Inside, the survivors screamed. They pressed back against the wall in panic and huddled together, as if being closer together could hold off death.
The old woman and fifteen others raised their laser rifles—their last functioning weapons—and aimed directly at the growing dent.
Thud!
The second strike split the door down the center. A slimy tentacle slithered into the chamber.
Without hesitation, the survivors opened fire. Beams of concentrated light tore into the tentacle, burning it down section by section.
The Zerg General shrieked in pain from outside; its rage echoed through the walls.
But then, to their horror, the tentacle began to regrow. They could see the flesh twisting and reforming."Damn it!" a man roared, stimulated by what he was seeing.
He broke the formation and sprinted toward the tentacle. He was clutching a grenade.
Before he could throw it at the Zerg outside, the tentacle shot forward and pierced his chest. With his last bit of strength, he slammed the grenade into the wound and detonated it.
Boom!
Flesh exploded. The tentacle recoiled and was shredded, but that wasn't enough. It only made the Zerg General howl in outrage.
A second tentacle plunged into the chamber, and her legs smashed against the ceiling above, shaking the bunker.
Panic broke through of what little resolve remained in them.
In seconds, the second tentacle struck again, draining the vitality from ten people in an instant. Their bodies shrank and collapsed like crumbled paper.
Only the old woman and three others managed to dive back in time, barely escaping the strike.
Her hands trembled and her heart pounded. "It's too strong," she thought. Should I use the trump card? Should I take it down with me?"
She looked back and saw the survivors huddled behind her. They were the ones she'd sworn to protect. It was a mission she had inherited from her deceased father and ancestors.
"No... I can't. They are the last of our people," she said to herself.
But then, the truth of the situation hit her harder than any tentacle ever could. "They'll die anyway, and worse, the Zerg will feed on their energy and use it to find others like us."
"I can't hesitate anymore," she mumbled as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small, thin, cylindrical device. It was both a trigger and a last resort.
She looked back one final time into the eyes of frightened women, young women, and the future.
Then, she turned to the tentacle and hovered her thumb over the button.
Just as she was about to press the button, her vision went black.
A heartbeat later, she opened her eyes and found that she was no longer in the bunker.
She was floating in open space.
Stars shimmered all around her. Planets turned in slow, graceful orbits. Nebulae bloomed like flowers in the void.
It was a sight she had always dreamed of but never thought she would witness.
"Am I dead?" she whispered, her voice trembling as she looked around in wonder.
Then she looked back and saw Lex's enormous humanoid figure sitting cross-legged before her, looming across the stars.
Galaxies were held within his body, planets spun within his ribcage, and constellations burned within his eyes.
To her, he looked like the living embodiment of the universe itself.
Then came his voice, deep and resonant. It wasn't spoken with breath, but with authority woven into the fabric of reality.
"Kneel before me, for I am the God of the Endless End. Offer me your fate. Surrender me your soul. Give me your fear, your rage, your hope. Your everything. Worship me, and you shall be free."
His words pressed into her mind like gravity bearing down on her spirit.
She blinked, her body shaken to the core.
"What is this? Who—or what—is calling itself a god? Is this the afterlife? Is this what one sees when they die?"
Lex, reading her thoughts, answered with a calm yet all-encompassing voice:
"No, this is not the afterlife. You are not dead. Your soul was drawn here, summoned by the overwhelming emotions burning within you."
"I'm not dead…? Then what about the others?" she asked.
"They are alive. Time, in that place, is frozen by my will. Only your soul have been brought here."
She sighed with relief, then looked up. As far as she could see, she only saw him. His body occupied the vast void. She looked down.
"You said to worship you. What do I gain by doing so?" she said, seemingly unafraid.
Lex paused for a moment, silently surprised.
"She's still thinking clearly. She's not broken or desperate. Perhaps she never truly despaired," he thought, looking at her closely.
"Hmm, so that's it. She's one of the protagonists of this era, chosen by the cosmic will. What a lucky find." Lex thought happily.
"I shall use your own tools against you," he murmured as if he were talking to the Cosmic Will.
Then, he answered with a deliberate, majestic voice.
"I offer you power. Power beyond measure. A life longer than stars. A soul that shall never fade. Everything you desire, within your reach, if you kneel."
Her expression hardened when she heard the offers. "You said power. Can you give me the strength to slaughter the Zerg?" she said her voice brimming with pure, focused hatred.
"Yes," Lex answered simply. "So… the reason she didn't despair was because of this overwhelming hatred. Good. That burns even longer." he thought.
Without another word, she dropped to one knee in the infinite void.
"I, Morrigan Harrow of the Vorex Lineage, offer my faith, my soul, and my fate to the God of the Endless End. I vow this—solemnly."
As soon as she finished speaking, a small, golden light rose from her chest and drifted across the stars and into Lex's vast galactic form.
He felt her devotion although not that pure but nonetheless devotion and what he needed.
"I completed the first step even better than I imagined. Who would have thought that I would get one of the era's protagonists?" he thought. "Now, let's see if this golden light can be changed."
The golden light—her faith—twisted inside him. Then, slowly, it began to change into mind power.
With this, his plan had begun.
Then, with divine gravity, he spoke again.
"Your devotion has been received. As the first to believe in me in this universe, I shall bestow two gifts upon you."
"Gifts," Morrigan thought. "What could they be?" she wondered, feeling hopeful.
A small sword Qi Dao extracted from the rune in the Dao King Technique, appeared in the void. It floated before her.
"A blue sword. What could be so special about a sword? It would have been better if it were a powerful gun," she thought inwardly.
"This is the Endblade Qi, the sword Dao of Final Severance."
"First, I will awaken the blade within your soul." With these words, a spectral sword carved from starlight coiled along her forearm like a tattoo as she took hold of the sword with her right hand.
"Your will will take the form of sword Qi—pure, unrelenting, and final. This is not mortal swordplay. This is the sword that severs fate itself at its peak."
"What?! Fate? How is that possible?" she exclaimed inwardly. She had been waiting for a weapon that could destroy planets and cut powerful spaceships at full power, but fate was a wild concept she had never imagined.
"That is its peak. You won't be able to cut fate now. You would need to master it. With enough mastery, you will be more powerful than the fallen Supremes of this universe," Lex said.
"The second ability is that I will remake your body in the image of persistence. I bestow upon you the Endborne physique."
With this physique, you will not heal like mortals. You will not live as they do. You will remember every death you survive. Every scar will be etched in your soul."
"Doesn't that mean I become immortal?" Morrigan exclaimed. She felt afraid. Getting such powerful abilities so easily made her feel like she was losing something else.
And indeed, she was losing her universe.
"Indeed, death shall never keep you. What kills others will feed you. What ends others will empower you."
"You are no longer a woman of flesh. You are a vessel that carries my will—a living shrine to the End."
"You carry no mortal burden now, Morrigan. You carry my mark. The mark of I, the Endless End." Lex said this as he watched her soul slowly fade and return to her body.
Luna's form shimmered into existence just above Lex's shoulder. Her tiny hair swayed slightly in the starry void.
"You gave her that much power?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Since when have you been generous?"
Lex didn't look at her. His gaze remained fixed on the fading echo of Morrigan's soul as it returned to her body.
"She's one of the protagonists of this era," he said flatly. "The Cosmic Will won't sit idle. It will hand opportunities to others to counter the Zerg. I'm just staying ahead."
Luna frowned. "No, that's not the whole truth."
Lex chuckled, his voice like thunder folding in on itself.
"You're right. I can't hide anything from you." He finally turned to her, his eyes gleaming with logic and cold ambition.
"I plan to use her to spread faith in the next universe. I can't be everywhere, handing out power and playing savior myself. She'll do that for me."
Luna blinked. "So you made her your eternal servant?"
"Isn't that a better fate than becoming food for a Zerg spawn?" Lex asked, amused.
"Maybe. But the physique you gave her—the Endborne, as you call it—is not a gift made for comfort. Die enough times, and even the strongest mind will crack," Luna said in a low voice.
"If she breaks, she won't be of use to you for long."
Lex smirked and said, "She's stronger than you think. And nothing I give comes without a cost. Power must be paid for. It's an older law than any universe."
Luna sighed. "You really are cruel."
"Cruel?" Lex echoed, his voice light but hollow. "I saved her. I gave her strength. I gave her immortality. Do you think any of that would have been hers if I had been kind?"
Luna gave him a side glance. "You create the wound, then offer the cure. I may be young, but I can still see through the setup."
Lex smiled. Not out of guilt, but out of agreement. "We don't deal in right or wrong, Luna. Only in gain. Only in ends."
"I didn't say you were wrong," she said. "I said you were cruel."
Lex gave a small nod, then turned his gaze inward.
"Maybe I overthought this."
Their ethereal forms shimmered, then faded into the void as their consciousness returned to their real bodies.
At that exact moment, Morrigan's eyes snapped open. Her breath trembled. In her hand, a sword of blue light formed, its edge humming with celestial rage.
The chamber trembled; the Endborne had risen