"You are... the Director?"
Waver studied the newcomer, his pupils contracting slightly with undisguised shock.
Although the old man looked somewhat different from the oil portraits hanging in the halls of the Mage's Association's Clock Tower headquarters and the Department of Mineralogy, Waver was still a Lord. He possessed enough discernment to recognize him.
Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg.
To the world of magecraft—and even the entire hidden side of the world—this name belonged to a legendary figure known by all.
He was one of the oldest magi still active since before the Common Era, one of the founders of the Mage's Association, the founder of the Clock Tower's Department of Mineralogy, the honorary director of the Clock Tower, the progenitor of jewel magecraft, the pinnacle of all magecraft related to minerals, an expert in energy stabilization and construction, and an ancient monster who had lived for more than a thousand years.
The Second Magician, the Wizard Marshal, the Jewel Master, Kaleidoscope... His countless titles all proclaimed his overwhelming power and renown.
Following the death of Solomon, the King of Magecraft, Mystery had declined dramatically in the modern era. As humanity became capable of accomplishing more through its own hands, the number of true Magic dwindled accordingly. Only five remained in the present age.
Zelretch was one of the world's only five Magicians. He wielded the Second Magic, Kaleidoscope, which allowed him to walk freely among countless parallel worlds.
Among the Clock Tower's Twelve Lords, most either secluded themselves to pursue the path of magecraft or were frequently absent from the Clock Tower while handling their private affairs. These included hunting down Dead Apostles and True Ancestors, observing celestial bodies, or simply enjoying life...
Viewed from that perspective, Waver—who devoted himself wholeheartedly to teaching without discriminating based on birth or background—was practically the conscience of the entire profession. As for the Clock Tower's honorary director, however, he was usually absent from this world altogether.
He was one of the rare beings whose countless parallel-world selves had all converged into a single true self. While maintaining the continuity of his identity, he could freely move between multiple parallel worlds.
That was precisely why Waver was surprised. However, after thinking about it, the Wizard Marshal's appearance at this moment made perfect sense.
After all, with an apocalyptic catastrophe unfolding before them—an invasion from another realm that threatened the survival of humanity, Earth, and the entire universe—it would be unreasonable for him to remain hidden away and merely watch.
"Director, do you have a way to resolve the situation here?"
With that thought, Waver hurriedly extinguished the cigar in his hand and stepped forward, asking with hope in his voice.
Tap, tap—
"I wish I had a solution, but unfortunately, a collision on such a supreme level is no longer something mortals like us can interfere with. Without the protection of the primordial cosmic goddess Ashtart, this parallel world would likely have collapsed already."
The exquisitely crafted jeweled cane struck the polished floor of the throne hall within the Hanging Gardens, producing a clear sound. The Wizard Marshal stopped and looked directly at the lowest-ranked Lord, whose haggard face now carried the air of an exhausted immortal. He began speaking in a calm tone.
"Ashtart? Who exactly is—" Waver tried to ask, but the Wizard Marshal cut him off.
"That is enough. We can dispense with the tedious introductions and unnecessary explanations. To put it simply, Waver and Ritsuka Fujimaru, what you must do now is focus on the ground beneath your feet and delay the erosion of this world by the foreign goddess from beyond."
His short gray-white hair blended into his full beard across his aged face, while currents of power flowed within his blood-red pupils. Zelretch extended one hand. In the next instant, shatter—!
Accompanied by the crisp sound of breaking glass, a radiant short sword covered in countless polygonal facets and fine cracks tore open the space within the throne hall. It looked as though it had been crudely carved from one enormous gemstone.
This sword was the origin of the blueprint pursued by generations of the Tohsaka family—the Jeweled Sword Zelretch.
"What is that? Creatures from beyond?" Everyone stared at the scene revealed through the spatial fissure created by the Jeweled Sword, its edges shattering piece by piece like a broken mirror...
The barren and polluted Land of Steel had regained its vitality. This time, however, it was not the revival of natural life, but the proliferation of Honkai creatures.
Crimson-purple patterns of Honkai erosion spread openly across the horizon, extending without pause. They crossed time and space, traversing the infinite timelines, parallel worlds, and higher-dimensional universes of the entire Type-Moon composite world. The authority of the Swirl of the Root was being forcibly usurped, transforming into visible tides of Honkai that contaminated everything governed by the Swirl of the Root...
"As you can see, countless parallel worlds under my observation have begun to suffer erosion as the Root itself becomes contaminated. The barrier between our world and the realm beyond has already been pierced. The invading army has clearly planned this for a long time."
An overwhelming tide of Honkai Beasts flooded the crystalline valley. ORT, Mercury's strongest Ultimate One, had already been dragged into a bitter battle. The moment it unleashed energy to protect Earth, the Honkai army locked onto it like a disease clinging to bone and crushed forward.
As the strongest Ultimate One, ORT was unquestionably powerful. Every sweep of its scythe-like blades unleashed a storm of blood through the Honkai Beast horde, shattering the earth and tearing apart the sky. It fully deserved its reputation...
(PS: UO stands for Ultimate One, the strongest being native to each planet. It can be understood as the will and soul of a planet, as well as the final point of its life's evolution. Once that evolution reaches its absolute limit, its lifespan becomes infinite and it no longer possesses any "lines of death." Naturally, it also loses the need to reproduce, becoming the planet's final and sole life-form.)
Yet that was all. Ultimately, ORT was merely the strongest life-form of Mercury. Even after responding to Gaia's summons and descending upon Earth, thereby receiving the amplification of two planets, the Honkai Beasts opposing it were no less formidable. As one of Selene's most fundamental and purest forms of power, the only being capable of limiting the upper bounds of the Honkai Beasts' growth was Selene herself.
As the erosion deepened, the Honkai Beasts pouring from the Imaginary fissures grew larger and stronger. Within a tide of Honkai Beasts whose average bodies measured thousands or even tens of thousands of meters, supermassive individuals comparable to—or even larger than—the Bull of Heaven had begun appearing one after another.
Before those colossal beasts that blotted out the sky, ORT's body—barely forty meters tall—looked no larger than an ant. Even after plowing across the planet's surface and transforming the land beneath it into a Land of Steel, slaughtering countless Honkai Beasts in the process, its attacks had clearly reached their critical limit and were growing increasingly feeble.
Yet the rate at which the Honkai Beasts emerged would not wait for it, whether in the increasing quality of each individual or the swelling quantity of the horde.
...
Elsewhere beneath a starry sky covered in Honkai erosion patterns, an endless sea of flowers lay frozen in ice. A thousand-year-old castle had been smashed to pieces, and a female general encased in frost stood atop the frozen ground. Laughing with bloodthirsty delight, she pointed the long saber in her hand at the blonde beauty beneath her, who looked as pure as an elf beneath the moonlight.
The most striking sight, however, was the backdrop of the battlefield. In the pitch-black depths of space, half-revealed beyond the frozen Moon, was Earth—Earth whose near orbit had been completely obscured by countless space warships!
"Spaceborne warships... This truly is the worst possible news!" Waver's eyes widened.
After fighting the Sangheili Legion, Waver had already suspected that the technological civilization ruled by Selene in the other realm far surpassed that of their own world. He had mentally prepared himself for it, but when he finally witnessed it with his own eyes, he still could not suppress the trembling in his heart.
Against such immense engines of war, how utterly hopeless would the secular armies of their present world—and even the overwhelming majority of magi and Heroic Spirits—be?
Watching the black dots continuously descending from the bellies of the warships, along with the multicolored bombardments and artillery fire, Waver exchanged a glance with Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash, silently arriving at the same conclusion.
"You have a general understanding of the situation now, I assume. In that case, depart."
Without waiting for Waver and the others to finish processing what they had seen, the Wizard Marshal continued speaking on his own. He lightly swept the Jeweled Sword through the air, opening an enormous space-time fissure that swallowed the entire Hanging Gardens in a single gulp.
Zelretch himself, however, seemed entirely unaffected by the Spiritron Transfer. He remained standing in place, watching Waver, Ritsuka Fujimaru, and the Hanging Gardens slowly disappear into the fissure.
"Wait, sir! What are we supposed to do? How do we delay the foreign goddess from beyond from eroding this world? And what about this place?"
Coming back to her senses, Ritsuka struggled to stand. However, the consequences of draining and overdrawing her magical energy, combined with the side effects of the secret medicine, were not so easily endured. She hunched over and drew several sharp, hissing breaths before hurriedly shouting after him.
"Do what you have already been doing. Repair the Singularities and slow the otherworldly invasion army's occupation of each parallel world. The scenes you witnessed are merely the tip of the iceberg. Our world is already on the brink of destruction. Even delaying them by one hour—or ten minutes—is still a delay. At the very least, do everything within your power."
Zelretch raised his jeweled cane and returned their farewell salute. A faint smile appeared on his stern and dignified face.
"As for this world, remaining here would accomplish nothing. It is better to deploy your forces where they are needed."
Vrrr—!
As his words fell, pure white light flashed. The spatial fissure closed, and the faint smile on Zelretch's face instantly vanished.
Yes. Delaying them was enough.
More accurately, that was already the absolute limit of what they could accomplish. Even if they could delay the enemy by only a single second, even if they were completely annihilated, they still had to exhaust every last bit of their value.
Cruel as it sounded, Chaldea was nothing more than a consumable resource in the eyes of the Swirl of the Root. Possessing the ability to perform Spiritron Transfers, they were one of the few organizations capable of independently supporting other worlds.
Selene's invading army effectively supplemented the contamination of the Swirl of the Root. In addition to the pollution spreading through the Root itself, the Imperial Army's occupation of the physical universe naturally carried Selene's erosive power with it. The two fronts advanced simultaneously.
Moreover, the locations targeted by the Imperial Army had clearly been chosen with great care. They specifically attacked parallel worlds branching from the primary currents of the Swirl of the Root. Even when such worlds existed in physical universes, their conquest could not be underestimated in terms of how greatly it usurped and weakened the Swirl of the Root's authority.
Under these circumstances, although the Swirl of the Root possessed no direct consciousness, its instinctive mechanisms had begun to struggle!
In particular, most of the Swirl of the Root's attention was currently focused on its contest against Selene. It not only had to tear out the contamination that had spread into its core, no matter how excruciating the process, but also had to mobilize every force available to delay Selene's movements.
This included the true bodies of the Heroic Spirits within the Throne of Heroes. The Swirl of the Root forcibly bypassed Gaia and Alaya to issue commands directly to them, sending every Heroic Spirit into battle regardless of class so they could travel to various parallel worlds and oppose Selene's Imperial Army.
Dragon species, fairies, nightmares, and every other supernatural species slumbering within the Inner Sea of the Planets were released. The restraints placed upon the Divine Spirits who had been relocated into higher-dimensional universes were undone, allowing them all to return...
As for whether this would affect the Age of Man, the Swirl of the Root could no longer afford to care. Its own continued existence now took absolute priority over everything else.
"The barriers between worlds have become so fragile, and the enhancement granted to my Second Magic has grown so immense... For the Root to disregard the cost to such a degree, this truly must be an existential catastrophe..."
Lowering the Jeweled Sword, Zelretch floated in midair where the Hanging Gardens had disappeared and murmured to himself.
Under normal circumstances, his method of moving between the parallel worlds he observed involved transferring himself into gemstones located on Earth along different timelines.
For example, when moving from World A to World B, the gemstones in World B would rapidly gather together until they formed Zelretch's body. His soul would then transfer into that form. In an instant, the jeweled puppet would transform into Zelretch. At the same time, the Zelretch originally present in World A would revert to the gemstones from which that body had been formed.
But now?
With the amplification of the Jeweled Sword, he could move his physical body directly into a parallel world. He had even gained the ability to transport other people into parallel worlds as well.
The Swirl of the Root—or rather, the world itself—had greatly reduced the restrictions placed upon him. The barriers between worlds had also weakened. More importantly, his actions now seemed to be actively encouraged.
"The changes in the world are truly overwhelming. It appears that living too long is not necessarily a blessing, Your Majesty..."
As he spoke, Zelretch shifted his gaze toward the fissure running through the shattered planet.
As one of the disciples of Solomon, the King of Magecraft, during his lifetime, how could Zelretch possibly mistake his teacher's presence?
Even though the primordial goddess had forcibly fused and stabilized the damage, the wound that had split the planet in half remained horrifying to behold. Within it, the Imaginary black hole formed from the concept known as Solomon continued to spew dense Honkai energy outward.
This place had clearly become one of Selene's anchors for eroding the Swirl of the Root.
"Your Majesty, it appears you finally achieved your wish."
A trace of nostalgia and remembrance adorned Zelretch's crimson eyes as he spoke with emotion.
To cast aside every blessing granted by heaven, become an ordinary human, and die...
He had indeed achieved it. But at the very end, had the King regretted his choice?
"Close it... seal it. They truly know how to work an old man to the bone."
That was the primary reason Zelretch had come here. It was also the revelation and guidance bestowed upon him by the Swirl of the Root—find a way to close this anchor, even at the cost of his life!
Vrrr—!
The tide of Honkai transformed from intangible energy into physical form. In the blink of an eye, densely packed colossal beasts filled Zelretch's entire field of vision.
As the Honkai Beasts roared, several beams of golden light suddenly ignited. As though triggering a chain reaction, more and more appeared in rapid succession.
Clang, clang—
The tide of Honkai Beasts parted.
Golden double-headed eagle emblems, golden female battle armor, powerful physiques, ponytails tied high, and matte-glimmering cruciform greatswords emerged from within the horde. Pairs of bright eyes opened soundlessly and fixed upon Zelretch.
"Kneel and surrender—or die."
From the moment they appeared, Zelretch could sense their black-hole-like manner of existence even from an immense distance. All perception and magical activity in their surroundings were suppressed.
A splitting headache and overwhelming dizziness struck him instantly. His thoughts and spirit were disrupted and distorted. His ability to draw upon magical energy abruptly stalled. Even the Jeweled Sword's power to access and utilize the infinite magical energy of countless parallel worlds became unstable, severed, and suppressed.
Every one of them possessed a force field resembling an anti-magic barrier...
They were practically the natural enemies of magi.
At that moment, Zelretch realized that he would have to stake his life on this battle.
"So be it. The world gave birth to me, nourished me, and raised me... Now it is this old man's turn to protect Her through this calamity!"
Rumble—!
...
Across countless parallel worlds, Zelretch's choice was far from unique.
Countless supernatural beings born and nurtured by heaven and earth awakened in response to the call of their "mother," launching suicidal assaults against the heavily armed armies invading from beyond.
Even if they were nothing more than moths flying into a flame!