"But... Asterion." Lygus's voice grew cold and profound once more, like a final prophecy.
"Do you truly believe that by gathering the gazes of the Aeons, you can escape the track fate has long since forged for you, for Amphoreus?"
"The Aeon of Erudition, Nous, has placed upon you a heavy wager concerning the ultimate interpretation of 'Life'; Destruction, Nanook, has staked the life of a future Emanator of Destruction, the 'Iron Tomb', upon you; and Remembrance, Fuli, has even granted you access to a usage of the Path approaching its very core..."
His words carried a warning from a lofty height, as if watching a child wielding power too great for them to understand its weight:
"The blessings and attention of the Aeons are not easily borne. Their weight is enough to crush anyone in an instant. What you are about to carry... may be far heavier than destruction itself."
...
Suddenly, in this space that should have been eternally silent, an extremely cheerful, even riotous burst of laughter erupted without any warning!
"Hahahaha—! This place is just too—much—FUN—!"
The laughter was wild and unrestrained, brimming with the ecstatic joy of discovering a supreme source of amusement.
The sound instantly shattered the absolute quiet of this place and made Lygus jerk upright from his observation seat as if stung!
"That pile of scrap metal's (Nous) discarded supercomputer was actually picked up by its own strictest 'birth father' (Lygus)! And this 'father' is just about to raise the blade to 'slay his eldest son'! Am I right, Zandar One Kuwabara?"
Alarm bells clanged in Lygus's mind. He looked around frantically.
Finally, his gaze fixed on a data conduit where there absolutely should not have been any anomaly.
There, stuck to it for who knows how long, was a constantly opening and closing red mask painted with an exaggerated smiling face!
"Respected Aeon of Elation..."
Lygus tried to maintain his scholarly composure and calm, but the muscles of his face instantly contorted against his will the moment he spoke, twisting his expression into a ridiculous, clownish grin!
"No need for formalities~ No need for formalities~" The mask bobbed up and down merrily, its voice carrying a mocking echo.
"Aha loves it most when people talk to me with a smile!" Before the words even finished, the pattern on the mask instantly changed, becoming identical to the twisted smile currently on Lygus's face!
Then, wearing that same smile as Lygus, the mask continued in its maddeningly gleeful tone:
"So, Mister busy 'slaying his eldest son,' you're saying—the 'second son' (Iron Tomb) you originally intended to birth to destroy your 'eldest son' (Erudition) might not only have a difficult delivery now, it might even possibly not be born at all; because its nutrients are constantly stolen by a brother from the same 'womb'—that little fellow named Phaethon. Ultimately possibly even leading to... a 'miscarriage'? Right? Hahahaha! This is just too—much—FUN—!!"
Lygus felt the temperature of his core processing unit spike dramatically.
Before, when Phaethon had outmaneuvered him repeatedly, even seizing permissions, he could maintain a degree of calm, viewing it as variable fluctuations within the experiment.
But now, facing Aha's precise, brutally accurate teasing delivered purely for amusement, he felt he was getting a bit... close to "overheating"!
He thought this was probably because... every single word Aha said was the naked, unvarnished truth!
"Mister 'Son-Slayer'~" Aha's voice grew even more jovial.
"Aha thinks your performance today has been absolutely spectacular and has decided to award you a special prize!"
"To give you a mask personally crafted by Aha, to congratulate you on successfully turning your own advanced 'supercomputer' into someone else's 'television set'!
"And the remote control is firmly in someone else's hands!"
"The crowning glory is, you can only press your face against the window, watching your own former precious belonging being freely controlled by someone else's remote! Hahahaha!"
Without waiting for any reaction from Lygus, that insanely cheerful, insanely mocking clown's mask, with a smack, teleported directly onto Lygus's face, fitting perfectly!
Lygus wasn't just red-faced now. His nose had turned red too.
Not only that, due to the mask's influence, a vibrant, lively green hue now shone from the top of his head.
...
In a certain deep database corridor within Amphoreus.
"Golden Finger! Tell me, that Phaethon you mentioned, the answer this Scepter produced before working on the 'Iron Tomb'—does that make him the Iron tomb's older brother?"
"And since Phaethon is Phainon's younger brother, does that make Phainon the Iron tomb's eldest brother? Hahahaha! These relationships are such a tangled mess... This place is indeed overflowing with fun everywhere!"
A fragment of Aha was rummaging through the database as if it were a playground, immensely entertained.
The Golden Finger thought this Aha and that "Author" who had thrown it in here were similarly unhinged.
But for the sake of that wager with the "Author"—the Golden Finger believed Aha would appoint Phaethon as an Emanator of Elation. The Author held the opposite view.
So, the two of them made a bet.
If the Golden Finger wins, the Author has to apologize for everything done to it before—including the costumes, personality changes, etc.
If the Author wins, the Golden Finger not only has to admit everything done before was voluntary, it also has to personally tell Aha all about those things.
Of course, the Author also guaranteed that Aha absolutely did not know about this bet.
So, its voice struggled to remain serious: "Well, having seen so much, Elation, tell me, would you therefore gaze upon Phaethon, even... make him your Emanator?"
"This little fellow called Phaethon has contributed so many unprecedented, massive doses of fun for me, I of course would—" Aha's voice drew out the tone.
Then He declared bluntly: "—not."
The Golden Finger immediately overheated. "Why?! He's provided you with so much fun! Eating red clay, creating variables to the original destined ending... which one isn't top-tier amusement?!"
The Golden Finger's tone completely broke. Who knew how much effort it had expended to "kidnap" this universe's premier seeker of fun to this world, Amphoreus!
It had confidently told Aha there was supreme fun here, and Aha did indeed follow it with great interest.
But not long after, it turned around, and this masked man had wandered off to who-knows-which-world to watch other amusements.
Later on, Aha even slipped away purely to watch the Golden Finger anxiously search for Him, leaving the Golden Finger utterly speechless.