"Hyie, do you want to complete this so-called Era Nova?"
During their post-meal break, Lumina asked Hyacine.
"Era Nova..." Hearing those words, Hyacine's ten fingers clenched slightly.
But soon, her clenched fingers relaxed, and her cute and obedient head shook slightly, giving her answer: "I... I don't know."
Did Hyacine want to complete this so-called Era Nova? She definitely didn't know.
One could even say... she preferred not to complete this Era Nova.
But, but it was useless. This preference was useless. As a member of the Chrysos Heirs, as the successor to the Coreflame of The Sky, the Era Nova at the end of the Flame-Chase must be completed.
On this point, Hyacine had absolutely no choice.
What's more, what's more, given Okhema's current situation, all hope could only be placed on that single "Era Nova."
Although the previous divine decrees had basically all become invalid by now, this should be because of the arrival of Outworlders like Stelle and Lumina.
After all, before they arrived in Amphoreus, the divine decrees had always been accurate, and all the decrees passed down from their ancestors had also been fulfilled.
Throughout the thousand-year Flame-Chasing Journey, the divine decrees were always correct. There was no reason for them to lose their effectiveness in Hyacine's generation.
The only variable in this part was the Outworlders. Therefore, Hyacine was more inclined to believe that the divine decrees were all correct, but the arrival of the Outworlders had triggered a series of butterfly effects.
This caused the divine decrees for Hyacine and the others to lose their effectiveness.
After all, without Lumina's intervention, wouldn't Castorice have remained in the Nether Realm permanently, saying an eternal farewell to the Mortal Realm?
And the same went for Hyacine. If it hadn't been for Lumina's persuasion in the end, Hyacine would have gone to Mending the Sky with her physical body, thereby fulfilling her own divine decree.
Both of these were things that actually happened, and they all would have come true if Lumina hadn't stopped them.
Therefore, the probability that this Era Nova was real was still relatively high.
Of course, this was all Hyacine's own speculation. There was no way to know what the true situation was.
But...
"Lumie, is there something wrong with this Era Nova?"
After answering Lumina's question, and before Lumina could speak again, Hyacine turned to look at her. Her cherry lips were pressed together, her brow twitching as a hint of worry and gravity repeatedly flashed across it. Her earnest and cute face was filled with a desperate need for answers.
Hyacine was no fool, nor was she slow. If Lumie was asking this, it meant she definitely knew something.
Lumie must know what kind of impact this so-called Era Nova would have on Amphoreus!
After all, based on Hyacine's understanding of Lumina, she would never ask such a question for no reason.
And if this Era Nova were a good ending, a favorable outcome for Amphoreus, Lumie wouldn't be wearing this expression.
In other words... this so-called Era Nova might truly be a deception.
The Era Nova would not save Amphoreus, but instead drag it into the abyss of complete destruction...
Hyacine found it a bit hard to accept this conclusion.
If the Flame-Chasing Journey were only her own personal matter, Hyacine might not feel so terrible. But this was not just her own matter; it was the matter of countless predecessors and countless Flame-Chasers over the past thousand years.
They had given their lives for the Flame-Chasing Journey, only to end up... personally destroying their homeland.
This kind of pain was like an invisible hand tightly gripping Hyacine's heart, causing a wave of tightness and distress.
Lumina: "?"
Sensing the emotions emanating from Hyacine's body, and seeing her face filled with reluctance, a sense of injustice, and distress, with her small cherry lips gasping out hurried and ragged breaths, a large question mark instantly popped up over Lumina's head.
What kind of messy thoughts is this little Hyacine having again?
Lumina muttered to herself.
Without even thinking, she knew that these expressions were definitely born from Lumina's earlier question.
She must have misunderstood something.
Lumina had asked that question for no other reason than simply wanting to know what Hyacine's opinion of this Era Nova was, and whether she was willing to complete this Era Nova.
And now, seeing her like this... Lumina didn't know what she was thinking, but her expression was so complex.
It was as if... as if she felt the injustice of this world and herself, while also feeling it for countless predecessors.
Lumina really wanted to say "How strange" to Hyacine's expression, but in the end, she didn't even mutter it in her heart.
All emotions have a source. Since Hyacine showed such emotions, it proved that the source was not so pleasant.
If so, there was no reason for Lumina to say some... heart-piercing words. Even if these words were only said in Lumina's heart.
"Hyie, don't overthink it. I was just asking out of curiosity." Without thinking too much, in order to prevent Hyacine from falling into too much internal conflict, Lumina's gentle voice reached Hyacine's ears, spreading into her heart and pulling her back from this state.
No matter what, it wasn't what Hyacine was thinking in her heart.
Um... although Lumina completely didn't know what Hyacine was thinking in her heart.
But anything related to Era Nova, no matter how you think about it, is not a bad thing.
At least, that's how it looked in Lumina's eyes.
No matter what, this Era Nova must be completed; it's just a matter of how fast it gets done.
However, it definitely won't be completed in this cycle.
Lumina estimated that the next cycle should be about right.
The next cycle will be the time to complete Era Nova.
In the next cycle, as long as they complete Era Nova before the Dawn Device is extinguished, it will be fine.
If it were just Stelle, Aglaea, and the others, it would indeed be a little bit troublesome. But if Lumina took action, it would be no problem at all.
As long as Lumina was willing, she could gather all the Coreflames in less than a day.
Um... just kidding, she could achieve this goal in the blink of an eye.
After all, some xianxia novels in the Galaxy say: "Below an Emanator, all are ants."
This saying is not without reason. Only by becoming an Emanator can one understand just how vast the gap is between an Emanator and an ordinary Pathstrider.
To say the difference is like clouds and mud would be an exaggeration of the ordinary Pathstrider's status.
No matter how weak an Emanator is, they are not someone ordinary Pathstriders can even touch.
To fight against an Emanator, another Emanator must be present.
Of course, that is not strictly necessary.
One could simply use the human-wave tactic to literally pile the Emanator to death.
At the same time, this so-called human-wave tactic must consist entirely of powerful Pathstriders, for even a slightly weaker one would be useless.
And that Emanator must be one with poor regeneration abilities.
If you were to fight an Emanator with a very strong regeneration ability, then the so-called human-wave tactic would be no different from sending people to their deaths.
For example, Herta could be piled to death by a human-wave tactic if she did not use any other external power and only used Path power.
Then there is Lumina. Even with a human-wave tactic, with her characteristics as an Emanator of Abundance, this would be completely impossible.
Because this would mean they have to constantly fight against a berserk Emanator, and the ultimate result would naturally be that they would be completely unable to defeat her.
These were all Lumina's hypotheses, the best-case scenarios. As an Emanator of Erudition, how could Herta possibly avoid using external power? Those external powers are precisely the ones she invented, so why on earth wouldn't she be allowed to use them? Therefore, it was merely a theoretical possibility that one could use a human-wave tactic to pile an Emanator to death; in reality, there would be many variables, and these variables would be enough to prove fatal. Hmm... a certain Lord Ravager piled to death by Galaxy Rangers doesn't fall into this category. Lumina simply could not imagine exactly how a Lord Ravager could have been piled to death by Galaxy Rangers. After all, even if they lost, they would surely be able to escape, right? No matter how she thought about it, it was impossible to be piled to death. Then there was only one possibility: that the Lord Ravager was actually a fucking idiot! This was the most plausible answer to the problem. Otherwise, Lumina completely could not think of any other possibilities. This was the gap between an Emanator and an ordinary Pathstrider. A complete and utter dimensional strike. "Huh? Ohhh." Lumina's voice reached Hyacine's ears, and she immediately snapped back to her senses.
Hyacine, who believed every word Lumina said, instantly felt her face turn red.
If, if... No, Lumie was just simply asking herself, yet she... she had thought so much and shown so many emotions, which made Hyacine a little, a little embarrassed and shy.
"Alright, don't think too much. I won't stop you all from completing Era Nova." Lumina reached out her small hand, gently resting it on Hyacine's small head, and began to rub it softly.
The warm, soft, comfortable feel of smooth hair against her palm and fingers welled up in Lumina's heart, quietly creating an emotion that made her want to keep rubbing it for a lifetime, never moving her small hand from Hyacine's head.
But this was obviously an impossible thing...
Not because she couldn't do it, but because... Lumina's side was not just Hyacine alone.
If all her time was given to Hyacine alone, what would the other beautiful girls do?
As someone who constantly thought of beautiful girls, Lumina believed that the time she gave to each beautiful girl should be equal.
Although this was just a nice thing to say, and such a feat was fundamentally impossible to achieve in reality, she still had to avoid it when she should.
She couldn't invest too much love and care into a single beautiful girl.
The more love and care Lumina invested in one beautiful girl, the less another beautiful girl would receive, and ultimately, because of this slight lack of love and care, she would end up in a miserable state.
Lumina would absolutely never allow such a thing to happen!
"..."
Lumina had clearly said nothing out loud, only making a firm affirmation in her heart, but Herta, who was beside her, seemed to sense something through the faint fluctuations she emitted. She crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Let Herta guess. Based on Lumina's current posture and the resolute and earnest emotions she was radiating, Herta felt that Lumina must be thinking about some idea that would allow all beautiful girls to receive her equal treatment.
It might be a little different from what Herta guessed, but it should be close enough. In any case, it was just some matters related to beautiful girls. Other than that, there was no possibility she was thinking about anything else.
Herta had also figured out Lumina's way of thinking. As long as she was thinking about things related to beautiful girls, the corners of Lumina's lips would curve up slightly.
And it wasn't a subtle curve. It was a very obvious one, so much so that you wouldn't even need to look closely. Even a fleeting glance would be enough to see her this way.
This was completely different from her expression when thinking about other things, which was why Herta could tell at a glance.
It could only be said that Herta knew Lumina extremely well, being able to observe Lumina's thoughts through some small details.
Was this something other beautiful girls couldn't do...?
Actually, everyone was the same, all paying the same level of attention to Lumina. It was just a matter of whether they wanted to observe her or not.
People with personalities like Hyacine and Castorice would be led by the nose by Lumina when they were with her, so they wouldn't observe the small details on Lumina's person.
But it was different for people like Herta and Ruan Mei. They wouldn't be led by the nose by Lumina unilaterally. They would engage in a little "competition" in the process, so they would pay special attention to, observe, and study Lumina's every move, and therefore be able to see some of Lumina's small details.
So there was nothing special about it, it just depended on the person.
Seeing Lumina stroking Hyacine's small head, and as she stroked it, her lips were about to be side by side with the sun, Herta shook her head and stopped thinking about such matters.
Hmm... By the way, it seemed there was no sun in Amphoreus at the moment.
Herta looked up slightly at the sky. The gloomy crimson sky, a doomsday-like scenery, made the emotions in one's heart feel very depressed and gloomy.
Under such circumstances, Lumina could still maintain such a good mood and cuddle with a beautiful girl, which was indeed rare.
Hmm... When will Lumina "accidentally" meet with an incident that causes her to lose all her strength and become an ordinary person?
Even becoming an ordinary Pathstrider would be fine.
I don't know if it was from spending too much time by Lumina's side or being infected by watching too many short videos, but a... wild novel plot involuntarily appeared in Herta's mind.
This novel plot was a short story, and the story was very brief.
It was just the things that happened after Lumina's strength completely vanished due to an accident.
Hmm...
"This kind of plot, using some specialized terms from the internet, seems to be called... 'gentleman's plot'?"
The so-called gentleman's plot was just another name for that kind of adult plot, and also a more euphemistic way of saying it.
You know what to say, Madam Herta actually had some hope that this kind of plot would happen...
"Maybe... I'll write a novel someday?"
"Just like Castorice..."
Such an idea suddenly popped up in Herta's mind.