Chapter 590: Aha: What is True Joy? Enjoy the Nanook Documentary!
Raiden Makoto, Raiden Ei's deceased older sister, had been resurrected because Ren heard Ei's prayer. She was a twin Archon who had jointly won the Archon War, establishing the Shogunate while Ei acted as her 'kagemusha' (shadow warrior).
He stroked his chin, a self-satisfied sigh escaping his lips. "This Sovereign identity is really useful; it effortlessly makes an ancient, beautiful woman offer everything." A prayer wasn't just words. The premise for everything to materialize was a price.
After Ei's emotions stabilized, she wiped away her tears and spoke with firm resolve. "My Lord, thank you for bringing my sister back. Please accept my life."
"Ei! What are you saying?" Makoto exclaimed, grabbing her sister's hand.
Ei's face showed reluctance but also a relaxed smile. "Sister, I'm sorry. I prayed to the Sovereign to exchange my life for yours."
"This…" Makoto wanted to say something, but suddenly, Ei's own voice drifted out from the Plane of Euthymia, a spectral echo of her desperate plea. [My Lord… can you let my sister return? I will offer everything to you!]
"This is…" Ei was stunned. It was her prayer, replayed for them to hear. Immediately, the cherry blossoms in the plane gathered, transforming into Ren's illusory appearance.
"Let me correct you on one point," the illusion of Ren said, his voice calm and amused. "Your original words were not to offer your life; your original words were to offer everything."
"You are… the Sovereign!" Makoto immediately sensed the overwhelming power emanating from his form. Ei was also very surprised that he would personally appear.
She composed herself and said calmly, "Yes, those were my words. I am but a warrior; all I can offer is this life."
Ren shook his head. "Although from your perspective, it's a life-for-a-life transaction, the result of me fulfilling your prayer is based on my understanding as the cause. Therefore, everything must follow my logic."
Upon hearing this, Ei frowned slightly. What else did she have besides her life that could possibly be of value to such a being? But since he said so, "Then it shall be according to your logic, My Lord. What do you desire?"
Ren pinched his chin, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Marry me."
Raiden Ei, who no longer wanted her returned sister to die again and was prepared to agree to whatever he asked, blurted out, "Okay!"
"Eh?" Makoto, who had been thinking about how to join the conversation, was completely stunned.
"Okay, it's settled then. I'll hold the wedding when I have time." Ren's lips curved into a smile, and his illusory body burst into a shower of cherry blossoms.
Ei snapped back to reality. The Raiden Shogun now wore a blank expression, stiffly turning to her older sister. "Sister… I just imagined that, right?" She desperately hoped to get a positive answer.
Unfortunately, both she and Makoto had heard it clearly. After a slight pause, Makoto's lips actually curved into a gentle, teasing smile. "Ei, you've finally grown up and are getting married." She had once worried that her younger sister was too obsessed with martial arts to ever find happiness. "The new Sovereign seems different from the previous one. Archons can get married like humans."
Makoto found herself somewhat looking forward to her younger sister's wedding. She felt she needed to go to Inazuma and learn what an older sister should do in this situation.
"I… I…" Raiden Ei stammered for a long time, unable to form a complete sentence, her mind a whirlwind of confusion.
"Heh heh." Ren chuckled from a different plane of existence, detaching himself from the analysis of his own essence. A gentleman's word is his bond. Getting a wife for free, why not?
He took one last look at the star system that had been completely drained by the Time Fruit, its essence stripped away. With a casual thought, he patched the hole in the universe's fabric, a gesture akin to smoothing a wrinkle in a bedsheet. This was his thanks for the fruit. After finishing, he locked onto the Luofu's location and went there.
After his figure disappeared, several colossal figures, who didn't know how long it would be before they met again, appeared in the empty, silent starry sky. They were all Aeons.
A figure like a black hole, an absence of light and meaning, emerged from the membrane Ren had patched. It was IX of the Nihility, drawn by the profound emptiness.
A blue, comet-like trail tore through the void; Lan of the Hunt had arrived, his gaze already scanning for a target.
Hypnotic, flowing ice, like a mirror reflecting all of history, solidified in the void—those were the eyes of Fuli of the Remembrance.
Just as a flicker of green, the aura of Yaoshi of the Abundance, appeared on the edge of the system, Boom! Lan had already shot an arrow.
"Hahahahaha!" But Aha's laughter emerged, and a giant, cartoonish hand from the void grasped The Hunt's light arrow, redirecting it.
Finally, a river of golden, molten liquid melted the void, and Nanook of the Destruction walked out from within it.
"Hahahahaha!" Just as he appeared, unrestrained laughter echoed. It was Aha's merciless mockery. With multiple Aeons gathered, Aha decided to do something big. The void unfurled a huge image, like a cosmic movie screen. It was not a movie… but a documentary about Nanook.
It showed Nanook's past, when his home world was destroyed by the Swarm.
It showed Nanook's past, when his chest was brutally cut open by Mythus, the Enigmata.
It showed Nanook's past, when his chest was pierced clean through by Ren.
It showed Nanook's past, when he suddenly and inexplicably fell flat on his face.
And finally, it froze on a still image of Nanook's current, cold, and furious face.
"Hahahahahahaha!" Aha was laughing wildly, because the gazes of all the other Aeons were now directed at Nanook.
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