Crack crack crack!
The sky blurred with distorted light, followed by what sounded like illusory shattering—echoing in the ears of every surviving being.
Fractures rippled across the heavens, scattering in pieces. Brilliant, chaotic energy surged through the breaks like tidal waves, rising into tsunamis and crumbling into collapsing mountains. The ever-changing kaleidoscope of phenona seed like garish paintings stitched together in disarray, etching ornate patterns into the sky.
A strange energy floated in the air.
It was like a ravenous glutton, consuming everything around it. Even light could not escape. Darkness lood on the horizon.
At this mont, the sage king once called Solomon had vanished in both body and consciousness. From his shattered remains erged ominous energy—a swirling vortex of darkness, like a black hole, birthed from the very concept of his existence.
Cracks split open one after another, spreading across the entire sky. The mountains quaked. A blinding light erupted from the core of the earth as scalding magma surged upward, colliding with the descending tornado of violet-red particles from the black hole.
A crimson sky, a silent and solemn world, all thoughts extinguished.
A bloody mist drifted like snow. Thunder rumbled across heaven and earth. The scent of sulfur and magical ether filled the air. The burning city stretched out before them.
All traces of civilization had been erased, replaced by endless fissures and a horizon blanketed in molten lava. Towering pillars of fla lit the dim sky, painting this hellish world in fiery hues, like a crimson cassock draped over a corpse.
The mont Solomon activated his First Noble Phantasm and returned the blessing to "Heaven," the countdown to his death began.
As for his consciousness or body—Selene didn’t care. What she needed was to seize the exact instant when Solomon hovered between life and death.
By using Solomon’s second and only remaining link to the Swirl of the Root—the "Day of Return" following the "Day of Grace"—Selene would inject her Honkai-branded corruption into the Root’s pathway.
In other words, Solomon was her relay.
Selene didn’t have a direct phone line to the Root. But Solomon did (albeit only twice in his life).
So before Solomon could hang up (before he completely vanished), Selene seized the connection. And since Solomon was in the process of returning to the Root as pure "quantity," she hijacked the call.
The blessing Solomon returned to the Root was finite. Once depleted, the connection would sever. Thus, to fulfill her goal, Selene had to ensure Solomon’s blessing did not run out.
She needed the connection to remain open—to disguise her Honkai brand as Solomon’s blessing and send it to the Swirl of the Root. Then, she could hijack its permissions and use it as coordinates to punch a hole through the world.
With this, Selene could trigger an implosion from the center. That way, she could limit the damage to acceptable losses.
The Type-Moon world is composed of countless tilines, subordinate worlds, and higher-dinsional universes. Selene didn’t mind shattering a few. But trying to breach the world from outside its boundaries? That would be far too inefficient.
That’s why she chose to rge with Solomon’s remnants and funnel her planet-altered Honkai energy into his body.
Crackle, hiss—!
The atmosphere locked with the spreading dinsional rifts. A rapidly spinning vortex of mana and fractured spaceti conjured horrifying images, composing a unique symphony of collapse. It was a cold lody, one of endless desire.
In an instant, storm winds howled. Like shockwave blasts, air rippled from the edge of Mash’s shield, sending Fujimaru Ritsuka’s cloak flapping wildly as he lay on the ground, his hair tossed about.
"Ritsuka, Roman’s magical signature still lingers—but... he’s no longer himself."
Da Vinci’s weary voice reached his ears, but Fujimaru Ritsuka seed not to hear it. He stared blankly at the ever-expanding vortex fracture revealing the vast, pitch-black starry sky of the universe beyond.
In this overwhelming mont—even as a first-generation magus with no special lineage—he couldn’t help but grasp the significance of what he was witnessing.
Everyone present had their vision stolen by that light.
It was an eye—its outline ford by a dying red giant, encrusted with radiant jewels, a golden cruciform pupil emitting a radiance brighter than the sun.
From it emanated a sense of ancient, transcendent authority.
"Selene’s true body."
Fujimaru Ritsuka felt his heart pounding furiously in his chest. Instantly, he was convinced: this was Selene’s true form.
Rip—!
The entire planet trembled. No—space itself surrounding the planet was shaking. This wasn’t a quake of the leylines. It was a tremor of spaceti!
With intense spatial rupture, massive, twisted violet-red particle tendrils erged from nothing. A flawless white hand with five fingers pierced the barrier of the world. It surged like a tidal wave, majestic as mountain ranges. Multicolored light fragnts were violently poured into the world and converged upon the concept known as King Solomon.
Crack—!
The world was torn open.
A deep chasm split the sky, revealing what lay behind.
True collapse.
And in that mont—Thump!
Thump thump!
Thump thump thump—!!
This world—this universe—all existence born from the Swirl of the Root, all lifeforms, lifted their heads at once and gazed in a single direction. The impact of what they saw—the awe and boundless terror—struck them to their very core.
...
Type-Moon Composite Multiverse.
Sowhere in a stellar sea of one universe, plants and oceans had receded, revealing cracked, desolate ground. The land was barren, covered by ashen and murky clouds.
One glance was enough to know: nothing could be cultivated here. The atmosphere was unfit for any life. This was—the Land of Steel.
Rustle—
Contrary to the silence of the lifeless world made of corroded stone, a giant canyon displayed a kaleidoscopic luster of crystalline glass. Brimming with life, it was a landscape both beautiful and disturbing—an alien invasion cloaked in otherworldly elegance: the Crystal Canyon.
Within the canyon, a towering, spider-like cosmic lifeform—about 40 ters tall—began to stir.
It radiated a ghastly green light. Its bladed limbs sliced through the dried, hardened earth like butter. Its body was encased in a shell more resilient, flexible, temperature-resistant, and sharper than any material found on Earth—a form that defied reason.
"Such urgency... what kind of invader is this...?" it murmured, lifting its non-human head constructed from unknown tals and energy.
...
The Moon—desolate, mysterious.
In all directions, only gray and white tones stretched across teor-pocked terrain. No people. No wind. No sound. Even the sun’s intense rays, when they fell here, seed transford—pale and cold, like silver ice.
And in that lonely celestial realm, a golden halo with a diater of 7,000 ters hovered in the sky.
Though the void of space was silent, it was as if sacred chants echoed from the ether. Buddha-light and auspicious clouds manifested together. All worldly suffering seed poised to dissolve in that radiant glow.
Beneath mandala-like radiance, a man clad in crimson monk’s robes sat upon a lotus platform. His emaciated figure exuded a serene yet sorrowful aura. With green hair loosely draped over his shoulders and an expression of calm, compassionate detachnt, he opened his verdant eyes and murmured as if sighing:
"Pride, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony... desire—even divine beings of the cosmos are not exempt."
...
Chaldea Headquarters, Earth. In the unasurable interstice at the edge of the current era’s understanding of the universe, the machine god fleet had departed millennia ago. All that remained was the original mothership—a celestial, spherical space-ti fortress, standing silently within a void fissure.
Buzz—!
Suddenly, amidst violent tremors, the colossal superstructure—comparable to a star—split open. Within it was an orange-yellow eye like a sun. Unfocused, it radiated a stellar brilliance.
In fact, it wasn’t just like a star’s light—it was starlight. For its core was a real sun, converted into a supermassive interstellar vessel created by an intelligent civilization from another universe.
"Revive the mother star... at any cost..."
...
In the boundless Milky Way, a cot shaped like a teardrop abruptly accelerated. The light trailing behind it stretched further into strands of luminous filants that swept across nearby stars.
Wherever the trail passed, the stars visibly dimd, leaving behind a path of silence in the night sky.
...
Type-Moon’s original universe.
In a region symbolizing life-sustaining space, the galactic sea boiled. With the entire Milky Way as its spiritual foundation, the goddess’s concept began to awaken—a "humanoid galaxy" taking form.
...
This giant being was of an unimaginable scale. Just a single eye filled the entire visible sky.
At that mont, all felt as if they had plunged into an icy abyss.
Indescribable, unknowable terror surged into every onlooker’s heart. What... was this?
"We... failed."
The few surviving Servants gathered around Fujimaru Ritsuka. Even legends etched in history had lost their will to fight.
Because there was no hope.
"Why would such a being set its sights on Earth—a tiny speck in the vastness of the cosmos?"
Artoria halted. This was no longer sothing they could contend with. Not even the gods of Earth’s pantheons could.
Their so-called salvation of humanity—a petty scuffle on one small planet—what did it even an to her?
This wasn’t a threat Earthly life could manage. This wasn’t even a phenonon fit for this universe.
Then suddenly, a change occurred.
"Ugh..."
Ishtar—more precisely, Rin Tohsaka—collapsed. Ishtar’s divine consciousness was forcibly expelled. Disoriented and barely escaping that bizarre fusion state, Rin realized with horror that sothing far greater than Ishtar had manifested within her.
No way. Again?! This is my body! Not your communal hand--down! she scread internally.
And the next second, Rin’s head lolled to the side. She passed out.
Thanks to the return of a full Age of Gods environnt, Ishtar’s consciousness didn’t dissipate. On the contrary, she erupted with an extrely arrogant and hostile presence:
"Who?! Who dares steal from this goddess—daughter of the god-king Anu... Ishtar—you... YOU."
Without Rin’s gentler side to temper her, the raw, ancient version of Ishtar’s personality was on full display. Her behavior was that of a classic problem goddess. It beca painfully clear why Gilgash had rejected her affection.
But the next mont, even Ishtar was so terrified, she stumbled back repeatedly.
Because from Rin Tohsaka’s body, a terrifying aura erupted—so overwhelming that even Ishtar herself felt fear. A divine presence as vast and unfathomable as the galaxy itself awakened within her.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!!
In that mont, the imnse gravitational pressure caused by the descending giant shook the entire Earth to its core. Mountains trembled, oceans roared, and the earth quaked violently.
From beneath the crust, searing light broke free. It rapidly expanded and erupted in towering beams of fire, like suns rising from the ground. Red and gold light, mixed with apocalyptic volcanic fury, surged into the sky.
Countless kiloters of fissures spread across the planet’s surface. This ti, the ravaged singularity’s Gaia reached the end of its life. Alaya wouldn’t last much longer either.
Volcanic ash clouds from the planet’s disintegration engulfed the globe. The ozone layer tore open, and in an instant, solar fire illuminated the surface.
Selene, whose mass and presence shattered the planet from sheer pressure, didn’t care.
The mont her true body entered, her opponents were no longer Chaldea. Not even the two Counter Forces, the Throne of Heroes, or Earth’s gods were worth her attention.
Brutally put, even if all of them stood side-by-side, they weren’t even worth a single breath from her.
"Hmm?"
At that mont, a ssage echoed in Selene’s mind. Despite all her intrusion and the pollution she brought upon the Swirl of the Root, the Root responded as always—emotionless, impartial, and bureaucratic.
There were no words or spoken language, but the conveyed aning was unmistakable:
"Selene, please leave my system. Your authority is severely disrupting the rules of the universe."
"Withdraw, and coexist. Resist, and we are enemies unto death. No compromise will be accepted."
This ti, however, Selene could feel it: every beam of light in the universe that touched her carried a palpable sense of rejection.
After all, Selene’s actions had effectively branded her as an Outer God—a chaotic invader. Even though the Swirl of the Root had no subjective will, it still had boundaries and automatic defense systems.
"Withdraw?"
From her vantage in space, Selene glanced down. In the skies above the sundered Earth, a light ring 70,000 ters in diater blazed into existence. Under its golden radiance, the collapsing planet montarily stopped breaking apart.
Boom!
"Compromise? That’s never what I wanted. I’ve never once considered giving up halfway."
The moon in Selene’s palm had already been corrupted by Honkai energy into an unstable crimson mass. Trembling violently, entire crustal plates shifted like quicksand and then shattered.
Like silver sand, they spilled from her fingers, forming rivers of debris and asteroid belts that rained down upon the broken Earth, stirring up tsunamis of cosmic magnitude.
"...."
With the crushing of the moon, the Swirl of the Root severed its connection.
That was her answer.
"Let the war begin!"
In the next instant, a radiant star suddenly ford and silently shot toward Selene.
"Yes... that’s it. Let’s settle this once and for all!"
Without hesitation, Selene reached out and, with a single pull, summoned the remaining eight planets of the solar system. They ca crashing down toward the galaxy’s radiant light, rising from the ruined Earth.
"From Earth’s orbit to the edge of the Milky Way—let the stars boil, let the constellations fall! Even if I reduce the galaxy to ash, the world shall be mine."
Boundless Honkai energy and cosmic aether surged together, unleashing a blinding annihilation—the power to rewrite the universe.
As the two forces collided, waves of silent destruction exploded across the cosmos. The stabilizing light ring faltered and shattered in the fiery detonation of the burning starscape.
At last, another crystal-like barrier unfurled, barely holding the split Earth together.
Standing amid the now-empty solar system, sensing the countless colossal presences and counterasures speeding toward her from the far side of the galaxy, Selene’s scarlet eyes blazed with even greater greed and domination.
"The victor takes everything. The loser retreats. The Root..."
"Then let the galaxy burn!"
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