Whoosh—
Almost at the exact moment Setsuna gave the order, Tohru reverted to her original form.
A massive green dragon.
A starship would be too large and conspicuous, making it easy for Synapse to detect.
Using Tohru's dragon form, paired with stealth magic, was far more appropriate.
Tohru lowered her head, allowing Setsuna and the others to climb aboard.
"Commander, this is your first time riding me, huh."
She huffed excitedly, nearly igniting the nearby forest with a burst of hot breath.
"Indeed."
Setsuna settled himself onto Tohru's neck. Riding a fantasy creature like this for the first time was certainly novel.
He held Belfast and Kurumi in front, while Mio gently embraced him from behind.
He was surrounded by softness on both sides, and his nose was filled with a faint, sweet fragrance.
"Belfast, Commander—don't manifest your rigging while I'm flying. I'll be crushed."
Tohru grumbled.
"Got it. What, do you think we're idiots?"
The head maid smacked one of the scales on Tohru's back.
Whoosh—whoosh—
"Tohru Airlines, taking off!!"
The dragon girl let out a roar.
Flapping her wings, she slowly ascended into the sky.
They soared upward.
Thanks to Mio's earlier tracking, they had already pinpointed Synapse's general direction.
This floating island usually hovered in the sky not far from Sorami Town, cloaked by advanced optical camouflage.
Normal radar couldn't detect it.
But now that they had direct contact with Daedalus, following the path wasn't difficult.
At the same time, they remained in contact with Daedalus.
From within Synapse, she stared at the screen, dumbfounded.
Right before her eyes, a girl had turned into a dragon.
And now they were flying toward her on that dragon!
For a super-scientific civilization, the issue wasn't whether something was possible. It was whether it made sense.
With advanced genetic tech, the Synapse elite could create a dragon.
The Wishing Stone Tablet could generate various dragons too.
But this straightforward shapeshifting magic? That belonged firmly in the realm of magic.
Some magic systems in certain worlds could be replicated with science—like the magecraft of the Nasuverse. Others were just flat-out incomprehensible.
Like the shipgirls from Azur Lane, the "Bulin," or dragon girls like Tohru.
"Are you guys from some sword-and-magic world or something?"
Daedalus couldn't help but comment.
"Tohru is from one, but not us. We come from three different places."
Setsuna casually replied, holding Belfast a little tighter.
The head maid wasn't used to this method of flying. She gripped tightly onto the spines along Tohru's back, her silver hair flying wildly and tickling his face.
"Three?! Which three?!"
The more Daedalus asked, the more confused she became.
Every one of this man's answers came with information she couldn't comprehend.
"We'll get to that later. Just send me your exact location."
Setsuna urged.
"Oh, right, right!"
Daedalus hurriedly sent Setsuna a map of Synapse.
Buzz—
Mio pressed both hands onto Tohru's back, her spiritual energy sweeping outward.
The group's figures instantly vanished into the sky.
Synapse's technology far surpassed humanity's, yet it lacked an effective all-weather surveillance system.
Perhaps due to arrogance, the Master of Synapse never considered that surface-dwelling humans could reach the heavens.
Even patrols of universal angels were rare.
Before long...
Riding on Tohru and braving the fierce winds of the upper sky, Setsuna and his group broke through the cloud layer.
"Commander, there's something ahead."
Tohru spoke in a low voice.
To the naked eye, only a vast ocean of clouds, blue skies, and the distant sun could be seen.
Radar detected nothing unusual, and the targeting system picked up no anomalies either.
But Setsuna noticed a slight shift in the gravitational wave readings.
The space ahead was distorted—something was hidden there.
"Very advanced cloaking technology."
He glanced down. They were still relatively close to Sorami Town. When they had first landed, not even radar had detected Synapse.
As they flew further—
Suddenly, after passing through a barrier, a massive floating island appeared before them.
At its center was a large main island, surrounded by several smaller satellite islands.
A rough estimate placed the total area at around 500,000 to 600,000 square kilometers—about the size of France.
The island's layout was sparse, its architecture reminiscent of ancient Greece.
Temples, plazas, and scattered buildings dotted the landscape.
Setsuna noticed a towering black obelisk standing in the center of the main island, with a massive temple-like structure nearby.
"That must be the Wishing Stone Tablet..."
The group couldn't help but glance at it a few extra times.
A stone said to grant any wish—even something as grand as creating a universe.
It represented the pinnacle of Synapse's technological achievements, and simultaneously, the root cause of their civilization's decline.
"If it's about wishing for gold, jewels, or magic power, Lukoa, Mio, and I could do that too."
Tohru grumbled.
"But creating a universe? That's pushing it..."
"I think it's not what you imagine it to be."
Setsuna stared at the obelisk and shook his head.
If the Wishing Stone Tablet could truly grant any wish without condition, why would Synapse be in such decay?
Why would the Master of Synapse descend into madness from loneliness?
If they could, they would've long since restored Synapse's former glory and ruled the multiverse as a super-civilization.
With Synapse's intelligence, it was likely not a matter of unwillingness, but of inability.
There were few people on the floating island. Setsuna didn't spot a single Synapse resident.
Most had already entered dreams, experiencing human life in blissful escapism through Daedalus's dream devices.
Only a few universal angels, with white wings and tight suits, patrolled the area.
They failed to notice the cloaked Tohru.
Following the map from Daedalus, Tohru bypassed the main island and landed on a remote, smaller floating isle.
"Tohru Airlines, landing successful! Ehehe~"
The dragon girl reverted to human form and gave Setsuna a playful grin.
Setsuna affectionately patted her head and began observing the surroundings.
The floating island was mostly empty, with only a single temple-like structure.
After taking just a few steps forward—
Thunk!
Tohru bumped headfirst into a translucent, membrane-like barrier, sending ripples across its surface.
"What the heck?!"
The dragon girl fell back and rubbed her forehead.
At a glance, the entire small floating island was enclosed in a faint, shimmering barrier.
"I am imprisoned here. No one may enter, and no one may leave."
Click—
As the temple doors slowly opened, Daedalus stepped out.
She wore nothing but a white robe, barefoot, resembling a Roman citizen from ancient times.
Her hair was a bit neater now, no longer covering her eyes.
With the four pristine white wings on her back, she did have a hint of an angelic aura.
Setsuna thought Daedalus looked like a flat-chested version of Kazane Mitsuki.
"This is the prison the Master of Synapse built for me—to keep me locked here for eternity. Not even Ikaros can break through it..."
"Unless you possess..."
Before Daedalus could finish her sentence—
Whoosh—
Mio activated her Domain and brought Setsuna and the others through the barrier.
"Huh? Setsuna, was that supposed to be hard?"
The Spirit of Origin clung to his arm, looking adorably clueless.
"For you, of course not."
Setsuna lightly pinched Mio's cheek.
Daedalus: "..."
As Synapse's chief scientist, I once worshipped science.
...
A few minutes later.
Daedalus invited Setsuna and the group into the living room, serving tea for them.
The room was decorated in cool tones of blue and black with a distinct sci-fi style. One could roughly make out what was supposed to be a table, chairs, or a bed.
Various holographic interfaces floated along the walls and control consoles, filled with indecipherable data and symbols.
"Unbelievable..."
Daedalus observed Setsuna and the girls beside him.
They were a little different from what she'd seen on screen.
The man before her was younger than she imagined, full of vitality and energy.
—Traits completely absent in Synapse, where everyone was already half-dead and gloomy.
Even the Master of Synapse was mentally unstable.
As for his companions...
She couldn't get a read on them. Tohru was a dragon, Mio wielded strange magic, and the other two—Daedalus had no clue.
After brief introductions,
Setsuna got straight to the point.
"Daedalus, as per our earlier agreement, I give you your freedom, and you give me what I want, right?"
"..."
Daedalus was stunned by the directness of the question.
She nodded mechanically.
"Ah, yes, right..."
"I'll sort and compile the materials you need shortly. I'm sorry... You arrived too quickly. I didn't have time to prepare..."
She was still in a daze.
Setsuna had arrived too fast.
In her plan, she expected it would take years, even decades, to escape this sky prison.
After all, Synapse residents had long lifespans and plenty of time to try different strategies.
But Setsuna had shown up with a Spirit of Origin and brute-forced a miracle.
Things had gone so smoothly that Daedalus felt a sense of unreality.
They had just marched straight in, bypassing Synapse's surveillance and patrolling universal angels, and even shattered the protective barrier?!
What about the Master of Synapse? That ruler of Synapse—hadn't he noticed any of this?
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