"Elias, are you alright?!"
The Herrscher of Finality tore open space and returned to the Nation of Domination, only to be stunned by the scene before her.
The wreckage of puppets had nearly filled the entire alien space. The twisted, bizarre Nation of Domination had turned into countless shattered islands, continuously collapsing and falling.
Elias, transformed into an apostle of destruction, sang loudly as he unleashed all of his abilities without restraint, ravaging this already battered space again and again.
The Herrscher of Finality had never seen this white-haired boy like this before. For a moment, she felt a trace of fear—but far stronger than that was concern, because she could clearly sense that Elias had lost control.
"Finality..."
Seeing the Goddess of Honkai descend, Elias was filled with shock. He instinctively reached out to her, as if longing for something.
"...Sorry, I'm back. I couldn't slowly wait until I found the last puppet before coming to see you."
"It's fine, Finality. Thank you for coming back to stay with me."
"!!!"
The Herrscher of Finality froze as Elias suddenly rushed forward and tightly embraced her. His body trembled slightly, as if he had just received salvation.
A faint blush appeared on the Goddess of Honkai's cheeks. She returned the embrace, silently glad that coming back had been the right decision.
But then she noticed something.
"Hm? Elias, your wings—what happened?!"
"Ah, it's nothing. I was just accidentally touched by a puppet. I can't use my authority for now, but you know I still have plenty of other abilities. It's not a big deal."
"...Unforgivable."
The golden eyes of the Herrscher of Finality instantly filled with killing intent.
Like a domineering queen, she held Elias in her arms while glaring coldly at the Herrscher of Million.
Swept by those golden eyes—eyes that carried human warmth yet an overwhelming nobility—the puppets, including the divine puppet, all trembled.
"Scary, scary, so scary! Finality is here!"
"Sh-she—why did she come back?!"
"This is bad, we can't steal her authority!"
"Why is even our final boss being taken by humans?! Does that make any sense?!"
"God, what do we do now?!"
Before the Herrscher of Finality, the Herrscher of Million was like a group of insignificant ants. The gap between them was an insurmountable chasm—even Honkai's reinforcement could not bridge it.
Just a single glance from her divine eyes crushed their momentum, reducing them to a cowardly state completely unlike before.
(...Was sending Finality to deal with these puppets from the start actually the right call?)
Elias blinked as the thought crossed his mind. Then he hugged the Goddess of Honkai even tighter. The rampage and killing intent from earlier had completely vanished—he was fully immersed in her warmth.
In the past, Elias did have feelings for Finality, but they had not yet risen to the level of love.
After all, they had fought each other countless times. And this Goddess of Honkai was the only being in the world capable of truly threatening his life.
That created a subtle barrier between them, making it difficult for their feelings to progress from liking to love.
But...
That barrier had just been broken.
At the moment when Elias was isolated, helpless, and forced to vent his emotions through violence, this Goddess of Honkai descended to his side and filled the emptiness in his heart.
He had already prepared himself to fight the Herrscher of Million for two full years. But that resolve had been so heavy it filled him with bitterness and helplessness.
Because he had once experienced the longest loneliness.
That was why Elias struggled to endure waiting and separation.
And now, when he needed it most, the Herrscher of Finality had come to his side.
At this moment, Elias had to admit—he had truly fallen in love with her.
Sensing his undisguised affection, the Herrscher of Finality was also delighted. She could feel the distance between them had grown closer—Elias had fully accepted her.
"Elias, give me a few seconds. Let me kill these puppets a few hundred times first. These vile, lowly things dared to touch you and steal your authority—such arrogance cannot be forgiven. I will deliver Finality's judgment upon them."
She gently stroked his white hair, her gaze toward the puppets growing colder and colder.
She didn't need to think to know they must have used despicable methods. Otherwise, no matter how many there were, it would have been impossible for them to touch Elias.
And in her eyes, the Herrscher of Million—formed from human malice—was utterly filthy and vile. Let alone touching them, even looking at them felt like contamination.
Yes, she was referring to that one puppet without an eyepatch—the divine puppet possessed by Honkai.
Honkai: "..."
Such filthy puppets had dared to touch the most beautiful existence in her heart. The Herrscher of Finality decided to grind them down hundreds of times as punishment.
"Return Elias' authority if you value your existence. Otherwise, I will make you repent your very birth for all eternity."
"Finality... even you have chosen the side of humanity. Have you forgotten your mission as my apostle?"
The divine puppet looked at her with a complicated expression. It could accept ordinary Herrschers defecting—but even their trump card had switched sides.
Honkai felt like cursing, but it still had to follow its own rules. Within those rules, Finality was its ultimate combat power.
No matter how much it strengthened other Herrschers, none could ever reach the level of the Herrscher of Finality.
"Mission? Hmph. I've long since abandoned something so meaningless," Finality said coldly.
"...If you have any dissatisfaction, you may speak it."
"Dissatisfaction? I've simply recognized the truth. I don't have the right to decide the survival of a civilization, and neither do you—Honkai. And besides... working for you has terrible benefits. Compared to you, even that stinky snake Mobius looks far more conscientious."
As the Herrscher of Finality spoke, veins popped on her forehead.
She raised a finger directly at the divine puppet.
She had originally intended to make an internationally friendly gesture, but since she wasn't familiar with human customs, she accidentally raised her index finger instead of her middle finger.
(Ah, that's cute too...)
Honkai: "..."
Working for billions of years without ever being paid, with no insurance or benefits—exploitative scum like that deserved to be hung from a streetlight and pelted with stones!
"And most importantly, I've already fallen in love with Elias. If I continue working for you and destroying civilizations, I'll become his enemy—and then I won't be able to be with him."
The Herrscher of Finality tightly held Elias' hand, placing her other hand on her hip as she addressed the divine puppet.
"So I hereby officially declare—from now on, what I will destroy is not civilizations, but Elias' enemies. In other words, Honkai... you are now my enemy."
As soon as she finished speaking, the Herrscher of Finality unleashed a beam powerful enough to destroy a planet, instantly piercing through the divine puppet and annihilating the others once again in the process.
"..."
After reviving, the divine puppet was speechless.
The strongest Herrscher bearing the name of Finality had declared war on Honkai itself? Was this supposed to be a joke? Because it wasn't funny at all!
"...In that case, you should return your authority to Honkai, as it is power granted to you by Honkai," the divine puppet said after a moment of silence, struggling to maintain composure.
"Not happening. Consider this authority my payment for completing your missions over the past billions of years."
The Herrscher of Finality replied righteously, leaving no room for negotiation.
In truth, under normal circumstances, the Cocoon of Finality could directly reclaim Finality's authority. However, fifty thousand years ago, Elias had made a wish that freed the Herrschers from Honkai's control.
As a result, Honkai could only watch helplessly as Finality defected to humanity—or rather, to Elias—while carrying the strongest authority.
Unless all Herrschers of the Current Era had descended, even Honkai could not produce a second Herrscher of Finality. After all, that was its own rule.
"Now then—are you ready to repent? Hurry up and return Elias' authority."
Seeing the dimmed gems on Elias' six wings, the Herrscher of Finality felt an inexplicable irritation. Without hesitation, she launched a massive bombardment across the entire battlefield, raining destruction upon the puppets.
Elias sat leisurely atop a mountain of puppet corpses, watching the graceful figure of the goddess he loved fighting for him. His affection for the Herrscher of Finality skyrocketed.
"Phew... finally get a break. Go, Finality. Oh right—don't forget to adjust the time flow in this space. Just sync it with the real world."
"Alright, I understand."
"This—this is bad!"
The divine puppet immediately sensed trouble.
High-level Imaginary Constructs, such as existentialist types, possessed limited control over time—but at best, they could only manipulate time within a radius of a hundred meters, and the cost was enormous.
Even that was considered powerful, but compared to the Herrscher of Finality, it wasn't even on the same level. According to certain experiments, her time authority could extend across an entire solar system.
Now, controlling the time flow of a mere country-sized alien space required almost no effort for her.
"Good. That solves that problem."
Elias let out a sigh of relief. With some breathing room, he immediately began planning his next move. He already had an idea of how to deal with humanity's malice, so he wasn't overly worried about that.
The real key was finding the final puppet.
The condition for defeating the Herrscher of Million had become clear—eliminate humanity's malice and kill all one million puppets.
Elias: "Only one piece left in the puzzle of victory. Everyone, do your best. I believe in you."
...
Several days later, in the real world.
"Waaah! I'm sorry, Eli! We're sorry! We still couldn't find the last puppet!!"
With dark circles under her eyes, Elysia cried out miserably while apologizing to a homemade Elias body pillow.
She wasn't the only one. Everyone else looked exhausted and disheveled as well, all with dark circles—clearly they had been searching day and night for the puppet hosts.
"Damn it! Why is the last one so good at hiding?! We just can't find it!"
"We've searched everywhere... we've already detained all... suspected hosts of the Herrscher of Million."
"That's right. We've secured 999,999 hosts and confirmed their corresponding puppets are all in the Nation of Domination. Only the last host is missing..."
"That damn puppet is way too good at hiding. Once we find it, we're definitely going to teach it a lesson... Wait, where's Mobius?"
"Her? She's currently receiving the retribution she deserves."
Though not particularly important, it was worth mentioning—Klein had once again been chosen by Honkai.
Her luck was truly remarkable. In the Previous Era, she had become part of the Herrscher of the Thousand. And now, in the Current Era, she had become a host of the Herrscher of Million.
As for the reason, everyone knew without thinking—it had to be because she was constantly overworked by Mobius. Anyone forced to work non-stop for months at a time would eventually crack.
Being targeted by Honkai was only natural.
However, after her negative emotions were amplified by Honkai, Klein actually snapped and rebelled. Taking advantage of Mobius' lack of caution, she struck the snake squarely in the back of the head.
Klein: "Vacation! Vacation! I want a vacation! I don't want to work overtime anymore! I'm going to create a beautiful world with seven days off every week! So, Doctor... please die!"
Mobius: (X X)
Everyone: "...Has Klein finally gone insane? Though it's due to Honkai amplifying her negativity, Mobius, this is entirely your own fault."
When honest people snap, they're capable of anything.
Klein even hung Mobius from a streetlight at St. Freya Academy, placing a wooden sign around her neck that read: "The End of Capitalists."
The scene was utterly shocking. If not for the ongoing Herrscher crisis, it would have definitely become the academy's hottest topic, dominating headlines for a month.
"Ahem. Whatever is happening with Dr. Mobius and Miss Klein, we must prioritize finding the last puppet. Lord Elias is still waiting for us," Rita said, leaning against a wall, barely able to stand.
"That's right. But we've thoroughly searched every location in the intelligence reports and still found nothing. That means the final puppet and its host must be hiding in a blind spot of our perception," Raiden Mei said, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to stay upright.
Just as the girls pushed themselves to think, trying to determine where the final puppet could be—
"No good, I can't think anymore. My brain cells are about to shut down. In that case, we'll just have to rely on luck."
"Hm? Vill-V, what are you planning to do?"
"I said it already—rely on luck!"
Vill-V pulled out a three-dimensional holographic projector from somewhere and activated it. A five-meter-tall virtual Earth appeared before them.
Since it was based on real-time satellite projection, everything happening in the world was reflected on this globe.
Then, Vill-V pushed the projection toward the two "pet" girls at home and said in an eerie tone—
"Pardofelis, Kiana—it's your turn."