As the stable, rotating vortex portal materialized like the eye of a deep-sea nebula, Ciora, keenly aware of her role as the vanguard, slipped through it without a moment's hesitation.
A few moments later, her pretty, grey-haired head popped back out of the portal, giving Fuli and the others a crisp, simple hand gesture indicating it was safe.
Seeing this, the boy couldn't help but praise her professionalism. The number one mercenary in North America, indeed.
Setting aside their personal grievances, even if Gray Serpent would inevitably reclaim the Seven Thunders of Retribution when she eventually left World Serpent, having her join Hyperion would be a massive gain.
As for her conflict with Mei... although Ms. Little Island Bomber Raven's bust-to-waist ratio was indeed a full size more impressive than the not-yet-fully-developed teenage Mei, Fuli was no fickle playboy. When the time came, he'd just toss her into the Super Electric Corporation for three days and three nights.
The boy was confident that his all-powerful Dr. Raiden had at least a hundred thousand ways to "re-educate" this latent traitor, making her deeply understand the warmth and strict discipline of his organization.
She might even recreate the feather-plucking feast from the Samsara of Eternal Night. A Black Swan is a bird, and a Raven is also a bird.
And they're both dark-colored!
What? What if Raven actually managed to turn the tables and win?
Well, then Fuli would have to personally step in and "make his move," without even bothering to hide his blatant favoritism.
Of course, if Raven herself requested that I personally use Jizo Mitama on her, that would be a different matter entirely.
But no matter how dense she is, she wouldn't make such an unprecedented request... right?
Completely oblivious to the schemes brewing in her mind, Fuli let out a chuckle, then realized it had been a while since he'd contacted Wendy, the first person to experience his Sacred Star Path.
The ace of Oceania had been recuperating at Schicksal ever since her failed Gem of Desire transplant. At first, the boy had frequently contacted her to share interesting stories, helping to alleviate her boredom.
But then the Living Planet's magnetic field had disrupted communications, and with the recent chaos surrounding the Sky Kingdom, he had completely forgotten.
Wait a minute! Isn't looking after her supposed to be Theresa's job? How did it end up on my plate?
Fuli grumbled internally but didn't dwell on it.
Theresa still held some authority at Schicksal. As long as Otto didn't interfere, no one would dare stop her from visiting Wendy.
"I'll go see her after this is over..."
"See who? See who?"
Mimi, who had been listening intently, immediately poked his cheek with her little paw.
"To visit a sick, beautiful girl who's paralyzed from the waist down and needs someone to care for her."
"I want to see her too! I want to care for a beautiful girl too!"
Mimi chirped excitedly, her fluffy tail wagging back and forth.
"I'll send you pictures of me and her playing soccer later."
Fuli brushed off his enthusiastic Great-Auntie with a deadpan joke and piloted the shuttle through the vortex portal.
A slight sensation of passing through a barrier brushed against their skin, and the space before them opened up dramatically.
The first thing they felt, however, was not a visual impact, but a strange, inexplicable sense of nausea and revulsion.
It was a sudden and utterly bizarre feeling of absurdity and chaos. If one had to describe it, it was the nightmarish sensation of finding your husband boiling in the pot and your son already in your stomach.
Fuli frowned and looked up, only to see a star-strewn night sky.
Dark red stars twinkled in the firmament like countless malicious eyes, coldly observing the lost land below.
Yes, this underwater city, named the Kingdom in the Sky, actually possessed its own sky.
It wasn't a real sky, of course, but an artificial firmament created with astounding technology, designed to simulate the cycle of day and night, provide basic illumination, and possibly maintain an ecological cycle.
Fuli glanced at his companions and saw that they didn't seem to be experiencing the same intense discomfort.
He decided to put it aside for now and turned his attention downward.
Broken, island-like city blocks of various sizes floated in the void. They had likely once been connected by some kind of structure to form a complete city, but the connections had long since been destroyed, leaving them as isolated floating islands.
Most were in ruins. Countless buildings, in a style that mixed ancient Greek and Roman architecture, lay toppled over. From their high vantage point, they could clearly see a massive industrial district to the northwest, filled with complex metal towers and pipelines.
And several hundred meters further down was a pool of flowing, molten gold.
It was a sea of boiling magma. In other words—
"A volcanic crater..." Hyacine murmured.
The Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming is approximately 85 by 45 kilometers, with an area of over 3,200 square kilometers.
The underwater volcano beneath them, though slightly smaller than the apocalyptic beast that could trigger a regional extinction event if it erupted, was still terrifyingly massive.
Raven couldn't help but curse. "They chose to seal the Previous Era's Wind Herrscher's Companion Beast in a place like this? What the hell were those Pioneers thinking?"
She understood the logic of a last-ditch, mutually assured destruction plan, but wasn't this far too risky?
"It's different," Fuli shook his head. "An underwater eruption and a land-based one are two different concepts. With thousands of meters of water to act as a buffer and dilute the impact, the effect on human civilization would be much smaller."
"Besides, this area is on a tectonic fault line. If they could use the volcano's energy to regulate and relieve crustal pressure in an orderly fashion, it could actually reduce the frequency of earthquakes and other disasters in the surrounding regions."
It was better to guide the flow than to block it.
The output from one big release is definitely different from the output of hundreds of smaller ones.
"Li-bao knows so much!"
Hyacine leaned forward unconsciously, her voice filled with adoration.
"I'm just guessing. Don't take my word for it," the boy winked at her. "Besides, Mei was muttering about similar stuff for a while. She dragged me to Yellowstone National Park, claiming she wanted to 'experience a natural wonder'... But when we got there, just as I was about to find a hotel, she made a beeline for the caldera and seriously said she wanted to bury a few dozen Sighs of the Void Queen down there, as a threat to blow up the world if anything ever happened to Hyperion."
The Sigh of the Void Queen was a device Dr. Raiden had developed by analyzing Kiana's Imaginary Collapse. Upon detonation, it created a dimensional fluctuation that would instantly shatter and annihilate space within a certain range, making it nearly impossible to block.
"Holy shit, that psycho!"
Raven was aghast. "You actually let her do it?"
"Of course not."
Fuli sighed. He had no idea how the cool and gentle Raiden Shogun of his previous life had turned into... this.
...It wasn't my influence, was it? he thought, feeling a pang of guilt.
Raven was still worried. "She didn't just agree on the surface and then go plant them secretly, did she?"
"Nah. In that regard, Mei still listens to me."
The boy was very confident about that.
"That's right!"
Mimi, floating beside him, nodded vigorously. "Mei's ideas can be a little... special sometimes, but she always listens to Little Li! He's the only one in the world who can keep her in check!"
"Then you'd better stay alive, my dear young master Fuli," Raven said, wiping away imaginary sweat, her voice full of lingering fear. "Don't you dare pull some 'missing in action' or 'heroic sacrifice' stunt. I'm genuinely afraid Hyperion's rabid dogs will be unleashed and take the whole world with them."
"Watch your mouth," Fuli glared at her. "Remember your position, Ms. Natasha Ciora. You are now Hyperion's top agent embedded in World Serpent, codename: Pangolin. Have some faith in the organization, and even more faith in my ability to stay alive."
It's not like I'm in love with you like those other girls are, the mercenary thought, but her face quickly shifted into a fake smile that said, "You're absolutely right."
Just then, Hyacine, who had been tapping away at the edge of a nearby floating block, came running back.
"Everyone, look!"
Somehow, a rainbow-colored, translucent energy bridge extended from the edge of their platform.
The bridge connected to another city block. Stepping on it not only created a ripple of color, but also a series of clear, pleasant musical notes.
"A false sky, a floating city, a rainbow bridge connecting them..."
Perhaps it was because they could no longer live under the real sky that they had made their new home so beautiful.
"Doo? Doo-doo?"
Just then, a faint but clear cry, filled with urgency and a kind of yearning, echoed through the air.
It was Little Ica, who had been quiet for a long time.
It had opened its eyes at some point. Its once-lively eyes were now hazy, and it didn't react to Hyacine's calls at all. It just stubbornly flapped its wings, flying slowly but surely towards a point at the other end of the rainbow bridge.
The group exchanged glances.
They hadn't forgotten that the reason Little Ica had fallen into this state of weakness and slumber was because something had happened to the being it was connected to by blood.
Little Ica's strange behavior now was likely its instinct guiding them to the source.
"Follow it!"
Fuli made an instant decision and stepped onto the strange rainbow bridge.
The pleasant sound of their footsteps echoed through the silent ruins of the sky city, adding a strange rhythm to their advance.
Soon, they followed the little creature to a floating block that looked like a large park.
Remnants of white stone railings and a few broken pillars were scattered about. The center of the platform had once been a meticulously arranged flowerbed, but now only scorched earth remained, giving it a desolate air.
After flying here, Little Ica stopped.
It hovered over the scorched flowerbed, its small body trembling, letting out intermittent, whimpering cries.
"Little Ica?"
Hyacine called out, but to no avail.
Raven did a sweep of the area, killing a few Honkai Beasts that lunged from the shadows, but found no other signs of danger.
"If there's no problem now, then something must have happened in the past."
Fuli thought for a moment, then looked at Mimi on his shoulder. "The Radiant Star Drive is the supreme spell of the Orb of Temporal Phantasm. Can it do something like that?"
The Orb of Temporal Phantasm could replay events that had occurred in a selected area.
Argenti had used it in London to retrace the kidnapping of Rita's father.
"I can, but..."
Mimi scratched her head, a hint of hesitation in her star-shaped eyes. "Even for me, rewinding an image from that long ago is very, very difficult!"
It wasn't that the Radiant Star Drive was incapable of it, but that in her current state, her stored Honkai energy wasn't enough to support the reconstruction of such a large-scale memory.
"Then add mine," Fuli said decisively.
Thanks to his experience casting the Edict of Heaven with Kallen and Otto in Krozten, he was no stranger to joint spellcasting.
Plus, with his Void Stigma and its connection to the space-time continuum, he might be able to amplify the effect.
"Okay!"
Hearing Fuli's offer of support, Mimi's spirits lifted, an eager expression on her face.
She zipped into the air, hovering beside him. They both raised their right hands, palms facing the scorched flowerbed that was causing Little Ica such distress.
Mimi: "Unveil the curtains of memory—"
Fuli: "Flip open memory's bedsheets—"
Mimi: "Stir the ripples of the past!"
Fuli: "And snatch the ripples of the past!"
"Huh?"
Hyacine, who was listening nearby, noticed the discrepancy in the incantation and looked over in confusion.
Mimi completely fumbled, nearly falling out of the air. "L-Little—Li—! I mean, I'm happy that you suddenly want to snatch me away, but during a serious spell-casting moment, you have to say the incantation properly!"
"Right, right..."
The boy chuckled awkwardly. That strange feeling of nausea had made him lose focus for a second.
"Let's try again!"
Mimi puffed out her cheeks and got back into position. Just as she was about to start over, the air in front of them began to ripple violently like water. The surrounding scenery—the broken pillars, the scorched earth, even the dust motes in the air—began to flow backward and reassemble in an unnatural way.
"What? The incantation wasn't even finished! How did it rewind on its own?!"
The little pink creature was stunned, feeling her entire worldview being reshaped.
But when the rewound scene stabilized, and she saw two phantoms resembling Hyacine walk into the once-vibrant flowerbed, she fell silent, joining the others in watching the scene from the past.