"That guy, he ran away really fast. His ability to preserve his life is truly top-notch."
Herta curled her lips, seemingly slightly regretful that she couldn't collect more complete data on the Destruction Lord's near-death state.
Then, as if remembering something, she flipped her wrist and produced an object from an unknown location, tossing it toward the silently standing Acheron.
"Hey, catch! That little brat specifically instructed me to give this to you after you finished fighting."
It was a juicy, plump peach, emitting an alluring sweetness.
At that moment, a faint yet genuinely existing spark of light, barely noticeable but undeniably there, flickered in Acheron's originally vacant and lifeless eyes.
Almost instinctively, she reached out with a gentle movement and precisely caught the peach as it traced a graceful arc in the air.
"Thank you."
She whispered softly. The persistent, ethereal quality in her voice seemed to diminish slightly, replaced by a subtle, almost imperceptible hint of human vitality.
She loved peaches.
The fruit embodied the joy of growth and the sweetness of sunshine and rain, yet it was also so fragile and fleeting. This contradictory quality always stirred subtle ripples in her quiet inner lake.
"Tch!"
Watching Acheron, who seemed to instantly come alive and even showed a trace of satisfaction because of a single peach, Herta couldn't help but curl her lips again, a complex expression crossing her face.
For beings like them, summoned by Lu Jingming through special means, Lu Jingming was sometimes... too much of a cheat.
His understanding of them sometimes surpassed their own self-knowledge.
Preferences, personality, hidden desires, and even the deepest, hardest-to-detect longings—Lu Jingming always seemed to grasp them precisely and produce the most fitting key.
Just like now, Acheron, despite having been summoned to this world only recently, almost immediately became one of Lu Jingming's most reliable enforcers.
And what could make the eyes of this Emanator walking the Path of Nihility, who ought to be indifferent to all, rekindle a spark of humanity, was not some earth-shattering entity, but merely a peach—a fruit that was utterly commonplace in countless worlds.
Besides Lu Jingming, who else would have thought of it, and who would have done it?
Throughout her life, Acheron has searched for fleeting encounters and the meaning of existence on her endless journey, using them to fight against the ceaseless, maddening sense of Nihility that constantly erodes her.
And Lu Jingming happened to give her new, unexpected encounters and anchors, allowing her to briefly break free from the bottomless void and gain more time to continue her long and solitary quest.
This was why she chose to help Lu Jingming without hesitation, coming to the Sea of Stars to snipe the Destruction Lord, Phantylia.
"The mission is finally complete. This area can be quiet for a while."
Herta stood up from her throne and stretched lazily, showcasing her alluring figure.
"Alright, that's a wrap."
She clapped her hands, and her figure, along with the highly futuristic throne, began to slowly fade, like data streams being erased.
"Remember to tell that little brat that I've handled the trouble for him, but the lab materials he owes me must be doubled. Not one gram less."
Before her voice completely faded, she and the throne had vanished entirely, as if they had never been there.
Acheron stood quietly in place, gazing at the direction where Herta disappeared, remaining silent for a moment.
She then slowly turned her head to look at the glow of the Plane Will, which was still faintly trembling and radiating waves of fear. Her vacant gaze lingered on it for a long time.
"Only Oblivion..."
She murmured softly, her voice as light as a sigh, yet carrying an eternal, heart-stopping solemnity.
"Is the eternal demise."
Finally, her purple figure, too, gradually faded like ink dissolving in water, turning into Nihility, completely disappearing from this Sea of Stars that had returned to quietude.
The turbulence in the Sea of Stars had not entirely subsided. In an alien space attached to the Douluo Plane's wall, cold starlight flowed silently like a curtain, illuminating Celenova's indifferent profile, which seemed carved from ten thousand years of ice.
She stood still in the void, as if she were a part of this silent domain.
Suddenly, the smooth, mirror-like spatial interface in front of her, which was used to observe the external dynamics, violently twisted, bursting into countless spider-web-like cracks, like glass shattered by immense force.
Immediately afterward, an extremely faint, dark-green stream of light, almost merging with the void, violently stumbled out from the cracks. It was wrapped in an unspeakable mix of chaos, weakness, and a decaying aura of near-dissolution, crashing heavily onto the invisible floor of the alien space and stirring up circles of unseen energy ripples.
As the light dissipated, it revealed the figure within—it was Phantylia, who had been so full of confidence moments ago.
But now, she had shed all the seductive charm and majesty of a Destruction Lord.
The perfect physical body, meticulously crafted from the core of the Golden Tree at great effort, was now covered in countless subtle yet shocking fissures.
These were not ordinary physical damages, but rather scars of Nihility, difficult to measure by conventional means, left behind after some form of essential existence had been forcefully erased. The edges still retained a frightening 'Will of Nothingness' that constantly eroded existing rules.
Her body had become semi-transparent, her aura was extremely weak and withered, and the intertwined emerald life light and pitch-black destruction energy that had illuminated her body were now dim as a candle in the wind, flickering precariously, as if they would be extinguished completely in the next second, returning to stillness.
She painfully curled up on the ground, her body trembling uncontrollably. Every subtle breath was accompanied by the dissipation of precious life energy, making it extraordinarily difficult even to maintain the most basic form.
She struggled to lift her head. The eyes that had once captivated all beings with their alluring charm now held only pain and weakness, mixed with anger and humiliation.
Just then, a clear, calm voice, devoid of any noticeable emotion, came from not far in front of her.
"It seems your probing... did not go smoothly."
Celenova didn't even completely turn around, only slightly tilting her head. Her emotionless eyes looked down upon her colleague, who was in a state of utter disarray, with an almost absolute rationality. Her tone was as flat as if she were commenting on an unrelated matter.
"Indeed... I was careless."
Phantylia's voice was hoarse, yet surprisingly, she hadn't lost her composure. Instead, in the midst of extreme pain, there was a hint of coldness.
"The Emanator of Nihility... Heh, what an Emanator of Nihility... Truly unexpected!"
Only then did Celenova walk over to Phantylia with unhurried steps.
Her cold gaze swept over the horrifying scars on Phantylia's body, lingering for a moment, especially on the fissures containing the 'Will of Nothingness', as if observing something.
"The power of Nihility, and Emanator-level power at that."
Celenova's voice remained devoid of emotion, a pure statement of fact.
"No wonder you are in such a state. Although I had some expectation, I truly didn't anticipate... you would be defeated so disastrously."
She knew Phantylia too well.
While this colleague was certainly skilled at calculating and full of stratagems, her greatest weakness was her tendency to become overconfident after gaining an advantage.
When facing the weak, this overconfidence was a playful manipulation, but when facing powerhouses of the same or even higher level, it became a path to disaster.
As expected, Phantylia, whose power had greatly increased after acquiring the Golden Tree physique, had become overconfident again.
Despite knowing that Herta had likely set up an ambush in the Sea of Stars, she still rushed in confidently and recklessly.
This wasn't because Phantylia was foolish, but stemmed from her absolute confidence in her own immortality and her newly acquired power, the belief that she could get away unscathed no matter what.
And looking at the result... the fact seemed to marginally support this.
Though far from getting away unscathed, managing to survive and escape a joint ambush by an Emanator of Erudition and an Emanator of Nihility was, in a sense, already a success.
"Herta... did not directly attack me."
Phantylia struggled to calm the violently chaotic energy within her. After a fierce oscillation, her body gradually stabilized. Her eyes, which had regained their sharp focus, narrowed slightly, flickering with the light of calculation.
"Otherwise, I might not have survived... At the very least, this hard-won physical body would definitely have been lost."
"I think I understand what happened."
Celenova said flatly. She seemed completely unsurprised by this development.
Throughout her traversal of the universe, sowing destruction, she had encountered too many self-important ambitious people who tried to use the power of the Antimatter Legion as a blade to achieve their own ambitions and hegemony.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who played this game ultimately turned into embers on the path of destruction, consumed by the flames they themselves had invited.
"Heh... Using two Destruction Lords as pawns to pave the way or achieve some goal..."
Phantylia regained her elegantly seductive posture. Although her body was still broken, she managed to force herself into a sitting position. The fan in her hand reappeared, gently fanning as she covered her mouth and chuckled, as if the previous embarrassment were merely an illusion.
"I'm becoming increasingly interested in Herta... and the true mastermind behind her who set up this scheme."
Although she had suffered an unprecedented setback, anger and humiliation were only temporary emotional fuel for her.
As a Destruction Lord, she valued practical gains more.
At the very least, she successfully probed crucial intelligence: the emergence of an unprecedented Emanator of Nihility, the terrifying nature of their power, and the complex intent of the mastermind, which involved both utilization and control.
This information was already priceless.
"How long do you need to recover?"
Celenova glanced at Phantylia, whose body was still slowly repairing itself. Her tone was direct and pragmatic.
The Plane Will, being personally guarded by Herta and an Emanator of Nihility, was now an insurmountable task; she held no further hope for it.
However, Phantylia's power was still an indispensable component of the next plan.
After all, besides Herta and her allies who were letting them move, they still had two Emanators of the Hunt blocking their path.
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