Phantylia threw every ounce of strength into tearing apart the Masked Fool before her.
Yet, just as she gathered all her might, about to reach him, about to cut him down—the negligible distance suddenly became an unbridgeable chasm!
With nothing but a casual wave of his hand—she couldn't even perceive how he had attacked—
In an instant, the skin she wore, along with her soul, was ripped apart entirely.
She reverted immediately to her pure essence.
Masked Fool? No!
This person definitely wasn't just a Masked Fool—he was almost certainly an Emanator of Elation, and an exceptionally powerful one at that!
Feeling herself being ruthlessly toyed with in his palm, Phantylia's soul throbbed with agonizing pain. But she still gathered all her remaining strength to speak out:
"Emanator of Elation! Destruction isn't your enemy! Why are you siding with them?!"
Under the Fool's mask, Aha's lips curved up. He was in a pretty good mood right now. Although this one was Nanook's minion, given his current mood, he was willing to offer her a casual reply:
"Picking sides?"
"I only ever side with fun."
"Alright, alright. Stop asking questions—you'll see soon enough~"
Letting an Emanator of Destruction witness the state of their own Aeon soon was delightful entertainment.
In the clash between Tom and Lan, Aha naturally noticed Tom was holding back.
With Lan, Tom was merely teasing rather than genuinely fighting, so he hadn't used any truly intense methods.
As for why Tom restrained himself—the reason was quite simple.
Because Lan was the Aeon revered by the Xianzhou.
And Yevenko was currently enjoying quite a good relationship with the Xianzhou, so naturally, Tom couldn't go overboard.
As for whether there was a solution—of course there was.
Why not just summon an Aeon who was hostile to Yevenko and company?
Under the Fool's mask, Aha's grin stretched nearly to his ears. Casually, he plucked a wisp of scarlet Red Moon impurity from Phantylia, tossing it behind him like garbage, letting it seep into Feixiao's body.
Then he extracted a tiny cyan flame—Phantylia's remnant Yaoshi soul—rolled it up like used chewing gum, and flicked it carelessly onto the ground.
Now, left in Aha's hand, was a sphere of pure, dull-golden Destruction.
"This amount should be enough."
In the next instant, it was enveloped in wine-red Elation. Aha hurled the orb of Destruction straight up into the sky.
Covered in wine-red flames, it soared upward like an ascending firework until it reached the highest point—
BOOM——!!!
An ear-splitting explosion echoed through the clouds, scattering dense storm clouds and creating a colossal clown-face firework filled with wild, maddening delight.
The enormous explosion immediately startled all of Tom's spirits in the sky.
Hurriedly, one Tom spirit carrying Tom's unconscious body quickly unzipped Tom's stomach with a pull.
A large opening appeared at once.
But now, no one was holding Tom's body aloft, and if left unattended, it would definitely plummet toward the ground.
The spirit paused momentarily, then a ghostly-blue lightbulb flaming with spectral fire popped above its head.
Quickly, the Tom spirit removed the arrow lodged in Tom's chest, bit Tom's scruff firmly, and then snapped the arrow into two pieces. It stuck them back together into a perfect "T" shape.
Without hesitation, it shoved the sharpened tip of the arrow into Tom's head, spun the blades like helicopter rotors, and immediately sent Tom's body airborne again.
Seeing this, Yevenko was instantly reminded of another famous cat's gadget:
Isn't that Doraemon's bamboo copter?!
But, well, they're both cats, so borrowing an idea wasn't plagiarism, right?
Meanwhile, noticing Tom's body was safely airborne, the Tom spirit no longer hesitated, diving back into Tom's body.
Immediately afterward, countless Tom spirits began piling one after another into Tom's body.
Finally, the very last Tom spirit was still desperately evading Lan's persistent arrow. Beating its tiny translucent wings, it barely dove into Tom's body in time—only to realize suddenly that no one was left outside to zip Tom up.
Poking its head out through the zipper gap, it saw the arrow approaching rapidly. Quickly, it raised a palm in a "stop" gesture.
The arrow obediently halted just before Tom's body.
The last Tom spirit pointed urgently at the zipper, and the arrow nodded in understanding.
Feeling relieved, the spirit let out a lazy yawn, smacked its lips, took out a ghostly-blue sleeping cap from inside Tom's body, put it on, then tucked its head comfortably back inside.
The arrow grew a small hand, zipped Tom's body closed, and Tom instantly awoke.
He glanced around confusedly, feeling something odd stuck to his head. Removing it absentmindedly, he tossed it aside—then suddenly felt a poke at his chest.
Looking down, he saw a tiny hand extending from the arrow, prodding his chest, and drawing a bright red "X" mark right over his heart.
Seeing this, Tom jumped with fright, flapped his wings frantically, and his legs blurred into a tiny whirlwind.
In a puff of smoke, he zoomed back down near the banquet table, running circles around it in panic.
The arrow pursued closely, also circling around the table behind Tom.
Observing this scene, Jerry—who'd been watching from the table—felt he couldn't just sit idly by. He had to help Tom.
Jerry grabbed a frying pan from the table and jumped down.
Watching Tom and the arrow circling, Jerry timed his jump, raised the pan high, and smashed it downward forcefully:
BANG—!
A loud noise—Tom was perfectly hit.
Flattened into a pancake on the ground, he quickly recovered and continued running.
Jerry jumped again, swung the pan—
BANG—!
Another direct hit!
With the arrow still chasing, Tom hurriedly recovered, continuing his frantic run.
As Jerry prepared his third swing, Tom quickly raised his hand, stopped Jerry mid-motion, and swiftly snatched away the frying pan.
Turning sharply, Tom placed the pan directly into the arrow's path:
BANG—!
The arrow crashed heavily into the pan, bursting into a shower of sparkling stardust.
Tom raised the frying pan victoriously, frowning darkly, lower lip curled over his upper, glaring down at Jerry.
Jerry sheepishly scratched his head, grinned awkwardly, showing tiny mouse teeth—
Suddenly, Tom slammed the pan down on Jerry's head.
WHAM—!
Jerry's body vibrated at an insane speed, one figure becoming three, then back into one.
Recovering, Jerry's brows knitted together tightly, his lower lip jutted out petulantly as he slowly reached behind himself, pulling out a rapier.
Just as another cat-and-mouse war seemed inevitable, both Tom and Jerry jumped forward—
—and landed neatly in Yevenko's hands.
Yevenko grasped Tom by the scruff and Jerry by his tail tip, gently scolding them:
"Enough, enough. You two stop fighting."
"Agh, I really want to personally farm some Exploration Points off Lan, but the second I enter myself, things would get complicated. Guess I'll just make a small profit instead."
Though he said "small profit," it was definitely more than he earned from regular Emanators.
If Tom and Jerry went after the Hunt Aeon Lan, Jing Yuan and the others knew their temperaments, so there wouldn't be any serious objections.
But if Yevenko himself intervened, relations between the Astral Express and the Xianzhou Alliance might become strained.
Well, a smaller profit was fine—this adventure had already paid off greatly anyway.
However, Aha had left his seat earlier, heading to where Feixiao and Phantylia had been fighting, setting off some fireworks. Yevenko had no clue what he was up to.
Gazing upward at the clown-mask-shaped firework slowly fading in the sky, nothing else seemed to happen.
But right then—
Krrrk—!
A shattering sound echoed suddenly.
At the center of the vanishing fireworks appeared a massive golden fissure, blazing brilliantly, golden divine blood like molten magma quietly flowing within, carrying an indescribably vast aura of Destruction.
Suddenly, an indifferent golden pupil illuminated from even higher above—
—He revealed himself.
Silver-white hair flowed freely, dark ash-colored skin contrasting sharply. His arms appeared broken, a masculine humanoid face emerged, the lower half of his body shrouded in shadowy darkness.
At this Aeon's appearance—
Phantylia's tiny cyan flame trembled violently, screaming ecstatically:
"Lord Nanook!!!"
Indeed, this was Nanook—the Aeon of Destruction, embodiment of universal annihilation.
Nanook first glanced instinctively toward the opposite end of the sky, at another majestic being radiating equally boundless Path-energy:
—Lan, the Hunt Aeon.
But his eyes immediately noticed the buffalo horns on Lan's head.
Among Aeons, Nanook was somewhat familiar with Lan, another relatively "young" Aeon. But what exactly was up with those buffalo horns?
Not only that, there was even a rope tied around his neck, its other end dangling from an utterly ordinary wooden stick. Being led here by some mysterious force, combined with Lan's bizarre state, everything about this place seemed extremely abnormal.
Hearing Phantylia's cry, Nanook glanced down briefly, then immediately shifted focus to Aha, standing next to her.
A trace of anger flashed through his molten golden eyes.
"You again?"
Impulsive rage, destructive actions—these were manifestations of Destruction itself.
Though possessing divine majesty, seeing the Aeon he had fought before and once suffered losses against, Nanook's fury was entirely understandable.
"This cage—was it your doing?"
Without further hesitation, a dazzling golden drop of divine blood dripped from Nanook's wounded palm.
Instantly, a supernova-like destructive energy erupted, centered on Aha—
—yet immediately compressed and contained within Tom and Jerry's repaired area.
BOOM—!!!
Even so, an earth-shaking explosion thundered, Destruction rampaging outward violently—
Yet, at its peak—
PONG—!
A small colorful burst of ribbons gently rained down.
Aha stood unmoved, smiling triumphantly:
"Nanook, your playmates are over there~"
Aha pointed.
Nanook followed his gesture, seeing clearly: one human, one cat, and one mouse.
Yevenko's eyes sparkled excitedly, and with Tom and Jerry under his arms, he sprinted toward Nanook.
"Nanook! It's time to explode your coins!"
Without hesitation, he instantly activated the remaining Transformation Stone (Tuffy).
Next moment, a small gray mouse appeared, brandishing a bottle of milk toward Nanook.
Tom and Jerry built a makeshift catapult—launching the milk bottle straight at Nanook:
BANG—!