"The cycle... It's useless..."
In Lumina's room, she propped her chin on her hand as she watched the Flame Reaver babbling crazily before her, taking a moment to think it over.
Although she wanted to ask him about the truth of Amphoreus's cycle, in his current state, it was hard to say how much he could actually remember.
Hmm... Never mind how much he remembered, being able to utter a single coherent sentence would be a stroke of tremendous luck.
"Can you heal him?" Herta obviously understood the situation. If the Flame Reaver remained in this state, the two of them would never be able to extract any information from him.
Naturally, Herta's gaze fell upon Lumina.
Healing patients fell directly into Lumina's area of expertise.
As an Emanator of Abundance, wasn't curing the Flame Reaver's madness a simple matter?
Hmm... Probably.
Though Lumina was an Emanator of Abundance, whenever Herta thought of that title and the word "madness" together, she couldn't help but associate them.
It couldn't be helped. Among the Emanators of Abundance, only Lumina was an exception, a fresh, serious-minded exception.
As for the other Emanators of Abundance, any who had a bit of a reputation seemed to be nothing good in the galactic records.
Burning, killing, looting, and proselytizing through brainwashing were truly standard operations for Emanators of Abundance. If someone who didn't know any better saw it, they would probably think it was a legendary Emanator of Destruction, a legendary Lord Ravager.
Every Emanator of Abundance had some connection to madness and insanity.
Fortunately, Lumina was special. She wasn't tainted by that kind of connection at all... was she?
If her fanatical love for beautiful girls was also counted, it seemed she was.
Her love for beautiful girls was already in no way inferior to those mad Emanators of Abundance.
Thinking about it this way, this position of Emanator of Abundance was a bit sinister after all.
In any case, none of them were normal people.
Lumina was naturally included in that.
No normal person falls in love with every beautiful girl they see.
Hmm... I suppose that's not quite right. Falling in love with every beautiful girl you see isn't actually that abnormal.
What's abnormal is that, given Lumina's knowledge, experience, and age, the number of beautiful girls she's fallen for must have already broken all records.
If all those girls were on a single planet, it would probably become a galaxy-famous Planet of Beautiful Girls.
Lumina, unaware that Herta was currently badmouthing her in her mind, puffed out her chest and put on an extremely confident expression as she listened to Herta's question.
"Just a little case of madness, and you're asking if I need a special cure?"
"Little Herta, oh Little Herta, you're underestimating me a bit."
Every word Lumina spoke oozed confidence, as if the madness born from the Flame Reaver's countless, numbing cycles of reincarnation was, in her eyes, merely a simple symptom that didn't even require a proper consultation.
"Impressive, impressive. The world-famous Miss Lumina is truly impressive."
The confidence Lumina radiated had no effect on Herta, who merely responded with a flat, toneless compliment.
No... It wasn't that there was no ripple at all, but rather that a slight, trembling ripple was hidden within it.
Herta's gaze was not on Lumina's face, nor was it on the Flame Reaver, but on Lumina's chest, which had puffed out and instantly become the center of attention.
Madam Herta no longer wanted to hide her thoughts, so she said it straight out. There was only one reason she was looking at Lumina's chest.
And that was: she wanted to touch it!
At the same time, her mind was still savoring the feeling of "accidentally" touching it last time.
That feeling was more comfortable than anything else, ten thousand times more comfortable than the sense of accomplishment from completing any rigorous, difficult experiment!
Herta wanted to recreate this event in this room!
And, and to take it a step further, to make this a greeting gesture every morning, noon, and night in the future!
"You're really being perfunctory." At this moment, Lumina, immersed in her own world, did not hear the slight tremor in Herta's words. Under Herta's deliberate concealment, Lumina could only hear the surface emotion in this sentence.
Which was the emotion of complete perfunctoriness.
This made Lumina feel a bit unhappy for a moment.
"...Stop talking nonsense. Hurry up and heal him, then ask the questions." As Lumina spoke, Herta instantly snapped out of the feeling of being about to drown in a gentle paradise. She took a deep breath in her mind, her surface remaining extremely calm as if nothing had happened, and gestured to Lumina.
"Alright."
Still oblivious to Herta's strange behavior, Lumina retracted her puffed-out chest and glanced with a hint of laziness at the Flame Reaver, who was trapped in the green cage she had created, struggling to break free and stop Era Nova.
Lumina had no perverted desire to imprison others. But seeing the Flame Reaver struggle in the cage, unable to break free to complete a certain task he absolutely had to do, a different thought couldn't help but arise in her mind.
Ah, of course not that kind of thought, the kind where one wants to imprison beautiful girls in a cage and watch them struggle and cry, begging to be let out.
Lumina was simply amazed by this one action of the Flame Reaver.
What kind of matter could make him keep struggling even though he knew it was futile, trying over and over again to break this cage?
Lumina was still very curious.
Putting aside her thoughts, Lumina sat lazily on the sofa. With a gentle wave of her slender, fair hand, the Flame Reaver's struggling movements within the cage gradually quieted down over a few short seconds.
Seeing this, Lumina withdrew the cage, and the Flame Reaver successfully regained his freedom.
But at this moment, he was not as frantic as before. He did not immediately rush to seize the Coreflame upon regaining his freedom, but instead stood silently in place, processing and simplifying the memories in his mind under the influence of Lumina's power.
"Hmm... It seems the number of cycles he has gone through is much greater than we imagined."
While healing the Flame Reaver's Spirit, Lumina naturally could not avoid sensing his current spiritual state. Through this state, she could also roughly understand how many cycles he had experienced.
Lumina roughly estimated it should be over ten million.
This was a bit terrifying.
Although Lumina could see that he had used some method to resist the endless Time and memories.
With one Phainon after another taking the relay, he completed this cycle again and again.
This was indeed a good method, but he had not taken any protective measures when passing on memories and responsibilities, which ultimately led to him becoming this way.
However, with over ten million cycles, even if some protective measures were taken for the memories, they wouldn't have been of much use in reality, would they?
"Hmm... Who... are you?"
After Lumina's simple healing, although the Flame Reaver had returned to normal, the memories of those ten million cycles still left him appearing a bit confused.
Lumina could have prevented this, but she chose not to.
If she were to completely heal him herself, while there would be no problems, it would clearly be incomparable to the natural recovery he would experience over time.
Generally speaking, Lumina would not intervene to heal injuries that could recover on their own through the body's and spirit's self-regulation.
After all, the benefits of self-recovery were completely incomparable to the benefits produced by Lumina's healing.
Both the body and spirit would be strengthened as a result, and Lumina saw no need to stop this process.
In any case, communicating normally and providing the answers Lumina and Herta wanted to know would still be no problem at all.
"Isn't it obvious who we are?"
The Flame Reaver, who was gradually returning to normal and no longer appeared so frantic, looked a bit foolish. Wasn't it obvious who Lumina and Herta were?
"Outworlders..." Obvious emotional fluctuations appeared around the Flame Reaver, but they quickly subsided again.
"You... are not the Deliverers..." The Flame Reaver shook his head and uttered those words.
"You shall shoulder the scorching sun, until the ashen Dawn becomes evident."
This was his divine decree, and also that of Phainon. He underwent cycle after cycle of rebirth, intervening in the final stages of the program, in order to save, and also to wait.
Although Lumina and Herta were incredibly powerful and might be grand figures in the Beyond the Sky World, the Flame Reaver knew very well that they... were not the ones he needed to wait for.
Since they were not the ones he needed to wait for, no matter what they did, it was meaningless...
An existence capable of destroying the entire galaxy, the Flame Reaver did not know how powerful He was, but he knew that if one did not walk the predetermined path, it would be absolutely impossible to save or defeat Him.
"On what basis do you define us as not the Deliverers? Why can't we be the Deliverers?" Although Lumina had no interest in the so-called Deliverers, hearing the Flame Reaver say this, a certain sense of competitiveness suddenly welled up within her heart.
I may have no interest in the so-called "Deliverers," but you cannot say I am not qualified to be one.
With Lumina's strength, would becoming a Deliverer be an extremely difficult task?
"...Sorry, I didn't mean to say you're not good enough." Although Lumina's words held no anger or blame, the Flame Reaver still apologized upon hearing them, indicating he harbored no ill will.
"It's just... the enemy we must face is incredibly powerful, and I don't want to drag anyone else into this."
At this, the Flame Reaver paused, and after a moment of hesitation, finally spoke a sentence: "Could you... leave Amphoreus and spread word of what's happening here?"
Lumina and Herta seemed to hold high status in the Beyond the Sky World?
If they could convey the situation in Amphoreus, it would provide an extra layer of security.
At the very least... at the very least, the struggle of the Amphoreans alone, of himself alone, could never compare to the collective efforts of all Outworlders, no matter how one thought about it.
When this danger eventually threatened them, they would surely come to help, wouldn't they?
The Flame Reaver thought this to himself, but soon, this very thought was resolved within his own heart.
No, no... humanity has never been that noble. At the very least, a single word would not be enough to make the majority of people raise the banner of aid.
No matter how dangerous the threat, as long as it has not yet occurred, it will certainly not be taken seriously.
It might even... it might even be completely ignored.
Through these ten million cycles, the Flame Reaver had learned a great deal.
"At least, tell me the reason first," Lumina said, not directly refusing the Flame Reaver's request but asking for his explanation.
This had been Lumina's original intention all along.
"Yes, I understand." The Flame Reaver nodded, then reached up to remove the mask covering his face. A familiar yet drastically different countenance appeared before Lumina and Herta.
The Flame Reaver's face had been shattered, but after Lumina's simple healing, it had returned to normal.
Although the primary focus had been on treating his spirit, healing his body was merely a casual addition, so Lumina had naturally performed a simple treatment on him as well.
Thus, in terms of appearance alone, he was indistinguishable from Phainon.
However, the temperament forged through ten million cycles was so distinct that even if the two were placed side by side, it would be difficult to associate them with one another.
Lumina silently formed this judgment in her mind.
"What Amphoreus must face is..."
The Flame Reaver recounted everything he knew without any concealment.
Only by making Outworlders realize the gravity of the problem could more allies be secured for Amphoreus.
That was the Flame Reaver's thought process.
However...
When the Flame Reaver mentioned that this [Lord Ravager] would destroy the entire galaxy, a faint smile suddenly appeared on Lumina's face.
A Lord Ravager could destroy the entire galaxy?
Where did such a rumor come from? How come Lumina found it so hard to believe?
A [Lord Ravager] was only an Emanator after all, what could THEY use to destroy the entire Cosmos?
Even if it were possible, would that not make the Aeons, like the Amber Lord, mere ornaments?
Still, if it were only to wipe out all life in the entire galaxy, that might be possible.
At the very least, destroying the rest of the Cosmos was absolutely impossible for a [Lord Ravager] alone.
Lacking both the necessary Aeon-like status and the strength to match, anyone who believed a Lord Ravager could destroy the Cosmos would be laughed at by Lumina for a whole year.
The truth of the matter, however, was not far from what Lumina and Herta had guessed.
Only... the Flame Reaver did not know the deeper purpose.
As the #1 member of the Genius Society, what was Zandar's goal in putting so much effort into cultivating a [Lord Ravager]?
Could it be simply to have this [Lord Ravager] destroy all life?
Lumina did not believe it.
There had to be a deeper meaning here.
Lumina knew a little about the [Lord Ravagers]; THEY were all creations made by the Aeon of [Destruction] to destroy other Aeons.
The Emperor's Scepter... the Data World...
Hmm...
Could Zandar's goal be to create a Lord Ravager specifically designed to counter [Erudition], and then destroy the Aeon of [Erudition]?