Hold over Myriad of Worlds

After returning to Rhodes Island, I started preparing to open the corridor. Aranyani and Vill-V were already waiting, having prepared all the tools they needed.

Finding a quiet place to start, I focused on the connection between my body and the puppet. Nearby, Nian, Amiya, Ch'en, and Doctor watched with interest what I was doing.

-"Do you think that Yue will truly bring here someone?"-Nian started her usual babble.

-"I don't think that someone as capable as him could be lying about things like that."

-"I agree with Ch'en. Yue won't lie."-Amiya also believed me.

-"While I don't think he would lie, he may have imaginary friends. You know he once spoke about someone called Elysia and said she was his wife."

-"Wife?!"

-"That is surprising."

While girls were talking about me, I was able to establish a stable connection and slowly expanded the tunnel to allow people to pass through it.

Seeing a rift in space appear before their eyes shocked my audience speechless. Before they could react, two figures emerged from inside while the rift closed behind them.

-"We succeded."

-"Yes, just be sure not to get infected."

-"Yue, your hand."

I looked down at my left hand and could see that my illusion had disappeared. As I was trying to recast my illusion, Nian approached and grabbed it.

-"Your hand... You cover yourself in illusion... That's why you haven't become infected. You are not living."

-"You must be Nian. There's no need to think too much. Because of certain circumstances, Yue couldn't appear here in the flesh. But he is a living person."

-"Yup! But I can't get used to your appearance here. I know that is what you used to look like not long ago, but it's strange."

-"What can I do? My normal appearance makes it impossible to travel around normally."

-"Ehem, can you introduce us to your friends, Yue?"

Before I could speak, Vill-V ran to Amiya.

-"I'm Vill-V! Best magician in the world!"

-"My name is Aranyani. As for my profession, you can consider me a researcher."

-"Can you tell us more about those circumstances?"-Asked Ch'en.

-"Well, we are part of an organization. We want to use Originium for our purposes, but it's too dangerous in its current state, and that's why we are researching a way to put it under control."

-"Organization, like Rhodes Island? That's why Yue didn't join us."

-"Yes. We came here to support Yue in preparing tools to contain Originum."

-"What do you mean by that?"

-"Your world is unstable."

-"Huh? Our world? What do you mean, Yue?"

-"..."

-"Sorry, we are not ready to answer that yet."

-"Why?"

-"Because it's dangerous to us."

-"We won't harm you."

-"And we believe you. Sadly, there are many ears and eyes on this place."

-"Don't be so serious, Aranyani. We are here to help you with Originium. This is all that matters!"

-"Let's leave the heavy subject for later. Now, tell me something more about Yue."

-"Hmm? Do you want to know about our leader? Yue, I'll tell Nobunaga that you are doing it again!"

-"Sigh. Calm down, Vill-V."

-"Nobunaga? Who is she? I also heard about Elysia. Is it true that she is his wife?"

-"Yup! Both are!"

This information earned me strange looks from Nian, Ch'en, and Amiya.

-"Realy?"

-"He has four wives."

-"..."

-"Can we change the subject?"

-"Nope!"

During the next five days, we worked on creating devices to gather and condense Originium safely. As Vill-V and Nian became good friends, she also joined us in research, dragging a ship engineer named Closure to help us.

Aranyani became close to the other leader of Rhodes Island Kal'tsit and started joint research on separating Originum from living tissue. Together with Ruan Mei and Sucrose on the other side, they were able to create a stronger limiter, able to fully stop the progression of infection.

Thanks to those breakthroughs, the atmosphere in Rhodes Island became almost festive, while the three of us were seen by some as messiahs. This was enforced when Nian let slip some of the things she learned from Vill-V.

The biggest change in those days was the attitude that Nian had toward me. During one of their gossip, she learned about my origin and found similarities to her situation. From that point on, she seriously tried to get to know me.

She also sent some people from Rhodes Island to pick up the two sisters she was close with. With some problems, they were able to find them and were on their way back, but when everything was going well, something had to break.

This something was an attack of Reunion forces on the Lungmen. The situation quickly became bad enough that even we were asked to assist. We moved to the bridge where leaders of both Rhodes Island and Lungmen were discussing the situation.

-"Yue, Vill-V, Aranyani, the situation is grave. Reunion broke through the outer wall into the city but even captured checkpoints between the lower city, slums, and residential area, making streets the battlefield."

-"What is your plan?"

-"Create a safe zone in the center of the city."

-"Do we even know the purpose of the Reunion?"

-"Ch'en relayed that it's most likely the core of land ship. They want to destroy this place."

-"Their forces?"

-"Overwhelming. At least 5 to 1 in their favor."

-"Vill-V, go and make defenses."

-"Leave it to me!"

-"Aranyani, can you take care of the wounded on the field?"

-"No problem."

-"Nian, you want to stay here?"

-"I'm going with you."

Leaving planning to them, we moved to the battlefield to help where we could.

At the same time, my main body was standing on the moon of Elysia's earth. Everywhere around me were elites of Hold, be it Champions of Duty, Generals of Domination, or Pathfinders of Hope. My Guards were also present. Every last person in Hold, with the strength of at least an average Pathstrider, was here.

-"Entropy is decreasing at an alarming rate! We detected singularity in our data. Final Herrscher is appearing."

Dr. Mei's voice sounded through the new version of communicators given to facilitate combat operation cooperation between combatants and [Command Room] in Hold.

-"Nobu, You are commander! Leave restraining the Herrsher to me."

-"On it! Guys, focus on clearing the battlefield from all opponents. Leave the Herrscher to Kevin, Jingliu, and Yue. Nerds in [Command Room], be sure to inform me of any changes."

-"Yes"xn

-"We will monitor the battlefield."

Leaving the decision-making to those better suited than me, I fully focused on the task at hand. Taking out Oath of Silence, I mobilized my power as Emanator of Finality, ready for a duel in control over time.

I was aware that aside from the powers of every other Herrscher, this one also could control time to some extent, regenerating from any damage inflicted on it. If we wanted to defeat it, negating this was most important.

As the giant figure emerged from the Imaginary space, I entered my false Aeon state, drawing on the power of Finality, and began restraining the opponent. This, of course, earned me the attention of a giant figure.

When she looked at me, her empty eyes surprised me. There was no soul in them. She was just a puppet under the Will of Honkai. And yet strangle light flashed in those eyes as if recognizing me.

Not having time to think about minor details, I firmly grasped the Khakkhara staff and struck down for a chime to echo in the surroundings. This became a signal to start the battle, countless void gates opening around our enemy, allowing wave after wave of Honkai monsters to flood the moon.

In response, millions of Starskiffs from Hexafleet started attacking from above. Because it's too dangerous for the average soldier to be on the field, we decided to have them on Starskiffs to help from afar. Xipe and Ena are watching over them, making sure no casualties appear. Power of Harmony and Order are not best suited for direct combat, but being able to empower so many combatants is nothing to scoff at.

The whole Divination Commission was also mobilized, making sure that no attack can reach our people. Fu Xuan herself was at the center of our forces, operating Omniscia crafted by Hephaestus with all her power.

Kevin and Jingliu moved. Kevin attacked from the front while Jingliu swooped from every possible angle. Their attacks slowly draining energy from the Herrscher.

-"While effective, at the current rate, you will need over six hours to defeat the Herrscher."

~"Good enough."

We continued our strategy to deal with everything in a stable manner.

The same couldn't be said about conflict in Lungmen, where even though we were able to recapture the main city, Reunion fortified their hideouts in the slums, not to mention the second bad news.

-"What do you mean that Chernobog is about to collide with us?!"

-"We received confirmation that the landship of Chernobog is heading straight at us. It will collide with us in less than three hours."

-"Why didn't we receive any information earlier?!"

-"Lord Wei, please calm down. Because of the Reunion attack, our communication and radars center was occupied."

-"Tell me the situation!"

-"Most of our forces are currently engaged in combat in the slums, but to complete the cleanup, we will need three days at least."

-"Shit! What about Rhodes Island?"

-"You can ask your forces. We lost contact with Amiya and her team, while Ch'en, who went with them, returned some time ago."

-"We can't lose the city."

-"That is your problem. We will focus on rescuing our Operators."

-"Kal'tsit, you also calm down. Right now, we have to focus on what is important."

My words made everyone present look at me, but seeing the featureless black puppet, they put up guard, ready to attack.

-"Yue?"

-"Excuse my appearance. Right now, you have the same enemy. Stop bickering about right and wrong. The most important now is to stop the Chernobog from colliding with us and save the Amiya team, correct?"

Two leaders nodded.

-"Pick a team of elites. Both your purposes are on the landship of Chernobog. There is no time to waste."

-"Will you lead them?"

-"You can see that I can't even sustain the illusion of my appearance. Do you think I can fight in my current state?"

-"Then who can lead our forces?"

-"Nian, your sisters are here, right?"

-"They are nearby."

-"Can you and they help this time?"

-"I don't mind, but you will owe us one."

-"You have my word. Save Rhodes Island team, and buy some time."

-"How long do you need?"

-"At least eight hours."

-"Hmm... That may be hard."

-"Take Ch'an with you. Give her a chance for redemption."

Nian waved her hand while leaving the meeting room.

-"Now, I want to understand who we are fighting. Reunion ideology does not fit this move. Wei Yenwu, I expect you to enlighten me."

-"Sigh. Most likely, we are against the empire of Ursus, Duke Kashchey, to be exact."

Wei told us about the history of Lungmen and how Kashchey tried to start a war between Yen and Ursus before. This also sheds some light on Talulah's motivation in picking her targets.

-"This..."

-"That's why I hate politics."

-"Is this true?!"

-"Ch'en..."

-"So it was why... You picked the city over all of us. Your entire family was less important than this landship and your position!"

Ch'an entered the room and stood in front of her uncle.

-"Then I shall follow your lead."-She picked up her badge as an officer of Lungmen and threw it on the table.-"If this family is worthless, then it will no longer bind me."

-"Ch'en, go to Chernobog and find Talulah. Stop her from making more mistakes."

-"I will."

-"Nian, can you?"

-"I'll take care of her."

Nian and Ch'en walked out of the room, followed by two other dragon women. Deciding that the situation here was not something worth participating in, I followed after them.

-"Yue, will you follow us?"

-"Only to the city."

-"Do you plan to help Lungmen?"

-"It may sound harsh, but I don't care about Lungmen nor Rhodes Island. While I grew close to people there for what I care, landships can be destroyed."

-"Even if that means the death of countless people living on them?"-Asked the blue-haired sister of Nian.

-"They are not countless. Only 5 million people live in Lingmen and, last time I was there, 3 million in Chernobog. Rhodes Island doesn't have even a 100 thousand population."

-"Hou? Even with those numbers, you can sacrifice them?"

-"No amount of strangers is worth the life of my family or friends."

-"Good. You deserve the interest of my sister."

-"Leave talking for later. There is no time to waste."

Fight With the Herrscher continued. I manifested dragon and deer to use the power of Permanence and Abundance more effectively, trying to overwhelm the enemy.

Time slowly ticked by. With each second passed, countless Honkai monsters would be eradicated. Everywhere, innumerable attacks would hit their targets. Abilities and techniques of all kinds and types were flying left and right.

The surface of the moon cracked. Lava flowed in rivers. And yet, our opponent was unmoved. Every time she would attack, I would counter and smother it. I couldn't count how many times she had tried to manipulate the time only to be denied by me. Even so, she continued.

At this point, calling it a true fight would be unfitting. It was a chore. There was no change, just slowly grinding off Herrscher's energy until it was depleted. Of course, it still required my full attention and power, but it felt empty.

As we were fighting, Herrsher's eyes never left my figure, even when she was being attacked by Kevin and Jingliu. Deep in those empty eyes, a small light flickered as if this whole situation was something that she wished for.

Until the very end, even when her form started breaking apart due to lack of energy, her eyes were firmly locked on me. At that brief moment, when all but her head turned into motes of light, she finally showed human expression, smiling and mouthing something.

Instantly, everything stopped. No matter how hard I tried, time slipped from my control. Only I was not frozen. Most worrying time has truly stopped. This was something I considered impossible Taboo until now.

~"You truly exceeded all expectations."

~"So it was you."

~"Have you expected that I was behind this?"

~"After all, powers of that Herrsher were too close to mine, as if she controlled degraded versions of Paths. But why did you do it, Terminus?"

Suddenly, a figure with four white wings appeared in front of me. THEIR beauty shows her status as Aeon, being refined beyond perfection. The golden halo over her head rotated slowly, while in her purple eyes, only my appearance was reflected as if nothing else mattered.

~"I did it as a test. You see, I'm last Aeon. My birth was achieved by combining all the souls of the people who died in the catastrophe that is to come. My purpose is to seek a way to overturn that ending."

~"Finality, path that proves predestination, yet does everything to overcome it."

~"Exactly. In countless tries, I tried to influence the past to change the ending, yet nothing succeded. I created countless bubble worlds on the fringes of Imaginary Tree, yet none of those created hero to change the demise of our World."

~"But something changed, that's why you appeared here."

~"Yes. You become someone whose path can't be seen by me."

~"Probably because of the appearance of Hold."

~"No. From the very beginning, you had a special fate. Even if some paths could be seen, others were obscured from my sight. That's why I gave you some of my power, turning you into an Emanator."

~"Then what do you expect from me?"

~"Every existing method couldn't overcome calamity. So there is only one thing that can be done. Create a new Path."