The Asdana Star System, home to the Planet of Festivities—Penacony.
The land of exile.
Dreamflux Reef.
Beneath the enormous rift in the Sea of Memoria hanging over Asdana, Evan and the others stood behind Mikhail as they finalized their plan.
"But Penacony has all Twelve Dreamscapes. How many bombs would it take to blow the whole thing up?"
Stelle immediately pointed out the key issue.
She had a point.
What enveloped Penacony wasn't merely a dream.
It was something akin to a dream authority.
Trying to blow up something like that...
wouldn't be easy.
As soon as Stelle voiced the question, Welt, March 7th, and the others all turned toward Evan.
"It's simple."
"What bombs?"
"Penacony exists inside Tayzzyronth... no—Taiyi's Dream."
"And Taiyi's Dream isn't a real dream at all."
"It's a rule."
"A rule, understand?"
"And if it's a rule..."
"...then just break the rule."
Evan deliberately described Taiyi's Dream as nothing more than a rule.
In reality...
it wasn't a rule at all.
It was an Authority—
the Authority of Order.
It was simply that Order had long since been completely absorbed by Harmony.
"Exactly!"
"Rules are meant to be broken!"
At some point, Stelle had already pulled out the baseball bat she'd "borrowed" from Herta.
"..."
Evan gave her a speechless glance before casually gathering a clump of floating memoria into his hand.
Calmly, he continued,
"If we can't resolve Taiyi's Dream..."
"...then we'll simply burst the dream apart."
"To be honest..."
"when we first arrived, I actually preferred Sparkle's method."
"But now..."
"I think her plan is unnecessarily troublesome."
"As long as we use the power of Remembrance..."
"...destroying a mere dream is hardly difficult."
Black Swan stared at him silently.
Gallagher did the same.
Seeing everyone's confused expressions, Evan shot Black Swan a meaningful glance.
With a helpless sigh, she stepped forward.
"To be honest..."
"I never imagined you were the Messenger of the Aeon."
"...!"
"The Messenger of the Aeon?"
"What does that mean?!"
March blinked in confusion.
"That's right, March."
Evan smiled.
"Standing before you..."
"...is both your fellow Nameless..."
"...and a Messenger of Remembrance."
"Before entering the Asdana Star System..."
"...the Aeon of Remembrance bestowed Its power upon me."
"And appointed me as Its Messenger."
"If Taiyi's Dream completely covered the entire Asdana Star System..."
"...then none of us inside would ever wake again."
"But Order's power is incomplete."
"So it still can't fully envelop the entire star system."
"And because of that..."
"...the remnants of Order have only one option."
"They must..."
"...resurrect the Aeon."
"Resurrect... an Aeon?"
As soon as those words were spoken, everyone stared at Evan in disbelief.
Even Welt and Himeko—
the calmest veterans aboard the Astral Express—
were visibly shocked.
"That's right."
"Taiyi's Dream is an Authority derived from the Aeon of Order."
"They're trying to use Order's power..."
"...to trap everyone inside the dream."
"Turning every single person..."
"...into mindless puppets."
"The reason we can still act freely..."
"...is because Taiyi's Dream isn't complete yet."
The revelation plunged everyone into silence.
None of them had imagined...
that all the talk about Taiyi's Dream...
was actually part of such an enormous conspiracy.
The true goal...
was to resurrect the Aeon of Order—
Taiyi.
March's eyes widened in shock.
Had anyone else said such a thing, she would've dismissed it outright.
But these words had come from Evan.
And the Astral Express trusted him completely.
"Resurrect an Aeon?"
Before March could recover...
another astonished voice interrupted.
A tiny golden fish circled around Evan.
Then...
a twin-tailed girl appeared.
It was Sparkle.
"So that's why Aha wanted you to nail someone's coffin shut."
"They're actually trying to resurrect that dead Aeon!"
"This is way too interesting!"
"No way!"
"I'm joining too!"
"I want in!"
Even Gallagher lit another cigarette after hearing that.
Taking a deep drag, he looked at Evan seriously.
"My friend..."
"Are you really confident?"
"That's still an Aeon."
"Even if it's fallen..."
"a starving camel is still bigger than a horse."
"If things really go south..."
Evan smiled and stepped forward.
Resting one hand lightly on Mikhail's chair, he gazed toward the vast Sea of Memoria beyond.
"The Authority of Order has already been swallowed by Harmony."
"The Family has tried very hard to avoid acknowledging that."
"But no matter how they hide it..."
"...it doesn't change the truth."
"Some people..."
"...are trying to drag those fragments of Order..."
"...back out of Harmony."
He turned around.
"If you were an Aeon..."
"...what would you do?"
"Harmony can assimilate Order."
"It can absorb Order."
"That's simply how the Paths function."
"But what about Taiyi?"
"The Aeon has already fallen."
"And a dead Taiyi..."
"...is the best kind of Taiyi."
"Even so..."
"fragments of Its Authority still remain within Harmony."
"So..."
"If someone uses Harmony's power..."
"...to peel those fragments away..."
"...and steal the Authority of a fallen Aeon..."
Everyone immediately understood.
"...Steal the Path of a fallen Aeon?"
"Summon a Harmony Emanator..."
"...then seize Order's Authority..."
"The Charmony Festival!"
"Exactly."
Evan narrowed his eyes and smiled.
"If what Gopher Wood and Sunday summon..."
"...is truly Taiyi's consciousness..."
"...or even just a fragment..."
"Then no matter how many Authorities I possess..."
"...I still wouldn't be able to win."
Penacony might have been built atop a Stellaron.
But in the end...
the purpose of the entire dream was singular.
To gradually erase everyone's consciousness.
To let them sink into beautiful dreams.
To bring about...
a true death.
The dream itself...
was the source of their power.
Only when everyone inside the dream—
in thought...
and in action...
became perfectly unified—
would the stolen Authority of Order grow stronger through Harmony.
That was why they wanted the Charmony Festival.
They needed as many participants as possible.
The festival had originally been a celebration for the Family.
Its true purpose...
was to gather enough Harmony believers...
to summon Harmony's strongest manifestation.
The Harmonic Choir.
The legendary Harmonious Choir.
As the strongest manifestation of Xipe, it possessed overwhelming power.
Which also meant...
it could steal the greatest portion of Order's Authority.
If they wanted to avoid facing the Choir...
there were only two options.
Weaken the dream.
And there were only two ways to accomplish that.
The first—
bring in enough people with unshakable wills to disrupt the dream's order.
The second—
blow the dream apart completely.
Destroy its very foundation.
Steal an Aeon's Authority?
Evan sneered inwardly.
Sorry.
I'm just going to pull the rug out from under you.
Perhaps Gopher Wood had no weaknesses.
But Sunday did.
He was overly confident.
Always looking down on everyone else.
Ever since he had been adopted...
he had lived solely for Gopher Wood's plan.
He had never been allowed to experience the feelings of ordinary people.
But Robin...
Robin was his one and only weakness.
And at this very moment...
Robin was in the place of exile.
Within the original dream.
Gallagher looked seriously at Evan.
Then at March and the other Nameless.
Finally, he laughed softly.
"The old man was right."
"The Nameless really are all like this."
"What do you mean?"
"They love charging straight into impossible situations."
"If the old man hadn't done something reckless back then..."
"...there would be no Penacony today."
"If Tiernan hadn't thrown caution to the wind..."
"...how could he have met those Galaxy Rangers..."
"...or slain a Lord Ravager?"
"If Razalina hadn't risked everything..."
"...there'd never have been this Land of Dreams."
Evan smiled faintly and waved a hand.
Then he looked into the distance.
"Let's go."
"It's time to find that fake Galaxy Ranger."
"And have her cut this dream apart with a single slash."
"After that..."
"I'll unleash the Authorities of Remembrance..."
"...and Consciousness."
"We're going to break through Penacony's dream."
Everyone bowed deeply toward Mikhail's remains.
Whether it was Evan...
or anyone else...
they all felt nothing but genuine respect for this Nameless predecessor.
Every Nameless was the same.
No matter where they went...
they walked the path of Trailblaze.
And that journey...
never stopped.
Not even in death.
Gallagher remained behind.
Leaning quietly against the stone pillars, he watched everyone leave the tower.
"...Old man."
"They really are reckless."
"The remnants of Order..."
"...trying to resurrect the Aeon Taiyi."
"Using Order's power..."
"...to turn the entire Asdana Star System into an eternal dream."
"Gopher Wood..."
"...he hasn't changed at all."
"Just like back then..."
"...he still refuses to listen."
Gallagher took one final drag from his cigarette.
Hidden from everyone's sight...
his body gradually began to blur.
Looking closely...
one could see a black hound lying quietly beside Mikhail's remains.
Silently watching the vast Sea of Memoria stretching across the Asdana Star System.
Its eyes...
had grown unimaginably old.
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