Fables of the Starry Sky, Part I (4)
The demons in the Demon Slayer world hid in the shadows, trembling with fear.
The oppressive pressure that the Hunt Aeon exerted upon them was even greater than that of the Destruction Aeon, making them feel as though Lan's arrow would shoot toward them in the very next second.
Muzan was so frightened that his face turned pale. He couldn't even stay in the Infinity Castle and frantically burrowed deeper into the ground.
The mysterious beings in the world of Zhan Shen also fell silent out of fear, lowering their presence as much as possible in hopes that the light arrow of the Hunt would not arrive to kill them in a single strike.
Ye Fan jotted down the information regarding the Hunt Aeon and pressed his temples.
How do the Aeons view humans?
He only hoped that They wouldn't become the second Outer God...
Seeing Ye Fan's worried look, Zuo Qing couldn't help but want to comfort him by saying that when the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up, but remembering that they were the tall people, he had to shut his mouth dejectedly.
"Are there Aeons like this too?" Sonoko couldn't help feeling a sense of disappointment. "I thought they were all as handsome as Nanook."
"The Hunt Aeon looks quite handsome like this too," Sakura said.
Sonoko shrugged; she was a superficial person who judged by appearance.
Who could blame Lan for not showing his face?
"Could the Hunt Aeon have a special trait targeting monsters?" Kumoko huddled in her nest, trembling.
She always felt that Lan's arrow would shoot over.
Rimuru and a group of other monsters felt the same way, but they were still relatively calm.
After all, separated by a firmament, it shouldn't be able to attack them.
Fortunately, the next Aeon appeared soon after.
[An icon combining a scroll and an eye appeared.
[Erudition] Nous]
"Whoa, this Aeon looks very smart at first glance," Lu Mingfei said.
"Heh, you don't say, you really don't say," Finger slapped his thigh. "Perhaps those who worship It are all geniuses."
"Geniuses might not necessarily worship deities; they would believe more in science," Caesar said.
Chu Zihang gave him a calm glance. "Don't use our knowledge to understand another world. Perhaps it's quite the opposite."
Caesar clicked his tongue.
"Supposing the truth of the universe is cruel and uninteresting, do you still yearn for the answer?" Zhang Chulan rubbed his chin as he repeated the text below [Erudition].
Who is asking?
The truth of the universe... Tch, it looks like the kind of question smart people would ponder.
Good thing I'm not a smart person; eating my fill and having money to spend every day is enough.
Even thinking about the universal truth—aren't they afraid of going bald?
"The seeker of knowledge gives a noncommittal response..." Dazai Osamu was somewhat surprised.
To actually choose a neutral answer—how interesting.
He had thought it would choose to yearn for the answer, seeing that it was called a seeker of knowledge after all.
However.
A flash of sharp insight quickly crossed Dazai Osamu's eyes.
"That pattern that appeared when Miss Himeko's fire-type icon appeared for the second time must be [Erudition], right?"
What on earth does it mean?
Could it be the source of their power?
While eating the snacks fed to him by everyone, Lin Qiye let his thoughts wander while also being curious about what the Erudition Aeon would look like.
"Because its machine core has been detached and indifferent since birth, just like the end of the Path it pursues." Haibara Ai was filled with curiosity. "A machine core... Could the Erudition Aeon be a machine?"
Hearing her say this, Conan beside her was startled, feeling that Haibara Ai's guess made a lot of sense.
But what did that end of the Path refer to?
"Path refers to life circumstances and the paths one will experience in the future. This term mostly refers to a person's life and encounters..." Looking at the explanation of Path on her phone, Jiuyue became even more confused.
"Does the end of the Path here refer to the end of one's life journey?"
"Even if it isn't, it's probably similar," Lielei said.
Within the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, everyone looked at each other in dismay.
These Aeon icons from other worlds looked way too similar to their holy emblem.
"Could It also master knowledge and wisdom?"
Hearing someone say this, everyone subconsciously developed a sense of resistance.
If that world arrived, wouldn't it compete with their god for authority?
"Hehe, I'm afraid the expressions of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom won't look too good now~" Anderson gloated.
Edwina pressed her lips tightly together, her expression changing for once.
Seeing this, the crew members on her ship exchanged glances and kept quiet, afraid that their homework would be doubled.
["Celestial bodies keep secrets,"
Different kinds of people appeared on the firmament.
And a series of beep-beep-beep sounds were added to the background music.]
The pupils of Haibara Ai, Conan, and the others shrank.
"Morse code!"
Everyone was extremely shocked, but they didn't forget to quickly jot down these codes.
Afterwards, they arrived at the same answer: 42.
[Sakura: Why is it 42?]
Right, why is it 42?
The others were full of question marks.
[Haibara Ai: 42 is the ultimate answer to the universe.
Conan: This comes from the novel *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*. The supercomputer calculated that the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42.
Conan: I originally thought it was just a novel, and 42 was just a fabricated number. I never expected it would be like this.
Haibara Ai: That's right. I believe this novel might not be simple.
Zhang Chulan: You two elementary school students are so smart; you can even crack Morse code and know the ultimate answer to the universe.]
The two looked at each other and instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
[Lu Mingfei: Could they be geniuses?
Lu Mingfei: Genius youths, I am humbled.
Gintoki: Other kids at this age can't even control their urine and feces, yet you already understand the ultimate answer to the universe. You truly are little adults.
Conan: We just read a few more books than usual, it's nothing~]
Xiao Se and the other two exchanged glances and tacitly looked away.
What on earth were these people muttering about? They couldn't understand it at all!
"This 42 is quite concise compared to our numbers."
"Indeed. It can lighten a lot of burden when used for certain complicated and huge calculations," Wuxin sighed. "If we could learn a thing or two, that wouldn't be bad either."
"Sigh," Lei Wujie sighed. "Watching a firmament feels like reading heavenly scripture."
Xiao Se and Wuxin nodded inwardly.
Indeed it did.
Too many things on the firmament exceeded their scope of understanding.
"By the way, who are these people?" Itadori Yuji was full of question marks.
"Could they all be that Erudition Aeon Nous?"
"They should be strongly related to the Erudition Aeon," Megumi Fushiguro guessed.
["Calculation connects the roots of all things,"
"Yet it keeps silent, like the mist at the center of the universe;"]
[Tohsaka Rin: Why is that young lady's face blurred?
Sakura: That's right, this older sister's face looks like it was deliberately smeared over. Why is that?
Lu Mingfei: A character like this looks like a big shot at first glance; they definitely have a huge secret.
Zhang Chulan: I cast my vote for Lu Mingfei.
Rimuru: +1]
[The camera suddenly pulled back, and a huge mechanical head flashing with red and blue light, connected to countless circuits seemingly made of information, appeared on the firmament.
[Erudition] Aeon, Nous.
"Listen to the silence, and you shall know where the stars rest."]
The chat group went quiet for a moment before someone let out a sharp shriek.
[Kumoko: Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh——
Kumoko: The Erudition Aeon is actually a machine?!
Kumoko: You've got to be kidding me!
Rimuru: Can a machine even become a god?
Zhang Chulan: Have you all ever heard of the saying: flesh is weak, machine ascends.
Zhang Chulan: There's nothing surprising about a machine becoming a god.
Conan: Haibara really guessed it right...]Fable Collection of the Starry Sky, Part I (5)
Conan looked at Haibara Ai, who also wore a surprised expression.
Conan gave a half-lidded look. "Didn't you already guess it? What on earth are you surprised about?"
Haibara Ai rolled her eyes. "Guessing it and actually seeing it are still different."
"Who do you think those people appearing around Nous are?" Conan asked, his gaze not leaving the character portraits, especially the person whose face had been scribbled out.
Haibara Ai shook her head. "I'm no prophet."
"Could they be the physical avatars of Nous?" Lielei said. "Its true body is inconvenient to manifest, so it prepared multiple avatars to walk the mortal realm."
Shiyilie: "Does a mechanical head like it need to walk the mortal realm? It looks like it knows everything, there's no need at all to experience the mortal realm in person."
Jiuyue glanced sideways at Shiyilie. "I didn't expect you to have such a brain."
Shiyilie glared. "My grades are very good, okay?"
Jiuyue gave an awkward laugh.
["Let the traveler's staff strike the earth, they say,"]
A pattern resembling two crossed ears of rice appeared.
[Abundance], Yaoshi
"What saddens her is that eternal life failed to let her accumulate infinite wisdom; instead, those things she once treasured have begun to blur, gone forever and never to return."]
Many commoners in The Youngster World couldn't really understand the canopy, but they understood the two characters for "Abundance".
Abundance, bountiful harvest and riches.
This must be a deity that can bring bountiful harvests.
Countless commoners knelt and kowtowed, praying for the Aeon of Abundance to bring them a bountiful harvest so they would no longer go hungry.
[Zhang Chulan: Sounds like a healer.]
[Rimuru: Same here.]
[Kumoko: So is this really a deity that can bring a bountiful harvest?]
[Sakura: Very likely, eh. The Aeon's icon is something like an ear of rice, and the description is related to the earth...]
[Lu Mingfei: This Aeon is called Yaoshi, totally giving off healer vibes. I suppose it's a very good deity, right?]
[Sakaguchi Ango: Who does "she" refer to here? Could it be Yaoshi?]
[Kumoko: Good fellow, Sakaguchi Ango has appeared too, surprisingly unsurprising.]
[Rimuru: Do you happen to know a suicidal maniac named Dazai Osamu and a person named Oda Sakunosuke?]
[Sakaguchi Ango:...Let's get back to the main topic.]
[Sakaguchi Ango: Eternal life, how do you all interpret it? Does it mean... longevity?]
Sakaguchi Ango weighed his words for a moment before typing out those two characters.
Longevity could make people flock to it no matter which world they were in.
If the Aeon of Abundance could truly bring longevity, one could only imagine how crazy humanity would become.
Seeing this, the demons, immortals, and gods from the Non-Human and Luo Xiaohei worlds still let out sighs of emotion.
Even though they possessed long lives, they could still understand humanity's obsession and pursuit of longevity.
They only hoped that the humans in their own world could be a bit more rational and not chase after that path of longevity with an uncertain future while knowing nothing.
Just what kind of Aeon would Yaoshi of Abundance be?
Karasuma Renya's breathing grew hurried, his eyes staring dead at the words "eternal life", his hands clenched tightly into fists.
He knew that the longevity he yearned for might finally be coming.
Muzan Kibutsuji was somewhat surprised.
Neither this Aeon nor the previous Aeon of Erudition made him feel threatened, but rather, the Aeon of Abundance made him feel that he might find a way to overcome the sun from it.
Anticipation surged within Muzan Kibutsuji's eyes.
"Eternal life." Emperor Mingde suddenly clenched his fingers tightly, his breathing speeding up by a fraction.
Can the Aeon of Abundance bring longevity?
Emperor Mingde's heart burned with intense fervor.
Yet the civil and military officials felt a jolt in their hearts.
Throughout history, how many emperors had pursued longevity, thereby neglecting court affairs and causing imperial dynasties to march step by step toward destruction.
They cast covert glances at Emperor Mingde, hoping that he wouldn't let longevity blind him.
"What saddens her is that eternal life failed to let her accumulate infinite wisdom; instead, those things she once treasured have begun to blur, gone forever and never to return." Dazai Osamu leaned against the sofa, lowering his eyes in deep thought.
This sentence didn't sound like anything good either.
Why did the introductions of those Aeons all carry a hint of an ominous undertone?
"Eternal life should belong to us!" The Celestial Dragons' eyes were crimson, greedily gazing at the canopy.
"Quickly give the order! Have the Marines obtain Yaoshi's divine miracle by any means necessary!"
Upon receiving the message sent by the World Government, Sengoku and his Admirals wore speechless expressions.
They weren't even deities of their world, where were they supposed to go find them?
They really knew how to ramp up the difficulty for them.
"Abundance..." Klein pondered, "Is it similar to the Earth Mother Goddess?"
Meanwhile, following the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Earth Mother Goddess Church also grew vigilant.
The Aeon of Abundance wouldn't snatch authority from the Mother Goddess, would it?
"Hmph. Merely an external deity, how could it shake the Mother Goddess's status. Praise the Mother Goddess." After Emlyn finished speaking, he froze in place.
Then he grew irritable.
"Ahhhhh, that odious Bishop Utravsky! It's all because of him that I became like this! My faith is in the Primordial Witch Lilith! Praise the Red Moon!"
["Once,"]
A pair of flawless, pristine feet appeared on the canopy.
There were metallic-colored accessories on the feet, and the toenails were sharp and curved like a beast's.
The surroundings were all green, making one feel vibrant and full of life.
"Twice."]
A hand holding an ear of rice appeared.
That hand was similarly flawless, slender, and powerful.
Only the sharp nails, just like the toenails, still exuded a certain eeriness.
"The smiling sapling will grow into towering trees, and sweet dew will fall from the branches to banish illness and poison for you."
The camera zoomed out, revealing the appearance of the Aeon of Abundance.
It had six arms, wore numerous accessories, a white turban, and had branch-like horns growing on its head.
Its face was as delicate as a woman's, yet its build resembled a man's.
It wore a smile, holding a medicinal pill in its hand, and scarlet medicinal pills were also embedded in its other arms.
Behind its back were patterns of wheat ears, as well as towering branches.
The Aeon of Abundance, Yaoshi.]
The transcendent DNA of the Lord of the Mysteries World stirred; the moment they saw Yaoshi, they quickly lowered their heads, worried that they would be contaminated.
This Aeon of Abundance looked far too much like an Evil God, practically no different from most Evil Gods in their world.
Everyone in the Tarot Club was also startled, nearly diving into Sefirah Castle en masse to avoid contamination.
Klein was no better off than them.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered, "Good thing that world doesn't have contamination, otherwise facing such a deity off guard would cause everyone to fall for it."
Cassell College was silent at this moment.
Everyone stared blankly at the Aeon of Abundance.
This person's art style was completely different from the previous ones, possessing an indescribable eeriness.
"Clearly it looks so compassionate, why does it make people feel creeped out?" Lu Mingfei tilted his head.
"Maybe it's because the nails are too eerie," Zhang Chulan said to the person beside him. "Abundance is approachable and compassionate, and also represents a bountiful harvest and riches, but precisely such an Aeon has nails that look just like a beast's. This sense of contrast really makes one's hair stand on end."
"Abundance is perhaps not as simple as we think," Xu San said.
"Being able to banish illness and poison, why would it grow to look like this?" Jiuyue scratched her ears, truly unable to figure it out.
This deity looked very much like Bodhisattva Dashi, yet was far more eerie than Bodhisattva Dashi.
"Nine times out of ten, it's not a good person—no right, a good god," Shiyilie affirmed.
"But to ordinary people, if it can banish illness and poison for them, then it is a good existence. As long as it can bring them a bountiful harvest, then it is worthy of faith," Xiaoyu said.
"Besides, I don't think good and bad can define an Aeon. After all, they are not quite the same as the immortals and gods on our side."
In their world, immortals and gods indeed possessed divinity, but they also possessed humanity.
As for the Aeons of that world, at least for now, she hadn't seen a shred of humanity in Fables of the Starry Sky, Part I (6)
Seeing this, people in every world who were plagued by illness felt hope well up in their eyes.
They fell to their knees one after another, praying for Yaoshi to lower her gaze and heal their suffering.
The Aeon of Abundance, Yaoshi, in the canopy seemed to twitch her eyes, but due to the canopy's limitations, no miracle was ultimately bestowed.
The super bigwigs from the worlds of Non-Human, Luo Xiaohei, and Lord of the Mysteries had slight shifts in their eye colors.
That subtle change in the Aeon of Abundance did not escape their eyes.
"Could it really grant every request?" The bigwigs shook their heads slightly.
"Every request granted brings misfortune intertwined with fortune."
[The Nihility icon appeared.]
[Nihility] IX
All things resist nothingness, all things rush toward nothingness, all things are reduced to nothingness.]
[Rimuru: Is this Aeon not quite right?]
[Rimuru: What does it mean for all things to be reduced to nothingness?]
[Kumoko: Nothingness? Absolutely nothing?]
[Zhang Chulan: It's literally called Nihility.]
[Gojo Satoru: If Aeons are all conceptual gods of a sort, then Nihility might just be the conceptual nothingness itself. Interesting.]
[Sakura: Are there even Aeons like this? Does it really believe that all things will return to nothingness?]
[Kurapika: That's probably the case.]
[Lu Mingfei: The deities of that world are mysterious one after another.]
["Blind your eyes, they say,"]
"Do not let the encroaching gloom make your mind apprehensive."]
The planet rotated and moved forward along the purple path of light.
"Because it will teach your soul to be as heavy as poured lead plates, and your feet to become numb and unbearable."
A purple, twinkling star-like sphere of light appeared.
It seemed to have mismatched eyes, looking strangely cute.
The Aeon of Nihility, IX.]
[Zhang Chulan:???]
[Zhang Chulan: You're telling me this mismatched-eyed guy who looks like Black Handsome is the Aeon of Nihility?]
[Lu Mingfei: This little thing has a rather unique look.]
[Rimuru: Does no one think it looks like a purple slime?]
[Kumoko: Pfft~ The Aeon of Nihility is just too cute!]
[Sakura: Agreed~]
[Mouri Ran: Hearing that everything returns to nothingness, I thought it would be a terrifying Aeon, but I didn't expect it to be so cute.]
[Jiuyue: I also think it looks like Black Handsome, and of course a slime too.]
[Rimuru: Jiuyue...]
[Itadori Yuji: Because it will teach your soul to be as heavy as poured lead plates, and your feet to become numb and unbearable. That doesn't sound like a good thing.]
[Zhang Chulan: Anyone with eyes can see that.]
[Zhang Chulan: Don't ignore its name just because it looks cute! Nihility—just looking at it tells you it's no good thing.]
[Lin Qiye: Perhaps the closer one gets to the Aeon of Nihility, the closer one gets to nothingness.]
[Wuxian: How do you figure that, young man?]
[Lin Qiye: Just a feeling.]
Lin Qiye made up an excuse.
Nyx had told him.
Of course, under the eyes of the public, he couldn't say it.
Nezha, Elder Jiu, and others looked at Wuxian.
"You kid sure hide things deep," Nezha clicked his tongue and sighed.
If Wuxian hadn't spoken up, they wouldn't even have known Wuxian had speaking rights too.
Dammit, why didn't he have them!
Nezha was full of resentment.
Wuxian smiled faintly: "There was just no need to speak. Speaking this time is simply out of curiosity."
"This Aeon is so cute. It would be great if I could become friends with it," Gon said to Killua and the others.
Kurapika and Leorio twitched the corners of their mouths, thinking to themselves how on earth a person could become friends with an Aeon.
The most important thing was that this Aeon wasn't right.
"Can this even become an Aeon?" Lei Wujie rubbed his eyes, opened them, and saw it was still that pitiful-looking black egg with mismatched eyes.
"Don't judge a book by its cover," Xiao Se said.
"Xiao Se is right," Wuxin said, "From its introduction, you should know that it's extremely dangerous."
"Fine, fine." Lei Wujie didn't argue and directly agreed.
["Push open those solemn city gates,"]
A new icon appeared, the very same one that appeared in Gepard's video earlier.
[preservation] Qlipoth
Philosophers look up at the galaxy, seeking the ultimate goal of civilization [build walls], and a resonant echo resounds through the brain [build walls].
"They say, pick up the lapis lazuli slab."
"Read aloud, recognize what the mud bricks are refined from, and know by whom the foundation of the wall was laid!"
An entity composed of stone appeared.
[preservation] Aeon, Qlipoth]
[Zhang Chulan: 666, the preservation Aeon turns out to be a civil engineering bro.]
[Lu Mingfei: The existence of the preservation Aeon is reassuring.]
[Zhang Chulan: This is the weight of rocks.]
Lu Mingfei sent another wretched smile.
[Jiuyue: It keeps saying "build walls" and "build walls"; could it be that it's just building walls all the time?]
[Xiao Se: Not entirely impossible.]
[Xiao Se: In Gepard's video, he once mentioned words like Architects, which must have a similar purpose to "building walls".]
[Xiao Se: I suspect that Belobog actually worships the preservation Aeon.]
[Rimuru: The young man's analysis makes a lot of sense, I vote for you.]
[Kumoko: +1+1+1]
"preservation... Gepard's shield..." Klein's eyes lit up, "Could it be that Gepard's ability comes from the preservation Aeon, which is why the preservation Aeon's icon appeared at that time?"
"Clearly, that is the case." Dazai Osamu gazed at Qlipoth, countless pieces of information converging in his mind.
"Paths... Is this concept related to every single Aeon?"
Dostoevsky closed his book and thought quietly.
"Know by whom the foundation of the wall was laid." Ye Fan's pen tapped against Qlipoth's name, but a look of doubt hung on his face.
"Why use the word 'laid'? That's not a good word."
"Not a single complete, good sentence exists in the introductions of these Aeons." Zuo Qing was rather open-minded about it.
Whatever comes, we'll deal with it.
[Another new icon appeared.]
[Harmony] Xipe
Behold, a perfect home, with no sentimental melancholy, no heresy, no need to gaze longingly, no point in recalling past bitterness to appreciate the sweet—how enviable.
"Then, they say,"
A pair of feet made of jigsaw puzzles appeared.
Her skirt resembled a starry sky.
"O you who have reached the end, go to the paradise that embraces all! Join this grand ode and banquet, listen to the heartbeat of hundreds of millions upon millions of hearts, and hold you in our embrace—"
A female Aeon appeared, spreading her hands wide as if to embrace something.
There were still a few detached puzzle pieces on her right hand, of unknown significance.
She wore a peaceful smile that made people feel comfortable just looking at her.
However, looking closer, there was a head on each side of her, though it was impossible to see what their faces looked like.
Behind her was a colorful halo, carrying an inexplicable holiness alongside an indescribable visual pollution.
The Aeon of Harmony, Xipe]
[Zhang Chulan: 666, if you didn't say this was an Aeon's introduction, I'd have thought it was a recruitment ad for an industrial park.]
[Zhang Chulan: A perfect home? Where in the world are there perfect things? Even if there truly were a perfect existence, it would be wrapped in falsehoods.]
[Kumoko: Even if there really were such a perfect home, I wouldn't want to go. With nothing at all, that would be way too boring.]
[Rimuru: Agreed. Life still needs some excitement.]
They carried ambition in their bones and couldn't settle down; asking them to go to a place like that where nothing existed was truly making things hard for them.
"If you combine the Aeon of Harmony and the Aeon of Abundance, you get three heads and six arms," Elder Jiu laughed.
Nezha curled his lips.