Chapter 4: Another Stellaron, One for Each!
"Your planet is truly special."
Silver Wolf's lips twitched. She stared at Leon, finally understanding why this guy was not officially a Masked Fool yet still possessed such an overwhelming capacity for fun. Living on a world like that, it would be a miracle if he did not turn out to be an absolute menace.
"Does your entire planet exclusively worship Elation?" she asked, crossing her arms.
Leon chuckled, imagining the collective voice of his home world crying out in defense of its ruined reputation. 'Guys, who understands this? My reputation is suffering!'
"No," Leon replied, waving a hand dismissively. "They are just simply lecherous."
If Earth had a voice, it would have surely screamed back, 'You would be better off not explaining!'
"But I am different," Leon added, his tone suddenly shifting to one of deep sincerity.
With a flick of his wrist, he produced a vibrant red rose seemingly out of thin air. He stepped forward, executing a flawless, gentlemanly bow, and offered the bloom to the elegant woman standing nearby.
"Kafka, I like you. Can we be together?"
Kafka did not even blink. Her serene, dangerous grace remained entirely undisturbed.
"I am sorry, I do not have that in mind for now," she replied, her voice smooth and leisurely, rejecting him with the casual ease of someone brushing away a falling leaf.
Silver Wolf's eye twitched. "That transition was way too abrupt. You just confess your love directly like that?"
But before the hacker could fully process the sheer audacity of the moment, something even more absurd occurred.
Seeing Kafka's polite refusal, Leon simply spun on his heel, took a single step toward the petite gamer, and pointed the exact same rose right at her face.
"Silver Wolf, I like you. Can we be together?"
Silver Wolf stared at him. Her expression went completely flat, resembling a deadpan digital emoticon.
She felt as though she had been rendered speechless more times today than in the past several years combined. For a long, agonizing moment, she did not know whether to laugh, scream, or just reboot her own brain.
"I refuse," she finally snapped.
This guy was beyond absurd. Getting rejected by Kafka and immediately recycling the exact same confession on her? It was downright insulting.
"As expected, I failed?" Leon sighed dramatically. His shoulders slumped, and he shuffled over to a dark corner of the room, crouching down to trace gloomy circles on the floorboards.
Did you actually imagine you would succeed?! Silver Wolf screamed internally, rubbing her temples to ward off an impending headache.
Pushing the idiot out of her mind, Silver Wolf turned her attention back to the task at hand. Her fingers danced through the air, interfacing with the space station's security grid. After a few moments of intense digital maneuvering, she successfully bypassed the storage room's firewall. Her signature chibi avatar popped up, taking over almost every single monitor in the vicinity.
Only one display remained entirely unaffected, glowing with a stubborn, isolated light.
"Is this it?" Kafka asked, stepping closer.
"Yes," Silver Wolf nodded, popping a piece of bubblegum into her mouth. "Madam Herta's collection must be kept strictly outside the main network. The one unaffected terminal is our target."
She took the lead, guiding them down the sleek, metallic corridors until they reached the Room of No Name.
This was Herta's private vault. It remained sealed year-round, a heavily fortified sanctuary where only the genius herself possessed the clearance to enter. And, more, it was the exact location where the Stellaron was contained.
Kafka approached the containment unit. With slow, deliberate movements, she reached out and took the glowing, volatile mass of energy into her gloved hands. The Stellaron pulsed, casting an eerie, beautiful light across her features.
Meanwhile, Silver Wolf had already prepared the next phase.
"The Receptacle is ready," the hacker announced, pulling up a holographic interface. "You decide."
She manipulated the floating virtual screen. A moment later, two distinct figures materialized in the center of the display. One was a tall, silver-haired young woman named Stelle. The other was a sharp-featured young man named Caelus.
"Elio said this choice would change many things," Kafka murmured. Her gaze softened, looking affectionately at the two dormant figures floating in the digital void.
"Elio also said that the person making this choice must be you," Silver Wolf reminded her, waiting patiently for the Stellaron Hunter to make her decision.
"Wait, wait, wait."
A voice broke the solemn atmosphere. Leon, who had been unusually quiet in his gloomy corner, suddenly stood up and strolled over.
"Can we not just choose both?" he asked, tilting his head.
Silver Wolf shot him a withering glare. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting now? There is only one Stellaron. How could we possibly..."
The hacker's voice died in her throat.
Leon casually lifted his hands and rubbed his palms together, as if he were warming them up on a cold day. A bright, chaotic light flared between his fingers. When he pulled his hands apart, a second Stellaron, completely identical to the one currently resting in Kafka's hands, hovered perfectly in his grasp.
"Well," Leon grinned, "hand-crafting a Stellaron is not that hard!"
"Is there some mistake?" he continued, waving the cosmic anomaly around like a cheap toy. "If others saw us agonizing over this, they would think we were too broke to afford a choice! One more Stellaron, one for each person!"
Silver Wolf stared.
Kafka stared.
Do you think this is buying cabbage from a street stall?! One for each person?!
Wait.
He just hand-crafted a Stellaron.
Really?
Could a normal person do that? No.
Could an Emanator do that? Absolutely not.
Are you actually freaking Aha in disguise?!
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the two Stellaron Hunters. Leon casually forging a brand-new Cancer of All Worlds out of thin air had completely shattered their understanding of reality.
Elio's script never mentioned a single word about this!
For the truly powerful entities in the universe, a Stellaron was not necessarily a terrifying, world-ending threat. It could be contained, controlled, or sealed away. But hand-crafting one from nothing? They had never heard of any Pathstrider, no matter how legendary, capable of such an absurd feat.
The Stellaron Hunters existed solely to collect these anomalies. If they could just be mass-produced by rubbing some hands together, their entire organization's name would be a joke.
Kafka and Silver Wolf always believed they understood the nature of Stellarons. Today, watching this thick-skinned troll casually manifest one, they realized their knowledge was pitifully lacking.
If the man standing in front of them was an Aeon... then everything made sense.
But was Leon truly the Aeon of Elation?
"Sigh, why are you two just standing there stunned?" Leon waved his hand, breaking the silence. "Are we continuing or what? If we delay any longer, we will probably run out of time."
Kafka slowly turned her gaze back to Leon. For the first time, her perpetually calm expression showed a visible ripple of emotion. Her eyes were deeply complicated, analyzing the smiling man before her.
"Print out both Receptacles," Kafka finally ordered.
"Both of them?" Silver Wolf asked, her voice tight.
"Alright. Elio will probably flip out."
Seeing the absolute resolve in Kafka's eyes, Silver Wolf did not argue further. She activated her Aether Editing, her fingers flying across the holographic keyboard. Reality warped and digitized, and within seconds, both Receptacles, Stelle and Caelus, were physically printed into the physical world.
"How about you leave one of them to me?" Leon stepped forward, his eyes gleaming as he looked at Stelle's dormant body. "Let me insert it."
He was practically buzzing with eagerness. This was the cool, handsome, and notoriously mischievous Stelle! Who would not be interested? Seeing her sleeping so peacefully, completely devoid of her usual chaotic energy, gave her an entirely different kind of charm.
"No. I refuse," Silver Wolf shot back instantly, stepping between him and the Receptacles. "Do not think I do not know what you are trying to do."
Leon pouted but did not push the issue.
"How much will they remember?" Kafka asked, gently placing the original Stellaron into Silver Wolf's waiting hand.
She stepped up to Stelle, her lips curling into a beautiful, enigmatic arc. The original, agonizing choice of picking one over the other had suddenly transformed into a simple 'I want them both'. A strange, warm ripple spread through Kafka's heart.
"At least, they will remember you," Silver Wolf replied, blowing a large pink bubble that popped with a soft snap.
Almost simultaneously, the two women stepped forward and pressed the glowing Stellarons directly into the chests of Stelle and Caelus. The cosmic energy sank into their bodies, illuminating their veins with a golden, ethereal light.
"Time to wake up..." Kafka whispered, her voice incredibly gentle, laced with an intoxicating charm.
Leon watched the scene unfold with his own eyes, his excitement peaking. He had already pulled out his smartphone, the camera app open, recording the entire historic moment from the best possible angle.
As for where Leon got a smartphone?
That was not important. If the man could hand-craft a Stellaron, conjuring a high-tech phone was child's play. Though, in truth, he had not crafted this one. It had been sitting in his pocket the entire time, right alongside that mysterious mask.
Ah, the birth of Stelle and Caelus!
Back when he played the game, seeing this exact cinematic had sent a jolt of pure electricity through his veins. The method of their awakening was simply too iconic. And hearing Kafka deliver her famous line in person, with that soft, magnetic tone? It was absolute perfection.
How could Leon possibly resist recording this?
Silver Wolf, naturally, noticed the glowing screen pointed in their direction.
She stared at him, her expression flattening into pure, unadulterated exasperation.
"Guys, who understands this?" Silver Wolf muttered to no one in particular, mimicking his earlier tone. "We are here doing serious, universe-altering business, and this guy is just standing there recording a video instead of helping."
"Hey, you are the one who would not let me help!" Leon protested, keeping the camera steady. "I explicitly offered to insert the Stellaron into Stelle!"
"Get lost!"
"Alrighty."
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