The feeling of weightless falling wrapped around his entire body. Countless gray-white streaks of light and shadow, mist, or perhaps some kind of fluid-like phantom, surged past his eyes.
Inside this narrow passage that seemed to have been sliced open by some sharp object, a sticky sensation of being wrapped up almost soaked through Nero's entire body.
The feeling of traveling between different parts of the dream was even more unusual than Nero had imagined. At the very least, he had never expected that having too high a concentration of memetic substance would feel this uncomfortable, as if he had not showered for several months and was covered in sweat.
If he had not learned how to manipulate memetic substance, perhaps he would not have been this sensitive to the feeling right now. But gains always came with losses, and being a little more sensitive to disturbances in memetic substance was not entirely a bad thing.
Beside Nero was March 7th, who was falling with him.
The lively girl had fainted while the two of them were rushing toward the area of turbulent memetic substance, but she was quite awake on the way back.
However, at the time, he and March had both been sitting on the purple Tyrannosaurus rex, and March was also taller than him...
Nero felt that perhaps traveling through dreams would not have much impact on most people's minds. March had fainted because when the Tyrannosaurus rex smashed through the ceiling, her scalp had been the first thing to come into contact with the memetic substance of the hard stones from the collapsed city.
"Why is it taking so long, Nero? You weren't tricked, were you? Was that guy who suddenly appeared really Fuli? What if it was Mythus?"
March's expression was somewhat gloomy. After Nero split open the desert and the two of them jumped down to prepare for the return trip, quite a long time had already passed.
Although she had not checked exactly how long it had been, from March's subjective sense of time, she and Nero had at least been floating through this long, narrow, colorless, dry passage for three system hours.
"It probably wasn't. It was Fuli."
Nero shook his head, rejecting March's guess.
Although March had rarely been clever for once, she had guessed wrong this time.
Nero was very sure he could not have mistaken him. A figure that looked like an ancient emperor carved from ice was definitely Fuli, without a doubt.
As for Mythus, perhaps he really had come to join in the fun. After all, when Nero had spoken with Fuli, he had sensed some influence coming from outside, although that influence had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
But the question March had raised was indeed something Nero was somewhat concerned about.
It had clearly only taken the blink of an eye to get up there, so why did it take so long to come back down?
But this was a world made of memetic substance... Maybe there was some kind of discontinuity in time and space between different places?
Maybe when he and March had been trekking through the desert, only one second had passed outside, while during this long fall, he and March would fall all the way to several days later?
Nero let his imagination run wild, but that could not give him an accurate answer.
After all, he had only learned how to manipulate memetic substance. He did not know much about memetic substance itself, nor about the world constructed from it.
Put another way, he knew how to eat noodles, and he knew how to make tasty noodles, but he did not know what someone else's kitchen looked like.
If Nero wanted to understand these things, perhaps he would have to wait until he left this passage and look up some information, or go to the Garden of Recollection to study.
Given his connections, there were plenty of ways for him to learn about this kind of knowledge.
But what child liked taking the initiative to study?
At least the vast majority of them found it difficult to feel enthusiastic about studying.
Nero did not dislike studying. In fact, because of his inexplicable talent, learning was very easy for him. But obviously, he was not someone who would take the initiative to absorb a huge amount of knowledge either, unless learning something was very necessary for him at the moment. It could be useful, or it could be fun.
So for his current doubts, at most he would find a chance to ask Black Swan, or some Memokeeper he happened to run into. Everyone was pretty easy to talk to anyway... As for actually studying this kind of knowledge... forget it.
Just thinking about it for a moment made Nero feel that learning all this knowledge would be like studying geography.
And before he crossed over, the subject he hated studying most was geography.
Just thinking about it made his head hurt.
Just as he was thinking this, another ray of light suddenly split open ahead of him. The next moment, an opening appeared before his eyes and rapidly expanded. The edge of the gap soon went beyond Nero's field of vision, and a bustling city beneath the night sky came into view.
Yet this bustling night market looked somewhat strange...
Almost the instant Nero and March realized they had left the passage, two figures condensed out of thin air in the sky of the dream. In an instant, they solidified into real individuals and began falling downward.
Nero did not know where he would land after returning to this dream, but from a rough observation, it seemed to be near Golden Hour.
Because of his experience owing a debt on Herta Space Station, the first thing Nero did whenever he arrived somewhere new was to find a map. At the very least, he would fly up and take a look at the surface routes and landmarks from above.
So he was certain that this was the sky above Golden Hour.
Then Nero had a strange thought.
Because he did not know where he would land after returning, he still hoped he could be near his companions. That way, he could avoid having to find them or getting lost.
His luck was pretty good this time. He had returned directly to the correct dream. Maybe his luck would get even better, and his companions would also be in Golden Hour!
This thought remained in Nero's mind for a moment. Soon, he turned his head and looked in a certain direction...
Although he could confirm that this place was indeed the sky above Golden Hour, some of the phenomena were simply too enormous. It was hard not to notice them.
Nero narrowed his eyes and stared at the golden radiance that covered the dream like a barrier.
"Waahhhhhhh!"
March's scream suddenly came from beside him.
"H-how is it so high up, Nero? I can't fly!"
March's scream made Nero shift his gaze. He turned to look at March, having forgotten about this problem.
Although, according to the Family's explanation, even if March fell from this height and turned into March mud upon hitting the ground, the final result would still be that she woke up in the Dreamscape's Dream Pool, Nero still had some doubts and was not entirely reassured about it.
After all, in the story he had played before crossing over, Robin had been stabbed, and the incident had become a murder case.
March was, after all, a good big sister on the same train. Under such uncertain circumstances, he naturally could not really let her fall straight down like this.
Speaking of which, he had told Argenti to keep an eye on Robin in reality. He wondered how Robin was doing now.
Thoughts flashed through his mind, but it only took a few seconds, and he and March were still far too high above the ground to fall that quickly.
Just as Nero was thinking about taking March down by flying, he suddenly froze. He sensed Blackcut approaching, at an extremely fast speed.
The next second, amid the thick black clouds spreading through the sky, a pitch-black greatsword shot out like a meteor and then very proactively caught Nero.
"You got here so fast!" Nero was delighted to see Blackcut arrive so quickly.
Blackcut responded with two high-pitched sword cries. Even without understanding what Blackcut was saying, one could sense a certain proud feeling from those two cries.
Nero turned his head again and looked at the golden curtain nearby, feeling that Blackcut had arrived at exactly the right time.
He gently patted the sword's body and said, "Go take March safely to the ground. I'll go over there and see what's going on."
Blackcut let out another sword cry in response. It obediently flew downward and caught March 7th, who was waving her arms and legs while yelling and screaming.
Nero, meanwhile, changed direction and activated "Rocket Headbutt," heading toward the golden curtain.
Nero's thoughts were simple. There might be something interesting going on in such a huge scene. To get there faster and watch the excitement, he used some extraordinary means.
A few cracks appeared across Nero's body. Faint purple starlight seeped out through those cracks as Nero charged toward the golden curtain at tremendous speed.
To avoid missing the exciting part, he almost became a meteor tearing through the sky. The dream above Golden Hour split apart on both sides along the path Nero flew, as if the sky had been divided in two, and the opening grew larger and larger, replaced by purple starlight filled with a dreamlike quality and clouds of star-making.
Even so, Nero seemed to have still missed an exciting moment. At least, that was how it looked from his perspective.
Because of the dark clouds and the buildings, he could not make out many details, but he could see an actor wearing clothes very similar in style to Aventurine's flying through the sky.
However, before he reached the scene, an extremely fierce burst of energy erupted. Two crimson, viscous sword auras slashed toward the actor almost side by side.
That highly corrosive power almost instantly kicked up a storm, rapidly spreading throughout the area around Golden Hour.
———
Not long before Nero returned to the dream.
Aventurine was very strong, and very tough.
Absurdly tough. Even Himeko's orbital cannon, which had been brought into the dream, seemed unable to cause him much trouble when it struck him.
The power of Preservation truly lived up to its reputation.
However, Aventurine was getting a little impatient. As for why...
It was always the Astral Express crew making the moves. Acheron had not moved, and that Pure Beauty Knight had not moved either.
In fact... the Pure Beauty Knight was still constantly trying to break up the fight.
"Why do you have to fight? Fighting is bad. Wouldn't it be better if we sat down and talked?"
Noe spoke anxiously, as if she wished she could grow three heads and six arms.
"Aren't we allies? Didn't we come here to exchange information about the cases? Why do you have to start fighting the moment you disagree?"
Everyone at the scene felt somewhat speechless at this knight's behavior...
But Noe had her own principles. If she could avoid fighting, she would try her best to avoid it. As long as no one died, she would try to mediate.
No matter what, she was not a warlike person, even though dismantling a starship was about the same to her as breaking a figurine...
In Noe' eyes, everyone present was a pretty good person, so although her behavior was a little abstract... she genuinely hoped that these people would not fight, neither with one another nor among themselves.
Although, judging from the current situation, no one at the scene was willing to listen to her.
So while trying to break up the fight, the knight also kept an eye on everyone's movements and attacks. If someone really made a move that would kill another person, then she would have no choice but to use her hands instead of her mouth.
Such a thought might have been overly exaggerated and conceited, but the power of "I think, therefore it is" was like this.
Moreover, although Noe' personality was somewhat soft, her strength was still very formidable. Not ordinarily strong, either.
After reuniting with Argenti and learning the new news about the returning Pure Beauty, she had become even stronger.
And she was not the only one who had become stronger because of this. As far as Noe knew, among her brothers and sisters, those who had learned about Nero seemed to have become much stronger as well. It was rather inexplicable.
Although it was inexplicable, it was very Pure Beauty, and because of this, the knights who had become aware of Nero all felt that they had taken another step forward on the Path of Pure Beauty, and they had determined that Nero was the returning Pure Beauty.
But there was nothing to be done. The power of "I think, therefore it is" was simply like this.
This matter, this situation, would be abnormal if it happened to any other faction or any other group of people, but... if it happened to the Knights, it was extremely normal.
So normal that not a single knight found it strange. It was hard to imagine what kind of life the knights normally lived.
For the knights, perhaps the logic behind how things developed was something like this: 'I ate my meals on time today. This is truly so Pure Beauty. I became stronger because of it. This is normal. Once again, it was a day when I completed the trial of Pure Beauty. How delightful.'
Perhaps this was precisely why the source of the Pure Beauty Knights' power was such a mystery.
At least apart from them, there should be no other faction capable of doing the same thing.
Aventurine seriously considered it for a moment. He felt that he should not place his hopes on Noe.
This knight was probably very strong, but she looked too stupid, so stupid that it was hard to associate anything excessively shocking with her.
After careful consideration, Aventurine raised his hand and pointed toward Acheron.
The woman who did not like to talk much was still more reliable. She was suitable to be a "target."
"Playing a strong hand slowly, putting on an act... You've made me a little impatient."
Like an excellent actor, Aventurine continued his performance. He smiled and flew into the sky amid the dark clouds and lightning, calling out loudly, "To have some fun, everyone... I'll put all my chips on the table. Only by casting aside reason can this become a true game..."
As Aventurine spoke, he tossed the golden chips into the sky. The next instant, the omnipotent surge of Preservation stirred up waves, and a golden curtain unfolded across the dome, spreading downward and covering the city within it!
Countless chips emerged from the golden curtain, surged outward, and then fell. Like a meteor shower, they struck the ground, smashed through buildings, and stirred the memetic substance in the dream into a complete mess.
Aventurine laughed confidently. "Emanator, you'll definitely call the bet, right?"
Watching Aventurine confidently go all in, Acheron frowned.
Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword, but she still did not draw her weapon.
Under the power of Preservation, rolling thunder entered her ears. It reminded her of some memories. In a gray world, beneath a gloomy sky, dim raindrops fell onto a dark red oil-paper umbrella.
In that silent place, she met an old man.
"You... are you about to set out?"
The old man's voice came from behind. Acheron stopped and turned her head slightly.