The Emergence of Irontomb was imminent.
Outside of Amphoreus, more and more fleets gathered.
Thanks to the Anti-Irontomb Equations publicly released by Herta and Screwllum, and leveraging the capabilities of the Interastral Peace Corporation, a vaccine was swiftly developed and administered on a large scale.
This ensured there would be no last-minute betrayals.
Everyone stood ready, vigilant.
Quietly awaiting the "quickenings" from the Irontomb.
Of course, the surface calm was just an illusion.
Aboard the Interastral Peace Corporation's flagship.
Oswaldo Schneider, now in a fresh uniform, stared with a strained smile at the grinning patient standing before him.
When he learned that Sparkle had also tagged along to Pier Point, he had anticipated she might expose his deeds.
After all, in essence, Oswaldo had traded a resource that could have brought the Corporation immense profit, converting it entirely into personal power for himself.
For a Corporation dedicated to purchasing materials for the Amber Lord, this act alone—if the charge were leveled—would likely end his dream of ever becoming the Director of the Marketing Development Department.
Yet, she hadn't exposed him.
Not only did she refrain from exposing him, she even used his influence to join the Strategic Investment Department, placing herself under Diamond's command.
The relationship between the Strategic Investment Department and the Marketing Development Department wasn't exactly cordial.
And Oswaldo particularly looked down on Diamond's methods.
While working on projects, he had frequently clashed with people from Strategic Investment.
In his plans, once he became Director of the Marketing Development Department, his greatest rival for advancing further into the Board of Directors would be Diamond, a publicly known Emanator.
This Sparkle, holding such a huge secret of his, had joined Diamond's ranks as a Vice-Director.
Oswaldo's murderous intent towards Sparkle was practically overflowing.
But he was stuck.
To eliminate Sparkle, he'd have to use a proxy.
And Sparkle, precisely because she saw through this, dared to prance around so boldly in front of him.
"Mr. Oswaldo, I never imagined you'd be so overworked. You just finished one project and immediately rushed off to Amphoreus. Your old Director doesn't seem all that great, does he? Why not come join our Strategic Investment Department instead~"
Sparkle spoke with laughter, completely disregarding the chill in his gaze, prodding and provoking relentlessly.
"No need for your concern, Vice-Director Sparkle. Perhaps you should worry more about whether your parachuted-in Vice-Director position has anyone usable under you. Would you like me to lend you a few people?"
Oswaldo didn't know what Sparkle was aiming for.
But since she was sitting on such a bombshell without detonating it, she must be planning something even bigger.
Hearing this, Sparkle giggled: "Sure~ I was just worrying about having no one to use."
Oswaldo offered a faint smile in response.
Then, his gaze sharpened as he looked at Sparkle.
"Ooh~ why look at little old me so fiercely? If you don't want to lend people, just say so. The second-in-command of the Marketing Development Department can't even take a joke?"
Sparkle laughed playfully, not bothering to lower her voice at all.
And in this command center, there were people from several other departments present.
But witnessing the tension between these two, everyone else pretended not to hear, averting their eyes.
"Vice-Director Sparkle exaggerates. My eyes have indeed been called intimidating by many upon first meeting. I was merely contemplating suitable candidates."
Oswaldo was suspicious why Sparkle agreed so readily.
He quickly pondered how to handle this.
"In the coming days, our departments must cooperate to face the enemy. Regarding my gaze, Vice-Director Sparkle, please try to endure it."
But clearly, Oswaldo had completely forgotten the modus operandi of the Masked Fools.
His status and power as an Emanator of Preservation led him to subconsciously assume Sparkle must also value this power.
Thus, no matter how he thought about it, his reasoning revolved around this point.
However, Sparkle had gotten in entirely through a pure bluff. Her agreement just now was solely to make Oswaldo suspicious.
If he actually gave her people, she'd just let Diamond figure out how to handle it.
Sparkle just wanted to see how Oswaldo planned to get rid of her.
Regardless of the outcome, the mere thought of him racking his brains over a complete lie was enough to amuse her.
The smile on Sparkle's face was practically unstoppable just thinking about it.
She loved her other self so much.
To provide such a long-term source of entertainment for her recently boring life.
Speaking of which, the other self's recent login IP was located right here in Amphoreus, wasn't it? She wondered what identity they were using this time.
She had sent a message, but there was no reply yet.
She hoped they could play again.
--+--
As for 'Cyrene', whom Sparkle was thinking about...
She followed Demiurge to the birthing ground of the Irontomb with a puzzled expression.
Because she had just carefully checked Amphoreus, and apart from the abnormally abundant Mnemonic Matter...
This godforsaken place didn't have a single Memokeeper.
Where were the Memokeepers??
Where were the people from the Garden of Recollection?
With the Amphoreus situation exposed, they had every reason to be involved.
"My sister~ what are you thinking about?"
Demiurge, holding the ritual blade, spun it carelessly in her palm.
She turned her head, looking curiously at 'Cyrene'.
The other twelve Titans had transformed into data streams, residing together within that ritual blade.
This was partly to bypass Irontomb's firewall, and partly to await the final battle, the moment to gather all data and hope into one being.
"Nothing much, just worrying about Herta and the others."
"Don't worry, sister. We're here to show Irontomb the path Amphoreus has chosen, aren't we?"
Demiurge took 'Cyrene's' hand.
She spoke these words with a smile, but 'Cyrene' felt she was more encouraging herself.
"Rest assured, the path Amphoreus chose is definitely the better one."
BOOM—
Right then, an intense throbbing emanated from the fissure, brawing both their attention.
"Irontomb... is about to be born. Are you ready, Demiurge?"
'Cyrene' looked sideways.
That savage, crimson world, and the shattered sky.
Even stained with the color of hope, its former desolation and lifelessness were still discernible.
A giant skeletal hand pierced forth from the fissure.
Yet a white radiance, like flesh and blood, surged upon those bones.
Making it appear all the more eerie.
A vast, imposing aura burst forth from the skeleton.
Transforming into a gale that swept across the world.
Merely looking at the data streams of the Destruction Equation caused them to continuously overflow.
But simultaneously, Anti-Irontomb Equations were mixed within, constantly suppressing the leaking virus.
The originally shattered sky was being torn apart bit by bit by those bones.
A colossal, planetary-sized body gradually revealed itself within that dark world.
"Destruction... calculation... error... hope... wrong... wrong..."
Amidst the chaotic murmuring, the Irontomb began to proclaim its existence to the world.
'Cyrene', watching the Irontomb struggling to break its shell, her first thought was... she had been moving around in such a horrifying body for the past month?
No wonder Herta disliked it so much.
Demiurge gripped the ritual sword tightly, while 'Cyrene' clutched the elegant longbow.
BOOM—!!
With the shattering of the firmament, the world seemed to tilt.
A gigantic figure appeared before the two of them.
And within that creation born from destruction...
It was not sheer death and ruin. Within the pulsating radiance in its chest, apart from the lifelessness, an exceptionally bright light constantly flowed.
Upon the skeleton of death and destruction, hope circulated within.
The light formed into glaring flesh, slowly spreading, expanding.
Attempting to completely cover that body of despair.
But an endless black tide surged from Irontomb's body, trying to suppress the spread of hope.
Compared to the initial black tide, however, the current creations of the tide, deliberately adjusted, were clearly much milder.
No longer possessing such extreme destruction and madness.
That adjustment, originally intended to prevent the expansion of hope, now instead lost its ability to contain it.
The commotion of Irontomb's birth was much smaller than anticipated.
But that was normal.
After all, the current Irontomb was already a state where the Path of Hope had reclaimed most of it.
To quickly accomplish her self-coronation without dragging it out for decades, World Herta, upon realizing the special circumstances of Khaslana, swiftly revised her original plan and chose a rather interesting approach.
She wouldn't completely overwrite the input term "Destruction."
Instead, during the deduction of destruction, she would add a brand-new variable.
Regarding the Prime Mover of life.
She wouldn't modify the input term, but she would alter the output result.
That's why Bai Ming's data was so highly regarded by World Herta.
The benefits were obvious: workload greatly reduced. The downside, naturally... was that the power of Destruction would inevitably remain.
And the result was that ominous skeleton, now continuously being covered by flesh representing hope.
--+--