"Very well, then now—the War of Deliverance begins! Everyone, prepare for Artificial Cascade!"
Elias tightened his grip on the Sagittarius Astra, leading everyone toward the place where Finality was about to descend. He had ordered everyone to prepare for Artificial Cascade, but not to activate it yet.
According to Mobius's recent research on Project Chimera subjects, a new usage method for Artificial Cascade had been developed—something akin to a 'transformation invincibility frame.'
During the process of cascading, fusion warriors released a massive surge of Honkai energy in an instant—enough to block almost all attacks for a brief moment.
This meant that everyone effectively gained a new defensive skill—one that could save their lives. As for seizing that fleeting instant of opportunity? For Flame-Chasers, that was child's play.
Mobius's fifteen-minute prediction was frighteningly accurate.
But to everyone, it felt like the longest fifteen minutes in their lives. No matter how endless it seemed, in reality, it wasn't even long enough for a single round of a game.
When the final grain of sand fell in the invisible hourglass—
"!!!"
In an instant, an indescribable surge of Honkai energy erupted on the moon, like a world-ending tsunami threatening to engulf it whole.
If that energy had been released on Earth, it would have triggered a super-scale Honkai Eruption across the globe.
[Warning! Warning! Detected Honkai energy levels exceeding upper detection limits! Data overflow—unable to calculate!]
As fusion warriors, everyone felt a burning pain coursing through their bodies. Purple marks began to crawl along their skin—the sign of Honkai energy corrosion.
(Absurd!!!) ×15
Everyone cursed inwardly. In all their past encounters, no Herrscher's Honkai energy, no matter how immense, had ever exceeded the detector's range—not even Elias or Kevin's.
But the Herrscher of Finality's Honkai energy had directly surpassed the satellite detection limit.
"Everyone, use the serum."
Elias furrowed his brows and gave the order.
"Yes, sir!" ×15
Without hesitation, the Flame-Chasers drew Honkai suppression serum from their armor pouches and injected it. Instantly, the invasive corrosion began to weaken and fade.
And at that moment—
A god completed her descent.
A colossal form emerged—a divine giant over a thousand meters tall, appearing upon the lunar surface. She wore a blue-and-white divine gown, a golden halo floating above her head, and a diamond-shaped golden sigil upon her brow.
Her hair was pure white, like Elias's. When she opened her eyes, it was as if two suns had appeared in the void of space, blinding and impossible to look upon.
Crimson-gold Honkai energy unfurled into wings of divine light, stretching for tens of thousands of meters.
So holy. So beautiful.
So terrifying. So cold.
In her eyes, there was not a shred of human emotion—only the radiance of divinity.
"The time of finality has come. All creation shall return to the cycle."
Her voice echoed across the void, a divine proclamation of her birth and the era's imminent end. The Herrscher of Finality turned her gaze toward the azure planet below, raising her hands as though to cradle Earth within them.
When she prepared to cross the mere 384,403.9 kilometers that separated her from Earth—just enough to activate her power of temporal reset—
Elias shouted, "All Moonlight Throne main cannons—prepare to fire! Target: the Herrscher of Finality! Three, two, one—fire!!"
Finality: "???"
In that instant, the proud goddess realized there were still tiny insects nearby. She found it curious that her divine descent and Honkai energy hadn't already erased them.
But before she could wave her hand and reduce those 'ants' to nothing—
Fifty blinding white beams lit up the lunar sky.
Fifty Moonlight Throne battleships had already finished charging their main cannons.
The Herrscher of Finality's colossal form was too immense to dodge. And as a god, she considered evasion beneath her dignity.
Vill-V confidently declared that even with her eyes closed, she could make all fifty cannons hit their mark.
And so—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! ×50
The Herrscher of Finality, who had barely been in this world for three seconds, was immediately greeted with an overwhelmingly warm "welcome." She was struck head-on by the full-powered barrage of all fifty Moonlight Thrones.
Finality: "Aaaaaaah—!!"
It wasn't a scream of pain—but one of disbelief.
Each Moonlight Throne's 100% output blast could only disperse about 2% of her total Honkai energy. But here were fifty of them firing simultaneously.
Two percent each, times fifty—that made a full 100%.
This was the miracle Elias had crafted to shock even the Honkai itself.
To think that each fully operational Moonlight Throne cost nearly a trillion credits—resources so immense that even the entire Previous Era couldn't have built more than a handful.
But Elias was the Herrscher of Reason—one capable of constructing entire worlds.
Together, all fifty Moonlight Thrones posed a genuine threat even to the Herrscher of Finality. Yet, by the time this proud goddess realized it, it was already too late.
"You insects dare strip a god of her power!"
Feeling her strength fading, she glared in fury.
The simultaneous volleys from all fifty Moonlight Thrones had completely drained her Honkai energy in an instant.
Before she could draw from the Imaginary Space to replenish herself, two white figures appeared before her eyes.
Elias: "Heaven-Devouring Beasts, lend me your might. Reverse God ascends—Deliverance unsheathes! This is the Signet of Deliverance!"
Kevin: "Brahma's Beasts, grant me your strength. Diabolic descends—Preservation unsheathes! This is the Signet of Preservation!"
The two greatest human Chimeras activated their Artificial Cascade. Holy brilliance and abyssal darkness surged together—the radiant Reverse God and the chaotic Diabolic—releasing Honkai energy so vast that even the Herrscher of Finality seemed taken aback.
In Elias's hand, the golden spear blazed like the light of all creation.
In that instant, stellar power spread from his right leg, unfolding into wings that formed a massive golden longbow. He drew the spear back as an arrow and aimed straight at the divine being before him.
Kevin's Judgment of Shamash burned fiercely in his grasp.
In a single heartbeat, flames that could ignite the heavens gathered along the crimson-gold blade like a world-consuming torch. His warrior's eyes locked onto the god before him, and he raised his sword high.
A second later, they both unleashed their full power.
Elias: "This strike shall pierce the stars!!"
Kevin: "Taste it—Shamash Assault!!"
It was light bright enough to illuminate the entire solar system.
It was fire hot enough to burn the planet itself.
CLANG!BOOOOM!
Finality: "!!!"
Their combined ultimate strike landed squarely on the Herrscher of Finality's head. The god who had once condemned countless civilizations now had her eyes roll back in shock.
Without her Honkai energy shield to protect her, even she was forced to endure the devastating power of two fully awakened Chimeras.
Struck simultaneously by the Sagittarius Astra and the Judgment of Shamash, the immense impact overwhelmed even her divine systems.
In the fifth second after her descent—the Herrscher of Finality fainted.
Elias and Kevin: "Target neutralized!"
The flames of Shamash left a wisp of white smoke curling from her forehead, while the Sagittarius Astra remained embedded in her skull like a golden toothpick.
"Finality's response has ceased!"
Mei's excited voice came through the earpiece, followed by cheers erupting throughout the operations room.
"Prometheus! Send me the data! Good—very good! The Herrscher of Finality's Honkai energy has been completely depleted! Confirmed in dormant state—estimated recovery time: forty-eight hours! That means the delay operation is already halfway complete!"
"Tch! What an unreasonable monster... even after taking both Elias's Stellar Excelsis and Kevin's Shamash Assault, the Herrscher of Finality didn't suffer a single wound?! The Honkai energy output from their attacks exceeded two million HW!"
Mobius bit her nail, her cheek twitching in disbelief.
Now wielding the Holy Blade Durandal and anchoring the bubble world within himself, Elias could draw Honkai energy directly from it to replenish his own reserves. This power of the world had also taken form as an ultra-grade armor—the [Dea Anchora].
It was no weaker than a Divine Key—in fact, it amplified Elias's strength beyond that.
To put it bluntly, in that earlier combined assault, seventy percent of the total damage had been dealt by Elias alone.
And yet—
Even so, the Herrscher of Finality remained uninjured.
Kevin's full-powered Shamash Assault had only managed to leave a faint trail of white smoke rising from her forehead. And the golden anchor lodged in her head—the Sagittarius Astra—hadn't even pierced her skin.
Fifty Moonlight Thrones firing at full power, combined with two Chimeras giving everything they had, had merely forced the Herrscher of Finality into temporary dormancy.
Mobius: "Her skin is ridiculously thick!"
Mei: "You're right—it's absurd. We still haven't figured out her mechanics at all. She's unlike any Herrscher we've ever faced. The sheer amount of Honkai energy she has is several times greater than all twelve previous Herrschers combined!"
The cheers within the operations command room abruptly halted. Shocked faces filled the room—many had assumed that Elias and Kevin's combined strike had defeated Finality.
But it seemed they had celebrated too early. The Herrscher of Finality had only fainted—her health bar hadn't even budged.
"All right, take advantage of this chance and start transferring the remaining three billion people into the bubble world immediately! Every second counts now—don't waste even one!"
"Understood!" ×N
"Mei, stop worrying about anything else—help me analyze Finality's data. See if we can find any weaknesses or structural gaps. Elias will start preparing the next phase of the plan."
"On it."
While Mei and Mobius worked frantically, Elias and Kevin landed back on the lunar surface, simultaneously ending their artificial cascades of Reverse God and Diabolic.
Even though there was no air in space, they still instinctively gasped for breath.
That attack had drained nearly all their Honkai reserves. Kevin's Judgment of Shamash had even reverted to dual-gun mode.
"Damn it... she was only knocked out?" Kevin muttered in disbelief.
"It's already good enough," Elias replied calmly, shaking his head as though he had expected it.
In the original timeline, the overloaded Moonlight Thrones were destroyed, and in Kevin's despair, his full-powered Shamash Assault had only managed to knock Finality unconscious for half a day.
This time, they had achieved nearly four times that.
(Even if we dealt more damage, she'd probably only stay down this long anyway. Damn it... she's already starting to recover? Well, fine. Expected. It's within the plan...)
Elias's eye twitched slightly.
The Herrscher of Finality had begun reabsorbing Honkai energy.
Her required reserves were enormous. Even though she could directly draw from the Imaginary Space, at a rate thousands of times faster than any other Herrscher, it would still take her two full days to fully recharge.
"It's fine. When that happens, we'll just hit her again," Kevin said flatly.
"Yeah. You're right—we still hold the advantage."
"Kevin, don't jinx it."
Elias chuckled softly, but Kevin wasn't wrong—they were indeed in control of the situation.
The remaining ten Flame-Chasers hadn't even joined the battle yet, and all fifty Moonlight Thrones were still intact. Two days would be more than enough for both he and Kevin to fully recover their strength.
Once they repeated the same plan, theoretically, they could knock Finality out for another two days—buying the three days they needed for evacuation, and maybe even one more for good measure.
"Take a moment to recover. Just breathe—it'll help."
"Yeah, I know."
Kevin nodded and began taking deep breaths—or rather, absorbing Honkai energy, since there was no air to breathe on the moon.
The Honkai energy scattered from Finality's earlier dispersal filled the entire area. For most beings, it was a lethal concentration of corruption—but for Elias and Kevin—
It was the perfect source of recovery.
The two Chimera MANTIS continued to absorb the scattered Honkai energy in great quantities, replenishing their depleted reserves.
"Eli, get some rest first. Leave the investigation to us," Elysia said as she approached.
"I'll go take a few swings," Sakura said, drawing her Frozen Naraka as she eyed the unconscious Herrscher of Finality.
"Alright! Count me in!" Kalpas cracked his knuckles eagerly.
"Uh, Sakura, Kalpas—maybe don't mess around, yeah? Elias and Kevin worked hard to knock her out. What if you wake her up again?" Pardo said anxiously.
"It's fine," Elias reassured her. "Until she fully restores her Honkai energy, the Herrscher of Finality shouldn't regain consciousness. Even if she speaks, she's just a puppet following the laws of Honkai."
Under Kevin's astonished gaze, Elias's earlier fatigue had vanished completely—he looked as though he could fire another Stellar Excelsis at any moment.
"Wait, you've already recovered?" Kevin asked in disbelief.
"More or less," Elias replied casually.
As a Chimera, a Palatinus, and a twelve-Core Herrscher surrounded by a field overflowing with Honkai energy, his energy bar—exceeding one million HW—was regenerating at a rate of over five percent per second.
Furthermore, Elias had recently modified his [Key of Blankness v5.2]. He no longer needed to extract the Herrscher Core from the Divine Key and embed it in his body to use its power. Instead, he could now directly link to each Core through the Herrscher of the Void's authority.
This allowed him to maintain his twelve-Core Herrscher state while simultaneously wielding the full might of every Divine Key.
"Now comes the crucial part," Elias said gravely.
He took out the crystalline replica of Prometheus's AI core and flew to the location behind the Herrscher of Finality—where the god had first descended.
Normally, they could only insert Prometheus into the Gate of Finality at the very moment of descent, before the Gate fully closed—using her as a viral seed to infiltrate the Cocoon of Finality.
But Elias, as the Herrscher of the Void, could do something no one else could—he could reopen a closed Gate.
"Barely a minute has passed. Even if the Gate has closed, the pathway linking to the Cocoon of Finality hasn't vanished yet. In that case... I'll just pry it open."
He had already equipped the Second Divine Key—the Hand of the Void.
"Hand of the Void—Zeroth Power!"
Elias grasped the very fabric of space before him and tore it open. Vast torrents of Honkai energy surged into the Key, causing it to glow red-hot from overload.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The once-sealed Gate slowly split apart once more, and terrifying Honkai energy poured out.
The concentration was high enough to corrode even a MANTIS in an instant. Even Kevin, in his Diabolic state, would have struggled to endure it.
But that was only natural.
This was the Gate connected to the Cocoon of Finality—the very passageway through which the Herrscher of Finality descended.
For a human to open it—
Would normally mean certain death.
However—
Elias smirked. "Not paying that price. I'm freeloading this one."