Non-Administered World #97, Star Rail Universe…
The moment the wall began moving backward, the entire Alliance took advantage of the opening Noah had given them.
[All units, this is Arthra! The wall is retreating! Do not pursue it! Use this opportunity to reorganize and get every remaining civilian behind the final defensive line!] Chrono ordered from the bridge while Amy rapidly updated the tactical map beside him.
Across Mahora, the exhausted TSAB mages changed formation while Chaldean personnel and Clock Tower Enforcers abandoned positions that had become impossible to defend only minutes earlier. Medical teams rushed toward the wounded, aerial squadrons cleared the remaining corrupted creatures from the evacuation routes, and Mahora's defenders rebuilt barriers across intersections that had nearly been swallowed by Dormammu's corruption.
Amy watched several sections of the map stabilize as defensive units returned to positions that had been lost during the wall's advance. [Three evacuation routes are open again! The western sector is secure for now, and Barrier Squadrons Four and Seven are reforming!]
[Good. Keep everyone moving,] Chrono answered with a firm nod. [We have no idea how long Noah can maintain this.]
At Mahora Command, Konoemon Konoe had already reached the same conclusion. He looked around at several stunned operators who were still watching the impossible sight of the corruption being forced backward and slammed his staff against the floor. "Don't stand there admiring it! We just got handed time we weren't supposed to have, so use every damn second of it!"
Orders spread throughout the city as the surviving defense teams moved into new positions. The corrupted creatures that had already crossed the wall were isolated and destroyed one group at a time, while engineers and mages marked entire districts that could no longer be safely entered. Medical personnel established new treatment areas farther from the corruption, and civilian groups that had been trapped between damaged sectors were finally moved behind the last defensive line.
For the moment, the Alliance had room to breathe, but nobody mistook what was happening for a victory. Noah was the only reason the wall had stopped, and even from a distance everyone could see how badly he was struggling. He stood among the ruins with both trembling arms stretched toward the enormous wall, his legs shaking beneath him while the Force pushed against something connected to most of the planet.
Sweat ran down his face alongside tears he had never bothered wiping away, and his entire body trembled beneath the strain. There was no Blaze supporting him now, no Sun Inheritance burning around him, and barely enough Imaginary Energy remained after his battle with Dormammu and everything that followed. His body had already been pushed far beyond what it should have endured.
Yet the wall continued moving backward.
Inside Starblazer, Himeko watched Noah through the main display before finally opening the communication channel. "Noah."
His eyes moved slightly at the sound of her voice, but March reached the channel before anyone else could say anything.
"YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!"
Noah blinked as March appeared on the holoscreen, already crying.
"You stupid, impossible, unbelievably frustrating idiot!" She furiously wiped her face with one sleeve, only for more tears to replace the ones she had removed. "Do you have any idea how scared we were?! First you stopped answering us, then you nearly burned Mahora, then you fell out of the sky, and after that you just stayed there like you were never going to get back up again!"
"March…" Dan Heng murmured from beside her.
"No! I'm not finished!" March pointed angrily toward Noah's image as though he were standing directly in front of her. "You don't get to scare everyone half to death and then suddenly stand up looking all dramatic without getting yelled at!"
Noah stared at her before the smallest and weakest smile appeared on his face. "…Sorry."
[That's not enough…] March's expression immediately crumpled again. [You deserve to be scolded by Evernight-me.]
"How… cruel…"
[Hmmp!] Her voice shook as she rubbed both eyes again, but when she looked back at Noah, most of the anger had already given way to relief. [But… I'm glad you stood up.]
Noah's smile trembled.
[For the record, I also intend to yell at you later,] Caelus added as he finally released the breath he had been holding.
"…Noted."
[Extensively.]
"Also noted." Noah gave him an exhausted look.
Dan Heng adjusted the controls in front of him, though the relief on his face was impossible to completely hide. [Preferably after the planet stops ending.]
[That would probably be the responsible order,] Himeko agreed before looking directly toward Noah. Her expression softened. [Welcome back.]
Noah gave her a small nod. "…Yeah. I'm… back."
Their relief could only last so long before another warning appeared across Starblazer's displays. Himeko reluctantly turned back toward the battlefield and reconnected their channel with the rest of the Alliance.
[Alright. We can continue this conversation when we're somewhere that isn't actively being consumed by Dormammu.] She looked toward another communication window. [Chaldea.]
[We're here,] Marisbury answered almost immediately.
[Did you find a way to stop the assimilation?] Himeko asked.
Silence followed, and that alone told Noah more than he wanted to know.
[…Negative,] Kirschtaria finally answered.
Marisbury brought the planetary readings onto the shared channel. [We have continued analyzing the corruption using SHEBA, Atlas Academy's models, Mahora's data, and the readings provided by the Nameless. We still have no reliable method of separating Dormammu's life energy from the planetary leyline network after assimilation has progressed this far.]
Noah's arms trembled harder against the pressure of the wall. "How… much?"
One of Chaldea's operators brought up the latest planetary projection. […Eighty percent.]
[Eighty…?] March's face went pale, and similar reactions appeared across several Alliance communication windows.
Kirschtaria enlarged the readings. [The assimilation stopped increasing when you began forcing the wall backward. Your interference appears to be suppressing Dormammu's outward expansion strongly enough that the deeper assimilation has stalled with it.]
[But stalled is all it is,] Konoemon added from Mahora Command. [Eighty percent of the planet's leyline network is already contaminated. We might be able to force the wall back to the World Tree if Noah somehow has enough strength left, but that still doesn't remove what Dormammu has already spread throughout the planet.]
Welt appeared from the Sanctuary channel and studied the same information. [And destroying the World Tree now would not solve the problem.]
Marisbury nodded. [Correct. The World Tree stopped being the sole source some time ago. It remains a major concentration point, but Dormammu's energy is already distributed through most of the planetary network.]
Chrono leaned toward his own display. [What about sealing the affected leylines?]
[There are far too many,] Konoemon answered. [At eighty percent contamination, trying to isolate every affected section would essentially mean strangling the planet's own circulation.]
Himeko frowned. [Then what about purification?]
Marisbury shook his head. [Nothing currently available to us could purify contamination on this scale before the assimilation resumed.]
One by one, every conventional solution disappeared. Destroying the World Tree would not remove the corruption already inside the planet. Cutting the leylines would cripple the world they were trying to save. Purification would take far too long, and no one had discovered a reliable method of forcing Dormammu's life energy out after it had spread this deeply.
Noah remained silent while the discussion continued around him. Chrono reported the condition of the remaining defensive forces, Konoemon described the damage throughout Mahora, and Marisbury and Kirschtaria summarized the planetary readings while Welt considered theoretical approaches that all required one thing they no longer possessed…Time.
Noah closed his eyes and listened as the pressure against his arms became almost unbearable. His shoulders felt as though they were being pulled apart, his vision blurred whenever he tried to focus, and the Force around him trembled each time Dormammu pushed back against his hold.
His reserves were nearly empty. His body had already endured Shuhadaku of Uriel, the battle in the Dimensional Gap, Blaze, the fall from the sky, and now the strain of holding back something connected to eighty percent of the planet.
He could not maintain this much longer.
Noah took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. When he opened his eyes again, a decision was made.
"…Everyone," Noah called through the Alliance channel.
The discussion gradually stopped as attention turned toward him.
Noah looked toward Starblazer, then toward the countless Alliance forces scattered throughout Mahora. His voice was exhausted, but clear enough for everyone to hear.
"Will… all of you trust me… one last time?"
No one in the channel answered immediately. They didn't hesitate because they doubted him. They hesitated because everyone understood the weight behind the question.
"After everything that happened, you're seriously asking us that?" March was the first to respond.
She placed both hands on her hips and stared directly at him through the screen, her eyes still red from crying. Noah said nothing as she sniffed and wiped her face again.
"You really are an idiot." A small smile appeared through her tears. "Of course I trust you."
"Whatever you're planning, I'm in," Caelus said as he stepped beside her.
Dan Heng watched Noah carefully before giving him a single nod. "You have my trust."
Himeko's expression softened. "You never needed to ask."
[As a fellow Nameless… No. That isn't quite right.] Welt answered from the Sanctuary window and briefly shook his head. His expression softened into a small smile. [As your family, it is only natural that we will always have your back.]
Noah's lips trembled as more voices began joining theirs.
[Arthra trusts you, Noah,] Chrono answered.
Amy nodded beside him. [All the way.]
[Mahora will follow your lead,] Konoemon added. [Just make whatever insane idea you have worth the headache.]
Charlus Potter appeared from the Sanctuary feed. [You brought us this far. We're not turning away now.]
Marisbury briefly looked around Chaldea's Command Room before returning his attention to Noah. [Chaldea will place everything we have left on your decision.]
[Do what you believe must be done,] Kirschtaria added.
Then the responses began coming from everywhere. TSAB mages, Chaldean soldiers, Clock Tower Enforcers, Mahora defenders, wizards, and countless others who had fought beside Noah throughout the crisis gave him the same answer.
They trusted him. Noah lowered his head as his shoulders shook from the pressure of the wall.
"…Thank you." His voice barely carried through the channel. He closed his eyes and held onto their answers before giving one final nod.
"Then… leave the rest to me."
Noah lowered both arms. The Force holding and pushing back the wall disappeared. Nobody understood what he had done until the wall started moving forward again.
THOOOOOOOOOM!!!
"NOAH?!" March screamed as Starblazer's warning systems erupted around her. "THE WALL IS MOVING AGAIN!"
Inside Chaldea, the planetary readings began climbing almost instantly. [Assimilation has resumed! Eighty-one percent! Eighty-two! It's accelerating again!]
"What are you doing?!" Himeko stared at Noah in disbelief.
Noah did not turn toward the wall. Instead, he turned his back on it and faced Mahora, the civilians, the defenders, Starblazer, the Arthra above them, and beyond all of those things, every person still alive somewhere on the planet.
He spread his arms wide. Silver light appeared around him.
March stopped shouting as countless silver lines extended from Noah. Hundreds became thousands, and soon Trailblaze pathways spread throughout Mahora in every direction. They passed through the ruined streets and burning districts before racing beyond the city, crossing Japan within moments and continuing over oceans and continents as Noah's Trailblaze Authority began searching the planet.
Not for Dormammu or the corruption infesting the leylines, but for the people and every journey that was continuing and every life that had not yet reached its final destination.
Silver pathways appeared around civilians fleeing through evacuation zones, soldiers holding defensive positions, families hiding inside shelters, patients inside hospitals, and people trapped in buildings far beyond Mahora. They crossed cities, villages, ships, aircraft, isolated homes, and every remaining pocket of humanity throughout the world.
At Chaldea, the planetary display changed completely.
"Wha…?" One of the operators stared at the projection as silver light spread across the globe until every populated region had been touched.
Marisbury slowly rose from his seat. Even Kirschtaria could only stare as the same silver light surrounded him and everyone else inside Chaldea's Command Room.
Then Noah reached somewhere else. Not farther across the planet, but inward, toward the countless possibilities connected to the existence of the person named Noah.
Several hundred meters away, Noah Schweinorg suddenly stiffened. "What…?"
"Noah?" Olga Marie turned toward him.
The younger Noah stared toward his older counterpart as he felt something connect them. A faint silver path existed between the two of them, invisible to everyone else but unmistakable to Noah Schweinorg. It did not cross ordinary physical distance. Instead, it passed through the boundary separating two different possibilities of the same existence.
Noah Alden called upon his Trailblaze Authority and activated Transcend once more. This time, however, he was not trying to surpass the limits of his own strength.
He was trying to step beyond the limits of the journey that belonged specifically to him.
[Captain…] Void Archives murmured as it finally understood what Noah intended to do.
"Every traveler eventually encounters crossroads," Noah said quietly. "Every decision chooses one road while leaving another behind. A traveler who turns left cannot experience the exact journey that would have followed if they had turned right, and every choice they make continues shaping whatever waits at the end of their road."
He turned his head slightly toward his younger parallel self.
"But possibilities don't disappear just because one traveler chose differently."
Somewhere among the countless possibilities connected to a single existence, another version of that traveler might have taken the path they abandoned. Another Noah might have learned something Noah Alden never learned, reached somewhere he had never visited, or acquired an ability his own journey had never allowed him to possess.
That was the principle behind this application of Trailblaze. Noah was not copying another person. He was tracing a road that another Noah had already traveled.
Trailblaze recognized that path as belonging to a traveler who shared the same fundamental existence, while Transcend allowed Noah to cross the boundary of his own journey and briefly place his feet upon the road chosen by another version of himself.
"Wait…" Noah Schweinorg's eyes widened as he finally understood what was happening.
Something familiar materialized within Noah Alden's hands.
A sleek silver sword imitating kaleidoscopic light.
Noah planted the blade into the ground, and the strange light surrounding it immediately entered the silver Trailblaze pathways stretching across the world.
"No way…" Noah Schweinorg stared in disbelief. He recognized the structure of the spell, its underlying principle, and the way one possibility had begun touching another.
Beside him, Olga Marie stared toward the sword. "…Is that Argent Caliber?"
"Older parallel me didn't manifest my Mystic Code itself. He borrowed the application of my magic…" The younger Noah shook his head slowly. "He's using Argent Caliber as the medium for Kaleidoscope!"
Reality began to change. A reflected version of the world slowly overlapped the existing one. Buildings gained translucent counterparts. Roads appeared beneath roads, towers beneath towers, and even the sky seemed to possess another sky behind it as the two spaces temporarily aligned.
"What is this…?" Himeko whispered as Starblazer's displays struggled to interpret what was forming around them.
Dan Heng studied the incoming data. "Another dimensional space is overlapping our position."
[Not exactly,] Noah Schweinorg corrected through the Alliance channel. [It's the Mirror Dimension. A reflected world running alongside reality.]
The silver rails crossing the planet grew brighter, and every person connected to them began glowing.
"Uh… Noah?" March looked down at her hands as silver light surrounded her body.
The same light spread across Caelus, Dan Heng, Himeko, and Starblazer itself. Above the planet, it reached Chrono, Amy, and everyone aboard the Arthra. Chaldea's Command Room became filled with silver light around Marisbury, Kirschtaria, and their operators. It reached Konoemon Konoe, Welt, the defenders at Mahora, the Sanctuary, Hogwarts, the other former breach sites, and every civilian scattered across the world.
Himeko stared toward Noah as understanding finally came to her. "Noah…"
He looked toward Starblazer. His expression softened completely. The grief and exhaustion had not disappeared from his eyes, but there was something else in them now, something that made Himeko's breath hitch.
"Noah, wait!"
"What?" March immediately looked between her and Noah's image.
Noah gave them a real smile. Small, tired, but unmistakably his.
"…Thank you," he said. "…For everything."
"Noah?" March's eyes widened.
The silver pathways flashed brighter.
"HIMEKO!" March shouted as the readings around Starblazer suddenly changed. "Something's wrong! NOAH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Noah, stop!" Himeko leaned toward the communication screen. "Whatever you're planning, we can do it together!"
"You all said you trusted me. Noah slowly shook his head, but his smile remained. "So let me finish this."
"NOAH!"
Silver light swallowed Starblazer. Then it reached through the Arthra, Chaldea, every Alliance position, and every inhabited region of the planet at the same instant. One by one, the people connected to Noah's Silver Rails vanished from the corrupted world and reappeared within the Mirror Dimension.
Civilians who had been running through collapsing evacuation routes suddenly found themselves standing in reflected streets untouched by Dormammu's corruption. Soldiers appeared in the mirrored counterparts of their defensive positions beneath a different sky. Hospital patients, shelter occupants, aircraft crews, sailors, families, and isolated survivors throughout the world were carried across the boundary by the silver pathways, appearing safely within the corresponding places of the reflected world.
Noah Schweinorg felt the transfer beginning around him, Olga Marie, Reines, Gray, Alisa, Suzuka, Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, and Hayate-chan. But as the silver light surrounded him, his attention remained fixed entirely on Noah Alden.
Then he realized what was missing.
"You're not coming with us…"
Noah Alden did not answer. He did not need to because that silence itself was the answer.
"Noah!" The younger Noah's eyes widened. He reached toward his older counterpart, but his hand was already disappearing into silver light. Olga Marie grabbed him just as the Mirror Dimension began pulling them away.
"NOAH ALDEN!"
Inside Starblazer, March was still shouting while Caelus slammed both hands against the console and Dan Heng desperately searched for any route that would allow them to return. Himeko did none of those things; she simply stared at Noah.
Their eyes met through the screen one final time, and Noah gave her a small nod. Then Starblazer disappeared, carrying the four Nameless into the Mirror Dimension.
The silver light continued spreading until the last surviving person on Non-Administered World #97 had crossed into the reflected world.
When it finally faded, the world became unbearably silent. Only Noah Alden remained on the corrupted planet. There was nobody left behind him to protect. No civilians remained inside Mahora, no soldiers held the streets, no command centers continued issuing orders, and no family waited somewhere beyond the battlefield for him to save them.
Ahead of him, the planet continued falling deeper into Dormammu's grasp as the dark-purple wall rushed toward him once more.
Noah watched it approach and released a tired breath.
"Alright… let's put an 'end' to this farce."
He slowly turned toward the corrupted World Tree, a faint smile crossing his face as the wall finally reached him and swept past, swallowing Mahora City completely.
====== Chapter 240 END ======