Ling Ke was no longer interested in the subsequent encounters of MEI, Kevin, and the others.
Therefore, he did not remain in the Solar System of the current universe. Instead, he directly granted the Cocoon of Finality self-awareness. This follower, though flawed in many ways and far inferior to Kali, was at least loyal...
...and would be responsible for recording the events when the Stargate opened three days later.
Yes.
In Ling Ke's eyes, this newly born Herrscher of Finality was nothing more than a "camera."
Perhaps someday, when he found himself idle again, he would recall that there was a minor epilogue here left unseen and might spare a little time to review it.
As for now...
"First, I'll plow through all the 'Worlds' that have ever invaded the Imaginary Tree!"
A cruel smile, one that truly befitted his unique identity as the Grand Player of Doomsday, spread across Ling Ke's face. "Although wars between Worlds are essentially the law of the jungle, where the strong survive and the weak perish, and no complex moral arguments about good and evil apply, but..."
"This can be considered a 'justified cause' for now."
"After all, you were the ones who started this."
Two and a half days later.
By now, the Solar System contained no Herrschers below the level of Finality, nor any One Who Ascends to Godhood.
All that remained was a group of survivors, clinging to life as they reached the edge of the Solar System.
In the nearly three days since losing the Key of Blankness, her greatest asset, MEI could no longer advance her experiments as rapidly as before.
Fortunately, before the Herrscher of Finality reclaimed her Authority, MEI had already prepared three modified Prometheus-class Arks at the Neo-World Serpent's Lunar Base.
With these, the remaining members of their faction still had a chance to escape the Solar System within the limited time they had left.
But as for the tens of millions of survivors remaining on Earth...
The three Prometheus-class Arks could, at most, accommodate one thousand people.
And even then, they would be overloaded.
After all, when MEI first designed these Arks, the maximum capacity for a single ship was 300 people.
Therefore...
"With only the Jizo Mitama remaining, there is only one way for us to take more people with us."
"We must use the World Bubble anchored by Durandal."
"Have Pardo transfer all tens of millions of survivors inside."
On the day Ling Ke departed, the members of the Neo-World Serpent immediately broke out into a heated debate over this grave matter.
It was inevitable; everything had happened far too suddenly.
At present, the new version of Project ARK that MEI had envisioned was only complete in terms of the ships' physical structure.
The physical modifications for the entire human race, as well as the development of the Idea Power Banks, were not even close to fruition.
Fortunately, since Pardo had become an Emanator of Harmony, they no longer needed to worry too much about the Ark Spaceships' energy problems.
But the physical limitations of the other survivors, those who were neither MANTIS nor Pathstriders...
"To ensure the kindling of our era's Earth Human Civilization can be truly preserved, the Thousand people who will be on the Ark Spaceships working with Prometheus, in addition to the survivors taking refuge in the World Bubble, must be chosen with the utmost care," MEI declared.
Faced with the final three-day countdown, even Elysia offered no further objections.
She had already resolved to accompany humanity to the very end.
Therefore, she would not shrink back from the physical suffering and mental anguish this journey would surely entail.
The others were in a similar state of mind.
Thus, by the end of that very night...
MEI had swiftly finalized the selection for the Thousand.
The list included a large number of individuals with the best physical constitutions, identified by Pardo using her Cat's Eye.
It also featured top elites from various fields.
And even... those who, in the original timeline, had successfully survived the Meta-Morph Surgery to become MANTIS, possessed a spirit of self-sacrifice, and ultimately fell on the day of the Tragedy of Binding.
The tens of millions of remaining survivors on Earth were also transferred into Durandal's World Bubble.
It is worth mentioning that on the list of the Thousand boarding the ship, not only was Sim Mobius, who had originally been blacklisted by MEI, included, but also...
Li Sushang and Rita Rossweisse, both former S-rank Valkyries like Durandal.
Of course, unlike Kiana and Theresa, these unstable elements, including Durandal, who had become the Humanoid Shelter, were all bound by Aponia's Discipline.
To be honest, if Ling Ke had been the one arranging these matters, he would have without hesitation removed the latter four from the new version of Project ARK.
Because, when it comes to something like interstellar travel... especially for a "too young civilization" that's just encountered it, stability is the single most important key.
Before that, any talents or elites have to step aside.
As a certain Wallfacer without the title of Wallfacer once said: It all makes no difference. As long as the final result is good, who does it... makes no difference.
Starting from this line of thinking, MEI could have completely let Pardo strip the "World Bubble" from Durandal.
As for Sim Mobius... the "Gray Serpents" associated with her wouldn't be too difficult to eliminate in front of Pardo.
In short...
From a certain angle, MEI and the others could be said to be relying on Pardo's "Emanator-level" combat strength... and still harboring a bit of a house-playing-house mindset.
However, they just happened to have Pardo around.
And also because Pardo was around...
After Ling Ke left and Pardo was no longer bound by the "Three-Clause Agreement," she quickly learned through her "Cat's Eye" why those Ark spaceships that had sequentially set sail had all failed to fly out of the Solar System.
Because, on Venus and Mars, these two terrestrial planets, there were still "remnants of other civilizations" present.
And the culprit responsible for the loss of contact with those Ark spaceships was none other than the one on Venus, Sa.
It was also through the "Cat's Eye" that the latter's presence was detected.
"What?"
"You mean Griseo's original body is still alive?"
"Yes."
That was the only good news they had received recently, immediately after they had figured out why the Ark spaceships were suffering one accident after another.
Without a second thought, the adult Griseo, who had been trapped for thousands of years, was also successfully rescued by Pardo.
As a side note, the cat girl (?) also gave the bewildered Sa a few good slaps across the face.
You should know that in the network of relationships among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, there were only two people who got along well with Pardo.
One was Hua.
The other was Griseo.
Therefore, after learning about Griseo's past experiences, the cat girl (?) rarely became angry.
After that...
Pardo took action to teach Sa a lesson. Although she didn't kill her directly, the one who had almost lost her self-awareness now had a much clearer gaze.
Thus, after the group had eliminated the last hidden danger, they immediately set out, after Pardo had directly transferred a large amount of materials from various fields on Earth according to the list MEI had drawn up.
As a result, they finally arrived at the edge of the Solar System today.
And then...
The three accompanying Arks encountered their first difficult challenge after leaving their homeworld (Earth).
Its name was the Interstellar Precipice.
It could also be called the Honkai Energy Tidal Zone.