"?"
"We meet again, Lycurgus. Or perhaps I should call you Mr. Lygus."
"Although this may be difficult for you to understand, from my perspective, this is already the second time we've stood here and spoken."
Even though the upper half of Lygus's face was concealed by something resembling a visor, making his full expression impossible to read, and even though he was an Intellitron whose metallic body could barely display emotion, everyone present could still tell how confused he was.
"It's only natural that you're confused."
"At this point in time, you haven't spoken with me before."
"Our first proper conversation won't happen until 26,724,561 cycles from now."
"That point in time is when I truly arrive in Amphoreus for the first time."
If anyone else heard those words, they would probably think they were listening to the ramblings of a madman, or someone who had just woken from a dream and was recounting what happened inside it.
Lygus, however, merely thought for a moment before speaking.
"I see."
"Could you perhaps be an Emanator of Finality?"
"Although I know that Path exists, reliable records and precise data concerning it are exceptionally scarce."
"All I know is that Terminus, the Aeon of Finality, travels backward through time and possesses the ability to move from the future into the past."
"I didn't expect an Emanator-level existence to truly exist upon that Path."
"If that's how you want to understand it, that's fine."
"In the original timeline, someone else should have been standing here speaking with you."
"But I took over the destiny that originally belonged to him."
"Then according to what you said earlier, your objective should be to prevent the final stage from being completed."
"To stop Recreation from occurring, force this era to repeat endlessly, and wait for an outside variable to appear."
"Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"It was the only solution they could think of."
"And it was also the only thing the original Savior was capable of doing."
"For that reason, he carried everything upon himself and abandoned everything he once had, all for the sake of waiting for the legendary dawn to arrive."
"Then why would you, that very dawn, return to the past?"
"Because this is how I intend to save the world."
"Now you've genuinely made me curious."
"How exactly do you intend to save this world?"
"Of course, I understand that we're technically enemies."
"If you don't wish to explain, that's perfectly reasonable."
"I don't mind telling you."
"I'm a traveler capable of crossing the multiverse."
"My plan is to use the immense span of time accumulated through these repeated cycles to record every blade of grass, every tree, every change, and every living being in Amphoreus within my books."
"Then I'll travel to another universe and use the unique laws of that world to transform these existences, which are currently nothing more than data, into beings with genuine existence."
"Afterward, I'll bring them back to this universe."
"Finally, using the powers of two separate sources of Finality along with Abundance, I'll perform a true act of creation and allow everyone to live as genuine living beings."
Lygus seemed to crash after hearing that.
He remained completely motionless for a long time before finally asking, his voice carrying the slightest tremor.
"The multiverse?"
"A true multiverse?"
"Yes."
"Not parallel universes."
"A genuine multiverse."
"Different laws of physics. Different rules governing life."
"I've even heard of universes so restrictive that if a god entered them, they could be reduced to an ordinary mortal."
"That said, among all the universes I've traveled through, ours happens to be one of the few places that dimensional travelers generally don't want to visit."
Caelus was not exaggerating.
His System had told him that the Star Rail universe was indeed one of the rare places that even the top students in those academies generally avoided bringing their Hosts into.
If you brought your Host here and got involved with the protagonists, that was effectively the same as directly interfering with Finality's script.
What level of existence did you think you were, exactly, to casually interfere with a seventh-tier script?
And if you chose not to involve yourself with the main cast, instead traveling through the universe while taking advantage of its unique laws to grow stronger, then fine.
Hopefully you wouldn't run into anything strange along the way.
Because in this universe, no one could guarantee what kind of nightmare you might stumble across.
Every Path had its own extreme interpretation.
And every Path had factions that walked those extremes.
You might simply be developing quietly on some random world, only for an Emanator to descend for reasons you never even understood and wipe the entire place out.
And that would still count as an easy death.
If you encountered one of the truly bizarre ones, you might find yourself unable to live and equally unable to die.
The main reason Caelus could interfere with the destiny of this universe without anyone deliberately stopping or correcting him was because he was already part of this universe.
And at the same time, he was one of the most dangerous existences within it.
"This really is strangely absurd."
Lygus spoke quietly.
Everything he had done had been for the sake of breaking the observational lock Nous had imposed upon the universe.
He wanted the future to return to uncertainty.
To regain infinite possibilities.
The original inhabitants of Amphoreus, meanwhile, had also been trying to break through the restrictions he himself had imposed and reach a genuine future.
And in the end, both situations had been overturned by visitors from beyond their respective worlds.
From Lygus's original perspective, his plan had always possessed a high chance of success, but failure had remained possible.
Once he learned that the Path of Finality truly allowed one to move backward through time, however, Lygus understood that he could never succeed.
No matter how flawless his future plans might become, if some existence walking the Path of Finality disliked the result, they could simply go back and attack him in the past.
No plan, no matter how perfect, meant anything if it was exposed at the very beginning.
And from Lygus's perspective, the reason Caelus could reveal his entire plan without the slightest concern was precisely because he controlled time.
If one attempt failed, he could simply try again.
After all, all Caelus needed was Amphoreus's complete data.
Even if Lygus interfered repeatedly and prevented him from collecting accurate information, Caelus could simply return to this point in time, or even earlier, and start over.
The only difference was that one method reset Amphoreus through its own internal systems, while the other reset time through personal power.
"Your abilities are truly enough to make one despair."
"Even I can't think of a completely reliable countermeasure."
Lygus had considered using a mental attack and incapacitating Caelus instantly.
But then he remembered that he was facing an unpredictable traveler who had supposedly crossed multiple universes.
If he made a move and failed to subdue Caelus immediately, then what awaited him would be pursuit from the future directed toward his past self.
A guaranteed defeat.
And with the risk that high and the probability of success that low, a rational scholar like Lygus had no reason to gamble on it.
So...
"I assume that during our future conversation, I must have told you the truth about Amphoreus."
"And I must also have explained why I did all of this."
"Yes."
"Everything you did was meant to break the restrictions Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, placed upon the future."
"But you no longer need to worry about that."
"In the future timeline, Nous has already lost the ability to completely lock down the future."
"I used the power of another universe to create the Eternal Dreamscape."
"That dream can even continue growing."
"Under those circumstances, Nous can no longer fully calculate the future of the universe."
"And if Nous truly wanted to eliminate the Eternal Dreamscape, it would first have to transcend the fundamental framework of this entire universe through its own power."
That was a lie.
Even if Nous somehow transcended the entire universe and stepped into the seventh tier, trying to interfere with the Eternal Dreamscape would still mean taking a direct hit from God.
Lygus fell silent again after hearing that.
This time, the silence lasted even longer.
Then, visibly, all the tension seemed to leave him.
"If that's the case..."
"Then please take your time and truly see this world I created."
After saying that, he turned around and left.
Apparently, once Lygus learned that the future already possessed such an overwhelming safeguard, the importance of his own plan dropped considerably.
What had once been an objective that absolutely had to succeed had become something where success or failure no longer mattered very much.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)