"Looking at things now, the development of these four dreams is quite pleasing. I suppose you could call them happy endings.", As Nero spoke, he looked at the little cat cake beside him.
"If it weren't a dream but reality, then that would indeed be the case."
Little Fuli looked at Nero as she said this, but the one actually communicating with Nero was Big Fuli.
March stood eagerly beside the person and cat cake, looking left and right... She could understand what Nero said, but Little Fuli, no, she should be called Lord Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, now, was saying things she could not really understand. It wasn't that she couldn't understand a single word, she just couldn't understand any of it.
March really hadn't expected that she, a beautiful language master who could exchange a few words with any species, would actually stumble in front of Fuli.
She couldn't understand what the other party was rambling on about at all, and in the end, she had still lost to Nero by one move.
But it didn't matter. As long as Nero could understand, that was enough.
March didn't need to know too much. She only needed to know that her companions were in danger and that they had to find a way to save everyone.
Looking out the train window, dazzling golden light illuminated the universe. A giant as vast as the stars was peacefully asleep there, his divine body formed from golden structures, his arms covering a marble-carved face. Its name was The Fetus of Philosophy.
March frowned slightly, her gaze becoming resolute.
When she and Nero, guided by Fuli, opened a path and returned to reality, this enormous thing had already been floating in the Asdana system.
When she had suddenly awakened aboard the train and seen everyone around her asleep, the sight had frightened March quite a bit.
At this moment, with Fuli's display, she and Nero watched the traces of the four layers of dreams within that fetus's swaddling clothes.
"Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask this since earlier. What is that?"
Nero suddenly spoke, then pointed toward a certain spot above the head of The Fetus of Philosophy outside the carriage.
March and Fuli looked over as well. There, deep within the boundless, dim starry sky, there was a faint, blurry point of light.
That light was completely different from the stars, because it looked as though it were shining down from an infinitely distant place, a heaven beyond heaven, something outside the universe, a place that was... forever one level higher.
Just as the three of them were carefully observing the strange point of light, some kind of tremor suddenly arose deep within them, as though they had heard the sound of something shattering for an instant. At the same time, the place where the point of light was located also changed.
Some cracks appeared above The Fetus of Philosophy and rapidly expanded and spread. This strange change infected the stars like a plague, making the universe look like an eggshell. At this moment, something directly knocked a hole through that eggshell from the outside.
In the next instant, the source of light suddenly expanded. The center, where the cracks were densest, shattered with a crash.
A shuttle-shaped void appeared at the boundary of the world, cracks spreading around it. Ghostly purple light blossomed from the void, casting its color across the entire starry sky...
That void... looked like an eye, an eye that was looking down upon the entire world.
Nero and March were curious and puzzled by this strange sight and change, while the latter also felt an additional sense of fear.
Fuli fell silent.
She of course knew what that was.
It was a piece of history, a memory she had buried, a terrifying catastrophe...
The last time that eye appeared, it caused a universe-wide "All-Quadrant Reset" event.
Under the unconscious "gaze" of that eye, all living things would grow younger and younger until they decomposed into atoms; the eternal stars would gradually dissolve and cease to exist; definitions would be distorted; concepts would be erased... until a certain thought was born, and everything would collapse into the form it desired.
It was a sudden crisis. Even the intervention of the Aeons was useless. It was not something that existed within this world.
To this universe, it was like the Aeons were to humans, space was to a plane, the upper level was to the lower level, and higher dimensions were to lower dimensions.
This was something the Aeons only understood after Idrila disappeared and the universe returned to stability.
Fuli had always retained that memory. In order to give form to such a formless thing, Idrila chose to embrace it.
The God of Beauty fell at that moment, becoming shattered into pieces and filling the broken sky, in exchange for a long period of stability and an exceptional life.
He does not belong to this world. He is still a child. To him, we exist within a game. That was the first message transmitted after Beauty awakened.
Fuli did not know what Idrila had seen in "that child," but it would definitely be a memory worth preserving.
"That is..."
Fuli was about to answer Nero's question, but within Nero's mind, the Unified Secretary gave the answer first, "That is an illusion, an illusion from a dream. But because it is too powerful, it has projected itself into reality."
"I see." Nero thought to himself, nodding thoughtfully.
Fuli: "..."
———
[Don't tell him. Just keeping the limiter on the power is already hard enough. What if he learns the truth and accidentally causes reality to collapse again? (●◡●)]
[You're having quite a lot of fun, Idrila... (╯▔皿▔)╯]
[I can't reveal my identity. This child is really smart. I'm still learning how to play the role of a cheat ability based on the novels in his memories. ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ]
[But if I reveal my identity... His current body is made from my fragments, at least... (/ω＼)]
[Do you think he'll call me Mom? (❁´◡`❁)]
[You're beyond saving... (lll￢ω￢)]
[...(☆▽☆) You guys are having quite a lot of fun, huh? But I'm having fun here too. Did you see that "eye" in the sky? I made it! Even the incarnation in the dream is capable of this level... o(*≧▽≦)ツ┏━┓]
[This is Aha... I'm Nous. ╮(╯-╰)╭]
[These emoticons were also made by Aha... Mm, I'm still Nous. (#｀-_ゝ-)]
The above information all came from the Aeon internal communication authority interaction network created by Nous. Ever since experiencing the "All-Quadrant Reset" event, these things had been becoming more and more human.
According to Nous's deduction, this was the result of reality collapsing after they were observed by Nero.
———
"That is an illusion... from this layer of the dream. And not every layer of the dream developed smoothly." Fuli changed her words and said this to Nero. Then, she showed Nero the story that had unfolded within that layer of the dream.