Facing Cerydra's question, Lu Jingming still wore that same smile, as though all things were in his grasp.
"Actually, my little schemes—hasn't the wise and mighty Empress long since seen through them?"
His tone was light, carrying a trace of subtle sincerity.
"To me, you two are special. I lend you my aid simply because I wish to, not for some so-called debt of gratitude."
Cerydra finally turned fully back. On that flawlessly delicate face was an unprecedented seriousness as she stared hard into Lu Jingming's eyes, as if trying to pierce his mild exterior and look straight into the depths of his soul.
After a few moments of silence, she finally asked the question she had suppressed for so long:
"Then tell me, Lu Jingming… did we complete our Flame-Chase? Did we… finish the Re-Creation?"
Lu Jingming was not surprised.
That she had held back until now, asking this question about the meaning of their very existence only here, at the edge of such a tense battlefield, already counted as great patience for such a meticulous-minded empress.
He smoothed away the smile on his face and nodded solemnly.
"Yes. You succeeded. You… completed the Re-Creation."
Cerydra listened quietly. In those eyes that seemed able to see through all things, a fleeting glimmer of relief flashed by before they returned to unfathomable calm.
"I see… that's enough."
She did not ask for details, did not ask how tragic the process had been, nor did she ask… what final fate had befallen them, the Chrysos Heirs.
For some answers, simply knowing the result was enough.
Knowing their efforts had not been in vain, that their sacrifice had meaning—that was the best solace she could ask for.
Lu Jingming fell silent, offering no further words of comfort or explanation.
He merely stood quietly at Cerydra's side, gazing up together at the ultimate battle above that would decide the ownership of the Asura God's throne.
In that stretch of sky, the powers of ice, flame, and ocean continued to explode in radiance that lit up the entire world, like the mingling of Creation and Annihilation.
High above, the extreme clash of the three streaks of light paused, and they separated, revealing their figures.
Hysilens hovered in midair, the golden trident in her hand still shining brilliantly, yet she could feel that relying on this inherited divine weapon there was always a veil between her and truly suppressing Kevin.
She lowered her head to look at the sacred trident—the symbol of Sea God authority—and a look of understanding passed through her eyes.
"In the end… it's still just an external tool."
With a soft murmur, she did something that caught both Jingliu and Black Kevin off guard—she let go.
The golden trident that dominated all seas gave an unwilling hum, turned into a streak of light, and returned into her body.
At the same time, the splendid Sea God divine armor on her body rippled like waves and dispersed. In its place was a more close-fitting azure battle dress, embroidered with ancient and profound tidal patterns, as if breathing in sync with the entire ocean.
Her aura changed abruptly.
She lost some of the majestic bearing of a Sea God, and gained instead the depth, antiquity, and mystery that belonged to the sea itself.
Then, she formed empty grips with both hands, condensing two utterly different powers into them.
In her right hand, boundless water-element surged and finally condensed into a semi-transparent longsword.
The blade was like the purest seawater cast into form, with hidden currents and waves eternally surging inside. At the edge of the blade flickered an ultimate sharpness able to cut through all things.
This was the Tidal Blade, representing the motion of the sea: the destructive tsunamis and seabed-rending undercurrents.
Above her left hand, ethereal power of nothingness intertwined with the soft essence of water, forming a faintly visible, water-hued zither.
Its strings were woven of flowing waterlight; the slightest pluck produced ethereal notes that could soothe souls or stir inner demons.
This was the Void-Sea Zither, representing the stillness of the sea: the all-devouring abyss and the quiet in which all things return to silence.
Sensing Hysilens's shifting aura, the Catastrophic Form that Kevin had become let out a low growl, while the flames on the Might of An-Utu jumped even more frenziedly.
From this state of Hysilens, he felt a more dangerous threat than before.
Beneath her black veil, Jingliu's brows rose slightly. She could hear the ringing of the water sword in Hysilens's hand.
"Come, then. In my own name, as the Sea's demigod—Helektra,—I shall fight you."
Before her voice fell, Hysilens moved.
She no longer simply became a line of blue light, but rushed forward like a tidal wave. In her right hand, the Tidal Blade bore a cutting edge that could tear all things and slashed straight at Kevin.
Her swordplay was no longer the grand, sweeping trident style of the Sea God. It was stranger, more variable, like the unpredictable undercurrents of the deep sea, attacking from every tricky angle.
Kevin swung Might of An-Utu to block. Flame and water clashed with a violent hiss of steam, but this time, the Tidal Blade was not so easily knocked aside. The oceanic power infused within it could actually stand shoulder to shoulder with the fire of Destruction; its pervasive nature slowly seeped in and began wearing down the Catastrophe flames.
At the same time, Hysilens's fingers brushed the Void-Sea Zither.
"Zheng——!"
An invisible soundwave spread out—not targeting the physical plane, but striking straight at soul and consciousness.
Kevin's movements stagnated for an instant so slight it was almost undetectable. The condensed will of slaughter and destruction inside him rippled as though a stone had been dropped into a deep pool.
This was soul erosion and mental interference.
How could Jingliu miss such an opportunity?
The Shard Sword turned into a streak of light, instantly thrusting forward, its icy edge lunging for the opening Kevin had exposed in that tiny freeze.
"Roar!"
Kevin roared in rage. His Catastrophic Form body forcibly broke through the sonic interference, and the Might of An-Utu swept out, beating back Jingliu.
But the Tidal Blade in Hysilens's hand had already swept in from the side, like a bone-attached parasite that would not let go.
The pattern of battle changed completely.
Hysilens abandoned direct, head-on clashes of absolute power and shifted to nimble slashes and attrition with the Tidal Blade, using the Void-Sea Zither's soul erosion and consciousness interference for support and control.
Together with Jingliu—one as the ever-changing sea, the other as the constant, cold moon—they formed a perfect complement.
Jingliu took the main offensive. Her sword was a single, ultimate point, pursuing a killing strike in one blow.
Hysilens supported. Her power was a broad, formless plane that suppressed, weakened, and created opportunities.
Kevin fell into unprecedented hardship.
He not only had to block the fastest, coldest sword in existence from Jingliu, but also split his focus to handle Hysilens's undefendable soundwaves and the Tidal Blade's attacks from every angle.
The zither's notes were like demonic whispers in his ears, constantly trying to break down his fighting will and disrupt the flow of his energy. They made him irritable; even the flames over his Catastrophic Form body grew unstable.
Down below, watching Hysilens's change in fighting style, a smile flashed in Lu Jingming's eyes.
"At last… you're willing to reclaim your true self?" he murmured.
Cerydra also watched the battle and spoke slowly:
"Abandoning divine seat and artifact to return to the source—it seems the Sword Knight too has found her own truth in this battle."
Her gaze swept over the Tidal Blade and Void-Sea Zither in Hysilens's hands, then turned to the raging Catastrophic Form.
"Then from here, this hunt should also be approaching its finale."
Cerydra, who had been observing quietly all this time, finally moved.
She lifted the scepter in her hand high, and the dark-blue flame on her coronet flared more strongly than ever, as if it meant to burn herself into part of law.
"Law – Proclamation."
Her voice was no longer confined to hearing; it became formless law, directly inscribed into the rules of heaven and earth over this battlefield.
"First proclamation: The one wielding tide and void—her power as deep as the abyss, her will as boundless as the sea—her authority… shall be unsealed."
Wong——!
An invisible, vast might instantly descended upon Hysilens.
The light of the Tidal Blade blazed. The surging currents within its body turned into real ocean whirlpools, its cutting aura slicing space with a violent sizzle.
The Void-Sea Zither grew more solid; its strings thrummed of their own accord, and the nothingness and erosion in its notes swelled severalfold.
Hysilens felt that some invisible shackle on her control and output of power had broken.
"Second proclamation: The one wielding the swords of frost and destruction—her body like light, her sword spanning time and space—the boundary… shall be broken."
A second power wrapped Jingliu.
The icy aura around her burst like a breached dam, climbing wildly.
The sword aura that coiled around her was no longer only cold; it now carried a meaning of ending all things and returning them to stillness.
Her speed soared again; what trailed behind her were no longer mere afterimages, but short-lived spatial cracks.
With Cerydra's heaven-defying boosts, Hysilens and Jingliu's momentum instantly overwhelmed Kevin's.
"Ugh—aaah!!!"
Feeling the lethal threat, the Catastrophic Form that Kevin had become let out a soul-rending roar.
He could no longer hold back. He poured all his power, killing intent, and even the very origin of his Catastrophic Form body into the Might of An-Utu.
Gripping the sword in both hands, he did not slash at any specific target but rammed it straight into the void at his feet.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!"
A dark-red, nearly black pillar of annihilating flame over a thousand meters wide erupted from him like a volcanic blast.
Where the pillar passed, space shattered layer by layer like fragile glass. All matter caught in it—air, dust, or stray energy—was broken down and erased in an instant.
That pillar of destruction pierced straight into the sky, not only blowing away and vaporizing the raging energy storms and heavy clouds above but still not slowing as if it meant to punch through the atmosphere and into the starry cosmos.
Then, the sky-piercing pillar suddenly shrank and changed shape, condensing into a dark-red flaming sword kilometers long, suspended between heaven and earth.
The blade burned with flames of finality that could shame the sun, radiating a despairing aura that could set the entire Douluo Planet ablaze and drag it into nothingness.
This was Kevin Catastrophic Form's final strike—one that could not be dodged, only met head-on.
Facing this world-ending sword, Hysilens's gaze was calm as the deepest trenches.
She slowly brought the Tidal Blade and Void-Sea Zither together before her.
"Abyssal Sea's Quietus – All Things to Nothing."
She chanted softly. The oceanic power surging within the Tidal Blade and the ethereal nothingness inside the Void-Sea Zither did not merge, but resonated in some profound way.
Before her, a patch of absolute darkness unfolded—seemingly thin, yet able to swallow all light and heat. In that darkness, even time and space lost meaning.
It was as if linked to a black hole devouring all things, radiating an ending aura that made even gods shudder.
At the same time, facing the sky-covering End-Sword of flame, the black veil that had always shrouded Jingliu's eyes was finally ripped away by the violent energy storm.
Beneath it were scarlet eyes, burning like blood-moon fire.
"With this body… I shall sever the stars."
She gripped Ephemeral Blossom in both hands. Moonlight-like chill and blood-red glow climbed together up the blade.
She made no defensive pose, instead merging with her sword and turning into a strike of ultimate sword-light that surged upward, as if to cleave the entire sky.
Where the sword-light passed, the void split neatly, leaving yawning black fissures. The leaking chill froze and solidified the time and space along its course.
The next moment—
The End-Sword of flame, bearing the might to burn the world, crashed down!
The domain of Void, baring its power of quietus, devoured all things!
The ultimate sword-light, bearing the will to sever all, rose against the heavens!
Three powers, each embodying a different concept, exploded together in the air above the City of Slaughter!!!
"——————————!!!"
An indescribable roar broke out—not sound, but the wailing of law and the lament of the world.
At the collision's center, an extreme point of darkness that swallowed all light first swelled into a singularity, then burst into a pure-white flash sweeping across heaven and earth.
Under that flash, all things lost their color, as though returned to the chaos at the dawn of creation.
Next came energy—unimaginable energy—erupting from the collision point as a perfect sphere, blasting outward in all directions.
The ground was flipped, shattered, and vaporized like a fragile eggshell.
A mushroom cloud of unimaginable size slowly rose, its height punching through the atmosphere. Its cap kept spreading even in the near-vacuum above.
Circular shockwaves rippled outward at speeds many times faster than sound.
Where they passed, mountains thousands of meters high and gorges ten thousand meters deep were flattened, crushed, and ground into dust in an instant.
Within hundreds of kilometers, the terrain was permanently remade. The once countless peaks and ravines became, in mere seconds, a boundless, mirror-smooth plain of radioactive glass.
The shockwave even blasted into the upper atmosphere, sweeping away what remained of it.
In that instant, if one looked up from the center of the battlefield, they no longer saw blue sky, but the cold, dead, star-speckled void of outer space.