Chapter 1: End of Destruction
In Lord of Mysteries, the power system could be said to revolve around one thing—
Beyonder Characteristics.
From Sequence 9 all the way up to Sequence 0, True God, Beyonder Characteristics were essential. Even Great Old Ones weren't exempt from this rule. Sure, early on you could substitute them with ingredients to advance, but the higher you climbed, the more unavoidable they became. Eventually, relying on Beyonder Characteristics wasn't just the easiest option, it was the only realistic one.
"Fresh" potion materials — Beyonder creatures — became rarer the higher the Sequence. As a result, drawing from existing Beyonder Characteristics became the most viable route.
This is why the saying exists: "Once you choose the pathway, your enemies and allies are confirmed."
Anyway, he should stop dancing around and get to what he wanted to say — mainly about how combat truly changed at Angel level and above.
The entire nature of battles shifted from using Beyonder abilities and spells to relying on Authorities and Symbolisms. In fact, he was being generous when he said it began at Angel level. The truth was that at Sequence 1 and 2, the so-called "authority" they wielded was still diluted compared to what awaited at True God level. As for Symbolism, they couldn't even make full use of it yet. At most it acted like a passive bonus that might tip the scales if everything lined up perfectly.
It was only at the level of True Gods that the real change began. When True Gods or Great Old Ones clashed, what mattered was which conceptual symbol or authority countered the other. Survival or victory depended on symbolic advantage, leverage — sealed artifacts, Uniquenesses, believers, the environment — or conceptual counters, not just strength.
Usual rules like spell limitations, energy cost, range, or durability became almost irrelevant. Battles stopped being about damage output and became fights over who controlled the rules, who embodied the concept, whose Symbol prevailed.
In a way, this was one of the similarities Star Rail had with Lord of Mysteries. Abundance — or rather, the Immortality granted by Yaoshi — could be countered by Nihility if the Pathstrider was strong enough. And this wasn't limited to Nihility either; The Hunt could achieve the same. Again, this depended on whether the Immortality of the Abundance Abomination wasn't at the Emanator level. A normal Abundance Abomination's regeneration or immortality was no match for a Hunt Pathstrider.
Anyway, what Nanook was getting at was that Symbolism was ever-present. Water beats fire, fire burns wood, and so on. All of that was Symbolism.
And he too adhered to that principle — even stronger than the original Ruin Author did. His abilities were unchanged, just adapted to fit the "rules" of the universe.
These took the form of Authority and Symbolism. Even his status as an Aeon was a Symbol, one he was currently using to figure out the strange situation of the galaxy he ended up in. No, not the whole galaxy, but rather hundreds of millions of solar systems in it.
The Aeon Symbolism encompassed everything an Aeon was and could do in the Star Rail universe.
This included Dimensionality. As a higher-dimensional being, Nanook — like a certain Great Old One from Book 2 — could freely traverse higher and lower dimensions.
Like the Higher-Dimensional Overseer, this let him counter the Lord of Mysteries' Spirit Body threads and Parasitism. But even without Dimensionality, Nanook knew the Supreme Destroyer symbolism could counter Marionettes, allowing him to lock onto the true body of the Lord of Mysteries. All instances, whether Avatars or Marionettes, would be destroyed. This symbolism surpassed that of the Calamity of Destruction's Destruction, allowing him to even destroy symbolic and mystical connections.
Still—
"How interesting that it's one of the low-key Great Old Ones that can give me a headache."
Higher-Dimensional Overseer, as the "Lord of Dimensions," could symbolically counter "Aeon," specifically the Dimensionality aspect of the Aeon Symbolism.
Yet Nanook wasn't worried about losing his higher-dimensional advantage. RuinAuthor could counter Lord of Dimensions, and vice versa. A battle of countering was the only possible result between an Author and a LordofDimensions — after all, an Author observes and manipulates lower-dimensional "characters," but the Author himself still exists within a dimension, bringing a strange mutual contradiction. The Author's transcendence over characters clashes directly with the Overseer's sovereignty over all dimensions. It was inevitable the two symbolisms would check and counter each other.
Anyway, he digressed.
"As expected." In the tenth dimension, Nanook's gold eyes narrowed at the curled-up "woman" thousands of meters tall. "Only an Outer Deity could cause all things to slumber on this scale." His gaze drifted over the countless suns and stars that had dimmed, stuck in a state of slumber, and the billions of planets frozen over as a result of the inactive suns.
Destroyed.
He instinctively knew this state too was a form of Destruction. Destruction through slumber.
"Not bad."
…
Nanook paused as he registered what he'd just said. "Of course becoming Nanook couldn't have been that simple. Getting happy over destruction… At least I'm not like Kirei and can feel stimulated by things other than Destruction…"
The Ruin Author's words trailed off as he suddenly became unsure. He realized that ever since he transmigrated, he'd been completely calm—
"No, I did feel excited when I felt the immeasurable power, but then I realized I was in Lord of Mysteries, and then—"
Boku no Pico. Pregnant men.
Dozens of stars exploded instantly.
For a brief moment Nanook felt relief at the thought of Boku no Pico, before realizing he had such a thought, which caused several lower dimensions to tremble on the verge of collapse.
He quickly 'destroyed' the thought, reigning in his power, then shifted his gaze back to the Outer God.
All planes of existence — Astral World, Spirit World, Physical — within Her sphere of influence, encompassing hundreds of millions of solar systems, were in a state of slumber.
Nanook, for the first time since his transmigration, felt confused. Should he kill Her for condemning countless innocents to death, even if it was painless and peaceful?
The being before him wasn't malevolent. Her current state and actions were simply results of Her Godhood Instinct. She wasn't even awake. Everything was just a passive effect of Her existence.
"It was said the ten most powerful Great Old Ones in the universe were outside Earth, while the rest in the Cosmos were weaker or uninterested. But isn't the real reason this one never went after the Visionary or Darkness Pathways because she was too busy sleeping?" The Ruin Author knew he really shouldn't be amused given the circumstances, but he couldn't help it.
Perhaps a closer look was in order?
….
The battlefield fell silent, yet at this moment, Nanook paid no heed to the other Great Old Dominators, feeling the symbolism of Termination and the Pillar settling deep within Him.
A burst of triumphant laughter escaped the Ruin Author's lips, echoing across the cosmos.
The End of All Things, the Fourth Pillar of Termination, was born!
Yet that was not what stunned the Above-the-Sequences. No—the true shock lay in the fact that the universe remained unchanged. The Fourth Pillar was not breaking as it should, as everything should have.
In that instant, terror gripped all the Great Old Ones, whether allies of Nanook or not.
And the one who felt it most intensely was the Mother Goddess of Depravity Herself, who had always considered Herself indestructible.
She turned to flee in an instant—
"Where do you think you're going~?" Nanook's playful voice resonated, his Aeon symbolism manifesting as he appeared before Her in an instant.
The other Outer Deities, witnessing him pursue the Great Mother, were unsurprised. From the beginning, this being seemed to harbor an inexplicable grudge against Her, as if His nine generations had been slain by Her hand.
Yet this served them well—for in the presence of The End of All Things, retreat was the wisest course.
The Higher-Dimensional Overseer was the first to act, ascending through higher dimensions in a desperate attempt to escape the galaxy—
An infinitely small point materialized in space.
"Singularity of All." A calm, amused voice reverberated, sending a chill through every spine; souls quivered as the words registered.
Danger! Danger!
Instinct screamed in every being as space and time began to distort. Stars stretched, planets twisted, and even the void itself seemed to collapse inward. Time slowed, then bent, then fractured. Gravity crushed all toward the point, mass and matter collapsing into nothing.
Light, sound, motion—everything was drawn in, erased, folded into the singularity. Cause and effect unraveled. Memories, forms, identities—all began vanishing into the infinite density at the center.
The universe itself trembled, spiraling toward ultimate compression. Every galaxy, every atom, every spark of existence converged. Slowly, inevitably, everything returned to this one impossible point.
And then, when all had collapsed, when nothing remained beyond the singularity… a new beginning would emerge. The universe would reset, reborn from the kernel of pure destruction.
The universe had always been a mistake, and at last, Nanook had corrected it.
The avatar of entropy had served Their purpose.
Destruction was not the process but the outcome.
The universe was successfully terminated.