There are still three minutes left until the scheduled time.

The Storm Frontier has hovered over the ruins of the inner city of City One, and contact with the Dark Angel has ended.

At the time, Somney asked if he needed the Emperor's Dream to support the fire control, only to be met with Ranmarlock's inexplicable anger and forceful refusal. Somny didn't care about that, all he cared about was whether the Dark Angel would act perfectly according to plan.

The waves of subspace are slowly swallowing up Jestal, and the gradual chaos of time and physical rules has caused most of the detectors and sensors used in the physical universe to fail, leaving only some of his own equipment inherited from the Dark Technology Age, and the near-future observation lens Sheba carried by the Storm Boundary still functioning from time to time.

Somny didn't complain, just calmly examined all the data he could collect, and after constant cross-comparison, calculated the closest indication to the real situation. After much deliberation, he was convinced that a cannonball had indeed been shot out at the right time, and descended exactly along the only channel that could communicate between the inside and outside of the anomaly, which was burned by the Fujimaru Rika rappelling. He withdrew his gaze with satisfaction.

Those dark angels still didn't mess up. He thought.

It is unknown whether this pattern of behavior of the machine is due to the fact that he is a machine himself, or if he is influenced by the borrowed shell of the forbidden army. Fujimaru Rika wondered about this, but Somney himself didn't care. For him, the only thing he cares about is whether he can complete the task perfectly.

Whether it is the Emperor's Dream or the Forbidden Army, it is the same in terms of "it was created to complete the mission given by the Emperor".

Before leaving, he received two orders from the emperor: obey all orders from Fujimaru Rika, and protect her life. He originally thought that such an order was clear and simple, and not very difficult, but as time went on, he gradually became confused about it.

In practice, many times, these two commands will conflict with each other. If the former is to be done one by one, then the latter will often slide in the direction of failure: Fujimaru Rika has been on the verge of death twice in the past half-year, and both times even occurred inside the Storm Boundary, just one hatch away from him, just within reach.

One such serious mistake could be said to be accidental, and twice it made him wonder. He reported the incident to Rika Fujimaru, who just laughed happily, "I didn't expect that, but now you're finally starting to 'act like a person'." ”

Rika Fujimaru did not give a specific answer, and she believes that there is no uniform standard for this matter. All she had to do was suggest this: don't be so rigid and try to refute her orders. No one is always right, so even a precise command can be disobeyed when necessary—and when it is "necessary" is up to his own judgment.

Somney accepted the advice, but he remained confused. He did try, but he still couldn't tell when it was "necessary".

Where is that "necessary time"? Maybe before they landed on this planet, maybe when Rika Fujimaru decided to join the crowd investigation alone, maybe when the Chaos Ritual began and the space was about to be locked, or maybe when Rika Fujimaru decided to go into orbit alone......

Or perhaps, it hasn't happened yet.

Would it be easier for him to make such a judgment if he could really be "more like a person", as Rika Fujimaru said? Somney guessed, but couldn't tell.

Such a complicated mind only flashed through his mind. The ammunition dropped by the Lion's Mane descended along the thin, sinuous golden thread in the air in a completely unphysical manner, and Somny's servo system calculated the precise time of the missile's landing, and then he deduced that he should start moving now and carry out the command to "open the Noble Phantasm".

This is also an order that he can't understand, but the meaning of the order is not to make people understand, but to let people carry it out.

He turned and left the main control room and boarded the exterior deck of the Storm Boundary. The mana supplied by Terry's constant engine filled his shell, almost reaching the upper limit of what the spirit base could hold. It stands to reason that he should use these energies to reconstruct his spiritual base now, but this treasure can only be released in the current shell similar to that of a human.

Somny raised his hands in the dazzling and uncomfortable sky of the subspace, completely concentrating all his functions together, and summoned this treasure, which he had been attached to the day after tomorrow and did not understand its existence, given by the emperor:

"Age Aurea."

The process was slightly easier than he had imagined. As Rika Fujimaru said, even if he doesn't understand the principle, he can still use it in the context of "having to". It's hard to imagine a human being pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion, but for Somny, who is already a warship, overloading as a tactical option is something that can be turned on naturally when needed.

The golden torrent rose out of thin air from his empty hands, and sketched a magnificent picture on the canopy: it was a scene of countless human beings living and working in peace and contentment, countless human beings swimming in the sea of stars, countless human beings exploring to their heart's content, and countless human beings living in peace and prosperity.

The whole scroll unfolds in a way that is indescribable, extremely complex and minimalist, and it is possible to see the entire galaxy of human prosperity on it, and at the same time to see the sumptuous dinner on the table of even the most ordinary family on any inhabited planet. The war has been eliminated, the threat of aliens and chaos has been eliminated, and there are only humans in the galaxy, and the empire is thriving in a safe and peaceful environment.

That was a dream that the emperor had, and perhaps still does. Because of the symbolism of the name, he gave the dream to Somny, who carried it on without any problems, even if he could not grasp the meaning of the act, or the meaning of the Phantasm itself.

He showed the Emperor's dream in the sky above Jestar, but he didn't know what Fujimaru Rika wanted him to do.

Whether as a warship or as a forbidden army, he would not be in doubt about the emperor's decision. He does what he is told, doesn't ask questions, doesn't question. He was born to be a tool for the Great Expedition, and obedience was his calling.

But in the time when the Phantasm had unfolded, and there was no order for him to complete, Somni instinctively examined his work: the Emperor's dream slowly descended to the surface like a gilded light, and in the midst of it, the location of the Holy Terra floated a sapphire-like planet with more than 70% of its surface made up of flowing water.

He did not understand the symbolism of the sight. The planet had been a parched wasteland before he existed. It's just that at this rare point in time, he temporarily allowed his gaze to linger on it for a while.

He thought the planet was beautiful.

-----------------

In this mad world, the boundaries between the unreal and the real, between the dream and the real, are not so obvious—especially in the subspace: under the influence of Fujimaru Rikka Treasure, the "Imperial Dream" that unfolds over Jestal is successfully confused with reality in a certain moment. And she didn't miss that moment.

After all, the ability of the Ortenus Lingji exoskeleton in the original design is not to use as a carrier to descend the data in the Lingji portrait, nor to serve as an intermediate medium to link the two sides of the Lingji, but to reinforce the user's own Lingji. Under such a "reinforcement", even if he has never reached the seat of the Heroic Spirit, Rika Fujimaru can successfully sublimate his "life" into a treasure to use:

"The wedge that is not remembered". It is a story of eliminating peculiarities with the body of a mortal, cutting the Hearsay Belt, crossing many histories, and reclaiming the future for humanity as a whole, but no one will remember it after it is recaptured in the future, so it can only disappear silently. There is no place for her alone in that future, and she has long accepted this fact, and she will not be sad because of this: she still has her own "future".

Rika Fujimaru is optimistic that her story has just begun, and that life has only passed the "wedge" part.

The "wedge" itself is not only a symbol of the beginning of a story, but also a structure that can firmly hold two objects in place. For Rika Fujimaru, she is the wedge that has taken back humanity and re-fixed it as "the future that humanity should go to." There is no more appropriate Noble name for her:

In that moment of confusion between dream and reality, a second before the anomaly was completely closed, she confused the prosperity of the emperor's dream with "Jestal's current state", fixed at the moment in time. Then the space was locked, the peculiar point was formed, and the outside world could no longer observe the situation inside the "cat box"-

That is, until this complete lockdown is completely lifted, no one will know whether Jestal will become an empty death star or a prosperous era like an emperor's dream.

And directing the situation to the latter as much as possible is the mission of Rika Fujimaru.

The notions of time and space in subspace are confusing and meaningless. But in the effect of this treasure that is almost useless in ordinary times and is almost omnipotent under certain circumstances, order is born out of chaos, and meaninglessness can also be used.

Around the hands of Rika Fujimaru and Governor de Ville, the scene in the ruins was rapidly receding in an orderly manner. Broken walls and carvings healed, and the crowd moved backwards and forwards, once performed rituals flying backwards and blood flowing back into their bodies. They watched as the dust piled up on the ground again and again and then was swept away, and they watched as the crowd of people moving from a large research group to a stop in a scene of only two people:

Raj Hasting, who was not yet suffering from blue-gray disease, excitedly dragged Jessamine Deville, who was younger than she is now, and pointed to a mural depicting crops on the wall.

This was the scene when they first discovered the ruins during their archaeological activities one hundred and ten years ago. At that time, they were still best friends, and their eyes still sparkled with a vision for the future.

"This is the limit of what your 'fate' can go back to here." Fujimaru Rika said to the Governor's Lady beside her, "I can execute the sentence against you here. As long as you can prove that you were indeed dead at the critical point where the ruin was first discovered, then many things will change. ”

Governor de Ville was stunned for a moment. She wanted to say yes right away, but then she realized that Rika Fujimaru would say these words was itself some hint.

"But you didn't." "That said, it's not foolproof," she keenly points out. ”

"That's right." Rika Fujimaru candidly admitted, "Because Raj Hasteen is still alive, and his future in this world line is still destined to be occupied by that Tzeentch demon." To be honest, in my original conception was to prove that the two of you were dead together at some point in time, but Raj Hasteen was taken by demons, and the influence of the unborn made such proof nearly impossible. What's more, you're now at the heart of the Chaos Ritual, and I can't vouch for sure if your death will tear the veil of reality apart at that moment. ”

"So ......"

"So, you're going to a much longer past."

Rika Fujimaru raised her hand. She gave the Governor de Ville directions, but not any direction that actually existed and could be understood by humans under normal circumstances. That's a direction that only holds true in a chaotic place like subspace.

Rika Fujimaru points to the "past".

A distant, obscure, indiscernible past rife with death.

"The Great Expedition".

"Ten thousand years ago, Jestal was once a planet occupied by aliens. It is they who have left such relics underground. She told Governor de Ville, "During the Great Expedition, the Dark Angel Legion was ordered to orbitally bombard the planet, exterminating the entire biosphere of the planet in the form of a virus bomb. ”

The Lion's Mane during the Great Expedition, the Lion's Mane belonging to the Dark Angel Legion, the Lion's Mane that had executed the extinction order against the planet that had not yet received the name "Jestar", and the Lion's Mane loaded with bombs of the same type at the same time. In terms of historical "fate", there is no better catalyst than this.

When the Lion's Mane drops a bomb on Jestar's surface, the corresponding history in the subspace naturally emerges. All Fujimaru Rika had to do was seize it at the right time and show it to Governor Deville.

"The safest way is for you to go there and die there. Use orbital bombardment, or the energy of your own death, to wipe out this so-called relic 10,000 years ago. Fujimaru Rika said in a cold tone that was forced, "Ten thousand years, a one-way ticket." Too far away for me to go with you—I have unfinished business and responsibilities to let myself die here. ”

“…… I totally understand. ”

"I don't know what will happen on such a long journey, but if you decide to embark on this path, you must not stop, not even give up: the whole world will be affected by your success."

"I understand. I believe that I have the will to overcome all difficulties. ”

"No, you don't understand. I don't understand either. Nobody understood. Fujimaru Rika retorted, "Even if the Empire has very reliable life-extending technology, human beings are still not structures that can live that long. 10,000 years is not a measure that human beings can measure with their own bodies, and even if the physical body is not destroyed by the passage of time, the spirit will be worn out in the process. Humans are creatures that live in the blink of an eye, and in that long period of time, your goals, memories, and desires can all be consumed. You're going to face the greatest enemy of humanity - time, and so far, no one has managed to defeat it. ”

Governor Deville showed a confused look, while Fujimaru Rika was still coldly instructing:

"Don't think about overcoming it, think about running away, think about preserving yourself, think about you have to live until the moment you should die. If you can have this belief now, then go down that path and give it a try. Or, you can choose this as the place where your life ends – and it doesn't actually make the situation any worse. The choice is yours, time in subspace is ambiguous, you can think about it. ”

Governor de Ville took time to think. How long had she been thinking about it? Counting time in subspace is a pointless thing, so no one, including herself, knows the answer.

"I choose to go back to the past and die in the past." She finally said, "It's my fault for causing this planet to fall into chaos, and I have an obligation to correct it anyway." ”

"Even if you have to face a long future that is more terrible than death?"

"Even so."

Fujimaru Rika closed her eyes and nodded:

"Then please go and go back in the direction of the past." Her voice was a little choked, "I wish you a smooth journey." ”

-----------------

It is impossible for outsiders to understand the subjective feelings of the traveler himself during the journey back 10,000 years. What Rika Fujimaru, who was standing in the relative "future", knew that in the next moment of her perception, she had already observed the appearance of Governor Deville in that "past" time.

She had a withered countenance and a haggard appearance, no better than a skeleton. Even if Rikka Fujimaru's treasure allows her to be physically unaffected while going back to the waterfall of time, the mental devastation will still manifest itself in the human body. She is almost dead, but she is still barely alive with an obsession.

She succeeded. She will die before she was born, in the Great Expedition 10,000 years ago. Because of this paradox, which should not exist, she will not be born after the anomaly is removed and the universe itself corrects itself. Her existence will be gone, and everything that concerns her will cease to exist.

From now on, no one will know that there has been, or will be, a planetary governor who has made a great mistake and successfully corrected it with his life and soul, except for Fujimaru Rika. She was indeed flawed, but the strong will and obsession that erupted in her life, and the great journey she traveled to correct her mistakes, did make her a "hero".

The names of heroes are remembered, and the grand epics are not recited. This is somewhat hurtful, but Fujimaru Rika has long been not sentimental about it. She simply re-exploited her activated Noble Phantasm and the instability of the concept of time in subspace, picking out the corresponding past, confusing it as the "true origin" of the anomalous point.

The bombs fired by the Lionmane since the forty-second millennium were finally allowed to fall once again. As a stockpile of equipment for the thirtieth millennium, it came out of the gun chamber of a ship in the thirtieth millennium, fell on the planet of the thirtieth millennium, and destroyed a building in the thirtieth millennium, and this logic is completely smooth and there is no irrationality in the slightest. The forty-second millennium planet governor it killed was completely carbonized under the high temperature and pressure caused by the explosion, and her bones were gone, and her soul had been inspired by the Golden Throne to travel through time and space, and there was no evidence that she ever existed.

The ritual stops when the core is destroyed, and the anomalies are eliminated. In the long and near-eternal moment when the isolated "cat box" opens, countless possibilities collapse and disappear, and countless futures are cut to death. Under the waves of subspace, the "human reason" that has existed for more than 40,000 years casts a glimpse into this remote planet, and the concept of linear time is re-established, and reality begins to reconstruct under the anchorage of Fujimaru Rika to the past and the future:

The destruction of the core of the planetary ritual did affect the subspace, but in the thirtieth millennium, the barrier between the subspace and reality was still very thick, and there was no irreversible change because of this energy. Only the Dark Angels, who detected the relevant fluctuations, discovered an abnormal spatial folding phenomenon while cleaning the battlefield: a cannonball somehow crossed the surface and hit the temple where the alien was hiding underground, which was not a bad thing. Therefore, this accident, which could not be called an accident, was sealed without any concern and shelved along with the combat report.

With the last stronghold of Tzeentch Demon on this planet destroyed, the planet itself was freed from the control of the High Heavens. It was still temporarily abandoned by the environmental impact of the extinction order, and forgotten by humanity because of the Great Rebellion. However, 10,000 years later, no one has unearthed any remnants of chaos on the planet that has been rediscovered and named "Jaystar", and the chaos ritual that envelops the entire planet has naturally never happened. It was thus quietly suspended in the physical universe, steadily growing as an imperial planet until it flourished.

In the forty-second millennium of human history, nothing happened to Jestal.