Her Beacon (Acheron x Caelus)

Chapter Four

The streets of Penacony glistened. Beneath a twilight canopy, neon glow softened the perpetual night. Caelus stood there, his gaze roaming across an urban tapestry woven with the threads of a thousand lights. Buildings towered like silent sentinels adorned in electronic banners, their screens paraded moving images – jugglers, dancers, and starships – that drew the gazes and eager applause of onlookers. It was as if the city itself was alive, pulsating to the rhythm of an unseen heartbeat.

Here, a giant holographic cocktail glass shimmered, toasting to the heavens with its golden effervescence. There, animated figures danced across billboards, inviting onlookers into tales of romance and comedy penned by dreamers. Hovering vehicles trailed streams of light as they glided along their aerial routes, their humming engines a harmony amidst the nocturne of the city.

Amidst this landscape, a sense of déjà vu teased the edges of Caelus' mind. He passed individuals whose demeanors were seemingly normal by Penacony standards, yet each carried a history as intricate and shadowed as the alleyways they walked past.

His thoughts wandered, drawing parallels between the eccentric populace of Xianzhou Luofu and the denizens here. The former, driven by desperation and brilliance, fervently followed the Aeon of Abundance with a zeal that skirted the edges of law and sanity. In comparison, Penacony's inhabitants were an amplified rendition—each person an embodiment of fervent emotion, from joy to sorrow, rage to apathy.

Caelus chuckled at the memory of Hanya's frustration, her usually stoic demeanor cracking in the face of the followers' cryptic challenges—a puzzle they wore as confidently as a badge of honor. It was only with Xueyi's intervention that her anger abated, leaving behind a pouting Hanya, forever immortalized in a snapshot now safely kept with Caelus. 'Safekeeping,' indeed.

Shifting his musings, Caelus acknowledged the innovative spirit of Belobog's citizens, where Serval's infectious enthusiasm for invention and Pela's sharp instincts made them as memorable as the mysteries they unraveled. This was a stark contrast to Xianzhou's strict societal norms which Caelus would gladly trade for the free-spirited camaraderie of his friends.

In the Dreamscape, Caelus encountered a spectrum of emotional responses. Some greeted him with boisterous cheers, others met him with spiteful lashes, and a few shared their woes with tears that flowed freely. Then there were those who remained aloof, seemingly untouched by the world's ebb and flow. It was as if he needed to adjust some internal gear to attune to their wavelengths.

Recollection snapped back to the present, and he remembered why he stood amidst this spectacle of Penacony's nocturnal charm. He had led Acheron here, to a segment of the Golden Hour where life was a playground rather than a carnival—a collection of attractions from musical contests to games of chance, and, of course, the drinks.

Ah, the drinks. They had taken a moment to rest at a bar, where Acheron perched on her stool with the elegance of a lady of high society, sipping sparkling water with delicate restraint. Caelus, in his quest for new experiences, had unwisely indulged in alcohol, an adventure he now regretted with every fiber of his being. The Stellaron within him, that unique essence that marked him as a Trailblazer, apparently did not include a tolerance for spirits. Cursed be Nanook for this oversight.

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In the neon-lit expanse of Penacony's dreamscape, Acheron's gaze lingered on Caelus, her curiosity tinged with a newfound concern. His form lay sprawled beside an equally inebriated stranger who, in a spectacle of the bizarre, vomited rainbows into the metaphysical void. "Perhaps, he is as clueless in directions like me, in more ways than another," she mused, noting Caelus' tendency for clumsy spontaneity—a trait she found somewhat endearing, though it contrasted sharply with her own calculated precision.