Chapter 25: My Drill Can Pierce the Heavens
To have the Aeon of Destruction, Nanook, board the Astral Express—that was a concept so utterly absurd that no sane mind in the universe would dare entertain it. But then again, doing exactly what no one dared to imagine? That was the very definition of Trailblazing.
"Where exactly are we going?" the youth asked, his voice rough from the ash-choked air.
"To the Astral Express, obviously," Rekka replied, not missing a beat. "Don't you want to meet Akivili?"
The boy stopped dead in his tracks. "But you just said Akivili has fallen."
Rekka spun around, a wide, utterly unhinged grin spreading across his face. "Then why don't you just become Akivili?"
The youth stared at him. "...?"
"Look," Rekka said, waving a hand dismissively. "Akivili isn't some untouchable god. As long as you have the drive, as long as you have the sheer, reckless courage to Trailblaze, you can be Akivili."
"Become... Akivili?" The youth's glowing golden eyes widened, the cracks on his skin pulsing faintly. He looked at Rekka as if the man had just suggested they eat the sun.
"Yep." Rekka nodded, treating this cosmic heresy as an absolute matter of course. "Whatever Akivili could do, why can't you? They were just a Trailblazer. Just someone who walked a little farther down the tracks than everyone else."
"Are you completely insane?" The youth took a slow step back, his defensive instincts flaring. "How could I possibly become them? I am..."
His voice broke. He lowered his head, his gaze fixing on his own hands. Jagged, glowing golden fissures spiderwebbed across his skin, leaking volatile energy.
"I am a part of Destruction."
"So what?" Rekka shrugged, entirely unimpressed. "Isn't the Aeon of Elation technically a Trailblazer too? I mean, sure, Aha is probably the absolute worst passenger you could ever ask for, but the point stands."
The youth's expression twisted into a complicated knot of utter bewilderment and deep existential exhaustion.
"Just come aboard the Astral Express," Rekka coaxed, holding up a single finger like a salesman closing a deal. "I'll even teach you how to play Celestial Jade."
Nanook blinked. The glowing fissures on his face dimmed in sheer confusion. Clearly, the future Aeon of Destruction had absolutely no idea what Celestial Jade was.
"...Fine then," he muttered, sounding entirely defeated by Rekka's relentless pace.
They set off across the ruined world. Their boots crunched over scorched earth, traversed the cracked beds of long-dead rivers, and scaled jagged mountains formed entirely of compacted ash. They walked for hours, the oppressive heat of the dying planet bearing down on them. Yet, despite the endless trek, there was no sign of the Astral Express. No tracks. No Trailblazers.
"What do we do now?" Nanook finally asked, stopping in the middle of a desolate gray plain. He looked at Rekka, a hint of accusation in his golden eyes. "The Astral Express isn't coming."
"It's not coming..." Rekka stroked his chin, nodding slowly as if pondering a minor inconvenience rather than a cosmic failure. "Well, then. How about we just build a train ourselves?"
Nanook gestured wildly at the apocalyptic wasteland around them. "There is literally nothing here! Only ash, stones, and the husks of dead bugs! What exactly are we supposed to use?"
"Since Akivili's Express isn't showing up, we'll just forge our own Path out of here. That is the essence of trailblazing." Rekka strolled over to a relatively flat patch of ground. He dragged the toe of his boot through the scorched black soil, drawing a long, crooked line. "Come on, lend a hand. Let's drag those large pieces of wreckage over here first."
Nanook remained rooted to the spot. A sudden gust of wind whipped scalding sand and jagged gravel against his face, but the youth didn't even blink. "I don't believe you."
"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not," Rekka called back cheerfully. "It's not like you have anything better to do right now, do you?"
The youth's jaw tightened. He pointed a finger toward the horizon. "Over there."
Rekka followed his gaze. Jutting out from a massive mound of scorched earth was a twisted, blackened metal frame. It looked like the skeletal remains of a colossal beast that had burned to death.
"Perfect! Let's go!" Rekka cheered.
Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the wreckage of a train car. The metal was warped, melted, and burned entirely beyond recognition, but the faint, rectangular outline of a passenger cabin could still be vaguely discerned beneath the soot.
As to why a train car was buried in the ashes of a ruined world? Rekka didn't care to ask.
Nanook kicked a charred piece of plating. "Can this even be repaired?"
"I can't guarantee anything," Rekka said, rolling up his sleeves. "But honestly, repairing a train is probably just like repairing a pocket watch. Just... bigger."
"Are you serious?"
"Hurry up, don't dawdle!" Rekka clapped his hands loudly. "If you want to meet Akivili, this pile of scrap is our only ticket off this rock."
The future Aeon of Destruction actually pouted. Grumbling under his breath, the youth trudged over, gripped a massive, heavy metal plate that was easily half his height, and ripped it free from the dirt with a shower of sparks.
At this exact moment, Rekka was operating under a very specific cheat. He wasn't purely bound to the Path of Destruction today. His daily randomizer had locked him into a highly volatile, entirely unmatched dual state.
Erudition and Destruction.
He had no precision machinery. He had no professional welding tools. All Rekka possessed was a sharp stone, a few frayed lengths of iron wire, and a mind suddenly overflowing with mechanical knowledge that vastly surpassed the current era.
The Path of Erudition bared its terrifying intellect.
Time bled away into the wasteland. The dark red sky above them gradually grew heavier, the oppressive clouds sinking lower as if preparing to crush the planet entirely.
"Done." Rekka tossed the stone aside, clapped the soot from his hands, and stood up.
From the outside, the wreckage still looked like a dilapidated, pathetic pile of garbage. But beneath the charred paneling, a miracle of makeshift engineering had taken place. Crucial energy conduits had been spliced and reconnected. The dormant, mechanical heart of the engine was primed, waiting only for a spark to awaken.
Nanook stared at the rusted monstrosity. "Is that it? It doesn't look any different."
A piece of loose paneling clattered to the floor. The roof was visibly leaking ash.
"Appearance is superficial; it's the interior that counts," Rekka declared proudly, vaulting through the missing door and plopping down onto a tattered, spring-exposed sofa. He patted the dusty cushion next to him. "Are you ready?"
The youth didn't answer. He just stood in the doorway, his golden eyes staring out at the endless, dead expanse of scorched earth.
"I'll take that as a yes," Rekka grinned.
And then—
He slammed his palm against the makeshift control console.
Energy surged.
The frayed pipes lining the interior of the wreckage suddenly pulsed with a faint, ethereal glow. Traces of illusory energy began to flow, pumping through the mechanical veins Rekka had painstakingly rewired. The light spread rapidly along the conduits, illuminating node after node. In the dim, ash-choked cabin, the glowing circuits looked like a constellation of stars igniting sequentially in the dark.
The youth's head snapped around.
The glow was incredibly faint, almost negligible against the overwhelming backdrop of the planet's ruin. But it was light. Real, warm, functioning light—something that had not graced this dead, silent world in a very, very long time.
"Energy circulation established." Rekka's eyes snapped open, blazing with the combined intensity of his dual Paths. "Next step... ignition."
Beneath the floorboards, a jury-rigged thruster coughed, sputtered, and finally spat out a brilliant jet of blue flame.
Driven entirely by Rekka's sheer, chaotic willpower, the broken shell of scrap metal groaned, shuddered, and violently transformed its structural integrity into that of a real, functioning locomotive.
Whoosh!
"I told you!" Rekka shouted over the sudden, deafening roar of the engines, smiling with absolute, unhinged delight. "The only fuel you actually need is the will to Trailblaze!"
The makeshift Astral Express launched off the dirt, shooting straight into the blood-red sky.
The entire cabin vibrated violently. The damaged outer shell shrieked against the atmospheric pressure, the metal groaning so loudly it sounded like the entire construct would rip itself to shreds at any given second.
"It's going to shatter!" the youth yelled, his fingers digging into the rusted window frame so hard the metal buckled. "Your pile of junk is going to break apart!"
"It won't break!" Rekka roared back, his hands gripping the vibrating console. "Just trust me!"
Blinding golden light began to converge at the very front of the train. The chaotic energy spun, rapidly solidifying into the massive, piercing shape of a spiraling drill.
"Hold tight!" Rekka braced his boots against the floor. "We're about to hit the atmosphere!"
RUMBLE—!!!
The scrap-metal train plunged headfirst into the planet's thick, suffocating layer of toxic clouds.
The world outside the windows instantly turned pitch black. The only illumination came from the violent, flashing lightning of the upper atmosphere and the blinding sparks generated by the friction against their golden energy shield. The jolting was horrific. The cabin emitted a continuous, teeth-grinding screech of stressed iron, threatening to disintegrate into dust.
"My drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!!!" Rekka screamed, fully leaning into the absurdity of the moment.
The golden light surged with explosive force, the massive energy drill violently tearing a massive rift straight through the impenetrable dark clouds.
CRACK—
A sound echoed through the cabin, like the shattering of a massive glass dome.
And in the very next second, everything stopped.
The violent jolting ceased. The deafening roar of wind and tearing metal faded into absolute silence. The suffocating darkness vanished.
In their place was a sprawling, infinite expanse of stars. The cosmos stretched out before them, a canvas of nebulas and galaxies so breathtakingly brilliant it rendered the mind completely speechless.
The battered scrap train hovered smoothly above the planetary cloud layer, drifting silently like a tiny wooden boat floating upon a vast, tranquil sea of light.
Nanook stared blankly out the window. The golden cracks on his face reflected the starlight. Slowly, almost reverently, the youth raised a trembling hand and pressed his palm flat against the cold, cracked glass, as if trying to physically reach out and touch the distant constellations.
After a long, breathless moment, Nanook turned his head to look at Rekka. He stared at this strange, chaotic Trailblazer—this lunatic who spoke absolute nonsense, built spaceships out of garbage, and somehow did the impossible.
"Are you..." The youth's voice was barely a whisper. "Are you really a Trailblazer?"
"Genuine article." Rekka thumped his fist against his chest, flashing a proud grin. "I mean, sure, I only officially boarded the Express a few days ago, but my trailblazing spirit is one hundred percent authentic."
Nanook fell silent. He looked back out at the universe. The volatile, destructive golden light that had previously burned in his eyes—the frantic, apocalyptic urge to tear everything down to the atomic level—had settled. It had transformed into something far deeper, quieter, and infinitely more restrained.
"...I understand," he said softly, the words carrying a weight far older than his young face suggested.
Rekka tilted his head. "Understand what?"
"Akivili did not abandon us." Nanook kept his gaze fixed on the endless sea of stars.
"Good that you finally get it." Rekka reached into his pocket, pulled out a crumpled, imaginary ticket, and pressed it into the youth's hand. "Take your ticket. Starting today, you're a Trailblazer too."
Nanook looked down at his empty palm, then closed his fingers tight. "Okay."
Rekka opened his mouth to celebrate his successful recruitment of a literal Aeon, but before a single sound could leave his throat, a massive wave of exhaustion slammed into his brain.
His vision violently pitched to black. The dual Paths short-circuited, and he collapsed to the floor, dead to the world.
— — —
"Rekka... Rekka, wake up..."
"Huh?!"
Rekka gasped, his eyes snapping open as he shot straight up from the soft mattress of a bed.
"What's going on?" he blurted out, his head spinning wildly.
"He's alive! Oh my god, he's actually alive!" a familiar voice shrieked right next to his ear.
Alive? Rekka blinked, trying to clear the blurry spots from his vision. What kind of situation did I just wake up to?
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]