Although Something Unto Death seemed to be cursing viciously, it had no intention of staying here any longer.
After all, the last time it had been slapped so hard that it was left dazed, and its face still hurt.
After grunting twice where it stood, it turned around, slipped into the darkness, and disappeared once again.
Nero paid no attention to the roadblock he had accidentally knocked over when he arrived in the lobby. Sitting on the Shell of Faded Fury, he glanced around at everyone present.
Ignoring everyone's slightly surprised looks as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Nero looked directly at Stelle and asked, "Himeko and March still aren't here? I guess they got lost in this place too."
Stelle helped Firefly steady herself, then stood up, nodded to Nero, and said, "We got lost just now too, but Miss Black Swan sensed traces left behind by Firefly and that monster in the memory domain, so she used some special methods unique to Memokeepers to bring us here."
Nero jumped down from the purple Tyrannosaurus, looked at Firefly standing beside Stelle, and asked the question he cared about most.
"So? Did the treatment work?"
"Uh..."
Firefly's expression became complicated.
She had never truly left the dream. The version of her in the dream right now was essentially an information model of herself from the instant she entered the dream.
Even if Nero's treatment, which looked rather childish, had really begun to improve her Entropy Loss Syndrome, what happened in reality couldn't be reflected in this fixed slice of time.
In other words, she had no idea whether the treatment had worked, so she couldn't answer Nero's question at all. Seeing the clean, sincere eyes of the boy looking at her with concern made her feel a trace of guilt.
Fortunately, Nero didn't make things difficult for her.
Seeing her hesitate, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Oh, I get it. So you can't see the results yet. It's fine. Once we're back in reality, we'll ask Bailu to take a look."
Nero's understanding made Firefly let out a sigh of relief.
But the next moment, she heard him ask another question that was difficult to explain, "So, Sister Firefly, why are you here too? I remember you and Stelle were both sent back to reality by Sister Black Swan's power last time, right?"
"Uh..."
Firefly's expression stiffened. For a moment, she had no idea how to explain it.
At that moment, she almost wished Elio had given her one of his complicated scripts. At least then, no matter what situation she faced, she could answer smoothly without leaving any openings.
But after thinking about it carefully, even if Elio had given her the complete script, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
After what had happened with this child on the Xianzhou Luofu, Elio had once said that as long as she encountered Nero, she should play it by ear. The script had already lost its meaning.
Thinking back over Elio's past prophecies regarding the Astral Express crew's journey, they had involved far more than just the Nameless themselves.
Firefly knew that in Elio's original prophecy, in a city called Belobog, a Supreme Guardian named Cocolia would choose to take her own life in order to suppress the Stellaron's growing activity.
Yet that Supreme Guardian had now been sent to Nero's factory to work as cheap labor.
For another example, Elio had once said that after Phantylia's first invasion of the Luofu failed, she would escape successfully.
Instead, that Lord Ravager had been chased down and beaten by the "Luofu," captured, and was now being used as firewood in Nero's factory.
Many unexpected things had happened, and the story had headed toward an ending that looked rather strange.
Like what had just happened.
The script had said that she would experience three deaths in Penacony.
The moment Something Unto Death grabbed her, Firefly had thought she was about to meet the first death described in the script.
Then Nero suddenly appeared, and the mount beneath him rammed the Memory Zone Meme away with a single headbutt...
Just as Firefly was feeling troubled and desperately searching for an excuse, Black Swan and Acheron finally recovered from their shock and walked over.
The Galaxy Ranger still spoke very little, only casting curious glances at the Shell of Faded Fury and Nero.
Acheron was very interested in Nero.
Through her sight and perception, she could sense things that were difficult for others to notice.
To her, Nero's presence was far too strong. A certain influence surrounded him within a fixed radius, like some kind of light, a light that could make even corpses feel full of vitality beneath its radiance.
Moreover, that influence didn't seem to be something he was deliberately controlling. It was simply something unconsciously emitted from within his body.
It resembled the unconscious influence spread by Nihility, yet its nature and expression were completely different. Compared to Nihility's terrifying corrosive power, what surrounded Nero was more like a kind of compulsory influence.
Acheron frowned.
She felt she had realized why Nero's presence was so overwhelming.
He was like a... reality anchor with its own thoughts... one that could move.
While Acheron's thoughts churned, Black Swan had already stepped forward and said, "I'm also very curious why you're here in this primitive memory domain."
The mysterious Memokeeper narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at Firefly with a half-examining gaze.
"The gateway I opened shouldn't have gone wrong in theory, unless the person passing through it held such a strong desire in their heart that they refused to leave this dream no matter what..."
Nero had only asked casually, but now that Black Swan had joined in, the atmosphere suddenly became serious, almost like an interrogation.
Under those circumstances, Firefly first confirmed one thing.
She said that she had already returned to reality.
Then she searched for a suitable explanation for why she had returned here again. She first thought of the reason she and Stelle had originally entered this bizarre dream, so that her explanation would sound believable.
The first time they had come here, it was because that person who seemed to be Stelle's friend had used some method to put both of them to sleep.
Firefly started from there.
The explanation she came up with on the spot was roughly this...
After entering the dream once again, she recalled the scene from before. She didn't know whether that had triggered some crucial piece of information, but the light and shadows around her suddenly reversed.
The beautiful dream collapsed into the appearance of this place, and after that, she was inexplicably targeted by that Memory Zone Meme.
After hearing it, everyone believed her.
No matter what, the beautiful dream created by the Family was currently in a very unusual state. That greatly increased the credibility of Firefly's explanation.
Even Black Swan didn't doubt it.
In fact, as someone who understood the memory domain and memoria, she knew better than anyone how changeable, malleable, and dangerous the memory domain was.
That only made her believe Firefly's explanation even more.
Seeing that everyone accepted her story, Firefly let out a sigh of relief.
At that moment, Nero looked at Black Swan and said, "Since Himeko and March still aren't here, let's go pick them up. This place is pretty dangerous, and it's easy to get lost. Can you help us find them?"
The moment Nero said this place was dangerous, everyone's expressions became rather interesting.
They all turned to look at Nero in unison.
They looked at the purple Tyrannosaurus.
They looked at the shattered floor.
They looked at the ruined corridor beneath the floor and the charred-black remains of the other Memory Zone Memes.
And now, the person responsible for all of this was saying this place was dangerous?
The most dangerous thing here is you.
Everyone had the same thought, but no one said it aloud.
After a brief silence, Black Swan nodded.
"I can."
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