[Stelle gazes into the distance at a desolate wasteland, fierce winds whipping sand and gravel against her battered armor. Beneath her feet, an Abomination of Abundance stands like a mountain range, its iridescent scales gleaming with a metallic cold light under the dim glow of the stars.]
["I'm..." Stelle looks up at the sky covered in an overwhelming, pitch-black swarm of insects.]
["You are now a Walker on the Path of Voracity, a beast tamer." Herta says unhurriedly, "Voracity, with its endless appetite, was the last to disappear in the Swarm Disaster. No one knows if THEY died or lived, nor why THEY vanished. I think... we might glimpse some clues from the followers who pursued THEM."]
[As soon as she finishes speaking, Stelle sees the colossal beast beneath her slowly raise its head.]
[Its mouth opens very slowly, yet it causes the time of the entire swarm to freeze. That gigantic maw seems to tear open a rift in the universe, revealing swirling nebulae and black holes within.]
[The sea of insects begins to distort.]
[As if stirred by an invisible giant hand, it forms a massive vortex—and the end of that vortex is precisely the beast's throat. Like seawater pouring backward, the sky-full swarm is "sucked" into the beast's mouth. In just a few breaths, the once heaven-obscuring swarm vanishes completely.]
[But the swarm quickly expands again at a visible speed. This time, however, the beast closes its mouth and refuses to open it again.]
[An Abomination of Abundance favored by Voracity should not exhibit this behavior.]
[Stelle approaches the base of the beast. This colossal creature slowly lowers its head, golden vertical pupils reflecting Stelle's tiny figure. In that instant, for the first time, Stelle seems to glimpse an unfamiliar emotion in those eyes forever burning with the flames of hunger—satisfaction.]
[Immediately after, the beast lets out a deep, contented burp.]
["It's satisfied." Herta's tone sounds utterly incredulous. "Could it be that even Voracity, with its endless appetite, has been satisfied? Although before the Swarm Disaster erupted, THEY had never feasted like this, using two-thirds of the universe to sate one Aeon's hunger... truly madness."]
[While Herta speaks, Stelle suddenly feels her limbs being lifted by invisible, gossamer-thin threads, as if someone is manipulating her like a puppet.]
[The screeching of the swarm, the low roars of the beast, the wails of the madwoman... all the frenzy and unease carried in memory suddenly fall silent. As if someone has plucked the strings of the cosmos, all noise is erased, leaving only clear chords resonating in the void.]
[This is an absolute, indisputable... order.]
["Wow—" Herta's eyes sparkle as if she's discovered a diamond. "It's Order's Tayzzyronth—THEY've finally appeared! Do you remember? That feeling of being watched on the Swarm Planet? That gaze came from THEM."]
["In the era before THEY fell, THEIR brilliance was as holy as gemstones! What did I say? Without Nanook right now, the ancient Path of Order suppresses many calamities—"]
——
Zenless Zone Zero.
"I now have reason to believe that the existence of Order is more like a last-resort self-preservation mechanism." Tsukishiro Yanagi adjusts her glasses. "When destruction in the universe crosses a certain red line and threatens the Path of Order, this ancient and powerful Aeon will take action."
"So next... we're going to see a... war between gods among Aeons?" Asaba Harumasa bolts upright in his seat with a sharp intake of breath.
"Probably, but if we go by Herta's words, Voracity disappeared in the Swarm Disaster. That means the Aeons appearing now are only Order and Propagation—both of whom are confirmed to have fallen... Could it be mutual destruction?"
Tsukishiro Yanagi believes that even though Aeons are unreachable, higher-dimensional existences to them, she is convinced that absolute differences in strength exist even between Aeons.
The closer to the concept of "primordial," the more ancient the Aeon, the stronger their power likely is—just like Tayzzyronth, Terminus, Qlipoth... and Voracity's Oroboros. She finds it hard to imagine that a clash between Order and Propagation would cause Order to fall; there must be a third-party Aeon intervening, influencing the outcome of this divine war.
Preservation builds walls, Voracity vanishes, Terminus has too little information and remains unknown. After a moment's thought, Tsukishiro Yanagi feels that among the few who could affect the outcome of such a great battle, only Elation remains.
As an ancient Aeon, Aha of Elation also possesses immense power, but in practicing this Path, Aha views all beings in the universe as a game, with everything merely a means to amuse THEM. Would such an seemingly unreliable Aeon personally step in to interfere in this divine war?
Tsukishiro Yanagi remains skeptical.
"Yanagi, I think... we can't use human thinking and logic to speculate on an Aeon's considerations. That's a very unrealistic behavior." Harumasa suddenly speaks up. "Humans cannot stand on the higher dimension and perspective like Aeons to view the whole picture; our thinking is always limited."
"So right now, the most important thing... is for you, Vice Section Chief, to sit properly in your chair and enjoy this war of gods with us. Aeon versus Aeon—this kind of spectacle might not come even once in several lifetimes."
——
["Let me try to deduce THEIR voice. Alright, here it comes!" Herta lets out an excited cry—actually hearing the voice of Order here is an unexpected delight.]
[As if some mysterious rune being inscribed, countless voices converge into a stream and flow irresistibly into Stelle's mind—]
["Those who disrupt the world shall not be allowed to remain. The greedy shall not be permitted to live on. The cunning and ever-changing chaos is naught but the filth and dust of the cosmos."]
[Order is absolute justice, righteousness, beauty. The multiple syllables carry the solemnity of an army, concealing within them unignorable laws.]
[And the extra syllables in THEIR voice are empires, city-states, and civilizations that rose and fell in sequence under Order's control according to determined eras—trillions upon trillions of negligible sighs left behind by "corrections."]