Bright and dazzling gold.
It is a stroke of coincidence to have a color bearing semblance to Amphoreus' Romance Demigod.
One thing is certainly different:
Mine is the brightest.
It is not a test of resolve, nor it is a deeply seated determination to change the world. To remain unchanging despite the most turbulent tides…
That is what encompasses me, Shi Tian.
I opened my eyes to a tide of memories. The pitch-black cosmos is mixed with a tinge of dark blue. Stars shone around. Nebulous clouds showcased their beauty in this expanse of nothingness.
Like a huge web woven in the sky, the space surrounding me looked like shattered glass. Every 'shard' contained a memory—Amphoreus' memories.
From Phainon's battles against the Flame Reaver to his arrival to the Era Nova, a new cycle, everything is here. Only the memories regarding this 'cycle' aren't presented, conforming to its status as the forgotten cycle.
Its matter goes as far as Formlessness' first activation. I attained the Karmic Severance Sword, seeing through the essence of my self, when I decided to follow the Blade Mantra's urge to pierce through the temporal dimension.
I ended up going to the "Past" shrouded by Fuli's fog before having my divine mind drawn to Amphoreus. Fuli 'robbed' everyone else of the memories made in this 15,015,021st cycle.
Withholding these strange occurrences, the greatest opportunity so far is the Remembrance Path being anchored to my stigma space. It isn't supposed to happen, granted the rules and conventions we theorized during the Sword Conference, yet it did.
Removing these things, there is still one thing present in my mind.
This is not my Dao Integration opportunity.
The future projection indicated an exaggerated, heaven-defying control over the aspect of 'Creation'. It means Amphoreus leads to my Dao Integration Realm breakthrough, or at least, fulfilling one of the four requirements for it.
Out of them all, raising the realm, comprehending the 'Dao', and the fusion could be excluded. The first one can be achieved by pure cultivation. The second is already with my ultimate grade spirit roots. The third one is something that must be done during the breakthrough itself.
The only requirement left is the fulfillment of a 'feat'. It is an 'act' that will 'open up' a Dao to oneself. Basically proving oneself to the Dao. It is the key to raise one's "status", becoming a higher-dimensional lifeform.
It is where my doubts lay.
No matter how strong Remembrance is, anchoring it to my stigma space is not a feat. At best, it is something that will lead to it.
I recalled the words left to me by my projection:
"Shatter the false infinity and reach the Immortal Dao."
"False infinity" refers to Amphoreus. Shattering it—freeing Amphoreus from its time loop—pushes me towards my opportunity. It has always been my line of thinking.
This begs the question:
What should I do to reach this conclusion?
Out of all the answers I thought of, reaching 80% of the Remembrance Path is the most viable. Taking in Amphoreus' memory is a necessary move.
And so I did.
Every single cycle, every single character, every single event.
All of them are deeply embedded in my mind.
The most brilliant existence is undeniably Phainon. His entire life was laid bare in my eyes. To some extent, he possessed an unbreakable mind similar to mine. He was only limited by his mortal shell, unable to fully cope with the millions of Coreflames inside him.
His role in this 'story'—Cyrene's story—is irreplaceable. It will not hold without Phainon or Cyrene. Replace one of the two and it will run the risk of everything collapsing into Destruction.
Keyword…
Irreplaceable.
Someone just happened to replace Phainon in this endeavor.
The Trailblazer.
Something makes her special, so much so that she can perfectly replace Phainon's importance in Amphoreus' story. The Trailblazing Path is one of the most unique Paths in this starry sky.
As if triggering something, the memory shards around me turned dull. My thoughts inadvertently touched something, causing Remembrance to become chaotic. My 79% stake at this Path is put into good use… even if it caused a huge trouble to Amphoreus.
Countless new memory shards appeared. This time, they weren't limited to Amphoreus' 15,015,021st cycles.
Everything, from the beginning until the 33,550,367th cycles, flashed inside the memory shards. Zandar's act of detonating a Stellaron, up until the wide-scale cosmic battle against Irontomb, they are all here.
Past, Present, and Future lost their distinctions. At least inside Amphoreus where an eternal time loop takes place, the boundaries between time disappeared.
The opportunity I am seeking for…
I will see them here.
*****
The Black Sun posed zero changes to Amphoreus… or not. The moment it emerged, the Dawn Device gradually stopped working. Okhema's eternal day has returned to Amphoreus' eternal night.
Along with the night's advent was the descent of the Black Tide. It swept through all of Okhema's streets, corrupting these places as well as its people one-by-one.
To the citizens' horror, they saw pale white arms crawl out of these dark-red patches in the land. They carried a distinct black fluid that terrified their very souls.
"Teacher Tribbie."
Aglaea stood at the highest point of the Marmoreal Palace. The holy place for bathing had turned into a frenzied warzone. Black Tide creatures and entities out of Nihility alike crawled all over Okhema. The latter posed a great threat to Aglaea, requiring her to 'cut off' the golden threads that come in contact with them.
"Snowy and Cinny are at the Vortex."
"We need to buy them time."
Aglaea's 'eyes' weren't limited to her sight. Wherever her golden strings lay, she can see the situation. This perfectly woven network helped her a lot against the Elders' schemes and managing Okhema alike.
This time, she managed to dispatch Okhema's combat units to the right places. Most of the firepower was borne by the newly-ascended Strife Titan.
"Agy! W-we sent over people."
Trinnon, who was usually calm, ran straight towards them. She didn't even have to speak further as a tall and well-defined man followed from behind.
He did his usual formal gesture, bowing with his right hand on his chest.
"Greetings, Lady Aglaea. We are sent over by the Imperator to lead a final charge."
"...I understand. Do as you may seem fit."
"Yes!"
Aglaea did not prolong their reunion. Cerydra's trusted millennial-old commander, Fortunado, left the room. The matters of his life extension and the likes are thrown at the back of their minds.
All that's left is one thought.
'We must reach the Era Nova.'
*****
A/N: I couldn't write due to irl stuff yesterday. This is the chapter that should have been yesterday's.