After Sunday fell from the sky, the beautiful dream of reincarnation came to a complete end.
Golden radiance washed over Penacony, and those devout believers woke from their dreams in confusion.
When they awoke from ORDER's dreamscape, there was naturally some panic at first, but most of them were simply puzzled about why they were here.
Those who had been deeply immersed in ORDER's beautiful dream had had both their minds and bodily senses distorted.
So when that beautiful dream, built upon reality's cycle, dissipated, they did not feel that anything was wrong.
What remained was only the lingering aftertaste of the dream itself.
"ORDER's aftertone is still affecting them."
Hotaru immediately saw the state Penacony's residents were in.
Though "Embryo of Philosophy" Sunday had dissipated, the aftertone of the first note he left behind still remained.
It was like how, after a concert ended, many people still refused to leave, lingering behind and basking in the grandeur of the performance.
And that lingering resonance of ORDER would keep these residents' emotions fixed in a certain state.
Still, that trace of aftertone would not do much harm, nor was there any need to worry that Sunday might revive because of it.
"After a while, they should slowly recover from ORDER's influence."
At this point, it could even be said that the power Sunday left behind had helped Sora and the others stabilize the situation.
After all, all of Penacony had come to a complete standstill just moments ago.
Everyone on the planet who had entered the dream had gathered together to worship the god.
An incident like that could easily have caused severe social upheaval.
Not to mention that among them were many honored guests from other worlds, including quite a few representatives of the Family.
If they realized something was wrong, then Penacony would inevitably have to face inquiries from other factions.
But now, while still under ORDER's influence, they would not grow suspicious because of what had just happened.
Seen that way, even though Sunday had lost, he had still helped them out in the end.
There was only one person who seemed out of place in that atmosphere.
Robin left the grand theater and headed toward the place where the final light had shone.
And when she saw that Sora was safe and sound, she could not help letting out a sigh of relief.
That was good. That was enough.
But very soon, she learned one thing from Sora's mouth.
"Your brother disappeared..."
That was right. Sora had not found any trace of Sunday within the remains of the Embryo of Philosophy.
He had even personally checked the drained remains himself.
But the interior was empty. There was not even a trace of lingering power inside, much less a living person.
And yet Sora clearly remembered that when he had kicked it, he had distinctly sensed life within it.
But after that flash of intense light, Sunday had vanished without a trace.
"Has my brother... still not given up?"
Robin's expression turned deeply complicated.
She had no idea what Sunday intended to do after disappearing.
"No idea. All we can do is stay alert and prepare for your brother to make a comeback."
Sora did not know how Sunday had vanished, nor how he had gotten away.
But if ORDER's dream had been thwarted once, then it could be thwarted a second time.
Compared to that, what Sora cared about more right now was the uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared at the last moment.
If he had not seen wrong, then that had looked a lot like the Astral Express and the DenLiner...
That seemed to be announcing a future that was not looking too good for him.
Something a certain destroyer had to go through... looked like he was going to have to go through it too.
"I don't want that at all~~!"
Robin jumped when that long, resentful sigh suddenly rang out.
She turned around, only to discover that at some point Sora had started smashing his head against the remains of the Embryo of Philosophy.
Thud. Thud.
And each hit was pretty loud.
"What happened now?!"
She looked completely baffled.
From the way Sora was acting, it looked like the two of them had some utterly irreconcilable grudge between them!
Otherwise, why would Sora start doing something like this the moment he heard her brother could not be found?
A strange feeling of being left out rose in Robin's heart...
Could it be that there was something between Sora and her brother she did not know about?
...
Since they had not found Sunday's body in the dream, Sora and Robin had chosen to wake up and continue the search in reality.
But in reality, Sunday's sleeping body had vanished too.
"Could it be that, besides us, someone else awakened inside ORDER's dream?"
Robin frowned.
If, after his defeat, Sunday's body in reality had disappeared as well, then that meant someone had grasped everything that had happened within the dream.
The moment they saw the Embryo of Philosophy defeated, they had immediately moved Sunday's body in reality.
"Gopher Wood."
Sora quickly named the most suspicious candidate.
He had not forgotten the spectacle that man had made when the Embryo of Philosophy was born.
Not to mention that Sunday had been able to walk the path of ORDER only because of his guidance.
When Robin heard the name Sora had deduced, she fell silent as well.
After all, Gopher Wood had raised the two of them as siblings, and beyond that, he had only recently said farewell to his physical body in reality.
So deep down, Robin did not want to direct her suspicions toward Gopher Wood.
But too much evidence now pointed to that former representative of Penacony as the chief instigator behind all of this.
Especially with Sunday now having vanished as well.
If there was anyone most likely to have spirited Sunday away in both the dream and reality at the same time—then it could only be the one who had once been the most famous figure within the Family.
"I'll report this matter to the Family..."
After a long silence, Robin finally made that decision.
Of course, she could choose to say nothing. After all, both of those people were her family.
But if she did that, then how could she possibly face the countless lives in Penacony that they had harmed?
If she did that, her conscience would never rest.
More importantly, if she truly chose that path, then she felt she would never again deserve to stand by Sora's side.
So even if storms and tempests awaited her afterward, Robin would still make that choice.
Sora understood the conflict in Robin's heart, and naturally approved of her decision.
He patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry. If the Family tries to make things hard for you, I'll always be behind you. And if they don't want you anymore, then come over to my side."
Then he grinned. "A galaxy superstar becoming the spokesperson for my Federation definitely wouldn't be beneath your status."
A faint smile appeared on Robin's face. She knew he was trying to comfort her.
But with that promise from him, her mood truly did ease quite a bit.
She teased, "So after that, will I be working for you?"
Sora clapped his hands. "Of course. When the time comes, I'll have you stay in your room every single day and properly experience the terror you brought me!"
The terror known as composing and lyric-writing!
When the time came, Sora was absolutely going to make Robin get a taste of it too!
But after hearing what he said, Robin suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right—you still owe me a song!"
"How is that possible? Didn't you already squeeze me dry on the way here?!"
"Then what was that song that started playing after you grabbed the baton?"
Sora's mouth twitched. When he looked at Robin again, her figure suddenly seemed terrifyingly imposing.
What songbird?
This was clearly a demon of deadline chasing!
...
Since Robin had said she would do it, there was naturally no way she would put it off for long.
Once ORDER's aftertone had faded and people had more or less returned to normal, Robin quickly told the Family what had happened the day before yesterday.
She concealed the part about the AEONs, because once something involved the AEONs, the matter would become truly enormous.
Those two words represented absolute authority and absolute symbolism in the universe.
If someone claimed they had already mastered a method of creating an AEON—and had even successfully put it into practice—then Sunday would probably be dragged out by force even if he were hiding in the void itself.
One absolutely could not underestimate the weight those two words carried.
Once a matter touched that level, everyone would go mad over it.
Robin understood that very well, so she only said that Sunday had planned for a long time and had ultimately succeeded in dragging all of Penacony into ORDER's beautiful dream.
And right now, Penacony was filled with many important members of the Family.
So the moment Robin spoke, her words were treated with the utmost seriousness.
Even without involving an AEON, trying to revive ORDER on the Family's own territory was already an extremely grave matter.
So, just as expected, people from the Family soon came knocking on Robin's door.
Only when they arrived, they found that several figures were already guarding the place.
A man and a woman sat outside the door.
Sora: "Hotaru, are you saying she held a concert in the dream back then?"
Hotaru: "Of course. And she held several of them. She sang all kinds of special songs."
Sora: "Tch. I missed it. Later, I have to make her sing them all over again for me."
Naturally, the Family people did not dare act rashly in front of those two.
Especially Sora—just sitting there was enough to make people feel intense pressure.
Though most recordings had failed earlier because of ORDER's influence,
Sora's impact on Sunday had already synchronized throughout ORDER's beautiful dream.
After all, halfway through the dream's birth, he had already clashed head-on with the incomplete Sunday.
And because of that, when those people saw Sora, an inexplicable fear rose in their hearts.
They had no idea where it came from, yet it was deeply rooted.
So by the time the originally aggressive Family personnel reached them, they had turned into...
"Um... sir, would you mind stepping aside for a moment?"
Hm?
Sora casually glanced at them.
And the person who had originally come over planning to question them immediately snapped to attention and bowed.
"We understand now. Thank you for your cooperation."
With that, they turned and fled the area in a flash.
Watching their retreating backs, Sora and Hotaru exchanged a look.
"What do they understand?"
The whole reason Sora was sitting there was because he wanted to tell the Family people who came to question Robin to keep a more even temper.
Robin knew what she should say and what she should not say.
So Sora did not want her being coerced over certain things.
But what exactly had that group been doing? What did they understand? Why didn't he understand?
Three separate questions popped into Sora's head, leaving him utterly baffled.
Forget Sora—even Hotaru looked just as confused. "I-I dunno."
You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?
She also badly wanted to know what exactly those people thought they had understood.
And so, while the two of them remained completely clueless about what had happened, the Family soon withdrew their suspicions toward Robin.
That said, her standing had become somewhat shaky because of this incident.
Before this, the ones supporting her from behind had been Sunday and Gopher Wood.
And now, with both of them missing and tied up in an even more troublesome matter, Robin—who had relied on the two of them—had naturally been implicated as well.
But although Robin had been implicated, the way she was treated did not change in the slightest.
If anything, it had gotten even better.
That left Robin deeply confused.
How had this somehow risen instead of fallen?
But the Family did not say a single extra word about it. Their whole attitude was just: no explanation, and that was that.
That kind of reaction was truly baffling.
Looking at it that way, it seemed the unrest Sunday had caused had been smoothly weathered just like that.
Apart from Robin seeming to be faintly excluded from the Family, there did not seem to be any further ripples.
After all, if even the Family itself was not pursuing the matter much, then there was not much point in them continuing to brood over it either.
Rather than dwell on that, they would be better off thinking about where Sunday might be hiding now.
"I never thought it would all pass so easily in the end..."
Even Robin found it a little surprising.
She had thought there would at least be multiple public hearings and several rounds of review.
Instead, Sora had only needed to come over and scare them once, and the whole thing had been turned over just like that.
The entire resolution process felt strangely easy, almost unbelievable.
"Who cares about all that? If it can be settled easily, then that's a good thing."
Sora had his own opinion on it. "The sooner it's over, the sooner we can actually enjoy this place..."
Although Sora had come to Penacony fully prepared to deal with trouble, he still wanted to experience this Planet of Festivities that was famous throughout the cosmos.
Now that Sunday's threat had been dealt with, if he did not properly enjoy himself, then wouldn't coming to Penacony have been for nothing?
"That's true. It really is time for you to get some rest."
Robin thought about it for a moment, then ultimately agreed with Sora's view.
A balance of work and rest was what life ought to have.
Single-mindedly chasing one thing would only drive a person to extremes.
It was time to properly relax and enjoy themselves for once. Robin quickly adjusted her mindset.
And on this return to Penacony, she had also gained something new.
She wanted to ride the Compass and go see that gap between reality and dream.
That place kept tugging at her curiosity.
...
Compared to Sora and Robin, who were planning how to unwind, someone on the other side was instead wearing a deeply troubled expression.
"Why was my appeal rejected again? What exactly is wrong with my dreamscape?!"
Unkyō complained bitterly to the dreamscape administrators, launching into a long-winded speech.
"The dreamscape I created is an extremely wholesome and positive product!"
She spoke with a righteous look on her face.
"I believe anyone who enters it can experience the beauty of life and the true essence of art! Banning it is obstructing the development of art itself!"
Faced with Unkyō's appeal, the dreamscape administrator maintained a professional smile.
"Sorry, but if you believe the development of art has been obstructed, please fill out the appeal form carefully."
Having said that, they turned to handle someone else's business.
Leaving Unkyō alone to continue running around in endless appeals for the sake of her art.
...
Flap flap flap—!
Pitch-black crows beat their wings and flew away, leaving a few feathers drifting down.
Amid that noisy sound, the fallen god slowly opened his eyes.
Everything before him was dim, but by the faint light available, he could still make out the surroundings.
The seats were above, the ceiling below.
Everything before him seemed to have been turned upside down.
After a brief moment of vacancy, awareness returned to those golden eyes.
Only then did Sunday regain his senses.
He immediately realized that he had been pinned in place by thorns, hanging upside down from a cross.
What met his eyes was ruin. It was hard to imagine that a place like this could exist in Penacony.
The Planet of Festivities was gone, and not the slightest trace of that sleepless radiance from the past could be found here anymore.
It was as though everything had declined into decay, as though all of it had ceased to exist.
The light source shone from below his feet, bringing a faint glow to this place.
And the moment he saw what was emitting that light, the memories from before he lost consciousness came surging back like a tide.
ORDER's dreamscape, the discordant note, Robin's singing, the train smashing into his face...
Scene after scene from those memories left Sunday silent.
No matter how he thought about it, he still could not believe that the dream of ORDER, which had been so close to completion, had actually been shattered.
And among the people who had contributed to that outcome... his own sister had been one of them.
Most of all, those two train cars that had barged in out of nowhere at the very end had been something he could never have predicted.
Sora had only been able to enter from the outside because Robin had still been awake.
But those two trains—what exactly had given them the right to enter Penacony?
It was utterly wrong. Utterly bizarre!
It was practically grinding everything Sunday thought he understood into the dirt.
But none of that was the key issue.
The key issue was...
"Where am I?"
Sunday hung upside down as he voiced the question.
Under normal circumstances, should he not have been imprisoned by the Family's guards and exiled to the deepest depths of their prison?
When he had still been the Family Head, Sunday had personally seen what the place of exile deep inside that prison looked like.
But the place he was in now had nothing to do with that site of exile.
If this had really been the place of exile, then there was no way they would have simply hung him upside down from a cross like this.
Not to mention that he now knew the secret behind the AEONs.
That was information important enough for every major force in the universe to use every method they had against him.
Brainwashing. Drugs. Physical torture. Void immersion...
And if he fell into the hands of someone truly ruthless, they might even upload his consciousness into some electronic device just to torture him further.
If the goal was to force the secret of the AEONs out of him, then all of those should have been happening to him already.
And yet, aside from being hung upside down here, Sunday had not felt any special torment at all.
Which meant the real question swiftly formed in his mind.
What was this place? And how had he ended up here?
After thinking for a moment, one possible answer suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Gopher Wood... is that you?"
He had seen the black crow feather lying nearby, and the only person who could have done something like this was Gopher Wood.
And naturally, the answer did not surprise him.
"Of course it's me..."
Gopher Wood's voice came from outside. The body he had supposedly already left behind was now walking on solid ground, completely intact.
He came in from outside and stopped before the upside-down Sunday.
Sunday frowned as he silently watched the figure before him. He had the vague feeling that something about this situation was off.
But after thinking it over, he still could not pinpoint what exactly was wrong.
So he suppressed the thought and spoke first instead. "The plan for ORDER's dream has failed. Are you planning to erase me and flee on your own now?"
Others might not know, but Sunday knew one thing perfectly well.
Gopher Wood had been the true hidden believer in ORDER all along.
At the beginning, he had fully intended to become the AEON of ORDER himself.
At least, as far as Sunday knew, he had been plotting toward that goal for over a thousand years.
One could even say that Gopher Wood's machinations had begun from the very moment Penacony was founded.
And yet, when that thousand-year plan was finally put into practice, it had ended in failure on Sunday's side. There was no small amount of irony in that.
Still, with the experience he had gained this time, if Gopher Wood found another planet and acquired another Stellaron, then perhaps he really could stage another path to godhood.
So it was entirely normal for Gopher Wood to come here and silence Sunday.
After all, if Sunday exposed Gopher Wood during interrogation, it would inevitably stir up all kinds of trouble.
Though Sunday understood all the stakes involved, actually finding himself in this situation still filled him with a certain melancholy.
He had never expected to end up like this in the end.
A decayed district. Himself hanging upside down.
A former companion who had once walked the same Path, only to come here now to send him off on his last journey...
Only now did Sunday truly understand what it felt like for a bird of the sky to have its wings broken.
And this time, once those wings were broken, that bird would never rise into the blue heavens again.
"Before you do it, I only have one request..."
Even with the ending already laid out before him, Sunday remained calm in the face of death.
"Don't let Robin know where I die."
He absolutely did not want to see Robin and that bastard Sora showing up at his grave together.
Having said that, Sunday closed his eyes and waited for the final moment to arrive.
Yet to his surprise, after he had kept them shut for quite some time, Gopher Wood still had not made a move.
When Sunday opened them again, he found Gopher Wood still standing before him, scripture in hand, smiling placidly at him.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
Sunday looked at Gopher Wood in confusion.
"Do not be so impatient. No one ever said our plan had completely failed."
Gopher Wood's tone was calm, but the words he spoke left Sunday utterly stunned.
"The dream of ORDER has indeed shattered completely, and Dominicus, which guided that dream, has returned to the embrace of HARMONY."
And after such a sudden incident, the Family would definitely raise their guard even higher.
How could they possibly still continue the plan under those circumstances?!
Had Gopher Wood suffered such a severe blow from the plan's failure that he had gone mad?
"No, Sunday. You do not understand."
Sunday froze. Looking at Gopher Wood, he suddenly noticed something.
From the very beginning, Gopher Wood had not been looking at him at all.
He had been looking at Sunday's feet—looking at the light source illuminating this place!
Only then did Sunday suddenly realize something else.
In a building already this ruined, how could there still be any light source at all?
Judging by appearances, this place had gone at least several hundred years without anyone setting foot inside.
Even a highly durable power source should have long since run dry.
So what exactly was by his feet...?
Gopher Wood said nothing more. In his narrowed eyes, only that object flashing with magnificent radiance could be seen.
Above Sunday was the shining Stellaron.
And above the Stellaron floated a cluster of something glowing with seven-colored light.
The three of them formed a trinity, as if completing some sort of cycle.
A mysterious power flowed out from Sunday's body, passed through the Stellaron as an intermediary, and finally poured into the seven-colored sphere above.
That seven-colored radiance wrapped around and protected whatever lay inside, like a pair of wings.
Within it, the blood Gopher Wood had collected was now faintly twitching under that power, forming an incredibly vague shape.
This was why Gopher Wood had remained here.
This was why he had gone to such lengths to bring Sunday here.
Sunday had failed—but the research that failure had produced had led to a new result.
"A god of salvation who will save all living beings and embrace both HARMONY and ORDER will fulfill the wish we both carried."
Gopher Wood knelt on one knee, his right hand placed over his chest.
Sunday hung upside down from the cross, like a sacrifice prepared to welcome the true god.
And when Sunday, now reduced to a sacrifice, saw Gopher Wood like this, he could not help but panic.
"What have you done? What exactly are you doing?!"
Head bowed, Gopher Wood seemed to be praying ceaselessly to the unborn god.
Sunday's panic did not affect him in the slightest. He remained like that until the words of prayer in the book had fully come to an end, and only then did he rise.
"I am only preparing for the descent of god."
Gopher Wood looked at Sunday and said, "At the place in Penacony most burdened by sin, the god that will purify the world descends here—what a profoundly aesthetic image."
That sentence made Sunday hesitate.
Because this place was not some exile ground used specifically to punish criminals. Where did this talk of deep sin come from?
Wait!
A piece of Penacony's history suddenly surfaced in Sunday's mind.
Before this, Penacony had once been known by the IPC as the "Frontier Prison."
That prison's function had been to make the convicts exiled by the IPC dig for and collect Memoria.
But in the end, that frontier prison had erupted into rebellion because of a convict named Hanunue.
Ultimately, those prisoners joined forces with Penacony's locals and successfully launched a war of independence against the IPC.
Within the IPC, that history was known as the "War of the Frontier."
Within Penacony, that same history was known as the "War of Independence."
And Gopher Wood had called this place a land heavy with sin, yet this was clearly not an exile site...
Then the true identity of this place had already become obvious.
"You actually brought me to Penacony's old site?"
Penacony's old site was the prison the IPC had once used to confine and imprison inmates.
And Gopher Wood had brought him here—into a real prison cell.
That was something almost no one could possibly have guessed.
The fact that Sunday had deduced the origin of this place clearly surprised Gopher Wood for a moment.
But only for a moment.
"In Penacony, almost no one lives in reality. Everyone is immersed in dreams. So even if you're hanging somewhere this conspicuous, no one will come to set you free."
Hearing that, Sunday's breath caught.
In the past, he had upheld the belief that all living beings should sink into ORDER's beautiful dream.
And now he had encountered exactly this.
Was this retribution?
Gopher Wood, of course, had no idea what Sunday was thinking.
He simply continued speaking in a placid tone, as if the person before him were not a human being at all but merely a sacrifice being offered to a god.
"Sunday, you should be happy. A failed remnant god as the sacrifice, and a site built upon profound sin and blood debt..."
The more Gopher Wood spoke, the more devout he became. "...The god who can cleanse the world and deliver all living beings shall surely come into being!"
Once the god came, everything would be saved. Once the god came, everything would have hope!
As the sacrifice, Sunday ought to be glad. Ought to feel proud.
Without his sacrifice, how could there ever be true success?
Failure was the mother of success. Beneath the ruined remains of a failed god, all living beings would at last return to the gospel of a new covenant!
Softly, Gopher Wood said, "This is the future I've always hoped for."
For thousands of years, this was what he had plotted for.
And that was why, even after failure, he had never given up.
Because after spanning a thousand years, he was destined to succeed!
And if he failed, then it only meant the time had not yet come.
This time, anyone who wanted to thwart it had already missed their chance...
Who, after all, could possibly defeat a plan laid across thousands of years?
...
"Sigh~"
When Sora woke up, the moment he saw the note in front of him, his expression turned utterly helpless.
No helping it, because a short line was written on it.
[Go roll your power already. Stop dragging your feet—you can't escape it! Keh-keh-keh~~]
Every few days, that note would appear by his bed. Sometimes after one day, sometimes after two.
How many times had it been now? The seventh, maybe.
And of course, the only person who could know that many of his secrets was himself.
That's right—the note had been left there by Sora himself.
Not the current him, though.
The future him.
Clearly, after getting rained on, his future self had absolutely no intention of holding an umbrella out for him.
Judging by the look of it, that bastard even seemed half inclined to kick him out from under it.
No, seriously.
"Is screwing yourself over really that fun?"
Sora flopped back onto the bed helplessly, feeling like the sleep he had just gotten had been a total waste.
Why was he so tired? So miserable? It felt like he had gone out and fought another full-scale battle.
This was definitely because of that note!
Because the moment Sora thought about the next power he had been spoiled on, he felt mentally exhausted.
He just wanted to get some proper rest. He really did not want to run into those guys so soon.
But judging by the note, if he did what it said, then the other Soras would still keep coming to bother him afterward.
Faced with that situation, Sora's choice was...
"Nope! I'm resting a few more days first!"
He stuffed a pillow over his ears and collapsed right back to sleep.
---
T/N: future sora :o