When Symboli Rudolf hurried to the entrance of the winner's stage, she immediately spotted Maruzensky leaning against the wall—clearly waiting for her.
"Where's Eternal Meteor?"
"She went on stage."
Rudolf's expression tightened.
"You just let her go? Her ankle isn't healed!"
She took a step forward, intending to stop Eternal Meteor before the stage began—
and Maruzensky's arm shot out, blocking her.
"Trust her. I checked—her ankle could move normally before I let her leave." Maruzensky added, almost as an afterthought, "Oh—and she told me to say sorry to you."
Rudolf froze in place.
Maruzensky watched her for a second, then stepped in and patted her back.
"Don't look so gloomy. Come on—let's watch her winner's stage. That kid's very confident, you know~"
And with that, she pulled Rudolf toward the reserved spectator seats.
In the Dressing Room: Total Panic
Now the focus shifts to Eternal Meteor—inside the waiting room.
"I'm finished, I'm finished, I'm finished! I don't even have time to practice and I'm going on stage! How am I supposed to sing like this?!"
Having changed outfits, she paced circles around the chairs, face full of frantic despair.
X sounded thoroughly unimpressed.
"Alright, alright—stop spinning. You're making me nauseous. Fine. I owe you one."
"Take out your phone. Pick."
Eternal Meteor moved like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline—she yanked out her phone so fast it nearly flew.
The screen reflected her face, and she tilted her head in confusion.
X instantly roasted her.
"Sometimes I seriously wonder about your mental state. Hit the power button and unlock the phone, genius."
"Oh! Right!"
She unlocked it—and the familiar music library from her original self appeared. She flicked through it, searching for something she could sing.
"This one! Then what?"
"Check the pocket inside your skirt."
She obediently fumbled around.
"A USB drive?"
"That USB has the instrumental track for the song you picked. Hand it to the staff."
Then X said, in the tone of someone deploying a cheat code:
"Now close your eyes. Count to three. Open them."
Eternal Meteor did.
And when she opened her eyes—
a floating HUD appeared, like a game overlay.
At the bottom: lyrics.
Above: a constantly refreshing chart showing the pitch the next line required and the pitch she was currently hitting.
Eternal Meteor's eyes lit up.
"This is— I love you, X!"
She sprinted off to give the USB to the staff.
X reacted like someone experiencing secondhand embarrassment.
Goosebumps. Full-body cringe. Utterly disgusted by her sudden sweetness.
The Crowd Gathers
Below the stage, Team Spica finally shoved their way through the sea of people and reached their seats.
"There are way too many people," Vodka complained, thumping her chest like she'd survived a war.
"It's fine," Daiwa Scarlet shot back. "When it's your turn, your winner's stage definitely won't be this crowded."
"What did you say?!"
And they immediately started bickering—loudly, shamelessly—like always.
Trainer Nishizaki was just about to tell them to behave in public when—
the venue lights suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the crowd.
Then came a fierce drumbeat.
One by one, spotlights ignited onstage, sweeping with the rhythm… and converging on the center.
The Meteor Takes the Stage
Eternal Meteor appeared beneath the beam, holding a microphone in one hand.
Below her, a galaxy of glowsticks shimmered—an artificial Milky Way made of people.
The sight electrified her.
She raised the mic and sang.
"Hey—full throttle! Roaring engines, proud smoke rising!"
"Yeah—an endless journey, pushing forward on a single road!"
It was a song nobody in the crowd had ever heard before.
Her voice wasn't pure, not angelic—
but it was hoarse in a way that felt like it was suppressing rage, like a throat raw from swallowing too much.
And everyone could hear it.
Not perfection.
Fire.
"This world is full of conflict…"
"But if you run, you'll only end in failure…"
"The courage to rise and resist is the first step in throwing away weakness…"
Eternal Meteor recalled her conversation with X inside the gate.
Her lips curled into a confident smile.
Yeah. I already made my choice.
If I get a second chance, then I'll do it right—do it all the way.
"With this single life, I fight because I want to help someone…"
"With these fists—(these legs)—I'll make them knock it down!"
She faced the crowd's raised fists, closed her eyes to drink in the cheers, gathered power—
and under the roaring pillar of flame blasting up behind the stage, she screamed:
"Burn up—this life that flares for just an instant!"
"Burn out—don't worry about the future after this!"
"In a moment, sparks scatter—until the soul is burned to ash…"
Eternal Meteor suddenly felt—truly—lucky.
At least she still had one option:
To burn.
Like a flame in the frozen night that forces every eye to turn.
"Run to the end of this moment—One way!"
"This is a runway you can't turn back from!"
"The scars left by running through—are the beginning of legend!"
Yes.
The road she chose led to a track that was both death and legend.
Even if she ended up covered in wounds—
she would walk it through.
She spread her arms, listening to the rhythm like hoofbeats on turf, driving the entire venue toward a peak.
And somewhere in the crowd—
Tokai Teio stared up at her, eyes wet.
"It's so dazzling… but… why am I crying?"
Teio couldn't explain it—only that the stage felt saturated with an unnameable sadness.
Like a flame about to go out, thrashing stubbornly, crackling as it refused extinction.
Eternal Meteor looked like someone who was about to disappear—
and so she was burning everything she had left to light the whole world.
Later, Silent Suzuka—already told by her trainer that Eternal Meteor's ankle had been injured by that race—watched in shock.
On stage, Eternal Meteor kept stamping, moving like nothing was wrong.
Every strand of her silver-white hair glittered under the spotlights.
Suzuka's emerald eyes reflected the entire stage—
but within that reflection, there was only one person.
Only Eternal Meteor.
Too bright to look away from.
By now Eternal Meteor wasn't even trying to hit perfect pitch anymore.
She stopped caring about the "correct" melody.
She just wanted to scream until her lungs emptied—
to declare that she was still alive—
to pour out everything she'd been forced to swallow.
The chorus returned, again and again, like a vow.
And when she finally reached the end—
as if she'd burned the last scrap of fuel—
Eternal Meteor collapsed onto the stage floor.
She pointed the microphone at the audience.
The roar exploded.
And she laughed—loud and unrestrained—inside the storm of voices.
Because she understood.
Her legend—
had just raised its curtain.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 50)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 50)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 50)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 54)
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