Now that's more like it.
The moment Jué heard his intention, the thought crystallized. She'd been puzzled before, wondering why the Arbiter would hand Jinhsi something as dangerous as Second Awakening and let her take the risk. But watching him step forward to shoulder that burden himself, everything clicked into place.
This was exactly what their Arbiter would do.
If it was something he could carry, he wouldn't hesitate.
"Changli, why didn't you tell me?" Jinhsi turned to the woman beside her, who'd clearly known all along. The Counselor offered a rueful smile.
"Forgive me, Jinhsi. I wanted to..."
"But I stopped her." Rover wagged a finger, grinning. "Every time."
Changli's outsider perspective had seen through everything, but each time she'd moved to warn Jinhsi, he'd shut it down.
Jinhsi stood stunned. She'd been too close to it, too deep inside the problem. The moment she'd learned that Second Awakening with the Sentinel required someone who also wielded the Temporal Mandate, she'd assumed the candidate was herself.
She'd forgotten entirely that Rover possessed the Temporal Mandate too. And his was far stronger than hers.
She didn't fully understand what "Arbiter" meant, but Jué's deference toward him told her enough. Combined with every clue she'd gathered, it painted a picture of a bond that ran deeper than anything she shared with the Sentinel.
Perhaps he really was the better choice for Resonance with Jué.
But how could she let him do this?
"No! You can't take that risk!" The words burst from Jué and Jinhsi in perfect unison.
"Jinhsi, I can't think of a single valid reason for your objection. As for you, Jué..." His tone shifted, still warm but edged with something unyielding. "I have no intention of using my authority to force you. But you know as well as I do that you cannot influence any decision of mine."
"...Yes, Arbiter. We have never held that right." Jué's voice was measured. "The truth is the inverse. Every action we take beyond our mandate requires your authorization."
Her gaze swept briefly to Changli and Jinhsi, and she added, as if in explanation: "My life. My death. The transfer of my power. All of it requires your permission. Just as the Arbiter who once led me to found Jinzhou commanded me to stand guard here, to ensure this land's Civilization would flourish and endure."
The blood drained from both women's faces.
Jinhsi and Changli had lost count of how many times today had left them reeling, but this one hit different. Their eyes went wide, and neither could stop the tremor that ran through them.
The Sentinel had said it. Confirmed it herself.
Rover was her former master.
Not a partnership. Not an alliance. A hierarchy, clear and absolute.
If the people of Jinzhou revered their Sentinel as a god, then to the Sentinels themselves, these two impossible Rovers were...
The implication made both women dizzy.
"Ch-Changli, I can't stop shaking."
"Believe me, Jinhsi. Neither can I."
Jué turned back to Rover. "Arbiter, I may hold no authority over you, but I must say this. You should not attempt something so dangerous. The Arbiter's worth exceeds your current self-assessment a thousandfold. Your very existence... whatever miracle brought you into being, you must not wager your life on something as uncertain as Resonance with me."
Her voice was grave. She was a dying dragon. How could her survival be weighed against the Arbiter's safety?
Jinhsi drew a steadying breath and pressed her own case. "Rover, you've already done so much for Jinzhou. I won't let you risk yourself again. Second Awakening should fall to me. I'm the Magistrate. I'm the Sentinel's Resonator. This is my responsibility."
She could have listed everything he'd done. Contacting the Black Shores for reinforcements. Commissioning the Ghost Hounds. The critical intelligence on Ovathrax. Clearing the Overlord Class Tacet Discords. Relocating the people of Mount Firmament. The fact that she was standing before the Sentinel at all was because of him.
She hadn't repaid a fraction of that debt. How could she let him claim the one trial that was supposed to be hers?
"Don't try to talk me out of this." His voice was quiet but final. "I understand the risk. That's precisely why it has to be me. Jué, I don't know everything, but I understand this much: we came to Solaris-3 for a reason. To find an impossible answer inside a hopeless situation. Am I wrong?"
He looked the Sentinel dead in the eye. He'd arrived in this world knowing only up to version 3.0 of the story, with countless mysteries still unsolved. The true origin of the Rovers remained an enigma.
But even with what little he knew, anyone could see it. The weight of their mission was nothing less than the weight of the world.
"...No. You are not wrong. Your existence carries a significance beyond measure."
Jué nodded.
Every living soul on Solaris-3, and yet the Sentinel was certain: search the entire planet, and you would never find anyone whose purpose was more vital or whose burden was heavier than her Arbiters'.
"That's what I thought. But that's exactly why I can't run from this. If I can't even survive Second Awakening, then I was never going to be enough for what comes next."
He shook his head. The future held crises far deeper and darker than this one. Might as well cut his teeth on the challenge in front of him.
Besides... he was a transmigrator, nothing more.
The female Rover had braved this world alone. He shared her identity, her Frequency, her body's potential, but that was inheritance, not achievement. Founding Jinzhou, founding the Black Shores, leaving traces woven throughout the history of this world... that had been her, not him.
Second Awakening was a trial. Could the one who'd arrived measure up to the one who'd wandered? The answer lay in whether he could shatter the script and forge something entirely new.
He would write an ending that had never existed.
And prove that his existence meant something.
"Don't worry. I've already accepted the price."
He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, bracing himself for the savage bite... or several... that the female Rover would undoubtedly give him when she found out.
What he didn't yet know was that his role in her story wouldn't be limited to her present and future. It would reach back into her past as well.
Jué was silent for a long moment. Then she accepted his choice.
Jinhsi, predictably, had no intention of backing down.
"Rover. I'm not changing my mind."
"Yeah... I figured." He paused, something sparking behind his eyes. "Well, Jinhsi, if you won't step aside either, then how about we do something crazier?"
The hesitation vanished, replaced by a grin that would have looked right at home on Camellya's face.
"What?" Jinhsi blinked.
"There are three beings in this room who wield the Temporal Mandate. So let's stop thinking small. Forget Second Awakening. Let's push further. Triple Resonance. You, me, and Jué, all at once."
Even the Sentinel's golden eyes went wide.
Second Awakening already defied common sense. She had never imagined he would propose going beyond it.
Triple Resonance. The researchers of the Court of Savantae, bold as they were, would never have attempted it. They wouldn't have even theorized it, because the laws of the world dictated that a single being could not have two Resonators.
But the Arbiter was the exception. He wasn't merely Jué's Resonator. He was something else entirely, someone who wielded the same Temporal Mandate through his own power. That kind of anomaly might be capable of creating a miracle the world had never seen.
"According to the Court of Savantae's projections, Second Awakening alone would amplify a Resonator's abilities more than tenfold. As for Triple Resonance..."
"Unimaginable, right? Perfect."
"Yes! I'm ready. We need every scrap of power we can get!"
Jinhsi didn't hesitate. The soldiers fighting the Threnodian at the Norfall Barrens needed reinforcements, and reinforcements were only worth anything if they arrived with overwhelming force.
"Ha!" Jué's laughter boomed through the chamber, rich and thunderous with draconic overtones. "Very well! Arbiter, Jinhsi, follow me to the peak of Mount Firmament. There, we will complete this Triple Resonance that defies fate itself!"
Minutes ago, the approach of death had left the Sentinel's heart cold and still. But today had brought one astonishment after another. Jinhsi's growth. A second Arbiter. And now a Resonance that had no business existing.
She was a Sentinel who could manipulate time and see the future. Time could halt, rewind, leap forward millennia in a blink. It was a flower in her claws, blooming and wilting and blooming again at her whim. Civilization was a thick book she could flip through at leisure, reading forward or backward as she pleased. Nothing in this world surprised her, because she had already glimpsed every possible future.
But today, an Arbiter who should not exist in this world had brought a possibility Jué had never foreseen and never observed.
This unknown. This gamble. This miracle. For the first time in longer than she could remember, something like excitement surged through the ancient dragon's veins.
And in that moment, a thought struck her.
Rover... was different from the female Rover.
Her Arbiter had always been someone who could break the chains of destiny. But across every future Jué had ever glimpsed with her power, not once had even the female Rover chosen Triple Resonance.
"Arbiter. I find myself curious about your future."
Jué's claws cradled Jinhsi and Changli gently against her body as she bore Rover upon the crown of her head. In the span of a heartbeat, they soared from the hibernation chamber to the summit of Mount Firmament.
Excitement colored the Sentinel's voice, rare and unmistakable. Perhaps it was because he was a traveler from beyond this world, someone who was never meant to exist here. Even Jué's Foresight could not pierce the veil around his tomorrow.
The Arbiter before her was an unknown.
The thought alone filled her with joy.
Rover smiled, resting his hand on one of her great horns.
"Then walk with me toward tomorrow. And witness not just my future, but ours."
"As you command, Arbiter. Your will is mine."