Pei Guang, standing in the center of the battlefield, released a scorching aura.
The Heliobi transformation device sensed the pure emotion from Pei Guang, and the power converted from this emotion was comparable to the immense magic power of the Witch of Salvation Kriemhild Gretchen.
Pei Guang felt the armor's immense power, but as a player, as someone already enjoying himself inside the armor, he wasn't satisfied with just using the armor's fists and special abilities.
He could feel that he and the armor were in perfect harmony. The armor itself was telling Pei Guang that an armor without weapons was incomplete.
Pei Guang agreed: the armor was right. If he was already wearing armor, how could he not have new weapons?
Thinking this, Pei Guang stretched out his hands. At the moment he did so, Pom-Pom on the Astral Express seemed to sense something.
"Pom! This power—there's no mistake, Pom! It's… Akivili!!!!"
As Pom-Pom said this, the Astral Express emitted a dazzling light, and this light shone onto Pei Guang.
The light entered the dream and shone onto Pei Guang. With the appearance of the light, two 'weapon' orbs floated before Pei Guang.
On Pei Guang's right was the front of a miniature Astral Express, with a sharp blade attached.
On the left was a shield, but its shape was a bit abstract: no matter how you looked at it, it resembled a pot lid.
Seeing the two weapons floating in the air, Pei Guang didn't hesitate. He reached out and grabbed both weapon orbs.
The moment he grasped them, the orbs transformed into real weapons, and he received information about the two divine artifacts.
[Akivili's Fruit Knife: The knife Akivili used to cut fruit, sometimes also used to cut strange things.]
[Astral Express Cooking Pot Lid: An extremely sturdy pot lid. Akivili once used it as a ski, causing Pom-Pom to scold him for three days and three nights.]
These were two true divine artifacts, things once used by an Aeon.
Though they retained a portion of the power of the Aeon of Trailblaze, this power wouldn't boost Pei Guang in any way: it only made the two weapons sharper and more durable.
With these two weapons in hand, Pei Guang's aura changed dramatically once again.
At the same time he grasped the weapons, the Harmony-enhanced Bloodhound also advanced toward Pei Guang.
He felt the Family members fighting alongside him, and at that moment, he felt invincible!!!
But just as he took his first step forward, Pei Guang, now wielding his new weapons, moved.
He swung Akivili's fruit knife, slashing from the upper right to the lower right.
Facing Pei Guang's attack, the Bloodhound, empowered by the Family's strength, and all the Family members, shouted in unison:
"This is the will of all Penacony's Family members! No force can break through this will!"
No single Family member could confidently block Pei Guang's attack head-on, but the moment countless Family members united their thoughts, their collective will became Penacony's strongest shield.
Indeed, within Penacony, except for a few rare existences, no one could break through the shield formed by the combined Harmony power of all Family members.
But unfortunately, Pei Guang was now one of those rare exceptions.
Pei Guang's Akivili fruit knife cut forward without hesitation. The moment it touched the Harmony power, it shattered through it.
In this vast universe, even the power of Preservation cannot block the path of Trailblaze, so how could Harmony ever hope to stop the edge of that blade?
That fruit knife sliced through the Harmony as easily as cutting fruit, sending the Bloodhound back to reality.
In the Dream Pool of reality, the Bloodhound awoke, feeling as if he had just experienced a nightmare: a nightmare called "Harmony."
But soon he realized this was no dream. Penacony had been invaded by the Stellaron Hunters.
Even if defeated, he would still return to the dream to keep stopping the Hunters' actions.
He reentered the dream once more, preparing to return to the Dewlight Pavilion to deal with Pei Guang and Firefly.
That single slash left every family member silent.
They voiced their pain and anger: was there truly no one in Penacony who could stop the Stellaron Hunters? Could they only watch helplessly as they destroyed their home?
No! They would never accept that.
For every one who fell, countless more followers of Harmony would rise.
For their family, and for Penacony, they would never yield.
Moreover, this was the dream—their territory. The failure of the Bloodhounds did not mean the failure of their entire Family.
Without wasting even a moment mourning the Bloodhounds, another took the stage: the Dreamweaver!
Yes: the seemingly least combative among them was stepping forward.
In truth, within the dream, the Bloodhounds possessed great individual strength. But in the grand scale of Penacony, the most fearsome ones were the Dreamweavers.
A Dreamweaver could realize their own dream within the dream itself.
Even the patriarch of the Bloodhound Family once said: "If given enough time, even the youngest Dreamweaver could defeat me!"
Indeed, to the Family, the Dreamweaver was an invincible existence.
Upon facing the Stellaron Hunters' invasion and the Bloodhounds' defeat, the strongest Dreamweaver arrived at the scene.
Seeing Pei Guang holding his fruit knife and pot lid, the Dreamweaver raised imagination as his brush, the dreamscape as his canvas, and Harmony's power as his fuel—to bring death and destruction to Pei Guang and Firefly!
They would make these two who ran rampant through Penacony understand: the Family was the true rulers here.
Countless currents of Harmony's power shifted from the Bloodhounds to the Dreamweaver before them.
Facing the approaching Dreamweaver, Pei Guang frowned slightly within his armor, sensing the power standing before him.
The Dreamweaver swung the "brush," and towering walls instantly surrounded Pei Guang and Firefly.
With the rise of the walls, a blazing sun appeared overhead.
Dreamweaver: "Stellaron Hunters, have you ever felt the heat of the sun? Today, you shall experience the warmth of a star!"
Pei Guang looked up at the conjured sun and grew excited. "You've made me feel danger! You've made me interested."
Players may cling to life when weak, but with enough weapons, gear, and tools, they become the fiercest of all.
Sensing the danger, Pei Guang wasn't about to give them a chance to act.
Just as they used the Harmony's power to manifest their imagination within the dream, Pei Guang struck again.
Akivili's fruit knife pointed toward the sun the Dreamweaver had created.
"Have you ever seen the destruction of a star? Humanity has never hidden its desire to control the cosmos—including me."
Pei Guang swung the fruit knife upward, and the sun in the sky split in two.
That slash shattered the fake sun the Dreamweaver had created.
For the path of Trailblaze, not even the bulwarks built by Qlipoth could ever bar its steps.
Of course, that was when the Aeons still existed. Now that the Aeon had vanished, this fruit knife was only a slightly special one.
But even so, the false sun could not block the blade of Trailblaze.
That slash not only broke the false sun: it also cleanly split the Dreamweaver's body.
"H-how… impossible…"
The severed Dreamweaver's eyes widened, shocked that his full power strike could be so easily undone by Pei Guang.
But soon, he smiled brightly.
The dream was indeed based on reality, and it was precisely because of that reality that Pei Guang's slash revealed a unique imagination.
"I didn't expect you could even imagine the shattering of the stars. I'm sorry I couldn't entertain you longer. I believe the other Dreamweavers will show you the full scope of our imagination!"
The Dreamweaver fell.
Of course, like the Bloodhound before him, though he awoke within the dream, he did not linger an instant in reality—immediately diving back into the dream to rush at Pei Guang again, only to die and drop coins for him once more.
Compared to the endless Family members throwing themselves to their deaths, Firefly, who had been watching, finally gave in, completely.
Since the battle began, Pei Guang hadn't repeated a single line of dialogue.
She had no idea where Pei Guang had learned all those flashy, boastful phrases, but given how casually he could 'set ablaze the ocean,' she suspected they were lines he'd heard from others and copied.
Firefly couldn't help but wonder; if those people saw Pei Guang like this, would they not feel embarrassed?
To answer this question, Himeko certainly would.
At that moment, she was out with Stelle and March 7th scouring the city, handing out drinks, and watched Pei Guang's battle through a strange live feed.
The instant she heard Pei Guang say one of her own signature battle lines, her toes curled from embarrassment.
But she also felt puzzled: she had never said those lines in front of Pei Guang, so how had he learned them?
Well, that was March's fault.
Back when they fought Cocolia, March had copied Himeko's moves and lines, and Pei Guang had picked them up then.
To be exact, Pei Guang had learned every catchphrase and dramatic quip the entire Astral Express team ever used in battle.
This fight wasn't just a thrilling victory for him: it was also a public execution of everyone's dignity!