African Continent, Sahara Desert.
Deep beneath a hidden coordinate, World Serpent headquarters.
[ Whoosh! ]
An orange spatial portal, resonating with the Herrscher of the Void's powers, opened.
Dominance Puppet: Ling ke and Kevin materialized side by side.
The former had barely found his footing when...
[ Whoosh~ ]
[ Whoosh~ ]
[ Whoosh~ ]
A swarm of spatial portals, directly linked to the Theater of Dominance, rapidly unfolded around them.
From these portals surged a massive army composed of Dominance Puppets, each loaded with templates of various game characters.
They completely surrounded World Serpent's headquarters, leaving no gap unsealed.
Even inside the underground base, they were rapidly infiltrating.
Then they guarded every corridor and doorway.
Once the operation was complete...
"Hmm, preparations to greet our 'guests' are now complete."
Dominance Puppet: Ling ke tilted his head toward Kevin. "Mr. Kevin, please proceed."
"Once our transaction is complete, you will receive what is due to you."
Hearing him say this...
"Can I really trust you?" Kevin asked coldly.
Truth be told, this was somewhat unnecessary. He had already chosen his course through his actions.
But Ling ke was clearly in a good mood. His revenge plan was about to reach its final "step." Even he, the architect of this scheme, hadn't anticipated it would unfold so smoothly.
Thus, the one indirectly controlling Dominance Puppet: Ling ke patiently replied, "Of course you can trust me."
The black-haired youth beside Kevin smiled. "After all, from beginning to end, you were never my enemy. I have no reason to seek revenge against you, so all that remains is to complete our transaction properly. Moreover, the very terms of our transaction represent the result of me completing my revenge."
"You wanted that outcome too... didn't you?"
Kevin didn't respond.
Suddenly, Ling ke spoke again.
"Apologies for saying those things about Dr. MEI earlier, while relaying the intel. I know you must have hated hearing them."
The dark-haired youth turned to look at the "Deliverance" beside him. "You're not like Raiden Mei."
"Your promises aren't empty words."
"You truly have the courage to sacrifice everything."
"Otherwise, you wouldn't be walking alongside me—this sinner—right now."
Hearing him say that...
"You and I both know this isn't the way a 'hero' should act," Kevin said grimly.
"Exactly!"
A faint smile tugged at Ling ke's lips. "But it *is* the choice a 'Flame-Chaser' would make!"
"You were like this before, and you're still like this now."
"Like moths drawn to a flame, not seeking self-destruction, but... embracing death to achieve life!"
Hearing this Herrscher, this "enemy of humanity," offer such praise for someone who opposed the Honkai...
"..."
Kevin didn't respond.
He merely nodded indifferently.
Then, he took the lead, striding forward.
And the direction he chose...
was precisely toward the Elysian Realm.
-
Meanwhile, on the other side...
On the far side of the Moon, within the ruins of a previous civilization...
[ World Destroyer's Current Points: 37,915,259 ]
Because Ling ke was the Herrscher of Dominance, embodying "United as One," every Dominance Puppet could monitor the real-time score of the "Top Player System" bound to his main body through quantum entanglement-based communication.
It had to be said, Ling ke's strategy of hurling massive meteorites directly from the Moon toward Earth was indeed practically unstoppable.
During this time, Welt had ordered all of humanity's elite combat forces, including Durandal, to North Africa to confront Ling ke and Kevin. Meanwhile, he, Tesla, Einstein, and others were responsible for uniting the remaining human forces to resist the meteorite disaster.
Unsurprisingly, humanity deployed the "Silver Bullet."
Remember, during the Second Eruption, Anti-Entropy's early iterations had also used similar tactics to test the waters.
Against the multi-core Sirin, the "Silver Bullets," with their hundreds of thousands of kilometers of range, were all paralyzed by electromagnetic pulses.
At least we don't have to worry too much about those anymore.
But while that problem's eased, other issues remain... like:
"The Moon's got plenty of giant rocks. Do you humans have enough firepower to handle them?"
On the Moon, massive numbers of Dominance Puppets were using the Herrscher of the Void Powers to cut and teleport meteorites.
Clearly, they planned to grind us down in a war of attrition.
Until we'd burned through every last Silver Bullet.
Or...
Boom!
[ World Destroyer's Current Score: 56,713,299 ]
The System's score suddenly jumped by nearly twenty million points.
Without a doubt, this meant that in that very instant, twenty million people had perished on Earth.
And the only possible cause of such carnage...
"Even if your weapon stockpiles hadn't been depleted, you humans would still be unable to defend against all the massive meteorites."
This was, after all, an attack of overwhelming frequency... a veritable "saturation strike."
Yes.
Now that Ling ke had contacted Kevin Kaslana, his revenge plan had reached its final stage. The cities targeted by the Dominance Puppets far exceeded the nine he'd mentioned to Rita earlier.
Instead, they were being selected randomly and indiscriminately.
This was the true apocalypse.
After today, even if humanity survived on Earth of World of Honkai Impact 3rd, the social order of the past would be gone forever.
The tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions triggered by the massive meteorites would churn up massive amounts of dust, permeating the atmosphere.
This dust would block most of the sunlight, causing the entire globe to rapidly cool down.
Yes, after the scorching meteor shower would come a piercing, bitter cold.
But let's set aside those future troubles for now.
Right now...
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
[ World Destroyer: Current Points: 156,759,213 ]
More and more colossal meteorites were becoming the Sword of Shamash's Judgment for humanity on Earth in the World of Honkai Impact 3rd.
Each one that plummeted from the heavens erased at least an entire city.
Now, the nations of the world, along with Welt, Tesla, Einstein, and the rest, were frantic and overwhelmed.
Dr. Tesla's stream of profanities hadn't let up for a moment.
Yet, compared to their desperate straits, Ling ke's situation...
"Who could've imagined I'd ever face the embarrassing predicament of having so many points I can't even spend them all on gacha pulls?"
That's right.
The [ Number One Player System ] lacked a "consume all points at once" function.
Drawing character templates... it was either pulling a miracle with a single draw or slogging through endless ten-pulls.
And there was no guaranteed pity!
For days, the System's interface for randomly selecting new game character templates had been running non-stop.
Now, supply far exceeded demand, overloading the system.
"Oh well, I'll just wait patiently for the new goodies to land in my lap."
Inside the Theater of Dominance, Ling ke had finally come to terms with things.
Just as he'd said before, he was in an unusually good mood. So good, in fact, that he actually felt compelled to compliment someone, something he rarely did.
After all, his meticulously planned revenge was nearing completion. He couldn't wait to see the spectacular expressions on the faces of his enemies when everything was set in stone, when there was no turning back.
Now, the final piece of his plan would be acquired within the Elysian Realm.
And after that...
"It's time to meet the so-called Will of Honkai."