"None can be sure that this will go unnoticed."

"Shh... Relax, once we are done with this wiring... We should have enough time... You alerted the other brothers?"

"Yes I have... But still... If they know, we would be dead on spot."

"Shh... We have to be brave alright? We will seize our chance and then run away from those machine freaks... and then maybe go to some other world to live the rest of our days peacefully, on my count.. three.. two... one-"

Before the engineer could finish sabotage the wiring, the two felt a huge rumble on the ship, as if something crashed directly through the hull, but strangely enough, none of the alarms went off as well as countermeasures were deployed, and there were no disturbances as oxygen loss either.

The entirety of available personnel of the Annihilation Gang went to check on what was going on in the hangar, only to see a figure taller than the average human was standing ther, accompanied by someone wearing the uniform of an IPC officer, just as they were about to raise their guns, their machine comrades signaled them to stand down, as one of them transferred command to Rubert the #27.

"The last time we met, you were less pathetic. Phantylia." - Rubert said, his words make the other members in the Annihilation Gang confused as they began having doubts and discussing amongst themselves, is that really the Lord Ravager?

"Shut your traps, scrap head. Hahaha... You have no idea what I had to went through... Hahaha..." - The amount of forced and exhausted giggles kinda confused Rubert and the others, but they decided not to ask about it for now, thinking that it might just be Phantylia being prideful in her accomplishment in overtaking the body.

"I did not. But I can only assume that after the horrible defeat at the hands of the Nameless again, you resorted to stealing another body from the Abundance to be able to get some of that HP inflation for yourself, and now the entire Xianzhou is considering you to be a bigger risk than before."

"Huh... Well, deserving...Hahaha... After all... I am the one who will bring doom to them... hahaha... once I'm done with the Astral Express..."

"Um... my lord?" - One of the Annihilation Gang called out.

"What is it? Hahaha..."

"Who is that with you...?"

The former disciple of Oswaldo Schneider, a Masked Fool smiled as she stepped up to introduce herself in a stylish way, bowing lightly as a gesture of respect.

"It is a pleasure to meet with you~ I am just a mere humble servant who only joined Lord Phantylia on her journey~ I look forward to be in everyone's good care~" - Her acting alongside with that cute tone really softened the expression of the members in the Annihilation Gang, but to Rubert, he remained vigilant as he does to everyone else. "And for your information... I am really a trustworthy servant of Lord Phantylia~"

She said as she walked up close and hugged Phantylia's hand, which visibly creeped the Lord Ravager up, that she automatically pushed her away.

"Now if you have solved the crisis of having a proper vessel to use your power, what would your next move be, Phantylia?" - Rubert the #27 asked as he crossed his arms, the Lord Ravager could feel the other mechanical eyes, all on her form right now. "I do hope that our promises of being inducted into the Legion and casted the power of Destruction on is not forgotten. Or should there be a change of mind..."

Rubert #27 approached and stood right in front of Phantylia.

"I will make sure you end up with nothing."

"Relax. Of course I do... But before I can get in touch with my fellow colleagues.. I still need to properly do some destruction... I am figuring on how to make a good impression."

"You might want to head to Melustanin then..."

"Why would I set my foot on the land of Beauty...?"

"I guess you haven't been paying attention to the interstellar news these days..."

— — — — —

"This is all that we are. Shards of Idrila the Beauty, a fragment of the Beauty's Divinity. Shattered into thousands of pieces, each shard either represents an aspect of Beauty itself, or holds dearly a memory of the complete me."

Stelle looked at the crystal on her hand closely, it was barely bigger than the palm it rested on, she could also feel a strange yet protective energy emitting out from it... The same feeling as when she was in the presence of some Emanators.

"Who did this to you...? The shattering." - Stelle asked as she returned the crystal to Idrila carefully, as if trying her best not to put a scratch on it.

"I... Lack of that memory, for now. But..." - Idrila raises the crystal to her eye level and with a monotone she continues. "Akivili must have known the answer. That is one of the many reasons why I am looking for THEM."

"... That shard... Carolina. What are you going to do with her?" - Stelle asked.

"Only one thing... To put the shard back into one same place with the others inside me." - Idrila said as she lifted her shirt up, but Stelle was surprised by this sudden movement and averted her gaze somewhere else.

"Sorry."

"Oh... Don't worry... It's... You can look."

"..."

Although reluctant to do so, Stelle eventually gave in, after all, she kinda wanted to see the chest of the 10/10 hot baddie that Akivili personally would smash again. To her surprise, the thing that catches her attention first is the massive crater in the middle of her chest that also radiates in the same way as the shard, but on a much more intensified level.

Alongside with an otherworldly texture within that crater which occasionally moves like a living being... Stelle was somewhat disturbed by her sight and looked away again when Idrila shifted the crystal closer to her chest.

"... This is one of the three ways I know of to return a fragment back to the complete me. Absorption, only capable of performing when the fragment has completely satisfied their wishes from the Beauty... That is why they... no, we turn to crystal shards."

"... What are the other two ways...?"

"The second method is... Using violence, forcing one to return to the form of a crystal and directly absorb it... It's... yeah." - Idrila put her shirt back down after the process was done, Stelle looked over again. "... You have just witnessed it all, the reason why I am doing all of this..."

"..."

"Nameless, I beg of you. You do know where THEY are right? Tell me, even if THEY are dead... Please, I need to know, I need to see, I need confirmation... That I did not live and travel all these time for nothing. I am desperate... I just need to..."

Stelle can hear the desperation in her voice, and after a few moments of internal conflict, she agreed, but on a condition...

"I want to contact the Astral Express first, they too, deserve to know about this."

Idrila was surprised when she agreed, and she was flabbergasted for a few moments before awkwardly forming a smile on her face...

"Thank you..."

Idrila turned away and wiped the tears that were about to fall on her cheeks, while Stelle pulled her phone out and...

"The password is Akivilithehandsome... I didn't set the password don't ask me."

"..."

Stelle entered the password and gained access to the Cosmos internet, finally she will be able to update all these gacha games on her phone, but first she of course barged into the group chat of the Astral Express...

There were indeed a ton of messages ever since she was abducted by Idrila the Beauty, most of which are just asking about her whereabouts, and of course, everyone that Stelle knows have been sending her messages these days as well, each worrying about what has become of the Trailblazer...

She decided to take her time to reply to everyone later, as she headed into the Astral Express's group chat to finally post a message... Only to be shocked when she reads the newest message.

"Stelle, March, by the time you are reading this, we might have already left with Ruan Mei and Idrila... if they are who they claim to be, anyways, we are heading to Melustanin right now, the situation is dire for the Beauty now."

The mention of Idrila... another shard? And they are heading to Melustanin now? For what? Stelle immediately hopped onto social apps and caught up with the news...

— — — — —

Black Swan : oh well that sure is taking a lot of strength to move her here (she had just moved the frozen March 7th to the Garden of Recollection)

Pink Flamingo : Yeah what are you going to do with this popsicle?

Black Swan : I know this one doctor

White Dove : Are you sure that the doctor you are referring to is good? Because this thing ain't going to be....

Black Swan : trust me, nothing is going to be bad, it's just going to be a free clinic vist

Hawk Tuah : Uh... But literally every decision you made so far in the game all started out good until something drastically awfully bad happen

Peeking into Acheron's memories (gets cooked)

Leading the crew to Amphoreus for something as a normal expedition (now another whole faction of the Remembrance is getting involved, another Lord Ravager is imprisoned down below, and fking FULI's gaze just swept across the whole world)

Black Swan : nah trust me, it will be good this time

A few moments later

Dr House : It's not Lupus

(also sorry for the late upload my stupid ass forgot to upload this and i have completed this chapter like two weeks back)