Gourmet Festival's venue.
When Setsuna appeared via teleportation with the two, a commotion immediately broke out.
"President!" The IGO's members, seeing Ichiryu unharmed and even looking revitalized, wept tears of joy.
"Midora-sama!" The remnants of the Bishokukai instinctively felt awe and unease. Their president was actually standing with the IGO?
Toriko and the others were both surprised and relieved. Relieved that Ichiryu was safe, surprised that the big boss of the Bishokukai had also come.
"Ichiryu-chan! I'm so glad you're alright!" Grandma Setsuno breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yo! Midora, you came too?" Jiro greeted with a smile, seemingly unsurprised by Midora's appearance. "It's been a long time since we three disciples were together like this."
Midora did not respond, simply casting a cold glance around the venue, pausing for a moment on the unconscious Joie.
Ichiryu nodded to the crowd, then looked eagerly at Setsuna: "Setsuna, can you speak now? What exactly happened in the future?"
Setsuna first explained his origins to everyone else, then said, "To understand the potential disaster in the future, I need to start with the origin of Earth."
The crowd was somewhat surprised, 'You're really going back to the beginning of time?'
"Hundreds of millions of years ago, the [Gourmet Nobles], the Blue Nitro, descended upon Earth. They scattered Gourmet Cells, transforming Earth into its current state. Their fundamental goal was to cook Earth!"
"What? Cook Earth?" The crowd was in an uproar.
Setsuna continued, "Gourmet Cells are like the yeast a baker uses when making bread. Their function is to cause the 'ingredient' that is Earth to mature and ferment continuously, growing and expanding in the process."
"The current volume of Earth is 659 times that of the original Earth."
The crowd was shocked. They had long grown accustomed to Earth's current size. They hadn't realized just how vast the difference was between today's Earth and the ancient Earth.
Midora asked in a deep voice, "Is this crisis you speak of the fact that Earth is about to become 'cooked' to maturity?"
"Correct." Setsuna nodded affirmatively. "In fact, the cooking process began long ago and has been ongoing ever since."
"The meteor shower that caused the extinction of prehistoric civilizations was the lighting of the fire and initial seasoning marking the start of cooking."
"The meteors streaking across the sky were seasonings sprinkled down to make Earth more delicious."
"The frequent crustal movements and continental drift were the chef 'tossing the wok' to distribute heat and flavor more evenly."
"The magma erupting from volcanoes was the heat and soup generated during the cooking process."
"Even the solar and lunar eclipses you witness are not purely astronomical phenomena, but a method used during the cooking process to adjust the heat or apply special treatments!"
Every word Setsuna spoke was like a hammer blow, striking at the foundations of everyone's worldview.
The Earth they lived on had been treated as a dish, cooked all along?
"And according to information from the future," Setsuna's voice became incredibly solemn, "When the next solar eclipse occurs, the entire cooking process will reach its peak. Earth will become fully mature, all its accumulated flavor and energy will reach their zenith, and then..."
"Completely collapse, disintegrate, becoming a dish named [Earth]." (T/N: This Earth and EARTH was written differently in RAW, so I'll just use Capital letters to differentiate them.)
Inside the venue, deathly silence.
Everyone was stunned speechless by this terrifying prophecy.
Setsuna continued, "The enemies we must face are the Blue Nitro and Acacia."
"What? Acacia?"
"The Gourmet God Acacia? Didn't he die hundreds of years ago?"
Uproar again.
Setsuna explained, "Because the Appetite Demon inside Acacia, NEO, is the incarnation of [Ultimate Appetite]. It is so powerful that even the Blue Nitro who created it fear it."
"The Blue Nitro collaborated with Acacia precisely to resurrect NEO, and then permanently kill it in this planet!"
"And the key to resurrecting NEO is the King of All Ingredients, GOD, which is also the most essential part of the Earth dish cooked to perfection."
After the shock, Toriko asked, "So, our mission is to find and eat GOD before the next solar eclipse arrives?"
"If we eat it first, then the cooking of Earth can't be completed, right?"
"It's not that simple, Toriko." Setsuna shook his head slightly. "We do need to eat GOD. It is a key step in completing our own Gourmet Cell's evolution. Only by evolving to a higher level will we be qualified to participate in the final battle."
He paused, then revealed an even more critical part: "But at the same time, we must also share GOD with NEO, or rather, at the specific right moment, let NEO eat it as well."
"What?" Sunny couldn't help but exclaim, his beautiful face full of confusion. "Why let that planet-destroying demon eat GOD too? Wouldn't that fully resurrect it?"
"Exactly. We need to let it fully resurrect." Setsuna nodded. "The 'cooking' process of Earth has been ongoing for hundreds of millions of years, and it is now nearing its end. It cannot be stopped."
"Even if we successfully defeat all the Blue Nitro and overcome Acacia, we cannot halt this process."
"So, your plan is..." Ichiryu seemed to vaguely guess something.
"My plan is substitution!" Setsuna's voice was resolute. "Since the cooking of Earth cannot be stopped, we use another, more suitable 'ingredient' to replace Earth and complete this final 'cooking step'!"
"A more suitable ingredient?" Zebra frowned.
Setsuna said, "According to information I obtained from the future, over the endless ages of the past, NEO has already devoured millions of life-bearing planets."
"Millions of life-bearing planets!" The crowd gasped. What a terrifying monster.
"The life energy and planetary essence accumulated within NEO have long reached an unimaginable level!"
Setsuna continued, "From the perspective of an 'ingredient', NEO is a more perfect main course than Earth."
"So, what we need to do is fully resurrect NEO, then defeat it, use it to replace Earth, complete the final cooking, and then divide it and eat it."
Using the demon itself as the sacrificial offering and feast to save the world.
The crowd was captivated by the picture Setsuna painted. Many even began to imagine the taste of NEO.
Setsuna smiled faintly. To be precise, the final cooked NEO was his true target.
NEO's strength wasn't particularly great, only at a planetary level, but its energy level was galactic.
"Wait a minute." Toriko scratched his head. "Then isn't our goal the same as the Blue Nitro's? Both of us aim to resurrect and defeat NEO. Can't we cooperate with them?"
Setsuna shook his head slightly. "Internal troubles must be settled before external aggression. When it comes to Earth's affairs, it's not the place for these aliens to interfere."