Gallagher lowered his head with difficulty and looked at the blade tip piercing through his chest, his pupils trembling.
The next second, you pulled out the blade and slashed backward. A flash of steel gleamed, and Gallagher collapsed to the ground.
Shaking the blood from the blade, you glanced at the stunned Something Unto Death.
"Did you think I hadn't noticed the thing you brought here?"
"Roar—!!!"
Something Unto Death seemed to have been completely enraged by Gallagher's death.
In an instant, countless pitch-black tentacles and claws lunged at you madly!
You snorted coldly and blocked it with a single swing of your blade.
The battle was brief but fierce, yet its outcome held no suspense. Suppressed by the Power of Order and Harmony, Something Unto Death was thoroughly killed by you.
You stood in the center of the ruined side hall, without a speck of dust on you.
"All the troublesome bugs have been cleared..." you murmured, your gaze unfathomable. "It's time for the plan to begin..."
Target Gallagher has died... Analyzing... Analysis complete! Temporary trait acquired: Disguise (Blue)! Effect: You can imitate and disguise yourself as any person you have interacted with at close range. (Cooldown: 24 hours) Villain Points +200
This trait didn't seem very useful right now...
Still, it gave another 200 Villain Points. Killing a key figure really paid well!
This was no loss!
The next day, the truth could no longer be concealed.
The disappearance of Aventurine and Gallagher ultimately aroused the Astral Express crew's suspicions.
Welt, Star, March 7th, and Firefly, who had somehow revived, came to Dewlight Pavilion together.
Faced with their questioning, you did not deny it.
"I did it," you admitted. "Aventurine tried to subvert Penacony's order, while Gallagher was Death's lackey. For Penacony's lasting peace and stability, their disappearance was necessary."
"Sunday!" Welt shouted in a low voice. "What exactly are you planning? This is far more than merely maintaining order!"
You looked at them, a smile almost resembling pity appearing on your face.
"You don't understand. The freedom and reality you pursue are precisely the source of pain and chaos.
"Only under absolute order can true and eternal peace arrive."
You said no more and forcibly pulled all four of them into your inner world.
There, you showed them your past and let them relive the choices you had faced, trying to make them understand why you wanted to establish a "new world of order," why you wanted to implement the ultimate ideal of the Seven-Day Rest, and why you were willing to pay the price of martyrdom for it.
"The system of the entire universe should be the Seven-Day Rest..." you expounded on your ideals.
However, the Astral Express Crew firmly opposed your views. They believed that happiness stripped of freedom was meaningless, and that a beautiful dream used to escape reality would ultimately be a cage.
"Looks like words cannot make you understand the beauty of order."
You felt slightly disappointed, though not surprised.
"Fine. Then let us settle this on the stage of the grand ceremony."
At the center of the grand theater stage.
The Trailblazer's group arrived as promised.
You reiterated your goal to them one last time. "The new world I want to create will be a paradise for humanity, one that no Aeon or person can interfere with, one that can embrace everyone's dignity and happiness."
Their answer was to draw their weapons.
"Stubborn fools..." you sighed softly, no longer hesitating.
Battle erupted!
You entered the fray personally, transforming directly into the body of God Sunday, the fetus of philosophy, preparing to revive the God of Order.
You wielded the immense Power of Order, dragging all of Penacony and the Astral Express Crew completely into the Taiyi Dream.
However, just when you thought victory was certain—an accident occurred.
Without Robin's song as a breakthrough, Boothill summoned the Space Rangers, while Acheron unleashed a slash of Nihility that tore through the false reality. The Trailblazers also erupted with powerful Harmony energy... The collision of multiple powers shattered your Taiyi Dream!
The Astral Express Crew challenged you once more.
Though you were powerful, maintaining the dream, fighting multiple formidable enemies, and suppressing the backlash of the Power of Order at the same time gradually became too much for you.
In the end, after a brutal battle, your God Sunday form was forcibly broken. Your enormous body shattered, and you fell from the sky.
No one caught you.
You crashed heavily onto the cold stage, your consciousness beginning to blur.
No way? I still lost even like this?!
Robin, the biggest variable, wasn't even here, and I still couldn't win?
The Astral Express Crew's protagonist halo is way too absurd, isn't it?!
Is this simulation really ending like this?
However, to Jiang Mo's surprise, the simulation continued.
Just as your consciousness was about to sink into darkness, a cold voice—neither male nor female, as though it came from the shared whispers of trillions of lives—rang directly within the depths of your soul.
"Order has perished... But Penacony's 'seed' is not limited to Order alone..."
"Do you desire true power? Are you... willing to join 'us'?"
Faced with the unknown call, you chose— 1. Accept. 2. Refuse.
Jiang Mo froze.
"Holy shit, there's even a twist like this? Only an idiot would refuse!"
Even if I die, I'm still going to cause trouble! I have to choose 1!
Give me power!
I want the heavens to be unable to cover my eyes again!
I want the Astral Express Crew to vanish into nothingness!
"I'm willing!" You accepted that power.
Villain Points +300!
In an instant, a torrent filled with the mad desire to multiply erupted from the deepest depths of your consciousness, instantly enveloping your body on the verge of collapse!
On the stage, your body, which had already lost all strength, was reshaped by strange dark-red energy before the horrified eyes of the Astral Express and the others. Then...
You rose into the air once again in an eerie posture that made one's blood run cold!
You opened your eyes and felt the power within you, completely different from Order, yet even more immense.
You looked down at the Astral Express Crew, who stood ready below, and a crazed smile spread across your face.
"Act Two," your voice had become somewhat hoarse, carrying an eerie tone, "begins!"
You were no longer merely the fetus of Order. At this moment, you represented—Order and The Propagation!
Wipe Out the Astral Express Crew
At the center of the stage, your originally splendid formal attire was rapidly covered by a bizarre substance that grew like a mixture of carapace and flesh. Your head was encased in a shell, scarlet compound eyes emerging across its surface.
"Wh-what is that monster?!" March 7th's voice trembled as she instinctively raised her bow.
Welt's expression turned grave. "The aura of his Path has completely changed... Wait, could this be The Propagation?!"
"No, not merely The Propagation." A twisted smile hung on your face. "Order's restraints are too fragile, while The Propagation is too ancient. What I seek is a new order—endless, devouring everything, reproducing everything, gathering everything..."
You spread your arms, and a swarm of insects poured from your body like a tidal wave, instantly covering the entire stage!
"Come, witness the newborn Aeon, and then... become part of it!"
In an instant, the stage floor, walls, and even the air began to grow, twist, and multiply madly!
Countless compound eyes glimmering with ghostly light opened. Unnameable creatures made of mucus and carapace surged forth like a flood, letting out piercing screeches as they lunged at the Astral Express Crew!
"No... There are too many! We can't kill them all!" March 7th shouted as she fought off the swarm.
"Damn it..." Star swung her bat at the enemy, but those locusts seemed capable of feeding on Harmony energy and were difficult to defeat!
"Sam!" Firefly's voice rang out. Crimson flames burst from the armor, temporarily clearing an area, but even more locusts poured out of the shadows.
Welt tried to tear them apart with black holes and seize control of the battlefield, but the locusts' numbers and regeneration speed exceeded his expectations. His attacks were useless.
Boothill's bullets tore through the monsters with perfect accuracy, but he quickly realized that this was far too inefficient against the swarm.
Even Acheron seemed to find such overwhelming numbers somewhat troublesome.
You floated in midair, coldly observing the battle.
This was The Propagation, mixed with Order and carrying a trace of Harmony's power... simple, brutal, perfect, and effective.
At this moment, you could see every one of their weaknesses clearly, while The Propagation and Order offered endless means of exploiting them.
...The battle continued, and the theater had become a Swarm Nest of madly multiplying locusts.
Though the Astral Express Crew resisted desperately, they gradually found themselves unable to keep up against the endless swarm under your precise control.
Acheron darted through the tide of monsters. Every slash she made annihilated swathes of locusts, only for even more to surge at her from all directions.
Sam's flames covered a vast area, but you drove the swarm to launch suicidal attacks that drained her energy, leaving her increasingly exhausted.
"It's over." You looked at them and lost patience.
You directly poured the powers of The Propagation and Order into the entire grand theater!
Red-and-black matter surged from the walls, ceiling, and floor like living creatures, forming an enormous, constantly writhing cage that completely enveloped and devoured the resisters!
Their struggles seemed utterly futile before the power of an Aeon.
Soon, every one of them was devoured.
But because this was a dream, they had not truly died.
That was fine. You had already invaded their minds through the dream. Whether it was the Astral Express Crew, Sam of the Stellaron Hunters, or even Acheron, the Nihility Emanator, none could escape your control.
The instant the dream shattered and reality overlapped, you gained the power of an Aeon.
In the real world, endless locusts had long since obeyed your new will of "Oneness," combining the traits of Order and The Propagation.
They were no longer a chaotic, disorderly tide. Instead, they became disciplined immortal legions, densely covering Penacony's skies and streets, surrounding the Astral Express so completely that not a drop of water could pass through.
Every inch of its metal shell was crawling with dormant insects. The train's engines and exits were completely sealed, cutting off every possibility of escape.
"The first step of Oneness is clearing away redundancy," you declared softly.
No words were needed. With a thought, the swarm surged forward like machines precisely carrying out orders, silently drowning and devouring Welt, March 7th, Boothill, Acheron, and the others as they still slept in their hotel rooms. There were no screams, no struggles—only the rapid process of matter being unified.
Only Star, the Trailblazer carrying a Stellaron, was left behind alone. Her gaze was vacant, her mind still firmly under your control.
You walked toward her. Your terrifying body, fused from Order and The Propagation, enveloped her and crossed space in an instant.
You arrived above a barren, lifeless planet that had long been forgotten.
You looked at the numb Star below without the slightest pity. She was the collection of all variables, your greatest hidden danger.
"Become part of 'us.' This is your final value."
As your words fell, the torrent of The Propagation that formed part of your body surged toward her. The swarm covered her, beginning the final assimilation and devouring.
However, at the instant Star's body completely dissolved, the dormant Stellaron within her seemed to detect its host's death and suddenly erupted with immense light and heat!
The energy of Destruction burst forth in an instant. The singularity of a stellar explosion bloomed with its final light upon this dead planet!
Before you continue