Su woke to the sound of slurping noodles, the incessant sllrrrp echoing beside him, accompanied by a man and a woman's conversation.
"Why hasn't Su woken up yet?"
Su recognized the voice instantly. Even after a millennium of separation, he remembered it well—it was the voice of his dearest friend, Kevin.
Compared to a millennium ago, Kevin's voice, though still cold, carried a faint hint of emotion. Su could sense a lingering expectation in his words, a warmth absent from the ice-cold machine he once knew.
As the silver-haired youth listened to that voice, he felt transported back tens of thousands of years to a Fire Moth gathering, where he had once seen the white-haired youth laughing and joking with everyone.
So I really am dead after all... Su thought. But to hear your voice, my dearest friend, in my final moments—that's not so bad. The Silver-haired Awakened One mused until another girl's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"He's just pretending to be asleep! Just wait, I'll wake him up—!" The girl's words were punctuated by the clattering of pots and pans being overturned.
The young girl beside Kevin... Hmm? Elysia? No, the voice didn't quite match. Griseo? No, Griseo's voice lacked the vitality of this one. Pardofelis? No, this girl's voice was too energetic.
Eden... Uh, definitely not. Sakura? Emmm... Would Sakura really speak like this? Su thought rudely. He didn't even want to consider Aponia; that nun always spoke in cryptic riddles.
Doctor Mobius... No, what am I even thinking?
Just as Su was lost in these wild thoughts, he felt a slightly warm sensation on his lips. His sense of smell told his brain it was something edible.
"Hey, you! Open your mouth and slurp this noodle!" A young girl's voice rang out beside Su. The silver-haired youth instinctively opened his mouth, and a strand of rice noodle slid into it.
Hmm... soft, savory, and slightly chewy. The rice noodles are really good, but... is that a hint of spice? Wait a minute... just a hint of spice?! The silver-haired youth, who had been looking perfectly serene, suddenly snapped his eyes open.
Before him stood a golden-haired girl, a mischievous grin plastered across her face as she offered him a bottle of water. Beside her, Kevin slurped down a bowl of noodles, his expression a mix of amusement and exasperation as he watched the pair.
"You guys... uh..." Su hesitated, his eyes darting between the two. He felt as if flames were about to erupt from his mouth, transforming him into Kalpas.
"You're awake! The surgery was a complete success! You're now the Lady of the Lake!"
The golden-haired girl's mischievous grin vanished, replaced by a serious expression. She looked at Su with a congratulations-you-made-it look.
Pfft—! Cough—cough cough! Kevin, who had been slurping noodles behind the girl, spat them out at her absurd statement, choking violently.
Meanwhile, the silver-haired youth, newly awakened and his mind still reeling from the demonically spicy noodles, blinked in confusion. He instinctively glanced down at his body, checking if anything had been added or removed.
Pfft— Seeing Su's reaction, the golden-haired girl in front of him finally couldn't hold back her laughter.
Su glanced at the two figures suppressing their laughter. Suddenly, he felt his usually good temper wearing thin.
Hardened—the Awakened One's fists hardened!
"Ahem... All right, Su, it's been a while," Kevin said quickly, sensing that he and his descendant were about to be on the receiving end of a beating. He swiftly changed the subject.
The silver-haired youth stared at Kevin for a moment, then finally smiled. "It has been a while, Kevin."
"So, could this young lady explain what exactly happened?" Su's purple-red eyes turned to the golden-haired girl beside him, a hint of confusion in his gaze. "I should have already died..."
"You were supposed to be sitting under the Bodhi Tree, achieving enlightenment... and playing chess with a certain will, right?"
Su nodded, waiting for the girl's explanation.
"Old Ancestor Kevin didn't want you to leave, so I dragged you back. The Will of the Sea was surprisingly cooperative—I thought I'd have to fight Him for you."
The girl casually uttered words that overloaded Su's mind.
"Wait... you pulled me back from some will within the Sea of Quanta?!"
This answer, defying common sense and understanding, made the silver-haired MANTIS's pupils contract slightly. His face was etched with disbelief. Kevin patted Su, who was about to press further, and gestured to the fire pit behind them.
There, a golden Great Sword unlike the Judgement of Shamash Su remembered was planted in the ground. Golden-orange flames blazed beneath a makeshift grill crafted from cherry blossom branches.
A small piglet, likely smuggled from a neighboring World Bubble, had already been gutted, marinated, and skewered on the Eternal Spear—a weapon instantly recognizable to any Fusion Warrior from the previous century.
The silver-haired youth's eye twitched as he watched. The spear that had once claimed the lives of countless comrades had now been reduced to a roasting rod, propped over the flames. If weapons possessed sentience, Su imagined he could hear the cursed sword and divine spear cursing and ranting.
-
"So that's it... A Peer of the entity in the Sea of Quanta. Kevin, you truly have a remarkable descendant..."
"An Unbound God... unbound by fate, wielding great Authority, and favoring humanity... Suddenly, my fifty thousand years of observation feel utterly meaningless."
The silver-haired man sighed, slipping into a state of "I'm giving up now." He turned to his dearest friend.
"Kevin, will you still pursue the Stigmata Project? Your descendant beside you is a Peer of the Honkai Will—perhaps even more exalted."
"I...? I don't know anymore..." Kevin shook his head, his white hair swaying with a hint of confusion. He gazed at the cherry blossom tree before him.
"Then keep going. After all, Old Ancestor, your World Serpent henchmen are fanatics beyond measure. Getting them to stop now is a lost cause."
Snow curled her lip, as if recalling some idiot who had jumped right in her face.
"They probably won't rush to execute the Stigmata Project just yet... They'll likely focus on getting me out of the Sea of Quanta first," Kevin said, shaking his head.
"If you want to leave, you can go right now..." Snow leaned against a tree, a small doorway leading to the real universe quietly opening beside her.
"No, it's rude to ditch someone at the last minute... Su, do you want to go take a look?" Kevin turned to his dearest friend.
"I just said goodbye to Miss Bianka not long ago... It might not be appropriate to go back so soon."
"So, you're all planning to stay here for now... What are you going to do?" Snow tilted her head.
"Uh... slurping noodles? And... Snow, my descendant, do you know how many ways there are to use a Great Sword—"
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