Void Shell Collision

At the same time, behind the wedding venue.

In the carefully isolated temporary kitchen, another "performance" was taking place.

Hector was still wearing that signature apron.

The words "Kiss the Cook" gleamed on the fabric, only today there was an extra line of small text beneath them, written in an even fancier font:

"Today's Special: Wedding Feast"

"Love needs to be simmered low and slow~"

"Happiness can't be rushed~"

He hummed a little tune only he could understand as he used his tentacles to process all kinds of ingredients.

Those ingredients... if they could still be called "ingredients."

On the first cutting board to the left lay a piece of "solidified time."

It looked like an amber crystal, yet countless tiny instants were sealed inside it.

There was the image of a baby opening its eyes for the first time, the frozen frame of an old man's final smile, the trembling curve of lovers' lips during their first kiss...

The King of Absurdity turned his own tentacle into a blade and sliced that piece of time thinly.

With every cut, those sealed instants would briefly "awaken," playing for a moment in the air before sinking back into stillness.

"The taste of time needs to be paired with a seasoning of 'eternity'..."

He muttered to himself, taking a small bottle from beside him.

Inside the bottle was the "echo of a star's final second."

It was the scattered fragment released when a star collapsed, captured with a certain Archwizard's life's work and ultimately offered to the King of Absurdity as a precious gift.

On the second cutting board was a slowly rotating mass of "dawn."

"Dawn has to be fresh to taste good..."

The King of Absurdity gently lifted that cluster of light with his tentacle and placed it into a