Aha's arrival made Sylvia jolt in alarm.
She stared wide-eyed at the Aeon, unable to guess what THEY were planning. Harmony hadn't even stepped in personally. It had only cast its gaze over here for a moment.
And now an actual Aeon had shown up in person.
'You've got to be kidding me. Don't tell me you're here to cause trouble.'
"Aha~"
As though THEY'd sensed Sylvia's thoughts, the expression on the clown mask grew even more delighted. Then, from that impossible mass that looked as if it'd stolen an entire circus and turned it into a body, a white cat mask with an utterly unimpressed expression dropped out of nowhere.
The mask circled Aha twice, then stopped dead and spun around. Its disdainful cat face met Sylvia's gaze.
Two masked clowns appeared from thin air, giggling as each took one side of the mask and slowly carried it toward her. Sylvia's heart skipped a beat as a terrible feeling came over her.
"What the hell are you trying to do?!"
"Aha~"
Aha's laughter was the only answer.
Sylvia couldn't move at all right now, and worse, she was still in dragon form. Her body was enormous. With the mask already closing in, she couldn't even run.
"Mei! Mei! Help me—!!"
Sylvia desperately shot Mei a look, urging her to cut the mask apart.
"...?"
Even with everything Mei had seen, she couldn't help staring back at Sylvia as though she'd just said something ridiculous.
'Do you even hear yourself?'
'Can't you see the sword I'm holding halfway through a swing? Do I look like I can actually bring it down right now?'
The instant Aha had appeared, Mei had realized she couldn't move either. Otherwise, she wouldn't have bothered with Aha at all. She'd simply have waited for Sylvia to regain consciousness, then knocked her out with another strike.
"Aha~"
Aha watched Sylvia's face twist with reluctance. She clearly wanted to flee, but she didn't dare loosen her hold on the rampaging power inside her, so she could only watch helplessly as the mask drew closer.
THEY found the sight endlessly amusing.
That was exactly the kind of expression THEY liked—the look of someone who hated every second of what was happening but had no choice except to accept it.
Aha's wicked laughter echoed across all of Penacony.
Even March 7th could tell what kind of twisted joke THEY were enjoying.
"Uh... well... this Aeon sure is... free-spirited."
With an Aeon standing right in front of her, March hesitated and swallowed the phrase "terrible sense of humor."
Aha could've slapped the mask onto Sylvia's face in an instant. Instead, THEY'd summoned two clowns to giggle and slowly parade it over to her.
That alone said everything.
Sylvia realized she couldn't count on her teammates. After thinking it over, she decided she might actually be able to loosen her restraint just enough to run. Aha's arrival had cleared out a huge area around them, so letting a little power leak out probably wouldn't cause much damage.
Just as Sylvia was about to make her move, the two clowns carrying the mask suddenly jumped.
Like some ridiculous effect straight out of a Clockie cartoon, their legs spun like tops. In the next instant, they shot forward at absurd speed and appeared right in front of Sylvia.
Sylvia's eyes went wide. Through the gap around the mask, she could still see Aha's grinning clown face.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME—!!"
Smack!
The enormous mask slammed straight onto Sylvia's face.
In that instant, the flames pouring from her body died down. All the power that'd been running wild was suppressed by the mask, then obediently flowed into Sylvia's Herrscher of the Void Core.
Several orange-red flame patterns appeared across the pure white cat mask. At the same time, it stirred the remaining power within the seal and poured all of it into Sylvia's body in one burst.
As the rampage subsided, Sylvia's massive dragon body began to shrink. Before long, she'd returned to her normal form, while the Fool's Mask shrank with her and remained plastered tightly over her face.
It looked as though everything had settled down.
But the energy inside Sylvia hadn't stopped moving.
Earlier, she'd released the power of the Ambrosial Arbor and Phantylia to raise the energy density inside her Herrscher of the Void Core. Her cards and Fullbottles had remained in an active state as well, continuously releasing their stored power.
She hadn't had time to shut them down.
Phantylia's power, which had originally been sealed inside a Fullbottle and stored in another core, was dragged out by the mask.
The power that Sylvia hadn't been able to use because it'd gone out of control was forcibly mixed with Phantylia's power through some method she couldn't begin to understand.
And Aha wasn't finished.
The mask seemed to notice the power of the Ambrosial Arbor constantly repairing Sylvia's body. Like it'd caught the scent of food, it immediately latched on.
It took an enormous gulp from the Ambrosial Arbor, forcibly dragging that power into the Herrscher of the Void Core as well. Then it turned outward and sucked in a huge quantity of Memoria.
Add its own power of Elation, and the whole mess became a chaotic stew of incompatible forces crammed together.
It felt like a powder keg waiting for the slightest spark.
Yet through some bizarre method, those conflicting powers remained in an incredibly delicate balance. The mask kept them suppressed so thoroughly that Sylvia could now direct them at will.
Pale gold and blue patterns continued to spread across the mask. Once they appeared, the cat mask trembled as though it'd finally completed some kind of startup process.
With a soft click, it fell away from Sylvia's face.
Sylvia looked like she'd just swallowed something foul.
Aha had taken all the mismatched powers she'd collected, twisted them together, stuffed the whole mess into her Herrscher of the Void Core, and turned the mask into a controller.
In theory, that sounded pretty good.
It solved Sylvia's problem of having too many incompatible powers and made them far easier to use. Since the mask had drawn the other energies into the core, the two containment items had even been emptied out.
At first glance, it looked like nothing but a benefit.
But anyone who thought Aha was really that kind had badly underestimated THEM. Because after doing all this, THEY'd deliberately left the power and the mask without a permanent bond.
At the same time, THEY hadn't actually fused all those powers into a single force.
That meant if Sylvia tried to do what Sampo had done and willingly sever her connection to the mask, choosing not to use it anymore, she'd also sever the mask's control over that entire bundle of energy.
And that bundle included the power of two Emanators of Destruction, one Emanator of Elation, the Ambrosial Arbor, and a huge amount of Memoria.
If Sylvia dared let go, it'd dare explode right along with her.
There was no chance she could suppress something like that through her own strength right now.
Worse, since the powers hadn't completely merged, Sylvia couldn't simply store them inside a card or Fullbottle. Either item would recognize the mixture as multiple separate targets rather than one, causing the containment process to fail.
So why not separate them first?
Why not pull the Ambrosial Arbor and Phantylia's power back out like before?
Well, too bad.
Thanks to whatever incomprehensible thing Aha had done, all those forces had been mashed tightly together. Sylvia couldn't pull any one of them out on its own.
At least, not with her current abilities.
So this was what she'd been left with.
A Fool's Mask could, by design, be tossed aside whenever its owner wished.
But because Aha had deliberately created this absurd situation, Sylvia had no choice but to hold her nose and accept her new role as a Masked Fool.
What annoyed her even more was how loudly Aha had made THEIR arrival known.
THEY'd practically gone out of THEIR way to make sure everyone saw it.
The Penacony crisis had already ended, and most of its visitors had woken up by now. That meant Sylvia had more or less become an Emanator of Elation in full view of every major power in the universe.
She didn't even want to imagine what'd happen when she traveled through the cosmos from now on.
People wouldn't see her and think, 'Oh, it's a Nameless,' or even, 'That's a Vidyadhara High Elder of Permanence.'
No.
They'd probably scream, "A MASKED FOOL IS HERE!"
Then everyone would hate her on sight.
Just thinking about people like Sparkle and Sampo now being her supposed associates made Sylvia's vision go dark.
Sooner or later, the people from the Tavern were going to ruin her reputation completely.
Still, the mask wasn't without its advantages.
Because the different powers hadn't fully fused, each one had retained its own unique traits. Combined with Elation's particular talent for absurd tricks, Sylvia could use the mask's abilities to impersonate all kinds of things.
She could pretend to be a Lord Ravager, disguise herself as a powerful heliobus, pass herself off as an Emanator of Abundance, or even imitate a Memokeeper.
The mask could conceal the aura of powers from other Paths, and it could even reproduce the traits of different species.
Right now, Sylvia could physically disguise herself as a heliobus.
She could even turn herself into something resembling a Memory Zone Meme.
And if she got the chance in the future, she could keep adding more ingredients to the mask, letting her impersonate even more kinds of Pathstriders.
If she ignored everything about it that made her skin crawl, the mask was actually extremely useful.
It would've been even better if Aha hadn't been the one to give it to her.
"You really are—"
Sylvia stared at the mask in her hand, her whole face scrunched up.
This was the first time she'd ever gained new power and felt this miserable about it.
"Ha~"
Aha's laughter from above became even brighter.
Yes.
That expression.
That exact look of disgust mixed with helpless acceptance.
THEY loved it.
Soon, Aha disappeared with another fit of giggling.
Sylvia stared at the mask in her hand. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could've sworn the cat's disdainful expression suddenly turned into a playful grin.
Then she seemed to hear Aha whisper beside her ear:
'I only wanted to see that face of yours. That look where you hate it but still have to accept it~'
"..."
Sylvia's fist clenched.
[Smug]
The expression on the mask changed again.
Sylvia snapped.
She threw a punch.
BOOM—!!
Power erupted without restraint.
With a thunderous blast, the white mask shot into the distant reaches of space like a tiny asteroid. But because it was bound to Sylvia, the mask vanished with a flicker and reappeared beside her almost at once.
Then it brazenly perched itself on top of her head.
As if it were afraid someone might somehow fail to recognize it as a Masked Fool's mask.
--+--
Mei finally regained control of her body after Aha left.
When she saw Sylvia back in human form with no signs of injury, she quickly realized that the mask Aha had given her must've helped somehow.
Though...
Mei looked at Sylvia's disgusted expression with helpless amusement.
The person involved certainly didn't seem happy about it.
"You don't have to take your anger out on the mask."
"Aha was mocking me!"
"I know, I know. But that thing's tied to your safety now. What if you break it?"
"...If this thing were that easy to break, the Masked Fools would've vanished from the universe ages ago."
Sylvia clicked her tongue.
When she noticed Mei's curiosity, she handed the mask over.
It was true that a Masked Fool's power came from their mask. But anyone who thought stealing or throwing away the mask would strip a Fool of their power was being far too naive.
Someone like Sampo could hide his mask only because he himself wanted to conceal his identity.
If Sylvia threw hers away or handed it to someone else, she could call it back instantly whenever she wished. She could even make it turn into an ordinary mask.
A Masked Fool's mask was, by nature, an illusion balanced somewhere between real and unreal.
"No matter how you look at it, that Aeon did help you."
Mei raised the mask and held it in front of Sylvia's face, sizing up the match.
It actually suited her pretty well.
"...THEY only did it because THEY thought it'd be funny."
Sylvia turned her head away, then took the mask back from Mei.
"And I'm the joke!"
"..."
At that, Mei finally couldn't hold back a smile.
Whatever.
Sylvia was safe.
That was what mattered.
The two continued bickering as they headed back to the Astral Express.
The moment they stepped into the passenger car—
Pop! Pop!
Two party poppers burst beside Sylvia's ears.
Sparkle and Sampo had been nowhere to be seen while everyone was fighting.
Now, somehow, they'd crawled out of the woodwork.
"Hehe! Welcome back, mighty Emanator~ Now we've finally got someone powerful watching our backs."
"My dear family! We're really one big family now. You'll have to look after old Sampo from now on!"
"Peh..."
Sylvia spat out a strip of confetti that'd flown into her mouth.
Then she stared at the two troublemakers with dead eyes.
"Absolutely not. When you two cause trouble in the future, don't you dare use my name."
"Come on, family, that's awfully cold. Is old Sampo really that kind of person?"
Before Sylvia could even answer Sampo's shameless lie, Stelle and March 7th were already glaring daggers at him.
Sparkle, meanwhile, giggled as she clung to Mei's arm and examined the strange cat mask.
Then, with a grin, she pointed out the obvious.
"We've been running all over the place helping you auction masks. Of course the three of us are on the same side~"
"..."
Sylvia's vision went dark again.
Right.
She'd forgotten about that.
Before Aha forced a mask onto her, Sylvia could've claimed she and the Masked Fools were merely business partners. But now, after Aha had personally made her an Emanator of Elation in front of countless witnesses...
Who'd believe she wasn't working with the two Masked Fools who'd been helping her this whole time?
Sylvia thought it over carefully.
Then her face fell.
Forget "sooner or later."
By tomorrow, those two would already have destroyed her reputation.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL