First: never act on impulse.
Second: never let a single instance of disorder escape judgment.
Third: judge with absolute, immaculate fairness — the Aeon of Order, Ena, arrives to grant audience~!
His form was like an ancient puppet steered with exquisite precision by invisible strings, a single all-seeing eye hovering about Him.
Before the two arms lifted so elegantly by those unseen threads floated a flawless crystal sphere, and within it turned a Galaxy that flowed in perfect order along a perfect trajectory.
Any world sheltered by His might would be guided by a harmony of Order that changed without limit yet never fell into chaos, rising in sequence and perishing in solemnity like the gears of a precision clock, following a score set long in advance — all of it within Order.
As the ultimate obsessive-compulsive on a cosmic scale, Ena's eyes could not tolerate a single trace of disorder.
And now two lawless pests had turned the universe into their personal playground and wrecked the place into this hideous mess right in front of Him…
An outright desecration of Order!
If the Galaxy Universe were the household of the Aeons, then Ena was the butler with terminal germophobia and compulsion — and He had come home only to discover, in horror,
a gluttonous husky and a Hakimi breeding like mad, gnawing frantically at the load-bearing pillars, shredding the wallpaper, dismantling the furniture, smashing the vases and the cosmetics on the vanity.
How could that be borne?
He would end this calamity of chaos and drive out every last troublemaker!
Tatakae!
Itsumo tatakae!
Granted, every Aeon appears extreme, shackled by the driving force of their own Path — but not one of them is a fool.
An Aeon is a philosophical concept made solid, and concepts come broad or narrow; the power of Aeons varies to match.
The two pests before Him:
One, an old-timer who had ascended into Aeonhood from an ancient beast of twilight.
The other, an "idiot" whose purity was so absolute that it had carried the Path of [Propagation] to an unthinkable height.
One glance was enough. Ena knew He couldn't take them, and had no hope whatsoever of strangling Tayzzyronth.
Against one, He could still put up a fight. Against both at once, He'd just be handing over a free kill.
Call for backup!
"This data fluctuation…"
Even the cool detachment in the Ruan Mei dumpling's voice thinned out a little.
"Another Aeon is descending."
"Who!?"
Asta held her breath, her chest rising and falling in quick, shallow gasps from the violence of the feeling.
It was the same tension and flutter as doing that sort of thing with Caelus, except the joy came pounding out of her heart from the inside.
She had tipped into a near-dizzy state of exhilaration. So many Aeons gathered in one place — unprecedented, one of a kind!
"There's… something really familiar about this…"
Stelle murmured, golden eyes sweeping the star-strewn heavens.
For a hazy instant she saw ghostlike lives blooming out of yellow earth, saw the foot of an immense city wall heaped with the corpses of insect shells and moth wings, saw the disasters of the cosmos held back on the far side of that wall.
More living things were hauling soil at the base of the great wall, building it higher and higher… while a colossal body took shape from the ten thousand grains of dust it drew in.
"It's the concrete-pouring old man!"
The words shot out of Stelle's mouth.
The Aeon of Preservation, Qlipoth!
"Interesting…"
The Herta dumpling's data streams spun at full speed, her attention fixed on the busy little lives sheltered by that titanic wall.
"I'm curious. How did the wall-builders receive an Aeon's revelation and start raising a barrier against outside enemies in advance?"
Herta watched the creatures beneath the enormous wall and muttered,
"After all, Qlipoth doesn't much care about mortals. Looking down on the multitude is more Ena of Order's style… mm, and it does hold together if those two Aeons have some sort of acquaintance. [Preservation] and [Order] overlap in places."
As if to confirm Herta's guess —
A hum.
A shifting sound, as though woven from hundreds of millions of intervals in different modes all resonating at once, rang out across this stretch of the universe, and behind it came a deep, majestic gray-blue silhouette.
Ena descended and, in a gesture of friendship, gathered the Amber Lord's vast and scattered head into an embrace.
"We thank thee for answering Our summons… Qlipoth, the disruptors keep neither law nor restraint. Their deeds shall not be pardoned."
"Did you all hear that?"
Herta clapped her hands in excitement.
"[Order] sent an invitation to [Preservation]! Incredible — Tayzzyronth was put to death by the gods acting together!"
"And Qlipoth's reaction is fascinating. Looks like [Order] cut some deal with Him, and I'd bet eight out of ten it involves Oroboros too!"
"Oh, I get it! I totally get it!"
Watching this earth-shaking scene, Caelus slapped his thigh, light blazing in both eyes as though he'd seen through everything.
"The truth behind Qlipoth building walls like a maniac is that He used Oroboros's ass and never paid for it, and He's terrified the creditor will come knocking!"
"And Ena? Ena's been secretly in love with the Amber Lord forever! He saw His old flame Oroboros show up, got insanely jealous, and dragged His husband Qlipoth along to beat up the mistress!"
"…Unhinged."
Herta swatted the flower off her dumpling's head, her voice heavy with exhaustion and collapse.
"Stop inventing things! Stop it! I'm begging you, okay?"
Damn ass-literature.
"Doushite?"
The question came out of a mouth that had been on a long vegetarian streak. Caelus, on the verge of tears, flung his arms wide and launched himself at the Herta dumpling like an abandoned puppy.
"Didn't we agree we'd be fictional historians together for life?"
"Herta, without you, watashi—!"
Unfortunately, he caught nothing but air.
The Herta dumpling was an electronic image. No body to hug.
"…"
Herta watched in silence as the Gray-hair who had failed to hug her rolled once across the ground with the momentum, stood up like nothing had happened, and solemnly straightened his collar.
Even a Genius brain capable of unraveling the secrets of the universe couldn't keep pace with thought processes this abstract.
Be reasonable. In a mythic tableau that history had barely witnessed a handful of times — multiple Aeons in confrontation, the fate of the entire universe hanging in the balance — Caelus could still throw a fit this loudly, as if nobody else existed…
Somewhere deep down, Herta felt a strange flicker of respect. Just a touch of awe, honestly.
She stayed quiet for a long while, turning it over and over, then asked in a hollow voice,
"…You. Have you been having some sort of secret exchange with Aha behind everyone's back?"
Otherwise, how could anyone be this deranged?
Herta knew that Aha, that creature, genuinely and desperately wanted to watch the whole universe go up in roaring **ames.
If the universe really did catch fire, He would charge in without a second's hesitation and dump another bucket of high-grade accelerant on it, just to make the fun burn hotter.
Caelus shook his head, wearing the face of a respectable housewife framed for adultery.
"Of course not."
That said, he could roughly guess at a few things Aha might do — pure chaos-lover's intuition.
He just didn't know why the other party was doing it. The God of Games had no idea about his hidden card.
Then again.
As long as you traced every one of Aha's motives back to "for the fun of it," everything explained itself.
Cosmic Truth right there!
"Speaking of which, where's my loyal buddy?"
Standing on the back of his enormous mount-bug, Caelus put his hands on his hips and shaded his eyes, scanning the star-filled void in every direction.
"Where'd He go? Didn't we agree He'd go round up some help?"
"Any later and my white-haired, red-eyed, baby-faced, giant-b○obed l0li mommy is going to eat a hammer."
Ena and Qlipoth had already joined forces and were winding up to punch the two universe-wreckers in the teeth.
Caelus could practically hear Qlipoth's hammer dragging across the starry sky with the screech of glass being scored.
"Good bro! I'm fuckin' Layla — I mean, heeere~!"
The words had barely left Caelus's mouth before Aha's trademark cackle went ringing through the whole of cosmic space.
He was coming, He was coming!
He came riding a kindergarten kiddie rocking horse, cheap neon flickering all over it, jingling as it went.
"Dear friend, open those eyes wide~ take a look at which heavyweight guests Aha, socialite of the Aeons, has brought you!"
Aha hopped down off the rocking ride, which stayed where it was, cheerfully singing "Daddy's daddy is called Grandpa~" all by itself.
Rubbing His black hands together in excitement, Aha threw both arms open.
"Let's give the stage's spotlight first to this magnificent existence! Applause! Salute—"
From somewhere He produced a glittering gold songbook that looked like it was covered in children's stickers, and cried out to the heavens in a tone of wildly exaggerated, thoroughly hammy reverence,
"—Rejoice!"
"Mother who gathers the stars! She who binds the wills of countless billions into a single body — universal Harmony, all people as one fellowship, all things of one root, all stars shining as one — the supreme Lord of Merit and Hymn!"
"Most Concordant! Most Harmonious! Most Benevolent! Most Virtuous of gods! The great [Harmony] — Xipe, descends upon this place!"
Aha stood ramrod straight.
"At this moment, history turns at last to a new chapter!"
The kindergarten rocking horse was still merrily looping "Daddy's daddy is called Grandpa~" in the background.
The scene, grand and absurd in equal measure, struck Herta, Ruan Mei, Screwllum and even the thrilled Asta completely dumb.
"Whoa—! So cool! Caelus-cub, I want to ride that too!"
Looking at Aha's plastic pony ride, Stelle had stars in her eyes brighter than the ones in the sky, longing written all over her face.
"Take it! It's yours, Akivili's person-in-the-suit."
Aha was as generous as someone handing out candy, and tossed the little plastic rocking pony over to Stelle.
"Thanks!"
Under the twitching stares of several Geniuses, Stelle whooped, climbed on without a moment's delay, and started happily rocking back and forth.
"You rounded up exactly one?"
Caelus's gaze went past Stelle on her rocking horse and settled on the deity with three aspects.
Her fractured purple skin was like colored glass inlaid with stars — a broken beauty all its own.
"And you call yourself a socialite?"
Caelus raised an eyebrow at Aha, his tone carrying a distinct "that's it?"
"Hey! Aha also dragged your little 'suit' over here — my good buddy!"
Aha jerked a smug thumb over His shoulder.
"And Aha even did up a gorgeous makeup job on Him!"
"Holy shit!"
The instant they saw what Aha was pointing at, Caelus and Herta swore in near-perfect unison.
On the surface, it was unmistakably a Stellaron spirit blown up to enormous size!
But in Herta's data-vision, it was plainly the Akivili template data-entity she had never loaded into the Star Rail.
"What's going on!? He dug out Akivili's core data by Himself!? Damn it — the real body definitely intervened!"
Herta was more than a little put out.
If Aha's true self wanted to cause trouble, the Simulated Universe's firewall might as well be made of paper.
But was there really enough fun here to be worth Him showing up in person?
Or was it… because of Caelus?
"Good, good, good!"
Stelle stood up on the toy pony, struck a Tiga transformation pose at the giant version of herself, and bellowed from the diaphragm,
"Fusion!"
…Nothing happened.
The giant Stellaron spirit didn't react at all, silent as a statue.
Caelus and Stelle turned to look at Aha together.
"Oh, look at Aha's memory!"
Aha smacked His forehead, assuming He had one. Grinning, He shoved the Akivili data-entity — made up to look like Stelle — off in the direction of Ena and Qlipoth.
"Akivili is on their team now~"
This was no joke.
Because the real Akivili had fallen completely, even with a direct link to the Path, there was no one at the controls.
The Akivili here and now was a "bot" acting purely on Path instinct!
Why did the Swarm King Tayzzyronth have to die?
The answer lay in the swelling and collision of concepts.
[Propagation] encroached on the Paths of other Aeons. He ruined the universe's [Order], He threatened the world's [Preservation], He blocked the road of [Trailblaze].
And so bot-Akivili would instinctively move against Propagation.
"So you went to round up help for the fight, and not only did you come back with exactly one helper, you brought an enemy along as a bonus — no wait, you forcibly added a bot enemy?"
Caelus grinned at Aha, his face saying "of course it'd be you."
"That's what makes it fair~ A 3v3 free-for-all."
Aha pointed at Ena, Qlipoth and Akivili.
Then pointed at Himself, Xipe and Tayzzyronth.
"Then what about Oroboros?"
Caelus asked.
"Once my old friend gets eaten by my other old friend, it'll balance out~!"
Aha bounced up and down.
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