After spending five days on Jarilo-VI, the planetary ecosystem had finally stabilized, and Julian was ready to set off.
Just to be safe, he left Ho-Oh and Lugia behind in the atmosphere for one extra day to monitor the weather patterns and handle any unexpected climate shifts.
Over those five short days, the landscape surrounding Belobog had transformed dramatically. With the towering banks of ice and snow gone, the ancient, massive city walls stood fully revealed, showcasing a scale that took everyone's breath away. Even the crew of the Express couldn't help but marvel at the sheer ambition and engineering skill of the city's original architects.
Down on the ground, Bronya led the citizens of both the Overworld and the Underworld as they stepped beyond the gates, eager to start turning the thawed soil into arable farmland. The divide between the upper and lower districts had completely dissolved, replaced by a shared sense of energy and purpose as people built a new future together.
Since the Astral Express planned to stay anchored near the planet for a while longer, Julian said his warm goodbyes to the crew. Joining him on his ship were Natasha and Himeko, who were sent by Bronya to travel to the Xianzhou Luofu and observe its society firsthand.
Natasha, having led the Underworld through its darkest years, possessed a sharp mind capable of reading political and social dynamics with ease. Himeko, with her deep background as an engineer and scholar, could catch the technological nuances that others might easily miss.
Yanqing had zero objections to taking the two women along. The Xianzhou Luofu never closed its doors to visitors coming with good intentions, nor did its leaders care about the size or prestige of a guest's home faction. Besides, as far as Yanqing was concerned, no faction out there could match the power of the Alliance anyway.
It was only as they boarded that Julian realized he hadn't crossed paths with Sampo once during his time on the surface. Back on Earth, online forums had always rumored the merchant to be a secret Envoy of Elation, and missing out on meeting the man in person felt like a slight missed opportunity.
"By the way, we need to make a quick pit stop at the Herta Space Station first," Julian said, turning to explain their flight plan to Natasha and Himeko. "Heading straight to the Luofu might take a bit longer if we don't clear something off my ship."
"Take all the time you need, Julian," Natasha replied with a gracious smile. "Whatever suits your schedule best. We are in no rush."
Himeko nodded in agreement, but Yanqing blinked in surprise, jumping into the conversation. "Wait, didn't we just come from the space station? Why are we flying back?"
"Did you completely forget what's sitting in my cargo hold?" Julian pulled out the heavy containment box housing the Stellaron, looking at the young swordsman with an amused glance. "If I show up at your home port carrying this live core, do you really think General Jing Yuan will just wave us through the gates? Well... he might let me in, but whether this box stays in my hands is a very different story."
Yanqing let out an awkward chuckle, scratching his head. Julian had a point. It wasn't that the Xianzhou Luofu was overly greedy, but a Stellaron was far too dangerous to leave unmonitored. While the Alliance certainly had the resources to contain it, the risk of Fragmentum corruption spreading to innocent civilians was something the high command wouldn't ignore. Unless the core was locked in their own vaults, the generals wouldn't rest easy.
Rather than creating an uncomfortable diplomatic scene at the docks, it was much better to drop the object off at the station first.
A Stop at the Station
As the ship accelerated, Natasha and Himeko experienced the quiet wonder of interstellar travel for the first time, watching the star-lanes stretch and shift through the viewing bay. When the ship slipped into the warp tunnel, Himeko, who had spent years dreaming of the stars, couldn't hold back her soft exclamations of awe.
When the vast ring structure of the Herta Space Station came into view, Himeko's gaze remained glued to the viewport, her sharp mind already analyzing the station's modular framework and energy grids.
Upon docking at the spaceport, Julian invited the two women to stretch their legs and explore the public decks, provided they didn't disturb the researchers. Asta even thoughtfully assigned a staff guide to show them around the main concourse.
Julian headed straight for the Restricted Zone to find Stephen. Just as he dropped off the containment box and turned to leave, the young researcher called out to him.
"Wait up! Come take a look at the new game level I just finished designing!"
The project Stephen was working on was a co-op title named Pokémon: It Takes Two, which had recently gained massive popularity thanks to Celebi's legendary storyline. The core gameplay revolved around a dream-walking mechanic, where two players and their Pokémon navigated between sweet dreams and dark nightmares. Actions taken in one realm would trigger dynamic chain reactions in the other, and the players had to work together to find the dream singularity to escape.
Julian sat down to test the stage Stephen had built, and he had to admit the kid was a true genius. The gameplay flow was seamless, balancing simple, intuitive controls with a genuine sense of tension and excitement.
The puzzle mechanics required tight cooperation between both players, demanding quick thinking without feeling unfair. Better yet, the game allowed players to select different Pokémon pairings for each level, creating endless strategic combinations that made replaying the stages feel completely fresh.
"This is fantastic," Julian praised, genuinely impressed. "Copy the build over to my personal drive. I'll keep playing it on the ride back."
"Hmph, of course it's good! It was built by a genius, after all," Stephen huffed, trying and failing to hide a proud grin.
"Oh, right," Stephen added, reaching for his control panel. "I finished optimizing that little digital partner you dropped off. I even set up a few test spars between it and Silver Wolf. It lost the initial rounds, but give it a bit more data and experience, and it's only a matter of time before it starts taking matches off her. Silver Wolf was actually super intrigued by it."
Stephen pressed a prompt on his console, and the Porygon2 Julian had left with him zipped right out of the data port, hovering cheerfully in the air.
"Nice work," Julian smiled, watching the digital creature float around his shoulder. "Is its code adaptable enough to handle legacy data structures? Say, if it ran into systems built on old algebraic formulas from centuries past? Ideally, I'd want it to use modern algorithms to completely overpower those outdated frameworks."
Julian remembered Herta mentioning that Zandar had built the ancient framework of Amphoreus using legacy algebraic code, and that Zandar's own consciousness was rewritten using those same homologous formulas. That was the primary reason Herta and Screwllum found it tricky to directly override his authority within that specific domain.
Porygon could naturally adapt its code to mirror an opponent, but mirroring alone wouldn't be enough to match a legendary figure like Zandar. But if it could process those legacy formulas using advanced modern algorithms, the story would change completely.
Even if Herta and Screwllum couldn't use modern code for direct technological suppression within that closed system, a self-evolving digital entity like Porygon certainly could.
"Huh? Ancient algebraic code?" Stephen blinked, tilting his head. "Who even studies those dusty old formulas nowadays? But if you need those libraries loaded into its memory, it's not impossible to compile. Just give me a little time."
"I'll leave it in your hands then," Julian patted the boy's shoulder, taking the demo build of Pokémon: It Takes Two and heading back toward the docks.
Natasha and Himeko, mindful of not overstaying their welcome, hadn't wandered far. They had spent their time exploring the quiet corridors near the Support Zone and chatting with a few friendly researchers. The moment they saw Julian return, they rejoined him at the boarding ramp.
"If there's more you'd like to see, we can stay a while longer," Julian offered gently. "I'm in no rush."
The two women shook their heads with polite smiles, declining the offer so as not to delay his schedule any further.
"Fair enough. Next stop: the Xianzhou Luofu."
Julian smiled softly to himself. By nature, he preferred quiet environments, though he found the lively, chaotic energy of people like March 7th, Stelle, and Seele fun rather than noisy. Natasha and Himeko were still being a bit too formal and reserved around him, which felt a little too quiet.
Half a day later, the ship dropped out of warp near the Xianzhou Luofu.
Looking out through the viewport, Natasha and Himeko gasped. Before them lay the vast, sweeping defense arrays enveloping the world-ship, anchored by the towering, golden phantom of a massive Divine General hovering silently above the formation—a sight that left both women in absolute, speechless awe.
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