Chapter 689 - 689: It's Perfectly Normal for a Five-Hundred-Year-Old Loli to Attend Starsea Kindergarten

"Oh..."

When everyone returned to the surface and saw the vast, empty desert once more, they felt as though they had stepped into another lifetime.

The prosperous, warm city of Gomag had vanished without a trace, as though it had only ever been a fleeting dream.

"She's pretty impressive."

Elysia leaned closer and examined the sleeping Almaria.

"If she hadn't run into us, her illusion could probably have fooled a lot of people."

Almaria was nowhere near as aggressive as the other Beasts. Everything she did was aimed at preserving the illusion's realism and stability as much as possible.

She also tried to lure outsiders into settling there permanently. Ordinary people who weren't sufficiently cautious could genuinely have fallen into her trap.

Whoosh—

Holding the unconscious Almaria in her arms, Ikaros boarded a shuttle and returned to the Astral Express.

"Phew—"

"That means all the Beasts on this planet have been dealt with now, right?"

Rita checked the reports sent over by the other teams through the holographic interface.

The "Beasts" occupying the land consisted of seventeen species in total, collectively known as the "Seventeen Beasts," along with vast numbers of lesser subspecies.

Among them, the "First Beast Who Laments For the Moon" was the only species with a single individual, Almaria herself.

As for the Second Beast, Fourth Beast, Sixth Beast, and the rest, they were essentially elite variants among the "Beasts," with each species numbering anywhere from a few individuals to dozens or even more than a hundred.

After the train crew's purge, only a small number of Beasts had been preserved as research specimens. The entire surface of the planet had otherwise been completely cleared.

The land was now terrifyingly quiet. Even the roars of Beasts and the sounds of them running and moving about had disappeared.

Aside from the members of the various teams and the Angeloids preparing the battlefield, there were no living animals left at all. Most of the planet's native wildlife had long since been devoured by the Beasts.

Only the howling of fierce winds sweeping yellow sand through the air remained.

"There's still one more thing."

Setsuna closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings for a moment.

Then he patted Elq, who had been quietly following beside him the entire time.

"These ruins don't just contain the First Beast. The body of a Visitor is also sealed here."

...

Boom—

The Angeloids cleared the way ahead.

High-energy weapons carved a sloping passage down through the ground, leading toward deeper layers beneath the surface.

Because the land had been buried beneath desert for so long, combined with the destruction caused by the Beasts, most structures that had once stood aboveground had now become subterranean ruins.

Facilities that had originally been built underground were buried even deeper.

It took several minutes before they cleared out a long underground passage.

"Ah, over there!"

Elq, who had stayed beside Setsuna without saying much, suddenly pointed in one direction.

"I... I'm there!"

"!!"

"You?!"

Chtholly jumped in fright. She too could sense a call coming from deep underground.

Fortunately, Setsuna had already blocked Elq's influence over the Leprechauns, preventing any interference with her mind.

Tap, tap, tap...

Following the path cleared by the Angeloids, they continued descending.

After passing through several underground corridors and branching paths, another modestly sized ruin appeared before them.

Dozens of white stone pillars surrounded the platform. The ceiling they once supported had long since collapsed beneath the pressure of countless years.

At the very center stood a crystal-clear block of ice roughly two stories tall.

Sealed within the pale cyan ice was a small girl.

Her red hair floated loosely around her, and she wore a pure white dress. Her face and build were identical to Elq's.

The only difference was the glaring wound in her chest, as though someone had pierced her straight through with a longsword.

"Ah..."

Everyone froze.

That was the physical body of the final Visitor, Elq Hrqstn.

In the previous era, humanity's hero had wounded Elq's body with the holy sword Seniolis, causing her to fall into a long slumber.

Her body had been frozen in a state where time itself stood still. Even after five hundred years, Elq still retained the appearance of a little girl.

Only her consciousness could maintain a faint connection with the outside world through dreams. She would occasionally appear in the form of an illusion or spirit body, and it was only recently that Setsuna had dragged her out of the void space.

"Go back."

Setsuna lightly patted Elq.

"The grudges between humanity and the Visitors from the previous era are over."

"This world won't be threatened by the Beasts anymore. The United Cities and the merchant guilds will all be incorporated into the Starsea Empire."

"You can start a new life."

"Oh..."

As the final survivor of the Visitor race, Elq had been excessively protected by the three Poteau ever since birth. Her emotions, knowledge, and other aspects were almost completely blank. She did not even understand what pain was.

It was only over the course of several centuries, while watching the Leprechauns fight, that she had picked up a little common sense about life.

"But... my body is already dead..."

The little girl tilted her head up as she asked.

"That tiny injury is nothing. Don't worry."

Setsuna gave her a light pat on the back.

Whoosh—

Elq's spirit body drifted toward the body sealed within the ice. She gently lay down inside it, and the two forms overlapped.

Crack!—

The ice crystal burst apart in an instant.

"Ugh..."

The moment she returned to her body, she felt a piercing pain in her chest.

Seniolis was a god-slaying sword, forged specifically to kill immortal bodies.

"It's fine."

Setsuna gently caught her, then swept a hand over the wound. The holy sword's curse was covered by Imaginary energy, and the injury rapidly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In less than two minutes, Elq was already bouncing around on the ground again.

"Ah..."

The little girl patted her cheeks and looked at her reflection, still feeling as though she were dreaming.

"Thank you, Big Brother!"

"Mm... You look a lot like our kind, but you're way stronger than everyone!"

"You're welcome."

Setsuna smiled and rubbed her head.

Visitors could hardly be judged by the same standard.

Although Elq had theoretically lived for five hundred years, she had spent most of that time alone in a dreamlike void, passing the time by watching the lives of other Leprechauns.

Her mental age was probably no more than ten. Once they returned, she could only attend school with the younger fairies and begin receiving an Imperial education from elementary level.

"Oh..."

Elq nodded in vague understanding.

Boom—

After taking away the First Beast and the final Visitor...

The spacecraft launched once more and returned to the Astral Express.

Setsuna reviewed the situation in this world. The floating continent cluster had been brought under Imperial rule, all the Leprechauns had been taken away, and the threat of the Beasts had been eliminated.

The three primary objectives had been completed. All that remained was some cleanup work, which could be left to the Angeloids.

"My lord! Have you already exterminated all the Beasts?"

A communication from the Great Sage came through, his excitement and shock impossible to hide.

The floating cities had also observed the activity on the surface. The Seventeen Beasts had been wiped out by the Starsea Empire as effortlessly as crushing chickens and dogs.

The planet's surface had returned to peace.

"Mm. But when it comes to expanding onto the land and rebuilding, follow Sophon's arrangements. Don't act on your own."

Setsuna answered casually.

In the original story, the various races of the floating cities had only united because of the threat posed by the Beasts. Once that threat disappeared, they would descend into vicious infighting again.

But that did not matter. In time, they would slowly learn the new rules.

"As for terraforming the planet..."

He glanced down at the world below, which had already been completely desertified. In the past, he would have needed the Bulins and Angeloids to spend some time restoring the environment, but now things were much simpler.

"Come on. Your turn to show off."

Setsuna called little Haruhi over, picked her up, and pointed downward.

"Add some oceans, some forests and grasslands, then throw in some animals. Turn it into a habitable planet, and we're done!"

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