"My god, Boss Nero!" After hearing Nero's description of how Phantylia would be dealt with, Siberian Duck cried out in shock. "This is straight-up eternal torment for Phantylia."
[Knight of Beauty: That's our Boss Nero for you, making full use of everything. He directly used Phantylia's traits to make a semi-perpetual motion machine.]
[Wind-Boy Solo-Stan: Now Phantylia is really so happy she burst into flames.]
[Madam Herta Fan Club: Damn it, I think I finally understand why Nero got this skin in this story arc.]
[I Use Pantene: The original outfit looked too loose and carefree. Now that he's wearing this set, the streetlights can smell him coming.]
[Belobog Savage: Streetlights? What streetlights? Our Boss Nero benefits people, why would he need streetlights?]
[Aha's Emanator: True, this outfit on Nero really has that... uh... kind of feeling.]
[Glue Man: Hahaha, the robe gave off the feeling of freedom and youthful spirit, but after changing into this outfit, the aura that makes Fragmentum monsters fear him finally came out.]
[Abnormal Incident Investigator: Looks like Belobog is about to become the legendary horror land passed around among Fragmentum monsters.]
The players suddenly seemed to realize the meaning behind Nero's new clothes in the Fragmentum factory.
———
[Nero's Fragmentum Factory, Jarilo-VI Main Plant Core Furnace]
Massive surging energy was twisted into the shape of flames by some kind of force. Through the transparent shell surrounding it, the inside of the furnace could be clearly seen.
Large amounts of outer-universe flames were imprisoned here, then broken down and drained of energy through the company's design to power the factory.
And today, another giant thing had been added inside.
An unexpected new worker.
Phantylia's huge divine body was trapped within it. Pain and hatred covered her face as flames burned across her body.
Everything had happened too suddenly. Even Phantylia herself did not understand what had happened.
She remembered that white-haired brat asking her to use the Ambrosial Arbor to create another body...
Phantylia had already suffered once at Nero's hands before, so of course she refused.
Then... then that brat unreasonably grabbed her, then forcibly stuffed the branch of the Ambrosial Arbor into her.
But even so, if Phantylia herself refused to use the Ambrosial Arbor for anything, nothing should have happened.
Yet at that moment, something strange occurred.
Her body changed completely beyond her control. In an extremely short instant, it twisted and turned into this physical form.
The moment she realized something was wrong, Phantylia tried to escape immediately, but Nero forcefully dragged her back and finally threw her into the core furnace.
As the person involved, Phantylia could swear to Nanook that this time she truly had no intention of obtaining a body.
Yet she still inevitably ended up like this.
But strangely, everyone who saw it thought it was normal.
Whether it was that white-haired brat, the company executive, or the little judge from the Ten-Lords Commission and the people of her race behind her, all of them seemed to think it was perfectly normal for her to form a body after coming into contact with the Ambrosial Arbor.
It was understandable if the first few people didn't notice anything strange, but Phantylia felt there was no reason her own kind wouldn't sense the abnormality too.
Even an Emanator of Destruction found something this bizarre unsettling and terrifying.
Very quickly, Phantylia pushed aside her thoughts.
No matter what had happened before, the most urgent thing now was escaping this place.
Of course, this was not difficult for her. It was only a body. As a spirit of living flame, she could abandon these things and flee on her own at any time.
Thinking this, Phantylia activated her power, however...
Nothing happened.
Her body, along with the power she once possessed and should still possess now, showed absolutely no response to her will.
Panic rose within Phantylia.
She was enduring the pain of being burned alive. She continuously tried to abandon this body and escape the core furnace.
The terrifying future of eternal burning filled her with fear.
Because this was neither throwing herself into Destruction nor attaching herself to Abundance.
She would become a constantly growing tree.
She would become eternal fuel trapped inside the furnace.
She would maintain her sanity throughout this cruel process. She would be able to hear, see, speak, and feel, yet be unable to react or move in any way, becoming a "suffering prisoner."
The road waiting ahead of her was visible darkness and emptiness.
"Damn it... damn it..." At this moment, the Lord Ravager could no longer maintain her calm elegance or the detached mentality of coldly observing all living things.
When true disaster descended, she too became a desperate survivor scrambling for a way out.
She devoted herself to Destruction, yet could not witness her own end.
She devoted herself to Destruction, yet could not endure suffering far beyond Destruction itself.
"What exactly is happening? My body... my power? Why? Move! Why can't I move?!"
Phantylia lowered her head in panic.
In her vision, she saw horrifying changes taking place, changes that filled her senses and nerves with terror.
She felt herself "sinking," falling into the swamp of Abundance, becoming inseparable from this massive body, tangled together beyond separation.
She saw her body burning.
She saw the burned body slowly recovering.
She also saw her body begin expanding outward, stretching, growing one tentacle after another.
The spreading tentacles resembled plant roots, intertwining and tangling together as they extended into unseen cracks deep inside the furnace.
She was taking root here.
The deeper and wider those roots spread, the more terrified Phantylia became.
Because that meant she was one step closer to the abyss of eternity.
"Stop wasting your energy.", A man's voice came from outside.
Through the transparent shell, Phantylia saw a dark blue-haired man standing there, looking at her with cunning and sharp eyes.
"Listen to old Sampo's advice. Give up resisting early and accept your fate. It'll save you some effort anyway. The ending's the same no matter what.
"How does the saying go again? Oh right, save yourself decades of detours."
"Fool..."
"Wrong!" Sampo shook his head, then pulled out an employee badge from his pocket. "Old Sampo is now the factory director of Nero's Fragmentum Factory, Belobog Main Plant!"
Phantylia: "..."
"Hehehe... A mighty Emanator of Destruction, a Lord Ravager, now locked in a cage as firewood. What a sigh-worthy fate."
Sampo put away the badge as he spoke with what sounded like emotion.
"If you want to know what happened to you, I think you should look up carefully. Really look. You should be able to sense it."
Sampo looked at Phantylia and said, "That way, both you and the readers reading this book can probably understand a little more about the little ancestor."
"..."
Phantylia stayed silent for a long time.
But in the end, she still released her senses and slowly raised her head.
She heard sounds, seemingly just soft breathing.
Then she saw brilliant Stellaron energy flowing and circling. This vast cloud of stars crossed distant space, passed around the Xianzhou Luofu, skipped over Herta Space Station, circled once above the Astral Express, then lightly flew past Jarilo-VI before finally gathering somewhere.
Phantylia sensed a gaze.
When she deliberately focused on it, the gaze became stronger and stronger, carrying intense burning pain with it.
An unknown screech and mad noise instantly assaulted Phantylia's mind. Her senses began breaking apart, and the world she saw gradually collapsed into twitching lines.
Chaotic, disordered lines and twisted scribbles instantly filled her thoughts.
Then they fell endlessly into the distance.
Phantylia saw herself falling together with those strange images, dropping into a field of starlight.
But that starlight was also falling.
Phantylia gradually made out its shape. It seemed to be the fingertip of a hand.
But very quickly, that hand also fell.
It fell into another starry sky, onto another hand.
The twitching, twisted images constantly jumped through Phantylia's senses, cutting apart her thoughts.
She gradually saw the owner of that "hand."
A gigantic humanoid.
A humanoid made of countless stars.
The stars trembled inside Its body, and every breath It took stirred chains of cosmic storms.
But that massive humanoid also fell.
It fell into the body of an even larger giant of starlight, and was observed by another even grander giant...
The falling never stopped.
Seeing Phantylia suddenly freeze in place, the Fool raised a brow, then turned to look elsewhere.
[🎉 Shoutout to Salty, Steffen, what_iz, julien and archer for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]