Another timeline.
Leon woke up from his deep sleep.
In the empty depths of the abyss, the seawater flowed with a touch of melancholy.
He looked at his palm, feeling the portion of power that had recovered, and fell into a daze.
Some Pandora's boxes, once opened, could never be closed again.
The laws of the universe are fair—
To gain something, one must lose something.
How could the hidden dangers accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years be easily dismissed?
There was only one way to completely eliminate future troubles—
Abandon everything from the past and thoroughly step into a new life.
A new life in the literal sense — no longer the current self, without a past, only a future.
"But if I do that… the two thousand Amber Eras of time would have been walked in vain."
"System, tell me, could IX's current form be the final endpoint of Aeons?"
[…This is a question that Tongzi cannot answer.]
[Currently, the Host's path of faith collection is proceeding very smoothly. I have a vague feeling that this life will definitely fill the progress bar!]
"I hope so."
Leon smiled faintly and said nothing more.
He had long since grown too lazy to roll his eyes, and even lazier to question the system.
After Nirvana Rebirth consumed all the faith points of this life, it preserved his physical body from destruction and prevented the sequence from restarting.
The gains after waking up had multiplied several times compared to before his slumber.
This should have been worth a moment of joy.
Unfortunately, it now had to be used again to suppress the hidden dangers buried in his body by the years, facing the price brought by retaining important memories for a long time.
Although he had mastered the art of Candle Yin Time Trace — a technique that could reverse time sequences and gather and regulate causality.
He was ultimately not an Aeon and could not truly escape the cycle of causality.
And… when exactly had he mastered this technique…?
It felt strange.
Logically speaking, learning such an important ability should leave a particularly deep memory, yet he had none at all.
Even the system knew nothing about it.
A communication request rang.
Leon's tone became gentle, showing no abnormalities.
"Have you finished testing the Simulated Universe?"
"Dr. Leon, you really are prescient."
"…What kind of prescience is this? Let me guess again — you're looking for me because you have something important to ask, right?"
"As expected of you, still being modest even while saying you're prescient." Stelle chuckled.
"Go ahead and ask. As long as — as long as it's something I can tell you, I definitely won't hide it."
"…Oh? Since when did the relationship between us Astral Express family members start having a layer of sad barrier between us?"
Stelle immediately caught the implication in Leon's words and pretended to be sad as she sighed.
"Alright, I won't be glib. There are some things that are better not known, which is why I'm telling you this. Leaving some leeway in my words is because I don't want to lie to you."
Hearing Leon's rather serious words, Stelle put away the smile on her face.
She suspected she might have joked at the wrong time.
After carefully considering for a moment, Stelle gave up on asking about sensitive matters and instead inquired whether certain historical events from the Swarm Disaster were true.
"I want to know how many Aeons were actually involved behind the birth and fall of Propagation, from the start of the Swarm Disaster until its final curtain."
Leon was silent for a moment before answering softly.
"According to my investigation results, a total of 11 can be confirmed."
"Finality, Equilibrium, Preservation, Elation, Trailblaze, Order, Harmony, Voracity, Propagation itself, and—"
"The Decree of Delusion that acted against two Aeons…"
Stelle was shocked inside.
As expected, just as the geniuses had guessed — Finality and Equilibrium were involved.
Even though these two Aeons had never shown themselves.
Then the truth behind the Swarm Disaster became thought-provoking.
According to Herta's speculation, the ones capable of setting up a situation to push the birth of Propagation were probably only two.
That is, Finality and Equilibrium.
The motive of Finality was incomprehensible, but Equilibrium was different — there were reasonable motives that could be inferred.
As the only person who had personally tested the Simulated Universe, Stelle had already formed a guess in her heart.
If it really was Equilibrium who took action, then the birth of Tayzzyronth and the Propagation path was most likely for one purpose—
To completely kill Order.
From her perspective, the worlds controlled by Ena of Order were many. This itself was not an issue, but the problem was that Ena had not only done that.
Under the influence of Order, no major disasters or changes had occurred in the entire universe.
This clearly did not align with the concept of Equilibrium.
And through the Simulated Universe, it could also be known that during the Swarm Disaster period, some Aeons had not yet been born.
The clear ones were Abundance, Hunt, and Destruction.
The first two could be set aside for now.
Destruction was the youngest Aeon, and its Path concept was linked to chaos.
If Order still existed, would the probability of the Destruction path being born be zero?
If Order still existed, would this galaxy one day lose the concept called possibility?
If the answers to all these assumptions were yes, then Order had to die.
Not only Equilibrium, but probably other Aeons could not tolerate THEIR existence either.
As for the two black and white winged Aeons…
Leon had just said that 11 Aeons were involved in the Swarm Disaster, yet he only mentioned the Paths of 10.
It would be impolite to ask about the missing Path.
She only needed to know that the white-winged Aeon and the Path THEY presided over was the faith Leon once followed.
The Trailblaze journey was long. Perhaps one day, under the arrangement of fate, there would come a time when she could personally listen to Leon recount his past.
Until then, she would treat it as a secret that only she knew.
However, since Leon could mention Decree of Delusion, it meant THEY were not an unknowable taboo.
This definitely needed to be asked…
"Why have I never heard of the Decree of Delusion path?"
"Decree of Delusion — the Path that judges all acts of overstepping causality. The god who presides over the Path is named: Ming. Like Voracity, THEY have been missing since the Swarm Disaster."
Leon recalled the past, his tone somewhat low.
"The difference is that Voracity only had THEIR main body disappear while the Path still exists. Decree of Delusion, however, completely disappeared along with the Path."
"Normally, once a Path is opened, it cannot be closed, nor will it disappear."
"Over so many years, I have never given up investigating the whereabouts of Decree of Delusion, but unfortunately found nothing."
"Even the Pathstriders have vanished without a trace. It's not strange that you've never heard of it, but I suspect Mythus had a hand in it."
Hearing Leon's words, stormy waves surged in Stelle's heart, yet her tone on the surface showed no flaw.
"Mythus… the Enigmata Aeon?"
So Leon did not know the fact that the Decree of Delusion Aeon had been killed?
What was the deeper meaning behind the actions of the god he once followed…
Leon did not detect any abnormality in Stelle's tone.
"Mm, the very existence of the Enigmata Aeon is itself a mystery. Countless concrete things will melt like pigments in THEIR shadow."
"To fight against certainty, many histories, knowledge, and languages will be wetted, washed, and distorted by the sensory rain descended by Enigmata…"
"You can understand it as Mythus walking a path naturally opposed to Nous."
"Before the Swarm Disaster occurred, the existence of Decree of Delusion was known to all. But as Ming and the Decree of Delusion path disappeared, I discovered a shocking fact—"
"Among the non-divine beings that have survived from the Swarm Disaster era to the present, apart from me, no one else has ever heard the name Decree of Delusion."
"That's why I said it might be the work of Mythus."
Stelle swallowed hard.
Now that she knew about this matter, would Mythus come looking for her to brainwash her?