Herta sat in her chair, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear as she carefully thought through everything Ruan Mei had just told her.
That woman, 'Yu Qingtu', had returned from the Sea of Quanta. And she wanted to claim the authority of two Aeons at once. No matter how you looked at it, it was insane—and yet, so very Elation. So very greedy.
"That woman... sigh. She just won't stay gone."
Ruan Mei said nothing. She simply handed Herta another set of experimental data.
The moment Herta took it, she glanced at it—then shot to her feet, her face full of disbelief.
"Ruan Mei, this report says that Aha, the Aeon of Elation, has taken part of Voracity's authority from Ouroboros?"
Ruan Mei nodded slightly and stepped forward to answer calmly.
"Ouroboros has lost even the most basic authority—Aftertaste—to Aha. That's why He was counterattacked by the 'poison.' Stephen and Screwllum have run repeated experiments in the Simulated Universe. Combined with my research on the ancient beast remains, the evidence fully supports this conclusion."
Herta closed her eyes. In her mind, she pictured Aha and Qlipoth joining forces to defeat Ouroboros. Somewhere beyond the known universe, at its very edge, Ouroboros fell. His remains were split in two. One part was sealed in Planarcadia. The other part was likely at Pier Point, the IPC headquarters.
No wonder the IPC had grown so greedy over these past few Amber Eras.
Aha, weakened by Ouroboros's counterattack, was now frail and vulnerable. And some high-ranking IPC official had probably been influenced by Voracity long ago—but without Aftertaste as a foundation, they still couldn't consume everything.
"Sigh. The real mess at Planarcadia is probably even worse than the scepter incident in Amphoreus."
Ruan Mei nodded in agreement. "Should we postpone the wedding by three months?"
Herta shook her head and pulled Ruan Mei close. "Let the Astral Express crew and that Arbiter-General of the Hunt test the waters first. We'll step in when the time is right."
Ruan Mei prepared a plum blossom cake and handed it to Herta. This time, Herta didn't respond with her usual proud, reluctant act.
"Besides," Herta added, "that woman 'Yu Qingtu' is also a wild card. If she actually receives the gaze of two Aeons... there may be unforeseen consequences."
Elsewhere, 'Yu Qingtu'—returned from the Sea—had already found Sparkle.
Sparkle circled 'Yu Qingtu', studying her with a mocking grin.
"Not bad, old model. You disappear for so long, and now you come back wearing these strange clothes? Your Elation Path power is a mess. Hmm... I can also sense Erudition... and traces of other Paths."
Bam.
'Yu Qingtu' remained calm, her face as still as water. With a casual wave of her hand, Sparkle was flung several meters through the air and slammed into a wall, pinned there.
Sparkle struggled with all her might before finally falling to the ground. She staggered to her feet, battered and shocked, staring at 'Yu Qingtu'.
"Old model, what happened while you were gone? How did you get this terrifying power?"
'Yu Qingtu' stayed expressionless. She grabbed Sparkle by the throat and lifted her high.
"The Audience Mask."
Sparkle, seeing that 'Yu Qingtu' wasn't joking—cold, strange, as if she were a completely different person—quickly produced the mask.
"Here! Take it! Let go—I'm suffocating!"