This massive star system, which had instantly fluctuated into existence within the silent vacuum under Seraphine's will, possessed a gravitational heart: a yellow dwarf. It was 1.392 million kilometers in diameter with a mass of two octillion tons, composed of 75% hydrogen, 23% helium, and less than 2% oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and other heavy elements.
Orbiting within ten billion kilometers of this star, whose surface temperature hovered near 6,000 degrees Celsius, were four rocky planets, four gas giants, nearly five hundred moons, 1.2 million meteors and comets, and several dwarf planets. Further out lay a massive asteroid belt and a gargantuan cloud of cosmic dust enveloping the entire system.
It felt somewhat déjà vu.
Indeed, this was a standard, textbook Solar System.
It was a perfect replica of the original Solar System in terms of matter, energy, and information, lacking only the traces of Earth's human civilization.
Under the influence of the Authority of [Change], this replica Solar System, drifting light-years away from the Obast system, began to shimmer with a faint light.
At that moment, Seraphine's thought shifted, and she whispered in her mind: "From one star system, become... 100,000 star systems."
BUZZ
The Dirac Sea behind the vast space-time remained ripples-less, showing no major reaction.
Yet that star system, spanning tens of trillions of kilometers, suddenly blurred. Like a cell undergoing division, it flickered and split into two, then four, then eight, creating a vast number of Solar Systems out of nothing, rapidly cloning themselves as their numbers surged.
During this frantic proliferation of star systems, Seraphine did not simply stand by.
She channeled her Primordial Soul power, a force a trillion times more refined than subatomic particles, to envelop and perceive the entire process of these systems coming into being.
The process was magical.
In Seraphine's perception, these star systems, with their staggering volumes and scales, appeared out of thin air in the most literal sense.
Throughout the process, the entirety of space-time, from the macro to the micro, including the Dirac Sea and the Higgs field, did not show even a hint of a ripple. Tens of thousands of star systems simply appeared in the boundless void without warning, construction, or assembly.
Only in the split second after their actual appearance did the various fields and fundamental forces existing in the vacuum connect and merge with them.
The integration was seamless and perfect.
Generally, macroscopic matter occupies a certain amount of space. Thus, the sudden emergence of such a vast number of massive star systems should, by common understanding, cause significant fluctuations in space.
But the universe is often counter-intuitive: there were no fluctuations.
Because the most basic building blocks of all macroscopic matter are point particles that have neither size nor volume. The solid world perceived and touched by mortals throughout their lives is merely an illusion created by the fundamental forces of the universe.
The true universe is forever misty, ethereal, and empty.
In a sense, there aren't many things that can truly occupy a specific region of space.
CRACK! CRACK!
In the short span of seven or eight seconds, without the outside universe paying any price in matter or energy, and without Seraphine paying any such price herself, the original replica Solar System, in defiance of all logical rules, miraculously transformed into a densely packed spherical star cluster of 100,000 Solar System clones crammed tightly together.
This effect seemed similar to the Light of Infinity.
Yet, it was slightly different.
"It shouldn't... be just this," Seraphine mused. "The Light of Infinity could achieve this as well. But the Authority of [Change], it should be stronger, or perhaps more precise. Hmm, I need to keep experimenting to understand its true efficacy."
She lowered her head slightly, glancing at a single star system within the cluster. A phantom light flashed within her massive eye.
"Begin infinite proliferation."
BOOM!
In an instant, that chosen replica Solar System exploded into self-cloning. Frantic cloning.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Accompanied by massive tides of light and heat measured in light-years, this Solar System transformed into hundreds of thousands of Solar Systems, stacked tightly together into a sprawling star cluster in just seconds.
At that moment, Seraphine once again channeled the Authority of [Change].
"Cease proliferation."
BUZZ
Suddenly, the rapidly expanding star cluster froze. The number of star systems within it stopped at 900,000. Combined with the initial 100,000, the total count of star systems within this massive cluster reached exactly one million.
A glance showed that these million Solar Systems, born from nothing, all possessed the same appearance, color, and size. It was a sight both dazzling and surreal.
Even more surreal was that this massive collection of Solar Systems was not just numerous, but incredibly dense. There were no gaps between them; they were packed together like stacked building blocks.
Indeed, they were stacked in the literal sense. Each Solar System was like a round, solid glass brick, one block piled upon another, layer upon layer, ring after ring.
One million Solar Systems, perfectly stacked into a massive, shimmering sphere of stars.
One million massive star bricks were built into a gargantuan, perfectly square star wall, each face a hundred Solar Systems wide. At a glance, it was a sight of overwhelming majesty and brilliance.
In truth, these Solar Systems were spaced far too closely. If left alone, over millions or billions of years, this celestial wall standing in the void would inevitably collapse under gravity, congealing into a supermassive black hole with the mass of millions of suns.
However, Seraphine didn't care about that. A million stars, a trillion stars, it was all irrelevant.
What Seraphine cared about was the Authority of [Change]'s power to influence and disrupt the specific quantities of objects... it was formidable.
That group of proliferating Solar Systems just now, if she hadn't forcibly halted their growth, would have continued to multiply by the hundreds of trillions. They would have occupied the vast space in short order, shattering the Sloan Great Wall, piercing the South Pole Wall, and continuing until they filled the entire universe.
By then, aside from a few powerful civilizations and beings, 99.9% of all races would be completely engulfed by this wall of hyper-dense, multiplying Solar Systems. Eventually, under the combined force of time and gravity, they would collapse into mass after mass of supermassive black holes.
The stronger civilizations might find a way to survive, but they would be powerless to stop the frantic expansion of the star systems. Even if millions of Peak Sages, beings capable of shattering the Milky Way in one strike, joined forces to destroy the multiplying systems, they could not stop the disaster. Their rate of destruction would never keep pace with the rate of proliferation.
And this was merely the infinite proliferation of a structurally simple star system.
If she applied this to a neutron star, a black hole, or a star... even a drop of water, a pebble, or even a pile of filth... she could create an ocean spanning the universe, a mountain that crushed the cosmos, or a hell of waste that smothered all things.
Of course, those would likely collapse into super-super-supermassive black holes.
In other words, Seraphine now possessed the power to annihilate every civilization in the universe. Of course, that would take some time.
"Interesting."
On a whim, Seraphine moved her thought to retrieve the Godshell's Divinity-Frame from the unit cell within her body, placing it casually in the void before her.
SWOOSH
The power of the Authority of [Change] leisurely enveloped that super-tech Frame, which had become a phantom crystal lattice. Then, Seraphine issued the command in her mind:
"From one item, become 100,000 items."
BUZZ
In an instant, this Divinity-Frame proliferated out of nothing, without consuming a single space-time gem or Phantom Crystal.
CRACK! CRACK!
Accompanying bursts of brilliant light, that single Divinity-Frame transformed into exactly 100,000 units in just five or six seconds. Pleased, Seraphine immediately stored these Divinity-Frames within her body's unit cells.
After doing so, her gaze shifted toward the colossal star-wall built from a million Solar Systems. She channeled the Authority of [Change] once more:
"All of you, vanish."
BUZZ
Silently, and without any energy reaction, those million star systems completely vanished from the misty void. Indeed, the septendecillions of fundamental particles composing those million Solar Systems simply appeared out of nowhere and then vanished back into the void.
Even more terrifyingly, all information associated with those Solar Systems... also vanished.
Destroying information... that is something even a black hole cannot do. It is often said that while form is easy to destroy, the Path, the essence, is difficult to erase. In a sense, information is the Path within all things, one of the vital foundations of existence. Yet the Authority of [Change] had now effortlessly achieved the pinnacle of destruction: the erasure of information.
"It seems there are some differences between these two powers. If the Light of Infinity can rebel against rules and warp logic—overriding external reality with one's own thoughts to create results without causes—then the Authority of [Change] simply ignores cosmic rules and causal logic entirely. It is direct and blunt; it does whatever it wants."
Seraphine hesitated slightly. "To use an analogy, the Light of Infinity is like cheats in a video game—powerful and absurd, but still operating and manifesting effects within the game's body. But the Authority of [Change] is like the game's GM, or perhaps a virus capable of destroying the game's very foundation. With just a little carelessness, it could annihilate the entire game."
"However, is this Authority of [Change] truly omnipotent?"
Filled with enthusiasm, she immediately set out to perform an experiment she had contemplated long ago.
BUZZ
Her Primordial Soul power washed outward, enveloping the vast universe.
Under Seraphine's ultra-fine perception, the three-dimensional vacuum instantly filled with infinite [Flat / Non-flat Manifold] and [Curved / Non-curved Manifold] space-time topological micro-surfaces. Seraphine concluded that these micro-surfaces, existing on an infinitesimal scale, were highly likely the surface manifestations of quantum foam on a larger scale.
Her current experiment was simple: capture a small fragment of a space-time manifold, expel all its Zero-Point Energy, and see if she could shatter its spatial continuity—essentially, in layman's terms, to break space itself.
Just as Seraphine was about to commence the experiment, Tu's super-luminal sensory wave finally crossed the vast two-million-light-year expanse. Without a hint of lag, it descended upon Seraphine's colossal form.
Instantly, Seraphine froze.
"Oh? Who is so bold as to try and observe me?"
She slowly turned her head.
On her gargantuan face, which seemed congealed from millions of brilliant nebulae, her massive Eye of Transcendence rotated leisurely. Tracking the source of the super-luminal sensation, her gaze traversed the two million light-years in an instant, looking coldly at Tu, who had just peered her way.
At this moment, their gazes met.
In a mere heartbeat, Seraphine saw through Tu's physical structure to his life essence, which was deeply hidden within the Realm of Phantasm. The heavy barriers between the material universe and the Realm of Phantasm were utterly powerless to block her vision.
"Interesting.
Your true body is hidden in the Realm of Phantasm, a two-dimensional information layer on the event horizon of a trillion-sun-class black hole.
What walks in the material world is merely a projection of this thin sheet of data. It tastes of the Houiste Federation's information materialization technology; I wonder which of you learned from the other."
Meanwhile, from Tu's perspective:
The moment his super-luminal senses converged on the cosmic giant's face—specifically on that glowing eye filled with profound divinity and arrogant aura—his world went white.
BOOM!!!
In a split second, his cognitive world was wiped completely blank.
That single eye, as vast as a universe, was infinitely deep yet incredibly heavy; infinitely grand yet immensely wide; infinitely radiant yet perfectly transparent; infinitely blurred yet staggeringly vast.
It was as if an endless, true universe existed within that eye.
No, that wasn't it. It wasn't that a universe existed within it.
It... it completely transcended the universe itself!
Somehow, perhaps because Tu's status as a Gluttony King made him strong enough, he was cursed with the capacity to perceive a sliver of Seraphine's true, majestic essence. Consequently, he attempted to grasp just a tiny fraction of the power within that cosmic eye.
That power... transcended time, space, matter, energy, information, causality, rules, everything.
Tu realized instantly that the giant two million light-years away... was an existence that, in its very essence, completely transcended the boundless universe!
"Gah... Ah..."
Tu stared blankly, drifting motionless in the vast cosmos. To the other Gods of Hunger around him, he appeared as rigid as a corpse. They didn't know that Tu no longer had the capacity to even wonder why that giant was so majestic, or how it could transcend the universe.
His thoughts, perception, and consciousness were slowly collapsing.
"I think I understand who you are. You are a God of Hunger, aren't you?"
A cold, distant voice ignored the two-million-light-year distance, exploding within Tu's crumbling mind.
"Excellent. I've never seen a living God of Hunger. You've come at just the right time. Come, assist me in an experiment."
Far away, standing in the infinite universe, Seraphine fully deployed her newly evolved and far more powerful ability, the Light of Infinity, for the first time since her Spirituality had ascended to divinity.
BOOM!!!
Centering on Seraphine, a massive expanse of space eighty million light-years in diameter... shuddered.
No, that's not quite right. Describing the Light of Infinity solely with the concept of diameter wasn't entirely accurate. It needed the addition of range to be truly appropriate.
The Light of Infinity wasn't a physical, spiritual force like a Primordial Soul sweeping in all directions.
In essence, it was a reality-warping power, an area-effect talent birthed from Spirituality that was far superior to mere mind and consciousness.
For instance, before her Spirituality had evolved into divinity, Seraphine's Light of Infinity could act like an archer firing an arrow: a unidirectional, vector-based bombardment covering a massive area in one direction, allowing her to leap across over a thousand light-years in a single step.
Simultaneously, she could convert that range into diameter, performing a centered, area-wide operation, a carpet-bombing of three-dimensional space-time, stably covering a thousand-light-year radius.
Now, having ascended to divinity with a Light of Infinity possessing a range and diameter of eighty million light-years, Seraphine could replicate those operations on an even grander scale.
She could face any direction in the cosmos and release the Light of Infinity with a thought, completely seizing control of space to a depth of eighty million light-years. Within that space, she could crush, grasp, pull, and wrench, creating or destroying millions of cosmic phenomena.
Alternatively, she could perform an all-encompassing, centered operation, manifesting a spherical reality-warping field with a diameter of eighty million light-years, or a radius of forty million, to comprehensively perceive and influence all events and phenomena in the external universe.
The biggest difference between these two methods was simple: one provided extreme range, while the other offered absolute breadth.
Of course, beyond these basic maneuvers, far more complex operations existed.
For instance, Seraphine could "draw the bow" of her Light of Infinity, firing it to blanket one massive sector of the universe, then instantly pivot with high-frequency precision to hit another, maximizing her coverage area. She could even execute a 360-degree, all-encompassing "omni-directional burst," achieving a form of pseudo-global coverage within the Light of Infinity's domain.
Technically, this pseudo-coverage was "messier" than a true global field, and the micro-management required was staggering.
However, Seraphine's sensory and manipulative reach had surged to a mind-blowing 160 million light-years. In this world, everything involves a trade-off; perfection is rare. It's all about choosing the right move for the right moment.
And this was the moment for Seraphine's god-tier Light of Infinity to make its debut.
HUMMM!
In a heartbeat.
Everything within an 8 million light-year radius, from the micro to the macro, including the countless sub-dimensions and planes layered within the three-dimensional world, fell under Seraphine's absolute control.
Myriads of galaxies, countless stars, countless civilizations, and countless sentient beings. Every detail of their mass, volume, density, energy levels, and structures, down to the information within every subatomic particle and the infinite space-time manifolds of this vast cosmos, was laid bare before her eyes.
To perceive was to control.
At this very second, the existence of every single thing within this massive stretch of space hung on her whim. Should Seraphine harbor a single thought of annihilation, every elementary particle, every bit of data, and every joule of energy, aside from the universe's own background energy, would instantly vanish into nothingness.
Fortunately, Seraphine wasn't in a genocidal mood. She just wanted to drag the motionless Tu from the distance to her feet.
Even so, as her thoughts shifted, this 80 million light-year expanse suffered a series of terrifying, uncontrollable cataclysms. From the nearest stars to the furthest corners, the fabric of space-time began to buckle and vibrate in chaotic patterns.
Driven by these spatial collapses, the three-dimensional space-time across vast interstellar sectors surged with violent tidal waves. This cosmic tide boiled and crushed everything in its path, snuffing out millions of stars in its wake.
Driven by these colossal tides, thousands of Cosmic Dead Zones, distorted, glitched regions of space-time spanning light-years, manifested across the void.
In these massive Cosmic Dead Zones, the very constants of reality, the speed of light in a vacuum, physical parameters, spatial curvature, and even the flow of time fluctuated wildly. Any macro-object unfortunate enough to drift into these areas would instantly collapse into subatomic particles, releasing a burst of light and heat before being utterly erased.
At the focal point of the Light of Infinity, Gluttony King Tu felt this destruction down to his very core. His consciousness was on the brink of shattering; he felt every bit of information that formed his body vibrating on the edge of dissolution.
Even his true form, the information black hole residing within the Realm of Phantasm, began to suffer structural failure under the pressure of the surging waves.
In his haze, Tu felt the vast space-time around him sink into a bizarre, inexplicable state.
"Damn it! Damn it! How can it be this strong?!" he roared in shock.
Near the former shell of the Andromeda Galaxy, which no longer existed, the dozen or so dwarf galaxies birthed from Andromeda's collapse had already been reduced to ash under the majestic might of the Light of Infinity.
Tu and the other Gods of Hunger were dragged like helpless puppets across 2.2 million light-years toward Seraphine's position.
SWOOSH!
Space-time rippled and light shimmered. In a near-instantaneous leap that defied the laws of travel, these Gods of Hunger crossed the vast distance and appeared before Seraphine.
Up close, as they 'beheld' her gargantuan Galaxy Body and her Eye of Transcendence, which seemed to contain the entire universe, the other mindless Gods of Hunger instantly followed in Tu's footsteps, their consciousnesses rapidly collapsing.
But right at that moment.
"ARGHH! BREAK!"
Tu, who had been struggling against Seraphine's terrifying pressure, forced his crumbling mind to hold together. With a final, desperate roar, he unleashed his full Holographic Domain.
HUMMM!
A Holographic Domain spanning 1.2 million light-years in diameter exploded outward from Tu, manifesting within the vast cosmos. But this vibrating field, the carrier of all Tu's hopes for a counterattack, existed for a mere femtosecond.
In one quadrillionth of a second, it was crushed by the broader, more dominant Light of Infinity, shattering into threads of materialized information before vanishing.
"Influencing and linking reality and fantasy through resonance to reshape the material universe to your will.
Fascinating.
This is the original template for the Divinity-Frame's design principles. I think I'm starting to get some inspiration."
Seraphine's arrogant, god-like voice echoed within the minds of Tu and the other Gods of Hunger, sending their consciousnesses further into a state of collapse.
At that moment, Tu, his body fractured like a tattered rag doll, fought through the waves of dizziness from his fading mind. He glared at the gargantuan cosmic giant that spanned the heavens and grit his teeth, screaming:
"No one has the right to erase my life! No one, not even you!"
"Rights, you say?"
Seraphine gazed at the tiny God of Hunger, now only a few thousand light-years away. "Saying such things in your current state, you look like a clown," she replied indifferently.
Tu ignored the mockery, his eyes burning with intensity. "Doesn't matter! Primal Reversion!"
HUMMM!
In an instant, Tu's materialized information body exploded, expanding trillions of times. It blurred and shifted into a flickering, massive portal, pulsating with the raw energy of the Realm of Phantasm.
The moment the gate appeared, something far more gargantuan surged from the other side, devouring and occupying the portal as it hung suspended in the vast void.
The second this pitch-black, abyss-like colossus appeared, a massive space-time depression formed around it. Quintillions of gravitons surged forth, following the steep, vertical curvature of space-time and racing outward into the boundless void at the speed of light.
SWOOSH!
The nearest Gods of Hunger were instantly snared by this massive gravity, hurtling toward the entity.
"Did I give you permission to pull?"
Seraphine, who had been watching silently from several thousand light-years away, let her thoughts ripple. Instantly, the space-time depression surrounding the colossus was smoothed over, and the gravitational pull dragging the Gods of Hunger vanished.
They continued drifting into the void, driven by sheer momentum.
"Interesting."
Seraphine evaluated the supermassive black hole before her, which boasted an event horizon six trillion kilometers in diameter. "Instantly bridging the gap between the material world and the Realm of Phantasm to bring your true body over? Do you think I have no way to deal with you?"
Tu remained silent.
"Ah, right. You are currently essentially a layer of information on the surface of the event horizon. The gravitational field is so intense that space and time are compressed to the extreme. Your perception of time has slowed to near-stillness."
Seraphine suddenly laughed. "I see. To you, centuries on the outside pass in a second. You plan to wait hundreds of millions of years before manifesting again, don't you? Hahaha."
HUMMM!
In mid-laugh, Seraphine forcibly took hold of this black hole, an object with the mass of trillions of suns, and flattened every gravitational field from the event horizon outward.
The compressed space and time were smoothed by her will alone. She leveled it so thoroughly that if a mortal stood mere centimeters from the horizon of this massive object, they wouldn't feel even a hint of gravitational pull.
Instantly, Tu's time scale synchronized with the outside world.
Seconds later.
The information layer on the surface of the massive black hole boiled and swelled once more, manifesting a projection of a slightly chubby youth in a hoodie, constructed entirely from materialized information.
It was the Gluttony King, Tu.
"What?!!"
As soon as he appeared, he saw the cosmic giant staring at him calmly. He immediately lost his cool and screamed:
"You... you've actually been camping here waiting for me for hundreds of millions of years?! Are you some kind of lunatic?!"
As soon as the insult left his lips, Tu realized something was wrong. Why was the surrounding gravity so weak?
"Wait, no!"
He spun around, looking at the massive black hole just a few tens of thousands of kilometers behind him. "The gravitational field... it's all gone?!"
Then, he noticed the other Gods of Hunger drifting away in every direction. He understood everything instantly. Time hadn't passed at all. It had likely been only a split second.
Tu slowly turned his head back to look at Seraphine.
"The gravitational field on the event horizon of a galaxy-class black hole, especially one that has undergone abnormal shifts after overlapping with the Realm of Phantasm, is something even a Sage King would have to put effort into smoothing out.
But you... what kind of blood feud do we have? I've already shown weakness and reverted to my primal state; why are you being so relentless?!"
"Put effort into it... Sage King..."
Seraphine gazed at him leisurely.
"As expected, the Peak Sage is not the end of the system.
A Low-tier Sage can control gravity, and a High-tier Sage can merge the four fundamental forces to generate the Grand Unified Force.
Yet this Sage King who supposedly transcends the peak actually has to work to level the gravity of a tiny black hole? Hah, what a waste to dare call himself a King."
After her brief sigh, Seraphine looked at the fuming Tu and smiled thinly. "Alright, enough chatter. Let's begin our experiment."
Hearing this, Tu let out a desolate, shrill laugh.
"Hehehe... You want to use me for an experiment? You want to humiliate me? Dream on! I don't know who you are, or how strong you really are, but no matter what... you absolutely cannot kill me!"
With that, a look of grim determination flashed in his eyes, and he barked a low command: "Grace of Death, Pillers of Rebirth!!"
HUMMM!
In an instant, Tu's materialized information body shattered, once again reverting back into the surface of the massive black hole behind him.
"Another new trick?"
Seraphine watched the dormant black hole several thousand light-years away with a hint of curiosity.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
As the information returned, the vast ocean of data on the surface of the black hole's event horizon vibrated, emitting a series of faint messages:
"After using the Pillars of Rebirth, in a sense, I am dead.
But death is the starting point for rebirth.
My memories, consciousness, and thoughts will remain on the surface of the event horizon. My true essence, however, the essence of all intelligent life, the Source-Information, will plunge through the horizon and fall into the black hole's Singularity.
I admit you are strong.
Strong enough to destroy the horizon, perhaps even strong enough to collapse the black hole's structure... but you can absolutely never destroy the Singularity. I will wait hundreds of billions of years for the end of this universe, then follow this Singularity into the next era, finding new life in a new universe.
And you? You will be buried forever in dead time along with this era. Farewell."
After this testament-like message faded, it condensed into a hazy, hollow, slightly chubby silhouette. It was Tu again.
He looked at Seraphine in the distance and said indifferently:
"I am an consciousness model containing all of Tu's memories and thought processes. I possess the intelligence of a normal person, and my sole purpose for existing is... to mock you.
To mock your inability to prevent Tu's rebirth, to mock the fact that despite your strength, you cannot truly kill him, and to mock the impotence behind your arrogance.
You can destroy my structure and erase me from the universe, but it won't change Tu's hatred and contempt for you."
"Destroy the Singularity, you say?"
After a brief pause, Seraphine suddenly laughed. "What a coincidence. That is exactly why I brought you here."
"..."
The phantom Tu froze in shock. "Wh... what?!"