"Then there's nothing I can do."
Li Ke shook his head regretfully.
"I just want to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Since you don't want to, I won't force you. But as you can see, the situation is clearly abnormal."
Pointing to the sun, Li Ke looked at Rin and Song Hana.
He had a bad feeling. To be precise, he had a bad feeling after seeing the skill panel start to tremble.
Besides, no one has ever witnessed the destruction of the world. Who knows if it will be a slow destruction or an instantaneous explosion?
"Which of you two will go first? Also, there's no time for those things now. Use your hands."
If it were before, Li Ke might have been interested in doing something with Rin, but his desire was undoubtedly gone.
Not for any other reason, simply because time was of the essence.
Now that time was starting to go haywire, there was no point in talking about anything else. The world could collapse at any moment, so there was no need to do anything unnecessary.
"Fine then... I guess I'll go first. Right here?"
Rin Tohsaka raised her hand, her expression unreadable. She couldn't quite tell if what she felt was regret or something else entirely. If this sudden temporal skip hadn't occurred, she wouldn't have hesitated to spend more time with Li Ke—but clearly, they were out of time.
"Let's go inside," Li Ke said. He wasn't bold enough to do this in front of everyone, so he led Rin into a private partition.
There wasn't much room for small talk. With a slight flush creeping onto her cheeks, Rin wrapped her pale fingers around Li Ke's "spear," her palm carefully tracing the thrumming power within.
Li Ke didn't try to draw it out; his only goal was to finish the ritual quickly. Without any delay, the moment the sensation peaked, he released the viscous, heavy essence onto Rin's palm.
"That's... quite a lot," Rin murmured. Looking at her hand, she immediately searched for a vial to store it in. Her earlier claim about wanting his child hadn't been a bluff.
"Use it however you like," Li Ke said, his hand already moving toward her. "But just like I told Miss Rabbit—better to wait a few years before you do anything with it."
"I know..." Rin started to reply, but the words caught in her throat.
In a blur of light, the world around her dissolved. A faint phantom of Li Ke lingered before her eyes for a split second, and then she was back. She was standing in her own world once more, the warmth of his essence still fresh against her skin.
"That guy..." she sighed softly, carefully collecting the specimen.
She believed in him completely now, though in the end, it didn't seem to matter much. She looked at the small bottle in her hand and couldn't help but mutter to herself.
"I wonder... is his kid going to be a total pervert too?"
Looking at the small vial she had used to preserve the last of his essence, Rin couldn't help but whisper to herself.
After seeing Rin off, Li Ke quickly waved to Song Hana. This e-sports player and driver's hands were undeniably nimble, far superior to Rin's, who only knew how to rub her hands together.
So, Song Hana was quickly taken away as well.
However, the instant she left, Li Ke felt a tremor beneath his feet, followed by a wave of weightlessness!
"Damn it!"
Something had definitely gone wrong!
Just as the realization hit him, a flash of white streaked past his vision.
In the next heartbeat, the world before him surged with light. As his vision cleared, he found himself staring at the Steel Fortress—his massive, multi-ton sanctuary—as it went into a freefall through the void.
But the problem wasn't with the Steel Fortress itself, but with the seemingly invincible earthen wall of the merchant's house!
The ground, which had previously only made clanging sounds no matter how much Rias and he attacking, now seemed to be accelerated. Countless plumes of smoke from explosions appeared on it, and the earth and rocks began to crumble rapidly, collapsing directly to the merchant's house.
The collapsed areas had simply turned into normal soil and rocks, seemingly posing no danger.
The next moment, Li Ke's gaze abruptly shifted again, and beside him, Gardevoir's proud voice appeared.
"Humans are truly useless. You were daydreaming at such a dangerous time."
Gardevoir crossed her arms, looking at Li Ke with obvious displeasure.
"Thank you, Gardevoir."
Li Ke quickly thanked her, then swiftly crouched down, looking at the ground beneath his feet.
He slammed his fist down, but instead of cracking as quickly as before, a small, shallow crater appeared, and there was no clanging sound.
Clearly, the invincibility here had been dispelled!
Just as he was checking the situation, Rias, carrying Misaka Mikoto and Li Ke's belongings, flew up and landed beside him.
"I'm so sorry, Li Ke! I didn't think it would happen this fast!"
Rias hissed through gritted teeth as she surveyed their surroundings, her eyes narrowing as she took in the same chaotic sight as Li Ke.
But Li Ke discovered more than that. He looked at the only human he had found here, and then fell silent.
The female merchant who had silently endured his vigorous activity was still the same, but everything around her was rapidly corroding and weathering; the house looked like it would soon completely disintegrate.
Not only that, Li Ke's skill panel began to tremble. He could clearly feel his strength and recovery speed rapidly disappearing. In just a short while, he would have no strength left.
Although he was still far stronger than an ordinary person, and even had visible muscle definition due to his extreme training recently, the power given by this world had indeed completely vanished.
Now, apart from a constantly trembling panel, the amplified power was completely gone.
Misaka Mikoto fell silent. The current situation made it impossible to attribute it to Academy City's technology. A sudden blush spread across her cheeks.
"Anyway, anyway, I just need to use my hands, Right?"
She asked shyly. Li Ke glanced at Rias and Gardevoir, and at her flushed cheeks, then, after a moment's thought, placed his hands on Rias and Gardevoir.
"You two, go ahead. There are no more newcomers here."
Li Ke's words startled Rias, who then nodded.
She sensed the world's decay and its call to her more acutely than Li Ke. She took a deep breath and looked at Li Ke's face.
"Then be careful, Li Ke. You're welcome to visit me anytime. This is the agreed-upon reward. Input your magic power into it, and you'll receive the reward we discussed."
She handed Li Ke a badge, which he accepted. The next moment, Li Ke opened Rias's repatriation program.
But…
"Ten thousand points?!"
Li Ke couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, while Rias stared at him in astonishment.
"Ten thousand points?"
She had guessed that Li Ke's repatriation fee would increase under these circumstances, but she hadn't expected it to reach ten thousand points?!
Would she still have time to leave?
"It's alright…"
Li Ke was genuinely surprised that it had reached ten thousand points! He didn't know if it was because Rias had access to the World's Will, but his reserves were plentiful, so it wasn't a big deal.
The next moment, before Rias could say anything more, her body also became hazy.
However, in the instant Rias's body began to blur, the world changed once more.
The clouds in the sky abruptly vanished, and everything Li Ke and Misaka Mikoto saw began to feel compressed. Moreover, the entire world, first compressed like glass, began to crack with countless fissures.
"Hurry!"
Li Ke quickly grabbed Misaka Mikoto's hand, placing her flushed hand on his spear.
Misaka Mikoto also felt a sudden pang of fear. The premonition of death made her instinctively tighten her grip on Li Ke's spear, then, suppressing her shyness, she began to move it up and down.
She didn't really understand these things, but she had heard some rumors. Her soft, white hand swaying against the hard spearhead, combined with her aggrieved and shy face, was undeniably very pleasurable.
But—
Li Ke stared at the dense, ever-approaching cracks, realizing it was impossible to wait for Misaka Mikoto to break through her limits. Without hesitation, he grabbed Gardevoir with one hand and Misaka Mikoto's brown hair with the other, pressing her head against his spear and activating his transmigration interface.
At the same time, he shouted.
"Use Electric Shock!"
"Ah?"
Misaka Mikoto gasped, but in that instant, her small lips were invaded by Li Ke's spear, her soft lips and tongue tasting its unique metallic flavor!
Her face flushed instantly, and in shock and embarrassment, she instinctively activated Electric Shock.
In an instant, Li Ke felt his lower body lose all feeling; not only that, he uncontrollably ejaculated all his life force.
And at this moment, the tenfold defense attribute hadn't yet disappeared from his body.
Misaka Mikoto felt as if she'd been hit by a shaken can of cola; the thick, scalding liquid rushed down her throat. She immediately vomited, but in doing so, countless drops of the viscous liquid sprayed onto her face, hair, and her school uniform.
Before she could react, Li Ke's voice rang out.
"Repatriate!"
Li Ke didn't even stop to calculate the cost. He didn't check how many Energy Points he had left to send Mikoto and Gardevoir home; all he knew was that if they didn't leave now, those erratic, extradimensional fractures would tear them apart.
As the two girls began to dissolve into pillars of light, Li Ke threw open his Travel Menu. With a final, desperate surge of intent, he slammed his finger down on the travel icon beneath Seria's portrait.
He didn't know where he was going—he only knew he couldn't stay here.
Then, the world simply ceased to exist.