Ryn accidentally jumped outside the timeline, no longer existing in the worlds within the leaves.
He forgot the past, forgot himself, forgot how to think, sitting blankly in the starry river for ten thousand years...
Ten thousand years passed for him, while she searched and waited bitterly, every day feeling like a year.
Finality descended, in a form no one had expected...
To find Ryn, Kiana stopped deceiving herself and chose to merge with Sirin. But the form that emerged was not the Herrscher of the Void... but Finality...
The moment Finality descended, because of the Herrscher of Finality's Honkai energy level, death spots capable of destroying everything appeared on Earth...
And then the world was destroyed, erased as if it were child's play.
Kiana broke down. Neither Finality nor the death spots were within her imagination.
Having lost her sanity, she began to frantically open doors, traversing various worlds in an attempt to find Ryn. He was all she had left now.
But Kiana didn't find Ryn. Instead, as she invaded thousands of worlds, they were eroded by the Honkai energy leaking from her, causing the 'Honkai'...
Worlds without the means to resist the Honkai energy level of Finality were ravaged by the Honkai until all life was extinguished and the worlds were shattered...
Kiana completely broke down, went mad...
After an unknown number of years, Kiana finally found Ryn.
But Ryn had already forgotten who Kiana was, and had forgotten how to think... Kiana had also forgotten who Ryn was; she only knew she was looking for something.
Kiana raised her spear and pinned both Ryn and herself to the Imaginary Tree.
Roll credits.
——————————————
[What kind of crappy story is this? You brought Ryn over just to pull this stunt?]
[This is his fate, the story presented on the river of time.]
[I don't like this outcome.]
The Great Will of the Sea of Quanta charged directly at the Imaginary Tree, grabbed one of its branches, and broke it off.
[You have already changed his normal destiny, so why force a tragic end upon them? You, who should have only been a witness and recorder of all this, have actively interfered in the path of living beings. In the end, was it I who was corrupted by the will of living beings, or was it you?]
[Everything about living beings is predetermined. To escape a set destiny, one can only do so through the interference of external factors.
Whether it's Ryn or Penglaiji Ryn, they are both existences outside of the predetermined destiny. They changed the course of the world, interfering with the fates of Kiana and Kiana.
But what about the fates of Ryn and Penglaiji Ryn? You don't like tragedies, and I don't like so-called predetermined destinies either.
I helped Aha a little, and I helped Ryn a little. Unfortunately, Aha still chose to walk that path. But Ryn is different. When he chose to give up sitting and waiting in the starry river and took that step forward, the path of fate had already begun to diverge.]
[Tsk, so I broke this branch for nothing?]
[At least you destroyed the worst possible fate, didn't you? Remember to compensate me with more energy. You breaking off a branch has already upset the balance between us.]
[It's not the first time. Don't remind me, it's so annoying.]
The illusory body of the Imaginary Tree seemed to sway for a moment, drawing some extra 'sustenance' from the Sea of Quanta.
And then the Sea of Quanta started fighting with the Imaginary Tree again, because the Sea voluntarily giving the Tree energy and the Tree drawing energy from the Sea on its own are two completely different things.
——————————————
——————————————
The ocean, the collective term for the vastest bodies of water on Earth, occupies 71% of the planet's surface area.
The ocean is also a major driver of weather and climate. The slightest fluctuation in ocean temperature can lead to drastic changes in weather patterns around the world.
The ocean is the cradle of life, and people hold a reverence and yearning for it that stems from their very cells. But to humanity, the ocean is as mysterious as the starry sky. Even with today's advanced technology, humans have explored only 5% of the seabed, leaving 95% of the deep sea filled with the unknown.
And beneath this unknown seabed...
Lies a gigantic red stingray, far beyond human imagination, dormant in the depths.
And now, before this stingray, a miniature black hole quietly formed. Ryn, with his hair trailing on the ground, slowly walked out from it, and then the black hole silently vanished.
"Glug, glug, glug..." Ryn choked on several mouthfuls of seawater before he could adapt to surviving underwater.
Then, after looking around, Ryn scratched his head, at a loss.
"...Um, so... where have I ended up this time...?"
When you don't know where you are, and there's an intelligent creature in front of you, the logical thing to do is to ask for directions, right?
Ryn floated over to the giant stingray and patted it.
"Hey buddy, do you know where we are?"
The giant stingray was so massive that Ryn couldn't even see its eyes from his vantage point.
But even without seeing its eyes, Ryn could sense a thick feeling of contempt from the stingray...
The stingray ignored Ryn and didn't move an inch, just remaining dormant. If it weren't for the overwhelming Honkai energy Ryn could feel from it, he would have almost thought it was long dead.
"Fine, if you're not going to answer, so be it. I don't know how long it's been since I last ate... Although I'm not hungry, I have a craving." Ryn rubbed his hands together, his mouth watering involuntarily.
A stingray this big, with such rich Honkai energy, and at the bottom of the sea several thousand meters deep... its meat must be absolutely perfect, definitely delicious.
Ryn took out his Sword of Stars. He had spent his idle time on the Imaginary Tree tempering this sword countless times, even incorporating some leaves from worlds that had already been destroyed.
With one slash from me, with the power of several worlds, what can you use to block it?
Ryn slashed at the stingray, easily cutting off several pieces of fresh and delicious stingray meat.
High-end ingredients often require the simplest cooking methods, so Ryn picked it up and started gnawing on it directly.
Eating and cutting, life was good.
But he felt like this was a bit unfair to Brother Stingray, so Ryn cut off a huge piece of its meat and offered it to the stingray.
"Hey buddy, want a piece or two?" was the response.
"..."
Ryn held it up for several minutes, but the big stingray paid him no mind. Ryn could only awkwardly take the piece of meat back for himself.
But just as Ryn was halfway through his satisfying meal, a clear, ethereal, and very pleasant voice sounded in his ear.
"Is it good?"
"Delicious, you want some?" Ryn replied subconsciously without thinking, then turned his head toward the voice...
A delicate young girl dressed in a long white robe with a white silk scarf over her head was staring at him with her beautiful, large blue eyes, sizing him up with curiosity.
"Thank you, but I don't want any. Isn't it strange to eat yourself?"