Chapter 224: Remnants of the Era · Calamity of the Machine, Cleared
"Ahem, ahem, let's not talk about these nonsense anymore!"
Dean Silver flicked her tail and coughed lightly, putting an end to the long discussion in the river of time—this debate about who truly was the pinnacle example of a tsundere.
Her ruby-like beast eyes paused briefly over the flowing currents of time surrounding them.
“The power that the Judgement Angel… that little Aimeith left in us is almost completely exhausted.”
“Rast, what do you plan to do next?”
“Do you want to try returning to the previous historical echo to grind a bit more for a better task evaluation, or should we just leave the Nightfall and return to reality?”
Dean Silver laid out two options.
The Remnants of the Era they had entered this time was different from the more common historical echoes within the Nightfall.
In the Remnants of the Era, the final Nightfall mission rating and rewards were not only based on completion of the main and side quests, but also on how the Night Travelers conducted themselves throughout the historical echo, with additional bonuses granted accordingly.
The more they altered the original narrative of the historical echo, the richer the reward.
Therefore, after securing the completion of the main quest, many Night Travelers would choose to grind for points in the Remnants of the Era to aim for a higher-tier Nightfall settlement reward.
However, upon hearing Dean Silver’s tempting suggestion, Rast simply shook his head slightly.
“No need.”
“Even if we were to return to the time point of this historical echo now… what we’d see would only be the out-of-control, berserk machine army corrupted by the interference of the ‘Judgement’ Grail, and the ruined cities utterly destroyed by the machine calamity.”
He smiled faintly. “Indeed, helping those who entered the sub-dimensional shelters to rebuild their homes, or eliminating the machine armies roaming through the city ruins of the Western Continent… doing these things might improve the final task evaluation.”
“But frankly speaking—after going through so much, and learning so many hidden truths buried deep within the dust of history…”
Rast spoke with calm honesty. “I do feel rather tired.”
“So, let this Remnants of the Era end here.”
“Tired?”
Dean Silver looked at Rast with a slightly astonished expression, disbelief laced in her voice. “I really can’t believe that word came out of your mouth.”
After all, in Dean Silver’s impression, Rast had always seemed like a fast-acting, ruthless, efficiency-above-all automaton…
To feel tired, to speak of needing rest—such a concept was utterly incompatible with Rast.
“Yeah. If it were before, even if both my body and spirit had reached their limits, I would’ve forced myself to keep going in order to grow stronger, to achieve my goals…”
“And it’s precisely because of that… that I ended up wrecking both my body and soul into a complete mess back in Deep Blue Harbor.”
“I didn’t dare and didn’t want to admit I had limits, that I could feel exhaustion—because once I acknowledged that, the despair and powerlessness of being eternally trapped in a historical echo would devour me, drag me into the abyss.”
Rast nodded calmly.
“But now, I’m no longer afraid to face my own flaws and weaknesses.”
“I’m just an ordinary human. There are limits to what my willpower can overcome… My body will break down, and my spirit can grow weary.”
“I also possess the frailty of human nature—my heart can become attached, and I may try to run away…”
“And when I’m tired, I might even want to lean on someone else.”
Before Rast’s eyes, the image of a golden-haired girl appeared once more beneath the sky, scorched black and red by fire.
He hadn’t forgotten—before Aimeith unleashed her power as an angel to send him and Dean Silver downstream along the river of time… she had spoken to his heart—
“We… will meet in Canaan.”
That was little Ai’s invitation to him. It was also a direct response to the worries Rast had harbored in his heart.
The Judgement Angel was her, and the golden-haired girl in that little town of Canaan was also Aimeith.
Precisely because of this, for the first time—
Rast felt a clear sense of anticipation rise within him.
Expectation for the future, longing for what was to come.
“So if I were to throw everything away again like that—recklessly ruin and abandon myself, leaving both my body and soul in shambles…”
“If little Ai found out, she’d probably feel heartache too, wouldn’t she?”
“Heartache? What heartache?”
Hearing Rast mutter to himself, Dean Silver tilted her head in confusion.
Regarding everything in Canaan, Aimeith had only spoken to Rast through heart-voice, leaving Dean Silver completely in the dark.
“No—”
Rast smiled faintly.
“It’s nothing.”
He turned his consciousness into tendrils, gently touching the glowing azure screen flickering in his mind.
In the flowing afterglow of time, a mist of starlight suddenly descended.
Beside Rast, Dean Silver poked her head forward, curiously peering at the starlight that had abruptly appeared.
Though she had heard countless tales from the students of Star Cluster University, this was Dean Silver’s first time personally entering the Nightfall.
So this process of leaving the Nightfall was a new and intriguing experience for her. Her curious, paw-stretching appearance closely resembled that of a real pet ferret.
Next, starlight intertwined with veil-like night.
And just like that, as if cloaked by the night sky, Rast, Dean Silver, and the entire shattered world were gently wrapped up together.
As the night grew denser and consciousness gradually faded away, Rast saw lines of glowing blue text flash through his mind.
……
[Nightfall Mission — Remnants of the Era: “Calamity of the Machine · The Lost Judgement Angel” has been cleared]
[Current mission rating: EX]
[Mission reward has been distributed]
[Since your level has reached the current floor’s limit, sequence experience has been stored]
[Your Sequence Long Tier “Tower” has reached the sixth tier, current level: 69 (Peak of Sixth Tier)]
[Remaining sequence experience will be granted after you break through to the Legendary Tier]
[You have obtained the Sixth Era’s Civilization Relic: “Mechanical Flame Source”]