"So why were you pretending to be seriously injured?"
"Caelus, you have no idea how shocked I was when I heard that even you had been badly injured in this world!"
"My first thought was, 'No way. Are we seriously going to have to fight an Aeon?!'"
"If I hadn't interfered with the events of Amphoreus, then according to the original course of destiny, the final boss you would have faced on this journey should have been an enemy equivalent to the strongest Emanators."
"An existence already halfway into the Sixth Tier."
According to the System's classification of strength and life tiers, Irontomb was technically a half-step Sixth Tier existence.
The main reason was that its birth had been rushed and repeatedly obstructed.
If Irontomb had been allowed to completely absorb the data accumulated throughout more than thirty million cycles, then it truly would have been born at the Sixth Tier.
Afterward, all it would have needed to do was crown itself with Nous's head to reach the Seventh Tier.
There was an important distinction here.
Before the Seventh Tier, the System could guarantee that an individual's power would remain functional across different universes.
But once someone reached the Seventh Tier, their power became partially bound to the universe itself.
After all, they had reached that level by using the fundamental laws of that particular universe.
Because of this, a Seventh Tier existence that left the universe in which they had ascended and entered another could potentially fall back to the Sixth Tier, or even the Fifth.
That was something even the System could not completely prevent.
There were only two ways to wield Seventh Tier power freely across every universe.
The first was to project one's existence across the endless multiverse.
This was the safest and most convenient method.
It merely required more time.
Once those universes gradually accepted your existence, stories and legends about you would naturally begin to emerge.
Perhaps they would begin with an unconscious murmur from some living being.
Perhaps with an inexplicable dream.
But once a story belonging to you went from nonexistent to real, you would gain the ability to exercise the power of your tier within that universe.
The second method was to force all realities to acknowledge your own Path.
That method sounded far more unreasonable.
You had to elevate your personal way of existence to such an overwhelming level that even an entire universe could no longer suppress it and was forced to acknowledge its weight.
By the time your own Path had reached that level, however, you would already have entered the Eighth Tier.
So the people who chose this route were usually one of two kinds.
Either they possessed absurd confidence and genuinely believed they would eventually reach the Eighth Tier.
Or they were complete shut-ins who intended to remain in a single universe forever, unwilling to leave and equally unwilling to spread their existence elsewhere.
"The strongest Emanator..."
"Halfway into the Sixth Tier..."
Stelle looked completely lost.
"Those numbers don't really mean anything to me."
"Put it this way."
Caelus looked at her.
"When I fought you on Penacony, I was only at the Fifth Tier."
Stelle immediately made the same shocked expression as before.
Based on the information they had gathered previously, Dan Heng had already vaguely guessed that Caelus was a traveler capable of moving through a true multiverse.
After thinking for a moment, he asked,
"These numbered tiers you're describing..."
"Are they a classification system for power across the true multiverse?"
"Not exactly."
Caelus answered.
"There are two main categories."
"Life Tier and Energy Tier."
"Most people treat Life Tier as the primary measurement of power and tend to overlook Energy Tier."
Caelus glanced toward the sky outside the window.
Judging by the progression of destiny, the operation against the Titan of Strife would probably begin soon.
He had no intention of participating this time.
The only reason he had personally joined the operation to recover the Coreflame of Reason, and why such a major accident had occurred, was because Lygus had introduced additional variables.
Caelus had intervened to ensure that destiny remained on course while also collecting data about those variables.
This time, however, Lygus had not interfered with the destiny surrounding the Titan of Strife.
Perhaps after using Nikador as the centerpiece of his schemes for several hundred thousand cycles, even Lygus had finally grown tired of it.
"Life Tier represents the fundamental level of a being's existence."
"Most carbon-based life-forms we're familiar with, along with silicon-based life such as Intellitrons, fundamentally belong to the Sub-Tier."
"These forms of life depend heavily on their external environment."
"Once removed from conditions suitable for survival, they inevitably suffer various forms of damage and eventually become unable to survive."
"After making a certain breakthrough, a being reaches the First Tier."
"First Tier life still depends on its environment, but nowhere near as severely as Sub-Tier life does."
"As Life Tier continues to rise, that dependence gradually disappears."
"It is replaced by the ability to control the environment, alter it, and eventually create environments of one's own."
"An overall rise in Life Tier naturally improves nearly every aspect of a being."
"That's why so many people simply equate combat strength with Life Tier."
"And strictly speaking, that isn't entirely wrong."
"Even the evolution of energy-based life-forms fundamentally counts as an increase in Life Tier."
"Energy Tier, meanwhile, evaluates the energy contained within an individual."
"Most of the time, it rises alongside Life Tier."
"But there are special cases where the two need to be evaluated separately."
"Across the infinite multiverse, although many life-forms have their lives directly bound to the energy within them, there are also countless beings whose energy reserves and level of existence are not equivalent."
"If I explained the details, we'd end up discussing far too much data and far too many examples."
"So I'll keep it simple."
"A high Life Tier does not necessarily mean someone is powerful."
"But anyone truly powerful will inevitably possess a high Life Tier."
"And a high Energy Tier always means overwhelming power."
Stelle scratched her head.
She had barely absorbed any of this sudden flood of cosmological terminology.
Dan Heng, however, recorded everything with considerable interest.
He intended to add it to the Astral Express's database later.
After all, this was knowledge originating from a genuine infinite multiverse.
It was extraordinarily valuable.
Perhaps one day it would prove useful.
"Forget all that complicated stuff for now."
Stelle waved a hand.
"Caelus, because of whatever is going on with this world, we can't contact the Express."
"Can you do anything about that?"
"You're currently operating here as data-based life-forms rather than through your real physical bodies."
"Naturally, normal communications can't reach the outside."
"Give me a moment."
"I'll contact the exterior and adjust things."
Caelus did not possess administrator privileges.
So how was he supposed to accomplish that?
Simple.
He could ask the person who did possess them.
...
Lygus looked at Caelus, who had suddenly appeared before him asking for assistance.
He agreed without the slightest concern.
Amphoreus could now communicate with the Astral Express waiting outside.
Lygus even adjusted the difference in time flow so that conversations would not become unbearably delayed by the enormous discrepancy between internal and external time.
...
Aboard the Astral Express.
After reading the enormous flood of messages that had suddenly appeared on his phone, Welt pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"No wonder even Akivili never reached this world."
"To think something on this scale was hidden here."
Black Swan, who had also finished reading the information that had been shared with them, remained silent for a while before asking,
"But as far as I know, there should also be Memokeepers from the Garden of Recollection inside Amphoreus."
"Memories from a sealed and hidden world like this would be impossible for them to resist."
"And after such an immense number of cycles, the sheer volume of memories created by Mr. Caelus would be even more irresistible."
"So where are they?"
Himeko contacted the trio through her phone and asked them to warn Caelus that Memokeepers might still be hiding somewhere inside Amphoreus.
Caelus's response was simple.
"They showed themselves around the twenty-millionth cycle."
"At the time, I was busy recording data while Lygus was doing everything he could to cause trouble for me."
"After several previous methods failed, he allowed those Memokeepers inside."
"They knew I wasn't someone they could deal with directly, so they tried taking a more indirect approach by interfering with the memories of people around me."
"Then they targeted Cyrene."
After saying that, Caelus reached behind himself and pulled out a book that appeared to have been carved entirely from crystal.
"They're all in here."
"When you leave Amphoreus, you can give this to Black Swan."
"I've already recorded all the knowledge and stories they carried."
"This is essentially what's left of them."
"They were her colleagues, after all."
"She can take care of their remains."
(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.)