“Ugh—!”
Seeing Xian Ling suddenly appear from the air and land right in front of her with a “plop,” Cyrene finally let out the breath she had been holding.
She had been worried that Xian Ling had also been left behind in that region of data chaos.
After all, from the girl’s earlier performance, her claim about “sacrificing herself when necessary” did not seem to have been taken lightly at all.
Because Xian Ling had truly stayed behind without hesitation to cover her retreat.
While waiting alone at the entrance of the Great Tomb earlier, Cyrene’s mind had been in complete disarray.
Worry, relief, helplessness, anxiety… all kinds of complex emotions intertwined within her, leaving her at a loss.
If Xian Ling had truly remained there, could she really complete the next objective alone?
Could she… truly save Amphoreus without failing Xian Ling’s expectations?
And why exactly had this usually unreliable white-haired girl been so willing to act so decisively for her?
It couldn’t really be that she liked her, right?
After all, the other priests in the temple had once said that true feelings often appear disguised as jokes…
Fortunately, Xian Ling had not been held back by Lygus.
After only a brief moment, she too had arrived at the Great Tomb.
“Xian Ling, are you alright?
About Lygus…”
“Don’t worry, he probably won’t be able to catch up for a while.” Xian Ling brushed the dust off her body.
“So this is the Tomb of the Nameless Titan?”
“Mm… I’m not too sure.
I was waiting here the whole time for you…” Cyrene shook her head.
“So, are we going in now?”
“No, wait a moment.”
Xian Ling looked around, then a surge of Remembrance power flickered in her hand.
Instantly, a line of text appeared on the ground before her.
“What is this… ‘You and I in past and future pour and sow sprouting buds flower seeds fruiting waiting flawless destined affection reunion’?”
“What a strange sentence… why would someone leave behind such a riddle?”
Cyrene leaned over curiously, but after trying to read it, her expression immediately turned troubled.
“Uh…”
Xian Ling glanced at Cyrene with a strange expression, but did not expose her.
One could only say—once Cyrene becomes Cyrene from the future, she will eventually get hit by her own boomerang.
Three steps later, her past self would become an enemy.
“This is actually an encrypted message.
It was left to me by the Aeon who once observed you.
It should be like this, then like this…”
Xian Ling patiently segmented the sentence, and Cyrene quickly caught on, slowly reading out the translated meaning.
“You, in the past, nurture sprouting buds and form flawless affection; I, in the future, sow flower seeds and await a destined reunion… mm, this sounds a bit… suggestive?”
“So Xian Ling will also be flirting with Aeons in the future?”
“I…”
Xian Ling didn’t know what expression she should make.
So Cyrene had descended into the world just to leave her such a heavily loaded declaration?
And… what did it mean, “await a destined reunion in the future”?
Under normal circumstances, Cyrene would definitely remain in the past to close the causal loop.
Although Xian Ling now had a way to create a small chance of defeating Iron Tomb, she still had no idea how to save Cyrene at all.
For Cyrene, at least for the Cyrene who had just resolved Iron Tomb, the future was essentially an impossible option.
More importantly, this was a simulated worldline, different from the main world.
So what exactly did Cyrene’s message refer to?
And, most importantly of all…
Xian Ling secretly glanced at Cyrene.
The pink-haired girl was still happily indulging in the gossip between her good friend and an Aeon.
Yes.
No matter how much she understood and liked Cyrene, they had only known each other for a week.
Even if she survived to the end, it would only extend that time by a few days at most.
Xian Ling truly did not believe that a single week together would be enough for Cyrene’s feelings toward her to “mutate” into anything more than friendship.
But Cyrene’s message… felt far too heavy.
At that moment, only one sentence remained in Xian Ling’s mind.
What does it mean?
“…Forget it.
I won’t think about this for now.”
After a moment, Xian Ling scratched her head helplessly and erased the words from the ground.
“At least there’s no warning about what to do next in this message… Herta and Fourth Mirror are still fighting outside.
We can’t waste any more time.”
“Let’s go, Cyrene… next, we enter the Great Tomb together.”
“Mm.” Cyrene nodded.
After thinking for a moment, she gently took Xian Ling’s hand.
“Eh?”
“I get nervous too…” Cyrene swayed their joined hands lightly, smiling.
“So… just treat it as comforting me a little, okay?”
[Scanning in progress…
Target: PhiLia093.]
[Access permission granted.
Welcome back, PhiLia093.]
As Cyrene reached the entrance of the Great Tomb, a faint light swept over the two of them, and an emotionless voice echoed before them.
“This place… feels somewhat familiar…”
Perhaps awakened by a memory she had experienced countless times, Cyrene’s gaze turned slightly dazed.
She looked around, then gently stepped forward into the Great Tomb.
[Executing Formatting Pro…]
Hearing this voice, Xian Ling’s expression changed.
She immediately pulled Cyrene back.
“Eh?
What’s wrong, Xian Ling?
Was there something wrong with that voice just now?”
“…Don’t rush.
Let me observe the situation a bit more.”
Xian Ling frowned slightly.
Perhaps due to her incomplete memory recovery, Cyrene did not seem to understand what “formatting” meant.
But that was not the important part.
The important part was that Xian Ling suddenly realized something.
Because the Astral Express had not arrived in this worldline, and Cyrene had not transformed into a Memokeeper, once she entered the Great Tomb, she would—just like in the previous three million cycles—be subjected to the Scepter’s Formatting Process.
So the question was: for Cyrene, could she really make it to Demiurge and complete the entire story this time?
The answer was no—a probabilistic event, but with an extremely low success rate.
Because in the original storyline, Cyrene herself had said that the Great Tomb’s formatting was strictly timed.
It always began at a fixed moment and completed at a fixed moment.
Even with Demiurge’s delays later on, Cyrene could not extend her lifespan for long.
But from Cyrene’s message, Xian Ling’s plan seemed to have succeeded in the end.
Then… how exactly had she bypassed this limitation?
Wait…
Xian Ling’s gaze sharpened.
She suddenly thought of the first half of that message.
“So that’s how it is…”
[Scanning in progress…
Target: PhiLia093.]
[Access permission granted.
Welcome back, PhiLia093.]
[Formatting process…]
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!