[You have successfully killed the boss, Demonic Beast Goddess Gorgon.]
As the demonic sword pierced Gorgon's chest, the System's synthesized voice rang out.
[Dropped: Mystic Eyes of Petrification.]
No miracle occurred. The demonic sword of the Celtic God-King tore Gorgon's body asunder, severing her life force.
"What a pity."
The boy, who had effortlessly slain the Queen of Demonic Beasts and used his Authority, the 'Fire-Thief,' to take the divinity of Tiamat from her body and link himself to the primordial goddess, shrugged as he toyed with the Mystic Eyes of Petrification, which the System seemed to have turned into a skill card.
"If I had met with Medusa Lily before this, it would have been easy to raise her affection, wouldn't it?"
"Tsk— Even at a time like this, you're still thinking about picking up girls?"
Ling, who had truly lost all hope in him, crossed her arms and shot him a look of utter contempt.
"'Hunting' is my Origin. It's a Chaotic Impulse. Asking me to suppress it is just too much to ask," the boy said. He was already thinking that, before he left, he could grab Ana as a souvenir and toss her to Athena, who was now Seele's guardian deity.
"Tsk tsk. An Origin of 'Hunting,' an attribute of the ethereal Imaginary Numbers, and the ever-shifting Wind. You really are a natural-born scumbag." Ling, who could roughly understand why this guy chased after every cute girl he saw, said as she looked at him.
As casually as tossing an apple to a friend, the boy threw the skill card that had once partially petrified his own body.
"For you."
To Ling's astonishment, the undoubtedly precious card landed in her hands.
"What are you trying to do?"
Ling, deeply suspicious that this guy was trying to sleep with her, immediately became guarded.
"Let me make this clear first. I won't be moved just because you're showing me favor, and I won't become your lover."
"It's just a gift for family," the boy, who had no need for something like the Mystic Eyes of Petrification, said, his words leaving Ling slightly stunned.
"Family?"
"What trick are you trying to pull now?"
"I'm just simply summarizing our relationship," the boy, who had transplanted Ling's consciousness into his own to handle his negative emotions in preparation for the Honkai's descent, which might create a second personality in him, said with a light chuckle.
"Although we'll eventually separate, we were once one and the same, weren't we?"
"In that case, there's no problem in calling our relationship 'family,' is there?"
"Is there a problem with an older brother giving his little sister a small gift?" the boy, who had previously made it clear he had a considerable interest in Ling, explained unhurriedly.
Family?
Ling, who had depended on her sister in the Previous Era and had a love-hate relationship with Yae Sakura in this one, looked somewhat dazed.
That was... a rather thought-provoking word.
A faint ripple stirred in the heart of the girl who had spent fifty thousand years alone.
Then—
As if suddenly snapping awake, Ling stuffed the card into her pocket and glared fiercely at him.
"Get lost! This is just one of your tricks to pick me up, isn't it?"
"If you want to win me over with sweet talk, you'll need a few more decades of practice!"
"You found me out," the boy, who did indeed want to conquer Ling and even wanted to carry her to Yae Sakura's bed for a [bleeped] session, shrugged.
Ling, who had genuinely been moved upon hearing the word "family," now looked at him with increasing hostility.
"I really can't let my guard down for a single second when I'm with you."
"That's truly disappointing."
There was no trace of disappointment on the face of the boy, who had clearly caught the fleeting trance-like expression on Ling's face.
"Since I can't pick up the girl, I guess I'll just save the world."
Saying so, the boy cheerfully took out a long spear.
To Ling's bewilderment, he plunged the demonic spear, another Celtic treasure, into his own chest.
And then—
Blood splattered.
Like a chain reaction, a change began in another dimension.
In the lifeless Sea of Imaginary Numbers on the Reverse Side of the World.
The goddess, who had been exiled by the Mesopotamian gods as an unnecessary thing after creation, slept quietly in this world more silent than even the underworld, awaiting the day she could once again remake the Earth's ecosystem and return to her status as the Mother of All Things.
Unfortunately, once the ecosystem was established, she, who designed life at random, lost her purpose. She became a great calamity abandoned by humans and gods, utterly rejected by the History of Man—the Beast of Regression.
No human or god was willing to bring this mother, who had become a natural disaster, back to Earth.
However, something that neither gods nor humans wished to see came to pass, under the conditions of the collapse of the foundation of Human Order, the power of the Holy Grail, and the intervention of a visitor from another world.
Through her divinity, her senses were linked to a certain person in the outside world. The Mother of All Things, who had long awaited her return to the original Earth but was in a deep slumber, opened her eyes the moment Gorgon's heart was pierced.
The pain of her heart being pierced woke her completely.
It was like seeing a mosquito when you roll over in bed.
She swatted the incubus that had been restraining her in her dream, crushing it on the ground.
Incubi are immortal beings, but immortality always has its limits.
Just like the heel of Achilles, the incubus, whose very nature was an illusory dream and was thus immortal, also had its weakness.
When the master of the dream is about to awaken, the incubus within the dream transforms from an illusory existence into something that can be attacked.
The true body of the phantom Merlin, who Li Zihan had pushed to his limit before, had been hiding in Tiamat's dream all along.
Just now, the primordial mother goddess and Beast of Regression had awakened and delivered a fatal blow to him.
Having accomplished this, the goddess—who found meaning only in giving birth, nurturing, and giving love, yet had decided to wage war on humanity for decreeing her "useless"—stood for a long time in the world of Imaginary Numbers.
What should she do next?
Then, the power of the Holy Grail tore open Purgatory, which lay beneath the underworld and connected to the Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
Someone was coming to take her back.
The goddess, who had finally reached the day of her return, let out a resounding cheer.
It was as if the ocean itself had risen into a great wave.
The Tide of Chaos surged forth from the Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
The goddess, who was "the Sea" itself, rode the ocean, ascending upwards.
Gloomy clouds amassed in the sky. Despairing black waves surged within the underworld, eroding this world that lay beneath the land of the living.
The Goddess of Creation makes her entrance.