Sometimes, Sylvia found it hard to understand Acheron's attitude toward combat—or rather, toward their enemies.
As they stepped out of the sprawling high-rise district, the view ahead finally opened up.
Sylvia easily caught sight of the massive, besieged city in the distance, swallowed by soaring flames that were said to never burn out.
Judging by scale alone, it had to be hundreds of thousands of kilometers in diameter, right?
Either way, it was massive.
Even from afar, she could see crowds of all kinds wandering both within the blazing inferno and just outside its perimeter.
Fierce clashes and battles were breaking out at any given moment.
At the very least, it looked like the kind of zone where you had to fight your way through continuously just to breach it.
And to make matters worse, neither Sylvia nor Acheron could just slash their way forward.
If they accidentally tore up the invitation, the whole point of coming here would become completely meaningless.
Faced with this kind of situation...
According to what Acheron herself had taught Sylvia: The natural approach was to stay vigilant and keep a cool head, since a backstabbing arrow is always the hardest to guard against.
Yet Acheron herself...
Right as Sylvia was getting ready, instead of properly gripping her own blade, she reached out and tightly grasped Sylvia's palm.
"..."
Sylvia, who had been completely prepared to rush out and massacre everything in her path, was forced to pull back the right foot she had already stepped out with.
Clutching her sword, she turned her head to look at Acheron.
She stared speechlessly at Acheron, who for some reason insisted on intertwining their fingers like this.
"Don't get lost."
"...When you're making up excuses, could you at least come up with a better one?"
Sylvia could hardly hold back her urge to retort.
What kind of absurd situation would it take for the two of them to actually get lost in a place like this?
She suddenly felt that over the past couple of days, she had somewhat overestimated Acheron by misinterpreting her actions as "heavy, intense feelings."
To be able to tell such a ridiculous lie straight to Sylvia's face made it very hard for Sylvia to feel any of that supposed intensity.
In the face of Sylvia's teasing retort, Acheron simply smiled rather happily.
Even though it was a few days late, with Sylvia by her side, this feeling was actually quite nice.
Though, it would have been even better if Sylvia could have pretended not to notice and spared her the commentary.
Even Acheron herself knew her excuse was pure nonsense.
Holding hands was simply because she wanted to hold hands. But having it pointed out so directly by Sylvia still made Acheron feel just a tiny bit embarrassed.
So, Acheron looked down, cleared her throat, and let out a dry cough before speaking:
"We must maintain proper vigilance before a battle. The enemy might possess some unknown tricks up their sleeves."
"..."
Sylvia looked down at her captured left hand.
No, seriously, my friend.
You used your dominant hand to interlock fingers with me, so how exactly did you manage to spout such utter nonsense without blushing?
If you had even a shred of actual vigilance, you wouldn't have reached out with your right hand just to grab my left.
Then Sylvia glanced at Acheron's long blade, which was still resting quietly inside its scabbard, and looked back at the long sword in her own right hand.
"Just who exactly needs to maintain proper vigilance here..."
Sylvia glanced around her surroundings; she could feel the gazes spying on them from nearby.
The abrupt appearance of the two of them seemed to have drawn quite a bit of attention.
However, no one had stepped forward to be the guinea pig just yet.
So, Sylvia and Acheron were allowed to maintain a steady pace, holding hands as they approached the flame-engulfed, besieged city.
Two women, and exceptionally beautiful ones at that.
Holding hands in a place of chaos and violence like Jepella, walking and looking around as if they were on a date.
The leisurely atmosphere made it seem less like they were in Jepella and more like they were strolling down the streets of Penacony, the Planet of Festivities.
"This is the former site of the Jepella Palace. Look over at those ruins."
As they walked, Acheron suddenly raised her scabbard, pointing her hilt in a certain direction.
Amidst a stretch of ruins, the wreckage of that grand palace could faintly be discerned.
"Though it has collapsed, these old grounds can still be considered a unique sight of Jepella. Do you like it?"
"It's pretty nice. Let's take a picture."
Being asked such a question by Acheron caught Sylvia completely off guard, breaking her otherwise vigilant state.
She really wanted to point out that this situation didn't exactly scream sightseeing tour, but seeing Acheron share a view she found worthwhile with such genuine sincerity...
Sylvia smiled and accepted this clumsy display of affection.
She raised her phone, capturing the long-neglected ruins of the Jepella Palace not far away.
The desolate palace left behind nothing but scorched earth.
The toppled Jepella Palace had long since been stripped clean of anything valuable by various factions.
Now, only broken walls and debris remained, appearing both bleak and magnificent.
Though Nanook looked down upon the Destruction wrought by the Annihilation Gang, in terms of sheer combat power or influence alone...
The Annihilation Gang couldn't exactly be considered weak across the galaxy.
Their gap between themselves and top-tier factions was likely just because they lacked an Emanator-level existence backing them up.
"Speaking of which... the Jepella Rebellion was related to the Stellaron Hunters. This palace might very well have been torn down by Sam."
Sylvia recalled a Stellaron Hunter promotional video she remembered watching.
Back then, Firefly's design hadn't even been revealed yet.
Acheron nodded:
"That matches what I've heard. The Stellaron Hunters guided the downfall of the Brotherhood, yet they didn't finish wiping out the Annihilation Gang. After that, Duke Inferno's Ever-Flame Mansion grew stronger by the day. I truly wonder what their goal is."
Sylvia hadn't thought much of it initially.
But hearing this, she suddenly froze.
It was a known fact that the Stellaron Hunters' goal was every single Stellaron. Every action they took might seem baffling on the surface, but it was always plotted with a specific Stellaron in mind.
Jepella didn't have a Stellaron; it only had the Annihilation Gang.
Yet the Stellaron Hunters still overthrew the Brotherhood here, allowing the Ever-Flame Mansion to take power.
If one only looked at this piece of the puzzle, it still felt entirely nonsensical, but what if Acheron crossing paths with the Ever-Flame Mansion and attempting to take the Penacony invitation from their hands...
What if that was Elio's true goal all along?
To have Acheron enter Penacony under the identity of a Galaxy Ranger, holding that very invitation.
Was this the exact scenario the Stellaron Hunters wanted to orchestrate?
It made sense.
Acheron had a good personality. Even if Sylvia's influence were removed, she would undoubtedly align with the Express crew in the story.
And... did they also want to draw in a 'Galaxy Ranger'?
One of Acheron's purposes for going to Penacony was to impersonate a Galaxy Ranger in order to return a relic.
If it were just a matter of needing raw combat power to anchor the situation, there were plenty of other choices. But if the Stellaron Hunters' goal originally included the specific intent of 'bringing a Galaxy Ranger into the game'...
Then that might have been the decisive factor that ultimately guided Acheron there.
It was entirely possible that long before Sylvia and Acheron ever met, this Self-Annihilator suffering from amnesia had already been guided by the Stellaron Hunters.
But now, after Sylvia and Acheron had crossed paths...
The Stellaron Hunters could still be certain that Acheron would run into the Ever-Flame Mansion.
She didn't know whether it was holding the script that gave them such confidence, or if destiny had simply been written in stone all along.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL