Retrieving the Cosmic Juggernaut wasn't difficult, not for someone with Ray's ability to easily perceive through the layers of concealed space hidden beneath the Thames River.
The true problem lay not in the Divine Key itself, but in the hermit Flame-Chaser whose consciousness lingered within it.
Upon locating the Cosmic Juggernaut, Ray instructed Sirin to seize control of the Divine Key. For Sirin, this was a trivial task — after all, the Cosmic Juggernaut utilized the Herrscher of the Void's core from the Previous Era. However, the moment she attempted to do so, a dormant presence within the weapon suddenly stirred, reacting violently upon sensing Sirin's Herrscher identity.
> "A Herrscher? I will never let the Cosmic Juggernaut fall into your hands."
From the depths of the key's consciousness, Su, one of the Flame-Chasers of the Previous Era, emerged. His expression carried deep concern as he manifested a combat ELF modeled after Kevin Kaslana, preparing to strike down Sirin.
But before Su or the Elf Kevin could act, his attention shifted — his eyes fell upon Cecilia, who had instinctively moved forward, taking a protective stance before Sirin. His expression softened into one of recognition.
After all, Su had spent countless years observing innumerable world bubbles, watching civilizations rise and fall. The identity of Cecilia, the Saintess of Schicksal, had surfaced across several of those bubble worlds, her legend echoing faintly through the corridors of parallel existence.
Initially, Su wanted to question why a Saintess such as her would shield a Herrscher. But as he looked closer, he noticed something unusual about Sirin.
While the Herrscher's innate hatred toward humanity still lingered, it was… restrained — mellowed, tempered in a way that defied expectation.
> "Saintess of Schicksal… may I ask you a question?" Su inquired, his previously tense stance dissolving as curiosity and urgency colored his tone.
Seeing that he no longer intended to fight, Cecilia exhaled quietly in relief and nodded.
As for Ray — he remained concealed, observing in silence.
> "Go ahead," Cecilia said gently. "As long as I can answer, I will do my best."
Su smiled faintly. His presence radiated a natural calm as he asked,
> "Is that Herrscher behind you… one who managed to break free from the control of the Honkai's Will, like the First Herrscher — and chose to side with humanity?"
Before Cecilia could respond, Sirin stepped forward from behind her protector, her posture proud and defiant.
> "Firstly, I have a name. It's Sirin."
"Secondly, don't misunderstand. I still hate those humans who tortured me — except for Cecilia mama."
Her eyes narrowed disdainfully.
> "As for the rest of you humans, I don't care about you at all."
Her tone dripped with contempt, as if being compared to or associated with humanity was beneath her dignity.
Of course, she didn't mention Ray. She was sharp enough to know he could not possibly be human — and wise enough not to expose information recklessly, especially before Su, whose allegiance had yet to be confirmed.
Su's smile widened slightly — one of quiet relief. One less Herrscher under the Honkai's control meant greater hope for this era's humanity to survive.
Just as the tension eased, a soft cough drew Su's attention toward a black cat who had remained unnoticed until now.
> "Greetings, Flame-Chaser of the Previous Era."
> "Hm? A talking cat?" Su remarked in mild surprise before dismissing the thought almost instantly.
The reason was simple.
As a Psychic-type MANTIS Warrior, Su's senses extended into the spiritual layer of reality. And in that realm, Ray appeared to him as something utterly incomprehensible — an existence that embodied despair itself.
Not even the Herrscher of Finality had invoked such pure, bottomless horror within Su's tempered mind. It was as if he were staring into an all-consuming void — a presence that devoured rationality, hope, and existence alike.
Immediately, Su understood that this situation was far beyond his comprehension. His eyes flicked subtly toward Cecilia and Sirin — both of whom stood in subdued silence, their demeanors betraying a quiet reverence or fear toward this being.
Choosing not to provoke the unknown, Su responded amicably, his tone cautious yet respectful.
> "Greetings to you as well," he said with a nod. "May I ask… what are you?"
> "Well," Ray replied smoothly, "just think of me as a passing god who walks this Earth on a whim."
His tone shifted slightly, calm yet firm.
> "What I want is the Divine Key in your possession. In exchange, I will help you rid this world of Honkai."
> "As a Flame-Chaser of the Previous Era, you should already know the truth — that the source of Honkai in this world lies within the Cocoon of Finality on the moon."
> "And it just so happens," Ray continued, voice carrying the cadence of a salesman, "that I have business with it as well. A mutually beneficial arrangement, wouldn't you say?"
Su nodded slowly. Ray's knowledge of the Honkai's origin didn't surprise him, though skepticism flickered in his gaze.
If a random stranger claimed they could confront the Herrscher of Finality, could anyone truly believe them?
It was only natural to doubt — Su had once fought that very Herrscher during the Previous Era and had been utterly defeated. Now, even this remnant of his consciousness was but a shadow of his former self, sustained only by sheer psychic will.
Yet the anomalies surrounding Ray were impossible to ignore.
If this being truly possessed the power to challenge the Herrscher of Finality… then perhaps, just perhaps, this gamble was worth taking.
As if sensing his hesitation, Ray added casually,
> "Don't worry. I will fulfill my end of the deal before taking the Cosmic Juggernaut."
> "Surely you have no objection to that?"
> "Of course not," Su replied, smiling warmly.
Cecilia's lips curved with quiet relief. She had no doubt of Ray's ability. She had witnessed only a fragment of his true power — enough to elevate her beyond mortal limits, to the realm of gods, capable of crushing Herrschers with ease. The thought of his full might was something she could scarcely imagine.
As for Sirin — though she still viewed herself as aligned with the Honkai, she harbored no illusions. She knew even the Honkai itself would tremble before Ray.
True to her intuition, in a blink of an eye, Ray transported everyone into the Imaginary Space, using the Void Authority he had assimilated from Sirin.
When the group stepped into this strange realm, the world fell utterly silent. Sound, weight, and air lost all meaning, replaced by a boundless expanse of dark violet void and drifting motes of light. Fragments of forgotten worlds floated aimlessly — shattered bridges, ruined towers, and broken moonlight suspended in eternal stillness. The ground beneath their feet was translucent and reflective, rippling faintly with every step, as though reality itself were a thin veil stretched across a dreaming abyss.
The Imaginary Space stretched endlessly, without horizon or direction. There was no wind, no gravity — only the sensation of drifting within pure thought. Streams of luminescent glows pierced the void like frozen auroras, each flicker whispering fragments of emotion, prayer, and memory from civilizations long consumed by the Honkai.
And there, at the center of that sacred stillness, floated the Cocoon of Finality. A colossal ovoid of ivory crystal and living light, its surface pulsed with slow, rhythmic waves that made the entire realm tremble in resonance. Layers of translucent rings orbited it like celestial halos, each etched with golden script that constantly shifted, rewriting itself in a language of divine perfection. It was neither mechanical nor organic — but something beyond both, as if the concept of perfection itself had taken form.
The Cocoon's light bled gently into the surrounding void, casting the world in an ethereal glow that felt both holy and mournful. Around it, reality folded inward, bending like glass beneath divine pressure. In that moment, the group understood — they stood not before a being or an entity, but before the source of the Honkai itself: the existence that birthed Herrschers and judged humanity's worth.
Yet while the others gazed upon it in reverence, Ray remained utterly still, his expression unreadable — as if he were staring not at a god, but at a pebble by the roadside.
In truth, his attention wasn't on the Cocoon of Finality, but on the Imaginary Space surrounding it.
> "Hey, this place isn't important at all, right? Even if it's destroyed, it shouldn't matter," he asked the voice in his mind.
Receiving the confirmation he expected, Ray's feline lips curved into a grin — as much of one as his current form could manage — just before a force from beyond reality intruded upon the space.
The Cocoon of Finality stirred. Its gentle radiance blazed into a blinding brilliance, rippling outward in waves that fractured the very fabric of the Imaginary Space. The once-still void groaned like strained crystal, its silence shattered as rifts spidered across the darkness above. Each crack bled violet luminescence, leaking the light of an alien cosmos, and from within that wound in existence, something began to descend.
A hand — though such a mortal term scarcely sufficed — emerged from the rift. Slender, elegant, almost divine in shape, yet every inch of it radiated an unbearable wrongness. Its fingers were impossibly long, tapering into crystalline talons that shimmered like molten starlight one instant and twisted bone the next. A mist clung to its form, translucent yet alive, writhing and coiling like the breath of a dreaming god. Beneath the haze, veins of luminous script pulsed and shifted, forming lattices of divine geometry that resonated with an alien heartbeat — a rhythm too perfect, too absolute, for anything born of creation.
The closer it came, the more the world resisted its intrusion. Air fractured into shards of light, time shuddered and skipped, and thought itself began to echo and unravel. Yet amidst that chaos, its descent was graceful — deliberate, reverent, almost sacred. It was beauty sculpted from terror, a perfection so complete it wounded the mind that tried to perceive it.
When the claw finally touched the fractured void below, the Cocoon's light flared violently. The Imaginary Space convulsed as though the universe itself had inhaled in awe or terror. The Cocoon's pulse quickened, resonating with the descending presence — a being ancient, immaculate, and beyond comprehension.
Then, the four-pointed markings upon the Cocoon's surface — once dormant — flared open like an awakened eye, its purplish gaze sharp and defiant. For a moment, the Cocoon of Finality — the will of Honkai itself — dared to stare back.
But that defiance lasted only an instant.
The colossal hand closed its fingers, effortlessly engulfing the Cocoon in a grip that dwarfed gods and worlds alike. A single, indifferent squeeze — and the Cocoon of Finality shattered like brittle glass. Its light screamed into the void before vanishing, snuffed out as though it had never been.
Silence followed.
The others could only stare in disbelief — especially Sirin, who knew precisely what that thing represented. The Cocoon of Finality, vessel of the Final Herrscher, the judgment seat of the Honkai itself. Even in its dormant state, it possessed enough power to erase civilizations, to shatter Earth and all that lived upon it with a thought.
Yet before the descending hand — before him — it had been no more than a fragile toy.
In that instant, Sirin understood the vast disparity between her "god" and the being she now served. The Cocoon of Finality, for all its majesty, was merely a spark of divinity — while Ray was the consuming void from which even divinity fled.
To him, the act of crushing it was no feat of effort. It was casual. Instinctive. A motion made without thought — the smallest fraction of his will manifest.
And all it took… was a gentle squeeze.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Sirin stood frozen, her golden eyes wide with disbelief. The Force of Honkai she had once seen as all powerful had been crushed like dust between fingers. Even her pride as a Herrscher faltered before the sheer disparity she had just witnessed. The god she once revered… had been erased as if it were nothing along with what little hope she held.
Cecilia, though unable to grasp the full scope of what had transpired, felt an overwhelming peace settle over her heart. The oppressive presence of the Honkai — that lingering curse she had sworn to fight since birth — had been vanquished. For the first time, she felt a particular sense of relief. She fell to one knee, whispering a prayer not to the heavens, but to her lord that had promised her people and family a bright future.
Su simply closed his eyes. A calm smile formed on his face as he realized the truth — that the battle humanity had fought for countless eras was now over. The Honkai's will, its cycle of judgment, and its dominion over mankind had been severed at the root. Tears of quiet relief fell down his cheeks, dissolving into motes of light as his spiritual form began to scatter and fade as he had no more lingering attachment to anchor him down.
Meanwhile, Ray floated silently in the void, his feline eyes reflecting the fading brilliance of the Cocoon's remains. No emotion, no triumph — only indifference akin to a human watching the death of an ant. With a simple motion of his paw, reality rippled.
The remnants of the Cocoon disintegrated into threads of kaleidoscopic light along with all Honkai Energy from this reality quickly condensed into a singular-multicoloured core before him, cleansing all the trace of corruption of Honkai from this reality. The void brightened, the fractured skies mending themselves, and the laws of the world realigned under his silent will.
And then, with a voice that resonated through all layers of existence, Ray spoke.
"From this moment forth, I declared this worldline is free from the grasp of the Honkai. Its will, its curse, its endless judgment."
His words were law. Reality bent to his overwhelming will and obeyed.
The Imaginary Space dissolved like morning mist, and in the mortal realm, a new dawn broke. All traces of Honkai energy had gone — leaving behind only silence, peace, and the lingering echo of the scars of Honkai.
Ray turned away, his tail flicking lightly as the others watched in stunned awe.
"Let's go," he said simply, his tone almost casual. "It's time to leave this world bubble."
And with that, the black cat who ended an age walked away — leaving behind a world liberated, yet forever changed.
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