"Phaethon? Are you... okay?"
Phainon's somewhat hesitant and worried voice pulled Phaethon back from his struggle with that absurd panel.
He turned his head and saw Phainon looking at him with an expression mixed with confusion, vigilance, and a hint of a look one might give a mental patient.
Phainon's concern was not unfounded. After all... from his perspective, unaware of the truth, Phaethon's series of actions just now seemed strange no matter how you looked at it.
First, without any warning, he suddenly sat up from the ground.
Then, facing the empty air in front of him, he suddenly delivered a vicious elbow strike, with such force that even the air seemed to wail.
Next, he stared at that same patch of air, a smile that seemed both angry and amused flickering across his face.
Finally, as if his elbow had suddenly cramped up, he started wildly swinging his elbow at the void...
This string of abnormal behavior from Phaethon left Phainon, whose thoughts were already a bit sluggish from weakness, completely bewildered.
He even began to wonder if his own stubborn insistence on call me older brother earlier had been too much of a stimulation, leading to this... uh, somewhat unstable mental state?
So much so that he temporarily stopped mentioning the little brother address and carefully switched back to the relatively safe Phaethon.
"Phaethon, you..." Phainon hesitated for a moment before voicing the concern in his heart. "Do you need to lie down and rest a while longer? Or... should I go find Hyacine to take a look?" His tone was very serious, clearly not joking.
"Ah... ahem!" Phaethon almost choked on this blunt and sincere concern, letting out a few awkward coughs.
He met Phainon's undisguised, worried gaze. He felt a warmth in his heart, but after the warmth, an even stronger sense of embarrassment surged up, impossible to explain.
"Uh, I... I'm really fine." Phaethon waved his hand, trying to make his tone and expression seem more believable, even though he himself felt his recent behavior had nothing to do with normal. "Besides, I'm not tired at all right now. I don't need rest, really."
Phaethon wasn't lying. After experiencing that sudden burst of hahaha laughter from Aha, whether it was the ultimate Elation stimulating his nerves, or this Aeon-level prank coming with the side effect of refreshing the mind, the fatigue that had once surged over him like a tide had actually receded considerably.
His mind was exceptionally clear now, and he had a sharp awareness of the imminent problems.
Phaethon's voice lowered, carrying the tone of heavy responsibility. "Phainon, I think we... can't really just lie here and rest easy right now. Above Amphoreus, at least two huge troubles are still hanging, unresolved."
He listed them one by one.
"First, the Lord Ravager about to break free and be fully born Irontomb. It was weakened over thirty million cycles, but its essence hasn't changed. Once it hatches, it's still an Emanator of Destruction, a Lord Ravager."
"Second, that guy who spanned over three million eras, using the entire world as his experimental field, one of the sources of all suffering in Amphoreus Lygus. Some scores need settling sooner or later."
Hearing this, Phainon, supporting his somewhat weak body, slowly sat up from the scorched earth.
He nodded. The doubt on his face from Phaethon's earlier strange behavior quickly faded, replaced by a rock-solid seriousness in the face of harsh reality.
Phaethon's gaze fell on Phainon's face where the solidified golden bloodstain from the fight with Nanook still remained.
But in those eyes, no matter how desperate the situation they faced, no matter how much heart-burning hatred they bore, the most core belief the desire to save this world had never truly wavered or been extinguished.
Looking at Phainon like this, a complex emotion surged in Phaethon's heart.
He was silent for a moment, as if gathering some kind of courage, or perhaps making a final psychological preparation.
Finally, he spoke somewhat stiffly, his voice lower than before, his words also a bit rushed:
"Brother..." This syllable came out a bit mumbled. He immediately coughed lightly to cover it up, then completed the address in a clearer, yet still awkward tone, "...older brother."
He didn't even look in Phainon's direction, his gaze stubbornly fixed on some charred clump of earth in the distance. The tips of his ears seemed slightly, barely perceptibly warm.
"Irontomb... I'll leave to you for now." He quickly cut to the chase, as if that address just now was just an irrelevant interlude. "Lygus, I'll handle for now. How about that?"
He paused, giving an irrefutable reason.
"After all... I'm now the First Administrator certified by the Amphoreus system. When it comes to understanding Amphoreus's underlying permissions, data flow, and where that guy might be hiding..."
Phaethon's tone regained some of its usual calm and analytical quality. "I should be the one most likely to catch him."
"Sounds good." Phainon didn't hesitate further, nodded in agreement with this division of labor.
"Let's do as you say. I'll first guard against Irontomb hatching, you go catch that Lygus."
Their brief rest lying on the scorched earth ended here.
Although the physical and mental fatigue hadn't completely disappeared, the eyes of the two deliverers had once again become sharp and determined.
They stood up from the waste-like land, dusted off the ash from their clothes, and exchanged a look.
This time, the mission on their shoulders was still heavy, but the path was no longer lonely.
They once again stepped onto the road to save the world.
But, unlike the nearly tragic, hopeless salvation of countless past cycles, this time they firmly believed they could truly bring all of Amphoreus, every surviving life, under that bright sunlight, free from shadows and gloom.
However, just as Phaethon and Phainon left Aedes Elysiae together, a question that had appeared before a question about his system once again clung to his mind, refusing to dissipate.
Aha's teasing words echoed in his mind again:
"This is something I, Haa, carefully designed and created, modeled after that rigid and boring original system inside you an exclusive enhancement plugin!"
"Original system"...
"Modeled after"...
The only item on that red panel, absurd to the extreme the entire Path of Elation...
And the unbelievable prompt that popped up when he attacked with a panel Elbow strike on the Path of Elation +X...
These fragmented pieces of information, like scattered puzzle pieces, gradually piece together into a huge question mark in his heart:
If Aha created this plugin by modeling it after the original system, then what about the so-called original system inside me that system which inexplicably appeared when I first embarked on the path of salvation, provided power, and even carried memories what is it, itself?
What kind of "foundation" or "prototype" was it transformed upon to become what it is now?