POV: 3rd Person
The Nagazora mansion was finally draped in absolute silence.
Designed in a grand, elegant Western style, the massive estate boasted more than enough luxurious guest rooms to comfortably accommodate everyone.
After the emotional exhaustion of the day, the newly reunited families had retired to their respective suites.
Jay stood outside in the expansive, perfectly manicured garden. The cool midnight breeze rustled his white hair as he took a quiet walk along the stone pathways, looking up at the starry sky.
The families had already gone through enough emotional whiplash for one day; the true surprise can wait until next time jay here.
Right now, Jay had his own business to attend to.
"Prometheus," Jay spoke into the quiet night, addressing his system.
"Initiate the accumulated three-day sign-in."
[Host. Initiating Accumulated 3-Day Sign-In Process...]
A brilliant, cascading light materialized in front of Jay, forming three distinct holographic cards. Jay tapped the first one.
[Reward 1: Power Template - Grand Caster Solomon (Fate/Grand Order)]
Description: The ultimate iteration of the King of Magic. This template grants the Host the absolute conceptual authorities of Prime Solomon.
Abilities Included:
Clairvoyance EX: The absolute ability to perceive the entirety of humanity's past, present, and future simultaneously across the timeline.
Ars Paulina (The Time Temple): A personal reality located in Imaginary Number Space, completely detached from the flow of standard time and completely immune to physical universal intervention.
Ars Almadel Salomonis: The Third Noble Phantasm. A celestial ring of light composed of hundreds of millions of Excalibur-class beams, fueled by the energy of human history, capable of incinerating the surface of planets and burning away timelines.
Jay raised an eyebrow. Before he could fully process the weight of a Grand Servant template, he tapped the second card.
[Reward 2: Supreme Item - The 10 Rings of Solomon]
Description: The divine rings granted directly by God to the King of Magic.
Passive Effect - Absolute Authority: The wielder of all 10 rings holds absolute, unchallengeable dominion over all magic. The Host can instantly nullify, veto, reflect, or completely commandeer any form of Magecraft or magical system created by humanity or deities, regardless of the era or universe.
"A Grand Caster template and My Old man's handycraft," Jay muttered, crossing his arms. "Magneficenr."
He tapped the final card. The hologram pulsed with a strange, grayish-white fog before revealing its contents.
[Reward 3: Power Template - Lord of The Mysteries (Great Old One / Above the Sequence)]
Description: Grants the complete, unrestricted authorities of the "Lord of the Mysteries" (King of Space-Time, Beacon of Destiny). You immediately gain the abilities of Sequence 0 for the Fool, Door, and Error pathways, alongside their Uniquenesses and the Sefirah Castle.
Path of the Fool (Sequence 0):
Fooling: The absolute authority to deceive reality itself. The Host can "Fool" history, time, fate, and the physical laws of the universe.
Grafting: The ability to seamlessly stitch abstract concepts, physical locations, or fates together (e.g., grafting a dying star to an enemy's heart).
Miracles & Wishes: The power to manifest literal miracles and grant absolute wishes out of thin air.
Marionettes: The ability to turn any living being or conceptual entity into a perfectly controlled puppet by seizing their Spirit Body Threads.
Path of the Error (Sequence 0):
Bug Exploitation: The authority to find and exploit "bugs" or loopholes in the laws of physics, magic, and reality.
Theft: The absolute conceptual ability to steal anything. The Host can steal an enemy's powers, their thoughts, their lifespan, their destiny, or even the time they need to execute an attack.
Avatars: The power to create infinite, perfectly synchronized clones of oneself, each possessing independent thought and full power, capable of existing across the timeline.
Path of the Door (Sequence 0):
Absolute Space/Sealing: The ultimate authority over space. The Host can travel anywhere in the multiverse instantly, bypass any barrier, and perfectly seal or unseal any entity, concept, or dimension.
Replication: The ability to perfectly copy and utilize the powers and abilities of any entity observed.
Sefirah Castle: Absolute dominion over the Spirit World, granting near-omniscience and immunity to all divination and fate-manipulation.
Jay read through the terrifying list of conceptual, reality-bending powers that would make any normal multiversal entity fall to their knees in absolute awe.
His reaction? He simply let out a mild, satisfied hum.
"Oh. Neat," Jay murmured casually, waving a hand to integrate the template.
"That will make things significantly easier."
He didn't freeze in shock, nor was he staggered by the conceptual weight of the Great Old Ones. To Jay, this wasn't a world-shattering power spike; it was just an incredibly convenient Quality of Life update.
The truth was, Jay had already been utilizing his own brute-forced, makeshift version of "Fooling" for quite some time. When he saved Shuri back in his previous world, and recently when he rescued Kallen, Sakura, the Previous Era's Rin, the Current Era's Rin, Cecilia, Sayuri, Serena, and Alexandra—he had essentially "Fooled" history to pull them out of their tragic fates without causing a timeline-collapsing paradox.
However, his manual method was incredibly tedious. It required direct, physical intervention. He—or one of his avatars—had to physically travel back into the past, intervene at the exact microsecond of their deaths, and manually stitch the timeline's logic back together to fool the universe's natural order.
He had tried to replicate the Lord of the Mysteries abilities purely from his 'past-life' memories of reading the web novel, but there was a hard limit to his replication.
He was a prodigy who could copy almost anything, but for highly specific, signature conceptual constructs like the Sefirah Castle and its Spirit World fog, he needed to actually see it in person to perfectly replicate how it functioned.
"This saves me so much time," Jay muttered, flexing his fingers as the grayish-white fog of the Sefirah Castle seamlessly merged with his soul.
He closed his eyes. Instantly, his consciousness was elevated into the boundless, mystical gray fog above the Spirit World. From up here, the timelines of the multiverse looked like fragile strings waiting to be plucked. He realized that with the true Sefirah Castle now in his possession, his *Fooling* was perfectly automated and infinitely more efficient. He no longer needed to physically travel to the past to alter history; he could simply sit on the high-back chair inside the gray fog, wave his hand, and perfectly deceive reality from a safe distance.
Before heading back inside to sleep, Jay had one last thing to do regarding the Previous Era.
The smell of an absolute masterpiece of a breakfast woke the entire mansion. Jay had prepared a mountain of food—everything from perfectly cooked eggs benedict to traditional Japanese breakfast sets and towering stacks of pancakes.
Once everyone had eaten their fill, Jay clapped his hands, instantly commanding the attention of the room. The relaxed atmosphere shifted into a more serious, focused tone.
"Alright, everyone, listen up. We have a plan to establish," Jay began, leaning against the head of the table.
"I am going to return to my own universe today. But before I leave, we need to sort out your living arrangements."
He pointed to the left side of the table.
"Cecilia, Alexandra, Serena, Sirin, Bella, and the two Rins. You all will stay here in this mansion. You are supposed to be dead, so walking around in public is a terrible idea right now."
Jay waved his hand, manifesting several sleek, highly advanced metallic bracelets. He tossed one to each of the stay-at-home members.
"These are spatial bracelets," Jay explained.
"They project an absolute, impenetrable barrier if you are ever attacked. Furthermore, their internal spatial storage is stocked with enough premium food and supplies to last you all for years. You won't lack anything."
He then looked at the young girl with short green hair.
"Wendy, you stay here too. Otto thinks he lost his Herrscher of Wind candidate. If you step outside, Schicksal will immediately hunt you down. Don't worry about security; I've fundamentally upscaled the absolute bounded field around this entire estate. Not even the Cocoon of Finality could peek inside, let alone Schicksal."
Wendy nodded gratefully, relieved she didn't have to fight anymore.
"Now, for the St. Freya infiltration squad,"
Jay turned to Kiana, Mei, Rei, Bronya, Kallen, and Sakura.
"You girls are going to enroll at St. Freya Academy as students. Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, use your real names. Rei, you'll be enrolled as Mei's twin sister."
Jay then slid two specific forged IDs toward Kallen and Sakura. He let out a slight chuckle.
"Kallen, you are now 'Karen Khaslana'. And Sakura... you are now 'Yae Miko'," Jay grinned.
"Just roll with it."
Sakura tilted her head, her fox ears twitching.
"Yae... Miko? It sounds perfectly fine to me, Jay-san."
"Siegfried," Jay called out to the Kaslana patriarch.
"You're going to make a call to Theresa right now. Tell her you are going on a very long, dangerous journey, and you need to drop your daughter and her friends off at St. Freya for their safety."
"Got it," Siegfried nodded, pulling out his communicator.
"And after that?"
"After that, you follow your original script," Jay said seriously.
"You go on your journey. Eventually, you will get captured by an organization called World Serpent, led by a man named Kevin Kaslana. Let it happen."
The entire room suddenly went dead silent.
Siegfried blinked, his brain completely halting.
"Wait... World Serpent? Kevin Kaslana? Who the hell is Kevin? I know the entire family tree, there is no Kevin!"
Even Kallen frowned deeply.
"A Kaslana leading a secret organization? That is impossible. I have never heard of that name in our history."
Jay let out a long sigh. "That's because he isn't from your history, Kallen. He is from fifty thousand years ago."
Everyone stared at Jay in absolute shock.
"Listen carefully," Jay explained, his tone carrying the weight of ancient history.
"Fifty thousand years ago, long before your modern civilization existed, there was another highly advanced human society. They fought the Honkai... and they lost. They were called the Previous Era. Kevin Kaslana was their strongest soldier—a genetically modified warrior known as a MANTIS. He survived the apocalypse. He is practically immortal, and he is the literal founding father of the Kaslana bloodline. He's the father of Adam Kaslana."
Siegfried's jaw dropped. Kiana stared at Jay with wide, completely dumbfounded eyes. Their ancestor—the very first Kaslana—was a fifty-thousand-year-old immortal supersoldier?
"But... if he is the founder of the Kaslanas, he must be a hero, right?" Kiana asked hesitantly.
"He was," Jay answered.
"But 50,000 years of fighting and losing everything broke him. Now, he leads World Serpent, and he is preparing to initiate something called 'Project Stigma'."
"What is that?" Welt asked, his expression turning grim.
"A desperation plan," Jay replied.
"Kevin plans to flood the earth with Honkai energy. It will instantly kill 99% of the global population. The remaining 1% who survive the extreme radiation will awaken their Stigmata, evolving into a new species capable of resisting the Honkai. He intends to sacrifice the modern world just to secure humanity's ultimate survival."
A horrifying chill swept through the dining hall. Cecilia covered her mouth in terror. Kallen's fists clenched so hard her knuckles turned white, utterly disgusted by her own ancestor's madness.
"Which brings me to the next part of the plan," Jay looked over at Welt Yang and Seele.
"Welt, when you conduct your experiment and dive into the Sea of Quanta, Seele needs to go with you. The two of you will meet Kevin Kaslana in there. He is currently trapped."
"Absolutely not!" Bronya immediately stood up, slamming her hands on the table. Her eyes blazed with fierce protective instincts.
"Jay, if this Kevin person is that ancient and powerful, and willing to kill billions... Bronya cannot allow Seele anywhere near him! Seele is the Herrscher of Rebirth! He will sense her Honkai energy and execute her instantly!"
"Relax, Bronya," Jay smiled, raising a hand to calm the Herrscher of Truth.
"The cores I fabricated for all of you are completely off the grid. I designed them specifically to bypass standard Honkai detection. Their output is purely Imaginary Energy. To Kevin's senses, Seele won't feel like a Herrscher at all; she will just feel like a girl with an incredibly unique stigmata and ability."
Jay leaned forward, a thoroughly wicked, highly amused smirk forming on his face.
"Besides, the goal here isn't to talk him out of his despair. Your only job is to free him. Bring him out of the Sea of Quanta and pull him back into the real world."
Welt blinked, completely baffled.
"Free him? But if he is as dangerous as you say, and he wants to initiate Project Stigma the moment he gets out..."
"Oh, let him try," Jay laughed, his smirk widening into a full-blown villainous grin.
"Let him step out of the Sea of Quanta, because the absolute second he steps foot into the real world, I want all of you to jump him."
The dining hall fell silent.
"Wait, what?" Siegfried asked.
"You heard me," Jay chuckled.
"We are going to gang up on the strongest Flame-Chaser with an entire army of fully-powered, anomaly-tier Herrschers. Just beat the absolute crap out of him. I want to see his stoic face shatter when he realizes he's surrounded by six overpowered Herrschers and his own descendants who don't need his ridiculous Project Stigma."
Kiana blinked, before a huge, mischievous grin spread across her face. She slammed her fist into her palm. "Oh, I am so in."
Even Welt sighed, shaking his head with a faint smile.
"A tactical ambush against a fifty-thousand-year-old immortal. Understood."
"What about us?" Raiden Ryoma asked nervously, pulling the conversation back to the present.
"You and Sayuri can do whatever you want, Ryoma," Jay shrugged.
"But I'd recommend Sayuri stays mostly at home to avoid Schicksal's radar. Also, Ryoma, just a heads-up..."
Jay smirked, pointing at Sayuri and Alexandra.
"When I resurrected them, I heavily modified their bodies. They are now 100% immune to all diseases, completely immune to Honkai corruption, and they possess the physical strength of elite superhuman Valkyries. At minumum they have quite a bit and not so soft, can tank a fissure bomb without scratch."
Ryoma completely froze. The CEO of ME Corp slowly turned his head to look at his elegant, traditionally raised wife. Sayuri smiled sweetly at him, a delicate porcelain teacup in her hand.
Ryoma swallowed hard, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. Oh god... if I ever make her mad, she could literally snap me in half,' he panicked internally.
"Alright, that covers everything," Jay clapped his hands together.
"I'm going to trigger a fake, massive Honkai energy spike in Nagazora right now. It'll show up on Schicksal's radar, and Theresa will bring the Hyperion here with Himeko to investigate. That's your cue, Siegfried."
Jay waved his hand, tearing open a massive, swirling portal through the fabric of the multiverse.
The gateway led straight back to his original world—the exact timeline that was currently frozen right after Jay had mercilessly pranked the arrogant protagonist, Ye Chen.
Elysia walked up to his side, naturally interlacing her fingers with his.
"Stay out of trouble, everyone," Jay smiled warmly at the diverse, chaotic family he had assembled in the dining room.
"Don' forget to contact me kiana" jay said
"Ok Boss!!" Kiana replied beamingly
"I'll be back before you know it. So bye bye."
With a final wave, Jay and Elysia stepped through their own portal . The dimensional tear seamlessly sealed shut behind them, leaving the Honkai world.