"Where is this place?"
Caelus rubbed his chin as he looked at the various passages stretching in every direction like hotel corridors. At that moment, he realized that he seemed to be lost again.
Why did this happen?
The reason was that this was his first time doing this kind of work. He did not know how much force to use, nor did he know how precise he needed to be, so he had simply used a little too much strength. Who would have thought that he would poke a hole through the already fragile Dreamflux Reef and fall in himself?
It was just that this hole might have been a little too large. It was reported up level by level, and a certain chicken-wing boy even came to the scene to observe the situation.
"What exactly happened? How could such a huge void appear in Dreamflux Reef?"
Sunday looked at the black sun hanging above Dreamflux Reef in the distance. It resembled a black hole, and he frowned as he asked the question.
"There is no way to determine the exact situation, but it feels as though someone tore open the Dreamscape there. The memoria in that area has become completely chaotic. If the Family's Dreamweavers had not been maintaining it, that massive black void might have swept through directly, and then there would be no need to hold the Grand Festivity at all."
A purple bird landed on a nearby building and spoke in a slightly low voice.
"You still haven't found out who did it? With such a large disturbance, not even a trace was left behind?"
"I don't know. I can't determine who did it at all, and I haven't found any traces. It is as if the Dreamscape itself tore open. Even the traces around it are so natural that it gives the impression something went wrong deep within the memoria."
Memoria was the carrier of memory and spiritual energy in the universe, similar to fragments of soul or consciousness. It could store, project, and reorganize memory information.
To put it more plainly, it was a type of observable and usable substance that contained a vast amount of information, namely memories.
The only ones with truly in-depth research on it were the mysterious people from the Garden of Recollection, who existed as memory entities. Even though Penacony was a world built by will, the Family's understanding of this field was limited, making it difficult to determine whether this incident was a natural phenomenon.
"For now, find a way to repair this void. We have no other option at the moment. We must ensure that nothing goes wrong before the Grand Festivity is held."
"I know."
"Your sister is coming back. Are you prepared?"
"..."
Only silence remained.
"Why are there True Stings in the Dreamscape? Is it because I disturbed the deepest layers of memoria in the Dreamscape, causing many things buried beneath the surface to be stirred up?"
Caelus looked at the corpse of the True Sting lying on the ground before him and spoke with some confusion. Soon after, the corpse quickly shattered into illusory bubbles one after another, which continuously assembled themselves in Caelus's hands and became a book.
"It seems that because I stirred the water too much, some things hidden beneath the mud and sand have been exposed."
Looking at the memory book that symbolized the knowledge of Propagation, Caelus threw the book forward. The book continued to extend and expand, eventually transforming into a door bound by countless chains.
"Things related to Propagation are hidden very deeply. If I want to enter without attracting the owner's attention, I need to be careful."
Not long after, Caelus put on the disguise of a True Sting. Then, without unlocking the chains, he squeezed through the door like a sheet of paper.
After entering the space behind the door, he found that it was an ordinary room. A broken mecha lay in the corner.
"No way! Did the hidden hand of Equilibrium just make a move? This actually let you find it!"
The System's voice rang in his ears, almost screaming. Caelus dug at his ear and asked, "What's wrong? Why are you suddenly shouting so loudly?"
"I'm just a little confused. Your luck value isn't high. How did you somehow find evidence strongly connected to the mastermind? Isn't this the hidden hand of Equilibrium making a move? But the problem is, why would Equilibrium suddenly do that?"
"I don't know. Perhaps Equilibrium feels that reality is too cruel, so it also wants a beautiful reality people can escape to, in order to balance the universe's indifference?"
"Uh, in other worlds, I would think that kind of reasoning was nonsense. But from the perspective of a worldview where everyone is a lunatic, and the stronger they are, the crazier they become, why do I feel like what you said actually makes sense?"
Caelus ignored the murmuring System. He crouched down and looked at the real corpse before him.
"This should be an Iron Cavalry of Glamoth, right? If not for the records in Herta Space Station's database, I really would not have recognized it."
Caelus reached out and touched the corpse that had been lying there for an unknown amount of time, and a large number of images unfolded before his eyes.
Most of the residual memories were battles against the Swarm, while the remaining few flickering fragments showed casual conversations with comrades during mission breaks.
In the end, this Iron Cavalry of Glamoth seemed to have thought about the meaning of life and questioned the value of his own existence. After that, he rebelled against Glamoth, began to pursue freedom, sought the value of his own existence, and traveled through the galaxy.
Then, this Iron Cavalry seemed to have discovered traces of Propagation in Penacony. He came here to help kill some insects, only to be betrayed and killed by a man named Gopher Wood.
Before the Iron Cavalry died, the man said that it was precisely because the Iron Cavalry of Glamoth was born with a strong connection to the Swarm that he had drawn the True Stings into the Dreamscape. The Iron Cavalry begged to be allowed to leave. He swore that he would never return to Penacony and would not even approach the Asdana star system again, but in the end, as though it were part of some plan, the man still killed him.
That Gopher Wood seemed to be a high-ranking figure in Penacony, but the residual memories of this Iron Cavalry did not reveal his exact identity.
Simply put, this was an android who had awakened self-awareness, only to be killed by someone while pursuing freedom and dreams.
What a pity.
Caelus looked at the corpse lying on the ground, which had not completely decayed within the environment of memoria. An adventurer who had only recently begun his journey had died under a conspiracy. That sounded rather regrettable.
Caelus stood up. An illusory roulette wheel appeared behind him, and an hourglass pattern emerged in his eyes.
The dial, which had been rotating clockwise as usual, came to a halt once again. Then, everything from the past began flowing rapidly before his eyes until it rewound to the scene just before death.
Caelus reached out directly.
At a certain point in the past, Gopher Wood looked regretfully at the dead Iron Cavalry of Glamoth. His heart was filled with guilt and remorse. Unwilling to continue looking, he quickly turned and left. For a long time afterward, he would carry this sin with him, living with pain and repentance in his heart.
But what he did not see was that, at the very moment he turned to leave, a fair hand reached through the ripples of time and space, grasping the consciousness and soul of the Iron Cavalry named AR-214 just as they were about to dissipate.
Afterward, that hand slowly withdrew and disappeared, and everything returned to calm.
In the distant future, Caelus looked at the illusory, ethereal soul fire in his hand. He turned it into a book and stuffed it into his pocket.
"So, where do I go from here?"
Caelus looked at the crossroads before him, his expression filled with complete confusion. Wasn't the place where he had placed the door just now a long corridor? How had he ended up at a crossroads again? He had finally found some sense of direction, and now he was lost once more.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)