"You guys aren't asleep either?"
March 7th looked at Dan Heng, who was wearing Azure Dragon pajamas, and her expression was nearly breaking. Then there was Stelle in her Raccoon pajamas, and...
"What on earth are those pajamas?"
"Can't you tell? It's a shark onesie, obviously."
"No..."
March 7th's brain was processing this bizarrely hilarious scene.
Dan Heng and Stelle could be explained as simply liking fluffy pajamas, or perhaps Dan Heng was just dragged into buying one.
But the shark onesie Aidan was wearing... it was very shark onesie (not really).
It looked like a shark walking on its Tail fin; it was just eerie.
"See, isn't it interesting?"
Aidan wiggled a bit in the shark suit on the carriage carpet. It looked like he was being abstract, but his serious attitude made March 7th suspect he actually wasn't.
March 7th stepped forward and tugged at the soft, long Tail of the shark onesie.
"No matter how many times I see it, I feel like you and Stelle's mental states are at least five Amber Eras ahead of everyone else."
"Forget the pajamas for a second. That scene of vibrant life and myriad things flourishing is still fresh in my mind. Why don't we see how the ecosystem of Jarilo-VI is recovering?"
The ecosystem's recovery was indeed rapid. The expectation was to restore it to a stable state within five days, but it was now certain that the planet would reach the expected level in just two to three days.
"Speaking of which, it's almost midnight, right...?"
"Yeah."
At midnight, today's transformation was clearly a bit off.
Aidan sat in a chair, surrounded by four colored light spheres that emitted a strong sense of danger.
He himself was in an unconscious state.
A blue and a red sphere collided and spun in the air, while green and gold ones chased each other.
Finally, Aidan suddenly raised his hand, drawing the four spheres back into his palm. His arm took on a deep starry-sky hue, and the spheres vanished into it.
Visas Starfrost (?)
"Well, today is equilibrium again."
Everyone's gaze toward Aidan was slightly subtle.
"When you turned into equilibrium the other day... it wasn't this exaggerated, was it?"
"Today I simply obtained more of equilibrium's power. I have balanced the powers of four Paths within my body."
"Four Paths... which four?"
Stelle asked, looking at Aidan's arm.
"Trailblaze, Remembrance, The Hunt, Abundance."
"Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." Aidan flexed his fingers, the points of light on his arm flickering with his movements. "It feels quite wonderful, like I'm arguing with myself."
"Arguing with yourself?"
"Yes. Trailblaze firmly believes that humans can possess the will to transcend desperate situations at any time and move forward carrying their scars. But Remembrance thinks otherwise. The divergence between Remembrance and Trailblaze lies here: Remembrance wishes to freeze the entire universe in a single moment. As long as one stops moving and stops thinking, one cannot feel sorrow or pain."
Aidan explained slowly.
"That means..."
"Remembrance wants the entire universe to fall into an eternal freeze—which is to say, death. Remembrance believes that pain is relative; as long as one cannot feel pain, that is happiness. Right now, Trailblaze is stopping Remembrance."
"When you turned into Remembrance a few days ago..." March 7th pursed her lips, "it wasn't this extreme, was it?"
"Actually, it was. It's just that the thoughts stayed in my mind and weren't spoken aloud."
"Then you now..."
"Balanced. No need to worry."
Aidan looked as if everything was under control.
"They are now in a state of dynamic stability. When Trailblaze is needed, its power will step forward; when Remembrance is needed, its power will appear. They won't interfere with or suppress each other."
"...Is equilibrium that overpowered? I thought equilibrium was just some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder."
"Of course not. That previous state was because I hadn't mastered the true power of equilibrium. The current me... isn't actually sitting on the sofa."
Aidan said.
"...Huh?"
The others didn't understand his meaning.
"What I mean is—"
"The 'me' you see before your eyes is merely a phantom created specifically for the convenience of communication. Right now, I am a more abstract 'concept.'"
Himeko looked thoughtful.
"So, what is your current specific situation?"
"I am distributed across the Express, in the starry sky, and within the star system. The Express is me, the planets are me, the universe is me, yet none of them are me."
March 7th subconsciously looked around. The sofa, the walls, the ceiling, the floor—every corner felt a bit strange to her.
"You mean, you're... everywhere right now?"
"Correct. 'I' am within all things."
Stelle's palm passed through Aidan's arm without feeling any resistance or the texture of skin. Her fingertips brushed through those flickering points of light like passing through a heatless projection.
"...How much does this conceptual state consume you? You said you maintain this phantom just to communicate with us, which means maintaining it is consuming your computing power and will."
Dan Heng stared at him.
"Equilibrium will supplement the energy consumed. Nothing will be added, and nothing will be diminished."
"Then can you eat?"
"No need."
"Can you sleep?"
"No need for that either."
"Can you..." Stelle thought for a moment, "Can you go to the bathroom?"
"Stelle." Dan Heng gave her a helpless look.
"I'm just curious!" Stelle said righteously.
"I have moved beyond conventional modes of existence, so I don't need to perform biological life activities."
"Then can you touch me now?"
"Yes."
Aidan reached out, his fingertip lightly tapping Stelle's forehead. Stelle felt a warm sensation, as if someone had actually touched her with their finger.
"So, what practical use does this abstract conceptual form have?" Dan Heng got straight to the point. "Your last two equilibrium states were just simple obsessive-compulsive behaviors, like arranging objects symmetrically. What about this time?"
"This time is true equilibrium." Aidan stood up and walked into the middle of the group. "I no longer need to be confined to the symmetry of external objects. Instead, equilibrium is applied directly at a macroscopic level."
He raised his hand, palm upward.
"Of course, you might not quite understand what I'm doing because... from a microscopic perspective, it's impossible to understand actions from a macroscopic viewpoint. Sorry, I'm not being arrogant; it's simply a matter of perspective."