Durandal didn't have much time to enjoy her newly acquired Herrscher power. She still hadn't fully adapted to the abilities of the Herrscher of Origin, but even so, she could feel the amplification it brought her.
This was especially true after Noldrei had specifically entrusted most of the Divine Keys to her.
The Void Archives, the Seven Thunders of Retribution, the Abyss Flower, the Judgment of Shamash, the Key of Dominance—all of these were assembled onto Durandal.
The current Durandal was like a mobile fortress.
With the power of the Herrscher of Origin, Durandal was now like someone who had turned on a game's cheat engine; she could merge with the power of any Divine Key.
"I feel like I could go fight Finality right now!"
Durandal suddenly felt that Finality was no longer a problem. Her combat power was soaring exponentially.
"Huh?"
A few question marks popped up over Kiana's head. Why was her sister suddenly planning to turn around and fight her future self?
"Oh, no, not fight you, Kiana. I mean, I could go and test the power of the Honkai's Finality right now."
Durandal offered a brief explanation, but it was worse than no explanation at all.
Kiana didn't dwell on it. She switched to the main topic and asked, "Are you confident you can beat the opponent?"
"I don't know... but at the very least, plowing the entire surface of Venus is no problem."
Durandal felt she should be able to defeat the opponent.
'Plow' the surface of Venus, even though it's already like that? Kiana suspected her sister had some violent gene hidden in her body. Truly a worthy orthodox Kaslana.
Noldrei wasn't paying attention to the sisters' interaction. His face was grim as he observed the data from Venus, synchronized from Tesla's end.
An invisible black fog shrouded Venus, as if to deliberately conceal something. Moreover, there was no movement at all on Venus; the other party seemed to be waiting for something, as if they were the ones observing Earth's civilization, not the other way around.
"No, that's not right! It's preparing to run! Quick! Tell Tesla to open the portal immediately!"
Noldrei gave the order without hesitation. It was only then that he remembered that while he wanted to fish for an external Cocoon, the other side wasn't incapable of observing the Cocoon on Earth.
If the other side had seen the situation on Earth, didn't that mean they had also seen the power of the Honkai?
The current situation was very clear: the energy level of the black fog on Venus was far inferior to the Honkai power contained within Earth's civilization. Under Noldrei's guidance, the Cocoon of Finality had even been strengthened to a certain extent.
The newcomer had no intention of fighting the Cocoon of Finality on Earth.
It had realized it had been tricked!
The moment he saw the opponent's move, Noldrei came to this conclusion. It was like dealing with a distant friend he had never met. If Noldrei were in a situation where he was being baited, he would definitely flee the crisis first, rather than directly confronting an unknown, powerful entity.
"Durandal, have Tesla arrange for you to give chase! That thing is running! I'll go find a way to stall it!"
Noldrei was clearly more anxious than Tesla. He couldn't be bothered with the opponent's situation anymore. The moment he saw that the hooked fish wasn't thrashing its tail, he knew the black fog was most likely a diversion for an escape.
Before Durandal could even react, Noldrei was gone.
---||---
Sa was indeed preparing to run, because she had seen the "Abyss."
As a senior from a civilization countless generations ago, the "Abyss" was, in fact, the "Honkai," the power of the "Cocoon."
Sa never dreamed that the thing that had lured her back was the "Abyss."
And it was even stronger than before.
If you had such a badass backer, you should have said so earlier!
So what if she peeked a little? So what if she observed a little? What's the big deal?
In Sa's eyes, Earth was the most evil planet, wrapped in the Abyss.
She couldn't imagine, even with her limited imagination, why? Why were there still traces of civilization on Earth in this state?
Why could she still observe signs of civilized activity on Earth?
It made no sense at all!
Shouldn't it be teeming with Honkai Beasts?
Shouldn't the planet's spherical shape be unrecognizable?
Why was it still able to send out bait to fish for her in the Sea of Quanta?
Sa didn't understand. Her head was about to burn out, if she had a head.
To think that she, who had roamed the Sea of Quanta, slaughtering and plundering countless Bubble Universes, a supreme being who had ruled for eons...
But Sa never expected that there were schemers among schemers. She had intended to pursue a peer who also possessed the ability to peer into parallel worlds, only to find that this peer was a trap set for her by the "Abyss."
It was terrifying. The "Abyss" was now playing at schemes and plots! Was there no justice in the universe?!
Fortunately, Sa was no saint either. She decisively decided to leave a coordinate tail to observe Earth's situation and then prepared to leave.
Just then, a golden light shot out from Earth!
The golden light carried a multicolored, indistinct energy, like a giant, solid black particle sphere. It flew at superluminal speed, giving Sa no time to open a star-gate and leave.
'Crap, the Abyss must have made its move.'
Sa was hovering in space. Before she could escape, Noldrei was upon her.
He immediately sent a massive wave of completely invisible cosmic rays her way.
The move was utterly insidious!
However, this was just dust and debris that Noldrei had swept up as he flew through space. It wouldn't even cause any harm to Sa. The key wasn't the cosmic rays, but the fact that Noldrei was constantly devouring matter in space as he flew, seemingly supplying himself with an infinite amount of energy.
The newcomer's speed of consumption was too fast, as if there were no limits.
By the time Noldrei reached Sa, he had already expanded into a luminous sphere larger than Venus.
His overly massive body ruthlessly crushed down on Sa's tiny form.
Sa had never been so numb and shocked.
The photons emitted by the sun were captured by this strange being like grains of sand picked up on a beach.
What followed was a method of life movement that Sa couldn't comprehend, constructing a new body for this being.
Noldrei's expansion speed had completely exceeded the limits of Sa's spiritual sense calculations.
The powerful gravity distorted the space-time around the star-gate, and Sa had lost her last chance to escape.
For who knows how many years, Sa's civilization had been so helpless when facing the Cocoon.
Now, facing this being, Sa once again experienced that same helplessness.
The collision of celestial bodies was silent in the vacuum of space.
Noldrei, of course, had no intention of destroying Venus. His current expansion was just a massive photon sphere, and his goal was only to attack the opponent's escape star-gate to prevent them from fleeing.
But from everyone else's perspective, the situation looked completely different...
What the companions observed was a luminous celestial body, like Venus itself, crashing directly into Venus.