["Where is the Stellaron (Cancer of All Worlds)?" Kafka asked.]
[Silver Wolf shook her head. "It can tell us where the Stellaron is."]
[Inside the space station, Silver Wolf and Kafka traveled together toward their destination. The closer they got to the core area of the space station, the more Voidrangers they encountered along the way.]
[However, no matter how many Voidrangers stood in their path, they posed no threat to the two.]
[It's worth noting that while players saw turn-based combat, the observers across the myriad worlds witnessed a dazzling real-time battle.]
[Especially Silver Wolf's Ether Editing technique—to those who didn't understand its principles at all, it was nothing short of magic.]
"Wow, this magic is so convenient. Enemies just vanish with a 'whoosh' in an instant," Stark, lying on a chair, said with envy. "I can't even see the casting motions. This girl must be a first-class mage, right?"
"It's similar to 'teleportation' magic—but fundamentally different from modern magic… Achoo!" After returning to the inn in the small town, Frieren lay flat on the bed, covering her face with a grimoire. The smell of ink mixed with dust from the pages irritated her nose, making her sneeze.
Even through the thick pages, she could clearly see the girl named Silver Wolf on the Celestial Screen performing her reality-altering divine technique.
As for their identities, Frieren already had an initial guess. Based on the magic currently known to humanity, the world inside the Celestial Screen was likely entirely unrelated to theirs.
This Celestial Screen might very well be a tunnel connecting two worlds.
That world had no magic, but it possessed all kinds of "technologies" vastly different from magic—such as Kafka's "Spirit Whisper."
The effect of this Spirt Whisper was simple and brutal: it could make others obey her commands unconditionally. Even if those twisted monsters couldn't understand Kafka's words at all, they still acted according to her will.
It was exactly like the obedience magic of Aura, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction under the Demon King.
But Aura's obedience magic had weaknesses, whereas Kafka's Spirt Whisper seemed flawless—at least, in Frieren's eyes, its effect was practically cheating.
Unconditional obedience, casually rewriting reality… Could they open this tunnel and come to the world she was in now?
Frieren's eyes lowered slightly. Though she disliked this speculation, she had to seriously consider how likely it was to become reality.
——
[After dealing with all the monsters, Kafka and Silver Wolf entered the target room—only to find it empty.]
["Elio's script didn't specify the Stellaron's exact location. That means, in the future he foresaw… we didn't find it through physical means. With so many bizarre Curios in this space station, it's not surprising that one could do something like this."]
[Kafka smiled faintly, her crimson lips curling into a bewitching arc. "Hiding one Curio with another… sounds like something that woman would do. Silver Wolf, you've been flipping through the catalog for so long—you must have a clue by now, right?"]
["I've got all the necessary leads. Now, just a little skill is needed," Silver Wolf replied confidently.]
[No sooner had she spoken than all the screens in the room began flickering, eventually displaying Silver Wolf's emblem. Under the girl's godlike manipulation, the entire room suddenly dissolved into countless shimmering streams of electronic data, converging beneath Silver Wolf's feet and forming a void leading outside.]
[The two stepped through the void and arrived in a brightly lit chamber.]
[At the center of the light, a pale-yellow orb floated gently.]
["Is this the Stellaron they mentioned?"]
Somewhere in Tokyo, Sukuna—who had not yet become the legendary "Black Flash-Enduring Elbow King"—was lounging leisurely in a chair, observing the events on the Celestial Screen with great interest.
As the King of Curses, Sukuna quickly realized that the world within the Celestial Screen was entirely different from his own. It seemed to be a world devoid of cursed energy, yet it possessed combat methods eerily similar to jujutsu effects.
"Interesting… Could its effect be similar to a cursed tool?"
[On the Celestial Screen, Silver Wolf had already prepared a vessel. She pulled up a display showing two individuals who looked nearly identical in eye and hair color—the only difference being their genders.]
[The female option read "Activate Vessel: Stelle," while the male read "Activate Vessel: Caelus."]
[After a brief hesitation, Kafka decisively pressed her finger against Stelle's selection.]
[As Silver Wolf inserted a purple cube into the screen, Stelle's body began materializing out of thin air, suspended in midair as it gradually took on the complete form of a human.]
"Heh. Kenjaku, do you think jujutsu can achieve something like this?" Sukuna finally revealed a hint of amusement, glancing at the man beside him—dressed in a kasaya, with a topknot and a stitched scar across his forehead.
Kenjaku narrowed his eyes and yawned. Though he was intrigued by the hand-cannon weapon wielded by the girl called Silver Wolf, this question was clearly beyond his scope.
If jujutsu could create a human from nothing, why would he have gone through the trouble of possessing Yuji Itadori's mother's body?
But the scene of Stelle's birth on the Celestial Screen didn't resemble jujutsu or magic—it looked more like the product of futuristic human technology. Whether it was the massive space station or the miraculous holographic projections, these were realms jujutsu could hardly reach.
Could the scenes in the Celestial Screen be humanity's future achievements?
Lost in thought, Kenjaku's gaze involuntarily drifted toward Akihabara outside the window.
…It seems I'll have to reassess humanity's value.
[On the Celestial Screen, Kafka had already stepped forward with the Stellaron in hand, standing before Stelle. After a careful examination, she turned her attention back to the Stellaron. "How much will she remember?"]
["At least, she'll remember you," Silver Wolf replied without looking up, her fingers still moving across the screen.]
["Heh." Hearing this, Kafka leaned in close and gently pushed the Stellaron into Stelle's body.]
["Time to wake up~"]
[Within moments, Stelle slowly opened her eyes. "…Kafka?"]
[A trace of warmth flickered in Kafka's eyes. "Good, you remember me."]
[Stelle rubbed her head, still groggy from waking up. Her mind was blank; she couldn't recall anything.]
"Seems like a reunion between old acquaintances," Kenjaku mused, smiling as his eyes narrowed to slits. "From what I see, this girl 'Stelle'… her identity isn't simple."
"Oh?" Sukuna's lips curled with faint mockery. "You know this girl?"
"No."
"Then why the guess?"
Kenjaku smirked. "Didn't Yuji Itadori end up in his current situation because he had your finger inside him? This girl also has a Stellaron within her. Though I can't guess its exact purpose, it's surely no ordinary thing… To withstand the 'Cancer of All Worlds' so easily, her body is definitely not that of a normal human."
Mentioning Yuji Itadori, Sukuna stroked his chin with interest and sneered. "That brat… will die by my hand sooner or later."
Then, his tone shifted abruptly as he looked up at Kafka on the Celestial Screen. "But compared to this 'Stelle' girl, I'm more interested in this woman called Kafka. She's like a spider lurking in the shadows—dangerous… and deadly."