Within the Worldbearing cage, the scorched earth wailed.
Every collision brought this scorched earth to the brink of collapse.
On Phainon's golden mask at his waist, the first crack quietly appeared.
He sensed it.
It was Anaxa, in the infinite sea of knowledge stars, igniting himself as the ultimate 'reason' and singing the final, insane swan song.
Immediately after, the second crack spread like a spiderweb.
He heard it.
It was a thousand maidens on the platform of Herta Space Station, jointly singing the resolute lament of life's final song.
The third crack, shockingly, spanned the entire mask.
He saw it.
It was Cipher, using her very existence as the ultimate lie, prying open the false truth of a god's descent upon cold reality.
His companions were taking their bows, one after another.
The universe drew back a grand curtain for them, yet left only Phainon, standing in the center of the stage.
"Construct your victory with the lives of others."
Polka Kakamond's voice was devoid of any fluctuation, piercing precisely beneath his divine shell, reaching that long-numbed soul.
"Is this what you call 'pioneering,' Khaslana?"
Phainon did not respond.
Words at this moment were the most powerless dust in the universe.
He merely made the eight hundred million sparks burn even more fiercely; the divine flames on the Dawnbreaker almost melted this cage completely.
He possessed Omniscience and Omnipotence, yet could not analyze the person before him.
He could only understand that Erudition had intentionally done this.
Polka was not here at this moment; she stood on all 'known' timelines, overlooking Phainon's futile struggles within a predetermined script.
Every attack was merely striking at an inevitable phantom.
A stalemate between the two was defeat.
Just then.
Two rays of light penetrated the cage's barrier, forcibly descending beside him.
Mydei and Hysilens's figures solidified as before.
"Hey, Deliverer!" Mydei grabbed Phainon's shoulder, his eyes fixed on him.
"What are you hesitating for? If you can't bear this small sacrifice, what's the point of ending the cycle!"
Phainon's knuckles, gripping the sword, turned white from excessive force, and his movements paused for a fleeting moment.
"My appearance, my death, are all predestined! You already knew the answer!"
Mydei's voice grew more impassioned; he released his hand and instead gripped the hilt of the sword in Phainon's hand, pointing the blade at himself.
"You need The Hunt's sword, and then thoroughly nail this troublesome fellow outside Amphoreus!"
He bared his teeth, revealing a wild and unrestrained smile, just as when they first met.
"You know, the universe's 'unknown' has arrived! Don't let our sacrifices be in vain!"
"Remember, my weakness is in the tenth thoracic vertebra; that's the only way to kill me."
With that, Mydei resolutely turned around, leaving his unguarded back to Phainon, his voice calm yet with an undeniable urgency: "Do it, Deliverer!"
Phainon's arm trembled.
He slowly closed his eyes, shutting out those eyes filled with trust.
He could feel the warmth and heartbeat of another person coming from the blade.
That was not cold data, but a vibrant soul.
The next moment, he plunged the Dawnbreaker in his hand into Mydei's back.
There was no resistance.
He only wished that Mydei would depart without pain.
Golden divine blood gushed out, spilling into the cold void, scalding his soul.
Mydei's figure slowly dissolved in the light; he did not look back, only his final voice exploded deep within Phainon's soul:
"Deliverer, I wish you... perpetual battle, perpetual victory..."
In his place, a brand new greatsword quietly floated.
It was Dawnmaker, which Lan had once blessed him with on the Xianzhou and which had vanished in the simulated universe.
The blessing of The Hunt, now carrying all of Mydei's fighting spirit and life, had returned.
Phainon reached out and grasped it.
their weight was the entire life and trust of a friend.
And at this very moment, outside the cage, Lan's arrow accurately struck the 'blank' area of Erudition's logical core.
A pure, absolute, undefinable 'unknown' was born.
It was as if a BUG had been forcibly written into the universe's underlying code.
Polka Kakamond's figure showed visible stagnation for the first time.
Her Omniscience and Omnipotence were based on absolute control over all 'known' things in the universe.
But when an 'unknown' that even Erudition could not calculate appeared, her computations developed a fatal, logically unclosable blank!
Now!
In Phainon's eyes, the divine radiance completely receded, replaced by a bottomless calm.
He did not use any authority, merely sensing the nascent power of the 'unknown'.
It was like an absolute darkness that no 'known' light could illuminate, and no 'causal' line could penetrate.
He raised the new Dawnmaker.
No charge, no swing.
The world in Polka's eyes suddenly lost the concepts of 'distance' and 'process'.
The last image she saw—
Was Phainon raising his sword.
The next moment.
Pfft.
The cold blade had already pierced through her heart, becoming an undeniable, newly established 'fact'.
This was the only 'causality' allowed to exist within the realm of the 'unknown'.
Polka lowered her head, looking at the greatsword burning with a soul in her chest; on that face that could not be remembered, a confusion named 'incomprehension' appeared for the first time.
"Anchor." Phainon's voice was cold and sacred.
Dawnmaker erupted with a light that devoured everything, intending to drag Polka's very existence into the abyss of the 'unknown'.
Polka's body began to digitize, forcibly stripped from this space-time by a power that belonged to no known law.
"Impossible..." Her murmur, for the first time, carried emotional fluctuation, "Within the realm of the 'known,' I am omnipotent..."
"But you can never calculate the weight of a friend," Phainon calmly declared.
"What a pity, just a little short!" Polka's digitization stopped, "As long as I wait for the moment of the unknown to end, you still can't do anything to me."
Just as the two forces were still in a stalemate, Hysilens came up behind Phainon.
She did not look at Phainon, only at the Lord of Silence.
"Let me offer her the final requiem," Hysilens said softly.
"The Hunt's arrow is responsible for hitting, and the ocean of nothingness is responsible for drowning."
She parted her lips and began to hum softly.
The song without a melody echoed on the scorched earth.
It was not a battle song of destruction, but a sacred chant of ending.
Hysilens's body transformed into a mermaid in the ocean, entwining Polka's dissipating data body.
This was the 'nihility' funeral song, returning existence completely to nothingness.
In the song, Polka's figure completely turned into meaningless light particles and dissipated.
And Hysilens's body also became transparent, merging into eternal silence.
"Goodbye, nameless swordsman."
Her last voice was as soft as a sigh.
"May your pioneering always be accompanied by song."
Crack—
The golden mask on Phainon's face, after enduring the departure of his last companion, finally succumbed to the burden, completely shattered, turning into golden dust, scattering into nothingness.
Beneath the mask, what was revealed was no longer madness, nor the indifference of divinity, but an incredibly weary face, stained with cosmic dust.
Deep in his eyes, after everything had burned out, only endless profoundness and sorrowful stillness remained.
Polka Kakamond was forever anchored in the new 'fact' of 'unable to reach Amphoreus'.
The Worldbearing cage dispersed.
He quietly held the sword in his hand, standing in the center of the void universe. On it, a friend's soul still lingered, burning hot as before, yet gradually turning cold.
He won.
But this victory was heavier than any defeat.