After bidding farewell to Glanholm and Pam, Shi Hui piloted a small aircraft slowly towards Izumo.
"This landing pod is too slow!"
"Little Pam is really something; I've already gotten off, and you're not even willing to give me a single carriage as a souvenir."
Driving the 'snail-paced' aircraft given to him by the Conductor, Shi Hui couldn't help but complain.
Actually, he couldn't be blamed, after all, he usually traversed space unhindered in the Astral Express.
Even when the train arrived at a station and he had to disembark, he would directly detach the last carriage of the train to use as a landing pod.
Of course, during regular Trailblaze journeys, using a train carriage as a landing pod was strictly forbidden by the Conductor.
As for the reason, back when Akivili had not yet fallen, the then-Navigator, Bob, with his messy hair, was fond of detached-carriage landings.
The result? The train carriage recovery rate was as high as 42.4%, and the repair rate for recovered carriages was as low as 100%.
And so, this method was prohibited.
However, who was Shi Hui? He had already driven the Astral Express to collide with Klippah's Star Wall, so why would he care about such a small matter?
Many fleas don't itch, many debts don't worry. It was nothing more than another scolding from the Conductor; did Shi Hui care?
Therefore, compared to a train carriage, the speed of the ordinary landing pod Shi Hui was using now was indeed too slow.
A complaint was perfectly reasonable.
As the aircraft drew closer to Izumo, and to the reflection of the Void, the mobius strip around Shi Hui's neck reacted more intensely.
"What's going on, this is..."
"It's been blackened?"
Shi Hui noticed the anomaly of the mobius strip — the white mobius strip, originally glowing with an amber light, now had several black spots.
He looked at the black sun hanging high above Izumo and Takama-ga-hara, and murmured.
"'The Void,' huh... So, this amber light is 'The Preservation'!"
Although Shi Hui hadn't seen Klippah when the mobius strip took him to that sub-spatial crystal wall, he could now be certain that Klippah had definitely been watching, but for some unknown reason, It had done nothing.
"A paper strip recording the Aeons' anecdotes can absorb the power of Aeons," Shi Hui speculated.
If he wanted to fully activate the power of this mobius strip, did he need to absorb the power of an Aeon and reach a certain threshold? Or did he need to absorb the power of all the Aeons?
Shi Hui did not know the answer to this question.
But what he did know was that what he had to do now was to reach Izumo, absorb the power of the Void, and try to activate this mobius strip.
While searching for records about Aeons in the train's databank, Shi Hui had come across a rumor.
As long as one passed through the depths of the Void, one could reach the end of existence!
Shi Hui had already made a plan: if saving Izumo was impossible, he would then venture into the depths of the Void to Trailblaze.
A Nameless would not stop anywhere.
Since he was already under the shadow of the Void, instead of cowering and becoming a self-annihilator destined for oblivion, he might as well do the opposite and continue to Trailblaze towards the abyss.
Shi Hui wanted to see what this mobius strip, which had brought him to another world, would become after absorbing a large amount of the Void's scattered Path power.
"I will forge a path deeper and further than Akivili!"
...
With the anticipation of Trailblazing on a new planet, Shi Hui's aircraft reached Izumo's atmosphere.
The cold metal cabin walls groaned amidst violent vibrations. Outside the porthole, it was no longer the familiar vast starry sea, but surging, boiling purple thunderstorms.
Turbulent airflow tore at the lightweight alloy shell, making the aircraft emit a harsh wail.
The cabin flickered on and off under the bombardment of dense electrical arcs, and warning lights dyed the cockpit an ominous blood-red.
"Warning: Atmospheric turbulence exceeds threshold! Landing pod hull durability decreased to 47%!"
Shi Hui's fingers turned white from gripping the joystick tightly, and sweat trickled down his forehead, seeping into the collar of his flight suit.
After doing his best to calm the discomfort caused by the pressure difference, Shi Hui's gaze pierced through the rain and electrical arcs, locking onto the ravaged land below.
Forests were charred, mountains crumbled, and the earth was ploughed with bottomless ravines.
And in the center of that land, a massive, suffocating purple figure was wantonly slaughtering life.
It was shaped like a giant bear, covered in jagged purple crystal armor, with lightning faintly flickering on its plates.
The beast that commanded thunder — Takemikazuchi!
Suddenly, a dazzling bolt of lightning tore through the rain, illuminating a small figure at the edge of the ruins.
A fragile girl with purple hair, her clothes tattered and covered in mud, stumbled as she tried to escape.
Unfortunately, from her unsteady steps, it was clear she was utterly exhausted.
Even from several kilometers away, Takemikazuchi's violent purple eyes precisely locked onto the girl.
It let out a mocking growl, its lightning-wreathed foreclaw raised high, gathering a surging ball of energy.
As if sensing something, the girl stopped fleeing, merely staring at the energy ball that could easily take her life.
She had seen too many such energy balls. Now, it was finally her turn.
Rain washed over her pale face, her violet eyes filled with determination.
In the sky, Shi Hui recognized that purple figure.
A cold mechanical voice sounded in the cockpit: "Engine overloaded! Target locked! Impact trajectory confirmed!"
Shi Hui slammed the joystick all the way down, simultaneously hitting the pre-start button for the emergency ejection procedure.
The aircraft let out an unbearable shriek, its tail thrusters suddenly spitting out dazzling blue-white flames, diving straight down towards the purple behemoth — Takemikazuchi!
The immense gravitational acceleration pressed him hard into his seat, and Shi Hui's vision gradually blurred.
The onboard computer's countdown shrieked in his ears, mixed with the roar of the cabin nearing disintegration.
"Target distance: one thousand meters... seven hundred meters... five hundred meters... Warning: Cabin hull flashover, please activate emergency ejection procedure as soon as possible!"
The metal hull continuously rubbed against the thunderclouds, erupting in large gouts of scorching sparks.
Three hundred meters! At this moment, Shi Hui could even clearly see the electrical arcs flickering on Takemikazuchi's purple armor.
Its head turned towards the diving aircraft, its purple-flamed pupils becoming violent.
It abandoned the girl several kilometers away, instead aiming the lightning in its palm at this screaming 'cannonball.'
Now!
"Eject!" Shi Hui slammed the red button next to his seat.
Boom—!
An irresistible force flung him violently from his seat.
The seatbelt instantly tightened around his body, and the intense feeling of weightlessness seemed to want to rip his soul from his body.
Almost the instant he separated from the main body, the aircraft transformed into a meteor, crashing violently into the shoulder-arm connection of the hand that had been gathering the lightning ball.
A visible shockwave spread outwards in a ring, instantly evaporating the rainwater within a one-kilometer radius, and leveling the remaining buildings.
Takemikazuchi's massive body lost its balance for the first time.
It let out a deafening roar of pain, a large hole gouged into its right shoulder by the landing pod, its armor shattered, and purple crystal fragments mixed with flesh splattered everywhere.
Its foreclaw broke along with its right arm, and the condensed lightning ball shot uncontrollably into the sky, exploding at high altitude.
The sudden impact violently knocked the beast flying, causing it to plough a long furrow in the charred earth.
At the same time, a dull thud sounded not far from the purple-haired girl.
Shi Hui's body landed heavily on a piece of scorched earth churned up by the shockwave.
After a violent cough, he slowly looked up, through the swirling dust, towards the girl.
The purple-haired girl was covered in a thick layer of dust, looking utterly disheveled.
Her violet eyes, filled with the daze of surviving a catastrophe, stared blankly at Shi Hui.
The weakened Shi Hui failed to catch the complexity in the girl's eyes, nor did he notice...
The instant she looked up, a hint of purple lightning seemed to flash and disappear deep within her eyes.
