CRASH!
"Hey, wait, Dr. Mobius, what are you doing?"
"That's right, hold on, Doctor. The battle is already in its final stages."
"Enough. All of you, get out of my way. I don't have time to waste on you right now."
Shoving the laboratory doors open, Mobius broke into a rare run, then unhesitatingly pushed aside Dr. MEI, who was watching the live feed from the moon.
"Mobius? What's happened?"
Seeing the frantic Mobius rush in, Dr. MEI, though bewildered, consciously stepped aside.
This battle was supposed to have been under their joint command, but Mobius had mysteriously disappeared with Aponia shortly after it began. For her to reappear now in such a state meant she must have made an earth-shattering discovery.
However, Mobius ignored her, snatching the nearby microphone and speaking urgently. "Everyone, stop Li's actions immediately! Tell him the danger inside is not something he can handle!"
"What you just took down was nothing more than an automated defense measure! Her true body is sleeping within the energy core! If she wakes up, you will all die there!"
As Mobius's words echoed through their earpieces, the faces of many on the battlefield instantly changed.
The objective they had achieved at the cost of grievous injuries to their entire team was merely the enemy's automated defense program. In other words, they hadn't even breached its true defenses.
"What... then that means..."
Eden's expression turned even grimmer upon hearing the news. It wouldn't matter if everyone else died; everything could be restarted. But if Mobius's theory was correct, Pardofelis, at least in this lifetime, absolutely could not be allowed to die.
But to their despair, they were already powerless to stop what was happening.
Just as Eden was about to disregard her own safety and charge in, the colossal body of the Terminus suddenly emanated countless rays of white light, scattering like starlight.
When the light dissipated, the first to be thrown out were the unconscious forms of Pardo and Black Pardo. And at the very center, two figures floated in the air.
One of them was an unfamiliar woman with white hair, suspended high against the starry expanse. In her hand, the figure they knew so well was being mercilessly choked by the neck, dangling in mid-air.
The eyesight of a MANTIS was, of course, exceptional. They could clearly see that Fu Li's chest, just like the massive Terminus body they had pierced earlier, had a gaping wound.
The only difference was that this wound was now dripping with fresh blood.
Mobius's warning had been correct, but it had come a step too late.
---o---
Tragic... Utterly tragic...
Even though all the MANTISes had attacked the moment the Herrscher of the End appeared, it was ultimately like mayflies trying to shake a great tree—utterly insignificant.
For some unknown reason, however, the Herrscher had only beaten them to the point of incapacitation, showing no haste in killing them.
The true body of the Herrscher of the End was a nameless, white-haired girl. She wore a gown that seemed sewn by the hands of God himself, noble and elegant, like a queen—but she was an avatar of death.
Fu Li knew. Her appearance was the same as Kiana's, her golden eyes the same as Kiana's, but she was not the real Kiana.
At this moment, the Herrscher's true form had a foot, wrapped in white silk, pressed upon his shoulder, gazing down at him with utter disdain.
"Cough, cough..."
Fu Li was still not dead. He wanted to fight, but as he tried to raise his hand again, a pure white cross, like one carved from jade, pinned him firmly to the ground.
That pure white cross was just like the one used by the Herrscher of Binding, but this one didn't just carry the authority of [Binding]. It also possessed the lockdown of [Space], the paralysis of [Conquest], the withering of [Death], and...
The searing agony of [Corruption], carrying the torment of [Pestilence].
It was as if, in retaliation for him using five authorities to shatter her core, she was now using six to slowly kill him—a petty revenge for being awakened from her slumber.
"Hmph... Lowly humans... and you, damn traitor."
The Herrscher of the End scoffed, not even glancing at the fallen MANTISes around her, as if they no longer constituted any threat.
She simply bent down and picked up the shattered gauntlet from the lunar dust. With a light squeeze, the Soul Steel weapon crumbled into fragments, leaving only the six gemstones behind.
Then, she tossed them to the ground like trash.
"Now, then. I shall act upon God's will and bestow destruction upon your civilization. You shall serve as witnesses to your own world's demise, and then..."
"You will die here. Consider it God's final mercy."
What kind of bullshit mercy is this...
Fu Li was completely immobilized. Under the suppression of multiple authorities, he felt every nerve in his body scream with an unbearable, scorching pain, yet death would not come quickly. Even though he had grown accustomed to dying, he couldn't help but want to scream in agony.
But his right to scream had also been stripped away, leaving only his senses of sight and hearing, which the Herrscher had deliberately preserved.
She wanted him to watch as the world was annihilated before his very eyes.
The Herrscher of the End floated into the sky. With the moon as its epicenter, a colossal phantom projection, far larger than the Earth itself, materialized. In an instant, the gentle blue of the planet's surface vanished, replaced by a glaring, hostile red.
Having done this, the Herrscher departed, leaving the MANTISes to lie silently in the lunar dust like corpses awaiting their inevitable end.
There was no sound... only a dead, silent agony.
But perhaps by a stroke of luck, Pardo, who had been the first to fall unconscious, began to stir. Trembling, she started to crawl, inch by inch, toward Fu Li.
"Li... Are you... okay?"
She spoke with great difficulty, dragging her broken body to his side before finally offering a sorrowful smile.
She could tell that Li was still alive, but death was already creeping over him. In his hand, he clutched a mysterious card that swirled like a vortex.
She didn't know what it was, but it no longer mattered.
Her injuries were the most severe; this was just a final rally before the end. Perhaps she would pass on before Fu Li, but that wasn't so bad, was it...?
If they couldn't live together, then dying together was a fine alternative.
It's just... her treasure... it must have been destroyed along with the planet's surface... She should have buried it a little deeper.
[Tragedy is not the end, but the beginning of hope]...
She had always known that phrase, but...
"After all... Li... I still... don't want to die."
Using the last of her strength, Pardo leaned in and kissed the corner of Li's mouth.
The kiss was tainted with the metallic taste of blood, but it was the first time in her entire life she had ever kissed someone.
With that, the warmth faded from Pardo's body. But at that very same moment, the vortex on the card in Fu Li's hand began to spin.
It wasn't over. There was still hope...
Pardofelis, you won't die... None of you will die here....
[Congratulations on successfully activating the hidden ability of the fifth talent, 'Catnip-Flavored Phantom Thief': 'Resurrection of the Dead,' blessed by love.]
[Saving the life of your beloved girl from the hands of the Grim Reaper... it's quite a romantic thing, isn't it?]