"Your Majesty, don't you understand yet? A thousand years have passed. You have been abandoned. If not for the suggestion I gave you back then, you too would have become withered bones in your home like those other villagers!"
"Shut up, Divine Emissary!"
Inside, Cerydra sat on the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, her face a mask of contempt as she looked at the "obsequious" and theatrical Lygus before her.
"Drop the phony act, Divine Emissary. Do you take me for a fool? My arrival in Aidonia was a secret mission. And yet, you just happened to appear here. Heh..."
Lygus's posture remained unchanged. Seeing Cerydra's question, he began to explain, "Your Majesty, I have already explained this to you for a thousand years. I learned of your whereabouts from Lady Hysilens and came here specifically to support you at her request."
Cerydra let out a derisive laugh, her eyes filled with mockery for Lygus.
"Still the same old story, riddled with holes. A thousand years have passed, and you haven't even bothered to polish up this clumsy lie?"
Faced with such ridicule, Lygus remained completely unperturbed. He simply straightened up, his tone of voice no longer as fawning as before.
"Your Majesty, regardless of the circumstances, if you wish to escape, you can only do so by following my plan. Or do you wish to spend another thousand years in this fog? Perhaps you, as the demigod of [Law], can afford to wait, but the people outside cannot."
Cerydra immediately fell silent. Just as Lygus had said, she had tried thousands of methods to escape the fog over the years, but every single one had failed.
In the beginning, she could at least chat with the other trapped citizens of Aidonia to pass the time. But as the days turned into years, their supplies dwindled.
Gradually, the other citizens passed away, one by one.
If she hadn't accepted Lygus's proposal—completing the trial of [Law] to become a demigod in exchange for two hundred Iron Golems—she wouldn't have survived until now either.
But even after becoming a demigod, she still couldn't leave this place. She couldn't even find the Nether Portal the people of Aidonia had spoken of. All she could do was wait, alone in this cathedral.
Finding Fu Zhu had become her obsession.
Seeing Cerydra's silence, Lygus sighed softly and tried to persuade her once more.
"Your Majesty, why not follow my proposal? Hand over the [Law] Coreflame in your possession and complete the Re-Creation. At the very least, you would be helping the people outside, would you not?"
"No."
Cerydra firmly rejected Lygus's proposal. "I promised Fu Zhu I would give all the Coreflames to him. How can a king go back on their promise to a subject?"
Hearing this, Lygus shook his head helplessly.
He never expected Cerydra to be so stubborn. He had been trying to persuade her for a thousand years, yet she remained unmoved.
Now, Fu Zhu had escaped through some unknown means, and the progress of The Irontomb's hatching was stuck at 99.98%. He had to speed things up.
"Hmm?"
Just as he was pondering his next move, Lygus suddenly looked up toward the doorway. He sensed someone hiding there.
"Why are you hiding in the shadows?"
Lygus's sudden outburst caught Cerydra's attention, and she too looked towards the entrance.
Seeing that she had been discovered, Stelle decided to make a grand entrance. She strode in, with Mem following nervously behind her.
Cerydra looked at the unfamiliar yet beautiful young woman, her eyebrows raising in surprise. In a thousand years, she had never seen anyone enter the fog.
"Who are you? Why have you entered this fog?"
"Me?"
The corner of Stelle's lip curled up, like the return of the Dragon King. She swung her baseball bat onto her shoulder and struck a pose. Behind her, Mem mimicked a strange pose Stelle had secretly taught her earlier.
"I'm just a Stand User passing through. Remember that!"
"Passing through?" Cerydra focused on the key words in Stelle's sentence, her brow furrowing slightly.
Lygus, standing to the side, provided a very helpful introduction for Cerydra. "Your Majesty, this person is an extradimensional demon from beyond the sky. She intends to subvert Amphoreus and claim all of its resources for herself. You must be careful!"
Across from them, the posing Stelle was dumbfounded by Lygus's introduction.
"Dude, you can actually say something so full of holes with a straight face?"
Seeing his lie exposed, Lygus simply dropped the act.
"Heh, Lady Stelle, you jest. Although the statement is full of holes, it still has a chance. Even if there's only a one-in-a-billion chance of deceiving Her Majesty, it is still worth a try."
Cerydra looked at Lygus as if he were an idiot. Did this guy really think she was senile?
Deciding to ignore Lygus completely, she turned her attention to Stelle.
"State your true identity."
"Nameless Guest of the Astral Express, Stelle!"
After her declaration, Stelle swung her bat and charged straight for Lygus. Seeing her attack, Lygus raised his hands unhurriedly.
"Heh, I didn't expect you to come alone. You'll make the perfect hostage to threaten Mr. Fu Zhu with."
Just as Lygus was about to clap his hands and use his authority to capture Stelle, he saw her attack posture suddenly change. She put away her bat, brought her left hand together, and pointed her index finger straight at him, shouting.
"ZA WARUDO!"
A bizarre ticking sound, like a clock stopping, echoed through the air. Lygus's body froze in place, his hands just centimeters away from clapping together.
Stelle put away her bat, took out the hat Mikhail had given her, and placed it on her head. With her hands in her skirt pockets, she swaggered towards Lygus with a gait that disowned its own family.
"Yare yare... Don't you know the secret of my Star Platinum? Its precision is so high it can even catch a bullet. Let alone your slow attempt to clap your hands."
Cerydra, still sitting on the sofa, found her time unaffected. She watched with a bewildered expression as Stelle and Lygus played out a scene she had never witnessed before.
Stelle walked right up to Lygus, grabbed the brim of her hat, and yanked it to the side, roaring, "ORA!"
Behind her, Mem immediately raised her two little paws and began frantically slapping Lygus's face, landing over thirty hits before finally stopping.
Stelle coolly turned away, adjusted her crooked hat, and chuckled.
"I'm so damn handsome, seriously."
The next second, the time stop was released. Lygus was sent flying backward, crashing through several walls.
Fu Zhu, watching from the side, rolled his eyes. This is so cool, but isn't it all because I'm helping you with the commands?
"Sis, all the lines you're saying are the ones I want to use."
"We're siblings, what's yours is mine! Hehe."