Rumble—Rumble—Rumble—
Countless golden chips, like a meteor shower, collided with the onrushing tide of black beasts. Brilliant explosions of energy burst across the deep space outside Pier Point, dazzling like fireworks.
The range of the explosions was vast, enough to cover dozens of Pier Point-sized planets beneath a cosmic canopy.
However, most of this destruction was not caused by Aventurine himself. The Ten Stonehearts drew their power through the authority of the Emanators, and that authority was linked to the Path of Preservation.
Thus, in truth, the one dealing destruction to the black beast tide was Qlipoth.
The Aeon of Preservation, holding a great hammer as he built the Subspace Crystalline Barrier, cast only a brief glance toward Pier Point.
After that single glance, He resumed hammering away, faster than before—the speed of construction of the Subspace Crystalline Barrier had increased severalfold.
He was not doing nothing. He was exerting himself fully, drawing in the forces radiating across galaxies under the Path of Preservation, suppressing the power of another universe, and gathering all forces—even those he could not comprehend—toward Himself.
This was one of the functions of the Subspace Crystalline Barrier core: to attract all forces that threatened Preservation itself, to be struck down and destroyed there.
Preservation is survival, protection, safeguarding.
Ensuring the safety and continuation of the universe was his ultimate purpose in practicing Preservation.
As long as that final purpose was not threatened, He would not interfere with anything else. At most, He would cast a single glance.
But now, the entire universe was suffering invasion from another universe.
It threatened the survival of the cosmos itself, and thus he acted without hesitation.
The Great Attractor was already the largest structure in the universe—a cosmic-scale formation guiding the motion of billions of galaxies.
Though he altered the structure only at a macroscopic level, it was still sufficient to suppress sources of power at stellar-class and above.
Within the Star Rail Universe, having cloaked his aura under the fabric of cosmology itself, the Abyssal Monarch Aether gazed toward the first Aeon to take action: Preservation.
"The first, but not the last."
"Aeons are the most obstinate of existences. Their ideals are absolute, wholly devoted to carrying out the philosophies they embrace."
"The Abyss threatens survival, disrupts balance, destroys civilization's harmony, alters the cosmos' finality, and corrupts its voracity…"
Every Path was affected, and so every Aeon would descend.
And when that happened, he would face war with them all.
Yet at that time, he feared he might not be able to match more than a dozen Aeons—even with the Pseudo Star Map Creation.
Were it only standard single-universe gods, even dozens would not trouble him.
But Aeons were different. They were executors of Laws, their weight of power nearly indistinguishable from that of Cosmology itself.
"Do not worry. Devour the universe as planned. At most, you will face only a few Aeons."
Noah's voice echoed within Aether's mind.
Aether steadied himself. If Lord Heavenly Principle said so, then there could be no problem.
Noah, across the vast distance between two great universes, cast his gaze upon the stratagems he had unleashed for this tide of black beasts.
In Penacony, Sparkle idly toyed with her family members, stirring up trivial entertainments.
She now sat upon a high chair, swinging her legs as she watched the live broadcasts issued by the Interastral Peace Corporation.
Although Penacony had not yet been swept by the black beast tide, panic already gripped the people, sparked by IPC's news. The patriarchs of the great families strove desperately to prevent chaos from worsening, while preparing for interstellar refugees fleeing from other galaxies.
Meanwhile, because of the Stellaron Hunters, the Astral Express crew had successfully reached the Xianzhou Luofu. They were ferried to safety by the Ministry of Navigations' merchant vessel under Tingyun's guidance.
Now, six world-class flagships of the Xianzhou Alliance had gathered, consolidating all the Alliance's strength and standing ready.
Because of this, the Stellaron Hunters, bound to Elio's script, were immediately surrounded by six generals the moment they arrived aboard the Luofu—and conveniently captured for questioning.
For now, they were kept in the Shackling Prison, treated with good food and drink.
The reason was simple: with the universe on the brink of an unknown catastrophe, the Stellaron Hunters—each of them infamous across the galaxy—might prove useful at a critical moment.
After all, when faced with a common enemy, even bitter rivals would join hands.
Thus, the Astral Express crew naturally could not leave either.
The Xianzhou Alliance was not near the regions where the black beast tide had erupted, and so remained safe for the moment. But hearing that the IPC headquarters, Pier Point, had already fallen and was on the verge of destruction left the entire Alliance drenched in cold sweat.
The Alliance was not much weaker than the IPC, but certainly no stronger.
And they had, after all, been invited by Pier Point itself—they knew exactly what that place represented.
To destroy Pier Point would take no fewer than three Xianzhou-class vessels combined, and even then, those ships would be lost in the process.
The Alliance, however, had only six vessels.
Whereas the Interastral Peace Corporation spanned countless galaxies.
If the six ships were destroyed, the Xianzhou Alliance would be annihilated.
Himeko looked at the high-ranking officials of the Alliance who had come to meet them and sighed, knowing full well what kind of discussions would follow.
Meanwhile, Firefly stood at the side. She was an Emanator. Though her companions had been detained, the Alliance was unwilling to spark a war with her and thus did not restrain her freedom. She, on the other hand, could hardly abandon her companions and walk away. A compromise had to be made.
Besides, it had been the Stellaron Hunters who acted first.
Even so, for Stelle, the casual familiarity shown by this mysterious Stellaron Hunter left her a little dumbfounded.
...
At Pier Point—
Shortly after Oswaldo Schneider, the Emanator of Preservation, unleashed his galaxy-level might—
A power of equal magnitude erupted from a rent in space.
An Abyssal Apostle stepped forth from the torn space, fixing a playful gaze upon the sweat-drenched Oswaldo Schneider.
"Hehehe… An Emanator of Preservation? Preservation? How ironic. If you truly walk the Path of Preservation, then why are you so thickly enshrouded in the curses of Alaya and Gaia?"
"Oh… you don't understand? In other words—your body is bound in the maledictions of life itself, in the grief of the world."
"You… your sins are heavy."
The Abyssal Apostle gazed at Oswaldo Schneider, the Emanator of Preservation burdened with such overwhelming sins and curses, and spoke.
Even one such as he, who specialized in capturing and imprisoning evil gods of the main universe, could not help but be astonished.
The worst sinner he had ever apprehended before was merely a demon king who destroyed several large planes and a few hundred ordinary ones.
Such a sin, in the Teyvat Universe, was already rare enough to stir the notice of several divine collectives in the main universe, placing that demon king among the top ten most sinful.
Yet compared to the man before him, that demon king was less than dust.
The curses of Alaya and the hatred of Gaia upon him were far too overwhelming. Even the collective sins of an entire divine pantheon in the Teyvat main universe might not compare.
And this was but one man.
Judging by the weight of his sins alone, at minimum, he had affected the rise and fall of tens of millions of galaxies, perhaps wiping out an entire galaxy with the mere flick of a finger.
Oswaldo Schneider had once been a Nameless follower of the Aeon of Trailblaze, Akivili.
But during the Swarm Disaster, Akivili's performance paled before that of the Preservation Aeon, Qlipoth, who had slain the Aeon of Propagation, Tayzzyronth, with three strikes of His hammer.
Witnessing that universe-shaking sight, Oswaldo Schneider became a fervent zealot of Qlipoth.
After Akivili's mysterious fall, he did not hesitate to join the Interastral Peace Corporation. His fanatical devotion drew Qlipoth's gaze.
It was then that he became an Emanator of Preservation.
He established the Marketing Development Department, endlessly spreading Qlipoth's greatness across the universe, conducting ruthless commercial conquests, and supplying materials to build Qlipoth's Subspace Crystalline Barrier through plunder.
Minerals from across the universe flowed, at his command, to Qlipoth's domain.
Though his methods were meaningless to Qlipoth, the Aeon's silence convinced Oswaldo Schneider that He desired more materials, even rewarding him in approval.
Thus he grew more unrestrained. To obtain minerals, he would not hesitate to annihilate all intelligent life on a planet.
Of course, as the Interastral Peace Corporation valued its reputation, such deeds were never done openly.
Instead, he incited conflict within planetary civilizations, driving them to slaughter one another, until at last the IPC would arrive as a supposed savior to reap both the world and its new laborers.
"You monsters… can you actually speak?" Oswaldo looked at the monster, his equal in power, in astonishment.
Then he calmed. This tide of black beasts was nothing more than the vanguard of another universe.
Just as with this universe's Swarm Disaster—the first to appear were always the countless small insect swarms.
The Abyssal Apostle raised a hand. Abyssal power swirled in his palm, coalescing into a vortex that could obliterate a galaxy with its detonation.
Yet the control was exquisite. At galaxy-class might, He could destroy a meteor without disturbing a star.
An Emanator, by contrast, wielded borrowed authority of the Path—not painstakingly cultivated mastery. Their control lagged far behind.
"I've no intention of wasting words with you. After all, villains fall to their own boasting. Though, I hardly consider myself a villain."
"So then, I'll claim this glorious merit for myself."
The Apostle struck. The Abyssal power expanded, a vortex ballooning in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, it formed a gravitational anomaly rivaling the core of a galaxy's black hole.
"Kill me? Hahahaha… I am the Emanator of the Supreme Amber Lord! All that I am belongs to the Amber Lord!"
"All to the Amber Lord—hahahaha!"
Oswaldo Schneider unleashed the full might of an Emanator of Preservation. The Path of Preservation flooded into his body.
The eruption of his power began to shake even the great galaxies surrounding the Pier Point Galaxy.
Such power, placed in the main universe of Teyvat, would stand tall among the God-King tier—not a weakling by any means, easily ranking within the top hundred.
At that moment, a phantom larger than an entire galaxy manifested, serving as the backdrop of the cosmos.
This was the resonance of the Path, a ripple of Law caused when an Emanator fully unleashed the authority of their Path.
Though the Emanator's power was not his own, it was borrowed authority—enough to stir the echo of the Path and draw forth endless force.
Moreover, Qlipoth was already suppressing the Abyssal power, forcing all galaxies within his radiance to bear the heavy weight of his restraint.
This was akin to a domain ability. Within this range, all Abyssal energy flows slowed to a crawl, and the strength of Abyssal creatures was diminished by half or more.
An unseen shackle enveloped two-thirds of the cosmos.
Such was the burden of fighting on foreign ground—within another's domain, one was bound, hindered, weighed down with countless negative debuffs, no matter how strong they were.
Yet this suppression could only last so long. After all, the Abyss was the dark half of the universe itself.
How could the power of the universe suppress its own other side? Such a feat was as impossible as lifting oneself by one's own hands.
Light blazed like a supernova, illuminating the Pier Point Galaxy. Layer upon layer of thin membranes expanded outward.
From the outside, it resembled countless soap bubbles forming one after another. In the blink of an eye, more than seventy percent of the Abyssal beasts were annihilated by the eruption.
Only Abyssal monsters at True God level or higher survived. Yet it was not just the Abyssal beasts—many life-bearing planets under the IPC were also shattered. Tens of thousands of planetery civilizations were wiped out in an instant.
The Abyssal Apostle was momentarily stunned. "Even your own people you would destroy?" He shook his head and muttered.
"The curses of Alaya and the hatred of Gaia deepen still further."
"In that case, let those very curses drag you into the Abyss, hehehe…"
"The Abyss needs talents such as you."
As a God-King-class Abyssal Devil, he excelled at igniting such debuffs, driving enemies to their own destruction.
Clap—Clap—
The Apostle clapped his hands.
Abyssal power surged forth, igniting the darkness within both the Pier Point Galaxy and Oswaldo Schneider himself.
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