The footsteps of the Trailblaze had never once come to a halt.
At last, the journey on Penacony had reached its moment of parting.
Though this trip had been brief, everything that had happened would remain vivid in many people's memories.
In any case, March 7th was definitely going to remember it for the rest of her life.
"Hmph, hmph. Once yours truly is famous across the cosmos, I'm putting all of this in my autobiography!"
March 7th said it with a smug little huff.
"Really? In that case, shouldn't you invite me to recount it for you?"
If nothing else, Sora had plenty of confidence in his own memory.
Not to mention, something that left an especially deep impression on him had happened during this period.
He would probably never forget the feeling of having that entire crowd control his body!
"No, no, no!"
To Sora's surprise, however, March 7th wagged a finger and turned him down.
"Because Mr. Yang volunteered to help with my autobiography this time!"
Hm?!
The moment Sora heard that, he looked over at Welt in surprise.
He had not expected Welt to get involved in something like this.
Sensing Sora's gaze, Welt lightly adjusted his glasses.
Maybe it was just Sora's imagination, but he seemed to see a flash of light glint off the edge of the lenses.
"That's right. If March wants to write her autobiography this time, then of course she needs me!"
Then Welt stepped closer to Sora and, right in front of everyone, proved through action why he was better suited for the job than Sora.
SWISH!
In an instant, he showed Sora several photographs.
And upon closer inspection, every single one of those photos was of the Trailblaze Brave.
At a glance, they had captured nearly every angle and every part of the Trailblaze Brave.
Not just the exterior, either. Even the interior had been recorded.
With records this detailed, even someone with only a little computer experience could probably build an identical Trailblaze Brave from scratch.
No.
Welt had already produced a model of the Trailblaze Brave from behind his back!
"Y-When did you make that?!"
"Naturally, I found a print shop in my spare time and had it printed."
That was Welt's answer.
But Himeko was still surprised by the thing Welt had suddenly produced.
If she remembered correctly, Welt had been inspecting the Astral Express with her this whole time.
To make sure the Astral Express had not suffered any unintended effects, the two of them, as the seniors, had been busy from morning till night.
After all that work, the moment Himeko touched a sofa or a bed, exhaustion would well up from deep inside her body.
Yet Welt had still managed to find time to locate a print shop and get a model of the Trailblaze Brave printed. It was honestly shocking.
Unfortunately, to Welt, this was not a big deal at all.
"This isn't an ordinary Trailblaze Brave. This is a near-perfect recreation of the Trailblaze Brave, produced after several rounds of adjustments by yours truly!"
Welt even made a point of demonstrating it in front of everyone.
"All these joints can move freely, and these parts can be assembled however you like!"
He then took out accessories like UFO gauntlets, a revolver, and more...
One could say he had printed nearly every part from back then.
But those were not the point. The point was, "This Trailblaze Brave still has its most crucial function!"
"What do you mean?!"
After Welt's explanation, Sora's interest had successfully been piqued.
This thing Welt had made seemed rather interesting.
And it was then that Welt demonstrated the Trailblaze Brave's most crucial function!
That was...
"Fireworks!"
WHOOSH! POP!
As fireworks no bigger than a palm bloomed overhead, the Trailblaze Brave's most crucial function was displayed before everyone's eyes.
That was right. Fireworks.
The fireworks the Trailblaze Brave had set off back then had not been simple fireworks.
They had opened the curtain on the Trailblaze concert, where friends from the past and future converged.
At the same time, they had also calmed the people who had fallen into panic because of the incident caused by DESTRUDOS.
Though it had been an extremely sudden event, it had made more people understand something.
Now that fireworks could be set off freely, there was no longer any need to keep living in fear.
So those fireworks had represented more than a prelude. They had also represented the arrival of peace.
Naturally, Welt had, as a matter of course, integrated that into the Trailblaze Brave model.
Compared to the fireworks from back then, these were more than a little smaller.
But the group still waited quietly until all of them had finished going off.
Only a few days had passed, yet when the fireworks bloomed, the feelings from that moment still seemed to echo again.
"No wonder March asked you to help with her autobiography."
Even Himeko could not help sighing in admiration.
At first, she had thought it sounded rather unreliable, but looking at it now, Welt really did seem able to provide the help March needed.
Sora also chose to acknowledge this.
Since Welt was helping, this matter probably would not fall to him.
So compared to March 7th's autobiography, Sora was more curious about the model Welt had printed.
Having once printed a few things himself, Sora naturally understood how complicated the process would be to pull all of this off.
Not to mention, this thing could even launch fireworks.
That only made him more curious about its internal structure.
And so, Sora and Welt quietly slipped off to the side and began exchanging things ordinary people could not understand.
The occasional obscure term drifting over from them made everyone else shake their heads helplessly.
In the end, they could only let out a long sigh.
And that sigh did not come from just one person. Robin and the entire Iron Cavalry contingent sighed together.
Once the sigh ended, they looked at each other, and the emotions in their eyes were perhaps something only they themselves understood.
In any case, for Sora, this exchange was extremely fruitful.
Welt had explained a long-standing problem of his in a way that was both thorough and easy to understand.
It left his hands itching to work. He could hardly wait to go back and make a few himself to see how effective they would be!
Unfortunately, he still had some matters to handle right now. He would only be able to get to it after returning to the Federation in a while.
And so, the Astral Express departed from the Penacony stop.
"Goodbye!"
Sora waved farewell to his friends by the train window.
This train would continue sailing through the cosmos, continuing a Trailblaze journey that would never truly end.
Perhaps in the next moment, or perhaps at some later time, the two sides would eventually meet again.
After seeing off the Astral Express, Sora still had to handle the last remaining problem on Penacony.
That was...
The Family within Penacony.
After Gopher Wood left his body behind, he was dragged in by DESTRUDOS and had now been utterly destroyed in body and spirit.
And Sunday, who had taken over after him, had also vanished after the previous incident with the samsara dream.
The Family on Penacony could now truly be described as leaderless.
The resulting chaos in management was already showing in every area. No need to look any further than Robin, who had been treated in completely different ways.
One moment, a Family member would tell her to come over and assist with the work.
A little later, another Family member would come by and say there was nothing for Robin to do anymore.
Then after some more time passed, yet another Family member would come over...
Although the chaos had not affected the other people on Penacony, internal chaos would sooner or later spill outward.
Robin could not stop worrying about it, which was why she had been unwilling to leave.
No matter what, Penacony was the place where she had grown up. Naturally, she wanted to see things settle here before she could put her mind at ease.
Of course, the simplest way to resolve this situation would be for Sunday to come out and take charge again.
However, Sunday, back in his trash-can disguise, was not particularly interested.
"I understand the Family's internal situation better than you do."
Although the creed upheld by the Family was that everyone was family, reality could not possibly be that perfect.
Sunday had experienced all kinds of disparity within the Family.
So he understood that chaos was bound to appear sooner or later.
"My disappearance now has merely brought that chaos forward a little."
"Then are we supposed to just sit back and watch the chaos keep festering?"
Robin did not understand.
What if the chaos escalated to the point where it became impossible to clean up?
Though the probability of Robin's concern coming true was low, it was still possible.
Penacony could grant many wishes.
And such a situation could naturally corrupt people's hearts with ease.
What if the chaos continued to fester until it finally reached a point of no return?
"How many innocent people would be dragged into it then?"
To prevent that outcome, Robin had been trying every possible method.
But in response to Robin's worries, Sunday only smiled mysteriously.
"Silly little sister, I already told you there's no need to worry too much."
Sunday's calm left Robin completely unable to read him.
"Brother, what exactly do you mean?"
Sora, who was standing nearby, seemed to understand something.
He nodded slightly. "If that's the case, then this really doesn't seem worth worrying about."
Sunday smiled faintly. "Right? So we only need to wait quietly and let this play out."
Their back-and-forth made Robin's gaze shift between the two of them.
No, seriously, what had the two of them figured out?
What was this feeling that she was the only one who did not understand?!
Robin looked at them, unable to tell what trick they were playing.
"Can you two stop being cryptic?"
Unable to come up with an answer, she could only threaten them.
No. To her, this was not a threat. It was a preventive measure taken to stop certain things that should not happen from happening.
For example, the thing she had always feared might happen between Sora and Sunday.
She rejected that possibility with every fiber of her being.
And yet, to her surprise, she was now seeing signs of it again.
When it came to this matter, Sunday and Sora could practically understand each other without saying a word, while she remained completely in the dark.
No matter how she looked at it, that did not seem like a good sign.
So she had to stamp out those newly sprouted signs before they could grow!
"How exactly can the Family's current chaos be properly resolved?!"
She voiced her confusion to Sora.
But her question only drew a smile from him.
"You already said it's the Family's chaos. If the chaos is going to be resolved, then of course it can only be resolved by the Family itself."
That left Robin speechless for a moment.
If the Family really could resolve the current chaos, then how could the chaos possibly have dragged on until now?
"Are you teasing me?"
Robin's tone turned unfriendly.
"No, no, not at all. What I mean is..."
Halfway through speaking, Sora seemed to suddenly sense something.
"Oh-ho, speak of the devil."
"Who's here?"
Robin was puzzled.
"The Family that can resolve this chaos..."
Robin followed Sora's gaze and looked up at the sky.
Could Sora be referring to the Family from other star systems?
But if they were going to intervene, why had they not done it earlier?
After all, when Gopher Wood left his body behind, he had summoned the Family's people in charge from other star systems here.
Naturally, he had had a purpose in calling those decision-makers here.
In his original plan, Sunday would attain godhood by illicit means, abandon his body, and become the new AEON of ORDER under the name DESTRUDOS.
In that way, the newly born ORDER would be able to devour HARMONY.
And then, the Family, which had once played harmonious music throughout the cosmos, would become DESTRUDOS's choir.
If he wanted to lead the Family that made up that choir, those decision-makers were naturally the most suitable candidates.
That was why Gopher Wood had brought them to Penacony in advance, so he could erode them beforehand.
Yet no one expected that DESTRUDOS would fail to be born, and that he would truly bid farewell to this world.
After everything ended, the Family on Penacony fell into chaos, but those decision-makers from other star systems did not interfere.
Some of them left, while some still quietly stayed on Penacony.
"If you want them to stop Penacony's chaos, that's a bit too much wishful thinking."
If they had wanted to stop it, they would have acted long ago.
Why would they let the situation become what it was now?
"That isn't who I'm talking about."
But Sora shook his head and denied that answer.
After hearing him say that, Robin was completely out of ideas.
"Then what do you mean?"
Had Sora not just said the Family would resolve Penacony's current chaos?
Was he not planning to have the decision-makers from other star systems resolve the turmoil?
"That's right. Because the one truly able to settle this turmoil has already arrived!"
Hearing the shift in Sora's tone, Robin raised her head and looked toward the sky.
And the sight left her frozen in place.
Because above that sky, in the cosmos, a three-faced figure was now standing silently.
That figure was...
"HARMONY... XIPE?!"
Robin spoke the AEON's name with a trembling voice.
That was right.
The figure that had appeared in the cosmos at this moment and cast THEIR gaze down upon Penacony was the origin of the Path Penacony followed.
The AEON who symbolized the Path of HARMONY and the origin of the Family—XIPE.
And in that instant, Robin suddenly understood what Sora had meant earlier.
Only the Family could deal with the Family's chaos.
And XIPE, as the origin of the Family and also its embodiment, could naturally deal with Penacony's current chaos.
Only, no matter what, she had not thought of it just now. Or rather, she had never dared to dream of such a thing.
After all, for chaos on a single planet to draw an AEON's gaze—was that not far too much for an AEON?
So from the very beginning, she had never considered that the key to resolving the problem might be this AEON of HARMONY.
Yet reality had truly exceeded her expectations.
The existence Robin had once thought least likely to appear was now present in the cosmos.
THEIR silver hair spilled across the universe like the Milky Way, and THEIR long dress seemed to contain the mysteries of the cosmos.
THEIR feet came to rest upon the starry sky, allowing THEM to stand there.
All a tiny living being had to do was raise their head, and they could glimpse the god within the cosmos.
Unfortunately, not a single person could look up and glimpse that breathtaking figure at this moment, and not a single person noticed THEIR arrival.
The instant XIPE appeared, a strange, indescribable power completely covered all of Penacony.
People seemed to hear a threefold chorus singing to their souls by their ears:
[O YOU WHO HAVE REACHED THE END, GO TO THE PARADISE THAT EMBRACES ALL! JOIN THIS GRAND HYMN AND REVELRY, LISTEN TO THE BEATING OF BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF HEARTS, AND LET THEM TAKE YOU INTO THEIR ARMS—]
The voice held a mother's gentle call, as well as a gentle comfort.
Under the cover of that power, the chaos among those Family members and the greed in their hearts were gradually soothed.
At this moment, they only wanted to practice virtue and play harmonious music.
And so, countless Family members within Penacony twisted fine threads into strings, reverently welcoming the incarnation of HARMONY as it manifested in the mortal world.
"So this is the solution you two were talking about?"
Robin stared blankly at the scene.
XIPE of HARMONY had appeared for only a moment, yet THEY had already thoroughly resolved the matter that had troubled her most during this period.
And this was clearly the solution Sora and Sunday had mentioned.
But just as Robin was shocked, confusion rose along with it.
"How did you know THEY would come?"
After all, Penacony was not currently holding the Charmony Festival. Under normal circumstances, XIPE should not have projected an incarnation here.
Moreover, even when the Charmony Festival was held normally, XIPE rarely projected an incarnation.
So how had the two of them known XIPE would descend?
At that, Sunday paused before giving his answer. "Because of the resonance of the Paths."
He lifted his head and looked toward the giant god in the starry sky. At that moment, XIPE also opened THEIR eyes just a fraction and cast THEIR gaze upon Sunday.
The Paths of HARMONY and ORDER overlapped to a certain extent.
That was why, when ENA and XIPE came into contact in the past, ENA was completely absorbed by HARMONY, whose Path was broader.
It was precisely because of this that when XIPE's power appeared near this star system, Sunday had already sensed it.
That was why Sunday could be certain the other party would eventually descend upon Penacony.
As for why Sora had arrived at this answer, the reason was even simpler.
"What would you do if news of a former enemy appeared within your jurisdiction?"
Sora had once faced this question himself, and at that time, an AEON had already given him the answer.
The moment he asked for help, LAN had already fired a Lux Arrow.
One could say AEONS were never vague about matters like this.
Not to mention, the aura in this star system had been repeating itself so insistently.
Whether it was Sunday's samsara dream or DESTRUDOS's land of stillness.
The two had been alternating over and over, as if Superman were doing sit-ups right in front of you.
Even if you did not want to pay attention, it would be rather difficult.
After all, in a certain sense, he was quite familiar with AEONS.
He had even been through life-and-death situations with more than one of them.
So after Sunday said what he had said, Sora had naturally guessed the solution the other party was talking about.
After listening to their perfectly reasonable explanations, Robin finally felt some of the weight lift from her heart.
But at that moment, she seemed to suddenly sense something.
That feeling came from behind her, from above her, from...
XIPE.
Noticing this, Robin turned around and looked at the three-faced giant god in the starry sky.
And at this moment, XIPE was gazing at her.
XIPE had actually cast THEIR gaze upon her. Before this, it had been something she would not even have dared imagine.
It was also something every Family member in the entire cosmos dreamed of.
After all, before this, XIPE had never cast THEIR gaze upon any specific existence.
Because impartiality lay at the core of HARMONY.
Thus, internally, it was a kind of utopia without any division of class or power.
Yet moving forward hand in hand also required someone to lead, and Family members were also divided into musical degrees.
However, these degrees did not mean they were Emanators of HARMONY.
XIPE would never cast THEIR gaze upon any specific person, nor would THEY grant THEIR power to any specific existence.
And yet HARMONY did have Emanators.
Such as Aelenev, the commander of the Eternal Centurion; Dominicus, the wisher of the Harmonious Choir; Constantina, the singer of the Panacoustic Theater; Beatriz, the merrymaker of the Blissful Ball...
These incarnations split off from XIPE were the Emanators of HARMONY.
And no matter how one looked at it, these incarnations were all part of XIPE.
THEY had never actively bestowed power upon any Family member.
But...
Now, a slight difference seemed to have appeared in this situation.
Because XIPE of HARMONY had actually cast THEIR gaze upon one specific existence.
Even Robin, who was being watched, felt shocked.
"XIPE is looking at... me?"
Robin looked over her hands and feet, somehow feeling as if she were dreaming.
Yet as she felt the power of HARMONY surging through her body, she became certain this was no dream.
The AEON of HARMONY had actually done something that should once have been the most impossible of all. This was... real!
"Does that mean I can also..."
Robin looked toward the two people beside her with delighted surprise.
Did this mean she had finally gained the power to stand at Sora's side, and would no longer have to simply watch him get hurt?
Unfortunately, just as Robin felt that joy...
XIPE withdrew THEIR gaze.
Not for any other reason, but because the two people standing beside Robin had already revealed expressions that were not exactly benevolent.
Sunday: Keep looking? Keep looking and I'll devour the avatar you projected here!
Sora: What are you staring at? If she gets hurt because of this, you'll regret it!
Although neither of them spoke, those menacingly "benevolent" expressions could still be read quite clearly.
Faced with this threat, XIPE weighed the matter and chose to follow THEIR own heart.
THEY had a mission here, after all.
And so, the AEON's phantom in the sky transformed into 107,333 motes of light that fell toward Penacony.
Dominicus, the wisher of the Harmonious Choir, appeared here once more!
And with that, the chaos within Penacony's Family came to an end.
---
T/N: SORRY I TOOK A SMALL WEEK BREAK!!!!!!!! I ANNOUNCED IT ON THE P WEBSITE AND DISCORD
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