Inside the Fire Moth base—
"Mei! What's the situation? You said you detected the Herrscher of Finality's signal? Don't tell me... she's already descended?!"
"How could this be? That's way too fast!"
Upon hearing that Finality was approaching, Elias and Elysia immediately cut their date short and teleported back from the Elysian Realm. Now, in the operations conference room, all the Flame-Chasers were gathered.
Every face was grim. Even though they had long prepared themselves for this day, when the final battle truly arrived, none of them could stay calm.
Not even Elias.
His fists were clenched tightly as his eyes stayed fixed on the data scrolling across the large central screen.
"For some time now, Mobius and I have been monitoring the moon using multiple satellites, based on the advance intel we received from Elias. And just thirty seconds ago, we detected a catastrophic Honkai energy fluctuation on the lunar surface—something akin to... a Honkai Eruption," Mei said, taking a deep breath to steady her trembling voice.
The moment she saw the data, she knew. This was an unstoppable cataclysm.
Because this wasn't Honkai energy gathering to summon Finality—it was the leakage of the Herrscher of Finality's own energy, moments before her descent.
According to their estimates, this leakage amounted to less than one percent of her total power. Yet even that was enough to trigger a super-scale Honkai Eruption across the entire moon.
"The good news is that we evacuated the lunar base staff early on. The Herrscher of Finality hasn't actually descended yet, so we've suffered no casualties so far."
"The bad news," Mei continued, her voice heavy, "is that according to Prometheus's calculations, the Herrscher will fully descend in at most two hours. And as of now, 57.87% of Earth's population hasn't been evacuated into Elias's bubble world."
"That's over three billion people. Even at maximum speed, it'll take more than three days to complete the full evacuation!"
She slammed her fist on the table.
Bang!
Mei was no longer the frail scientist she once was—after merging with a Judgment-level Honkai Beast, her strength was terrifying. Her strike left a deep dent in the alloy conference table.
"Tch! Damn it, Honkai! Always the sneak attacks!" Elias cursed under his breath.
It was only the second day after the battle against the Herrscher of Corruption—barely twenty-two hours since her defeat. For Finality to arrive now was far too soon!
If it had been any other Herrscher awakening one after another, they could have handled it.
But this—this was the final boss. And Honkai wasn't even giving them time to prepare.
Back in the original timeline, the Previous Era had at least a month between the fall of the last three cities and Finality's descent. Now, they didn't even have a single day!
According to the plan he and Mei devised, even with the shortest possible buffer, they only needed five more days to transfer all of humanity into the bubble world. Once that was done, Finality could destroy whatever she wanted—so long as humanity survived, everything could be rebuilt.
But now, time had run out.
The most terrifying enemy in existence would arrive in two hours—and nothing could delay or stop her descent.
Against the god who had ended countless civilizations, they had to fight for at least three days of time.
"Vill-V! I'll send you to the hangar first. Have Prometheus connect to all Moonlight Throne battleships. Start their reactors and begin charging every main cannon—immediately!" Elias commanded, opening a portal to the Moonlight Throne's hangar within the bubble world.
"Understood! On it!" Vill-V replied, putting on her quantum-sea communication headset. She quickly called for several ELFs as assistants and stepped through the portal. There was no time to waste.
The Moonlight Throne fleet was one of their trump cards against the Herrscher of Finality—it had to be ready to fire at any moment.
"Elias, about the personnel going to the moon for the first wave..."
"No need to send too many. This isn't a battle that can be won with numbers. Have all fusion warriors and mechs assist the evacuation on the surface. As for directly facing the Herrscher of Finality—leave that to me..."
Elias's tone was tense but full of resolve, his clenched fists strong enough to crush steel to dust.
Before he could finish, however, a soft hand covered his mouth. Elysia's eyes were full of tenderness—and determination. She wasn't the only one. Everyone else in the room shared that same expression.
"At this point, stop trying to carry everything alone," Elysia said gently.
"There's no way we'd let you face Finality by yourself, Elias. We're Flame-Chasers too," Kevin added firmly.
"Mobius, Mei, Griseo, and Pardo will stay to oversee ground operations. The rest of us will engage Finality directly. That's final," Su said, opening his eyes.
"N-no! I'm going too!" Pardo said, forcing her trembling body to stay upright. "Wherever Boss Elias goes, I'm going with him!"
"That's right! Elias, don't think you can ditch us this time! The Herrscher of Finality—we'll fight her together!" Kalpas declared, removing his mask and meeting Elias's gaze head-on.
"No matter where you go or what enemy you face, I'll always follow as your blade," Sakura said, gripping her Frozen Naraka.
"Elias, we've never been your witnesses—we're your comrades-in-arms," Eden added, drawing her twin pistols.
"You guys..."
Feeling the burning determination in their eyes, Elias could barely stop the emotion welling up inside him.
He took a deep breath, suppressing the surge in his chest. He realized his mistake—none of these Flame-Chasers were fragile or afraid. They were warriors. They were heroes.
He didn't need to hide them away like fragile treasures or shoulder the burden alone. They didn't need him to do that—and they would never allow it.
"Don't forget about us either."
"Our power isn't weak, you know," Misteln and Prometheus both chimed in. Though they weren't official Flame-Chasers, they had no intention of backing down.
"Alright. I understand. This time, we all go together."
Elias grasped Elysia's small hand and smiled at everyone around him.
He now knew he wasn't a lone hero fighting in solitude. As long as he had these people—his loved ones—by his side, he believed that even Finality could be surpassed.
(Damn it! We chose the wrong class!) ×2
Both Mei and Mobius cursed internally at the same time.
Right now, they bitterly regretted putting all their points into research. If they could do it over, they'd have gone full warrior build instead. Who needed intelligence classes at a time like this?!
"Mei, is Prometheus's duplicate ready?"
"Yes. Once this core is thrown into the Gate of Finality, Prometheus can infiltrate the Cocoon of Finality as a Trojan virus and become the Will of Honkai in the next era. But when the Gate opens, the surge of Honkai energy will be... catastrophic. The timing must be—"
"It's fine. Leave that part to me."
Elias took the golden cube from Mei's hands.
It looked almost identical to the Void Archives—a copy of Prometheus's AI core. The only difference was that it lacked a soulium body.
He couldn't bear to send Prometheus's main body into the Gate. To him, she wasn't just a machine—she was family, like every other Flame-Chaser.
As for the Honkai energy surge that even MANTIS or Herrschers couldn't endure—
In the original timeline, Pardo had sacrificed herself to throw Prometheus in. But Elias believed his own Honkai resistance might let him withstand it.
"Everything's ready. Everyone, take thirty minutes to rest and restore your strength. Once we're at full condition, we'll use the Stargate in The Deep to teleport straight to the lunar base."
"New mission objective: No matter what happens, we must hold out for at least three and a half days—long enough for the full evacuation to be completed!"
"Mei and Mobius, you're in charge of ground command. Griseo, help with the evacuation efforts. The rest—Elysia, Kevin, Su, Kalpas, Kosma, Misteln, Prometheus, Vill-V, Sakura, Hua, Eden, Aponia, and Pardo—will join me in facing the Herrscher of Finality head-on."
"Understood!" ×16
Their voices echoed in unison, full of fire and resolve.
They were the Flame-Chasers—warriors who defied destruction and fate itself. Now they would march onto the battlefield of Finality, knowing full well this might be a one-way trip. Yet not one of them hesitated. Because when the meteor of Finality falls—
Someone must rise to meet it.
Not to flee extinction—
But to shatter it.
"I know there's no need to boost morale—but as Captain of the Fifteen Flame-Chasers, and as the Flame-Chaser of Deliverance, I order you all—every single one of you is to survive this battle! Not one less!"
Elias gripped the handle of the Abyss Flower and slammed it into the ground with a loud clang. His tone was commanding, but the look in his eyes was impossibly gentle.
"Anyone who disobeys that order—even if you hide in heaven—I'll come drag you back to Earth myself, and we'll all beat you up together!"
"Pfft—haha! Yes, sir!" ×N
Elysia and the others burst into laughter. The tension and anxiety brought by the sudden onset of the final battle vanished in that instant.
In their hearts, only the belief in victory remained—burning hot like flame.
...
An hour and a half later—
At a distance of 384,403.9 kilometers from Earth, Elias and the others arrived on the lunar surface via the Stargate. Using the Herrscher of the Void's powers would have been faster, but they had to conserve every drop of energy for the coming fight.
"Waaah—! I jumped so high!" Pardo yelped, flailing before grabbing Elias's cloak to pull herself back down.
"That's because lunar gravity is one-sixth of Earth's. Get used to it before the battle starts," Elias said, patting her on the head before turning to the others.
"Mhm... this feeling—it's so strange."
"Fusion warriors really don't need spacesuits, huh?"
"It's weird—we're in a vacuum, but we can still hear each other."
They spoke in awe. Though they were warriors about to face Finality itself, they were also still young men and women.
The moon's pale, barren surface stretched endlessly before them—silent, lifeless, full of craters. Looking at it firsthand, everyone finally understood that the beautiful "moon" seen from Earth and this desolate "lunar surface" were completely different things. It was like meeting your online crush in real life—only to find out the filters had lied.
"Good thing fusion warriors have insane environmental adaptability..." Elias murmured, testing his body's adjustments. The moment he entered space, his body had already adapted.
Now, what coursed through his veins wasn't oxygen, nor did his heart beat in the normal sense—it was pure Honkai energy.
His skin, soft and fair as ever, was now a living barrier that repelled cosmic radiation and freezing temperatures better than any spacesuit. Even if his Honkai reserves ran dry, a MANTIS wouldn't die in space.
Their bodies could absorb the faint, invisible forms of energy scattered throughout the cosmos. In fact, they might even thrive better in space than on a planet.
And as for sound—normally transmitted through air—Honkai energy handled that effortlessly as well.
Elias couldn't help but sigh. "Honkai energy really is limitless... And hey, you mutt over there—stop messing around! Who knows how many times this lunar surface will get blasted today. Save the graffiti for later!"
"Oh, oh! Elias, are we heading straight for the Gate of Finality now? I'm ready to fight anytime!" Kevin shouted, lifting his Judgment of Shamash, now fully in its Might of An-Utu form.
"Everyone, move to your designated positions and stand by. Vill-V, status report—have the Moonlight Thrones arrived?" Elias asked, pressing a finger to his earpiece.
"Of course! Just turn around and see for yourselves!" Vill-V's voice crackled with excitement over the comms.
At her words, everyone turned—and their eyes widened in shock.
Fifty colossal, silver-white battleships—each over a kilometer long—had arrived in lunar orbit. Their hulls were forged entirely from soulium, gleaming like blades under starlight, and their massive thrusters burned with streams of blue light.
Kevin: "Cool!"
Kosma: "So cool!"
As they watched, each Moonlight Throne's deck began to split and shift, transforming to reveal enormous cannon ports. Energy gathered within them, swirling violently—ready to fire at any moment.
The Moonlight Thrones carried no secondary weapons. Elias had deemed them unnecessary. After all, these ships were designed for one purpose only: to strike down the Herrscher of Finality. Anything else would be wasted energy and resources.
Vill-V: "All Moonlight Thrones are in position! Full main-cannon charge will complete in three minutes! Ahaha~ I can't wait to fire!"
The Helix Flame-Chaser's voice was full of feverish excitement.
The Moonlight Thrones were her greatest masterpiece—one of them, anyway. The ultimate weapon, designed to slay gods.
Vill-V licked her lips, exhilarated. She wanted to see if her creation could truly wound a god.
"Oh, and I brought all the god-tier mechs too! Whether we use them as decoys or frontliners, we'll make the most of them!"
"Good work, Vill-V," Elias replied, nodding.
Ten towering mechs—each dozens of meters tall—descended from orbit, crashing onto the lunar surface one after another. Each one radiated over 3,000 HW of Honkai energy.
Originally developed by Helixcraft, these were anti-Herrscher combat mech. Unfortunately, because Elias had already defeated all twelve Herrschers, they had never seen action.
Vill-V had nearly forgotten about them. It wasn't until she was prepping the Moonlight Thrones for launch that she remembered her "toys," promptly dragging them all out of storage to bring along.
They were, of course, nowhere near powerful enough to challenge Finality—but in this war, even the smallest advantage mattered. Who knew? One of them might just become the final piece that secured victory.
Kevin: "Elias, my brother... I have a lifelong request—could you—"
Elias: "Depends on how well you fight. If you do a good job, I might let you keep one."
Kevin: "...Herrscher of Finality! Come! My Shamash blade thirsts for battle!"
Everyone stared speechlessly at the white-haired berserker.
It was hard to imagine what kind of man could drive Aponia to call him a hopeless lunatic.
Then Mei's voice came through the comms.
"According to my calculations, the Herrscher of Finality will descend in fifteen minutes. I've transmitted the exact coordinates to your terminals. Our world... is in your hands."
At that moment, Mei was still in the base, coordinating the evacuation of over three billion people while assisting Mobius with intel and communications.
Elias glanced at the glowing marker on his tactical display and nodded.
"Understood. Then—let it begin."
He raised his hand, voice steady but burning with determination.
"Operation Deliverance—commence! All units, prepare for Artificial Cascade!"