"Uwahhh—Eli, Elias, boss, what do we do now?!"
Pardofelis cried out in despair as she dodged the relentless onslaught of writhing tentacles.
On the battlefield across the lunar surface—
The Herrscher of Finality and the Planet-class Honkai Beast.
Both radiated an overwhelming, godlike pressure that seemed absolutely insurmountable. They were undoubtedly beings of extinction, each possessing the power to destroy entire worlds with ease.
The colossal Honkai Beast, spanning more than 5,000 kilometers—its body even surpassing the moon's diameter—was itself an existence that defied reason. The Flame-Chasers, seeing it for the first time, were struck speechless. At that moment, they could only scatter across the moon's corners, struggling to fend off the monster's countless tendrils.
"Tch! This is beyond absurd."
Elias' eye twitched. He had never played Houkai Gakuen, so he didn't know whether the creature before him was the same Jyahnar mentioned in the game's lore. But whether it was or not didn't matter. Their task now was simple—to slay it.
Yet even with his current strength, bolstered by the support of the other Flame-Chasers, fighting both the Herrscher of Finality and a Planet-class Honkai Beast simultaneously was near impossible.
If these two bosses continued attacking together, then aside from Elias and Kevin, every other Flame-Chaser would be doomed.
"In that case, let's reduce the number of enemies first."
"Elias, what are you planning?"
"Simple... Knock one out!"
Using the Herrscher of the Void's portal, Elias teleported the group into outer space. The moon's surface had already been overtaken by the Planet-class Honkai Beast—continuing to fight there would leave them with nowhere to evade. One wrong move, and the creature could simply crush them all flat.
In contrast, space offered freedom of movement. And thanks to Vill-V's support devices, even those unable to fly could maneuver with ease.
Elias turned his gaze toward the Herrscher of Finality.
Without hesitation, he ignited his memories.
"Fenghuang Down... it's finally time!"
He had endured constant headaches rather than erasing his memories—for this one moment.
"All the past... for this strike. With memory as the blade—sever form, extinguish gods! Taixuan... Eminence!"
Flaming red feathers scattered like stardust. Within the domain of the fully awakened Fenghuang Down, both the Herrscher of Finality and the Planet-class Honkai Beast suddenly slowed, as though time itself had thickened.
Then—a sword of pure white, hundreds of thousands of meters long, appeared above the Herrscher of Finality's head. Its descent could cleave the moon in two.
It contained every memory Elias had ever lived.
Not far away, Hua stared blankly at the divine sword—it dwarfed even her own Taixuan Eminence by a hundredfold.
Herrscher of Finality: "!!!"
Even this Goddess of Honkai could feel the immense danger overhead. As she prepared to pause time or retaliate, Elias' voice rang out—
"This strike—you cannot escape!"
The Taixuan Eminence was an attack of both physical and spiritual nature. Knowing that physical damage was ineffective against the Herrscher of Finality, Elias concentrated its full might on the spiritual side.
Spiritual attacks could only be countered by spiritual defense. The Herrscher of Finality unleashed countless beams of Honkai energy, attempting to obliterate the divine sword—a grave mistake.
The energy beams pierced through it harmlessly, as though striking an illusion.
And then—the Taixuan Eminence descended.
BOOOOM—!
Herrscher of Finality: (((φ(◎ロ◎;)φ)))
The overwhelming strike ignored her defenses and resistances, directly crushing her mind. Her golden eyes rolled back as her body froze midair.
"One down!"
"Finality has lost consciousness," Mei confirmed. "Severe mental disarray detected—her mind has suffered catastrophic damage. She won't wake up for at least ten days!"
Only the Herrscher of Finality could survive such an attack. Any other Herrscher would have had their consciousness and very sense of self completely annihilated by Elias' memory-infused Taixuan Eminence.
However, Elias did not realize—
When the Herrscher of Finality endured his full power, in that instant before fainting, all of his memories were drawn into her consciousness. In other words—
Finality now knew everything about Elias' ten cycles!
"Ah... so it was... you..."
The Herrscher of Finality's divine golden eyes gazed deeply at Elias. The corner of the Goddess of Honkai's lips curved ever so slightly upward before her arms fell and her eyes closed, ceasing all movement.
Elias never heard her words, nor did he confirm her condition after being struck by the sword.
Instead, using the Herrscher of the Void's authority, he tore open the gate through which Finality had descended. Enduring the overwhelming surge of Honkai energy, he hurled Prometheus' replication device into it.
It sounded simple—but in truth, only Elias could accomplish such a feat. Any ordinary person would have been vaporized the instant the gate opened, unable to withstand even a fraction of the Honkai energy that not even a fusion warrior could endure.
(Good! The first objective is complete!)
With that, Prometheus would become the embodiment of the Honkai Will within the Current Era. The most critical step of his plan had succeeded.
But before Elias could even exhale in relief—
"Elias! Dodge!"
"What?!"
BOOOOM—!!!
A beam of pure destruction came hurtling toward him.
There was no time to evade.
If struck, he would die. The sheer presence of death forced Elias to instantly activate every defensive measure he possessed.
Imaginary Barrier, Quantum Shield, Ideal Fluid Shield, Molecular Barrier, Gravity Barrier, Elysion Pedion, Project Chimera Armor, Dea Anchora Suit—plus the defensive abilities of tens of thousands of Honkai Beasts!
The beam of annihilation struck his shields, shattering each layer like glass, tearing through barriers that could easily block nuclear bombardments—and then it struck Elias himself.
However...
"Beasts of Heaven, devour the stars, ascend beyond gods—deliverance through the gun of salvation! Thus is the Signet of [Deliverance]!"
When the light faded, six radiant white wings unfolded—interlocking like shields. Far more majestic and powerful than in the first cycle, the form of the [Reverse God] had finally descended once more.
(That was close! Good thing I triggered the invincibility frame in time!)
Elias wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and gave himself a mental thumbs-up.
That beam's destructive power... was enough to pierce through the moon itself!
After all his defenses were broken, Elias had activated Artificial Cascade, unleashing an instant surge of ultra-high-density Honkai energy to barely counter the beam's destructive might.
Without that, while he might not have died outright, he would have been left gravely injured and unable to move.
And, of course, the source of that beam was none other than the Planet-class Honkai Beast.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH?!"
"Don't be so shocked! I didn't take that hit easily either! Besides, that wasn't even your full power, was it? Wait... don't tell me you were holding back?"
Elias looked over his own wings. To block that attack, half of his total Honkai energy had been drained.
Truly, a Planet-class Honkai Beast was nothing short of a living doomsday weapon—a walking planet destroyer!
"What a shame... I couldn't make you mine."
As expected, even after fully activating the nine-tailed Honkai Beast's control ability, Elias failed to subjugate the creature.
But it seemed he had at least succeeded in capturing its full attention. The Planet-class Honkai Beast had retracted all its tendrils from attacking the other Flame-Chasers and now focused entirely on him.
"AAAAAHHHHHH—!!"
"Sorry, tentacle play's not my thing!"
Elias snatched the Judgment of Shamash from Kevin's hand, then unleashed dozens of blazing arcs of Shamash Assault, igniting the void around them and slicing through the beast's tendrils, burning them to ash.
At the same time, the Honkai energy he had just spent was already rapidly replenishing—after all, he possessed fifteen Herrscher Cores, twelve Authorities, the bubble world within his body, and the regenerative powers of both the Palatinus and Chimera forms.
Shamash Assault no longer consumed any of his Honkai energy at all.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
After unleashing a dozen arcs of flame to sever countless tentacles, the blazing greatsword in Elias' hand morphed into a golden spear.
Then, as if the stars themselves lent him their power, a brilliant golden radiance unfolded like wings from his right leg—forming a long, magnificent bow. Elias placed the golden spear upon it as an arrow.
He aimed straight at the Planet-class Honkai Beast before him.
"This strike—shall pierce the stars!"
When he released the bowstring, the Dea Anchora shot forth like a comet, blazing across the void toward the monstrous creature.
At the same moment, attacks from all directions converged—every Flame-Chaser unleashed their ultimate strike.
Elysia: "Radiant light—illuminate the earth!"
Misteln: "Cycle eternal—without end, without reprieve!"
Aponia: "Prayers come too late!"
Sakura: "One instant, one blade—creation undone!"
Hua: "Taixuan Eminence!"
Kevin: "The world... freezes here!"
Kalpas: "Ashes of death—slay all!"
...
Though Elias had faced every Herrscher alone in the Previous Era, the Flame-Chasers never stopped fighting. Each of them carried a record of countless battles—slaying dozens of Judgment-level Honkai Beasts, even several Vipralopa-class ones.
Now, all of them attacked together—their combined might slammed into the Planet-class Honkai Beast like a supernova.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH—!!!"
Even the colossal monster howled in pain under their onslaught.
It was a being equal in power to the Herrscher of Finality—capable of annihilating civilizations with a single full-powered attack. One strike could pierce not only the moon, but perhaps even the Earth itself.
But unlike Finality... it wasn't immortal!
Due to the protection of Finality's authority, Elias and the others could not harm her physically unless Elias invoked her power at great personal cost.
However, this Planet-class Honkai Beast had no such protection. Every attack they unleashed visibly reduced its vitality.
Still... its health bar seemed absurdly long.
"Tch! We're wounding it, but with a body this massive and no visible weak point—and that armor's too damn tough—how long are we supposed to chip away at it?" Elias muttered, frowning deeply.
According to Mei's analysis data, their combined assault had indeed reduced the creature's Honkai energy levels—but only slightly.
At their current pace, they would have to keep fighting for days, maybe weeks, to bring it down. By then, the Herrscher of Finality would have already awakened.
"Something's... off," Elias murmured.
The damage dealt by his Dea Anchora was certainly the highest, but even when the other Flame-Chasers combined their power—surpassing his in sheer output—the creature didn't even glance their way.
It was fixated solely on him.
"No... this isn't just an attack. It's trying to capture me? Why?"
The Planet-class Honkai Beast continued reaching for Elias with its countless tendrils. Though it occasionally fired beams strong enough to shear chunks off the moon, they weren't aimed to kill.
And Elias had no idea—the creature's purpose wasn't to destroy the Previous Era at all.
It had been created for one reason: to take him away.
This was the mission the Honkai had given it.
After all, Elias' existence had become an anomaly—a being far beyond the expected parameters of the [Cocoon of Finality].
In every record stored within the Cocoon, across billions of years, no one had ever achieved what he had. From the first Honkai Eruption to Finality's descent, fewer than ten humans had died. Every Herrscher that appeared had been captured alive—none had succeeded in destroying even a single city, not even one person.
Moreover, Elias had merged with tens of thousands of Honkai Beasts and possessed a body capable of holding every Herrscher Authority.
To Honkai, he was no longer merely an opponent—he was a specimen of infinite potential.
And thus, it sent forth the Planet-class Honkai Beast.
The Herrscher of Finality's mission was to reset civilization—
And the mission of the Planet-class Honkai Beast—was to abduct him.
After realizing that its previous beam, capable of piercing through the moon, had nearly gravely injured Elias, the creature restrained its power slightly.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH—!!!"
It had patience.
And it had all the time it needed.
The Flame-Chasers' attacks could be ignored; before they could inflict any significant damage, their Honkai energy reserves would run dry. The Planet-class Honkai Beast had only one goal—to capture Elias.
At that moment, sunlight reflected off the lunar surface, and for the first time, everyone saw its true form clearly.
It was a colossal crimson manta ray.
Its beauty was so overwhelming it was terrifying. Its body, stretching over 5,000 kilometers, blanketed the pale moon in scarlet.
"Mei, can you give me anything useful?" Elias asked.
"...Sorry. The external armor of this Planet-class Honkai Beast blocks all scans. Even Prometheus can't collect more data," Mei replied bitterly. The higher the class of Honkai Beast, the more likely it was to possess a core—but with a body this massive, finding it would be nearly impossible.
The immense concentration of Honkai energy in its armor made probing its internal structure completely futile.
"If I bring Prometheus inside it and scan from within, could we locate its weak point or core?" Elias asked after a brief pause.
"It should be possible... Wait! Elias, what are you planning? Don't tell me you're going to fly into its mouth?!" Mei's panicked voice came through the comms.
"Uh, do I look like the type to do reckless things?"
"You are!!"
"Cough, cough! Relax, I'm not doing anything rash this time. I've been holding onto a card I didn't think I'd need—but now's the perfect time to play it."
Elias said as he teleported everyone to his side, distributing the Divine Keys among them. "Everyone, cover me for ten seconds. I'll open a hole in that thing!"
Everyone shouted in unison: "Got it!!"
The Flame-Chasers formed a protective formation around Elias, all activating Artificial Cascade to intercept the Planet-class Honkai Beast's attacks.
At the same time, Elias summoned a hundred portals of the Herrscher of the Void—massive gateways through which the muzzles of countless Moonlight Throne battleships emerged.
To prevent their destruction, he had stored all the battleships within Imaginary Space. Their numbers had doubled since the first cycle—from fifty to one hundred.
And their main cannons were already fully charged.
Elias raised his hand and shouted: "Moonlight Throne, main cannons at maximum output—fire all batteries at a single point! OPEN FIRE!!"
—
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