Under the moonlight, a figure in plain casual clothes walked up the mountain path, a face mask covering most of her face.
She stopped a few paces away from the deep pit, looking first at Lightweaver crouching by the edge, and then at the crystallized soil on the ground that was still faintly reflecting light.
“I knew you'd be here,” Meruru said, pulling down her mask to reveal the beauty mark at the corner of her eye. “I was wondering if I'd run into you on my way up.”
“You felt that final fluctuation from the Erosion Body during the battle today, didn't you?”
At the very last moment before the Erosion Body was destroyed, an extremely pure, unknown mana had erupted from the hilltop, causing the entire observation device to spike abnormally.
Meruru walked to the edge of the pit and stood side-by-side with Lightweaver, staring down into the massive crater.
“This Erosion Body was different from the ones before,” Lightweaver said, standing up and brushing the dirt off her knees. “There was something in its mana structure that doesn't belong to this world. It could absorb this world's mana and convert it into its own nutrients. Such a thing shouldn't exist here.”
She turned around to face Meruru. “As for why I'm here, it's because I feel this thing has some connection to me. As for the exact connection, I can't tell you just yet.”
“This Erosion Body...” Lightweaver paused, looking down at her open palm.
The moonlight made her fingers look almost translucent. She slowly clenched her hand into a fist, then released it.
“The source of its power isn't on the ground. It's in the sky.”
Meruru stood quietly in place.
This silence made Qiluo feel that tonight, the hilltop was more suitable for telling the truth than ever before.
“It wasn't an ordinary Erosion Body. We just got lucky this time and found its weakness. But if we encounter another one of its kind next time, we might not be so lucky.”
The next words were the real focus of tonight—about that star.
She had been avoiding this issue. Whether in her diary or in casual chats with everyone, she had deliberately avoided mentioning that calamity star hanging in the sky.
But now, she felt she needed an ally.
Lightweaver turned to face Meruru.
“Has the Association's Observation Department noticed that there's a star in the sky shining brighter than ever before?”
Lightweaver spoke, “To the east-northeast, it's the first one to light up at dusk. A spectral analysis should show that its mana wavelength is completely different from a normal star.”
“Every record of abnormal celestial phenomena in the Observation Department's database from the past century will be sent to you within three days. If the encryption level is too high and requires authorization, I'll sign off on it.”
Meruru stood in the moonlight, her plain casual clothes fluttering gently in the night breeze.
Meruru didn't press her on what she meant, nor did she respond with probing questions and speculation like she had at the Association's café.
This left the next line of explanation Lightweaver had prepared completely stuck in her throat.
“You're not going to ask why I need them?”
“You'll tell me when you feel the time is right. You said on the hilltop that this thing has some connection to you but can't say what it is yet, so I'll just wait until you can.”
Meruru folded her mask, slipped it into her pocket, took a few steps forward, and suddenly changed her tone.
“I just feel like I have a responsibility too. If this battle is going to continue, I can't let you carry the weight alone.” Meruru tapped her temple with her index finger.
“Don't forget, I'm an idol. Have you ever seen an idol who hides behind the scenes and lets her friend face danger alone? Besides, you're not alone anymore. There are far more people standing behind you than you think.”
“But before that, I have a question for you.”
Meruru looked at Lightweaver's profile, finally asking the question she had been holding back all evening.
“...Did you end up catching that fish-type Erosion Body on your end?”
Lightweaver had assumed she was going to ask about the calamity star, the mana structure analysis she had just mentioned, or perhaps authorization issues with the Association's database.
“No. It hid deep in the water weeds, and I lost track of it,” Lightweaver replied, leaning against a rock by the pit with her arms crossed, her tone as detached as usual.
Hearing this answer, Meruru continued to study Lightweaver intently.
Lightweaver felt a bit self-conscious under her gaze and was about to say something to change the subject, but Meruru spoke first.
“You fought a fish-type Erosion Body.”
“Yes.”
Meruru nodded, having fully expected this answer.
“But the Observation Department didn't receive any reports of a fish-type Erosion Body today. During the timeframe you mentioned, the entire mana monitoring network only detected a single abnormal fluctuation—the B+ Tier one right here on the hilltop.”
Lightweaver said nothing.
Meruru took a few steps forward, standing under the moonlight as she slowly raised her hands.
She cupped her hands toward the moon, letting the light slip through her fingers like a handful of water that could never be held.
The moonlight illuminated half of her face, leaving the other half shrouded in shadow, the boundary between light and dark perfectly tracing the mischievous curve of her lips.
The bridge of her nose served as the dividing line, splitting her face in two.
On the bright side, tiny specks of light clung to her eyelashes like accidentally brushed-on sugar crystals; on the dark side, a faint, cunning glint flickered in her eye.
“Alright, Miss Lightweaver, you are under arrest! The charge is—”
She deliberately dragged out the final word, raising her hands in front of Lightweaver as if performing a pantomime to a script only she knew.
With the backs of her hands facing up, her ten fingers lightly tapped in turn, as if playing an invisible piano or performing some mysterious ritual.
The night breeze swept between them at that exact moment, fluttering the loose strands of hair at Meruru's temples and causing the moonlight to shimmer.
“The charge is... 'fishing' on the job while claiming to be fighting an Erosion Body!”
Lightweaver finally lost her composure, sounding a bit annoyed. “...Can't you be serious for once?”
She turned her face away, but Meruru's sharp eyes clearly caught the faint blush on her cheek, impossible to hide under the moonlight.
“I am being very serious about arresting you.” Meruru extended her hands a bit further, her fingers wiggling as if demanding something.
Lightweaver didn't reach out. She merely tilted her head and looked at her. “The charges are baseless. I wasn't fishing.”
Meruru lowered her hands and leaned against the rock, finally unable to hold back a chuckle.
“Then what were you doing?”
“...Feeding the fish.”
Meruru froze for a second, then burst into laughter.
Propping herself against the rock with one hand, she covered her mouth with the other, her shoulders shaking for quite a while before she managed to compose herself.
“You ditched them to go feed the fish, and then turned around and lied to Mingyue that you were fighting a fish-type Erosion Body?”
Rate on N.U.
