"Although I'm about eighty percent sure already, I still want to ask, just in case."
"The Partner you know isn't named Caelus, is he?"
"Huh?! You know him?"
"How could I not?"
Stelle answered weakly.
Then she turned around and, together with March 7th and Dan Heng, stared directly at Lygus.
There was no need to think about it anymore.
This guy was definitely up to no good.
First of all, although Caelus had indeed fought against the Astral Express before, what he had been trying to accomplish was not actually evil.
In fact, for the overwhelming majority of people in the universe, what he had done could even be considered beneficial.
It simply went against the Trailblaze philosophy followed by the Astral Express, which was why the two sides had ended up fighting.
As for exactly how badly that fight had gone, there was no need to bring that up.
In any case, despite having fought each other, neither side held much genuine hostility toward the other.
The trio also knew that Caelus was capable of creating the Eternal Dreamscape and seemingly even summoning extraordinarily powerful Aeon-level beings from other universes.
If something truly terrible were happening in this world, and if this eternal cycle really were wrong, then there was no possibility that he would simply stand by and ignore it.
He would inevitably intervene and correct it.
How could someone who had created an eternal resting place for the weak, a refuge where people could escape from reality, and had even deliberately established two separate trials to filter out those acting on temporary impulse, possibly be some kind of villain?
And since Caelus really was in this world, whether this so-called eternal cycle was genuine immediately became questionable.
Even if it did exist, there was every chance that Caelus himself had created it.
Meanwhile, this suspicious guy had appeared out of nowhere the moment they landed and had subtly tried to guide them into opposing Caelus.
There was no way he was trustworthy.
"It seems I still couldn't make it work."
Lygus showed no embarrassment whatsoever at having his intentions exposed.
"But that was within expectations."
"Although my information about the outside universe is somewhat outdated, I do know that he has a fairly good relationship with the Astral Express."
Just as Lygus said, this had only been an attempt.
He had merely wanted to see whether he could steer the three newly arrived members of the Astral Express into becoming Caelus's enemies.
Whether it succeeded or failed did not matter.
Whatever happened afterward did not matter either.
After so many years, Lygus had long since grown accustomed to this sort of failure.
He had even once tried manually introducing a new variable into the system, continuously increasing the intensity of the Black Tide in an attempt to destroy everything as quickly as possible.
The goal had been to prevent Caelus from collecting enough memories.
Then Lygus himself had been struck down across time.
If the causal structure of the cycles had not still been incomplete during the cycle in which Caelus first intervened, Lygus suspected he would have died permanently right then and there.
He certainly would not have gotten off as easily as merely being forced to remain dormant for a hundred cycles before waking again.
After that incident, Lygus stopped attempting the most extreme methods.
Instead, he relied on subtle suggestions and minor forms of mental hypnosis to push people into intense conflict with Caelus.
He tried to place Caelus in a situation where the entire world stood against him.
Where no one respected him.
Where people openly despised him.
Unfortunately, even when the whole world became hostile toward him, even when he was cursed, condemned, and misunderstood, Caelus continued doing exactly what he wanted.
If he could not become the Savior, then he became a traveler.
A writer.
A painter.
He walked across the entire land, recording, observing, drawing, and listening.
The contempt, misunderstandings, insults, and hatred directed at him seemed to pass over him like nothing more than a light breeze.
As long as those people did not actually try to harm him, Caelus generally ignored meaningless words.
But if someone truly attacked him because of Lygus's interference, Caelus did not care who they were.
Even if they were companions he had befriended across countless previous cycles, he would eliminate them without hesitation.
After observing and interfering so many times, Lygus eventually reached an extremely frustrating conclusion.
Caelus possessed no sense of mercy whatsoever.
He had also never displayed any genuine regret.
Lygus therefore suspected that Caelus's emotions were incomplete.
Under those circumstances, Lygus had once considered targeting Cyrene, who remained constantly beside Caelus.
But in the end, he never followed through.
Because the instant he seriously considered carrying out that plan, he sensed an unmistakably lethal warning.
If he crossed that line, only one outcome awaited him.
His existence and causality would both be erased.
Caelus actually had an even simpler method available.
He could return to the earliest point in the past and directly replace Zandar's mechanical incarnation, the one now known as Lygus.
Caelus's original talent had been an ability that placed him outside destiny.
From its description, the ability merely seemed to prevent powers related to fate and causality from observing or interfering with him.
But its true nature came from the combination of two things.
His own existence as an aggregation that fundamentally did not belong within destiny.
And his nature as a traveler originating from beyond the world and beyond the universe itself.
He existed outside the primary destiny of any universe.
He could become any role within destiny.
And he could withdraw from that destiny whenever he wished.
Beyond that special constitution, he also benefited from the Existence-based power system he had obtained from the System holder who died in the world of Date A Live.
Because of that, Caelus could even travel farther into the past and replace Zandar himself.
He could not prevent Nous from being born, but he could indeed take over Zandar's identity.
The reason Caelus had never done so was simple.
Every major alteration to destiny would significantly affect the universe's timeline.
He believed such interference could disrupt the Equilibrium of the universe.
For that reason, he would never consider such a method his first choice.
And that earlier warning had also been meant for Lygus.
There were certain things that should not be taken too far.
Both sides had boundaries.
And if someone chose to cross those boundaries, they had better be prepared to bear the consequences.
"Wait, what exactly is going on here?"
Phainon looked completely confused by the obvious hostility shown by the three newcomers.
He had no idea what had happened.
But if a fight broke out in the middle of a crowded street, innocent people could easily get hurt.
So he immediately stepped forward to stop things from escalating.
"Mr. Lygus was just trying to steer us into opposing the Caelus you mentioned."
Dan Heng was not completely certain that this had truly been Lygus's intention.
But for now, accusing him of it was good enough.
Phainon frowned slightly when he heard that.
He turned toward Lygus.
"Has the Senate been getting more and more out of control lately?"
"Hehe."
"Lord Phainon, this was merely a small misunderstanding between us."
Lygus chuckled softly.
"However, it seems that no matter how I explain myself, I won't be able to earn your trust for the moment."
"So I will leave these three foreign travelers in your care."
"After all, they may very well be acquaintances of the Savior."
"Please excuse me."
After saying that, Lygus turned and left.
Across more than thirty million cycles, he had targeted Caelus countless times.
And he had failed countless times.
He had tried methods both violent and subtle.
This failure was simply another familiar outcome.
Perhaps Lygus had long since stopped caring very much about whether Irontomb would ultimately be born.
At this point, the reason he continued opposing Caelus might simply be because he had begun treating the entire matter as another research project.
After all, Lygus was fundamentally a scholar.
And one of the most brilliant scholars in the entire universe.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)