Once, Ling Ke had viewed his initial foolishness—his self-righteous clownish behavior—as: the transmigrator's arrogance.
But now, years later, with all his plans in place and the appointed moment drawing near...
"Previous Era, Current Civilization Era."
"Whomever I allow to live, shall live."
This was the reality he now truly understood and was actively implementing... another, even more domineering form of the transmigrator's arrogance.
He was no longer the naive young man who genuinely believed that if he sincerely devoted himself and treated others with sincerity, the story would unfold as he wished, leading to a more beautiful ending.
Now, he remained confident that the story's course would perfectly align with his will.
Simply because he had "permitted" it.
No deviations permitted.
Those who defy him shall be utterly annihilated.
And just at that moment...
The outside world.
Not just the Sahara Desert in North Africa.
But... all over the world, mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas.
Whether it was once-prosperous cities or remote, desolate wilderness.
Or even ice sheets that had remained frozen for millennia, now reverting to their primordial habitats.
Space Gates, each directly connected to the Theater of Domination, opened high above.
Then, one by one... tens of thousands of golden figures materialized, standing in mid-air before stepping forward.
They all wore suits of golden armor, their crimson, serpentine eyes coldly surveying the raging war below, indifferent to the scorched earth spreading across the land.
"Looking at it like this, it's truly hideous." ×N
As they spoke, the massed golden figures raised their right hands.
In their palms, they held key-shaped swords forged from Gold.
According to their original self, this strangely shaped sword was a "tangible pact" he had once forged.
As for the golden figure's original identity...
[ Game Character Template: Gilgamesh
Fate/Grand Order
Character Traits: Level Mechanic, HP Mechanic, Unlimited Stamina, Indestructible Equipment, Archer Class...
Game Skills: Enuma Elish: The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth, Charisma, Golden Rule, Collector, Magic Resistance, Independent Action, Divinity...
Background Talents: King of Heroes, Wedge of Heaven, Gate of Babylon, Omniscient and Omnipotent Star, Spirit Form...
Related Information: In life, he was the demigod king who ruled the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. This is not the Heroic Spirit proper, but rather a manifestation summoned into the world as an Archer Class Servant... ]
Undoubtedly, this template was the "strongest combat asset" currently in Ling Ke's possession.
It was precisely because of its background talents...
"The more unstable the space, the easier it is to manipulate, right?"
"In other words: the final step of the 'Branch-Breaking' plan requires a massive 'Singularity' with an influence range encompassing the entire Earth."
Originally, Ling Ke's Plan A was to slowly construct a Singularity using the Herrscher of the Void's Authority he'd plundered from Kiana.
Just like Otto Apocalypse's preparations in Kolosten in the original timeline.
That man had taken an extremely long time.
Ling Ke, on the other hand, had originally only needed thirteen hours.
He would have done everything possible to stretch those thirteen hours out.
The meteor shower was just one part of it.
But that's all in the past now.
Because, after drawing "Gilgamesh"...
"Heh~"
The tens of thousands of golden figures scoffed. "Rather than trouble himself shaping a so-called Singularity, he'd sooner shatter the entire world—the star sector containing Earth."
Such a ruthless and violent approach perfectly aligned with his prototype's modus operandi.
So, with those words...
Buzz~
From the golden key-shaped sword in his hand, complex crimson patterns—like a thousand tributaries converging—manifested in the air.
This scene unfolded simultaneously across the globe.
In North Africa: Kiana, Raiden Mei, Bronya, Seele, the Olenyeva twins, Durandal, Rita, Theresa, Fu Hua...
In Northern Europe: Welt, Einstein, Tesla...
And... the remaining billions of people.
They all witnessed it firsthand...
"What is that?"
As the second-generation "Welt," the man whose True Name was Joachim Nokianvirtanen was no longer the Herrscher of Reason.
Nor did he possess the formidable combat prowess he had wielded during his future, cane-wielding years, after treading upon the "Path."
All he could do was stand before a weapons console, gazing up at the heavens.
Subconsciously, as he looked up at the golden figure, the phrase "tyrant in the heavens" flashed through his mind.
He even failed to notice...
Right beside him, an instrument for globally monitoring energy intensity... its screen, displaying a world map, was now densely covered with red warning points of high-energy fluctuation.
At that moment, in the sky...
As the crimson patterns faded, the golden figures... each "Domination Puppet Gilgamesh" clenched its right fist in the void.
He withdrew an even more peculiar "sword," revealing it to this world.
As soon as it materialized, the surrounding space became extremely unstable.
This was the Noble Phantasm wielded by Gilgamesh.
EX-rank, Anti-World Noble Phantasm—Ea, the Sword of Rupture.
Meanwhile, in North Africa...
"Another new form!"
Raiden Mei and her companions, still entangled by tens of thousands of Domination Puppet Sparkles, also witnessed the anomaly in the sky.
"The thing he's holding..."
Clang!
Her train of thought was abruptly cut off by a sword strike from the 1% Kevin attacking from the side.
But the image had already been imprinted in her mind.
An extremely ominous feeling welled up in the hearts of Raiden Mei and her companions.
They desperately wanted to break through the defensive circle formed by the Domination Puppet Sparkles as quickly as possible.
But both the 1% Kevin, disguised through transformation, and the illusionary "swimming fish" proved too troublesome.
To the point that, let alone infiltrating World Serpent headquarters, even self-preservation had become a struggle. As Raiden Mei, Kiana, Bronya, and Fu Hua's Herrscher Authorities were successively restricted, they could now only huddle around the four S-rank Valkyries led by Durandal.
They were barely maintaining a no-casualty state.
Of course, they had no idea that even this minimal success was intentionally orchestrated by Ling Ke.
After all, they were his "guests."
Within the Theater of Domination...
"Gotta say, compared to the current situation, the release incantation I remember—the one that maximizes a Noble Phantasm's power—is really fitting."
"Too bad I don't want to team up with the 'people' here. Otherwise... I could totally borrow Enkidu's Noble Phantasm release incantation and do a Honkai-style recreation of that iconic scene."
"After all, this is also a 'Tree'."
The original Ling Ke, seated alone on his throne, briefly entertained a harmless whim, only to dismiss it moments later.
He brought his hands together before him.
A golden-orange orb of Imaginary energy gradually materialized.
It resembled a delicate, oval, egg-like scenic globe, within which a miniature, leafless Tree of Light was slowly growing.
As if it were a super-miniature Imaginary Tree.
"Done."
Suddenly, inspiration struck Ling Ke.
At this moment, the Ten Thousand... were united in mind and spirit.
Thus...
"The Day of Farewell has come..."
Ling Ke: "To celebrate the timely arrival of this final 'banquet,' we offer up the grandest performance of all..."
The swarm of golden figures: "Ea, sing your heart out!"
Boom!
Outside, under the blazing sun, a reverberating sound—a repetitive echo that shook the entire third planet—began to resonate.
A movement scored by causality, becoming the keynote of calamity, a polyphony of extinction was unfolding.
As the strange "Swords" began to rotate against each other, their blades creating fissures and even rifts in space, survivors around the world simultaneously saw a dense, crimson stellar cross in the sky.
What followed was violent lightning and rising tornadoes...
Clouds churned, mist billowed, and sand and stones flew.
Then torrential rain poured down.
Even in the perpetually arid Sahara Desert of North Africa, this apocalyptic spectacle spared no exceptions.
Raiden Mei and the others struggled to raise their hands, shielding their eyes.
Judging by their trajectories, the celestial attacks weren't aimed at them, yet the heart-quailing sense of danger still washed over them in waves.
This scene needed no flowery metaphors.
It was the apocalypse.
And it wasn't happening in just one place.
It was sweeping across the globe, engulfing the entire world...
Tens of thousands, all happening at the same time!
Now, billions of "people" who no longer had the right to walk with gods, as this moment of judgment arrived, could only rely on each other, huddle together for warmth, and... tremble helplessly.
In the next instant, original Ling Ke moved as he willed, like a graceful conductor waving an invisible baton of the soul...
The Golden Kings in the sky mercilessly began their full-power incantations in unison:
"Narrate the primordial scene..."
"When heaven and earth were cleaved, even Nothingness offered its benediction..."
"He who rends the world is Ea, my Sword of Rupture..."
"Encircle The Mortar of Stars..."
"The hell in the heavens is the end of the eve before creation—"
As these thunderous proclamations reverberated across the heavens and earth, the lightning, gale, and torrential rain intensified to a fever pitch.
In the end...
Crack... snap
"Fissures" appeared in the surrounding space.
Across the world, the last survivors watched in terror as it all unfolded.
Unable to resist!
The fissures... continued to widen.
From the Moon, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, the Earth's surface now resembled an irregular spiderweb, its threads connecting countless eerie "red spots" radiating an aura of annihilation.
At this moment, this innocent planet was groaning in agony, tormented by the sins of its false messiah.
"This..."
In the world teetering on the brink of collapse, Welt (World) and the others could no longer muster even a shred of strength.
Most of them even dropped their weapons and auxiliary equipment to the ground.
They couldn't understand why the Herrscher of Dominance, whose "individual combat prowess" was recorded as relatively weak in Previous Era records, had become so... terrifying in this era.
Humans... had already ushered in the "Finality" they themselves created.
In a fleeting instant...
Enuma Elish: The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth!!!
It was the law of extremes: everything taken to its limit must inevitably revert to its opposite.
The world instantly transformed from perpetual chaos to absolute silence.
As space shattered, sound no longer had any medium through which to travel.
The "True Name" from another realm never reached the ears of the native inhabitants.
Trapped in a soundless world, they watched helplessly as the "tyrants in the heavens" laughed maniacally, as if witnessing a farcical spectacle meant to amuse them, mercilessly wielding their Swords of Judgment.
Almost simultaneously, within the Theater of Domination...
"A fractured (unstable) world is indeed easier to manipulate..."
Buzz~
Refusing to walk the path of "humanity," Ling Ke held in his palm a golden-orange cluster of Imaginary energy that had already formed a "Throne of Divinity."
Using it as a foundation...
[ Corruption ]
Then...
[ Binding ]
The two great Authorities yet to be born in this era, like wedges, descended into the Theater of Domination (Respawn Room) with Ling Ke's permission.
This wasn't a plunder of Authority.
It was the integration of something more fundamental... into his proper self.
At that moment, his voice, brimming with Divinity, began counting down indifferently...
"Ten (Domination)."
The Puppets resonated, The Ten Thousand united as one.
"Nine (Stars)."
Gravity surged, annihilating all things.
"Eight (Consciousness)."
The spirit endures, the dream eternal.
"Seven (Flame)."
Burning mountains and boiling seas, ultimate destruction.
"Six (Death)."
Creation and decay, in an instant.
"Five (Ice)."
Absolute zero, all frozen in stasis.
"Four (Wind)."
The ideal fluid, impervious to nothing.
"Three (Thunder)."
The cornerstone of the universe, the medium of worlds.
"Two (Void)."
The eternal wedge, space as king.
"One (Reason)."
Ultimate truth, omniscient... thus omnipotent.
All of them were reflections of Finality.
And finally...
"Zero (Human/Origin)."
Within the Theater of Domination, original Ling Ke slowly opened his godless eyes.
Within his pupils now swirled a vast sea of stars.
"So, this is the power of Human and Origin."
Once, before his transmigration, Ling Ke had never truly understood what Elysia, the First Herrscher, symbolized with her Authority.
Now he understood.
The Herrscher of Humanity's Authority was Connection.
The Herrscher of Origin's Authority was Restoration.
The latter could return the world to its original form.
Not by reversing time, but by... restoring the world to its purest essence, untouched by any supernatural influence.
This was precisely what Elysia relied on to disrupt the Herrscher of Corruption's ability to rewind time in the Elysian Realm in the original storyline.
It was also the fundamental reason why the Herrschers of the Current Civilization Era had the chance to regain their humanity.
Because they had all been, to some extent, Restored.
Restored to the state they were in before being chosen by the Honkai.
As for... the Herrscher of Humanity's Authority...
"A core component for communicating with Finality?"
Ling Ke could only come up with this description.
For some reason, he thought of Elysia.
The Herrscher who truly loved everyone...
Finally, he scoffed. "Cocoon of Finality, Cocoon of Finality, if you can create the most perfect of your kind yourself, why bother pursuing those gilded, hollow counterfeits?"
"Doesn't the flawless true self deserve the future more than a bunch of counterfeits?"
At that very moment, just as he voiced this conclusion from his personal perspective, with the transmigrator's arrogance...
*Buzz~*
Invisible energy pulses, like roots crawling across walls, began to spread across the entire Earth.
At that moment, the "World-Destroyer" on the throne thought of a Demon King named "ZERO," his pupils flashing with wings.
I destroy the world's current era, and then... I will rebuild a new era.
All hail our king~?
The day of light draws near~?
Let us bask in your glory and achieve victory~?
The silent requiem transformed into a primordial blessing.
This is the story (tragedy) born because of me.
This is the moment (miracle) when everything returns to me.
World...
"It needed healing long ago."
Within the Theater of Domination, original Ling Ke rose from the throne. "Time to wrap this up..."
He instantly connected with all the Domination Puppets scattered throughout the real world.
Then, using them, men and women alike, as anchor points...
Ling Ke's original form clapped his hands together, as if to shatter the floating, tree-shaped golden-orange Imaginary energy...
As if smashing the whole ugly world apart...
"Heal (Rewind Time)!!!"
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i tried a lot, now i am tired learning, researching, terms, glosarries, wiki, fandom. and yes idk why it took me time but! i will be posting tomorrow again and if i gain 30 power stones you get a bonus chapter.