After knocking Firefly out, Kallen had no intention of taking advantage of her helpless state, much less finishing her off.
She laid Firefly across Judah, then bent down and picked up the SAM transformation device that had fallen to the ground.
"So that's what you two were whispering about just now," Kallen said mildly. "Turns out you were tattling on me."
She had seen the little exchange between Firefly and Phantylia the whole time.
What she had not expected was how innocent Firefly really was.
Of course, Kallen was not the only one thinking that.
Phantylia erupted into impotent outrage.
"No, seriously, how did someone like this even become a Stellaron Hunter? Why would you go and ask her directly?!"
There was no reply.
Firefly was unconscious now, limp across Judah, cheek pressed against the cold golden cross, breathing evenly like a child who had dozed off in the middle of the afternoon.
"You…"
Phantylia felt like she was losing her mind.
She was a Lord Ravager. Even being stuffed into this tiny transformation device had not made her feel this exasperated before.
She had practically shoved the memory into Firefly's face, made her look directly at what kind of monster stood inside that white void.
And then?
Then Firefly got up, walked over, grabbed that woman's sleeve, and asked:
"Do you know Zephyro?"
So calm. So serious.
Phantylia wanted to punch her.
And that woman had not even bothered inventing a proper lie.
"I'm far beyond something like Zephyro."
Listen to that. Was that even something a person should say?
"Are you brain-dead?!" Phantylia shouted. "You're a Stellaron Hunter! What about your script? Didn't Elio tell you what kind of contact you'd be meeting?!"
At last she could no longer hold it in, even though she knew Firefly could not hear her now.
"Could you keep it down?" Kallen raised the device to eye level and spoke to the tiny mechanism. "You may have fallen a long way, but you used to be a Destruction Emanator. Why do you have none of a Lord Ravager's bearing left?"
Phantylia's voice cut off abruptly.
"You… you can hear me?"
"It'd be hard not to." Kallen spun the device around one finger. "That little stunt of yours just now was loud enough to hear from three streets away."
"What are you trying to do?" Phantylia demanded.
Kallen did not answer.
Instead, her gaze flicked suddenly toward another direction.
"You've been watching long enough. You may as well come out now."
Her voice echoed across the empty plaza, and the silence did not last long.
From behind a giant clockwork mascot, a figure slowly emerged.
It was Gopher Wood, wrapped in the shape of a crow.
"It has been some time, Miss Kallen," he said.
"I didn't expect that we would still come to this point in the end."
Kallen did not say much. She only gave a slight nod.
"Gopher Wood, you're almost dead now."
That was how it looked to her. He seemed no more than moments away from death.
And the crow before her was clearly his last remaining vessel.
Gopher Wood did not deny it.
"Yes. According to my original plan, I was meant to meet my death only when Sunday ascended."
"But now, because you took half of my authority, that death has been brought forward… a little."
Kallen was unmoved.
"From the way you say it, what? Are you here to blame me?"
Gopher Wood shook his head.
"No. I came to thank you."
"To become fuel for the Choral Finale—this was my own choice. For Order. For Penacony. I was willing to become that."
He paused, his gaze drifting to the golden cross on Kallen's shoulder.
"But the half of the authority you took… because of that, in these final days, I was also able to fulfill a tiny wish of my own."
"…I saw Mikhail. Only from afar."
"But after watching him speak with those Nameless, I think… I remembered something. Some of our old memories."
At once, Kallen's expression shifted ever so slightly.
Because Gopher Wood had a certain smell about him now.
No way.
Could it be that simply after looking at Misha once, he was actually planning to abandon everything?
If Gopher Wood were really about to say that, Kallen would be the first not to believe him.
"So then? What did you come here to say?" she asked.
Gopher Wood continued.
"You have done many things lately, Miss Kallen."
"You spoiled the secrets for the Nameless of the Astral Express. You stepped in to help a Stellaron Hunter you had never met. And you threw one of the IPC's Stonehearts into battle as disposable bait."
"If I were a few hundred years younger, I would probably think you mad."
"And now?" Kallen asked.
"Now?" Gopher Wood answered. "Now I would thank you."
"Because at this moment, it truly seems you are acting to assist our plan."
"I regret my earlier suspicions."
He meant it.
In Gopher Wood's eyes, everything happening in Penacony now was, strangely enough, moving in the direction he had hoped.
Especially now.
Kallen had even brought a Glamoth Iron Cavalry soldier to Oak Family territory.
Because this place was not Clockie Studios at all.
It was the original memory zone where he had hidden the Stellaron.
According to his original plan, he had intended to tempt Firefly and lead her to make a wish before the Stellaron—a wish simply called to live.
And now Kallen had delivered that Iron Cavalry soldier right to him.
It was hard not to read something into that.
Kallen did not deny it.
"I will let Sunday ascend."
But before Gopher Wood could say anything else, she changed tone.
"And then I will end Order."
"…What?"
For the first time, Gopher Wood sounded at a loss.
If Kallen had told him instead that her goal was to restore Order, he truly would have believed her.
After all, whatever happened next had nothing to do with him anymore.
He had perhaps two minutes left to live.
And in those final moments, he had made the same choice Mikhail once had.
He had decided to entrust the future of Order to Sunday.
True, he knew that Sunday's ideals differed from his in certain respects.
Sunday would never agree with his plan involving a repeat of the Swarm Disaster.
But that was all right.
Gopher Wood had always believed that even if their roads differed, the place Sunday sought to reach would still be the same place he himself had always longed for.
"If you mean to end Order," he asked at last, "then what are you doing now?"
At least before death, he wanted an answer.
This time, Kallen did not hide it.
"I will help Sunday ascend. But once he has, I will drag him back down."
"You want to slay a god?!"
Gopher Wood was genuinely astonished.
But Kallen immediately denied it.
"If Sunday truly became a god, I'd turn around and leave. I'm not so arrogant as to think I can fight a real Aeon head-on."
"He'll become very strong. But if you ask whether he'll truly become an Aeon… he'll still fall a little short."
"So in the end, he'll remain only an Emanator—perhaps one who comes very close to godhood."
Maybe Sunday would end up similar to Iron Tomb, she thought.
Honestly, Kallen was a little curious which would be stronger: Sunday at that level, or Iron Tomb.
Too bad she would never get to find out.
Gopher Wood fell silent for a while.
His clouded eyes locked onto Kallen, as though trying to read a riddle he would never solve.
"Then what is your real purpose?"
"If all you wanted was to stop Order, you could have destroyed our entire plan directly. With your current authority and power, you absolutely could have done that."
"But instead you are helping him. Clearing obstacles for him. Paving the road for him. Even bringing the sacrifice for the Stellaron right before his eyes."
He glanced at Firefly sprawled over Judah, his expression complicated.
"And then you say you'll pull him down."
"That makes no sense."
This time, Kallen chose not to answer at all.
Even if she told him, he would never believe it.
Because her reason was absurdly simple.
She just wanted the entire galaxy to witness her power.
That was all.
The strongest Emanator in history, against the strongest Emanator of the present.
The absolute strength that gave rise to absolute loneliness—
No, wait, wrong script.
Truthfully, when she had first come to Penacony, she had only one goal: use the great Preservation hammer summoned through Jade to build up some resistance to Preservation.
But if she only adapted to that one strike, even if she gained some resistance, it would never be enough.
Because one day, when she really went to Pier Point, there was a very real chance she would end up getting elbowed by Qlipoth Himself.
And now, she had an opportunity.
With the current state of her "the more people believe it, the more real it becomes" fabrication system, Kallen had every reason to take this chance to stack some attributes in front of the whole galaxy.
As for whether she might fail?
She would win.
"…Mm. Your time's up," Kallen said at last.
Gopher Wood did not deny it.
His life had reached its end. He himself knew that better than anyone.
The crow's body was stiffening by the second. The edges of its feathers had begun turning ashen, like paper reduced to cinders, ready to scatter with the slightest wind.
At the very end of that life, he only looked at Kallen with complicated eyes.
"You really are a strange person."
"A lot of people say that."
"I hope… that child Sunday can defeat you."
"Then you'll be disappointed. He can't beat me."
Gopher Wood was gone.
And Kallen spoke again, this time to the device in her hand.
"So now it's just the two of us left, Phantylia."
For once, Phantylia had no interest in answering.
Based on what she had just heard between Kallen and Gopher Wood—and on her own knowledge of Stellarons and Glamoth's Iron Cavalry—she felt she had glimpsed Penacony's true secret.
Who was the greatest genius of the Genius Society?
Some would say Theresa.
Some would say Zandar.
They were all wrong.
Because she, Phantylia, was about to become the supreme genius of Erudition.
"Heh. You monster. So that's what you're doing—you're trying to make a god."
"And you're even worse. You're planning to kill that god right after making one?"
"How utterly idiotic."
Some of her confidence returned, and Phantylia slipped into mockery mode.
Kallen's gaze sharpened.
"Phantylia. Do you not understand your current situation?"
"I've captured you alive."
But Phantylia was not afraid yet.
"And what? Are you going to make it mutual destruction?"
"Let me tell you something. The connection between me and that fool is far closer than you think. Once she wakes up, all I have to do is tell her the truth, and your plan for a second Swarm Disaster will be finished before it starts!"
Kallen looked at her with darkening eyes.
"You're threatening me?"
At once, a pulse of Nihility wrapped itself around Phantylia.
She immediately lost all confidence.
"W-wait! Hold on!"
"That was a joke! Just a joke! As a Lord Ravager of Destruction, I naturally have no objection at all to a return of the Swarm Disaster!"
The aura vanished as quickly as it had come.
Kallen withdrew her gaze and toyed lazily with the small transformation device in her hand.
"There you go. You used to be a Lord Ravager. Learn to read the room."
Phantylia did not answer.
Inside that tiny metal shell, she huddled into herself, breathing as softly as possible.
She never wanted to feel that sensation again.
Yet Kallen went on anyway.
"Too bad. Whether you behave now or not, I'm still not going to let you go."
That finally pushed Phantylia past her limit.
"What, are you trying to kill me for good?!"
"I'm telling you—once that fool wakes up, I'll tell her everything. She'll believe me!"
Kallen only smiled at her.
It was the smile of someone watching a lab rat in a cage.
And then Phantylia suddenly realized something horrifying.
At present, Firefly was not the only Propagation-aligned being left.
Because after undergoing Cecilia's alteration, Phantylia herself had become one too.
A cold, malicious gaze settled over her.
Kallen spoke softly.
"Phantylia. What do you think would happen if I tortured you until you were half-dead, then tossed you into the Stellaron?"
"Do you think… you'd make a wish to keep living?"
Phantylia: Don't come any closer!!!
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter200)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter110)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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