Sparkle has left.
March 7th: "Everyone, how much credibility do you think her words have?"
Welt shakes his head: "It doesn't matter. What matters is—do we have any other choice?"
① "I don't know."
② "No."
Very few players chose the first option.
Stelle: "We have no choice. Any method that can save Leon, I think it's worth trying."
"Sparkle may seem a bit unreliable, but just like Uncle Yang said a while ago, I can't think of any reason why she would go through so much trouble to deceive us."
Jing Yuan: "She is a Masked Fool. You should all be able to tell, right?"
March 7th: "Uh… I couldn't tell."
The other three look thoughtful, yet none seem surprised.
Stelle analyzes: "If she held a grudge against Leon, why go to all this effort? She could just watch us be helpless and enjoy the show."
"It can't be that she wants to see us lost in Leon's past memories—after all, we have no grudge with her either."
"Even if she's a Fool, what fun would deceiving us bring her? Unless her personality is malicious to that extreme."
"So I think we can trust her at least eighty percent."
"Everyone, do you know what has accompanied Leon the longest? No time to lose—I want to try it right now."
Stelle can no longer bear the current feeling of powerlessness.
Welt and Dan Heng fall into thought. As for March 7th, after recalling for a moment she scratches her head and gives up.
She only joined the Astral Express a little earlier than Stelle; the time she has known Leon is far less than Uncle Yang and Himeko.
Dan Heng: "From my memory, Leon never mentioned anything like this. Looks like we can only return to the Express and search his room."
"I don't think that's necessary," Welt suddenly says.
Seeing everyone turn questioning gazes toward him, he takes out a single—
pristine white feather.
"Is this… a feather that fell from Leon's wings?"
"I'm not sure. The day after Leon first left Ether Star and boarded the Express, he gave this feather to Himeko and me."
A trace of reminiscence flashes in Welt's eyes as he slowly continues:
"Back then Himeko curiously asked about it, but Leon only said this feather sealed away his past that had lost all meaning…"
"He said that starting a new journey meant bidding farewell to the past and that he should no longer keep it, so he left it to us to handle."
"We didn't know what Leon meant by a past that had lost all meaning, and we could tell he didn't want to talk about it."
"After discussing with Himeko, I kept it safe for him."
"Actually, both Himeko and I could see back then that Leon wanted to destroy it but could never bring himself to do it."
"Or perhaps… he lacked the courage to sever the past entirely. Otherwise he could have destroyed it himself—why hand it to us?"
"General Jing Yuan, let me ask: can you long-life species easily cut off your past?"
Jing Yuan startles, then falls silent.
After a moment, he suddenly lets out a soft, wry laugh.
"To forget is to escape."
"To seal away is to cling."
"Only by facing it directly can one find release."
"If one lacks even the courage to face the past, how can one speak of severing it?"
"Leon and I clicked the moment we met. I could tell he was a man with stories."
"Choosing to discard the past isn't necessarily cowardice; it could also be that those memories were overrun by numbness and Nihility."
"He cannot wake now—perhaps it isn't an accident, but rather—"
At this point, a trace of sorrow flashes in Jing Yuan's eyes as he sighs deeply.
"—rather, he has long since lost his own heart, leaving behind only an empty shell."
Jing Yuan's tone makes March 7th feel somewhat melancholic.
"General… what exactly must a person go through to lose their own heart?"
"Very simple."
Jing Yuan glances at her.
"Everything they once possessed."
"In this vast universe, when nothing and no one remains worth cherishing."
"If it were a patient, they would usually develop self-destructive tendencies, believing the self is merely a meaningless shell with no reason to exist."
"They may seem perfectly normal on ordinary days, yet sometimes the ones who appear the most normal are the emptiest."
"In a certain sense, it is no different from stepping into the shadow of Nihility."
Stelle: "General Jing Yuan, are you saying… Leon once stepped into the shadow of Nihility?"
Jing Yuan denies it: "I sensed no trace of the Nihility Path on him, but—"
"That is precisely what makes it the most terrifying."
"Everything that Miss Sparkle said could be a lie—except for that one sentence, which absolutely cannot be—"
"Using the karmic memories within an object to dive into the past of a hollow person is something even proper Memokeepers would not lightly attempt."
"Because you never know what kind of horrors are buried in that person's past."
"The deeper you dive, the easier it is to become lost. It is equivalent to stepping into IX's shadow, equivalent to crossing the process and facing the endpoint of self-annihilation."
As Jing Yuan finishes speaking, everyone's gazes toward Stelle fill with worry.
Dan Heng speaks gravely: "Let me go instead. As a Vidyadhara who has undergone reincarnation for myriad ages, experiencing the erosion of time with different souls—"
"My resistance to risks involving memory is far greater than yours."
Stelle shakes her head.
"Dan Heng, you haven't even faced your own past—how could you safely enter someone else's?"
"I'm different. I have no past, and a Stellaron is sealed within me—something that even the genius of Erudition found eye-opening."
"So—"
"No one is more suitable than me."
Stelle snatches the feather from Welt's hand, the corners of her mouth curling confidently.
"Leon has saved me multiple times, saved all of us. Now—it's my turn to bring him back for everyone!"
Her firm, unwavering tone leaves the players stunned with admiration.
[Damn, Stelle is so cool—I'm in love!]
[The hot-blooded vibes are hitting hard, family!]
[I'm a simple dog—this is gorgeous, I love it, give me more!]
[As expected of the protagonist—only Stelle saving Father fits the main character role!]
Even though everyone is worried, no one can bring themselves to stop her.
Welt: "Then I'll leave it to you, Stelle."
March 7th: "You absolutely have to come back!"
Dan Heng says nothing, but his silent gaze and the slight nod of his chin already convey his support.
"Go ahead. I guarantee no one will disturb you during this time," Jing Yuan says with a small smile.
"Then I'll trouble the General."
Stelle places the feather in Leon's palm, then covers it with her own hand.
In that instant, her eyes grow vacant, and her eyelids slowly close.
The dark threads wrapped around her wrist begin emitting a dim gray glow, enveloping the two of them.
Stelle completely loses consciousness, her body collapsing toward Leon—caught steadily by Dan Heng's quick reflexes.
"Is she okay?" March 7th clenches her fists, her little face tense.
"She seems fine."
Dan Heng looks at Stelle and Leon's joined hands.
The feather between them trembles at a frequency too faint for the naked eye to perceive.
As if… trying to awaken something.
Welt: "Let's move her to the bed beside Leon. Be careful not to separate their hands connected by the feather."
As it turns out, he worried needlessly.
Their palms seem firmly bound by the feather itself—they cannot be pulled apart.
Seeing Stelle set off on the journey to save Leon, Jing Yuan takes his leave.
Dan Heng: "The process will probably take quite some time. All we can do is wait."
Welt: "That's fine. There's still plenty of time before the Harmony Ceremony begins—we should be able to wait."
Even if it exceeds the time limit, it doesn't matter. Worst case, they simply won't attend.
A mere Harmony Ceremony isn't worth half a companion.
"I hope Stelle succeeds…"