In the dark world, the two of them walked hand in hand.
"Oh~ So the False Sovereign was defeated by you and Augusta in the end."
Noah instinctively wanted to stroke his chin while thinking, but his right hand was held by Iuno and his left hand was holding the guiding anchoring arrow, so he was forced to abandon the action.
So it wasn't Cartethyia who killed the False Sovereign.
That made sense. He remembered teleporting Cartethyia to Septimont City. Even if she rushed over immediately, it would still take time.
He turned his head, and his gaze met Iuno's directly. In her eyes, which were as clear as autumn water, only his figure was reflected.
As he continuously infused anchoring Resonance power, Iuno's body had become much more solid, losing the previous ghostly feeling.
If the Iuno he met in Septimont City before was a tsundere, then the current one had lost the "tsun" and only had the "dere" left.
He still found the previous Iuno more familiar.
With that thought, Noah immediately began trying to restore Iuno's original personality:
"Iuno, you don't want to be unable to leave the Chaos either, right?"
"Huh?"
Iuno was stunned. She suddenly noticed that the anchoring Resonance power flowing from his left hand had stopped.
She didn't understand what he meant. Although she desperately wanted more Resonance power to make up for her own deficiency, she felt too embarrassed to ask. Her small face showed an extremely confused expression as her round red lips parted slightly:
"Eh…"
"That's right. The Resonance power I'm giving you is the important medium for you to return to the real world."
Noah coaxed patiently, a wicked smile appearing on his face:
"My Resonance power is very abundant. Returning to reality myself is no problem, but as for you… without me charging you, you'll have to stay here alone."
"This…"
Feeling that Noah's hand was about to loosen, Iuno panicked. She gripped his hand tighter, her voice filled with grievance and helplessness:
"Noah, you… you can't do this…"
If she remained in the Chaos, her past and present would be absorbed by the Chaos and cease to exist.
Only by holding onto Noah and relying on the Resonance power he provided could she preserve her existence and grasp the future.
"Oh~ Do you want my big anchor?"
"I want it!"
"Then call me something nice first."
One sentence caused Iuno's CPU to start overloading.
Something nice? What counts as something nice?
As a genius Priestess, other than Granny Lillibet, she addressed everyone else—including the Governor—by their full names. She had almost never used flattering titles to please anyone.
As Noah's hand loosened even more, Iuno hurriedly gripped it tightly, not letting his warmth escape, and called out:
"Unwritten One!"
"What the heck?" Noah looked confused.
"When I was looking for you in the Chaos, in order not to forget you, I kept recalling experiences related to you."
Iuno explained hurriedly:
"I realized that the reason my prophecies failed was because when you use other people's Resonance abilities, your frequency changes accordingly."
"So the fate I prophesied belonged to others, not you. As for the fate that belongs to you, I cannot predict it."
"You carry the fate of other people and have even saved the fate of the entire world. Therefore, calling you the destination of fate — Unwritten One."
Noah had to admit that Iuno's evaluation was much more sophisticated than the "colorful" description he had given himself before.
In a great mood, Noah gripped Iuno's hand a little tighter and, as a reward, resumed transferring anchoring Resonance power:
"Good call. Call me a few more times."
"Unwritten One, Unwritten One, Unwritten One, Unwritten One."
"I now hold the power over whether you can leave the Chaos. So, shouldn't you listen to everything I say?"
This… was this something that could be said?
Iuno lowered her head. The tips of her ears turned a light pink, and a blush spread across her neck. If it was him… he had already disappeared once for her. It didn't seem impossible.
But what exactly did he want her to do?
With three parts apprehension, three parts anticipation, and four parts reluctant willingness, Iuno spoke in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz:
"Yes, I'll listen to everything… everything you say."
"That's good." Noah spoke casually:
"I still prefer your previous unruly and arrogant self. Go back to that."
"You!"
Realizing she had been tricked, Iuno got angry and raised her other hand to punch Noah's chest:
"How was I unruly and arrogant before?"
"You want to know? Then I'll demonstrate it for you — Augusta, expel this beast who is about to break into the girls' bathhouse from Septimont!"
"Aaaahhh!"
One sentence instantly made Iuno's face burn red:
"No, that wasn't me. I don't acknowledge it."
"Hm?" Noah made a motion as if to let go. Iuno immediately gripped him tightly and corrected her attitude in one second:
"It was me. I acknowledge it."
"Ah, at that time I didn't know your future belonged to someone else. Any normal person wouldn't have a good expression toward someone trying to break into the girls' bathhouse, right?"
"Besides… besides, you punished me later anyway. I scrubbed my feet until they turned red to wash off the words you wrote…"
The more she spoke, the more flustered she became. Iuno could only try her best to find excuses and change the subject:
"Let's not talk about this anymore. I'm starting to see hallucinations from the anchoring process."
Hearing this, Noah stopped talking and looked together at Iuno's hallucination.
Since he was currently using Iuno's character, he could naturally see the hallucinations she saw, though Iuno could not see his.
...
"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Iuno."
In front of a blazing forge, a craftsman hammered the blade in his hands while looking at a young Iuno standing before him:
"You should have heard most of Priestess Lillibet's prophecy. What do you think?"
"With your personality, if you become a mystical Priestess in the Tetragon Temple, dealing with candles, stones, and scrolls every day… that scene is truly unimaginable."
The craftsman smiled and shook his head, looking at his daughter with affection:
"If you really become a Priestess, according to the rules you won't need this moon bow as much. But if you don't become one, it would be a waste of the talent that other Priestesses could never obtain in their lifetime."
"It's not up to me. It's fine as long as you can figure it out yourself. As for me, I'm just a weapon maker. You decide your own path."
The hallucination before her suddenly stopped, instantly switching to the next scene.
In the hallucination, the young Iuno who had already become a Priestess was fiddling with candles and pigments, attempting to paint a mural.
"What should I prophesy about today? Never mind, no matter what I prophesy, I can always get it right and always see it."
Little Iuno thought for a moment and casually picked a direction:
"Then I'll prophesy who I will fall in love with in the future."
Almost the moment she chose the direction, she immediately saw the future in her eyes:
"I will fall in love with… a person with a blank fate? Strange, what does this mean?"
Outside the hallucination, the real Iuno secretly glanced at Noah, then quickly looked away as if electrocuted, her breathing growing slightly heavier.
A person whose fate she could not see — how could that not count as a person with a blank fate?
No, she absolutely could not let him know, otherwise who knows how he would tease her.
But… would she really fall in love with him?
Thinking this, the girl's thoughts gradually became strange.
Unwritten One… her Unwritten One… If fate truly arranged it this way, having Noah as the destination of her fate seemed… not bad?
Suddenly, the hallucination before her changed again.
"Destruction, failure, having nothing…"
"The flame of fate has already foreseen it. I knew it long ago… Calamity descends, the Dark Tide overwhelms everything, civilization sinks into nothingness. The prophesied ending is absolutely correct…"
"Three years later, the Dark Tide will swallow everything imaginable. Griffins cannot outrun it, gladiators cannot defeat it. In an instant, we won't even have time to leave anything behind before it spreads endlessly."
In the hallucination, candles and pigments were scattered all over the floor.
In the messy environment, Iuno tightly gripped the stone in her hand and looked up at the moon phase in the sky, as if questioning fate:
"If the future is destined to end like this, then what value does prophecy have?"
"If the moon no longer wishes to illuminate the darkness of the future, then I will be the one to guide where fate should go!"
"I exchange my prophetic ability with the Chaos. One day, I will use my entire existence to become the arrow that anchors the False Sovereign, anchoring the future of Septimont!"
...
"Oh~"
Noah pondered thoughtfully:
"So your ability was exchanged with the Chaos."
"Eh— Y-y-you!" Iuno's mind went blank, and her face instantly turned bright red: "You saw everything?"
That meant… that meant he also saw her saying she would fall in love with a person with a blank fate…
Noah did not try to guess Iuno's thoughts. He simply felt that a question that had puzzled him for a long time had finally been answered.
Previously, he had always wondered why Iuno, who should have lost her prophetic ability, still retained a small portion of it.
Now he knew.
He took out the Feather of the Future given by the big red head with his left hand and spoke politely:
"Please return Iuno's prophetic ability!"
The Chaos remained completely silent, with no response.
Seeing this, Noah turned around, drew the moon bow with a backhand, and pointed the arrow at a seemingly calm spot within the Chaos:
"I told you to return Iuno's prophetic ability. Do you understand?"