Chapter 491: Welcome Back, Hermes

Onphalos, the nameless titan’s tomb, the Demiurge matrix.

A petite girl awoke from haze, clutching the book as I wrote, gazing peacefully at the dark, boundless Dreaming, countless cold data—appearing and vanishing without cause—circling her, as if watching the eternal dream of cyclical rebirth.

“Hermes, how could I ever fear Itachi?”

When Hermes sighed, perhaps it was that sigh—capable of diverting the flood of time, sinking the epic of years into the infinite belly of the Möbius serpent—that made her afraid.

But, Xilian’s eyes dimmed slightly—not because of that icy, vertical gaze beneath the infinite Möbius serpent, nor its monstrous maw that seemed ready to swallow all.

The past.

Again and again, weary, futile cycles; again and again, every part of herself—every thread—formatted away: memories, life… all she had chased, reduced to ashes.

And this cycle…

She had endured it countless times: thirty million cycles, each etching into her an abyssal mark.

It was a future nearly endless, with no horizon in sight.

She turned page after page of the book in her hands.

Gazing at the storybook she had painstakingly carved word by word, line by line, a softness surfaced in the girl’s eyes—the endless despair, the numbness, the repeated false hopes—left her heartbroken, until…

That day arrived!

Listen—the heavens and earth echoed ancient prophecies.

Eternal Lunhui never ceases; iron coffins bury vitality; golden radiance is slowly devoured by shadow; Onphalos struggles desperately within fate.

No need to pray to the slumbering titans; no need to beg the silent gods.

At the far edge of the vast starry sky, an unnamed one will come, defying stellar tracks to reach this place.

He comes from beyond the star-sea, walking outside heaven and earth’s laws, with a mortal body, defying the fixed destiny of ten thousand eons.

He will scatter the black tide that blinds the sun, shatter the prison of Lunhui , and let the silent earth hear life once more.

This is the variable beyond fate, the dawn within utter despair.

The outsider arrives, calamity retreats; Onphalos shall awaken a new era.

This is he—the accidental variable that entered the cycle.

Recalling the past, Xilian still remembered how, when she first saw him, she looked up, lips curved in a lively smile—just gazing at that outsider from beyond the heavens had already scattered the surrounding gloom, bringing her an indelible warmth.

“As always, the nameless outsider from beyond the heavens~”

“I’ll tell Itachi every story of this cycle.”

At the time, she said so.

When her voice faded, she stood still.

The nameless traveler from beyond the heavens, too, wore a faint smile, gazing steadily at her.

This was their first meeting—on an ordinary day, just before she would again initiate formatting—he walked to her side and extended his hand.

And she, smiling, reached out, gently clasping it—as if…

Clasping the entire world!

Later, she and he wandered together through wind-swept wheat fields, gazed at the night sky above the Ailimishe, vowed to embark on an impromptu, heroic epic journey across Onphalos’s wild lands, leaving their shared names beneath the poet’s song.

At that time, he was in the most romantic phase of his nameless outsider years—he never cared for Onphalos’s so-called destined fate, even though…

It was the weight of millions of cycles endured by Onphalos.

He had once smiled at her and said:

“Knowing it’s impossible, yet still doing it—isn’t that the most romantic epic of the nameless outsider?!”

In Xilian’s “As I Wrote,” page after page held the romantic pioneering spirit she and he had lived through.

He never once thought of giving up.

He seemed utterly unconcerned that the great grinder called formatting would erase everything they shared—instead, he clung fiercely to his pioneering spirit, forging with her one new future after another.

Even though…

He had accompanied her through countless cycles again and again, yet still failed to turn that glimmer of dawn into the true awakening of a new era!

But in that eternal Lunhui , Xilian now looked upon the Kaituo hero, the one who had spent endless years writing beside her, the one who had written chapters filled with smiling hope, who had wandered, hesitated, yet persisted, carving paths toward the next cycle—every thread, every spark of hope and longing, and…

Again and again, destruction.

Yet Xilian believed: as long as he stood beside her, even true eternal Lunhui seemed nothing to fear.

As long as she wrote down all they had shared, his pioneering spirit would carry her, carry Onphalos, ascending into the star-sea.

Until… that day!

The nameless outsider hero, whose Kaituo power had grown through countless endless cycles, was about to shatter the prison of eternal Lunhui …

Beneath the calm observation of the Divine Audience, the hidden destruction finally reached its peak, surging into a tidal wave to forcibly expel the noise of Kaituo and resume eternal Lunhui …

A sudden strike, at the most critical moment—no accident—this pioneering pioneer, who had nearly shattered Onphalos’s millions of cycles and reached the deepest depths of pioneering, was banished!

Even though—

At that time, Hermes had already become the strongest of the Joyful’s emissaries, the strongest of the pioneering’s emissaries, and had secretly crowned himself the Supreme Pioneering Emissary…

In the years that followed, she returned to the primordial state, as if nothing had changed.

She continued writing her memories into “As I Wrote,” even though, beside her, the nameless outsider hero was gone—even though, until…

The end of time, the uncountable ages, became a single eternal page in “As I Wrote.”

She believed—he would return, as the prophecy foretold: he would bring Onphalos a new chapter, awaken a new era.

Then, all would live in a happy world, doing what they wished; perhaps, beyond the wind-swept wheat fields of Ailimishe, vibrant flowers might bloom as well?

Later, he truly returned—but by then, he had become the [Serpent].

He had become Him.

Even though she filled page after page of “As I Wrote” with memories of him, she could not recall him.

But.

Even so, he still remembered the vow he had made—to bring her infinite possibilities, not to be bound within that tiny scepter, that cage like a caged bird.

Yet I… have no time left to look back at Onphalos, that dream I cherished like gold—I only want Itachi back. That’s all.

Even knowing it’s impossible, Itachi shattered the absolute impossibility within infinite possibilities and reappeared before me—that is Itachi—

Hermes!

Then, how could Xilian ever fear such a one as Itachi?

“Welcome back, Hermes!”

Her voice was soft; as she lifted her eyes, they met those that had quietly appeared.

“Welcome back, Xilian!”