Chapter 81: I Will Set the Seas of Stars Ablaze!
Silver Wolf curled into a tight ball on the corner of the plush sofa, her thumbs a blur of motion over her handheld console. Her brow creased in absolute concentration. All around her, the hotel room had descended into absolute chaos. Pillows whizzed through the air like artillery shells, accompanied by a chorus of breathless laughter and playful shrieks. Yet, the Stellaron Hunter didn't so much as twitch an eyelid.
"What's so fun about this?" she muttered, popping a bubblegum bubble. "Child's play."
Whack. Before the words fully left her mouth, a stray feather-stuffed projectile slammed squarely into the back of her console.
The screen flashed red.
"My game!" Silver Wolf yelped, scrambling to catch the device before it hit the carpet. She stared at the glaring defeat screen in absolute horror. "I was one strike away from a pentakill!"
The tide of the digital battle had instantly reversed. Her brief moment of forced AFK had completely collapsed a guaranteed team-fight victory. A flurry of angry question marks and toxic accusations flooded her chat box.
Silver Wolf's eye twitched. She slowly, deliberately set the console down on the coffee table. Her expression went completely flat as she slid her tactical goggles over her eyes.
"Fine. You guys want to force-start PVP mode?" She grabbed the offending pillow, her voice dropping an octave. "You got it."
Silver Wolf joins the fray!
Across the room, Leon leaned against the wall, casually dodging a stray cushion. He glanced over and noticed Firefly standing quietly by the doorway, her hands clasped together.
"Aren't you going to join the warzone?" he asked, a teasing lilt in his voice.
Firefly hesitated, shifting her weight. A bright flicker of anticipation danced in her eyes. "May I? I've never really..."
Poof. A soft pillow tapped gently against the top of her head, interrupting her sentence.
She blinked, stunned for a second, her silver hair slightly ruffled. A soft smile touched her lips.
"I actually..."
Smack. Another pillow bounced off her shoulder.
"It's not..."
Whap. A third pillow caught her right in the face.
Firefly finally puffed out her cheeks, a rare, competitive pout forming on her delicate features. She bent down, snatching a heavy memory-foam pillow from the floor, her eyes flashing with sudden, playful intensity.
"I will... set the seas of stars ablaze!"
The hotel room erupted into absolute mayhem. With a Stellaron Hunter fully committing to the bit, the crossfire turned fierce. But it didn't take long for the girls to realize the true mastermind was still lounging comfortably on the sidelines.
A few stray cushions began drifting in Leon's direction. It started as a tentative test, but when he merely chuckled and swatted them away, the unspoken truce shattered. March 7th and Silver Wolf exchanged a single, knowing glance.
The siege began.
Pillows rained down on Leon from every conceivable angle, a relentless barrage of cotton and down. Watching him get completely swarmed, Firefly covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking with bright, musical giggles. Her eyes crinkled into crescents, brimming with a pure, unfiltered joy. It was a relaxed, boisterous warmth she hadn't felt in years—a feeling of simply being a normal girl, alive and free.
"Stop hitting me! Seriously, why are you all aiming at me?!" Stelle crouched behind the sofa, clutching her head with a deeply betrayed expression. She glared at March 7th and Firefly. "We agreed to a coordinated strike on Leon! Why am I taking all the friendly fire?"
"Eh? Why is it you?" March 7th lowered her weapon, blinking in confusion. She scanned the chaotic room. "Wait, where did Leon go?"
"Right behind you."
Before March could even turn around, Leon smiled, gently but firmly smacking a pillow directly into her face.
Poof. She went down.
In the span of three seconds, a blur of motion swept through the room. Silver Wolf, Firefly, and Caelus were all systematically taken out by precision pillow-strikes, collapsing onto the carpet in a heap of defeat.
Wanting to launch a joint attack on him? A hundred years too naive.
The great pillow war finally drew to a close only when everyone's stamina bars hit zero. The Trailblazers and Stellaron Hunters lay sprawled across the massive bed and the plush carpet, chests heaving. The room looked like a bomb had gone off in a mattress factory, feathers and cushions scattered across every surface. Yet, not a single person lacked a satisfied grin.
"That was... so fun," Firefly panted. She lay flat on her back, staring up at the warm ceiling lights, her voice bubbling with residual laughter.
"Right? See? I told you pillow fights are the ultimate stress relief!" March 7th cheered weakly from the floor, throwing up a lazy peace sign.
Silver Wolf adjusted her crooked goggles. She caught a glimpse of Firefly's radiant, unburdened smile. The hacker let out a soft, dismissive hmph, but the faint upward curve of her own lips betrayed her.
As the midnight hour approached, the boisterous energy finally settled into a quiet calm. Firefly and Silver Wolf stood near the grand entrance of the hotel. The time for parting had arrived. Outside the frosted windows, Belobog's night sky stretched out—a clear, vast canvas dotted with brilliant stars.
"Do you guys really have to go right now? Can't you stay just a few more days?" March 7th pouted, tugging at the hem of her skirt.
Stelle and Caelus stood beside her, mirroring her expectant, puppy-dog gaze.
Firefly shook her head gently, offering an apologetic smile. "I've already delayed my return for far too long. And..." She placed a hand over her heart, feeling the steady, strong beat beneath her ribs. "I really want to see the universe now. I want to find out just how many things I can do freely, now that my body is no longer bound by Entropy Loss Syndrome."
As she spoke, her soft gaze drifted, inadvertently lingering on Leon for a long, meaningful second.
Silver Wolf popped another bubble. "Mission accomplished. We need to head back. Elio probably has a new script waiting for us anyway."
After a round of warm, simple farewells, Silver Wolf tapped a sequence into her wrist console. Digital data streams and violet light began to swirl around the two Stellaron Hunters, bending the space around them.
"Goodbye, everyone," Firefly said, raising her hand as her silhouette began to pixelate and blur. "Thank you. I was really, truly happy tonight."
"Bye-bye! Come back and play games with us next time!" March 7th, Stelle, and Caelus waved vigorously, treating the universe's most wanted criminals like old college buddies.
Leon stood with his hands in his pockets, offering a lazy, knowing smile as he raised a hand in farewell.
With a sharp flash of pixelated light, the two girls vanished into the ether.
With the excitement finally drained from the air, the hotel corridor returned to its usual tranquil silence. March 7th let out a massive yawn, stretching her arms above her head. The adrenaline crash had finally hit her. One by one, the Express Crew retreated to their respective rooms.
Leon lingered at the back of the hallway. He stared at the empty space where Firefly and Silver Wolf had just stood, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. A faint, amused smirk played on his lips as his mind churned through a dozen different schemes.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the distant sea of stars, Firefly stepped out of the teleportation gate. For the first time in her life, she stood without the heavy, suffocating protection of the SAM Armor. The cold air bit at her skin, but she didn't shiver. Instead, she closed her eyes and felt the sheer vastness of the universe, the raw, pulsing vibrancy of life flowing through her own veins. She took a deep, shuddering breath, her chest swelling with boundless anticipation for the future.
Back at the hotel, Stelle and Caelus passed out the absolute second their heads hit their pillows, faint smiles still plastered on their faces. Down the hall, Dan Heng maintained his strict, disciplined routine, falling into a peaceful meditation, while Welt Yang quietly clicked off his bedside lamp after jotting down a few final observations in his leather-bound notebook.
In his own room, Leon lay back against the headboard, the room bathed in the cool, artificial glow of his smartphone screen. A notification sat waiting for him.
[Cocolia: Benefactor, could you come over for a moment? I would like to discuss the follow-up script with you.]
The timestamp indicated the message hadn't been sent just now. It had arrived right before the pillow fight erupted. Leon had simply been too busy weaponizing hotel bedding to notice his phone buzzing.
He tapped his finger against the edge of the phone case. Tomorrow morning, the grand script he had laid out was scheduled to begin. Bronya would lead the Silvermane Guards to publicly arrest the Astral Express Crew, setting the stage for the city's ultimate salvation.
Sitting alone in her office, Cocolia must have been agonizing over the details, unable to hide the gnawing worry in her heart. Did she trust his words?
Leon chuckled softly in the dark. He knew the Supreme Guardian well enough to guess her current mental state. She probably realized that questioning his trustworthiness was a meaningless exercise. The gap in their power was an impossible abyss. They weren't sitting at the same negotiating table; she wasn't even in the same room. She had zero use, zero bargaining chips, and zero alternatives. Her only option was to blindly follow his arrangements and pray.
The entire future of Belobog rested entirely on his passing whims.
That message wasn't a political test. It was a desperate plea. And because he had left her on read for over an hour, the poor woman was likely spiraling into a panic, terrified that her unnecessary action had offended a being capable of wiping her city off the map.
[Leon: Now? Give me a second, I'm coming over.]
He hit send, genuinely curious to see what Cocolia was planning to do. Closing his eyes, Leon extended his senses, locking onto her unique energy signature. Even now, as midnight loomed over the frozen city, the grand office of the Supreme Guardian burned with light.
'She hasn't gone home yet? Still grinding through government paperwork at Qlipoth Fort at this hour?'Leon shook his head, a wry smile touching his lips.'Talk about a workaholic.'
His brow twitched slightly. His figure blurred, folding into the shadows. With a silent, instantaneous flash, he vanished from the hotel bed, reappearing directly in the grand, echoing halls of Qlipoth Fort.
Behind her massive oak desk, Cocolia was staring blankly at a stack of requisition forms, her mind a million miles away. The sudden, sharp ping of her phone made her jump. She snatched the device up with uncharacteristic haste, her eyes scanning the screen.
It was Leon's reply.
A heavy, suffocating weight lifted from her chest, leaving behind a strange sense of dizzying relief. Thank the Architects. She hadn't angered him. From the looks of it, he had simply been busy and hadn't seen her message until now.
Before she could even set the phone back down, the air near the heavy double doors rippled. Cocolia snapped her head up. Leon stood casually at the entrance of her office, hands tucked into his pockets, observing her with that familiar, unreadable smile. He looked entirely too comfortable in the heart of Belobog's political power, clearly curious about what she wanted to say to him.
Cocolia stood up, smoothing the front of her immaculate uniform. She stepped out from behind the desk and offered a deep, respectful bow.
"Benefactor. Thank you for answering my late summons. And... thank you for everything you have already done for Belobog."
She kept her head lowered. Her voice was carefully measured, projecting the calm authority of a ruler, yet beneath the surface, a faint, almost imperceptible tremor betrayed her nerves.
"However, I am not a naive child. I understand how the universe operates. For an adult to obtain such monumental help, they must always pay an equivalent price." She paused. Her manicured fingernails dug silently into the palms of her hands. The silence in the grand office stretched, heavy and thick with tension. "And the current Belobog... can no longer offer any bargaining chips."
She slowly looked up, her piercing eyes locking onto his, burning with a complex mix of absolute submission and desperate resolve.
"Therefore... Cocolia is willing to offer herself as the bargaining chip."
Cocolia lowered her head once more, waiting in the heavy silence for his judgment.
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