After Elio finished saying what he deemed permissible to share, he promptly resumed its cryptic riddle-speak.
'Little Herta' wanted to press for more details, but Elio refused to elaborate further.
"...Can't you even say that much?"
"Won't say."
Elio refused flatly.
Partly it was unwillingness, but partly, with matters this far off, even Elio couldn't be certain anymore.
Because of 'Little Herta,' in Elio's eyes, what should have merely been a choice between different paths had now become a situation where even a selected path could randomly change, spawning new branches.
It really made it hard for Elio to maintain a positive attitude toward her.
But on the other hand, the future altered by 'Little Herta's' hand did, by and large, seem to be heading in a better direction.
So Elio didn't completely reject her either.
It existed in a state of being disdainful, yet not quite disliking her.
For now, it could only confirm one thing: the Iron Cavalry must not be chosen.
Otherwise, the Glamoth Iron Cavalry would become the starting point for a new Swarm Disaster, triggering a cascade of terrible events.
The origin of this possibility was the power that Bai Ming guy had used during the last Abundance War.
As for what other futures might arise once this path was closed off...
Elio currently had no choice but to remain a riddler.
What if, because of what she did, the possibilities changed again?
Then if he hadn't been cryptic and given wrong advice, things would get even more troublesome.
Keeping quiet within the Stellaron Hunters was one thing, but if outsiders found out, it wouldn't be good for advancing future work.
As for Elio's attitude, 'Little Herta' was pretty used to it by now.
So she just shook her head and didn't push further.
"Then just tell me where you want me to find this person. I can't exactly track down a stray Iron Cavalry member on my own."
Hearing this, Elio looked down and pawed through Jingliu's phone.
It sent the time and address to 'Little Herta.'
'Little Herta' compared it with the star map and found the coordinates were right on the edge of the Asdana star system.
Although it was far from Penacony, why pick such a specific spot?
Why not just stay far away from the Asdana system altogether?
"Why is it in the Asdana system, but away from Penacony, and arranged right there?"
"So many questions... Join the Stellaron Hunters and I'll tell you."
Elio said it almost habitually, offhand.
'Little Herta' shook her head in turn.
Why would she want to become a wanted criminal for no reason?
"So, is that it? Anything else you can say?"
'Little Herta' put away her phone, memorizing the time and exact location.
She'd just have to wait until the time came to go find them.
She wondered who it would be.
And, ultimately, who would end up as that Eighth Lord Ravager.
"Hmm..."
Elio thought for a moment, initially planning to just leave.
But then, remembering the brain cells it had expended, Elio had a mischievous thought, a sudden urge to cause a little trouble.
So it suddenly looked up and asked:
"Come to think of it, you used to be Celenova, right? Back then, you encountered a Stellaron in Penacony. What did you think of it?"
"...?"
Why bring that up all of a sudden?
'Little Herta' tilted her head in confusion:
"Nothing much, really. I just felt the power of Harmony was overwhelmingly dense, to the point where I could barely sense the Stellaron's energy at all. If I had to say something, I felt like maybe Celenova had some connection to Stellarons, but I didn't look into it."
After all, back then she never thought about studying Celenova's functionality.
Because this kind of unique, individual special ability couldn't be translated into rewards, and researching it was pointless.
She wasn't that smart back then, and wasting precious role-play time on something so thankless wasn't worth it.
She just assumed the feeling was because Stellarons were related to Destruction, and Celenova was always dropping them everywhere anyway.
Hearing this answer, Elio the cat sighed.
"Ahh..."
Even though he knew this already, every time he saw her so refreshingly thoughtless like this, he was a bit speechless.
Thinking about how the universe's future would be drastically reshaped by her hands, he couldn't help but sigh.
"Don't you think it's a bit strange that Harmony's power could so perfectly contain a Stellaron?"
"Is... is it? Isn't Harmony's whole concept about inclusion?"
'Little Herta' blinked, genuinely puzzled.
Xipe could even absorb Ena, so why couldn't the Family suppress a Stellaron?
Faced with 'Little Herta's' response, Elio just shook his head. How could this person be so internally consistent yet so off?
"That's true, but that particular Stellaron showed no signs of distortion, no tendency to become like the objects of Harmony, right?"
"Oh... now that you mention it, yeah. Things absorbed by Harmony clearly tend to lose their sense of self, but the Stellaron definitely didn't show that characteristic."
Spurred by Elio's hint, 'Little Herta' finally engaged her brain and noticed the inconsistency.
She looked down at Elio, waiting for an explanation.
Elio lifted its head, a catty grin spreading across its face, then flicked its tail:
"Figure the rest out yourself. Use that thing on your neck a bit more."
"Hey, don't leave me hanging!"
'Little Herta' reached out to grab the scruff of Elio's neck.
But Elio could foresee the future; his body moved like liquid, twisting and dodging her grasp, slipping away like an eel and vanishing in a flash.
Leaving only 'Little Herta' and the silent Jingliu.
Seeing Elio depart, Jingliu finally spoke:
"There's a rumor in the cosmos that the Antimatter Legion always appears alongside Stellarons, leading people to guess the Stellaron disasters are calamities brought by Nanook."
"That's the mainstream theory, but judging by Elio's attitude, that guess is probably wrong."
'Little Herta' turned, shifting to sit closer to Jingliu.
"Probably. Too bad, Elio never mentioned this to me."
Jingliu shrugged helplessly. She could tell Elio did it on purpose, but unfortunately, she didn't know the inside story either.
So Jingliu decided to change the subject:
"Speaking of which, do you know much about the Glamoth Iron Cavalry?"
"Not much. Just that the Republic of Glamoth created a Queen, fabricated an Empire within the Cavalry, and that the Cavalry's power is probably related to Propagation."
Jingliu nodded, then added:
"Within the concept of Propagation, stray insects wither and die. Only by returning to the swarm can they survive. And according to Elio, the Glamoth Iron Cavalry also uses the power of Propagation."
As Jingliu finished speaking, 'Little Herta' immediately thought of something else.
Firefly's Entropy Loss Syndrome!
In the game, it was just mentioned that this thing was rooted in Firefly's body and would take her life.
Initially, she just thought Glamoth intentionally left this defect to prevent the Cavalry from rebelling.
But thinking carefully, Entropy Loss Syndrome, strictly speaking, was a side effect of the Propagation Path!
Glamoth Republic at most exploited this trait; they probably couldn't fix this defect even if they wanted to.
So, looking at it that way,
That stray Iron Cavalry member... Could they die in Penacony, or be near death there, and then, before or after dying, get used by Nanook?
But speaking of which, where did the Swarm in Penacony come from anyway?
That was also a mystery.
She didn't have the tech before, but now with the power of Remembrance, next time in Penacony, she could investigate thoroughly.
And Mikhail and Tiernan, those two seemed to have lost their physical bodies.
If they were willing, she could mold them into something like Memokeepers. Didn't know if other Pure Children could do it, but she could.
She let her mind wander for a bit, but quickly pulled her thoughts back.
Focus on practical issues first.
Elio only asked her to take the Iron Cavalry member away.
But speaking of which, the Cavalry members were all clones looking exactly like Firefly.
When she opened that pod, if it was a 'Firefly' with a different hairstyle, and not a bad person, she couldn't just watch them die in front of her.
She wasn't that cold-hearted.
And if Entropy Loss Syndrome was indeed tied to the Path, then it wasn't something simple gene editing could fix.
Speaking of swarms, she did have a bunch herself.
But the problem was, the Glamoth Iron Cavalry and the Swarm were literally made to fight each other.
Would she ask an Iron Cavalry member to join a real swarm?
Wouldn't they blow up in her face on the spot?
This retrieval mission would probably require a bit of clever thinking.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL