Caelus held a moth that had already lost all signs of life.
A special life-form had been residing within it, something resembling a fragment of flesh split from a larger organism, yet also a form of life that existed like a virus.
"Still can't see it."
Caelus had attempted to directly trace the creature back to its origin and read the memories of the life-form behind it, only to discover that he could not.
It was not that his power had encountered resistance or interference.
He simply could not access those memories.
There was no process of obstruction, only a definite result.
He could not read them.
Caelus had already asked the System about it.
According to the System, this was an obvious sign that he was attempting to read the memories of another System holder, so the opposing System had automatically blocked him.
["No wonder that System was desperately trying to escape this time."]
["A pseudo-scientific supernatural system based on flesh and viruses is completely countered by the kind of conceptual and philosophical abilities we use."]
["The other side practically has no room to resist."]
["Good thing I acted quickly. Otherwise, it really might have escaped."]
The System spoke in a relaxed tone.
"Even though I can't see the other person's memories, I can still read the memories of this virus."
Although that sounded contradictory, different individuals naturally possessed different memories.
Caelus could not see the life of the other System holder.
However, he could see everything that had happened to this particular fragment from the moment it was separated until now.
Normally, such a method would be used to determine someone's location.
Caelus did not even need an object closely connected to the target.
Something they had once used would be enough.
Even an impression of them preserved within another person's memory would allow him to directly locate them within this world.
In fact, finding them was not even necessary.
With the power of Finality, he could simply pull the person directly in front of him.
["So, Host, what do you want to do?"]
["Do we quickly deal with the other side, complete the Main Quest, buy an item associated with Equilibrium, return to our home universe to pay our protection fee, and wait until we can head to Amphoreus?"]
["Or do you want to play with him for a while longer?"]
After saying that, the System briefly wondered whether things had been going too smoothly lately and it had become somewhat overconfident.
Then it looked at the UR card it had drawn.
Fine.
It admitted it.
It had absolutely become overconfident.
"Let's try talking first."
"To be honest, none of the System holders we encountered before ever had the chance to sit down and have a proper conversation."
The first System holder Caelus encountered had been a particularly unfortunate man during the incident in the Date A Live world.
The other party had recklessly used a powerful reconnaissance item.
By sheer luck, he had directly drawn Azathoth.
There had been no saving him after that.
Caelus had technically had an opportunity to speak with the second one.
However, at the time, he had been observing the story of Kou, the hero who had been created from Carnage Kabuto, so he had no intention of interacting with the other System holder.
Besides, the man had seemed rather uninteresting.
There had actually been a third one as well.
Unfortunately, that person had been far too unlucky.
He had stepped into the ritual and stage on his own.
If he had simply focused on the competitive mission, he might at least have had a chance to appear properly.
Instead, he had gone out of his way to investigate the truth behind that world.
As a result, he had walked directly toward his own destruction.
Neither Caelus nor the System had even realized that another System holder had visited the previous world.
After finishing his date with Cyrene, Caelus took a single step and appeared inside a luxurious suite.
The green-haired young man was sitting in an armchair, holding an ice-cold bottle of Sprite.
It should have been a completely ordinary sight.
Yet combined with the young man's distinctive presence, it somehow gave the impression of a sophisticated gentleman holding a wineglass filled with expensive red wine.
However, the slight trembling of his arm and the momentary stiffness in his expression made one thing obvious.
He had been startled.
He had simply relied on his exceptional self-control to suppress the reaction before it could fully show.
Anyone with sufficiently sharp eyes could tell that he was merely pretending to be composed.
And for an existence based on flesh and grown through the Blacklight Virus, could he truly fail to control his own body perfectly?
"As I expected. You came after all."
The green-haired young man smiled gently and took another sip of his chilled Sprite.
Caelus sat opposite him and looked at the smiling young man.
"I can sense your emotions."
The smile immediately disappeared from the young man's face.
He released a long sigh, placed the bottle of Sprite on the table, and abandoned his earlier air of calm elegance.
His posture became visibly dejected.
"Sigh. The moment I saw you and Cyrene yesterday, I knew I was probably not far from death."
"My System kept telling me not to give up so quickly."
"It said there was still a chance that you were simply two different people who happened to look the same."
"But judging from this situation, you really are that Trailblazer, aren't you?"
"No. Stelle is."
"I'm not."
"I see."
"So HoYoverse's universe really does prefer female protagonists."
The young man spoke casually.
He looked as though he had completely given up resisting.
In reality, he simply had no options left.
"Before I transmigrated and became what I am now, I was just an ordinary shut-in who liked playing games."
"As far as I know, the protagonist who travels with the Astral Express represents Akivili, while the other protagonist is equivalent to Terminus, the Finality."
"So are you a Seed of Finality?"
"No."
"I'm not the Trailblazer you know."
"To put it simply, I am an aggregation of every possibility that was never chosen."
"For example, a student named Caelus living an ordinary life on some unremarkable planet."
"Or Caelus from Herta Space Station, who gave up on the journey and became an ordinary staff member."
"Or perhaps a Trailblazer who died halfway through the journey."
"Countless abandoned futures and unrealized possibilities converged together."
"And from within Nihility, I was born."
Even with his extraordinary control over his flesh, the young man could not stop himself from displaying an utterly bewildered expression.
"You're saying you were born from inside the Aeon of Nihility?"
"Yes."
"Then, if you don't mind me asking out of curiosity, how strong is Acheron compared to you?"
"In the past, she might have been a troublesome opponent."
"Now, I should be able to deal with her fairly quickly."
After obtaining the Tiger Talisman and recovering both his bodily instincts and the emotion of love, Caelus had become far stronger than he had been during Penacony.
Specifically, he meant his strength at the end of the Penacony incident.
"So you really are my karma."
A bitter smile appeared on the young man's face.
At this point, he was completely certain that he had no chance of defeating the monster sitting in front of him.
Emanator-level.
This was Emanator-level combat power.
He was not even certain whether he could physically destroy an entire planet yet.
Meanwhile, the person before him was already at least capable of operating on a stellar-system scale.
"Sigh."
"Considering all the evil I've committed, ending up like this sooner or later isn't exactly surprising."
The young man spoke as though he were preparing to leave his final words behind.
"Then, before the end, can we talk for a while?"
"I'd like to hear your story and treat it as another sight along my journey."
"It would be my honor."
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ 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.)