"Even so, we cannot allow '[Heliocentrism]' to descend again and recreate the horrors of the Dawn Era." Sakyamuni faltered at Riku's words, then spoke in a deep voice.
"Heh. Words are useless; only strength decides." Riku sneered; the aura of Super Blue at full output surged forth, making the sky tremble.
"Indeed, that truth never changes," Sakyamuni sighed. "But on top of that, a little trickery is still permissible."
As he spoke, space shifted, and a boundary rippled the [Perpetual Motion Engine] and the Twin Goddesses vanished from here and reappeared in another, unknown space.
"Oh? Planning to split us up and crush us in turn? Not a bad idea. But, Twin Goddesses, so long as you're gods, you can't kill me!" The [Perpetual Motion Engine] fixed his blood-red eyes on the pair and spoke with defiant arrogance.
A breath of the End gusted, killing chill spread.
"We never intended to 'kill' Humanity's Final Trial," came the Twin Goddesses' cold reply from within the shadows. "If we can utterly break you, destroy your very divinity or seal you away, that is enough."
Ordinarily, Humanity's Final Trials can only be overcome by humans. Gods cannot erase them.
Even if a Final Trial is killed, it revives. Even were the Twin Goddesses were to destroy the [Perpetual Motion Engine]'s divinity and kill him completely, he would reappear in Little Garden at some future point.
But for the Twin Goddesses, shattering his divinity to win time would suffice. A seal would be best, though that is truly difficult.
"Then let us test it. In this zone, where your divinity can't swell too far, how much power do you have left?" the Twin Goddesses said evenly.
"Try it, then and be ready to die for good!" The [Perpetual Motion Engine] grinned; his divinity rampaged without restraint, sweeping everything around him.
The battle was a hair's breadth away.
Elsewhere, Riku and Sakyamuni faced one another. Neither was surprised that the Twin Goddesses and the [Perpetual Motion Engine] had disappeared.
Boom!
In the next instant, Sakyamuni moved. Golden Buddha-light burst forth; a gigantic golden Buddha capable of propping up sun and moon took form, Authority-borne pressure descended, and a golden Buddha palm fell from the sky, bearing the might to suppress the cosmos as it pressed toward Riku.
"Don't bother with parlour tricks like this." Riku snorted. Droplets of blue ki-flame exploded from him; with a single punch, he shattered the palm.
But the next moment, another golden Buddha palm pressed down. Riku frowned, punched again, and burst it apart.
The familiar rhythm made Riku narrow his eyes. Then the [Star of Omniscience and Omnipotence] flashed, and he saw through everything.
"So I slipped into [Three Thousand Worlds] without even noticing? As expected of Sakyamuni." Riku shook his head.
As the esoterica Sakyamuni attained when he reached the supreme Buddha-seat, his mastery over [Three Thousand Worlds] eclipsed that of Riku, who had only recently acquired it. That much was undeniable.
"But actually… I planned to bait you into using [Three Thousand Worlds]." Riku grinned.
A diagram appeared in his palm.
The instant it did, heaven and earth changed, sky and ground became a single chart in chaotic yin-yang, revealing the Image of the Limitless Way!
From Wuji arises Taiji;
Taiji divides into Two Forms.
Two Forms derive Three Powers;
Three Powers shape Four Images;
Four Images transform into Five Phases;
Five Phases make Six Harmonies;
Six Harmonies fix the Seven Stars;
Seven Stars give rise to Eight Trigrams;
Eight Trigrams communicate to Nine Palaces!
Around the Taiji Diagram, ten thousand strands of rosy cloud unfurled and a thousand auspicious lights streamed; prophecies of the Great Way circled without, while celestial talismans flickered within. Five-colored radiance bathed rivers and mountains; ninefold auspicious glow overawed all the heavens!
At the diagram's appearance, [Three Thousand Worlds] trembled violently.
"That's the Taiji Diagram!? What is this!? How does he have Dao De Tianzun's heaven-opening supreme treasure!?" Sakyamuni's face changed drastically; disbelief filled his features.
In that moment, Sakyamuni was as dumbfounded as Dao De Tianzun and Lingbao Tianzun had been when they saw Riku wield [Three Thousand Worlds]. Even at his level, he could not make sense of what he was seeing.
However subtle the relationship between the [Buddhist Order] and [Taoism], lending one's heaven-opening treasure to a common enemy was absolutely impossible.
"Not good!" Sakyamuni's expression shifted again.
At the Taiji Diagram's advent, [Three Thousand Worlds] quaked.
The Taiji golden bridge of yin and yang, manifested Small Thousand World, was pierced in an instant.
The Taiji world of primal chaos arose Middle Thousand World's reincarnation was annihilated outright.
Next, the Taiji Diagram displayed its might again, striking toward the Great Thousand World.
Unlike Dao De Tianzun, who didn't truly understand [Three Thousand Worlds], Riku possessed it himself. Though his control could not match Sakyamuni's, his grasp of its esoterica was more than sufficient. With the all-purpose Taiji Diagram, equal in rank to [Three Thousand Worlds], breaking it was as easy as eating or drinking.
But Riku's aim was clearly more than merely breaking [Three Thousand Worlds].
-
"We can't let him rampage through [Three Thousand Worlds] any further." Sakyamuni's face was grave; Buddha-light surged thicker and thicker as he fully unleashed his Authority, straining with all his might to stabilise [Three Thousand Worlds].
He had long understood Riku's strength and unpredictability, which was why he didn't even bother with the so-called Little Garden calamity, the [Perpetual Motion Engine], leaving it to the Twin Goddesses to delay. Against Riku, his plan from the outset was to seal him with [Three Thousand Worlds].
So long as he could remove Riku, the leader of [Disboard], [Disboard] would crumble.
But Sakyamuni had not anticipated that Riku would possess the Taiji Diagram—nor that he would so quickly see through the esoterica of [Three Thousand Worlds], leaving Sakyamuni now caught in a dilemma.
If Riku broke [Three Thousand Worlds], even Sakyamuni did not have much confidence in defeating him.
"Heh. Only now do you react? Even if you go all out, it's already too late!" Sensing an anomaly in the 16 Reincarnation World, Riku grinned.
"Break!" With that single word, the Taiji Diagram's primordial-chaos world swelled rapidly, force-tearing apart the sliver of the Reincarnation World Sakyamuni had just managed to steady; it punched through the barrier and entered the Great Thousand World.
Great Thousand World's esoterica is enslaving the will. Caught off guard, even Dao De Tianzun had been sealed by it. Its power is extreme.
"Om, ma, ni, ba, mi, hum…" As Riku breached the Great Thousand World, the six-syllable mantra resounded through the space; its vast might sought to impose faith directly into Riku's mind!
"If you want to enslave me, Sakyamuni, you're not qualified!" Riku snorted coldly.
As he spoke, he flipped both hands and invoked [Three Thousand Worlds] himself!
[Pseudo Star Map]—[Three Thousand Worlds]! Great Thousand World, Enslave the Will!
Similar yet different to Sakyamuni's [Three Thousand Worlds], the two Great Thousand World esoterica slammed into one another, sending everything into instability.
"How is this possible!?" This time, Sakyamuni was even more shocked than before, his face full of disbelief, a rare expression indeed for him.
It was one thing for Riku to wield the Taiji Diagram, shocking, baffling, but barely acceptable. But to also use his [Three Thousand Worlds]? That was too far beyond reason.
"A [Pseudo Star Map] that copies other worldviews!?" Sakyamuni's expression changed, suspicion and alarm in his eyes.
How could that be? A [Pseudo Star Map] that duplicates other worldviews shouldn't exist; that would be a paradox.
"Heh, Sakyamuni, this is no time to be astonished," Riku said with a playful grin.
The Taiji Diagram's primordial-chaos world wantonly tore through the Great Thousand World, eroding everything within.
Under its influence, the [Heliocentrism] divinity sealed deep within [Three Thousand Worlds] also began to release world-ending pressure and roil, accelerating the collapse of [Three Thousand Worlds].
"Found it. The [Heliocentrism] divinity!" In the same instant, Riku perceived the disturbance; light flashed in his eyes as he steered the Taiji primordial-chaos world toward [Heliocentrism].
"You will not succeed!" Sakyamuni's face changed drastically; he tried to steer [Three Thousand Worlds] to obstruct Riku, but Riku's own [Three Thousand Worlds] pinned him hard in place.
Even if his attainment surpassed Riku's, facing [Three Thousand Worlds] and the Taiji Diagram simultaneously left Sakyamuni feeling powerless.
A fierce light flashed through Sakyamuni's eyes; he tried to transfer the [Heliocentrism] divinity away.
"By now, you're already too late." Riku's cold laugh sounded; the Taiji Diagram had already overturned most of Sakyamuni's [Three Thousand Worlds], wrapping the [Heliocentrism] divinity within it.
Then, with a thought, Riku retracted the Taiji Diagram.
However, as Riku sealed the [Heliocentrism] divinity into the Taiji Diagram, his own [Three Thousand Worlds] turned unstable as well because he was exerting it massively to hinder Sakyamuni.
Seizing the opportunity, the gravely injured Dao De Tianzun's suppressed will recovered a single thread; he forcibly activated his own Taiji Diagram and pried open the seal.
Although he sensed Dao De Tianzun's anomaly, Riku paid it no special heed; he merely knit his brows, tarried no longer, and forcibly broke out of Sakyamuni's [Three Thousand Worlds] into the outside world.
Taking advantage of the moment, though he did not understand the situation before him, Dao De Tianzun likewise threw everything he had into fleeing this extremely unstable [Three Thousand Worlds].
Outside, Sakyamuni looked heavily at the Riku who had burst free. The [Heliocentrism] divinity had been taken just like that. Events had unravelled entirely beyond his expectations.
"In the end, you still had your way. I should never have used [Three Thousand Worlds]," Sakyamuni said in a low voice.
"Even if you hadn't, I had ways to take back [Heliocentrism], only a bit more troublesome," Riku replied evenly. "Still, it wasn't all lost for you. At least a certain immortal managed to escape my seal."
As he spoke, Riku looked towards Dao De Tianzun, who was standing to Sakyamuni's right and looked a bit weak.
"Dao De Tianzun?" Sakyamuni also looked toward the familiar figure at his right, frowning. "What's your situation? Why were you inside [Three Thousand Worlds]?"
"Sakyamuni, that's what I want to ask you! Why is your [Three Thousand Worlds] in his hands!?" Dao De Tianzun roared. "I slipped up for a moment and got caught, sealed before I knew it."
Having suffered such a loss, Dao De Tianzun was in a fury; even his natural immortal bearing wouldn't hold.
"[Three Thousand Worlds]? Then why is your Taiji Diagram in his hands?" Sakyamuni froze, then knit his brows.
"What!?" Hearing that, Dao De Tianzun stiffened, recalled the scene from moments ago, and his expression sank as he stared daggers at Riku.
"A [Pseudo Star Map] that copies other worldviews?" Connecting cause and effect, Sakyamuni's face changed as he thought of an even more unthinkable possibility; he exclaimed, "But copying other worldviews is a paradox you know that better than anyone. Such a [Pseudo Star Map] doesn't exist."
"It doesn't," Riku replied blandly.
Even Humanity's Final Trial to come [Absolute Evil] Azi Dahāka's Avesta only simulates other worldviews; it does not copy them.
"So on my side, this one is also the real thing." Riku's mouth curled; he spoke a truth that made the gods across the sky tremble.
"…!?" Seeing that the facts matched his suspicion, Sakyamuni's pupils shrank; disbelief filled his eyes.
"Ho-how is that possible!?" Dao De Tianzun, too, was shaken, unable to accept it.
It was too far-fetched.
Among Riku's exposed [Pseudo Star Maps], there was also [Virtual Star—Tai Sui]. They had assumed he seized it from the Star Sea Dragon King after all, the Dragon King had never stepped out to clarify the truth.
If so, then even [Virtual Star—Tai Sui] might be genuine. That would shatter their entire worldview.
How could Little Garden contain two identical [Pseudo Star Maps]? And now even the heaven-opening supreme treasure, the Taiji Diagram, existed in duplicate.
"Who exactly are you!?" Sakyamuni said in a low voice. With this bizarre turn and with [Heliocentrism] stolen even the lord of the [Buddhist Order], a top two-digit, felt deeply uneasy.
"You should know exactly who I am," Riku said with a playful curl of his lip. "The [Heliocentrism] divinity has been reclaimed. It's time for [Heliocentrism]'s kingly might to descend upon Little Garden once more. This is no moment to prattle with you."
He vanished in an instant at a speed surpassing starlight.
At the same time, he raised his right hand starlight lanced forth.
[Pseudo Star Map—Third Star Particle Body]!
A sky-piercing aurora pillar roared out and savagely blasted apart the barrier of Lingshan's Sacred Domain.
"Not good, stop him at once! We absolutely cannot allow [Heliocentrism] to reappear!" The instant Riku departed, Sakyamuni reacted; Buddha-light coiled, a Buddha-golden body re-manifested, and he gave chase at a speed no less than Riku's.
"[Heliocentrism] was actually snatched? Sakyamuni, what are you playing at!" Dao De Tianzun's face also changed.
Subduing Humanity's Final Trials may be the gods' duty, but he knew well the horrors of the Dawn Era. [Heliocentrism] is a power that shakes the very roots of Little Garden!
"My injuries are too heavy." Dao De Tianzun then used an immortal treasure to give chase, while at the same time taking immortal pills to heal and restore his strength.
After the earlier fight with Riku and repeated collateral blasts, he was far from his best.
In a flash, three presences that could shake Little Garden tore through the firmament, arrowing toward the centre of the battlefield.
Elsewhere, in an unknown space, a glint flashed in the blood-red eyes of the [Perpetual Motion Engine], who is bound to Riku by a special link.
He shattered the Twin Goddesses' blade of creation with a single punch; blood sprayed and became countless god-class clones.
A single drop of the [Perpetual Motion Engine]'s blood can form a god-class being. This is the vexation of Humanity's Final Trials.
Of course, while those clones are god-class, against beings of the Twin Goddesses' level, a mere flick of the wrist would erase them completely.
"Heh… it seems my lord has already succeeded," the [Perpetual Motion Engine] chuckled. "Gods and Buddhas this time as well, you lose."
"Mm!?" In the shadows, the Twin Goddesses' eyes tightened; their faces changed.
"Twin Goddesses, it seems now isn't the time to keep wasting time with you here. I must go and welcome the advent of [Heliocentrism]." The [Perpetual Motion Engine] grinned.
A beam of aurora lit in his right palm.
[Pseudo Star Map—Third Star Particle Body]!
It pierced the starry vault; the [Perpetual Motion Engine] rushed out.
"What in the world is Sakyamuni doing, letting [Heliocentrism] be taken, and in so short a time!" The Twin Goddesses' hearts sank; they too broke the starry domain and set off in pursuit.
Seconds later, five presences that could shake Little Garden descended upon the battlefield, making every being feel their bodies grow heavy, their very divinities trembled.
Unbidden, they looked up and saw a scene almost never witnessed before.