead of answering, walked toward the wall and put their empty hand on it.
Streaks of fungus, like extremely thin branches of a massive tree, instantly exploded out of the cyborg's palm and entered the wall, intermingling with the electrical system of the space station.
"…" Mushroom looked down into their Master's eyes, knowing he wouldn't like it. "Alexander the Ass has boarded ORIGIN… much earlier than you had anticipated, Master."
Luke and Nyx exchanged glances.
This went against all their plans.
"I am sure that She wouldn't want to see a corrupted Star back on Earth as well," Luke hurriedly mumbled, thinking of Singularity. "But… if She found out that the corruption came not from the Cosmos, but an Evil God and Angel who have made the Moon Their home, then…"
No matter how composed Singularity's actions had remained so far, against a threat that was knocking on the door of Her home, who knew what kind of extreme reaction it would bring out of Her.
She could go as far as to join hands with Conformity. Knowing Conformity, He would definitely find a way to get Her to come after Dr. Blessed and the Apostles as well. Singularity would have no choice but to agree, then.
Luke wanted to avoid pushing Her into a corner.
That was the sole reason he had made so much haste to come here, instead of letting the Radiant of Gravity test the waters, avoiding getting corrupted himself.
"Fate 1 — 0 Apostles," Mushroom suddenly said. "A joke We prepared when you mentioned fate before, Master. Was it good?"
Luke resisted the urge to facepalm.
"Yes, Mushroom-nimi," he said, smiling. "You are getting the hang of it, I guess."
"What are you thinking?" Nyx asked, knowing Luke must have already improvised.
Luke looked at the cyborg. "Can you transfer this Hologram Mushroom to me?" he asked. "Also, instead of just us three, can you also make the hologram display all the living things in ORIGIN?"
Nyx rolled her eyes. "Here we go again…"
The cyborg nodded. "We can secrete spores," Mushroom explained. "The ones We used to bring down the drones, remember? Not exactly those, but something like that — kinda… Sensory Spores. They can send signals to Us and We can transfer them to the Hologram Mushroom, displaying all living things on the hologram. But… It's too complex. We will need to stay in one place and act as a receiver and transmitter."
Luke frowned. "Why not send the signals directly to the Hologram Mushroom?"
"How big of a mushroom are you willing to carry, Master?" the cyborg asked in return.
Luke's lips twitched.
Yes.
He hadn't thought of the size needed for that kind of mushroom.
Mushroom-nimi is getting better at handling complex tasks, Luke thought inwardly. But that complex reasoning ability is still limited, as clearly seen from their inability to simultaneously reduce the Hologram Mushroom's size and control all those… millions of Spores. Hmm…
"Tell me you are not thinking of separating," Nyx cawed. "That's like the plot of all horror movies!"
This time, it was Luke who rolled his eyes.
"That's what you do all day!" he hissed back. "Read those… erotic books and watch movies. If you had invested that much time in Acting, then you would have digested the Magician Potion already."
"And then do what?!" Nyx cawed louder. "I cannot advance unless Your Highness has digested three… THREE Sequence 6 Potions and become a Sequence 5 Beyonder! What's the need for hurriedly digesting, then? Huh?!"
Luke looked at Nyx in disbelief. "You can't be…"
[Enough!] Miss Justice intervened. [You two… can't you two see where you are? Is this the time to argue? The fate of your entire world rests on your shoulders and you…]
Luke's eyes stabbed into Nyx's as Miss Justice reprimanded them.
[… listen,] Miss Justice said after a while, sounding exhausted. [I know how you… Beyonders of the Seer Pathway try to distract yourselves from falling into despair. But we don't have the time to do that. So, here's my advice. You two need to separate.]
"What?!" Luke and Nyx said together.
[Luke,] Miss Justice said, [Nyx is right. You are lagging in Acting… And I know people in Mr. Fool's world would curse me to death if I said this to them. But this isn't Mr. Fool's world. And I have no choice but to compare you with the you of the past, even with the rise in difficulty in digesting a higher Sequence Potion. The thing is, you should have already digested the Faceless Potion. As precarious as the situation is, use it to your advantage. Turn it into an opportunity. You… already have an audience.]
Luke fell silent.
[And Nyx…]
"Save your lecture…" Nyx said, flapping her wings in anger. "This Empress doesn't need fate on her side to kick ass."
Luke sighed.
"Let's do this, Mushroom-nimi," he said, putting his right hand over his head. "Create two Walkie-Talkie Mushrooms as well so that we can coordinate and keep the distance between us limited to 100 meters."
[That's… brilliant!] Miss Justice praised.
The cyborg instantly acted, sprouting two mushrooms with antenna-like heads that jumped and attached themselves to Luke and Nyx.
Then, Mushroom silently dimmed the glow surrounding them, secreting millions of microscopic spores.
Luke and Nyx shared a glance.
With a humph, the raven flew away, hiding her concern.
Behind her, watching her disappear into the darkness, Luke swept his hand down over his face…
… letting Gehrman Sparrow take over the mission!