Absurd and laughable?
Stelle did not continue arguing with Lygus about this.
Her eyes were fixed solely on the Vortex of Genesis not far away.
And Lygus tactfully stepped aside on his own. In this important play, the one who most deserved to witness it was the person before him.
Tap...
Tap...
Stelle walked toward the depths of the Vortex, the heels of her shoes echoing across the empty ground.
For some reason, the concentration and activity of memoria here were exceptionally intense.
In Stelle's eyes, the entire area seemed almost completely submerged in memoria.
And on the screen the audience was watching. Countless traces of frost had already spread from all directions across the camera lens.
In an environment with such a high concentration of memoria.
Stelle naturally saw the memories of different figures.
They were the Chrysos Heirs.
Together with Stelle, they journeyed toward the Vortex of Genesis. And when Stelle drew closer, she finally saw what lay within the Vortex of Genesis.
It was no different from the place she knew so well.
"None of that matters now. This brutal Flame-Chase Journey has stripped away my delusions. I know the future isn't some peaceful paradise with gentle west winds, just waiting to welcome us to step in..."
Just as Stelle drew close. Phainon's voice suddenly rang out.
"This will be a romantic story like none that has come before..."
"You think so too, right?"
Cyrene responded.
"This is... the rest of Phainon and Cyrene's story?"
"Haven't I... seen this scene before?"
Stelle murmured inwardly.
Lygus, who had been quietly following behind Stelle, spoke up. "Indeed! In his memories, such a scene replays over and over. Though the details may differ, this remains ever the same: "All shall bid farewell to one, and that person alone will witness the miracle..."
"...A total of 33,550,335 times."
Upon hearing Lygus's words, Stelle's pupils slowly widened as she stared at him in disbelief.
In that instant, everything she knew, everything she had once believed to be the truth was shattered and reconstructed at this very moment, transforming into an even more outrageous truth!
Of course Stelle understood what the number represented. But precisely because she understood, she uncontrollably fell into immense shock and horror!!
After a brief silence, the bullet comments suddenly exploded.
...
: ????????!!!
: How many times?!!
: Holy shit!! Who the fuck just leaked my account number?!
: ???????? HOLY SHIT????
: So that's what the number in Phainon's PV meant?!!! It's the number of cycles?!!
: No, this... this damn...
: So this is the truth!? The number of cycles is way beyond anything we imagined!
: And Lygus said these are the man's memories... Phainon's memories... In his memories, this happened continuously, over and over?
: Holy shit!!!
: So this isn't a group of people going through reincarnation, or even an entire world reincarnating. It's Phainon alone going through the cycle?!!!
: One person... went through... more than thirty million cycles??!
: Holy... shit...
...
After learning this, most of the audience lost the ability to form coherent sentences from sheer shock.
Most of the bullet comments were likewise flooded with nothing but question marks and "holy shit."
Other than that, there were simply no words or sentences capable of describing what they felt.
One person going through thirty million cycles? Even though those few words currently represented nothing more than a cold, hard fact, without any heavy story attached to give those words additional weight.
Simply imagining everything they had witnessed today happening to Phainon that many times was already enough to make the audience tremble all over.
"Pain" was no longer sufficient to describe such a complicated feeling.
At first.
After the theory of cycles was confirmed, almost everyone believed that it was the world itself reincarnating, or at the very least, a group of people reincarnating together.
Titans -> Chrysos Heirs -> Regenesis -> Titans -> Chrysos Heirs.
That was the kind of cycle they had imagined. Such a cycle might have been painful, but at least it was a group of people going through it together.
But the actual truth was very likely,
Phainon -> Regenesis -> Phainon -> Regenesis -> Phainon...
An endless cycle like this.
And what drove the audience the craziest was that Phainon had very likely retained continuous memories throughout the entire process.
He would relive everything he had experienced again and again.
The departure of his companions. The destruction of the world.
Merely thinking about this made the audience's scalps go numb from shock.
Just how powerful a mind, just how terrifying a will, would someone need in order to remain sane through such a cycle...
No... Perhaps sanity wasn't even relevant anymore... Because this was the story of Flame Reaver.
And at that moment, those who had previously insisted that they could never accept Phainon turning into Flame Reaver all fell silent.
They had anticipated that there was a reason behind the transformation, but they never could have imagined that the story behind it would be this heavy.
More than thirty million cycles. Just how unimaginably long was that?!
Looking at it this way, Flame Reaver's transformation was... What kind of person could endure more than thirty million cycles and still retain a sense of purpose, still at least resemble a human being, rather than falling into nihilism or self-destruction?!
At that moment, the same words from Aglaea surfaced in everyone's minds.
[You are the perfect candidate.]
Whether it was the Phainon they were seeing now, or the Flame Reaver they had previously witnessed.
Both had proven this through their choices and the paths they walked.
And then... Through the number 33,550,335.
It once again declared beyond all doubt to the world, his perfection exceeded what everyone had praised, sung of, and acknowledged.
...
: I... I don't even know what to say anymore.
: All meaning and value become meaningless across a timespan like this...
: And Phainon merely became Flame Reaver...
: The gods of Amphoreus are actually just mortals. Titans, demigods... in truth, they're all mortals... They're not beings like the Aeons.
: But the more you understand that, the more you can comprehend how Flame Reaver endured more than thirty million cycles with nothing but the body and will of a mortal!!
: How the fuck is that even human?!!!
: Holy shit. I'm getting phantom pain now. Fuck, when Phainon drew the Deliverer card, maybe even he never imagined that what he'd have to carry would be heavier than the entire world.
: The true chosen Deliverer!!
: Perfect, perfect, perfect!! AAAAAAAAH!
: This hurts so much. So... this is why Flame Reaver could so casually...
: But, but why did Flame Reaver have to go through more than thirty million cycles?
...
After understanding all of this. When the audience looked again at that peculiar string of numbers, they couldn't help feeling a strange sense of black humor.
33,550,335.
That was the number of Phainon's cycles. But that was not the number's only significance.
Mathematically speaking. That number was extremely close to a perfect number.
33,550,336.
It was short by only 1.
The audience did not believe this could possibly be a coincidence. There had to be some little trick deliberately hidden in there by miHoYo.
And if they counted this latest cycle after Stelle's arrival, the number would become a perfect number exactly.
The perfect Deliverer had fallen just one short of a perfect number.
After counting this instance with Stelle, it finally reached perfection.
Amid their overwhelming shock, the audience could no longer suppress their emotions.
They wanted to know! They wanted to know the whole truth.
....
On screen, the surrounding memoria grew even denser.
Countless memoria crystals appeared within the Vortex of Genesis.
Lygus quietly waited for Stelle to recover from her shock.
Only when focus returned to his colleague's eyes did he slowly say:
"Each is a drop from the river of time, representing the long journey he would take, or rather..."
"...the never-ending cycle."
Having recovered from the terrifying information and conjectures, Stelle looked at the memoria crystals surrounding her, lost in thought.
"A cycle..."
"I knew it...."
Everything she had experienced pointed toward this possibility. Even without the audience's third-person perspective, Stelle had already considered this possibility.
"Hehe, sharp as ever, I see."
Lygus praised Stelle before inviting her to take another step forward. He pointed at the memoria crystals scattered everywhere and said, "Seeing is believing. Why not let your own two eyes uncover the truth?"
"Or perhaps, you can simply walk straight to the final truth: See the true face of the character you play, and witness the ultimate nature of the Chrysos Heirs, Flame-Chase Journey, and the cycles of Amphoreus."
With that said, Lygus stepped aside, returning the stage to Stelle.
Stelle still had many questions. Whether it was the play or the nameless hero she herself was portraying.
Neither question had been answered. But at this moment, none of that mattered anymore.
During her time in Amphoreus, everything she had experienced had already...
After realizing the true nature of the cycle. The images of all the Chrysos Heirs inevitably surfaced in Stelle's mind.
Their beginnings, their endings. Including the way they looked when they departed.
Before she knew it, everyone's stories had already come full circle within the memory. She wanted to know the truth behind this cycle.
Yet she was also afraid that what she saw would destroy all the memories she had held until now.
Because she was a Trailblazer.
So, after a moment of silence, Stelle still walked toward the nearest memoria crystal and reached out to touch it.
The crystal shattered.
A certain memory unfolded before Stelle's eyes.
Thanks to the unique nature and anchoring properties of memoria, Stelle's mind immediately recognized approximately when this memory had occurred.
This was a memory from the 134th cycle.
"Not a single soul to be seen. So this is how the Vortex looks at the end of days..."
Before the empty Vortex of Genesis, Phainon stood alone.
He gazed at the overflowing chalice, leaving only his back visible to the viewer as he murmured with a voice filled with desolation.
Then, someone seemed to intrude upon the Vortex of Genesis.
Phainon slowly turned around, an irrepressible fury hidden beneath his calm words:
"Hehe... Looks like I've got company after all. But since you've made it here..."
"So, in the end, you succeeded..."
"Executioner!"
The memoria ended there.
Without hesitation, Stelle immediately walked toward the next memoria crystal.
This time, it was a memory from the 10,348,765th cycle.
Within the memory, Castorice and Phainon were speaking with each other.
"Castorice? Didn't you..."
Phainon looked at Castorice, his voice filled with shock.
"Yes, I've become Death's demigod, and shall never again walk the world of the living. What you see is the surging of the River of Souls, brought on by the countless dead feeding it in these dark times."
"They cry out: Though dead, they'll converge into a torrent and guard the Vortex, to see the Era Nova fulfilled."
Castorice responded softly.
Upon hearing all this, Phainon lowered his head, his heart heavy.
"..."
Only after a moment did he speak:
"I will take all the wishes of the departed with me. Please, everyone, fight with me, to the very last."
Castorice smiled in relief:
"I hear them: The dead hail you... they're prepared."
"Go on, Deliverer. We'll keep that executioner in our shadows — the path before you leads to light and eternal flames."
As her words fell, Castorice and Phainon both looked ahead, seemingly gazing at something.
The memory ended there.
Then came the third... the 7,753,021st cycle.
Appearing before Stelle were Cifera and Phainon.
"Ugh, there's water everywhere. This place is always all wet and sticky, even my tail's getting heavy..."
"Plus that burnt smell and that sizzling noise... Yikes, nobody from Dolos could stand this."
Cifera's playful voice rang out.
With her back to Phainon and her arms crossed over her chest, she said with a grin, "Go on then, I'll handle the filth. Do what you need to do."
But Phainon was unwilling to simply abandon Cifera like this:
"Let me fight with you. Better odds with two."
Cifera spread her hands. "Hey, remember what the seamstress said? You know what really matters."
Phainon froze. Then he took a deep breath and resolutely said:
"Yeah..."
"...I'll leave it to you then."
Cifera clicked her tongue.
"Wow, someone's not shy. Just so you know, I'm not in the business of making losing deals..."
"I'll distract that executioner, you go turn the world's biggest lie into truth. Let me become the first wind of your new world."
The memory disappeared once more.
Stelle's steps also grew increasingly heavy. The protagonist within the memory was always Phainon, always Phainon at the final moment.
But there was another character always mentioned but did not show up nor reveal their form.
The one everyone called the executioner.
Through this play, she had seen the Phainon who would later become Flame Reaver.
These were his memories. Stelle was standing within the Flame Reaver's perspective, watching everything that had happened...