"Hmph."
Daskein's voice was filled with contempt. "A mere ant, skilled only in lip service." In her human form, Horaiji Kujou's combat power was only at the Star-busting level, a world apart from his own.
Fwoom!
Jet-black flames melted space itself as a monstrous malice converged in the starry sky.
The Emissary of Destruction emerged from his Titan, his twisted body expanding without restraint. In just a few moments, Daskein's form had already surpassed that of his flagship, the [Aura Oracle], and was continuing to swell toward the size of a planet.
"Getting bigger?" Horaiji Kujou said, crossing her arms. Standing in the center of the bridge, she was completely unafraid. "That's a move for villains with their backs against the wall."
"Fabela! The Cone is yours!"
Behind Kujou, six beautiful figures stood in a circle around her.
"Understood," the girl with pale blue hair nodded with extreme solemnity.
"Yssring! You figure out a way to crack that Ironclad!"
"Ah… got it." Dr. Yssring touched her somewhat messy curly hair and shook her head vigorously like a startled animal, nearly shaking off her large, round-framed glasses.
Facing a Titan with astonishing defenses, a frontal assault was clearly less effective than leaving it to Yssring and the experimental team she had brought to the battlefield (for logistics).
"Ella! The Brick and the Big Bat are all yours!"
"Acknowledged," a clear, emotionless mechanical voice responded to Kujou's command.
"Divine Machine" Ella, a helper Kujou had brought from The Throne whose combat power was second only to Delta's, would single-handedly take on the heavy responsibility of holding back two Titans. The lack of support or a squad had no effect on her.
"Seltie! The Chrysanthemum is yours to… no, we just got intel from Wendy. Go help defend the Landing Cities. Wendy will take care of that Titan."
"Kay Kay"
"Director… I'll leave the bridge to you."
Situ Qinghong.
Although his appearance and voice were indistinguishable from a girl's, he was the only male on site… physiologically male in his human form. As the Director of the Seventh Chamber, he was serving as Kujou's second-in-command on this mission.
"Leave it to me," Situ Qinghong, dressed in a long white robe, gave a slight nod. "With Femiris here, plus the help of Siegfried and Cecilia, holding back the enemy flagship shouldn't be a problem. You, on the other hand, should be as careful as possible."
"Don't worry."
Horaiji Kujou thumped her chest, a gesture not particularly suited for her.
An exquisite and elegant "Thorn Star Corona" appeared above Kujou's head. From beneath the bandages wrapped around her arm, a magma-like crimson began to spread.
[Nightmare Collapsed State]
It was a power attribute extremely similar to Kevin's Karma… Devil Collapsed State. With it, Horaiji Kujou could possess combat power reaching the Super-Planetary level.
And after that—
Fwoom!!!
The cross-shaped hair ornament bent into a ring, a brilliant cruciform star shining upon it.
Unlike Kevin, whose "outer form" was fully manifested, as Horaiji Kujou's power leaped upwards once more, her body underwent no physical changes.
This was the purest form of a Newborn Species' collapse—
[Savior Collapsed State]
Facing this form, which he had only ever heard of in rumors, Situ Qinghong raised his hand toward her and made a rather peculiar gesture.
"Live long and prosper."
"?"
Kujou was completely baffled.
"Situ, what are you talking about?"
"?"
Situ was doubly baffled.
"Uh, it's a TV show that's been pretty popular lately. I thought you would know."
"What the heck! Even if it's popular, you don't imitate the hand gestures from it in such a serious situation, do you? I graduated from my chuunibyou phase a long time ago!"
"Well then—" Horaiji Kujou declared with a flick of her finger.
"May the Force be with you!"
"…"
You haven't grown out of it at all! they all thought.
---o---
"Finished with your final goodbyes?"
"No, haven't we not even started yet?"
"…"
Daskein's voice instantly turned grim.
"You sharp-tongued ant, you dare to contend with a true Emissary with this fleeting Emissary power you've summoned by burning your own life?"
"No, no, no," Kujou wagged her finger. "We Imperials (?) have very long lifespans. Burning through a thousand or eight hundred years is no big deal. But you, on the other hand, are still waiting for me to burn a little longer… Could it be that you're scared?"
"…"
"Since you are so eager to die—"
A jet-black "arm" rose toward the sky, breaking the barrier between Imaginary Space and reality once more. A vast expanse of Imaginary energy twisted into a mass the same color as the night sky.
The true essence of Destruction, a power sufficient to extinguish a star.
"—I shall be merciful and grant you your wish."
"Ah, ah."
A pair of emerald-green dual blades flew out from inside the jacket slung over her shoulder. Intertwined black and dark red surged from the depths of her [Divine Ring], "melting" Horaiji Kujou's weapons into a single, flawless sphere.
"Since you're being so kind…"
Darkness and evil, powers diametrically opposed to Horaiji Kujou's identity as the "Savior of Light," emerged as wisps from the girl's body, weaving together and spreading outwards.
"...please allow me as well…"
VMMMM!!!
The sphere transformed into a beam as thin as a strand of hair, shooting like an arrow straight toward the solid dark matter Daskein had thrown!
"...to show a small token of my appreciation!"
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
Horaiji Kujou's [Savior Collapsed State] only had the power for a single strike.
To be precise, the "Nightmare" she had extracted from within herself was only enough to launch one Stellar-class attack. A Collapsed State was the unreserved release of the power hidden deep within one's body, and Kujou's Collapsed State was the extraction of the power of a completely opposite personality from the level of her will… at the cost of burning her lifespan.
After this, although Kujou wouldn't lose her ability to fight, she would be unable to enter an Artificial Collapse for a long time. She had never expected to defeat her opponent this way from the start. The entire battle was focused on one thing: "attrition." The battlefields between the Empire and the Antimatter Legion were not limited to the Vitriel Star System and the area around the current civilization's Earth. As long as she ensured this front did not collapse, it would be enough.
After trading one ultimate move with the enemy, the next step depended on the power of the [World-Purging Saint-Destroyer]. This Super-Titan-class ship, rushed to completion, was built from the very beginning to counter the top-tier combat power of the Antimatter Legion.
Now…
Splash.
Plans can't keep up with changes!
As the sound of turbid waves echoed, something neither the Empire nor the Antimatter Legion had anticipated occurred. The clash of their attacks had not caused much external damage, but the act of mobilizing Imaginary energy on such a massive scale had indeed triggered a disturbance in the time vortex!
In an instant, the time vortex surrounding Earth, which had originally been stabilized by the Monarch, began to spin violently, instantly sweeping up the Moon, which was the first to be hit, as well as both warring parties!
---o---
The Current Civilization's Earth.
At this moment, "it" shone with a brilliance that rivaled the sun—a stellar light interwoven with orange-yellow and crimson, the origin of life.
There were no people.
There was not a single living human on the entire planet.
Crackling serpents of electricity, collapsing charred beams… an undeniable apocalypse veiled the entire planet. The time of this race seemed to have stopped at a certain moment, but the Earth's rotation did not cease for the absence of a single person.
And so—
Roaring torches connected continent to continent.
No one knew when they had been lit, but the raging flames, fed by "human remains," had indeed swept over every inch of the Earth, every living creature.
Whoosh!
On the desolate surface, a fierce wind from an unknown source blew fine white ash into the distance.
If the force were just a little stronger, it might have been able to save them from the gravitational pull of this "satellite."
The Moon.
On the surface of the satellite, which should have been vast and empty, a silver-gray city had been erected at some unknown time. It was built in the center of the ruins and relics left by the Previous Era.
It was a city, and also a fortress and a base.
From its vantage point, one could always gaze upon the once-azure planet. It had a rather poetic name:
[Horizon]
From the top of the dozens of towers that stood in the center of the base, one could always see the distinctly different facets of the Earth and the deep void.
And this was the origin of the Moon base's name.
Clang.
Clang.
The sound of striking steel, the sound of melting metal.
And the sound of debris and fragments, as if after a great battle, rolling and clattering across the ground.
All these sounds were faintly interwoven.
That's right.
The city was not exposed to the vacuum of space. A transparent dome stretched across the sky, enclosing a large expanse of land.
Vmmm.
VMMMM—
Within it, a muffled engine sound gradually grew into a fierce roar.
A conspicuous light blue shifted toward pure white as a streaking light smashed through all obstacles in its path.
SWISH!
The rugged terrain was no hindrance.
The steep cliffs, in their thunderous collapse, fulfilled their final duty as a springboard.
The quantum autonomous armors, just awakened from stasis by the warning siren and rapidly entering combat mode, did nothing to alter the course of that streaking light.
CRASH!!!
They were smashed directly into wreckage that could never be reassembled.
Toward the very center of the Moon base, rolling wheels crushed all obstacles—
The Herrscher of Reason,
Bronya Zaychik.
---o---
Gurgle.
Silver-black liquid poured into the pool.
Liquid Soulium, enough to construct the bodies of hundreds of Keys of God, was being injected ceaselessly into the center of the forging pool as if it cost nothing.
In the center of the forging pool, stoking the roaring furnace fire for this "pool of water," was a cracked and lackluster orange-red gem.
[Herrscher of Flame Core]
It was melting the Soulium, and also absorbing it.
Directly beneath the forging pool, at the core of the base's lowest level, the reactor that served as the operational heart of the entire Moon base was injecting a steady stream of energy into this forging. The reactor, nearly half the size of the base, was not the energy provider… it was merely a device for creating a "rift."
That's right.
On both sides of the forging pool, two energies, both purple but of vastly different shades, were pouring out endlessly from an irregular void, all converging into the gem that could perhaps no longer be called a [Herrscher Core].
Imaginary energy and Quantum energy.
The two energies of diametrically opposed natures did not annihilate each other, but instead "stably" fused together under the control and intervention of some special power.
This process had been going on for who knows how long.
But one thing was certain: this weapon, which would probably still be called the [Judgement of Shamash], had reached the final moment of its formation—
The Soulium, forged and tempered a thousand times over, was consumed in vast quantities like common metal. From the hilt to the blade's edge, a blackness ran through its center, so deep it was like an abyss one could not look into directly.
The flames that surged from the core had transformed completely into a solidified, pure white.
Orange and red, the two fundamental colors of fire, could no longer be seen on this weapon.
As for its shape… it seemed that the distinction between a greatsword and a lance could no longer be made.
This weapon, into which a sea of resources and so much effort had been poured, was forged for the sole purpose of not breaking when its master swung it "too hard."
Clang.
Sparks flew, and serpents of flame danced.
The greatsword's master, completely ignoring the terrifying heat around him, slowly gripped the newly formed weapon in his palm.
Hiss!
Steam born from the meeting of ice and fire filled the air, like the man's comrades and beloved who had been swept away by the wind.
Fragments of memory flashed through his mind:
He had once gripped this weapon and swung his blade against the world's end; and fifty thousand years of struggle were but to put an end to a brief twenty years of devotion.
Now.
FWOOM!!
Flames rose from the forging pool beneath his feet.
They were an azure blue, like both the great sea and the sky.
The flames burned away his clothes.
A body that could hardly be called human strode out from the incinerated past.
The title of Savior was not something to be proud of, but a responsibility this man had shouldered for a lifetime—
Everything would come to an end here.
BOOM!!!
A pillar of fire shot into the sky, illuminating the entire city like a lighthouse.
A crimson dragon spread its wings and soared, and scarlet lightning echoed across the sky—
CRACKLE!
Passing over mountains and high towers, the surging lightning cleansed the sky of the dense swarm of interceptor mechs.
Gripping tightly to Kurikara's dragon scales, the Herrscher of Thunder, Raiden Mei, was rapidly approaching the city's center from the southeast.
And to the north of the Moon base, the final member of the iron triangle strode down the middle of a track that stretched as far as the eye could see.
A pure white cape.
A crimson sigil.
Erupting flames.
The Herrscher of Flamescion, who had no mount and had run across five promotional videos.
The ultimate, invincible, super f***ing cute—
Kiana Kaslana!
BOOM!!!
She leaped, and she fell!
The explosive impact and scorching flames blew away everything at the point of impact!
A five-colored radiance shone from the hilt of her sword, her bangs, like snow and silver, fluttering in the fierce wind—
Her silver-blue eyes, which pierced to the very depths of the soul, stared unblinkingly and without a trace of hesitation at the opponent before her!
She drew her blade, and she swung.
CLANG!!!!!