What was Aha, [The Elation], talking about... Wait?!
Ron suddenly came to his senses. A corner of the thoughts in his mind that had been veiled was lifted, revealing a small void within...
...That was from just a moment ago. When Aha, [The Elation], had warned him, a thought of Ron's had been turned into non-existence, leaving behind that void.
Alerted once more by Aha, Ron, who immediately realized something was wrong, raised his lantern without the slightest hesitation. A brilliant golden light flickered as the Deific Authority of [Hope] drew out a sliver of power to fix a simple future—
A future where he could turn around without losing his memory of doing so, and calmly look behind him...
And then, he saw a piece of twisted reality, a mass of blackening chaos, a sludge of [Nihility]...
This was the handiwork... of IX, [The Nihility].
Seeing this chaotic mass of [Nihility], Ron's missing memories of the last few moments began to fill in. A bitter smile involuntarily touched the corners of his lips.
So this was the power of IX, [The Nihility]... Even if it was just a physical manifestation, even if it appeared as such a bizarre, slime-like, and harmless-looking thing, did it really possess such immense power?
He should have noticed it sooner... When the Astral Express passed through the imaginary domain, he had already discovered that IX had its eyes on him. When he was following Pom-Pom for their private conversation, he could see the void-like chaos seeping through the twisted space outside the Parlor Car's window. And just now, he had been warned again by Aha, who stated outright that there was something behind him...
But every thought he had about the presence of IX had been utterly transformed into "non-existence," forcing a person as perceptive as Ron to act like a fool, completely unaware of this "slime's" presence until now...
...Damn it, how are all these Aeons so strong?!
What on earth did IX of [The Nihility] send?! Even if it wasn't its main body, its abilities were too formidable... Am I really unable to even defeat this thing?!
Facing this great enemy, Ron stared at the chaotic void-sludge not far away. Two irregular circles suddenly opened on the slime, which was like black mud, and within them, an endless starlight began to shimmer, just like its eyes...
As it looked at Ron, a slit opened beneath its two eyes, as if it were its mouth—
And then Ron, once again, used the Deific Authority of [Hope] to anchor a "Path Marker."
He willed for this dark, chaotic sludge of nihility to be utterly annihilated under the sacred light. Then, without hesitation, he adjusted the power of the Guiding Spirit Lantern to its maximum. On one hand, he frantically siphoned the power of the Path of [The Nihility] as a Pathstrider, converting it into imaginary energy for his own use. On the other, he aimed the Guiding Spirit Lantern at the chaotic sludge nearby, at the "divine messenger" sent down by IX...
"!!!"
In that moment, there was no sound, but the brilliant sacred light nearly tore the boundary between reality and illusion, breaking through the surface of the Tree of Existence, ripping apart this fragile reality...
But thankfully, although Ron had fully activated the Guiding Spirit Lantern, its power was entirely focused on the chaotic sludge nearby. It was not aimed at the boundary between reality and nihility. Only the aftershocks rippled out, so it did not completely tear the two apart...
The torrent of brilliant sacred light that shot out from the Guiding Spirit Lantern completely engulfed the nearby chaotic sludge, swallowing it in an endless holy radiance.
It tried to open its mouth to say something, but its words were drowned out by the sacred light, not a single syllable managing to escape the terrifying heat.
Ron watched the chaotic sludge being consumed by the sacred light, gritting his teeth and bathing it in the holy fire for at least half an hour...
If he hadn't suppressed the range of the sacred light, focusing it solely on the chaotic sludge instead of letting it radiate infinitely like a true beam of light, then forget Jarilo-VI, even the stars ten star systems away would have been utterly ignited by his power...
Only when Ron felt that it was probably enough did he stop the stream of light from the Guiding Spirit Lantern. He cautiously peeked his head out, looking at the crater not far away that had been scorched into a landscape of molten rock.
He stared at the crater for a long time, meticulously examining every texture...
But just as he let out a sigh of relief, feeling that the chaotic sludge of [Nihility] had been eliminated and the danger had passed, he caught a glimpse of an extremely tiny, seemingly abnormal speck of black in the corner of his eye—
"It's still here?!!"
In an instant, Ron leaped up like a cat bitten by a mouse. He unhesitatingly used the Deific Authority of [Hope] once more, anchoring a future Path Marker where "this chaotic sludge absolutely cannot be revived." Then, he lit up the Guiding Spirit Lantern again. A brilliant sacred light erupted once more, and a colossal jet of holy light directly blasted the nihilistic black mud in the crater into complete annihilation...
This cleansing by holy light... lasted even longer than the previous half-hour torrent.
---o---
Meanwhile, standing off to the side with her hands behind her back, leaning forward to watch Ron's methods, the corners of Aha's, [The Elation]'s, mouth had curled into a smile she could no longer suppress...
She watched with delight as the chaotic void was washed by Ron's sacred light, completely submerged in the brilliant holy radiance. Grinning from ear to ear, she raised her two pristine little hands in front of her.
And then...
She made an extremely insulting gesture.
Her two fair middle fingers were extended in a full taunt. The smile at the corners of Aha's mouth could not be suppressed, and a subtle, wondrous emotion seemed to flow from her wine-red pupils. Her two eyes were as if they could speak, softly saying—
"Are you anxious? I'm asking if you're anxious? Oh my, I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious just yet~"
Amidst Aha's mockery, the clone that IX of [The Nihility] had painstakingly squeezed into reality was finally, thoroughly incinerated by the sacred light, turning into true nothingness...
Ron, meanwhile, was panting with exhaustion. He had nearly squeezed himself dry of all his imaginary energy. He finally stopped the light shooting from the Guiding Spirit Lantern and cautiously peeked his head out, afraid that the clone of IX was like a centipede that doesn't die even when trampled...
But he finally let out a sigh of relief—this time, there was not a single issue in the void he had blasted. Everything had simply vanished, completely annihilated by the sacred light. Matter that hadn't come into contact with the light seemed unchanged, and where the entity had been, there was now only a crater, as if it had been erased.
And the chaotic sludge summoned by IX had naturally vanished completely... Ron had indeed dealt with it, and without leaving a single trace of trouble behind.
Seeing this situation, Ron couldn't help but sigh in relief. He slumped to the ground, exhausted, and let out a long breath.
To use the Guiding Spirit Lantern so intensely was, frankly, an excessive drain on him—
After all, he was not a normal Aeon right now. He had no Path to draw endless energy from the imaginary domain. Although he did possess the status of an Aeon, and endless imaginary energy wasn't that important to an Aeon, Ron was still quite exhausted...
To put it vividly, Ron had been squeezed completely dry. Not a single drop (of imaginary energy) was left!
"Why so brutal, Ron~ It had just opened its mouth, clearly wanting to say something. Didn't you want to hear it?"
Aha, [The Elation], skipped and bounced lightly to Ron's side, her voice full of laughter as she spoke softly:
"IX of [The Nihility] rarely ever deigns to speak with people... That one is very aloof. The fact that it was willing to chat with you is a big deal. You didn't even listen and just went and destroyed it. And so brutally, too. You're really scaring me~"
"...Ugh, give me a break."
Listening to Aha's familiar coquettish tone, Ron couldn't help but feel a shiver of disgust.
What was with this one... How could she say such things so naturally, as if she were a little girl?
Did she really feel no shame?
Or was it... she was simply enjoying it?
Ron pursed his lips and looked at Aha's expression, speaking seriously:
"What IX wanted to say has nothing to do with me."
"Right now, it and I are in a fight to the death... I don't think it's some kind person willing to let me live peacefully, just wanting to impart some great life lessons to me."
"It already used its ability to influence me, making me unaware that its thoughts even existed... It dared to do this now, what wouldn't it dare to do later!"
Ron said, his face extremely grim.
"How do I know if it was going to use some unique Deific Authority of [The Nihility] when it opened its mouth to speak? What if it could erase my existence with a single sentence?"
"I've already suffered a loss once. It's not too late to mend the fold after the sheep is lost. I can't afford to lose again and let it really do what it wants to do!"
Hearing Ron's words, the smile on Aha's lips grew even more fervent.
She burst into laughter, her tone light and cheerful:
"Haha... Good, good, that's the attitude!"
"You are a perfect protagonist, Ron... Absolutely perfect!"
"I just love people like you. Your methods were not wrong... IX only needs to speak casually to use its Deific Authority to erase concepts."
"If you had really let it speak, it would have used the opportunity to erase some things it could erase... Perhaps your thoughts, your consciousness, your wisdom, your memories. Anyway, things that aren't that difficult would have been erased by it."
"At that point, you would have become an empty shell with power but no thoughts... IX could have dealt with you with a wave of its hand. To it, you truly have no way of resisting."
Aha said with a giggle, a trace of mockery toward [The Nihility] in her expression.
"But who would have known you would be so decisive... It was just a clone that came, without that much power. Being washed by such pure energy from you, it has been thoroughly wiped clean."
"Right now... it probably took quite a blow. Because of your [Salvation], its Path's philosophy was shaken by a small margin. All it can see right now are flashes of holy light..."
As Aha spoke, she suddenly walked in front of Ron, using her hands to turn his head so that their gazes met—
Ron had originally wanted to resist, but because of his exhaustion, and because he knew clearly that he was no match for this entity before him, he simply let her do as she pleased, completely giving up resistance to see what she wanted to do.
Of course... the most fundamental reason was not that.
The most fundamental reason... was that Ron felt no malice from Aha.
She was laughing wantonly, but the target of her laughter was never Ron...
If she truly had ill intentions toward Ron, she probably would have acted just now, when Ron was bombarding the clone of IX with a torrent of sacred light.
Joining forces with IX, wouldn't it be easier to get rid of him? So, it seemed that Aha had no intention of doing anything bad.
Just as she herself had said...
It was very likely that, right now...
She just wanted to have some fun.
But Ron's prediction was wrong.
Aha turned Ron's head to face her, her eyes, shimmering like flower petals, looked into his, her tone earnest:
"Keep it up, Ron."
"Do you know? This sea of stars has been stagnant for too long, too long. Nothing has changed, so naturally, there is no 'Elation'."
"I actually started to regret it. I regret why I descended from the top of the Tree of Existence. I regret whether I should not have done some things..."
"But you came, Ron."
She spoke, the seriousness on her face slowly fading, and for the first time, a gentle smile graced her lips.
"You are destined to be the one who breaks the stalemate... This sea of stars has no more joy. Everything has become stagnant, completely fallen into a boring quagmire."
"We need 'change.' We need to prove the meaning of our 'existence.' We need to find that single, freely falling blossom among these thousands of magnificent world-lines."
She spoke, gently releasing her grip on Ron's hands.
"The cosmos is unfeeling, yet joy can erase suffering, dilute sorrow, resist nihility, and heal wounds..."
"Laughter is the innate right of intelligent species... This sea of stars should have a measure of happiness to break this stalemate, to make everything in this sea of stars understand completely that the suffering of the past and the fated future have now been shattered."
"...The ones newly taking the stage are themselves. They are joy itself, a talent for freedom unbound by anything!"
She spoke, gently stepping back. The fox mask was taken off by her and gently placed on her own face—
"Fools of a Thousand Faces. I take one... you have one, and all living beings have one."
"All things are blind and foolish, yet they still know what joy is—they understand the smiles that bloom from the bottom of their hearts, and without a teacher, they develop the determination to resist the cold and bitter suffering... This is what all living things in this sea of stars are."
"You and I are never special, Ron... In my eyes, in this sea of stars, whether mortal or Aeon, all have their 'moment of Elation'."
"In the right to pursue joy... there is not the slightest difference between us."
"Fools of a Thousand Faces, and we are all Fools."
She spoke, taking out a pitch-black top hat—this was the hat she had worn when she was disguised as Sampo.
She gently placed the hat on her head, and an illusory seven-colored light enveloped it, washing away the appearance of the young girl from just now...
The next moment, what emerged from this seven-colored light was a jester dressed in a pitch-black cloak, his body hidden within it—
He wore the top hat, his entire face hidden in its shadow. All Ron could see was half of a smooth chin and the smile tugging at the corners of his lips...
He lightly took off the hat and bowed to Ron, but his footsteps slowly retreated. His entire being was swallowed by the seven-colored light, and Ron was unable to see the true appearance of Aha, [The Elation].
This Fool only left behind a single blessing—
"Take the stage soon, Ron."
"This grand, star-shattering drama should not be delayed... Your power is greater than you think. You have no need to retreat."
"It is time for this drama to shake the entire sea of stars..."
"I await your performance, Ron."
PS: Another 5000-word chapter, and another 5000-word burst. I'm practically paralyzed, but I might have a little 'what-if' side story starting in a bit... Written on a whim, no charge. By the way, this book has reached the climax before the finale. The main story will probably be wrapped up within the next 50,000 words. This means the next few chapters are basically the concluding chapters. I want to polish them well, write them well, and release them in one go, rather than dragging it out and making everyone feel like I'm just padding for word count. So, I might update a bit slower in January, but I can guarantee that each chapter will be at least 10,000 to 20,000 words, and I will definitely finish the main storyline of this book before January 15th. As for the side stories after that... I'll be writing a Ron x Herta side story this month. It'll probably be around 30,000 to 40,000 words, not short, so that side story will be paid. OK, I've said all I need to say. I'm going to go write the opening of that 'what-if' side story I just came up with.