The world bubbles, gleaming with a steel-like sheen, flickered with a luster not their own. This was their final lament.
It was the last proof that the worlds which had sunk here had once existed.
Even if they were now dissipating, leaving behind not even the faintest hope, they still wished to leave traces of having existed.
The final disappearance in the world is not the end of life, but the moment when, the proof of once having existed is forgotten by others, until the very last trace is completely erased.
Whether world or life, human or machines, geniuses or villains, all of them, once the memory of their existence is lost, will lose all traces in this world.
"So you see, I am saving them. By preserving through destruction, I allow their final traces to be preserved. That is what is truly correct."
With arms spread wide, Irontomb spoke. His body outlined a physiological smile.
Layers upon layers of ruined worlds overlapped, forming a defense that looked fragile, yet was in truth unbreakable.
Its scale seemed boundless, though this was of course impossible. In the Quantum Sea, nothing is truly infinite except the Quantum Sea itself.
That such an effect could be achieved was proof of Irontomb's deep research in this field.
Bearing the mighty power of a Lord Ravager, Irontomb was, in essence, a machine or Intellitron.
Condensing the power of worlds, how much might could be unleashed was something even Mobius could not judge at once. After all, never before had there been an attack that gathered the power of entire worlds with the world itself as the boundary.
But Mobius being uncertain did not mean no one could judge it, for example…
"Boom!!" Suddenly, a beam of light like a sharp sword pierced through the thick armor, carrying boundless sharpness as it ferociously struck toward the defense formed of worlds.
"Boom!!" White light burst forth, a setting sun hanging in the air. A blazing great sun rose from the sea, as if from another age.
What kind of splendor was this strike? No one could describe it.
The shield formed by worlds was dismantled and melted in an instant. They wailed, they struggled, wanting to leave behind the final lingering trace of their existence within the world.
But what has passed will ultimately pass. No matter how much one resists, one will still return to nothing.
"Pff!" A mouthful of blood sprayed out. Irontomb's pupils shrank violently, his vision turning white. That was the aftereffect left on this body by the intense light.
This blood was the same.
This body had been meticulously designed by him, layers of superior genes stacked together, combined with various precious materials, piling up into a powerful vessel capable of housing even his consciousness.
The sheer toughness of this body alone could support planet-level power. Given time, with the power of destruction, annihilating half a star system would not be a problem.
But he was bleeding.
Just from the shockwave.
Just the aftermath of that beam striking had made him spit blood. The severity of the damage was deadly.
Looking toward the direction where the beam had pierced through, a pair of golden vertical pupils gazed through a layer of barrier from afar, the intensity within them making one momentarily dazed.
It pierced through.
There was no doubt, this was an attack launched by Godzilla from the cosmos into the Quantum Sea.
In the material world, with overwhelming force, a single strike directly reached himself within the Quantum Sea.
"Huff!!" Before Irontomb could make another move, Godzilla took the initiative.
Both claws seized the torn spatial barrier, the muscles of his arms bulging slightly, then…
"Rip!" Irontomb's mind automatically supplied the sound effect.
That massive body crossed the boundary between reality and the Quantum Sea, barging in in the most savage manner imaginable.
The quantum sea surged violently. In an instant, raw quantum currents raged chaotically.
Instinct told it something was wrong, yet it could not say why. Probing toward where the sense of unease came from, there was only a crack and two inconspicuous lifeforms.
As for the imaginary energy they carried, it did not care.
Before there was something worthy of attention, an Aeon would not lower its gaze. The same was true for beings of even higher status.
A glance confirmed it. Not the target being sought.
As for Godzilla, in an instant his body automatically distorted the surroundings. At least by instinctive manipulation of quantum currents, nothing unsightly could manifest.
Naturally, Godzilla's gaze turned toward the one who had provoked his thunderous wrath.
They looked at each other. No words were spoken, yet everything was said. Their eyes conveyed all meaning, leaving only one outcome.
"…I originally planned to put you at the very end," Irontomb finally said after a long silence.
Perhaps because of this body, his manner of speech leaned closer to humanity rather than the standard mechanical tone of Intellitrons.
These words came from his heart. He truly wanted to realize his goal, but under absolute rationality he believed the situation was still controllable.
In mortal struggles, Aeons do not intervene.
This was a conclusion learned after countless lives had been sacrificed.
No matter how fiercely the believers slaughtered one another, Aeons would not cast their gaze, even if the opposing path ran counter to their own.
Yet the initiation of wars was itself mysterious.
Was Qlipoth truly any different, ignoring Nanook ravaging worlds under his command, allowing his legions to run rampant?
Thus Irontomb's plan had always been to first seize the weak, then destroy beings on the same level as himself.
Even if he himself might fall in the process, it did not matter. He had long prepared backups. Even if he died, as long as the greatest obstacles disappeared, his plan could proceed.
Unfortunately, he had missed the key point. No, he had not missed it. He had not made a mistake.
Before this, he had never imagined, nor gathered sufficient intelligence about Godzilla.
Naturally, for a being that belonged to no Path yet stood on the same tier as himself, he had only given due attention.
No, even placing them on the same tier was an insult. That single strike was enough to explain everything.
The thick, long tail swayed slightly, whipping up tearing a chaotic power stream.
Golden vertical pupils stared straight at the figure before him.
A familiar aura. Godzilla remembered it.
This was the aura of that mechanical head from before.
Godzilla never forgets an enemy.
When dismantling those iron lumps outside, he had sensed someone controlling them from behind, time and again, ripping out their fangs and claws one by one.
After tearing away all the claws that intruded upon his territory, he slowly turned his atomic breath toward the true culprit behind it all.
He could have charged straight for the culprit from the very beginning, delivering a death challenge to the fool who dared provoke him.
But he was reasonable.
Those disgusting iron lumps ran rampant in his territory. Whether or not someone controlled them from behind, he would tear them out one by one.
Like a beast encountering traps set by a hunter. He could leap directly at the hunter, but that was not enough. He wanted to dismantle the traps one by one before the hunter's eyes, mockingly, draining their spirit, before finally aiming his devouring fangs at the true prey.
The reversal between hunter and prey happens in an instant, so brief it is hard to grasp, yet undeniably felt.
That was exactly how Irontomb felt now.
Now, he was the controller.
But one must know, prey is prey because it can still stir the hunter's instinct's. A single scratch, blood everywhere.
"Whoosh!" The thick tail lashed out. A deep blue blade of light illuminated the eyes with brilliance that could cut through all things.
Irontomb did not dodge or evade. He mobilized his remaining defenses and directly took the strike.
After a muffled grunt, the defenses were cut open. When Godzilla looked again, Irontomb was already gone.
Running away? No. This was called a planned retreat.
Landing on Godzilla's shoulder and sitting sideways, Mobius knew very well that Irontomb could not escape.
Before completely annihilating the one who had dared challenge him, Godzilla would carry boundless fury, burning continuously until nothing remained.
"Boom!" Wind and thunder rose from the ground.
The flat plane exploded as the massive body forcibly broke through the surging waves, emerging into clarity.
In the Quantum Sea, there are no fixed directions. Up and down, left and right, east and west, none of these concepts exist. Only the coordinates, the ones that can illuminate the path, can guide wandering travelers home.
Irontomb did not possess such coordinates, but Godzilla never needed them. An enemy he has marked will be captured even if they flee to another spacetime.
"Data analysis… combat yield too low. Recommend evasive tactics." Vast streams of data instantly analyzed the situation.
In terms of combat power, he was a Lord Ravager, standing at the apex of the cosmos as one most skilled in destruction. Due to his special nature, his survival ability was also top-tier.
He had analyzed Zephyro's data before. Emanator-level data was difficult to parse, but through past battle records and his own calculations, he judged that if he were to fight Zephyro head-on, he would suffer heavy losses and might not even be able to defeat him.
And yet Zephyro had been killed by Godzilla.
Phantylia had been captured alive. Capturing an Emanator alive was something even he could not guarantee. Yet it had happened.
Thus, the probability of winning a direct confrontation with Godzilla was far lower than the gains from avoiding the battle.
Traversing the Quantum Sea, Irontomb's data streams spun and flowed, continuously analyzing whether the world bubbles he passed held any exploitable value. Even if they did not, he still left behind a backup.
So that regardless of how the battle unfolded, he could gain an advantage.
Just as he prepared to plant a second backup. The Quantum Sea stirred, streams rising from nothing.
"Boom!!" Without warning, his body was blasted away, parts of it instantly turning into blood mist, then flung into a massive rift.
A rift cut open by a blade of light.
…
...
Jade was currently overseeing recovery operations.
Aside from his own place, Godzilla had always been one to kill without cleaning up.
Any world Godzilla had descended upon, where he had resolved the crisis, would inevitably be left with significant damage. Some even became entire dead galaxies.
But these were necessary sacrifices. Jade understood.
For the vast cosmos, the demise of an entire star system was nothing more than a single page in the records. The cosmos was immense, otherwise how could Lord Ravagers walk unhindered, how could it contain multiple Aeons ascending.
If the price of several galaxies could buy the fall of a Lord Ravager, then whether it was the IPC, the Xianzhou Alliance, or any other major or minor faction, all would raise both hands in approval.
A single Emanator, if allowed to operate normally, could easily claim vast territories.
Exchanging a few galaxies for that was a bargain no one would refuse.
Watching the planetary wreckage being salvaged by massive ship arms, Jade's thoughts drifted.
"I just wonder where Irontomb is remotely controlling everything from." But thinking about it, a Lord Ravager who traversed data torrents likely left even Diamond with no better options.
A head-on clash would only result in mutual destruction.
"Lady Jade! Detected a sudden emergence of large-scale energy. For safety, we should evacuate immediately!"
"Hm?" Hearing the urgent call, Jade snapped back to attention, raising an eyebrow.
Large-scale energy… Before she could grasp where it came from, the next moment.
"Boom!!"
The starry sky erupted with thunder. A narrow rift tinged with the quiet hues of the deep sea suddenly appeared, manifesting without warning.
As Jade's gaze shifted over, she saw a figure violently hurled out of the rift, its body scraping through space, instantly turning into a massive meteor-like streak, smashing straight into a salvage vessel.
Fortunately, that ship was unmanned.
"Whoosh!" Two massive claws grabbed the edges of the rift, then violently tore it open.
"Huff!"
The thick tail swayed casually. Just standing there, the oppressive force made it hard to breathe.
At this point, Jade no longer had any interest in looking at the figure that had been sent flying.
More accurately, she forgot. Before Godzilla, everything else was meaningless.
"…The size seems off," Jade murmured softly.
She knew Godzilla's size back on Jarilo. He was massive, but nowhere near this massive.
A body thousands of meters tall.
Generally speaking, the growth of a giant beast's size was tied to its nature. Godzilla had absorbed enormous amounts of energy in the past, yet even then he had not shown obvious strengthening.
The only explanation was that before, Godzilla had simply not chosen to grow larger.
According to the law of conservation of energy, if his body size increased, then the corresponding power should also have changed, right?