Chapter 143: Stelle: Why Did It Call Me Akivili?
"So, this is the fragment related to the Path of Voracity?"
"Yep. There's a high probability it's connected to Voracity," Rekka confirmed, using a pen to nudge the sealed, silver cube on the table. It rolled over once before settling. "It might even be a fragment of the Aeon of Voracity itself."
The cube, containing what looked like a thousand nested layers of shimmering darkness, lay inert.
"This is just one tiny piece..." Rekka mused, his brow furrowing slightly. "I feel like this isn't so simple. Why would a fragment of Voracity appear on me when I'm walking the Path of Elation?"
"In my expert opinion," the great Detective March 7th began, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, "could it be because of the Aeon of Elation? Maybe this Voracity fragment has something to do with Aha."
"The Aeon of Elation..." Rekka frowned. Elation and Voracity? The connection felt tenuous. Shouldn't the stronger links be with Trailblaze or even Nihility?
"Maybe Aha thought it would be funny to stuff a Voracity fragment into you," Stelle guessed, a mischievous glint in her own eyes. "Just to watch you get so hungry you start gnawing on everything in sight?"
"...You know, what you're saying actually makes a terrifying amount of sense," Rekka admitted, scratching his head. "I even had a wild theory once that the Path of Preservation actually has Voracity locked up inside it."
"Where on earth did that speculation come from?" March asked, baffled.
"Well... don't you think the Interstellar Peace Corporation's logo—the symbol of Qlipoth—looks less like the Amber Lord and more like the head of some kind of monster?" Rekka elaborated. "You just have to see the empty spaces of Qlipoth's arms as its eyes."
"What kind of... isn't that reasoning a little far-fetched?"
"Sigh, I don't know. I've just always had this strange feeling," Rekka said, scratching his head again. "I can rarely see that icon and think 'Ah, yes, the Aeon of Preservation.' And considering the Corporation's appetite... isn't it a perfect fit?"
"Eek, stop it! The mental image is too strong!" March 7th shivered, rubbing her arms. "Now my head is full of monsters in suits having a board meeting, drooling all over their financial reports." She shook her head, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "So, what's the plan for this fragment? You can't just keep it in your pocket forever. What if it breaks the seal one day?"
The silver cube lay there quietly, though it seemed to vibrate with a faint, almost imperceptible hum every few moments.
"I haven't thought of a good way yet," Rekka said honestly. "This thing is extremely sinister. Ordinary methods of destruction won't work on it. I'll probably wait until the day I switch to the Path of Erudition and then use my genius brain to deal with it."
"Just don't let your curiosity get the better of you and cause some kind of major disaster," March warned.
"Don't worry, it'll definitely be fine."
"How about you leave it with me?"
Stelle reached out her hand, a dangerous light of pure, unadulterated curiosity flickering in her golden eyes.
"No!" Rekka and March 7th snapped in perfect, horrified unison.
"I was just asking," Stelle mumbled, withdrawing her hand and pouting.
Just then, her expression went completely still. A voice, ancient and seductive, echoed not in the room, but directly within the confines of her mind.
'Come, Akivili, take it.''Use your life to exchange for bliss, for satisfaction.''Akivili, I call to you...'
"O...kay..." Stelle murmured, her voice barely a whisper.
Though Stelle possessed immense physical strength, her mental fortitude had always been a vulnerability, easily swayed by powerful external influences.
In an instant, her pupils lost their focus, as if all the light within them had been siphoned away by an unseen force. Her outstretched hand, which she had just pulled back, began to rise again, hanging in mid-air. Her fingertips trembled slightly as her arm moved, inch by agonizing inch, toward the silver cube on the table.
"Stelle? What's wrong?" March 7th waved a hand in front of Stelle's vacant eyes. Seeing no reaction, her heart skipped a beat. She grabbed Stelle's shoulder and shook it gently. "Hey! Don't scare me! Why are you spacing out?"
But Stelle remained unresponsive, her gaze fixed on something far beyond the walls of the Astral Express.
"...bliss..." she breathed out.
"Stelle!"
March's voice rose in alarm. She lunged forward, grabbing Stelle's wrist and yanking her arm back with force. The sudden motion seemed to break the spell. Stelle jolted as if waking from a dream, shaking her head with a dazed and confused expression.
"Stelle! Are you okay? What just happened to you?"
Stelle blinked, and the familiar golden light slowly returned to her pupils as they refocused on her friends.
"I... I think I heard someone calling me," she said, her voice uncertain. "I think... they called me Akivili?"
"Well, that's probably the temptation of the Voracity fragment," Rekka nodded sagely.
"Wait, wait," March interjected, "isn't the main point here why she would hear someone calling her Akivili?"
"Is that important?" Rekka asked.
"It is! It's super important, right?"
"I could call myself Akivili if I wanted to. Isn't everyone on the Astral Express a follower of Akivili? 'Akivili' can be a spiritual designation," Rekka explained, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head to look at March 7th with an air of deep wisdom.
"Is... is that right?" she asked, her certainty wavering.
"Yeah. It calls you 'Akivili,' and just like that, you fall for the trap," Rekka said, his bluff delivered with unshakable confidence.
It worked. Both March 7th and Stelle looked at each other, completely taken in.
"That... actually sounds strangely reasonable," March conceded.
"Mm-hmm," Stelle agreed, nodding.
The Voracity fragment was promptly sealed away again, placed inside the same high-security safe that housed Rekka's blueprints for his galaxy-destruction bomb.
"Are all the things kept in there that dangerous?" Stelle asked, directing her question to Himeko, who had been quietly observing the chaos.
"Yes," Himeko confirmed with a weary smile. "There are many dangerous things inside, most of them created by Rekka... dangerous blueprints for inventions like galaxy-destruction bombs that can be easily mass-produced."
The destructive power of the galaxy-destruction bomb wasn't unique, nor was it the most powerful weapon conceivable. Its true strength lay in the fact that it could be mass-produced at an astonishingly low cost. The terrifying part was that a civilization didn't need a high level of technological advancement to develop it. Once the schematics were out, it was a 'mutually assured destruction' button for the entire cosmos—everyone goes down together.
"A galaxy-destruction bomb?! You can even build something like that?" Stelle stared at Rekka in utter shock. "What are you usually thinking about in that head of yours?!"
"Oh, that's all in the past," Rekka waved a dismissive hand. "It's not like I actually built an Aether-Phase Engine or anything. Just running the idea of that thing through my head is dangerous enough, okay?"
"Aether-Phase Engine? What's that?"
"Uh, to put it simply, once that thing is built, everyone in the galaxy except the beneficiary will be completely destroyed, regardless of whether the engine succeeds or fails. The moment the Aether-Phase Engine starts, it triggers a subspace backlash that detonates every single star. Plus, there's a thirty percent chance of ascending to godhood and a seventy percent chance of becoming an eternal scream of agony... the latter refers to what happens if the engine fails to start, which would leave the beneficiary unable to escape, screaming in pain for all eternity..."
Rekka neglected to mention that building the engine would also trigger cosmic events like 'Psionic Vibrations Sweeping the Starry Sea'or'The Dying Breath of the Shroud.'
What did that mean? It could be understood as the Sea of Quanta and the Imaginary Tree being sucked dry by this massive cosmic pump, resulting in a final, agonizing gasp from reality itself. Countless beings would die, and those who survived would wish they hadn't.
This was precisely why Rekka needed Polka Kakamu to manually review whether his research was dangerously insane.
It was another day the universe wasn't destroyed by a whimsical genius madman. Everyone, quickly, thank your Auntie Polka.
"You really are a living, breathing Yama King," Stelle deadpanned.
"And not a particularly kind-hearted one," March 7th chimed in.
"Hey, you two... I have a conscience, all right?"
"Alright," Himeko finally called a halt to the group's increasingly apocalyptic conversation, her voice calm but firm. "Now that the dangerous items are properly stored, let's stop discussing how to destroy the universe. Everyone should focus on the upcoming journey instead."
With Himeko's interruption, the tense atmosphere in the parlor immediately relaxed.
Stelle, however, fell silent, biting her finger as she seemed to recall the feeling of that voice in her mind.
'Akivili.''It called me Akivili...'
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