Phainon's steps halted before the core.
A door stood in his way.
It was composed of ceaselessly flowing pure data, with light codes cascading like a waterfall, rejecting all warmth of life.
Phainon quietly watched the door, his eyes devoid of any ripples.
Indeed.
Even a firewall like Feng had burned out, yet this ultimate core remained an absolute barrier.
Thirty million reincarnations had long proven this to be a dead end.
But, fortunately.
He was never a man with only one path.
Phainon stood before the grand door, silent, just waiting quietly.
A wisp of icy mist appeared out of thin air, and several dreamlike scarlet jellyfish emerged from it, trailing long, stardust-like tendrils as they silently circled.
Finally, a young girl holding a black umbrella stepped out from the ripples of light and shadow.
"Since you calculated it, why didn't you speak sooner?"
Evernight slowly approached Phainon, her umbrella tilted slightly, obscuring most of her face, revealing only a pale chin.
Phainon frowned, and a faint, icy sense of scrutiny permeated the air. "I thought it was March, but it's you, Evernight."
"If you don't want to see me, just say so." Evernight pushed aside her umbrella, revealing a face identical to March 7th's, but with completely different eye color and gaze.
Those eyes held no innocent joy, only a detached indifference that had seen through the world, and a subtle, hard-to-detect scrutiny. "After all, I represent everything she has 'forgotten,' don't I?"
"Not at all." Phainon met her gaze calmly. "If March knew the truth and could still let you appear, it would be a good thing. It would prove she understands how to use her power better than I imagined."
"The truth is, she thinks I'm too pitiful hidden deep in her memories, so she let me out for some fresh air." Evernight snorted lightly, her tone tinged with mockery. "What a naive girl. But..."
Evernight's tone shifted, her gaze sharpening. "She also sees very clearly, for example... some enemies need to be dealt with using the power of 'forgetting.'"
Before her words finished, she closed her umbrella and extended a slender finger forward, not touching the door, but simply pointing in the air.
The next moment, the magnificent data giant door had their concept of "existence" erased by an invisible force.
The data became chaotic, fragmented, and finally dissolved into meaningless specks of light, completely vanishing.
As if it had never existed there.
"Let's go... it's already a long night ahead, and who knows when dawn will break."
With that, she reopened her umbrella and led the way into the dark depths beyond the door.
Phainon sighed softly and followed her.
The two rode a hovering platform, moving forward.
The scenery on both sides flashed by rapidly; it was a vast, boundless library, more like a tomb built for memories.
Bookshelves stretched endlessly high and far into the darkness, with countless encapsulated data, like cold ancient texts, quietly displayed on the shelves.
Amphoreus was a graveyard of memories.
Burying the remnants of over thirty million reincarnations.
Suddenly, Phainon's gaze sharpened, and his body stiffened.
On the platform not far ahead of the elevator, a lifeless body of a young girl lay quietly.
The familiar clothing, the familiar figure, it was Cyrene.
Her projection was perfectly frozen at the moment she was completely formatted, a trace of the world's most beautiful and innocent obsession still on her lips.
Phainon's hand, resting at his side, trembled almost imperceptibly at the knuckles.
Thirty million reincarnations.
He had never gotten used to goodbyes.
The girl who always smiled at him by the wheat field.
Time and again, in the cold core space, she spoke to the air, trying to awaken a blank "Demiurge"... She, too, had fought here alone for over thirty million times.
And now, all of her, all her efforts and love, were solidified into a cold piece of data, an unnoticed exhibit, displayed in the Iron Tomb.
"You're not surprised. Omniscience and Omnipotence always delineate the known within the unknown, and I thought you couldn't calculate this. After all, you are not Erudition."
The umbrella obscured Evernight's face, but her voice carried a hint of inquiry.
"Because Erudition has already given me a simulated experience." Phainon forced himself to look away and slowly replied:
"Demiurge, at their inception, was indeed blank. But Cyrene, with thirty million acts of love and courage, endowed it with a soul. Her pleas were not in vain."
"Under the embrace of the hymn of courage, the self of humanity, and the pioneering future... even data will eventually transcend fate. Lygus ultimately made a fatal mistake; he never praised humanity, nor did he ever understand it. He never believed in the miracles that emanate from humanity."
Phainon's voice held a hint of icy mockery. "Perhaps he once did, but now he has forgotten. Success is emptiness, and failure is emptiness."
"Haha..." Evernight chuckled softly, her laughter now containing a touch of approval. "A very good answer. I think March would also prefer to witness memories full of beauty to fill this blank space."
"March and Dan Heng succeeded. In the 33,550,337th reincarnation, Lygus was successfully restrained by your previous reincarnation, and this time no Chrysos Heirs were sacrificed. You succeeded."
Phainon softly hummed, "I just hope he won't be pushed onto the Deliverer's pedestal by the world again; he doesn't have to take on that responsibility anymore."
"But... what about you?" Evernight pulled back her umbrella, her indifferent eyes looking directly at Phainon. "You bear everything, you do all this, for what? I understand Phainon's resolve, but..."
"For the Trailblaze." Phainon interrupted Evernight, his answer simple and firm.
Clang—
The platform reached their destination, and the two arrived before the final core.
Evernight closed her umbrella and looked at Phainon, her expression more serious than ever:
"Alright, the final path has been reached. Amphoreus is just the beginning."
"The War of the Aeons has already begun, but the first to join the battlefield are not Destruction, nor Erudition, nor Memory. But the Trailblaze, Terminus, and... The Hunt."
"The Hunt?" Phainon was stunned for a moment, then understood. Countless clues connected in his mind. "No wonder Lan's power could cross time and causality... So that's it, his arrow had already been shot here."
"The New Creation is about to begin, and I should return, and also give her body back." Evernight looked at Phainon. "Do you have any other instructions you need me to convey?"
"Hmm..." Phainon paused for a moment, the faces of the Chrysos Heirs, Cyrene's smiling face, and everything he had seen and gained since becoming a Trailblazer flashed through his mind.
Though a thousand words were in his heart, they only coalesced into a calm and gentle sentence when they reached his lips: "Tell them that as a Trailblazer, I've been very happy during this time."
Phainon spread his palm and slowly placed it before his heart. "May this journey, finally reach the stars!"
Evernight nodded slightly. She opened her umbrella again.
Countless red jellyfish floated out from beside her, gently enveloping her. As the light and shadow flickered, her figure, like a forgotten memory, quietly dissipated.
Phainon stood alone, quietly before the core, waiting for the already destined story to unfold.
"Teacher Anaxa, it's your turn!"