"Is it… over?"
Jing Yuan extended his hand, watching the drifting motes of light that had once been Woola settle onto his palm before fading into nothing.
"Yeah," Daichi replied quietly.
Realesed from the unite, the young man landed beside him, breathing lightly.
"Woola chose to erase itself in the end."
"That ancient beast… its name was Woola?" Jing Yuan raised a brow at Daichi, surprised.
A creature walking the Path of Voracity, an ancient gluttonous monstrosity, and Daichi knew it?
Before this one ever surfaced, every other ancient beast had already vanished with the era that birthed them.
The last known survivor had been Oroboros.
Or, more infamously—the Voracity Aeon.
"It wasn't an ancient beast." Daichi said, shaking his head.
"Just a pitiful creature. That's all."
He briefly explained Woola's origin, how the monster was born from a garbage world, how a black hole existed inside its stomach, how its fate led it astray.
"To think a civilization could produce a being like that… something born out of a garbage heap… born onto the Path of Voracity… and even granted the rank of an Emanator."
Jing Yuan exhaled softly.
But he didn't dwell on Woola.
Not when something else demanded attention.
Jingliu lifted her gaze toward the colossal Ambrosial Arbor standing silent above the ancient sea, it's immense body casting shadows over the ruined land.
"What about the Ambrosial Arbor? What do we do with it?" she asked faintly.
"The Ambrosial Arbor… well…"
Daichi pulled out the card bearing the image of the Cyber Ebon Deer.
The moment the Ambrosial Arbor sensed the card, it's titanic trunk stirred.
The great tree twisted, coiling like a living dragon as it surged toward Daichi, and dissolved into the card in his hand.
Just like that, the entire the Ambrosial Arbor vanished from the Scalegorge Waterscape, leaving only ruins from the battle.
The Cyber Ebon Deer illustration on the card deepened, becoming more vivid, more alive. And behind the deer's silhouette.
The phantom of The Ambrosial Arbor now appeared.
The Ambrosial Arbor had willingly turned itself into X power.
Jingliu crossed her arms, silently watched Daichi and the card with a thoughtful expression.
"General!"
A familiar voice called from behind.
"Fu Xuan? You're here?"
Jing Yuan waved as Fu Xuan jogged toward them.
"Judging from the looks of things, it seems everything concluded rather well… better than expected." she said, slowing her steps.
She had arrived just in time to witness The Ambrosial Arbor being sealed.
"How are the remnants of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and the Antimatter Legion?" Jing Yuan asked.
"With the help of our benefactors, the rest were merely a small fry."
Fu Xuan replied, surveying the battlefield's devastation.
"And the Lord Ravager? Has it been repelled?"
"Yeah. But this time, we really have Daichi and the others to thank." Jing Yuan patted Daichi shoulder.
"Two Lord Ravagers descending on the Luofu at once… without his intervention, we might truly have faced annihilation."
"Two Lord Ravagers?" Fu Xuan froze.
She knew about Phantylia.
After all, during her confrontation with the head of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, it was Phantylia who had suddenly appeared, commanding both the Antimatter Legion and the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus into a joint offensive that plunged the Cloud Knights into chaos.
"But the second?" Fu Xuan frowned.
"Who?"
"Celenova." Jing Yuan said.
The Luofu, having encountered that Lord Ravager more than anyone else, knew Celenova well.
Which was why Jing Yuan had been so stunned by her sudden arrival.
They had specifically monitored her forces; whenever the Legion she commanded appeared, the Luofu treated it as highest priority.
"The Lord Ravager Celenova… it's was actualy her?"
Fu Xuan pressed her fingers to her chin, brows tightening.
"But I ran calculations with the Matrix of Prescience earlier. According to it's readings, Celenova shouldn't even be in this star system…"
The Matrix of Prescience wasn't omnipotent, but close.
For someone they'd encountered repeatedly an "old acquaintance", the readings shouldn't be wrong.
Unless something on the Luofu was so valuable Celenova risked coming alone.
Or… someone with enough authority had ordered her here.
That thought alone made Fu Xuan's head throb, feeling a headache coming on.
Only one kind of being could command a Lord Ravager.
"Enough brooding, Fu Xuan." Jing Yuan said with a smile.
"A victory's still a victory."
Jing Yuan cut through her worry.
"This matter involves the Lord Ravagers and the Abundance Abominations. The aftermath shouldn't be ours to shoulder alone."
"Fair enough." she admitted with a sigh.
If Phantylia dared to target The Ambrosial Arbor, then she could target other Abundance abominations across the Xianzhou Alliance.
The other ships needed to be warned.
"For now, let's return."
Jing Yuan decided, looking around at the wreckage.
Scalegorge Waterscape, the heart of the battle lay half-destroyed. To him, it was nothing more than deserved consequence.
A place that allowed a Stellaron to root itself nto The Ambrosial Arbor's core, giving the ancient tree fuel to awaken, could hardly claim innocence.
He already suspected several names, though he lacked proof.
Let them deal with the aftermath themselves.
And so, the group departed, leaving only ruins behind.
—————————————————
Nightfall
Jingliu stood alone at Cloudford, waiting beneath the moonlight for her partner.
"The Ambrosial Arbor is gone. It won't return," she said quietly.
"A surprising development." replied the man opposite her.
Clad in white, long golden hair tied neatly into a ponytail that brushed his shoulders, the man—Luocha touched his chin in contemplation.
"Will this disrupt our plans?"
"It will," Jingliu admitted.
"But only slightly."
She lifted her eyes toward the hanging moon, bright and clear like the mirror resting against her chest.
"…But new possibilities have appeared."
"Oh?" Luocha raised a brow.
Jingliu's gaze drifted toward the distant house where Daichi and his companions stayed.
"This possibility doesn't contradict our current objective," she continued.
"But it isn't stable either."
Luocha didn't press. He merely glanced at the necklace in his hand.
"Then I'll continue with my part. And you… turn that possibility into reality. If your intuition is right, we may gain another method or another chance to kill the Yaoshi."
Jingliu nodded.
There were few ways to kill an Aeon.
An Aeon could fall to another Aeon.
Or be consumed and replaced by the Path they embodied.
But what Jingliu saw now… was something else.
If someone could walk further along a Path than the Aeon itself, then that someone would become the new Aeon.
And the old one...
Would fall.
Perhaps… Yaoshi could be replaced.