Shhk—!
A strange sound echoed as the sharp weapon pierced through the energy barrier and the divine, godly flesh.
Aquila's divine body, which had been struggling madly, suddenly stiffened. Every movement halted in an instant. The light in its eyes, once filled with brutality and chaos, dimmed at a terrifying speed.
It let out one final, faint cry of mourning. Then, its massive form, completely drained of all strength, slid like a puppet with its strings cut, tumbling down with broken stones towards the churning golden molten lava abyss directly beneath the Eye of Twilight.
…
But in the instant before its consciousness was about to completely dissipate, within Aquila's chaotic mind, flooded by the whispers of the Black Tide and the trauma of battle, a deep, seductive voice abruptly echoed, as if branding itself directly onto its dying soul:
"You resist the erosion of the Black Tide so much... and you desire so desperately to live... so why not choose to completely embrace the Crimson Tide instead?"
These inexplicable words became the final echo within its divine consciousness.
…
Above, the gathered Chrysos Heirs, clustered at the edge of the shattered platform, watched the churning golden pool below with tension.
After Aquila's immense divine form sank into it, there were initially some towering waves stirred up, but then it gradually calmed. Only the occasional massive bubble rising to the surface proved that the depths below were not completely silent.
"It should be... over, right?" Hyacine hugged little Ica tightly, her voice laced with uncertainty as she looked towards her more experienced companions. The intensity of the battle had far exceeded her imagination—after all, this was a Titan who had once ruled the skies.
"It should be a success, right?" Cipher stood on a beam temporarily fixed by one of Aglaea's golden threads.
Relying on the extraordinary dynamic vision of a demigod of Cunning, she keenly caught a glimpse of a blue-purple glow slowly floating up within the golden liquid—it was the light of the Sky Coreflame!
"Look! The Coreflame is surfacing! That should be the... Huh?!"
But then—!
Thump!!!
An extremely abrupt dull sound, as if something tough was being forcibly torn apart, suddenly exploded from the depths of the golden pool!
The next second, under the horrified gaze of everyone, a massive claw, composed entirely of crystal-clear amber-like substance, violently thrust out from the pool!
With a brutally domineering motion, it seized the newly surfaced blue-purple Coreflame and then... forcibly shoved it back beneath the surface, into the vague massive form below!
"ROAR—!!!"
A clear, resonant cry, completely different from Aquila's previous calls, filled with a newborn-like ferocity and majesty, reached their ears.
A golden figure, even larger and more dazzling, burst forth from the golden pool, shattering its restraints, splashing golden liquid everywhere. Like a second sun, it rose slowly within this ancient battlefield!
It was a giant bird, its entire body seemingly forged from pure amber and flowing gold. Its eyes blazed with crimson flames, and its whole form radiated an awe-inspiring, overwhelming aura—a terrifying mixture of the authority of Sky and some unknown power!
…
Meanwhile, deep within the heart of the holy city of Okhema, inside the Dawn Device that no one could easily tread.
Phaethon, who had been silently sitting on the ancient stone throne, seemingly merged with the machine itself, slowly stood up.
Around the stone throne, the amber crystals that had been slowly spreading were now madly spreading and growing at a visible speed. In an instant, they covered every structure inside, emitting an increasingly intense light.
It is time.
A cold will resounded within his heart.
Since the "Black Tide," born from the equations of the Destruction Path, could erode and distort all things on Amphoreus like a plague...
...then why can't the "Crimson Tide," guided by my own hand and born from the concept of Preservation,... cover this land?
His clothes had also changed. No longer were they the weathered, worn-out garments that barely showed their original form.
He had changed into a new robe.
It was the one Aglaea had prepared for him in the 496th cycle. Back then, Aglaea had hoped these clothes would symbolize his new beginning.
But when he truly put them on, it was to walk towards his own end.
…
On the high city walls of Okhema, an utterly bored Stelle dangled her legs, watching the orderly yet slightly tense scene of the holy city below, and let out a long sigh.
"Dan Heng... I'm so bored—" she dragged out her tone, her voice full of the lament of having nothing to do.
Standing beside her, Dan Heng, who had remained vigilant and observant, shook his head helplessly. "It's better for you to be bored,"
he stated the fact calmly, as if recalling a certain disaster. "Last time you said you were bored, it was just your excuse to swallow all the red soil from a little Dromas's bowl. Then you realized it wasn't your favorite Anaxa-brand special edition red soil—the taste was far inferior."
Stelle: "Uh..."
Dan Heng continued his relentless exposure: "Then, to wash away the bitterness of the red soil from your mouth, you secretly drank all the honey wine that a young Lady of the Lake had just prepared and set aside to enjoy during her break."
Stelle: "Well..."
Dan Heng: "Most crucially, to avoid being caught drinking it secretly, you casually poured the cool water from the water flask of a little Chimera, who had set it down after work, into the bottle that held the honey wine to make up the volume. Then you put the 'honey wine' mixed with cool water back in its original place."
He paused, delivering the chaotic conclusion: "In the end, when the little Dromas, the Lady of the Lake, and the little Chimera took their midday break after working hard all morning—their world collapsed."
"Ah, haha, haha..." Stelle scratched her head, a smile both embarrassed and polite appearing on her face. "I... I did eventually realize my mistake and took them to the market to buy back everything they lost, didn't I?!"
Dan Heng opened his mouth, looked at Stelle's expression trying to be cute and escape blame, but ultimately swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue—You did take them to buy things, but you also personally appropriated over fifty kilograms of Anaxa-brand red soil under the pretext of 'helping the little Dromas buy special red soil'... That little Dromas had to eat normal red soil for a whole week.
"If you really have nothing to do," Dan Heng changed the subject, offering a constructive suggestion, "why not take a few more photos of our last moments on Amphoreus? From Lady Aglaea's previous communications, if the Sky Titan's subjugation goes smoothly, there shouldn't be anything else preventing us from leaving Amphoreus."
He added, "Mr. Yang has already repaired the damaged carriage about seventy or eighty percent. While it can't be fully restored to its original state, it should be enough to safely get us back to the Astral Express."