"Breaking news: Caspelinat-VIII was completely destroyed three system hours ago. An unknown concentrated energy entity reduced the entire planet to fragments."
"IPC representative Ms. Pearl provided no further details. Casualty figures remain unknown."
"Galactic songstress Miss Robin was reportedly on Caspelinat singing for peace at the time. Her current whereabouts are unknown. We sincerely hope this tragedy has not claimed her."
"Additionally, the Family has yet to issue any statement—"
The television shattered under Sunday's fist. He strode out without a glance, eyes fixed on the colossal sun that had materialized over Penacony.
"Anming..."
"What have you done to Robin?!"
His roar tore through the sky. He knew she was there.
No justification could excuse harming Robin. That was his final line.
White feathers rained down from the heavens. Beneath the all-consuming sun, golden eyes slowly opened—
And the white-haired boy gazing upward realized:
He was the sky.
Four System Hours Earlier
The moment the Sage's Bullet struck Anming, the sacred flames of liquid crystal annihilated his body—yet still tore toward Robin's heart.
Time froze.
Anming stared at his newly regenerated right arm. He was dead. What remained was something closer to a soul.
The power once shackled by flesh now bent reality with a gesture.
He tapped the bullet with one finger. The projectile capable of slaying Emanators dissolved into white feathers.
The cost? His form lost color—the hue of his very soul.
"So this is my desire?"
Gently, he cupped Robin's face.
"Little bird, you'll be Eden's first human."
Light enveloped her as feathers veiled her eyes—
A cocoon of down.
When time resumed, pure radiance devoured the earth. For miles around Anming, all existence dissolved into sacred dust.
The gun-wielding girl. The roaring rebels. The cowering civilians. Sky, land, beast—erased.
From the void emerged a white-haired boy crowned with a divine halo. Pristine. A newborn god, shedding mortal limits.
Feathers drifting through the air turned black upon touching his sky.
"My... god."
Pearl's whisper trembled inside the retreating ship. "Am I witnessing a deity's birth?"
This was no mere Child of Order. A nascent god, already wielding power beyond Emanators.
She glimpsed Dragonsteel clutching a black teardrop gem and stiffened.
"Not bad taste, huh?" Dragonsteel grinned. "I like black."
"WARNING: High-origin energy surge—Caspelinat undergoing internal collapse. Total annihilation in 0.5 system hours."
Pearl nodded. "Full retreat. Seems you won't get to challenge him after all."
"You should be grateful."
"Maybe."
Dragonsteel knew even with the cornerstone's power, she stood no chance.
But who could resist peeking into "Eden"?
"The first Eden is born. His goal can't be just Caspelinat..." Pearl's eyes widened. "Penacony?!"
Beneath that holy light, Caspelinat-VIII vanished—reborn as Anming's inaugural Eden.
Carrying the white cocoon, he returned home.
Post-Stellaron, Kakipe had been deemed irreparable. But now, feathers became buildings. Grass sprouted anew. Pollution evaporated.
In the hospital, he laid the cocoon down.
"Here, only happiness exists."
An Eden without sorrow.
Memories took flesh. His parents. The bakery. The park.
Order's dream wasn't his aim. This Eden would overwrite reality itself.
The self who'd failed against the Stellaron.
Ena, who fell from the sky with an unfinished song.
The online slander. The battlefield carnage. The ruthless corporate schemes.
The world was a festering disease.
The path to light was solitary.
For this, he'd endured as Order's child, swallowing the world's darkness whole.
To build Eden, he couldn't succumb to it.
Robin's hopeful eyes had been his sole tether. Her voice—all that was good.
A golden sword materialized. His halo blazed, becoming a second sun.
Even if it burned his soul to ash, he'd bring true happiness.
"Dad, can music change the world?"
"The world may never be happy. But we can give people fleeting joy. That's enough."
"I want everyone to be happy!"
Anming closed his eyes, hearing childhood piano notes. Now, his blade would play the tune that remade existence.
White feathers fell over Penacony, their tips igniting into golden meteors.
He caught one, watching it crumble to ash.
"Deceivers: unforgiven."
"Tyrants: purified by flame."
"The corrupt: no mercy."
"The lamenting: guilty unto death."
"Defiers: no quarter."
Golden wings became the sky—a shelter and a pyre.
Anming whispered:
"False happiness must end."