Primum Mobile.
That's another term used to explain Purpose, Destination or Goal.
The only difference is that the term Primum Mobile is applied to Aeons, as their might and will is something worthy of a completely different term to define it.
An Aeon's Primum Mobile is what gives Aeon their strength, their source of power and what makes them the apex of the universe.
But it also restrains them, constricting and locking them to it.
I will explain this with an example.
Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction.
He derives his power from pure Destruction as a concept, but is unable to gain any strength from something beyond.
If Nanook finds the corpse of another Aeon with a crystal full of energy, he will be unable to use it, as it's not Destruction.
Nothing concrete is known about such beings, so we don't know how they gained the ability to obtain strength in such a way.
Can Aeons grow even stronger?
Could Nanook evolve into something more after Destroying another Aeon?
We don't know, and probably never will.
But as interesting and fascinating as studying the source of an Aeon's power is, we can't forget about the constriction that comes with it.
Nanook can Destroy everything, but that is all he will ever be able to do.
Destroying is all he will ever be able to do, and in a certain way, it means the Aeon is also a prisoner of its own power.
Which also reflects their path.
Nanook will Destroy.
Lan will Hunt.
And the Aeon of Enigmata, Mythus, will Obscure.
Those are only some examples, but ones that represent very well what an Aeon's Primum Mobile means.
We won't need to worry about the HARMONY obliterating a solar system.
But we can't expect the DESTRUCTION to rebuild one.
And these predetermined actions are also the cause of the famous confrontations between Aeons.
Lan and Yao Shi, the Hunt and the Abundance, the ones destined to bring death to their prey and the ones for whom the concept of death doesn't apply.
Nous and Mythos, the Erudition and the Enigmata, the one seeking knowledge and the one whose whole purpose is to erase it.
And many more, defined by the Primum Mobile that forms their own being.
Not all conflicts are as loud as the one between the Hunt and the Abundance, but they are everywhere, shaping the universe we live in.
This is pretty much all we know about the Aeons and the source of their power, at least for now.
Studying forces such as Aeons is something unfathomably complicated due to obvious reasons, but also because only the brightest human minds can hope to comprehend the nebulous notions behind the universe itself.
But I will leave you with a question.
Aeons are the strongest.
Aeons are the force that moves the universe.
And yet...they are enslaved to their own power.
Are they truly omnipotent then?
Are they slaves like the rest of us are?
Are they allowed to have opinions, or even that has been deprived of them?
And lastly....are they seeking freedom?
"Hmm, that was interesting" mused Keith with a pondering look, closing the book and putting it into its bookshelf.
'Is that why Yao Shi seeks me for?' wondered Keith. 'Maybe her Primum Mobile forces her to chase any Life she senses for some reason, and my existence is an anomaly she is curious about. Maybe she just wants the foreign thing inside me to do something else, and the same foreign thing is making her 'free' to chase something other than her Primum Mobile. Or maybe I'm just too stupid to understand what an Aeon wants from me.'
"I thought the same when I read it for the first time" nodded Welt, who also closed his own book. "But books about Aeons can only be found in special places, and Herta's Space Station is the only place I have access to."
"Are you that curious about Aeons?" asked Keith, looking at the brown-haired man.
"I am, it's difficult not to be interested in them" argued Welt with a small nod.
"Does it have with the world you are supposed to come from?" inquired Keith. "You said the 'invaders' were called the Ones Above right?"
"Yes, I thought that if I understood the principles behind the workings of the universe, I could get a clue on how to defeat them" nodded Welt, looking at Keith with a curious expression. "But why did you say 'invaders' between comas?"
"For all I know, the humans in that world might have been the ones doing the invading" shrugged Keith. "But I hope you get a clue, I will help when I can."
"I appreciate it" said Welt with his characteristically serious expression. "Why are you interested in Aeons?"
"...because one of them is chasing me?" asked Keith, deadpanning at Wel.
"...my bad" said Welt with a small cough to hide his embarrassment. "Yes, that sounds like a good reason."
"And there is also Stelle" explained Keith with a sigh, turning around to leave the library. "I already told both you and Himeko, but in one day or another, Stelle's life is linked to a Stellaron, which are lifeforms carrying the will of an Aeon, or something close to that."
"Are you not going to tell her you knew her before she lost her memory?" inquired Welt, passing through the door Keith kept open.
It was interesting to say the least, the only non-sliding door of the whole Station was the one of the library.
"No" replied Keith without hesitation. "She has a new open path in front of her, and placing expectations that don't belong to her isn't something I'm willing to do. I will always stand by her side, both due to the woman she was and the one she is now, but I think letting things go their own way is the best, both for the rest and mainly for her."
"That's admirable" noted Welt. "Even more so when she might recover her memory."
"I still don't know what the deal with her memory is" confessed Keith. "We are both amnesic, but she still retains some ticks and habits. If she recovers her memory at some point, she will probably kill me in embarrassment."
"She seems weirdly attached to you" conceded Welt, making Keith pursed his lips.
"Yeah, and it's unsettling" said Keith. "I don't know why she feels that way, maybe someone implanted some weird things in her head."
'Or it might be what I did to that Stellaron' thought Keith, but in the end, he couldn't be sure of anything.
"I understand" said Welt with a nod. "Speaking of which, I heard Stelle was collaborating with Herta about something."
"Poor Herta" sighed Keith. "Nothing involving that excessively energetic woman can go well."
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And for once, Keith was right.
"I refuse to enter there again" said Stelle with a frown and crossed her arms.
"You agreed to help with this, so you are going in there again." A puppet with brown hair and an apathetic expression pointed at a small platform in front of Stelle.
"And I'm telling you I'm not going in there" insisted Stelle with a firm look. "It's extremely uncomfortable, and all I see is black."
"Get in there" said Herta, trying to push Stelle towards the panel.
"No, it doesn't even work" replied Stelle, not budging.
"Well well well" said a voice belonging to a person who just entered the room. "Thought you'd just help yourself to a man's personal belongings?"
Both Stelle and Herta looked at the man talking, only to see a man with purple hair and equally purple eyes, walking towards them with a solemn expression.
"You scheming little thief" added Keith, stopping in front of Herta. "The gods demand repentance!"
"...." Herta, for the first time in a loooong while, couldn't comprehend what was happening in front of her.
"What are you talking about?" asked an equally confused Stelle.
"Forget it, it's a famous quote" shrugged Keith, who then looked at Herta. "Well well well, look at who we have here. My eyes see nothing but a little scammer, who sold a puppet to a na- hey, even if I'm not that interesting, I'm still talking."
"Get in there" said Herta, trying to push Stelle again.
Herta, just like the rest of the members of the Genius Society, was a bit quirky.
She could see a horse doing the moonwalk in front of her, and if she didn't find it interesting, she would simply ignore it.
She didn't know the purple-haired man in front of her, and as such, she erased his existence from her privileged mind.
"What is going on?" asked Keith curiously, finding the scene in front of him more interesting than mocking Herta for giving him a defective body.
"I agreed to form part of an experiment because...." Stelle started explaining, but stopped mid-way with a confused expression.
"You don't even remember why you agreed to participate" nodded Keith with understanding. "Understandable, you are like a kid high on sweets at all times."
"Be as it were" said Stelle, looking down at the small puppet trying to push her. "This thing is not working."
"It works perfectly" replied the puppet. "So get in there again and beckon a few Aeons so I can study them?"
"Aeons?" asked Keith with his interest picked. "What do you mean Aeons."
But as Herta kept ignoring him, he took drastic measures.
"Put me down" said the deadpanning puppet, who found herself a meter away from the ground.
"Not until you tell me what Aeons have to do with anything" said Keith.
"I will kick you out of my station" threatened Herta.
"And I saved it" countered Keith. "Along with the woman you probably scammed into participating in whatever this is."
And that made Herta think for a second.
She was the owner of this space station, and as such, she was naturally aware of everything.
Including the reason why HER space station had moved when it was almost in shambles, a man was somehow attracting Yaoshi's attention, was interesting, to say the least.
So she had quickly checked it, only to realize that indeed, a few formerly deserted planets had turned into ones teeming with life.
"Ok" so Herta, with her one-in-a-universe brain, nodded.
Keith put her on the ground, and approached Stelle while Herta manipulated the small screen that Stelle refused to get close to.
"What's wrong?" asked the purple-haired man.
"I was supposed to enter some strange simulation" explained Stelle. "I was bored as March stayed in the Astral Express, Dan Heng is in his room, Himeko is having negotiations with someone in the space station and both you and Welt were in the library. So I thought it would be a good day to pass the time."
"Simulation?" mused Keith with a pensive expression.
"I was supposed to act like I was Akivili, and Aeons would pay attention to me or something" shrugged Stelle, who hadn't understood the finest details.
"...." Keith found himself at a loss for words as there were many things that sounded really weird in that sentence.
But there was one thing he was sure of.
If Stelle was supposed to pass off as Akivili, he didn't want to be even close to that simulation.
Even if he was nothing more than a remnant, a copy, or simply a washed-up version of Akivili, he didn't want to get involved in impersonating himself, as only Elio knew what would happen to him.
"Good luck" said Keith, saluting to the betrayed-looking Stelle.
"I'm done" said Herta, taking a step back.
"And we both are too" said Stelle crossing her arms in front of her.
"Yes, you are" replied the deadpanning Herta, who pressed a button in a small screening coming from her wrist.
And much to the non-puppets surprise, the ground they were in leaned to one side, pushing them to the place Stelle had refused to get close to.
Both of them immediately reacted and jumped away, but a capsule of crystal descended from the ceiling, trapping them in place.
"And done you are" repeated Herta. "Bring me some data."
And with that heartless sentence, she activated the Universe Simulacrum.
"You scammer!" shouted Keith, banging the transparent wall. "I swear I will burn your lib-"
But he disappeared, along with Stelle.
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Keith found himself in what he thought was the middle of space.
Darkness, stars shining in the distance, and cosmic dust create motley and awe-inspiring structures.
"Not again" grumbled Stelle, making Keith look at her.
"Where the fuck are we?" asked Keith, getting spooked by the moment.
"How should I know?" asked back Stelle with a frown.
"You know, it doesn't matter" said Keith. "Nerd! Take us out now!!"
"No" but a voice belonging to Herta sounded all around them, as Herta spoke to a small microphone in the room both Keith and Stelle had been before. "You attracted Yao Shi in the real world, do the same here."
"Do you think I want to be even near that thing?!" shouted Keith. "Take me out!"
"This is just a simulation" replied Herta, completely unmoved by Keith's plea.
"And pray tell why wouldn't a simulation be real" argued Keith.
"It seems you are aware of certain things" said Herta. "Should you be in danger, I will take you out. But Akivili was known for not caring about anything but the unknown, and your signal is what he should have looked like back when he was alive."
"You said the same before" said Stelle with a frown. "And I was still ejected from this place when this thing malfunctioned."
"What does tha-" Keith was about to ask, but he felt it.
Something big, enormous, colossal, was approaching.
It might have been a 6th sense or something his soul was screaming to him, but he felt like a small prawn being looked at by a shark big enough to occupy the entire ocean he was living in.
"Yao Shi is coming" informed Herta.
"I don't want to be here" muttered Keith, feeling how that sensation of being stalked increased.
He felt the same expectations you felt were you were swimming in the sea looking at the beach.
You expected a wave to hit your back, but for some reason, no wave arrived.
So you thought 'Wow, the next one is big', because the longer the time between waves was, the bigger the wave would be in the end.
And right now, he was still waiting while sensing the water below him disappear.
He could even see his feet when the water disappeared, revealing how monstrous the next wave would be.
And yet, it didn't arrive, leading to a build-up that told him the next wave would be a tsunami that would disintegrate him due to the sheer strength it would carry.
"I need you to talk to her" said Herta, making Keith think that she didn't understand at all what he was feeling. "This could be a unique chance to know what can attract the attention of an Aeon."
'I already know that, and believe me, I don't want to know what will happen to me once she arrives' thought Keith, looking everywhere trying to sense the Aeon approaching. 'For all I know, she might eviscerate me just to take away that foreign thing.'
But suddenly, and almost miraculously, that sensation disappeared.
And just after that, Stelle and Keith's vision turned dark, and both people reappeared in the room with white walls.
"And once again, I'm back here without any explanation" grumbled Stelle, feeling a faint headache.
"No, we were so close" said Herta hurriedly, pushing the scowling Stelle again. "Get back there."
"Fzzz...fzzzz"
3 people looked at a small radio Keith took from his pocket, and Keith waited for the voice he expected to hear.
"Is this even working?" Himeko's voice came out of the small phone-like artefact in Keith's hand. "Keith, if you are hearing me, which I hope you do after telling me to use this old thing to contact you, I already finished my business here."
"You heard her" said Keith with a frown, holding Herta's small body and putting her down on one side. "We are leaving".
"But-"
"Goodbye" said a happy Stelle, now free from entering that weird simulation again.
"Oh, Herta" said Keith from the door. "I gave Asta a big suit full of money, you know, to pay for that stupidly broken body you made me."
Herta looked blankly at Keith, not remembering having crafted a bod-
Until the memory of a small and bright purple soul floating in a special tank while she created a body similar to what she had built appeared in her mind.
"Wai-!"
But the door had already closed.
So Herta was left thinking, about that purple soul, and what happened today.
Stelle had accused her of creating a machine that didn't work, but Herta knew that wasn't what happened.
She had created the Simulacrum with Screwllum and Ruan Mei, the best in their respective areas, how couldn't it fail?
No, the machine used to study more about Aeons hadn't malfunctioned at all, and Herta was left wondering about the results she had gotten.
'I wonder' mused the woman controlling a dozen puppets from a far-away planet. 'Why was IX the first one to arrive at Akivili's location.'
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"Uff, good to be back" said Keith with clear relief.
Even if nothing had happened in the end, he was still feeling the pressure of being looked on by a being far bigger and more powerful than he would ever be.
And yet....he couldn't help but think of that darkness in the end.
It had also been crushing, and he had felt his mind dispersing, like a cube of sugar in a giant bottle of water.
But why had that darkness felt somehow...familiar?
"Keith, did you finish what you had to do?" asked Himeko, looking at the distraught purple-haired man.
"U-Uhn, yeah, Herta was being weird for a change" nodded Keith.
"We are ready to depart" added Himeko with a small smile.
"Oh yes!" shouted the excitable March, grabbing Stelle's hand and guiding her to a nearby couch. "It's your first travel with the Astral Express right?!"
"It is" nodded Stelle, with excitement shining in her golden eyes.
The whole crew was reunited for this, as they always did every time they started travelling to a new destination.
Welt sat calmly on a couch, with a book in one hand while looking through the window, thinking about his home planet.
Dan Heng also sat, with his eyes closed but with an almost invisible smile on his face.
March talked animatedly with Stelle, gesturing with her hands about how travelling with the Astral Express felt like.
Himeko sipped elegantly her coffee, but a proud and gentle smile couldn't be hidden.
Stelle looked at March, but as if she had remembered something, looked around and patted the seat next to her when her eyes made contact with Keith's.
And the purple-haired man complied, sitting between Stelle and Dan Heng, and ready to experience travelling in the strangely comforting train once again.
"E-hem!" the speaker carried Pom-Pom's voice, making Stelle look at them. "We are about to depart. Our next destination."
The train started to hum as the motor started picking up, and the landscape they were able to see from the windows started to slowly change.
"Jarilo IV."
And the Astral Express disappeared, ready to cross the starry sky once again.