Simply obtaining the power of Harmony wasn't enough: Pei Guang felt he needed something more before leading the Dreamjolt Troupe to stir up trouble with the Family.
What was he missing?
While he was thinking, something suddenly came to mind. He clapped his hands, excitement lighting up his face as he turned to March 7th and Firefly.
"I'll send you two somewhere safe first. I need to make a quick trip to the Space Station. I'll explain once I'm back—since, honestly, I'm not sure if it'll even work."
March said, "Go on, go on~ We'll wait here! As for that Something Unto Death thing, this lady isn't scared at all~"
Firefly nodded. "I'll protect March. Please trust me."
Having faced Something Unto Death before, Firefly was confident that if she encountered it again, she could defeat it this time.
"Alright! I'm counting on you two, then. Here—take these."
Pei Guang handed over all his Four-Leaf Clovers and a portion of his full recovery items to the two girls, then immediately left the dream world.
The first thing he did upon exiting was rush back to the Express and find the Messenger from the Garden of Recollection.
"Eh? Why have you returned to the Garden of Recollection?"
"My last reward hasn't been delivered yet. Is it done?"
The Messenger seemed to guess what he wanted and cheerfully replied, "Not yet. The amount of memory last time was enormous—we've only managed to complete one piece so far. If you'd like, I can give it to you now."
She took out a Light Cone: this one depicting the scene from Pei Guang's last Memory World simulation, where he had used the power of Harmony to unite the automatons in battle.
It was a Harmony Light Cone.
Pei Guang glanced it over: its stats and rarity were about the same as the ones he'd used before.
Satisfied, he nodded, then used an Echo of War to teleport to the lower levels of the Space Station, arriving in front of Ruan Mei's synthesis cauldron.
He had replenished some synthesis materials a few days ago, but since he hadn't found the right ingredients, he hadn't crafted anything yet.
Now, inspired by the Dreamjolt Troupe, Pei Guang remembered the cauldron.
If he recalled correctly, using rare materials and Light Cones corresponding to a Path could create an Aeon Cat Cake.
Whether it was limited or not, he didn't know—but right now, he wanted to see if he could craft a Harmony Cake.
He placed the base ingredients used for Aeon Cat Cakes into the cauldron, then added the Harmony Light Cone he'd just received and some rare materials related to the Harmony Path.
Closing the lid, he waited.
When the cauldron reopened, a golden light shone forth, mixed with three intertwining colors that spread outward.
From within floated up what looked like… a dog-shaped dumpling.
This "shumai dog cake" was different from normal Cat Cakes: those usually had one face, while this one had three.
Behind it appeared a ring of light similar to the Harmony Aeon's halo, except this halo seemed to be an actual lightbulb that could be switched on or off.
All three faces had their eyes closed, but as the dog cake floated upward, the faces merged into one.
With the appearance of Xipe Cake, the Space Station was instantly enveloped in the power of the Harmony Path.
At that moment, Herta, busy repairing the Simulated Universe, couldn't help but grumble, "One after another… are they all holding a team-building event here or something?"
Affected by the Path's energy, Xipe Cake's consciousness was drawn into an infinite cosmic expanse.
There, it lifted its gaze to see a being with three faces, as if assembled from countless puzzle pieces: the Aeon of Harmony.
Sensing the little one's gaze, the Aeon opened its arms, and Xipe Cake closed its eyes.
But the moment it did, the Path's power surged violently, accompanied by a flying kick-like sound.
The cute dog cake's eyes snapped open. Its original three faces had transformed into three masks—each a "Xipe."
Hmm… three masks and three faces? Not much difference—just one extra character. Close enough.
Either way, still a being with three faces. Checks out.
The three-masked Xipe spread its arms toward Xipe Cake. "Aha~ My dear, allow me to bestow upon you even greater power."
At that moment, immense Path energy poured into Xipe Cake's body.
It could tell this wasn't the same Aeon from before, but did that matter?
Harmony embraced all things: Elation, Destruction, Preservation, and beyond. The Harmonious Xipe Cake would open its arms to them all.
Moved by its will, the three-masked god burst into delighted laughter.
"Since you possess such tolerance, then let me grant you a more entertaining power!"
The three-faced god divided its power into three parts, blending in aspects of Destruction and Preservation, then infused all of it into Xipe Cake.
Together with the Harmony energy it already possessed, the dog cake now held the power of two Paths.
And then—something miraculous occurred: Aha noticed that these two entirely different Path powers had merged perfectly within the creature.
Watching this, Aha was tempted to see whether combining all of their power with Xipe's could create an even more amusing existence.
After a moment of thought, though, Aha gave up on the idea.
Sure, it sounded fun, and whether it succeeded or failed, the process would be peak fun, but Aha also knew that if they played that particular game, there'd be no more fun left afterward.
As a connoisseur of entertainment, Aha knew the art of delayed gratification.
For the sake of even greater fun in the future, they could wait.
Still, just because they couldn't play the high-end version didn't mean they couldn't enjoy a low-end one.
As for the powers of Destruction and Preservation that were mixed in alongside Harmony… those were, at their core, still powers of Elation.
Aha just thought it would be more fun to add a few features from other Paths.
Calling it "adding features" was generous: it was basically just putting a mask on the power of Elation.
For a god of amusement with countless masks, wearing another one was child's play.
Of course, the two Paths of power were only temporary. Aha planned to study the traits of other Paths carefully and then craft a few more for this Xipe Cake later.
Just imagine: when someone thought it was a creature of Preservation, and then peeled off the mask to reveal Aha underneath.
How fun would that be?!
If, during the process, a few people actually believed it, that would be enough to make Aha laugh for an entire Amber Era.