The text on the light screen faded, and a new scene emerged.
From the moment Ron raised the two-handed sword, an infinite holy light burning upon it, and with a single slash wiped clean all enemies on Jarilo-VI, to the moment he descended from the sky to gently bestow his blessing upon Herta, only a few dozen seconds had passed.
In that brief time, everyone on the planet who held the hope of "salvation," all who had continued to struggle in the face of this world-ending calamity...
They felt their wishes receive a grand response from the great beyond. They saw that figure become tinged with brilliant gold, and finally transform into a god.
They stood there, dumbfounded, frozen from the moment it all began, unable to process their thoughts.
Bronya was one of them.
As the next Supreme Guardian, even though Cocolia had previously placed her under "house arrest," she had never deprived Bronya of the status she deserved as both successor and a member of the Silvermane Guards.
Cocolia had administered the "Savior" serum to her, strengthening the devotion to [Salvation] that was core to her being.
When faced with a terrifying threat that nearly destroyed the entire world, the wish for "salvation" in Bronya's heart had shone with extreme intensity. It was this steadfast belief that supported her advance, that made her fight against the profound despair with all her might.
And this steadfast belief was finally rewarded.
The moment Ron gathered every tiny speck of hope from across the sea of stars and responded to the grand wish of salvation, Bronya heard his voice in her ears.
The voice was indistinct, and it was hard to say if it was even composed of coherent words...
But she could hear the overflowing majesty and the righteous grandeur within it.
And hidden beneath that divine surface was a trace of gentleness and mercy, like that which a stern father holds in his heart for his children.
This was the Aeon of [Salvation]... a sword-wielding angel, as cruel as a winter wind to the oppressor, as gentle as a spring sun to the innocent, offering sanctuary to all the blameless victims of disaster in this world.
The moment Ron knocked open the door between the Imaginary Void and reality, successfully carving out the Path of [Salvation] in that infinite space, Bronya, by embodying the will of [Salvation], immediately crossed the boundary between [Preservation] and [Salvation].
She arrived from another road and set foot upon the Path of [Salvation].
With a single step, she traversed an unknown distance.
She listened as Ron's indiscernible, magnificent voice guided her forward...
In a trance, she crossed the Three-Pointed Gate and stood at the intersection of the Imaginary Void and a branch of the Tree of Existence.
There lay the abode carved out by [Salvation]. The radiance was close at hand, seeping from the very material of the dwelling, adding to its light.
She followed behind Ron, seeing His shadow on the branch of the Path. She saw points of light faintly shining in the boundless darkness and heard the prayers coming from every corner of the cosmos.
She saw Him reach out to gather the remnants, collecting the sparks of hope, one by one, into the lantern in His palm. The light from the lantern spoke to the god, praying for the advent of [Salvation].
And He answered in the affirmative. In a daze, Bronya understood. Her hope, and the hope of everyone else, had become fuel for Ron, and now it was the light in Ron's palm.
The light in that palm grew ever stronger, brighter than ever before. Everyone walked in its glow, until they had trod upon every dark corner of the sea of stars...
The scene on the light screen faded, and new text appeared.
[You have left the path of [Preservation] and, guided by the flame, have set foot upon the Path of [Salvation].]
[You walk in the middle of the Path. The will of [Salvation] whispers in your ear, and you have gained a Path Philosophy Tendency: "Sword of Salvation (Red)".]
[Sword of Salvation: To welcome the dawn of salvation, one must first bring forth merciless destruction! If the wicked prey upon the weak, then we shall draw our blades against the wicked.
Destroy all that is evil, and save all that is good; destroy all that is vile, and save all that is noble; destroy all who wish to destroy others, and save all who wish to save others—
The Sword of Salvation shall hang over all.]
[Please Note! A Path Philosophy Tendency will not grant you any power. It merely represents the direction of your understanding of the Path's core philosophy.]
[A Path Philosophy Tendency also represents your degree of agreement with the philosophies of certain Aeon factions. Taking the factions of Nous, the Aeon of [Erudition], as an example, if you believe that knowledge should be shared freely, you might be more inclined to join the Intelligentsia Guild over pursuing individual research, even without being favored by Nous.]
[Please treat your Path Philosophy Tendency with care. Even if you travel upon the same Path as others, your different philosophies may mean you are not truly walking the same road...]
"Sword of Salvation... is it?"
Staring at the text on the screen, Bronya mumbled to herself, though she wasn't actually paying attention to the words. Her mind was still replaying what she had just seen.
The image of Ron gathering the light of hope from the entire universe was still vivid in her mind's eye. This was even more shocking than the last simulation, when she had seen him fly into the sky and transform into a giant, azure dragon.
An Aeon... He was an Aeon.
What on earth had Ron been through?
Bronya suddenly felt as though everything she had done was nothing more than child's play.
She had thought that her rebellion in Belobog during this simulation, while not necessarily correct, was at least a significant event.
Perhaps it could prove that her abilities had improved, that she might have closed the chasm-like gap between herself and Ron, even just a little...
But now, it seemed... that gap would only grow wider and wider.
Bronya even felt a difficult-to-admit suspicion... She wondered if she herself was partly responsible for this outcome.
It was precisely because Cocolia had kept her confined in the New Qlipoth Fort, preventing her from having any contact with Ron or influencing him, that he was able to achieve something even more unimaginable than in previous simulations.
Was she... really only capable of holding him back?
A sliver of self-doubt sprouted in Bronya's heart, and her spirits sank.
She looked at the simulation screen before her, sighed, and tapped it to continue.
What good would feeling down do?
Maybe it's not that my abilities are so poor that I'd hold Ron back... It's just that Ron made more progress in this simulation.
That... that's a reasonable explanation, right?
Bronya offered herself a small piece of comfort and watched as the text on the screen faded, replaced by a new scene.
The simulated Bronya was just coming to her senses from the boundless radiance. The master of that radiance had bestowed a small gift upon her...
The miraculous authority she held from Qlipoth the [Preservation] merged with the blessing of [Salvation], becoming stronger and more stable.
Bronya was tempted to test her newly sublimated power, but as she scanned her surroundings, she couldn't see a single enemy. Every calamity on the planet had been thoroughly conquered. Her power had no use for the time being.
But the next moment, she had no mind to experiment with it at all.
An immense pressure descended from the horizon, a pressure several times more powerful than what she felt when Ron became a god.
New Belobog's surface was pockmarked from the war, but few city blocks had been pierced through their steel plates to the soil beneath.
Even so, the entire planet of Jarilo-VI was now inexplicably reviving. Green grass and trees rose from the earth, growing rapidly and pushing through the steel plates, seemingly determined to transform Jarilo-VI into a verdant, primordial planet.
Yet, even as this vegetation desperately tried to break through the city's infrastructure, it resonated with the inanimate structures in a strange harmony.
The living and the non-living alike seemed to sing a harmonious tune. All the chaos on the planet inexplicably found "order," brought together in a concordant echo.
Looking to the horizon, Bronya could see the source of it all.
The merciful physician freely stretched their gnarled and beautiful form, joints extending, hair like the feathers of a magpie, blooming amidst the thousand stars of the cosmos. A thousand eyes opened upon Their body, scarlet pupils fixing upon the one holding the lantern.
The sky was dyed amber, and a low hum could be heard. Countless ores, ambers, and opals rained down before Bronya in a world-shaking mineral shower. In the steaming heat, a colossal being extended its spine from the molten slurry that had appeared on the horizon. Its broad hand gripped a giant hammer, raising it to swing at the lantern.
Amidst this amber heat, a chill ran up Bronya's spine. A hazy mist clouded her eyes, and on the horizon, an Emperor formed from shards of a mirror appeared, their features repeatedly refracted into a riddle by prisms. Bronya couldn't tell which of the infinite facets was Their eye, but Their gaze was fixed upon the newborn Aeon, recording all that ought to be recorded.
Finally, a harmony resounded across the planet. A body made of puzzle pieces appeared on one side of the horizon, first one face appearing in the gloom, then another, and another...
The three-headed Aeon played a concord, Their interest piqued as They looked at Ron. Divine grace fell like rain, and Bronya suddenly covered her mouth.
She sang a melody she had never heard. Glancing around, she saw everyone else covering their mouths, but the music leaked through their fingers, intermittently overlapping to form a pleasant harmony.
Four Aeons had appeared on the horizon, their attention completely focused on Ron.
But the mere leakage of a fraction of their divine power was enough to profoundly affect everyone in New Belobog.
Some felt as if new organs were about to sprout from their bodies; others began to sing in harmony.
Some were scorched by the amber heat until they collapsed; others were frozen stiff by a chill that seemed to stop time itself.
The Aeons might not bear any malice towards mortals, but their mere presence plunged mortals into such a dire state...
But there were more than just four Aeons here.
Ron raised his hand. A ball of light formed from the radiance of hope took the shape of a lantern. The flame within the lantern suddenly flared up, and its light enveloped all of New Belobog.
All calamities were instantly dispelled.
But this was only the beginning.
The Amber Lord's hammer swung towards the lantern in Ron's hand. This was the flame of a thousand wishes he had gathered, the very manifestation of the Path of [Salvation].
It was through the warmth of this flame that He could bring warmth to people and cleanse them of their afflictions.
But right now, the Amber Lord did not care what it was. He only wanted to swing his hammer, smash it, take back what was his, and return to the border of the universe to finish his great wall.
The other three Aeons clearly had the same idea. They watched Ron like predators, their eyes perhaps not holding much malice, but filled with the desire to retrieve their own fragments of the Path.
But Ron raised his two-handed sword, barely blocking the Amber Lord's hammer.
The blow struck the spine of the holy sword, and the impact shook Ron's hand so hard that divine blood, a mix of gold and red, seeped out, dripping onto the ground and igniting into a searing white holy fire.
The Amber Lord silently raised his hammer again, determined to crush this thief who dared to usurp His Path and take back the fragment that belonged to Him, so He could continue his unfinished grand project of wall-building...
"There is no need for you to trouble yourselves further."
But Ron spoke, stopping the Aeons.
"To take without asking was an act of desperation. I care not for the station of an Aeon. What I have borrowed from you, I will naturally return in full..."
A phantom holy fire suddenly ignited on Ron's body.
"You need only wait a moment longer."
As He spoke, the flame flickering in the well-protected lantern in his hand scattered specks of golden light, like countless fireflies dancing in the dark night, drifting in all directions at Ron's will.
These points of light scattered into the sea of stars. Ron's power continuously weakened, but the aura around Him, paradoxically, grew stronger...
"Wait a moment longer... until I have sundered my Path and returned everything to its rightful place..."
"Wait a little longer..."
He smiled, his expression gentle, filled with genuine anticipation.
"Wait for me... to briefly illuminate this sea of stars."