[Herta suddenly stops talking. Stelle notices her simulated form lightly flickering, as if hesitating to speak while staring at a vague silhouette generated during the deduction.]
[That silhouette lingers in the depths of the cosmos where even starlight can barely reach, its form wavering between illusion and reality… Only by borrowing the glow of stars can one glimpse the amber at THEIR wrist.]
[THEY are swinging something.]
[That thing — if it can even be called a "thing" — with every swing tears and shatters something. Stelle feels her consciousness forcibly stretched, compelled to comprehend an incomprehensible trajectory: not up-down, not left-right, but a motion transcending three dimensions, defying common sense.]
[The light of the stars warps around THEM, forming bizarre vortices like sparks splashing from an anvil struck by a giant hammer. When THEIR great hammer falls, what shocks the earth is not a loud noise, but the silent whimper of whatever lies beneath it. Stelle vaguely feels that sound carries laughter, or perhaps the ensemble of ten thousand voices…]
[Stelle reaches up to touch her cheek. It seems something has splashed onto her face… the sensation is far from pleasant.]
——
Record of Ragnarok.
"Hey hey, that thing deep in the cosmos… that should be Qlipoth, right?" War God Ares swallows hard, staring in shock at the shadow obscuring countless star systems.
It's hard for him to describe Qlipoth's "existence" with thin words. Although on Belobog, Stelle had once been glanced at by THEIR gaze for an instant — and the gods in the lounge were fortunate enough to glimpse the divine form — that feeling was completely different from now. The current Qlipoth… even from far beyond the screen, they can feel the rage carried in that giant hammer.
Though mortals call them gods, they cannot understand THEIR voice at all! With each fall of the hammer, the gods seem to comprehend something, yet forget it instantly with the next tremor… leaving only a primal, animalistic shudder.
Hades' shoulders are tense. He stares fixedly at the shadow on the screen, lips slightly pale from being clenched: "THEY're… building walls? Could it be THEY want to resist Propagation's insect tide through walls?"
"No… that's not right. THEY're not building walls — THEY're hammering something." Buddha's voice is very soft. He shifts his gaze from the screen to the vibrant scenery outside the window.
Outside, a cherry blossom petal drifts down into the flowers. Buddha's eyes follow it, seeing a butterfly on a branch slowly fanning its wings — the rhythm natural and harmonious, as if just awakened from a great dream of Propagation. Farther away, ants have resumed their usual order, emerging one after another from the nest to search for food.
"…It's Propagation! Propagation has disappeared!"
Shiva suddenly realizes and points excitedly at the insects outside the window.
"I see. So THEIR actions earlier were fighting Propagation?" Zeus reacts belatedly, his expression somewhat disappointed. He had originally thought the battle between Aeons would be some magnificent spectacle, yet in reality they don't even qualify to spectate from the sidelines.
They can only "feel" the changes brought by the divine war from afar.
"Old man, don't feel regretful. For a battle of this level, the fact that we can't see it with our naked eyes is something worth celebrating."
Loki toys with the dagger in his hand, the corner of his mouth curling into an amused smile. "Back then, a single Emanator of Destruction crushed a star, and the burst of light blinded who knows how many gods. Now an Aeon themselves swings a hammer once — who knows how many star systems the mere shockwave would destroy. Wanting to spectate that kind of grand scene… old man, if you're not afraid of dying, don't drag us down with you."
Zeus thinks about it carefully and realizes it does make some sense.
"Everyone, although the bugs outside have been freed from Propagation, is the Propagation Aeon truly dead?" Susanoo suddenly asks.
"Oh? Why do you ask that?" Shiva looks at him in confusion.
"Think about it carefully. This War of the Gods seems much simpler than we imagined. Although many Aeons participated, the ones that truly decided the outcome appear to be only Qlipoth's few hammer strikes."
Susanoo looks up at the screen. "Even though Simulated Universe can accelerate time, how long did this divine war actually last? Five minutes? Ten minutes? We don't even know if the Propagation Aeon resisted at all. I'm not belittling the might of Preservation, but I also absolutely refuse to believe that an Aeon capable of calamitizing the entire cosmos would die so lightly and casually."
Zeus strokes the thin beard on his chin and muses: "So what you're saying is… Propagation is still alive?"
"Aeons are closely tied to their Paths. Does an Aeon's fall mean the disappearance of the Path? I believe that as long as the Path of Propagation exists for even one day, the Insect King won't die. One day THEY might even make a comeback."
——
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.
"…Se-, Serie-sama?"
Sense cautiously steps forward to ask. About five seconds ago, she saw Serie-sama on the throne suddenly change expression, huge beads of sweat sliding down her cheeks. She tightly covered her mouth, pupils shrinking into pitch-black points in an instant.
…This is the first time in her life she's seen the lady lose composure like this.
Could the lady have been shocked by Qlipoth's giant hammer?
…No, no. Sense quickly shakes her head, trying to dispel this thought that is both disrespectful and unrealistic.
From the moment Qlipoth's first hammer fell, the ones continuously shocked have only been first-class mages like them. Serie-sama's expression never changed at all — until five seconds ago.
"Lernen… push your perception magic to its utmost limit." Serie, having slightly regained her composure, quickly orders an elderly man below the throne.
Before the words finish, the old man immediately closes his eyes. As one of the original first-class mages, the vast mana within him surges powerfully. The moment he activates it, a ripple-like aura forms around his body. The entire detection lasts a full three or four minutes before he slowly opens his eyes.
"How is it? Lernen, did you sense anything?"
The old man shakes his head regretfully.
"Is that so? Then you missed it…" After her expression returns to normal, Serie curls a slight smile at the corner of her mouth. "Just now, in that instant, I sensed the concept of Propagation being diluted. In other words, Propagation… THEY died."
"Not just the shattering of the body — more importantly, the extraction and pulverization of the concept. I sensed THEM being diluted, the power of the swarm disintegrating. This collapse gradually extended with each fall of Qlipoth's hammer, until the final blow… Propagation was completely dismantled."
Sense is stunned.
"…Just like that?"
"Yeah, much faster than I imagined." Serie looks up at the blue-green moon on the screen; its glow gradually fades. "Looks like there's a massive gap in strength between Aeons. Compared to the other Aeons, Preservation is overwhelmingly powerful."