Sunny answered without thinking.
"There wouldn't be a reason to exist if the outcome never changes."
The words left his mouth cleanly, without hesitation, without any emotional weight attached to them. They were simply true.
He frowned faintly afterward.
"And without context, what you're saying doesn't make much sense. It sounds profound, sure, but it's also vague enough to mean anything."
Kafka studied him for a moment. The Matrix hummed above them.
"…That's a very you answer."
She shifted her weight, golden bindings chiming softly.
"Fine. Context, then."
Her gaze drifted, not toward Sunny this time, but toward Fu Xuan's retreating figure in the distance. The Master Diviner stood apart from them now, head inclined, speaking rapidly into a jade communicator as Cloud Knights waited for her instructions.
Kafka continued.
"Fu Xuan learned three things from the Matrix."
Welt's posture subtly straightened. March leaned closer, attention fully captured now.
"First, the Stellaron Hunters are not enemies of the Xianzhou Luofu."
March blinked.
"…That's it?"
Kafka smiled faintly, ignoring her outburst.
"Second. The cause of the Stellaron crisis on the Luofu was not us."
Her continued to speak as if she was holding a mundane conversation about tea.
"It was internal unrest paired with external conflict. A traitor within the Luofu, working alongside an outsider who wishes to see the Xianzhou fall."
She glanced toward Fu Xuan again.
"The Master Diviner is already informing Jing Yuan. He will act swiftly. Speed isn't something he'd prove mediocre in."
Sunny narrowed his eyes.
"And Elio let her see that?"
Kafka shook her head.
"Not all of it. Elio withheld information from me deliberately, so that the Matrix wouldn't expose too much. Divination is powerful, but it's still bound by inputs. Limit those, and the output remains incomplete."
She looked back at Sunny.
"Fu Xuan knows there is a traitor. She does not yet know who."
Kafka's lips curved.
"The third thing, is the reason we were here at all."
Her gaze swept across them.
"We were never here for the Stellaron. The whole point was to lure the Astral Express onto this ship."
Welt closed his eyes briefly, fingers tightening around his cane.
Kafka went on.
"In the future Elio chose, the power of The Hunt becomes indispensable. Without it, the outcome is fixed. Loss compounds into annihilation. Survival narrows into extinction."
Sunny tilted his head.
"Indispensable for what?"
Kafka met his gaze.
"For what comes next."
He frowned.
"That's not an answer."
"It's as close as I'm allowed to get without breaking script, but I can tell you this much."
She paused, as though choosing her words carefully.
"In the best-case scenario, and in the worst, you will eventually face Nanook of Destruction."
Sunny stared lazily at Kafka for a few moments, before his face scrunched up in pure bafflement.
'Wh—What is this bullshit?!'
March went pale.
"…Seriously?"
"Yes."
Kafka's voice remained steady.
"There's other threats, supposedly, but Elio has insisted on keeping it a secret. Not really my problem anymore, am I right?"
She paused for a few seconds, before continuing in deep thought.
"…No, it certainly would be my problem. Where would I live if the world was gone?"
Kafka blinked, as if finally remembering that she was being interrogated.
"Did I mention the world was ending? The first among plenty, honestly. Destruction is not content to consume a single world, or even a single universe. THEY are a decay that refuses to stop once it begins."
Sunny felt a strange stillness settle over him.
The Matrix above them seemed louder now, its rotations more pronounced, as if responding to the topic itself.
"In every future, this is where Fate and Destiny converge. No matter how many branches precede it, no matter how wildly the paths diverge, they all end at the same dance."
Kafka's eyes locked onto Sunny's.
"The end of existence as we know it."
March swallowed.
"…So what's the point, then? Don't tell me you're going to have us fight with the big guys up top?"
Kafka looked at her for a moment, before looking at Sunny with an amused grin.
"…Who knows? Chances are, Elio is taking a massive gamble, hoping that something would change."
Sunny shut his eyes for a moment — he could only ever lose his sight if submerged in True Darkness, so he 'saw' his surroundings just fine — wondering why the hell all of this was thrust onto him.
The answer was obvious: [Fated].
'Couldn't this end of the world crap have happened before I was born? Or, better yet, after I die?!'
Somehow, Kafka's words didn't quite sink in. What was he supposed to do about an Aeon feeling a little silly? Spank THEM?
Sunny decided to just assume that everything he was hearing was false until proven true. He'll believe Kafka when he supposedly comes face to face with Nanook, ready to scrap.
Going with that train of thought…
"And you're sure this Elio guy isn't conning you all… how, exactly?"
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
[You have recieved a Memory.]
Sunny blinked, confusion apparent on his face. Two announcements from the Nightmare Spell echoed back to back, neither of them making any sense in the current situation.
His Shadows were all in his Soul Sea — except Serpent, who was coiled under his sleeve. They couldn't have killed anything, and nobody made physical contact with him… unless they did? Invisibility was a real thing.
But how did he not feel them?
'Uh… that's probably a thing, too, huh?
Looking back at Kafka, he noticed that the woman seemed to hold an expectation look on her face. Quickly, Sunny checked his runes, just to find…
That none of his Memories were missing? And none had been gained?
…Didn't a similar thing occur when editing a Memory?
Assuming that this was some kind of trick set by Kafka, he decided to check the runes of his two newest Memories. The Silent Mist, which he was currently wearing, did not seem to change in any way. He then looked at Hail Sorrow…
'Oh, boy…'
Memory Enchantments: [Heightened Emotion], [Shattered Ego], [Manifest Spirit],[Perpetuality of Violence], [Black Heart], [False Alarm!].
Was this a joke? Some terribly insensitive joke? Didn't people know that those kinds of jokes should only be told to people who weren't Sunny? That's why they're called insensitive jokes!
[False Alarm] Enchantment Description: "
I suppose I should apologize?
I won't.
You'd be panicking too if you made a master plan just for everything to go off the rails.
Instead of a zero, you now have a quadrillionth.
Of a percent.
Just ignore me if I send you more messages.
Don't, actually.
That'd be impolite."
Sunny had never been more disappointed in another being in his life. Which was impressive, really.
'Is Weaver… just an idiot? Or… was that Elio?!'
That would be an interesting plot twist. Looking up at Kafka, he thinned his lips.
"…Got anything to say for yourself?"
She shrugged, displaying the epitome of anticlimax.
"You know, Sunless, even Aeons could be killed."
The corners of Sunny's lips twitched, with him deciding to simply nod in response.
'That's cool and all, but was that Weaver or Elio? We have more important questions here!'