Chapter 183: Pink and Blue Twins, Night Raid (Part 2)
So, what exactly happened during the chaotic climax of the war of gods?
To trace it back to the very beginning, Aventurine made a calculated gamble against the members of the Astral Express—a move that ultimately served as the spark for the entire explosive ordeal. Rekka's suppressed anger had nearly torn the fabric of the dreamscape in half. The sheer force of his wrath sent Aventurine, along with countless unfortunate dream-chasers, plummeting straight into the depths of the Primitive Dreamscape.
When Aventurine finally regained his bearings, he found himself stranded in a highly peculiar layer of the dream. The ground beneath his boots was entirely carpeted by a writhing mass of the Swarm, all operating under the strict command of Little Blue Light.
To the IPC executive's utter confusion, the terrifying bugs didn't launch a single attack. They simply skittered in place, clicking their mandibles in an eerie, synchronized rhythm, as if their sole purpose was pure intimidation.
Aventurine, naturally, was thrilled.
He immediately deduced that these apocalyptic bugs were merely props deployed for a massive scare tactic. If he could spin this, it would absolutely become a monumental scandal for the Family.
And then came the crowd-pleasing, utterly dramatic entrance of Argenti.
Standing before the lost souls was the most passionately outspoken member of the Knights of Beauty. This was the man legendary in meta-circles for suffering endless banner delays, the boss who inexplicably kept receiving buffs, the undisputed King of Pure Fiction, and the staunch, unwavering defender of classical chivalry. He was the one who saved, saved, saved, saved, saved, and saved the entire dreamscape.
Argenti.
Yes, although the red-haired knight had absolutely no clue what was actually going on with the cosmic power struggle, he knew one universal truth: as long as he was saving people, he could never be wrong.
One soul, then another, and another...
Argenti completely lost count of how many stranded dream-chasers he had heroically hauled out of the collapsing dreamscape. By the time the dust began to settle, the Knight of Beauty was practically swaying on his feet, exhausted to the absolute brink of collapse.
While the knight remained blissfully ignorant of the grander scheme, a Galaxy Ranger who had arrived on the scene fired a signal flare from his revolver. That single gunshot summoned even more Rangers to the chaotic theater, accidentally muddying the stability of Ena's Dream and violently shaking the foundation of faith in the Order.
Meanwhile, the mysteriously directionless woman was, predictably, still lost.
"Did I take a wrong turn?"
Acheron stood in the middle of an unrecognizable expanse, looking left and right with genuine puzzlement. She rested a hand on her katana's hilt, her brow furrowing. "This place doesn't seem to be Penacony."
Elsewhere, there was a remarkably unlucky Memokeeper who had narrowly escaped death.
"You owe me a massive favor for this," Black Swan murmured, floating gracefully despite her disheveled state.
"Compared to that, I think you should explain to me why you are still alive," a mysterious veiled woman replied, her tone cool and measured.
The veiled woman, Dahlia, frowned slightly beneath her silken covering. "That really isn't important right now, but..." She paused, shifting the topic as she relayed the latest intelligence regarding the Trailblazers of the Astral Express.
Black Swan's eyes narrowed. "Is everything you just said true?"
"Of course. I haven't hidden a single detail."
As for the miserable Miss Firefly, her current condition was far from ideal. At present, she was entirely confined to the medical pod, only able to communicate with Stelle through the external monitors.
At the very least, she wasn't unconscious. That was a small mercy.
Down in the depths of Dreamflux Reef, Misha and Gallagher worked tirelessly to maintain order among the massive influx of displaced refugees. Penacony had been plunged into intense, violent turmoil due to the clash of gods between the Paths of Order and Destruction. Naturally, the Interstellar Peace Corporation wasted no time, seizing this golden opportunity to forcefully insert themselves into the Planet of Festivities.
"Rekka, Rekka..."
Stelle aggressively shook Rekka's arm, her golden eyes wide and pleading.
"I really can't do anything with you when you look at me like that," Rekka sighed, reaching into the inner pockets of his coat and rummaging around. He pulled out a handful of random mechanical scraps before tossing them aside. "I'm not exactly an expert at dealing with terminal conditions like Entropy Loss Syndrome. Plus, I'm not on the Path of Propagation today, so I can't just forcefully multiply her healthy cells."
Rekka tapped his chin, thinking for a moment, before beckoning to the gray-haired girl.
"Come with me. I can whip up a temporary inhibitor for the syndrome to buy her some time. Just keep in mind that if you use it too much, her body will build up a drug resistance."
Rekka called for Little Blue Light, casually plucked a tiny tuft of fur from a passing, highly offended Pom-Pom, and retreated into his room to start tinkering.
Stelle remained standing at the doorway. She paced back and forth across the corridor carpet, looking exactly like an anxious husband waiting outside a hospital delivery room. The rubber soles of her boots made a maddening, soft scuffling sound against the floorboards. Her eyes remained fixed unblinkingly on the tightly closed metal door.
A series of highly concerning noises began echoing from inside the room. First came a violent, gurgling boiling sound, followed by the crisp, terrifying clinking of shattering glass. This was occasionally interspersed with a few innocent, cheerful chirps from Little Blue Light.
After what felt like an eternity, the chaotic symphony ceased. The door hissed open from the inside.
A thick cloud of white smoke, carrying an eerie, sugary-sweet scent mixed with a faint, metallic odor, instantly billowed out into the hallway. Stelle stumbled backward, waving her hands frantically in front of her face and coughing non-stop as the fumes hit her lungs.
Rekka strolled out slowly from the dense fog.
He was wearing a pair of heavy welding goggles on his face—Stelle had no idea where he had even fished them out from. The thick lenses were covered in suspicious spots of unknown, glowing liquid. In his right hand, he held a vacuum-sealed test tube filled with a pale purple, translucent fluid.
"Doc! Is she salvageable?!" Stelle yelled, grabbing his shoulders.
"What doctor? I'm a Trailblazer," Rekka deadpanned, shoving the vial into her chest. "Take this. Call Silver Wolf over to help administer the therapeutic agent. It won't cure her completely, but it will drastically improve her condition and significantly slow down the structural dissociation."
Stelle clutched the vial like a holy relic and sprinted down the hall without another word.
Left behind in the clearing smoke, Little Blue Light stood in place. She tilted her head, looking up at Rekka, her striking gray pupils perfectly reflecting his tired face.
"Boss, tired?" she asked, her voice soft and mechanical.
"Not tired," Rekka replied, pulling the goggles off his forehead.
"Boss, hungry?"
"Not hungry."
"Boss, sleepy?"
"Not sleepy."
Little Blue Light frowned deeply, her synthetic brows knitting together as if her processing core was working in overdrive to figure out what else she could possibly ask. Finally, she blurted out her true objective.
"Boss, want... want to pat Little Blue Light's head?"
Rekka stared at her in silence for a long moment. A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. He reached out his hand and gently ruffled her silver-gray hair twice.
Little Blue Light's eyes instantly lit up. It was as if a hidden switch had been flipped inside her programming, radiating an aura of absolute satisfaction. She stood up on her tiptoes, happily rubbing the top of her head against Rekka's warm palm like a contented cat.
Meanwhile, Delta had finally deactivated her fused form, splitting back into the chaotic duo of Rozaliya and Liliya. The two Olenyeva sisters were currently huddled in a dark corner, fiercely whispering as they plotted their night raid.
"The Captain won't be able to beat us today," Rozaliya declared, her tail swishing back and forth with excitement. "When the Captain sleeps, he usually has the habit of leaving all those magical little tools of his scattered on the nightstand. We will definitely succeed in our sneak attack tonight!"
It was deep into the night cycle. Out in the guest corridor of the Astral Express, only the dim floor lights emitted a faint, warm yellow glow, casting long shadows against the walls.
An extremely faint click echoed through the silence.
Rekka's door slid open silently, leaving a narrow, dark crack.
Two small heads, one blue and one pink, poked out from the gap in the doorframe, looking exactly like two mischievous kittens preparing to knock a glass off a table.
"Rozaliya, are you absolutely sure the Captain is asleep?" Liliya whispered, her voice barely registering above a breath. Her usually expressionless little face looked exceptionally serious under the eerie illumination of the night lights.
"Look at the time! He has to be asleep!" Rozaliya whispered back, puffing out her chest. "I even pressed my ear against the door just now to listen, and there wasn't a single movement inside!"
"Rozaliya, your tail is making too much noise."
Liliya quickly reached out and snatched Rozaliya's wildly swinging tail out of the air, holding it firmly in her grip.
"Oh, oh, oh! Sorry, sorry," the pink-haired twin winced.
The two girls snuck out of their room on their tiptoes, pressing their backs flat against the base of the corridor wall. They crept all the way down the hall toward Rekka's door, moving with the exaggerated stealth of cartoon thieves.
"Wait, what if he suddenly wakes up?" Rozaliya stopped in her tracks. She mentally rehearsed the incredibly awkward scene of being caught red-handed, audibly gulping.
"If he wakes up, we'll just tell him that we were worried he was having a nightmare, so we came specifically to sleep in his bed to comfort him," Liliya answered without missing a beat.
Rozaliya's eyes widened in awe, and she couldn't help but give her sister a vigorous thumbs-up.
As expected of Liliya. That excuse is simply flawless.
With their contingency plan set, the door was slowly pushed open.
The room was pitch black. Rekka was lying on his side with his back facing the door. His breathing was steady, deep, and long; he appeared to be sleeping incredibly soundly. He had even pulled the thick quilt all the way up over his head, leaving only a messy tuft of blue-black hair visible against the pillows.
The two little girls carefully took off their shoes. Their bare feet stepped silently onto the soft, plush carpet as they began to inch toward the bedside, bit by agonizing bit.
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