Around the bubble world, countless corpses floated through the void.
Some belonged to powerful Imaginary Constructs, some to ever-changing Quantum Shadows, and others were the wreckage of Emperor-class Puppets of Domination. Only the Honkai Beasts vanished outright upon death, dissolving into energy and returning to Elias' body.
Even so, the bodies had piled into mountains of corpses.
Elias stood atop one such mountain with two Might of An-Utu greatswords in hand. Six pure-white wings spread behind him, and the twelve gems embedded within them, each symbolizing a Herrscher Authority, shimmered with light.
Reason, Space, Thunder, Wind, Life and Death, Flamescion, Good and Evil, Sentience, Eternal Frost, Gravity, Binding, and Corruption. The twelve gems were like stars adorning Elias' body, their radiance dyeing this region of the Sea of Quanta in a rainbow of colors.
The Ferryman's heart sank into utter despair at the sight.
Elias' power had exceeded his imagination.
He could sense that these twelve Authorities were completely different from Elias' other abilities. Every one of them embodied an ultimate law, and every one contained power capable of destroying heaven and earth.
They were far beyond anything the Ether Anchors in his possession could compare to.
Worse still, Elias truly seemed to have no weaknesses. No matter what bizarre abilities the Quantum Shadows or Imaginary Constructs possessed, after fighting for so long they still hadn't managed to make him lose so much as a single strand of hair.
The Flame-Chaser of Deliverance wore the golden Dea Anchora, condensed from the power of stars, while also possessing the overwhelmingly powerful physique of a peak Planet-class Chimera. At this point, even a direct hit from a planet-destroying battleship's main cannon was something Elias could casually endure.
The divine spear he had found in the Teyvat bubble world might be capable of piercing Elias' defenses, but the probability of actually hitting him was probably so low that it lay somewhere beyond the decimal point.
"It's about time to finish this."
Elias cheerfully raised the Might of An-Utu greatswords.
He had many hobbies: fighting, fooling around, traveling, good food, music, doing good deeds, romance, and so on.
Among them, fighting ranked near the very top as one of his greatest passions. Unfortunately, aside from the Herrscher of Finality, there was no longer anyone in the Proper World capable of giving Elias a satisfying battle.
But for the sake of their fragile little Earth, two planet-busting combatants like them couldn't normally fight each other seriously unless they moved the battlefield off Earth and onto a bed...
In any case, Elias had finally enjoyed himself to his heart's content today.
"Goddamn, that felt amazing!!"
He glanced toward the Ferryman. Only around ten percent of the enemy forces remained. Two or three casual basic attacks would be enough to bring this battle to an end.
However, just as Elias was about to act,
Crack, clatter, crackle...
A sound of something fracturing came from behind him.
"Hm?"
Elias turned around and immediately jumped in shock.
"Holy shit! The world's membrane is about to rupture?!"
The bubble world that Luna and Himeko called home was now in an extremely dangerous state. Its protective shell was covered in dense white cracks.
It resembled an enormous crystal sphere on the verge of shattering. Even now, the cracks continued spreading without pause, as though the entire thing would collapse completely within a few more seconds.
(Were the aftershocks of the battle too strong?!)
Elias hurriedly extinguished the Might of An-Utu greatswords, then activated the Authorities of Reason and Space to begin repairing the bubble world's membrane.
During the battle, he had deliberately protected the bubble world, preventing every attack from either side from striking it.
After all, in a battle of this level, a single stray attack from either side might have been enough to blow the entire bubble world apart. Yet reality proved that this world was even more fragile than Elias had imagined.
The shockwaves alone were already an extinction-level disaster for this bubble world.
"No! Big Sister... Big Sister is still inside!"
"Damn it! Please don't break!"
Luna and Himeko's hearts skipped a beat. Himeko had no desire to see the world of her birth destroyed, while Luna might not have cared much about the world itself, but her precious sister still lived inside it.
At that moment, panic had already engulfed the bubble world.
People heard the sound of something breaking overhead and looked up at the sky one after another, only to see cracks spreading across it like a mirror about to shatter.
"What's going on? Why are there cracks in the sky?!"
"Could the box theory actually be real?"
"The end of the world... Is this the end of the world?!"
"No! I haven't even spent all my money yet! I don't want to die!"
Once the false sky shattered, the Sea of Quanta would directly flood everything within the bubble world. At that point, all things would be decomposed under the erosion of quantum energy and reduced to nutrients for the sea.
Yet just as countless people fell into despair and terror,
the cracks in the sky suddenly stopped expanding. They even began slowly closing again, and the world's destruction came to an abrupt halt.
"Phew~ Thank goodness."
Outside the bubble world, Elias breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had managed to stabilize the fractures in time using the Authority of the Herrscher of the Void.
It could only be said that today's savior was as dependable as ever~ He had saved the world yet again. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Elias gave Himeko and Luna a reassuring look. However, just as he planned to finish repairing the bubble world and absorb it into his body to prevent any further accidents,
"An opportunity vanishes in an instant!"
The Ferryman, who had already been despairingly waiting for death, immediately sprang into action.
In his eyes, Elias had simply exhausted himself after unleashing one barrage of attacks after another and was now planning to devour the bubble world to recover. His earlier attempt to repair it was merely because he didn't want his chosen meal to go to waste.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Elias now had his back turned and was standing perfectly still. The Ferryman instantly realized that his one and only opportunity for victory was right now.
"Hyperion, fire the divine spear!!"
The Ferryman issued a voice command to his Hyperion.
The World-Destroying Divine Spear was a weapon of Finality, not something just anyone could touch. Back when the Ferryman first recovered it, merely brushing his hand against the shaft had caused Honkai energy to begin corroding his entire body.
If not for the protection of an Ether Anchor, the Ferryman would already have become a mindless zombie. Even so, he didn't have much time left, and every moment of his existence was spent suffering from the corrosion of Honkai energy.
That was the price a mortal paid for touching a god's weapon. Knowing that he couldn't wield the World-Destroying Divine Spear himself, the Ferryman had mounted it at the muzzle of the Hyperion's cannon, allowing him to launch it through electromagnetic acceleration whenever necessary.
In the past, no matter what enemy he faced, whether it was a Planet-class Quantum Shadow, an Imaginary Construct, or even an entire bubble world, the World-Destroying Divine Spear had effortlessly pierced straight through and destroyed it.
As the price, every time it was used, the Hyperion would be rendered completely useless by Honkai energy corrosion.
Whoosh—!!!
At that very moment, accompanied by electromagnetic acceleration, a stream of violet-gold light erupted from the Hyperion's main cannon and shot toward Elias at a speed surpassing lightning.
"!!!"
Elias' pupils dilated as instinct screamed danger.
Even with his back turned to the enemy, he still sensed an extraordinarily dangerous attack approaching him. The instant he turned around, the violet-gold streak had already crossed half the distance.
The attack was moving at extreme hypersonic speed. Even Elias' dynamic vision failed to discern exactly what it was at first glance, causing him to make his first wrong decision of the entire battle.
"Tch! Get the hell back over there!!"
Elias opened a portal in front of himself, intending to send the attack back and make the Ferryman swallow his own strike.
But in the next instant, the violet-gold streak actually pierced straight through the Herrscher of the Void's portal. Not only was it not sent back, it continued shooting toward Elias without losing even the slightest amount of speed.
For one instant, Elias' brain froze.
"What?!"
In the past, any attack that entered a portal created by the Herrscher of the Void was effectively nullified.
It would even cease being "the enemy's attack" and become "Elias' attack," allowing him to turn it back against his opponent.
There had only ever been one exception!
The battle against Finality fifty thousand years ago.
Back then, the Herrscher of Finality, who was still his enemy, had unleashed divine punishment with the World-Destroying Divine Spear. Its power had pierced through space itself, rendering the Authority of the Herrscher of the Void useless for the first time.
Elias still remembered that scene vividly even now.
And at this moment, history repeated itself!
(Tch! Don't tell me this bastard has been to Teyvat?)
Elias immediately prepared to dodge. No matter how powerful the World-Destroying Divine Spear was, it was ultimately still just a spear. All he needed to do was turn sideways and let it pass right by him, making the attack miss.
The World-Destroying Divine Spear might have been traveling at supersonic speed, but Elias was even faster than Sakura, who bore the Setsuna Signet, so he could still barely evade it.
He had already simulated the entire sequence in his mind. He would turn sideways to avoid the spearhead, then grab the shaft as it passed and seize it for himself. Other people might be unable to touch Finality's divine spear, but Elias certainly could!
However, at that instant, he suddenly realized something.
Himeko and Luna were standing directly in front of him.
Elias instantly changed his mind. He could dodge the attack, but the two girls could never evade it at their speed! If the World-Destroying Divine Spear hit either of them, there would be only one outcome—death!
"Fuck!!"
Elias gritted his teeth and raised his hand, shoving both girls away from in front of him. But he only had enough time to perform a single action.
Therefore, after pushing Luna and Himeko aside, Elias himself lost the opportunity to dodge.
Shlk—!
"Human!!"
"Elias!!"
Luna and Himeko cried out simultaneously. Everything had happened far too quickly, and only now did they finally realize what had just occurred.
The instant Elias pushed them aside, a violet-gold streak passed straight through the place where they had been standing.
It was a divine spear carrying the aura of death. With their strength, even a mere scratch from it would have killed them instantly.
Yet both girls would rather have been the ones pierced through!
"Cough, cough! Damn... As expected of Finality's spear..."
Elias coughed up a large mouthful of blood. The World-Destroying Divine Spear had effortlessly pierced through Dea Anchora and his body.
The armor condensed from the power of thousands of bubble worlds, along with the defensive strength of a Planet-class chimera, had offered no resistance whatsoever against this divine spear capable of piercing through even space itself.
A long-forgotten sensation of pain surged through him. Elias looked down, and the corner of his eye twitched violently because the spear had struck dead center in the left side of his chest, completely piercing through his heart.
He felt his health bar drop by one-twentieth.
"I should modify my body later. Maybe copy those protagonists from short videos and move my heart over to the right side... Mm, though I think I'll pass on learning from that genius who put his heart in the sole of his foot. I'd be worried my heart might catch athlete's foot one day. Cough, cough..."
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