Not only was Robin dumbfounded, but even the high-ranking figures of the major powers who had been scheming for the Aeon's legacy were left stunned.
However, the Emanators were the first to react.
"The power of the Path of Elation… those Masked Fools."
"I had heard there was an Emanator of Elation in Penacony, but I didn't expect she had been preparing all along. Truly worthy of those people who appear everywhere."
"After all, they are Masked Fools. Wherever trouble can be stirred, they will appear. In Penacony as it stands now, they must be eagerly at work."
"Yet even Masked Fools, when faced with mortal peril, always prioritize saving their own lives. Only in such times do they act seriously. For instance, in the Swarm Disaster of history, they too contributed considerable effort."
"Since the Emanator of Elation has already acted, let us simply watch."
The leaders of the major forces communicated through their channels, when suddenly an audio broadcast cut into their transmission.
"Hello~ dear VIP audience~ welcome to Sparkle's grand stage play! Hehehe~ how is it? Surprised and delighted, aren't you~"
"To hear Lady Sparkle's narration is a privilege for you VIP viewers~"
"Now, please direct your eyes here! This is the most spectacular Aeon-ascension ceremony in universal history, hahaha~"
"Let us welcome our next winner of the great Order Aeon Award—Miss Robin~"
"Now, Miss Robin will betray Harmony for the sake of all, and establish her own banner~"
As a proto-Aeon at the level of cosmic structure, there was little left in the universe beyond her ability to toy with.
The moment Sparkle's words fell, stirring music resounded across the Penacony Galaxy—the very songs of Robin herself.
At this instant, every being of the Penacony Galaxy turned toward the interstellar broadcast. Oppressed and downtrodden, they poured all their emotions into the single hope shining upon the screen.
Oooohhhhhh—
Having long been submerged in despair, suddenly beholding hope drove the ordinary people utterly mad.
[Hehehe~ audiences, cry out loudly for the arrival of the new Aeon of Order—our only hope!]
Sparkle's voice echoed across all the live broadcasts. Already driven insane by the atmosphere, the audiences screamed with all their might for Robin and for Order.
Even Aha's mask could not help but marvel at the sight. To unite an entire galaxy in such fervor, to forge the collective will of all its lives—this was something even he had never accomplished.
"Ahahaha! As expected of Lady Sparkle! This time, Aha truly admires you."
As an Aeon, he could feel the resonance of this unified will with the universe itself. Power was descending from beyond the cosmos—from the Imaginary Tree.
He knew clearly what this power was.
It was the very power that had descended when he himself became an Aeon.
But this time, it belonged to Order.
"She's really about to become an Aeon… how remarkable!"
"Aha is so thrilled I could break into dance, ahahahaha!"
Such unification of an entire galaxy's will had happened before in the universe.
That was when the Aeon of Propagation was born, amid the swarm consciousness of countless insects.
The people of the Star Rail Universe did not realize that this was none other than Alaya's Will.
In the original timeline, the Dreammaster and Sunday had attempted to reawaken Ena. Even gathering only the unified will of a fraction of dreamers, they had nearly succeeded in calling back their remnant consciousness.
How much more so now, with the hopes of an entire galaxy?
Of course, more than ninety-nine percent of those in this galaxy would be filtered away—proof of the desperate will to survive, even among the wicked.
Together, they were driving Robin to become the savior who would bear the mantle of the sinner.
Buzzzzz~
Suspended in the skies of Penacony, the legacy of Order burst into radiant brilliance, unleashing the power to establish every law.
The operation of the entire galaxy was rewritten in an instant.
The Aeon of Order, Ena, as one of the oldest Aeons, had originally set the cosmic order of operation—the very celestial mechanics still governing the cosmos today—and once harmonized the stars to bring peaceful light to all.
The Emanators directly felt that overwhelming, unreasonable power.
Diamond exclaimed in excitement: "The legacy of Order has been activated! What incredible power—this is truly the power of an Aeon!"
"Although that Masked Fool may have exaggerated, saying Robin would become an Aeon, the Aeonic force within this legacy cannot be faked."
Louis Fleming nodded. "Indeed. With such power, it is absolutely possible to resist those beast tides and survive this universal catastrophe."
...
As the frenzied shouts of the entire galaxy roared, a radiant road of light extended downward from the legacy of Order, landing at Robin's feet.
This scene drove the frenzied crowd into even greater madness.
Robin bit her lip as she watched these already distorted, frenzied faces.
At this moment, it felt as though she stood in Hell itself, with countless evil spirits cheering as she reached for the sun in the heavens.
...
Robin took a deep breath and stepped onto the path of light. In that instant, the Path of Harmony upon her body shattered completely, and she arrived before a glowing sphere radiating gentle light.
She froze for a moment, before the next instant a torrent of vast information surged into her mind.
Before she could react, the sphere of light sank directly into her chest.
Buzz—
In that instant, a radiance erupted from the Penacony Galaxy, illuminating the entire universe.
This light transcended the laws of causality. No matter how distant—even at the edge of the universe—it could be clearly seen.
...
At the same time, endless Laws poured down into the Star Rail Universe from the Imaginary Tree.
The number of Laws descending into the Star Rail Universe had already exceeded seven thousand, nearly reaching the upper limit of Laws that the Imaginary Tree itself could generate.
At that moment, the Imaginary Tree suddenly halted the flow of Laws.
Despite absorbing such an immense number of Laws, the Star Rail Universe displayed no growth whatsoever. The judgment mechanism of the Imaginary Tree rendered its final verdict.
This universe had already reached its end. It possessed no potential for growth—only an unrestrained, degenerative consumption. A distorted cosmos.
Buzz—
At the very moment of judgment, the Star Rail Universe was severed by an inexplicable force, slowly being pruned away from the branches of the Imaginary Tree.
Rumble—
A tremor from the void reverberated throughout the entire Star Rail Universe. The endless flow of energies and Laws from the Imaginary Tree was suddenly severed—like the umbilical cord of a fetus being cut.
The instant the Star Rail Universe was pruned from the Imaginary Tree, the cosmos instinctively radiated messages of grief, despair, and pleas for help, spreading throughout the vast Tree and Sea.
Yet such cries were utterly meaningless to the Tree and Sea.
The moment a universe was severed from the Imaginary Tree, it transformed from open to closed, beginning an internal cycle of self-sustenance.
Although a universe could still absorb certain nourishment from external sources, for a mature universe this supply was far outweighed by its vast demand.
The universe sealed its interior, and its crystal wall transformed into an endless Möbius loop of circulation.
This meant that within the universe, unless one reached the level of a single-universe entity, no lifeform could break free of the loop to leave it.
This was the universe's form of self-preservation. Yet once it fell into the Sea of Quanta, it would also face corrosion.
So it was with Teyvat once before. But the Star Rail Universe, being a great universe, even after falling into the Sea of Quanta, would endure so long as its internal cycle remained intact—at least for tens of billions of years, no different from a normal great universe with infinite endurance.
After all, unless a single-universe level or higher being deliberately destroyed it, a great universe could only extinguish itself.
Regrettably, the Imaginary Tree never infused Truth into universes. Otherwise, even severed, a universe could achieve eternity.
From the Teyvat main universe, one could look toward the Imaginary Tree and see a bright star falling from its branches, slowly descending toward the Sea of Quanta.
Though its descent seemed slow, in truth each second spanned the scale of an entire universe. Yet in the vast, weak-multiversal Tree and Sea, the Star Rail Universe would still require at least ten thousand years to fully fall into the Sea of Quanta.
Noah walked upon the cosmic barrier of the Teyvat main universe.
Each step he took sent ripples through the starlit blackness beneath his feet, as though upon water.
He lifted his gaze toward the falling Star Rail Universe, a colossal prismatic halo slowly revolving behind him.
The mass of this halo already outweighed the combined mass of the entire Teyvat Universe many tens of times over. Thousands of layers of radiance from Laws spread outward from him, flooding the entire Teyvat Universe.
At present, the Teyvat Universe already possessed a strong single-universe main cosmos, and dozens of primordial universes forged from cosmologies, each at weak single-universe level.
Beyond these, the Endless Planes within the Dimensional Gap encircling the main universe and all primordial universes together already amounted to the mass of ten single-universe equivalents.
If one dispersed the mists shrouding the Teyvat Universe, one would behold a violet sphere enclosing its structure: at the center, the main universe, and around it, two outer rings of primordial universes, each one-fifth its size.
Though they appeared separate, they were in truth inseparable from the main universe, forming one body.
Surrounding these were countless motes of starlight—each one a plane on the scale of a galaxy or greater. Among them were even thousands of small universes spanning hundreds of thousands of galaxies. Not to mention the innumerable medium and minor planes without starlight.
By scale alone, Teyvat had already reached super single-universe.
But the measure of a super single-universe was not merely scale—it was mass, and the sublimation of Rules into Laws.
A block of tofu one meter wide and a block of steel one meter wide—how could they be the same?
To sublimate Rules into Laws required the weight of Truth to reach super single-universe level.
At present, Teyvat's Truth had only reached strong single-universe, still far from super single-universe—the difference of a lake to an ocean.
Normally, that was how it should be. But Noah was far from normal.
He did the opposite—directly devouring the Laws of a weak multiverse-scale world, then using those Laws to nourish his Truth in reverse, forcing its rapid growth toward super single-universe.
...
"How swift… Teyvat had only just ascended to strong single-universe, and already it steps toward super single-universe."
Noah's lips curved upward as he gazed upon the falling Star Rail Universe.
"O universe, wait for your civilization… perhaps such a thing can only happen here, in Teyvat."
"No need to rush Teyvat into ascending to super single-universe just yet. First, I will draw the Star Rail Universe over and devour it."
Noah's golden eyes flared brightly. Behind him, the halo of over seven thousand Laws erupted with power.
[Power of Beginning Without End]
[I think, therefore I am]
Noah's Super-Primeval power burst forth at full strength.
The concealing mist shrouding Teyvat, which had hidden it from observation, dissipated. The entire universe now shone with a brilliance too dazzling to behold.
It illuminated half the Tree and Sea itself, and at that instant, the other universes within the Tree and Sea could observe it.
From the Teyvat Universe, the radiant light stretched outward into a luminous path directed toward the Star Rail Universe.
And the already-falling Star Rail Universe responded with a faint glow of its own, forming a light-thread stretching back toward Teyvat's path.
As though father and child, separated across distance, reaching out their hands to one another.
"This is the first time I have unleashed the Power of Beginning Without End at full force. As expected, a mere universe—once I leave even the slightest imprint, drawing it to me is effortless."
By now, he had become a true super single-universe entity, and among them, one ranked at the higher tier.
For in the infinite superdimensions, super single-universe beings were uncontested absolute powers.
The existence of a super single-universe entity was itself a Super-Primeval God—capable of casually destroying uncountable great universes, or just as easily creating uncountable great universes.
Though such universes lacked Truth, being mere ordinary great universes, their display of power was unaffected.
"So then… what exactly is the Great Will of the Tree and Sea thinking?"
For once, Noah was puzzled.
He was now openly devouring worlds. Even a blind fool would recognize the disturbance. Yet the Great Will of the Tree and Sea remained utterly silent.
—
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