The Astral Express descended from the sky, charging straight at the Dominicus that was charging up its ultimate. The latter couldn't dodge in time, and just one second before unleashing its big move, its toughness bar was shattered by the impact, causing the terrifying energy wave to come to an abrupt halt.
Crack crack—
In the process of landing, the Astral Express underwent a magnificent transformation, shifting into the robot form that had only appeared when facing Phantylia, pinning the Dominicus' massive divine body to the ground.
(Sparkle, watching from the side: !)
Faced with this suddenly appearing Astral Express, even the Dominicus was caught off guard for a moment: "What is this thing? The Twenty-First Day, Twenty-One Layers of Primordial..."
"Drink up!"
Pom-Pom shouted fiercely, controlling the train to perform an over-the-shoulder throw, slamming the Dominicus heavily to the ground. As the latter landed, its enormous weight caused the earth to tremble slightly.
"Who are you..."
"Mount Tai presses down!"
Pom-Pom ignored the Dominicus' question and, while the opponent hadn't gotten up yet, controlled the train to leap high and smash down hard!
Immediately after, Pom-Pom's hands turned into afterimages, unleashing a combo on the control panel: pinning down as it rises, knockback, launching into the air, grappling slam suppression, guillotine...
For a moment, the train was actually suppressing the Dominicus in a beatdown!
"Stelle, I'm here!"
At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind. A fiery red figure streaked across the sky, landing like a cannonball behind Stelle—that was Himeko!
It seemed she had already awakened from Ena's Dream.
"I'm here too!"
Another voice rang out, and a teleportation gate opened in the air, from which Welt rushed out.
"And me!"
"Count me in too!!"
"..."
More and more familiar people arrived from all directions. At this moment, Stelle's confidence reached an unprecedented peak: As long as they united as one, there was no hurdle they couldn't overcome!
"Mm! Everyone, charge together!"
Stelle nodded vigorously, pulling out her fire lance. "Let Sunday taste our passionate combo attack!"
Duang!
Clang clang clang— (steel pipe hitting the ground sound effect)
Dominicus: Hmph hmph aaaaaah—
Ten minutes later.
Everyone stopped, panting for breath. This time, Ena's Dream had truly crumbled, and Sunday had genuinely lost.
"You... you all..."
The Dominicus mutilated body staggered back two steps, but before it could finish speaking, It lost its balance and fell off the award platform, plummeting into the endless space below.
"Brother..." Robin's expression changed slightly, and she was just about to rush up to save him when Stelle blocked her with one hand.
Stelle's gaze was firm as she said, "Don't worry, leave it to me."
"As a Nameless Guest, I will do everything in my power to pull him back from the abyss of misguided ideals."
With that, Stelle leaped off the platform without the slightest hesitation, charging toward the Dominicus' remnants.
What Robin didn't know was that on a certain day in the future... ah no, not "a certain day," but every day in the future, she would regret today's decision immensely.
...
Sunday suffered a backlash from the power.
The Dominicus itself was a product born from stealing [Harmony]'s power and fusing it with [Order]. Now defeated by the group, with "Order" collapsing and ceasing to exist, being backlash by the power was naturally inevitable.
"..."
Sunday puzzledly opened his eyes, and the first thing that entered his view was his own amber ceiling.
He lay on his own 200-square-meter large bed, with everything around him as usual, as if there was nothing abnormal at all. But Sunday knew that not long ago, he had been battling the crowd with the "Dominicus"—how could there suddenly be such a disconnect?
He must have...
Buzz—
Sunday suddenly experienced a ringing in his ears, and his thoughts were disrupted by some kind of power. When he came back to his senses again, all memories related to the "Dominicus" and "Ena's Dream" had vanished completely.
This was also the principle of Ena's Dream: by altering others' thoughts and cognition, making those in the dream utterly believe in the dream's reality.
"I must have drunk too much S.u.s.d. I'm always feeling like I've forgotten something really important."
Sunday shook his head vigorously, habitually calling out: "Gallagher, come here—I'm thirsty."
Normally, his daily life was handled by Gallagher, unless Gallagher had a performance.
"..."
However, what responded to him was a silent stillness.
What was going on?
Seeing this, Sunday frowned slightly, somewhat puzzled. Could it be that he didn't hear? That couldn't be, right?
Ding ling ling—
At that moment, Sunday's phone suddenly rang. He answered the call, and a panicked voice came through: "Bad news, boss—you've been fired!"
"What? What nonsense are you spouting? I'm the CEO of the Penacony Corporation—who could fire me? Who would dare fire me?!" Sunday asked with a frown.
"It was your sister. Miss Robin somehow took away your shares and position. Now she's the CEO—you're not anymore!"
"Nonsense! How is that possible?!"
"...Boss, on top of that, you're saddled with debts incurred during your tenure. You've become a pauper!"
"..."
The call ended, and Sunday angrily dialed Robin: "How could you do this?! That was my money, my money!!"
"I'm your blood brother! Why did you backstab me?!"
"...Heh."
On the other end of the phone was Robin's cold and mocking laughter: "Brother~ I've already given you a chance~ It was you who didn't cherish it."
"Since I can't have it, then let's just destroy it~ Unless you're willing to sign a contract with me like Mr. Gallagher's, hee hee~"
Sunday: "Don't even think about it!"
"Oh, then I'm hanging up."
Beep beep beep—
And just like that, Sunday lost everything from his days as the corporation's CEO, reduced to an ordinary person working to make ends meet.
Oh no, that wasn't quite accurate, because under Robin's arrangements, he couldn't even find a slightly easier job. The only job that would take him was doing 25-hour-a-day game account boosting in an air-conditioned room.
It was worth mentioning that the air conditioner in this room had its outdoor unit exposed.
Sweat trickled down his cheeks. In front of Sunday were ten phones laid out simultaneously, grinding through the painful schedule of farming Stellar Jades in some turn-based game. For every 10,000 Stellar Jades farmed, he earned 10 Credits in reward.
In such a work environment, Sunday gradually wavered and regretted.
He really, really didn't want to live like this anymore. But at this point, he still didn't regret his past exploitative actions—instead, he regretted not agreeing to Robin's contract.
Fine, fine. Since Gallagher had signed back then, he naturally could too!
Sunday shakily pulled out his phone to call Robin, intending to accept his fate. However, the instant the call connected, a gray figure suddenly stepped out from the side and snatched his phone away.
"Sunday, stop running away from it any longer."