Noah had never thought he would encounter Iuno in the Chaos.
Ever since he first left Jinzhou, he had already grown used to facing problems alone and had never fantasized about being saved by others.
Even with Rover, he had already accepted by default that she was trapped somewhere and had prepared himself to save her as well in the future.
This way of thinking caused him to initially believe he was seeing another hallucination when he saw Iuno's figure, which had become so illusory it was almost transparent, in the Chaos.
It was only when Iuno's character pool information popped up before his eyes that he confirmed the person in front of him was really Iuno!
"Wait, why did you come here? This main quest didn't require you to use your own existence to anchor the big fake guy."
This was what Noah originally wanted to say, but after seeing her cry until she was sobbing uncontrollably, he ultimately swallowed the words of reproach.
Noah wrapped his jacket around her trembling shoulders and comforted her for a while. Only then did Iuno finally calm down and recount everything she had experienced.
"So you're saying you came here to save me?"
Listening to Noah's summary, Iuno lowered her head in embarrassment and silently accepted the conclusion.
She hadn't expected that not only did she fail to save Noah, she even got herself trapped here as well.
"I'm sorry, I failed." As soon as the words left her mouth, she spoke again urgently, trying hard to make up for her mistake:
"Anyway, things have already turned out like this. From now on… from now on I'll stay with you here in the Chaos. You won't be alone anymore."
"Mm, I understand the situation now… Can you get off me?"
Hearing this, Iuno let go of Noah as if electrocuted, retreating two steps. Feeling that this was too distant, she took another step forward, still lowering her head with guilt and not daring to meet Noah's eyes.
"No matter what, thank you for your intention to save me. However, I don't plan to stay in this pitch-black place."
Hearing Noah's words, Iuno looked up in confusion:
"What do you mean?"
"Wait here for me."
Noah did not explain. He switched to Shorekeeper, left an invisible anchor point on the spot, and immediately teleported to the previous anchor point location.
The three-headed giant representing Fate was no longer here and had already left, but this did not trouble Noah.
He switched to Iuno, performed a few basic attacks to fill the Concerto, and released a heavy attack.
[Full Moon Domain], activate!
A deep blue full moon instantly hung high in the sky of the Chaos.
Five seconds… ten seconds… twenty seconds…
Accompanied by the sound of countless pieces of glass shattering, a large number of frequencies in the Chaos were anchored, but the three-headed giant still did not appear.
"Fine, fine, fine. You're deliberately hiding from me, huh? Just wait."
Noah switched to Shorekeeper and instantly teleported back to Iuno's position.
[Limited Banner "Axis of Overflow and Eclipse", "Annotations of All Things' Permanence" has been activated.]
"Noah!"
Seeing Noah reappear, Iuno's tense nerves finally relaxed again.
In this dark and deep Chaos, her heart had become extremely sensitive. Any change would make her uneasy.
Noah's previous disappearance had filled her with extreme panic. She feared he would never return and even suspected that their earlier meeting was just an illusion of the Chaos.
Thankfully, he came back.
"Where did you go just now?" Iuno couldn't help but scold him with a hint of complaint in her voice.
Noah did not answer. He simply opened the banner and glanced at the number of pulls in the top right corner.
Astrite 3280, Radiant Tide*20.
Pull, pull.
10 pulls — gold, 4-chain Iuno.
20 pulls — gold, 5-chain Iuno.
30 pulls — gold, Rover 1-chain.
40 pulls — gold, 6-chain Iuno.
Gold every single time. Even Noah couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle.
No way… If he had been this lucky when fighting the False Sovereign earlier, how would any of this have happened?
With no time to complain, he closed the panel and instructed Iuno:
"Wait here for me."
With a thought, he appeared at the previous location again.
Switch to Iuno.
Concerto was still full!
Direct heavy attack. The Full Moon Domain expanded once more.
An unprecedentedly huge blue moon appeared in the sky, emitting several times more anchoring power than before. Its light almost illuminated more than half of the Chaos.
"Boss!" *3.
Synchronized screams came from afar.
The three-headed giant charged desperately and in the blink of an eye prostrated itself before Noah. Their long necks pressed tightly against the ground as they cried out in unison:
"Mercy, Boss!" *3.
Small head: "It was the future that suggested we shouldn't come out just now."
Middle head: "It said meeting you never leads to anything good. If we just ignored you, you would leave on your own soon."
Big head: "Traitors, both of you are traitors."
He closed the Full Moon Domain and accurately stabbed an arrow into the top of the big head. The latter dared not show anger:
"Boss, what instructions do you have this time?"
"I have something I'd like to ask for your help with."
Noah looked at the three bird heads lying on the ground and quickly explained Iuno's situation.
After learning the full story, all three bird heads looked extremely aggrieved.
Small head: "So it was just this small matter."
Middle head: "Boss, you should have said so earlier."
Big head: "Her existence hasn't been completely absorbed by the Chaos yet. Just give her a burst of anchoring Resonance power and she can leave."
"Next time you dare play dead again, I'll turn you into Echoes."
After sincerely saying "Thanks," Noah teleported away.
In place, the three bird heads looked at each other.
Small head: "Based on my past experience, why don't we secretly follow them?"
Middle head: "Agreed. If anything happens again, we can just solve it for him."
Big head: "If we can't solve it, then he'll solve us."
On the other side.
The moment Noah appeared, he was tightly grabbed by Iuno who had been waiting anxiously for a long time. There was even a trace of uneasy crying in her voice:
"Don't leave. You're not allowed to leave me again."
His two consecutive disappearances had truly frightened Iuno to the extreme.
She didn't know about Shorekeeper's teleportation ability. She only knew that the Noah she had finally found had suddenly vanished.
She had already prepared herself to rely on each other in this dark Chaos, but Noah left as soon as he said he would, leaving Iuno with no sense of security.
She was afraid Noah would abandon her.
"Are you scared?"
"I'm not."
Of course she was.
Looking at Iuno, whose face was full of unease but who stubbornly denied it, Noah didn't know how to describe his feelings for a moment.
Seriously, she clearly knew the risks of entering the Chaos, yet she still insisted on coming to save him.
So this was what it felt like to be cared for by someone and to be saved with all their strength. It felt warm inside, as if illuminated by sunlight.
"Alright, alright. I won't leave again after this. You can let go now."
"I won't."
Iuno shook her head quickly. Her pair of blue twin-tails swayed behind her as she gripped Noah's hand even tighter, her true feelings pouring out:
"I'm going to hold you tightly. I won't let you leave again. No matter where you want to go, I will go with you."
"..."
Her palm was smaller than he had imagined, cool to the touch, carrying a certain indescribable tremble. It was like mutton-fat jade carved by a master — soft, delicate, and smooth.
Noah remained silent for a moment, lowering his head to look at their tightly clasped hands. His expression softened slightly.
He would indulge her willfulness this once.
Besides, he wasn't losing out.
"Alright."
Through their joined palms, faint anchoring power flowed bit by bit into Iuno's body as he made a serious promise:
"In this Chaos, even if the world ends in the next second, I will hold your hand."