When the last scholar's figure vanished into the light of the Infinity Gate, The Grove returned to silence, leaving only the scars of battle and the drifting ashes of the Black Tide in the wind.
Two figures stood quietly at the peak of the Grove, overlooking this sanctuary of knowledge that had just endured calamity.
"Cyrene, you were right." Khaslana's low voice broke the silence, his metal mask turning towards the pink-haired girl beside him. "Perhaps they... those outsiders from beyond the sky, truly are the 'variables.'"
"So..." Cyrene's pink hair stirred softly in the breeze. She did not look up, her voice calm and even. "You have finally agreed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me? Good. After completing that one last thing, I will be able to proceed with my plan... free of any lingering attachments." Her tone held no surprise, as if she had long anticipated this outcome.
"One last thing?" Khaslana caught the key information.
"Mhm." Cyrene gave a slight nod. "Within those seemingly endless recurrence, while carrying his expectations, I also made a promise to my fellow Chrysos Heirs. It is something I must do."
She tilted her head slightly, as if able to feel the scrutinizing gaze from behind the mask. "Don't worry. It will not interfere with our final plan."
"Your plan..." Khaslana's voice carried a trace of complex emotion that was hard to detect. "You've mentioned it repeatedly. What exactly is it? What makes you so determined, even to the point of..."
"I can't tell you yet." Cyrene interrupted him. She turned her head, trying to blink at him, attempting to show a hint of her former levity, but the smile didn't truly reach her eyes. "When the time is right, you will understand what needs to be done."
"Cyrene..." Khaslana's voice grew even lower.
"Yes?"
"I... have perhaps long since lost the right to call you 'Sister Cyrene'." His words carried the weight of over thirty-three million cycles. "But I want to tell you, no matter which 'me' it is, from the very first Phainon to Phainon No. 33,550,335... we still care about you."
He took half a step forward, his gaze seeming to penetrate her feigned shell of being strong. "Ever since that little one named 'Mem,' bearing the authority of『Time』, was born, your condition has clearly been off."
"You've become more impatient, more anxious than before, as if racing against time. The you before me now, always talking about 'the plan,' 'the plan,' almost consumed by it... is absolutely not the Cyrene he hoped to see. You've become unlike the 'Sister Cyrene' who would smile at us at the beginning of countless recurrence."
"Sigh..."
Cyrene let out a long breath. She looked towards the direction of Okhema in the distance, her eyes losing focus for a moment before settling into profound sorrow.
"Perhaps... I'm just overthinking things. But... I wish he could really see me like this."
Cyrene's voice was soft, yet carried immense weight. "Before coming here to see you, I went inside the Dawn Device."
She paused, as if recalling that shocking sight, before continuing in a heavy tone:
"In that very room... where he should have been waiting for me. But now... the outside of that room is covered in amber crystallization. I can't get in anymore."
Cyrene turned her head, looking directly at Khaslana, her eyes sharp and sorrowful. "You witnessed Nikador's end with your own eyes, didn't you? His twisted path of 'Preservation,' his so-called 'salvation'..."
"He has already, like you once did, like countless 'Phainons' who went astray, slid into the abyss I least wish to see."
Her fists clenched silently, knuckles whitening from the force.
"If the fate of Amphoreus truly only had that one twisted 'salvation' path of 'Preservation' left, then not only would I not stop him, I would accompany him to the very end."
Cyrene's voice suddenly rose at this moment, carrying a desperate, burn-all-bridges resolve. "But the Amphoreus of now is no longer limited to one path! The variables from beyond the sky have arrived, Paths converge here, hope has already appeared! Since a new path exists, I absolutely cannot just stand by and watch him... remain alone on that old road destined to sink into oblivion!"
...
Another unknown point in time.
The outer firewall of Amphoreus.
The mental projection of The Herta, composed of data and will, had already traversed incalculable light-years, coming to a halt outside the strange world barrier of Amphoreus.
What presented itself "before her eyes" was not the form of a conventional planet, but a massive, seemingly star-woven infinity symbol—"∞." It rotated slowly in the void, emitting a mysterious and unsettling fluctuation.
"∞? Infinity? A Möbius strip? Or some more complex topological structure?" A ripple of keen interest passed through The Herta's gaze. "『Erudition』,『Remembrance』,『Preservation』,『Destruction』... Wait? There are traces of several other Paths too? 『The Elation』 and 『Harmony』? This world is truly a bit interesting."
"Ah... but, the top priority right now is still to fish out those passengers of the Astral Express from inside." Without further hesitation, she directly began to analyze and attempt to penetrate the world barrier of Amphoreus.
"My apologies, honored lady." An elegant, steady voice sounded from behind her data projection. "I believe it would be best if you did not lightly tread into these... troubled waters."
"Hmm?" The Herta instantly turned around.
She saw the newcomer clearly—a meticulously constructed, aesthetically symmetrical Intellitron.
"Interesting... an Intellitron? And this level of information encryption... The last Intellitron capable of guarding its secrets so thoroughly before me, The Herta, was that fellow Screwllum. So... who exactly are you?" Her voice held unconcealed inquiry and a hint of provoked excitement.
"My name is Lycurgus. Though, you may also address me as—Lygus." Lygus calmly regarded The Herta's data projection and continued. "As for my specific identity and origins, those are unimportant at this moment. You need only know that regardless of the great deeds you have accomplished across the vast cosmo, or the transcendent wisdom you possess, this time, you would do best to choose to stand by and do nothing."
"Oh?" The Herta let out a light laugh. Data accelerated in its flow around her, showing her heightened interest. "In this boundless universe, there exists 'troubled waters' that I, The Herta, dare not tread and cannot analyze? Such talk from you only makes me more curious, even more eager to go in and see for myself what's going on."