At this very moment, Amphoreus was in a terrible state. Because the Titans had been killed ahead of time by the Flame Reaver, the structure of the world itself had developed massive problems. The sky had turned crimson, and after violent tremors, the earth began to collapse.
The entire world presented the appearance of doomsday descending—even Erimitre was no exception.
Little Cyrene froze at the sight. Several seconds later, the smile that had always brightened her small face disappeared, replaced by bitterness.
"It seems that even if we obtain the Soul Gem Little Herta mentioned, there's no way to become stronger. After all, heaven and earth are about to shatter."
Little Phainon at her side lowered his head when he heard this.
The world has already reached its end, yet I still haven't grown up. As I am now, I have no chance to use the Soul Gem to become stronger and become a qualified savior.
At that moment, the Flame Reaver spoke in his hoarse voice. "No. You both still have a chance to become stronger. Just not now—but in the future."
Little Phainon's expression trembled as he looked toward the Flame Reaver. "Is today not the end of the world? Do we still have a future, big brother?"
Little Cyrene shook her head. "There is no future. Just now, I heard the Titans' wails. They're already dead. That's why the world has become like this."
Herta 100 spoke up. "It hasn't reached a dead end yet. On the contrary, it could be said that just moments ago, the side of the cosmic geniuses beyond the heavens achieved a great victory. They successfully sent the Soul Gems into Amphoreus, giving Amphoreus the possibility of salvation—a brand-new future."
After speaking, she turned her gaze toward the Flame Reaver and said seriously, "Next, leave everything to me. But can you still hold on?"
"Of course."
The Flame Reaver continued in his hoarse voice. "However, it will require another recreation of the world—continuing to accommodate more Coreflames."
Recreate the world?!
Wasn't that the authority of Kephale?
What was this masked big brother talking about?
Both little Cyrene and little Phainon looked at the Flame Reaver with puzzled eyes.
The next moment, the Flame Reaver raised his hand and gently removed the mask from his face, revealing a shattered visage. Yet now, that face no longer bore numbness and despair. Instead, there was a faint smile upon it.
Little Phainon and little Cyrene stared at him, their mouths hanging open. "A grown-up Phainon (a grown-up me)? How is that possible..."
The Flame Reaver did not answer them. Instead, he set aside the ritual staff in his hand and replaced it with another weapon—Dawnmaker—before beginning his transformation.
In an instant, a divine halo representing the twelve Titans appeared above the Flame Reaver of the Deepest Dark's head. The halo shimmered, like eternal white flames blazing fiercely.
Golden and black wings manifested at his sides. His entire being became suffused with divinity. The black robe he once wore transformed into an incomparably handsome suit of golden battle armor.
"With the ashes of the old days, ignite the dawn of the next world!" The Flame Reaver stepped forward, striking a familiar stance as he initiated the ritual of recreation.
Endless light—pure white radiance—poured forth.
At that moment, both little Phainon and little Cyrene realized that this existence who resembled a grown-up Phainon truly intended to recreate the world. In other words, he was Amphoreus' Titan of Creation—Kephale, the one who bore the world upon his back!
Recreation initiated.
...
In the new eternal cycle of Amphoreus, the Flame Reaver modified part of the world's settings.
Little Phainon would no longer be called Khaslana. Instead, the name would become Kaslana.
His gender also changed, becoming a young girl. And a Soul Gem would accompany her growth.
At the same time, Cyrene also received a Soul Gem. More importantly, the beauty-loving Cyrene quickly discovered that the more gorgeously she dressed, the stronger the power granted to her by the Soul Gem became—even allowing her to wield strength similar to that of a Golden Scion.
The Flame Reaver witnessed all of this, knowing that Amphoreus' transformation had already begun. He waited... waited for the future to truly bring the dawn of salvation as Herta had said.
However, time could not be wasted. The remaining eight Soul Gems had to be found and owners chosen for them.
But before that, he still needed to find little Herta, as well as the Ruan Mei Magic Wand. According to what Herta 100 had said before the recreation, the puppet, the wand, and the monocle were the keys to salvation. They absolutely could not fall into Lygus' hands.
Tap. Tap.
The Flame Reaver stepped forward and quickly located Herta and the Ruan Mei Magic Wand, stating that he would protect the two of them.
"There's no need, Flame Reaver. We can protect ourselves," Herta 100 said.
???
The Flame Reaver heard this, and a string of question marks seemed to pop up over his head. Even the gaze beneath his mask trembled violently. "Miss Herta... you still recognize me?"
"Of course."
"How did you do it?" the Flame Reaver's voice was filled with excitement and confusion. "In the past, I experienced cycle after cycle of eternal reincarnation, recreation after recreation... Yet after every recreation, whether familiar friends or respected teachers, none of them could recognize me anymore."
"Because of Stigmata," Herta 100 explained calmly. "Stigmata is an invention Miss Herta developed recently. It forms a special mental space. All of my memories—even my soul—reside within the Stigmata."
"So even though recreation wipes my memories and turns me into a blank Herta Puppet, as long as the Herta Stigmata still exists upon me, I can immediately retrieve my memories."
Floating in the air nearby, the Ruan Mei Magic Wand added, "It's the same on my side. I can retrieve my memories from Ruan Mei's Stigmata as well."
"Then, Miss Herta, can you create more Stigmata—even inscribe them onto others?" The Flame Reaver's voice grew even more excited.
"It's possible. I learned the method of creating Stigmata from the Second Miss Herta. But it requires large-scale equipment to support it."
"No matter what equipment is needed, I will do my best to build it," the Flame Reaver said seriously, clenching his fists. "I want more people to retain their self-awareness in the coming recreations—and strive for salvation."
Herta 100 nodded solemnly. "In that case, we must immediately begin work on the Stigmata manufacturing project. In addition, development of the Soul Gems for Cyrene and Kaslana must proceed simultaneously."
"By the way, how about giving this plan a name?" A flash of inspiration crossed the Flame Reaver's mind. "How about calling it the Project Stigma?"
"The Project Stigma?"
"Is that name not acceptable? I think it's very fitting—a salvation plan that can save Amphoreus."
"That works. We'll call it that."
"By the way, Miss Herta, can you still contact Miss Herta's true self beyond the heavens?" the Flame Reaver asked seriously.
"No. At present, the Stigmata space cannot connect to the cosmos. It seems that after gaining the upper hand at the beginning, Madam Herta was once again repelled by that First Seat genius' slice."
"However, Madam Herta has not lost. After all, none of her actions have ever failed. Whether it was the Herta Puppet or the Soul Gems, all of them were successfully delivered into Amphoreus."
"In the future, Madam Herta will certainly contact me again... When that time comes, I will coordinate with her from within and without, and we will surely accomplish something."
After little Herta finished speaking, she added silently in her heart.
Soul Gem · Magical Girl Causality Cultivation Plan. Magical girl base bodies: Cyrene and Kaslana. As long as they experience countless cycles and accumulate sufficiently immense causality, then when the final moment arrives, those accumulated strands of causality can be converted through a special method into infinite Imaginary magic power, allowing them to become the strongest magical girls.
If the plan succeeds, in the future there will be two super-powerful magical girls within Amphoreus. They will coordinate with Madam Herta from inside and outside and together slay Lygus.
At the same time, the Ruan Mei Magic Wand floating nearby was also contemplating her own plan.
Activation of the Will of Amphoreus Plan!
If the plan succeeded, the world of Amphoreus itself would become a weapon aimed at Lygus!
Of course, at present the Ruan Mei Magic Wand had not yet found the activation node of Amphoreus' world. There was still a long way to go before success.
In short, the Flame Reaver, Herta, and the Ruan Mei Magic Wand each had their own plans.
Soul Gem · Magical Girl Causality Cultivation Plan!
Activation of the Amphoreus World Plan!
Project Stigma!
All were plans to save the world of Amphoreus, and the group was prepared to put them into action.
Meanwhile, Fuli of Amphoreus, who had been watching from the side all along, had already sensed that the future was beginning to change.
For example, in her understanding, Phainon had always been male. Yet now he had been turned into a woman by the Flame Reaver and even renamed Kaslana.
All of it was for the sake of using the Soul Gems—for the sake of saving Amphoreus.
Phainon's sacrifice was enormous.
As Fuli of Amphoreus lamented this, she looked toward Herta and the Ruan Mei Magic Wand and considered seriously.
Project Stigma!
Creating a special mental space and using it to house the soul and memories, thereby evading the memory-cleansing of recreation... This was also something newly emerged.
According to little Herta, it was Miss Herta's invention?
Miss Herta, the 83rd Seat of the Genius Society, truly was remarkable!
Hehe, I'll keep watching... I believe this time will certainly be a romantic story unlike any before!!
Thinking this, Fuli of Amphoreus turned her gaze toward Lygus beyond myth. She quickly noticed that his expression was dark as he speculated which Aeon had intervened just now.
The mysterious Mythus.
HooH of Equilibrium.
Or perhaps the great Harmony, Xipe.
Or even the fallen Aeon of Order, Ena...
Fuli of Amphoreus looked at Lygus' grim expression and gently shook her head, thinking playfully.
All wrong!
It was Cyrene, you know. Even though I am only Fuli for a fleeting instant... it is still enough to influence the past, change the future, and twist the causality of events in motion.
Whether it was the sudden appearance of the Dreamstone or the severe delay in your data attack—it was all my doing!
At that very moment, Lygus received questioning voices from the other eight slices of Zandar:
"Lygus, we lent you our computational power. You should have successfully dealt a harsh blow to those three geniuses, right?"
"That's right, that's right... In the end, they're only three juniors. Especially Herta—she hasn't even been a genius for a full month. You should have handled the three of them with ease."
...
Listening to the questioning from the other slices, Lygus grew increasingly silent.
The other eight slices of Zandar sensed something from his attitude.
"Wait... Lygus, your attitude is off. Don't tell me you used our computational power and still didn't win?"
"You lost, Lygus?"
"Did you win or lose? Speak!"
Faced with the relentless questioning from his own counterparts, Lygus finally could not hold back. "I lost... but the loss was strange. I suspect an Aeon interfered in the data confrontation just now."
"An Aeon interfered?"
"Absurd."
"Excuses. All excuses."
The slices of Zandar spoke righteously. "Who doesn't know that Amphoreus, where you reside, is a place not yet reached by Trailblaze? Under such circumstances, whether it is Elation or Enigmata... no Aeon could possibly know of your schemes within Amphoreus."
"Unless Amphoreus gives birth to an Aeon in the future—only then could it interfere with you..."
Lygus fell into complete silence. He thought continuously and eventually arrived at a possibility.
Could it be that it wasn't a known Aeon at all, but that Amphoreus will give birth to an unknown Aeon in the future—and that Aeon intervened?
Or perhaps... in the future, I once again had a sudden whim and began creating Aeons?
Lygus fell into self-doubt. He turned his gaze inward toward Amphoreus, observing one Golden Scion after another, trying to determine which one might be the future Aeon born from Amphoreus.
Yet no matter how he looked, he saw nothing unusual. In the end, he sank into utter silence.
...
Beyond the myth, aboard the Ruanruan after its emergency withdrawal from the Amphoreus star system, The Herta's body was currently being controlled by Herman.
As for The Herta herself, she was in the Simulated Laboratory, studying the data package of Scepter δ-me13 that she had obtained earlier from Fuli of Amphoreus.
After careful research, she confirmed that it truly was a creation modeled after a neuron of Nous. Its computational power surpassed that of the Super Herta Astral Computer and was already capable of simulating an entirely real data world.
Upon confirming this, The Herta immediately realized that she could now initiate the Simulated Universe project—to simulate the future of the universe itself.
After all, she had already obtained the data of Scepter δ-me13, as well as the Solitary Waves Theory and the astral computer... She now possessed sufficient computational power to conduct universe-level simulation calculations.
As long as she extracted biological samples from billions of cosmic lifeforms, gathered Curios, and integrated the various Paths... she might truly be able to calculate future possibilities to a certain extent.
Of course, this would be a super-scale cosmic engineering project. After all, the Simulated Universe project aimed to simulate the universe itself.
The prerequisite for such a plan would inevitably be to obtain the biological genes of the entire universe, as well as data on cosmic formations, Curios, and everything related to the Aeons...
As The Herta continued thinking, she made the decision to return to The Blue's star system to upgrade the Super Herta Astral Computer.
She would integrate all the Emperor's Scepter data obtained from Fuli of Amphoreus into the Super Herta Astral Computer—thereby transforming it into a future-simulating version of the Super Herta Astral Computer.