"Mm, I'll give it a try."
Kafka's brows furrowed tightly. Then, with a wave of her jade hand, several purple threads shot out like bullets, piercing through the reinforced glass of the medical pod and wrapping around Firefly's arms, ankles, and body.
"Firefly, listen to me—imagine right now that you're a free and unbound cloud, drifting with the wind~"
Kafka channeled the power of her Path within her body. The charming Spirit Whisper suggestions flowed along the threads into Firefly's body.
Time passed minute by minute. As the power of Spirit Whisper continued to strengthen, Kafka's own Path power was rapidly nearing depletion.
Yet even as she approached exhaustion, her power still failed to awaken the girl. Instead, Firefly's body—whose internal energy kept climbing—gave a slight tremor. The purple threads controlled by Kafka were torn apart by the surging energy, rebounding back against their master.
"No good—my power has no effect on Firefly right now. Silver Wolf, prepare to open the Aether Channel. We have no choice but to withdraw."
After a moment of inner conflict, Kafka ultimately chose retreat. Gazing at the girl whose internal energy continued to rise unabated, a trace of sorrow flashed across Kafka's face.
"I'm sorry, Firefly..."
Kafka was out of options. With only her current abilities, she simply could not suppress the explosive growth of power erupting within Firefly.
If it continued to increase like this, aside from self-detonation, Kafka couldn't think of any other outcome.
"I... got it."
Silver Wolf wanted to say something more, but upon seeing the sorrowful look on Kafka's face, she ultimately gritted her teeth. Then she activated her Aether Editing ability and began creating an Aether Channel.
Silver Wolf truly lived up to her reputation as Punklorde's top hacker—her mastery of Aether Editing was superb. In no time at all, a deep and dark Aether Channel appeared before everyone.
"Go!"
With one reluctant glance at the slumbering Firefly, Kafka pulled Silver Wolf and resolutely leaped into the Aether Channel.
As for Elio—he had no intention of leaving. At this moment, Elio's consciousness was merely attached to the black cat's body. As the leader of the Stellaron Hunters, he planned to stay behind and see Firefly off on her final journey.
"This is my fault. If I hadn't sent Firefly to Penacony after the script had already gone completely off the rails, none of this might have happened."
Murmuring to himself, the black cat possessed by Elio leaped onto the table. It then lay down gently, its gaze fixed tightly on Firefly inside the medical pod—as if wanting to etch her figure forever into its heart.
On the other side...
"Ha!" "..."
Through the Aether Channel, Kafka and Silver Wolf successfully escaped to another star system.
Looking at the vast expanse of white around them and feeling the biting cold wind assault them, the tension in their hearts finally eased somewhat.
"The Aether Channel is about to collapse—why hasn't Elio caught up yet?" Seeing that Elio hadn't followed, Silver Wolf furrowed her brows slightly. She then prepared to overdraw her Path energy to extend the Aether Channel's opening time a little longer.
"No need, Silver Wolf. Elio isn't coming. As the leader of the Stellaron Hunters, he's probably planning to personally accompany Firefly on her final journey."
Kafka's words caused Silver Wolf's movements to freeze. Then, in silence, she withdrew the holographic screen on her arm.
"Firefly..."
"Firefly..."
The two stood sorrowfully in place, mourning the companion and friend who was about to pass away.
Across the entire galaxy, the Stellaron Hunters were regarded as heinous villains who committed every evil imaginable—shunned and despised by nearly every faction.
But those who truly knew them would discover that the Stellaron Hunters were actually a group of people who valued bonds and loyalty deeply. In a certain sense, they were quite similar to the Nameless.
By contrast, the Interastral Peace Corporation—under the banner of [Preservation]—ran rampant across the galaxy, doing things completely contrary to [Preservation]. All their talk of benevolence and morality was ultimately nothing more than a game of interests.
A long while later, the two finally calmed their emotions.
"Where exactly is this place? It feels somewhat familiar... Silver Wolf." Suddenly, Kafka—who had been in mourning—seemed to notice something, though she wasn't entirely sure. She asked Silver Wolf to check their current geographic location.
"Understood."
Silver Wolf took out her tablet and began calculating their current cosmic coordinates.
"Z-axis confirmed, X-axis confirmed, Y-axis confirmed..."
"Our current location is... Jarilo-VI?!"
Once the artificial intelligence finished the calculation and plotted it on the interstellar map, Silver Wolf stared in shock. Through the Aether Channel's teleportation, the two of them had somehow stumbled right onto Jarilo-VI.
This was almost too much of a coincidence. One must know that due to the urgency of the moment and the heavy workload, Silver Wolf had only set one condition when selecting the Channel's destination: "permit human survival."
Who could have guessed that it would accidentally cross an entire star system and land them on Jarilo-VI—this world that had originally been part of the script?
"Perhaps this is fate..."
Gazing at the scenery around them, Kafka sighed with a complicated look in her eyes. In the end, destiny played its tricks.
"Kafka, according to 'Heavy Bunny's' scan, currently about 1/10 of this planet's surface is still covered in ice and snow. Yep—we're very 'lucky' to have teleported to this godforsaken place."
Looking at the information returned by the artificial intelligence, Silver Wolf grumbled speechlessly.
After reaching an agreement with the Interastral Peace Corporation and receiving massive external resource support, Jarilo-VI's development had skyrocketed like a rocket.
With abundant resources backing them, in just a few short months, the ice and snow that had accumulated on Jarilo for hundreds of years had already melted away for the most part. What remained unmelted was located at the planet's north and south poles, preserved due to natural environmental factors.
"Kafka, want to go check out the city here? That original town—I think it was called... something like Belobog? Want to take a look?"
To this, Kafka did not reply. Instead, she drew her purple one-handed sword from her pocket dimension and gave a light swing toward a nearby snow mound in the distance.
In an instant, cold light flashed. Sharp threads carrying fierce killing intent tore toward the snow mound.
"Waaah!! Mercy! Mercy! Ladies, spare me!"
With a violent explosion, the snow mound shattered. A purple-haired man hidden inside leaped out as if his rear had been set on fire.
"Ladies, mercy! Mercy ah!"
Seeing Kafka raise her long blade again as if ready to strike once more, the purple-haired man's face instantly turned green.
He hurriedly slid forward on his knees, stopping not far from Kafka, and begged in an utterly "humble" manner.