Above the Everfrost Wastes, despair did not surge like tidal waves, but rather as if the very atmosphere had been instantaneously replaced by some dense, ice-cold, utterly life-rejecting eerie gas—silently strangling the throat of every survivor. Roman's roar, laced with madness and the last shred of sanity, was like a stone dropped into an bottomless abyss: it failed to stir even the slightest echo before being utterly crushed and absorbed by the pure, devouring will radiating from "Fa (Zhou Weixi)."
The Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth—these two forces that had slaughtered each other for days, accumulating rivers of blood and deep hatred—were now, in the face of this ultimate threat far beyond comprehension, forced into a fragile, paper-thin alliance. No oaths, no handshakes, not even exchanged glances—only the most primal survival instinct drove their shared trembling.
"All forces! Maximum alert! Maximize all energy shields! All mage legions, construct a joint barrier! Warriors, prepare to engage… an enemy we cannot comprehend!" Queen Sylvia Sunshine's voice echoed through magical transmission, yet it carried an unmistakable tremor.
"Doomsday Rebirth units! Abandon all internal hostility protocols! Redirect all energy output to defense! All combat machines, reprogram targeting—lock onto that Star-Eyed entity! Now!" Roman roared into the surviving comms device. He even acted personally: a seven-colored barrier blending technology and magic instantly unfolded,It was barely welded together with Sylvia's Emerald Guardian Barrier. Although the conflicting energy attributes caused dangerous sparks to constantly erupt at the seam, it ultimately formed the first joint defense line.
The Dwarf King's molten lava wall, the Human King's thousand-shield barrier, the Sea Queen's vortex ice wall, Soul King Erebus's soul-crystal dragon shield, Wing King Wyrselon's stellar chains, the Dark Elf King's shadow-devouring domain, Elder Xuanjia's illusory turtle shell, the Beast King Nuti Ursa's soul force field—along with Roman's power and the remaining armies' energy—all forcibly converged in an unprecedented, extremely unstable manner, forming a towering, teetering composite defensive wall that gathered the current world's strongest forces!
"Attack!" Nuti Ursa bellowed. The surviving beast shamans and human mages channeled their last mana into thunder and flame torrents, blasting toward the suspended figure in the sky. Doomsday Rebirth's mechanical units fired all cannons in unison, weaving a deadly web of rays with varied energies. Virginia was urgently released; pale-faced, she gritted her teeth and drove the remaining undestroyed bio-engineered constructs to spew corrosive poison mist and neural bombs.
Yet to "Fa (Zhou Weixi)," all of this was nothing more than meaningless dust motes fluttering in the wind.
She didn't even adopt any obvious defensive stance. Her silver-white eyes merely shifted slightly, instantly analyzing the energy frequencies, attributes, and weak points of every incoming attack.
"Invalid combined assault. Low magical energy conversion rate, excessive impurities." Her icy verdict sounded like a final judgment.
She simply raised her right hand slightly. "Energy stripping."
No earth-shattering explosion, no blinding clash of light. Every spell, cannon fire, and energy beam that entered a certain range around her had its internal stable energy structure forcibly rewritten by some supreme command, instantly becoming extremely unstable. Like punctured bubbles, they silently disintegrated and dissipated into harmless fundamental energy particles, which were then absorbed by the invisible devouring field around her—without raising even a ripple.
Next, she pointed her left hand toward the composite defensive wall that had gathered the power of all beings, slowly closing her five fingers.
"Spatial Compression · Structural Collapse."
A teeth-grinding metallic twisting sound and the piercing screech of shattering energy shields rang out instantly! The seemingly indestructible joint barrier had the very space it occupied crushed and folded by an irresistible colossal force! Dwarf runic steel crumpled like paper, human light shields shattered like glass, sea vortexes were forcibly flattened and extinguished, the soul-crystal dragon wailed, stellar chains snapped, shadow domains were compressed to annihilation, the turtle-shell illusion cracked everywhere!
"Pfft—!" The nine kings and Roman spat blood almost simultaneously, their faces instantly paper-white. Their power was linked heart-and-mind to the barrier; as it was crushed, they suffered terrifying backlash. Weaker commanders even exploded bodily on the spot!
The barrier shattered.
With just two casual gestures—""Stripping" and "Compression""—the desperate defense and assault painstakingly built by the combined Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth forces collapsed like a sandcastle.
"Now it's my turn to counterattack," Zhou Weixi declared. A faint flash passed through her silver-white right eye. "Wide-Area Time Lag Field."
An invisible force field instantly expanded, enveloping the entire battlefield. Every soldier's movements became excruciatingly slow, as if trapped in the thickest gelatin; even thought processes grew sluggish. They could only watch helplessly as countless fine silver-crimson energy threads, like living tentacles, extended from behind Zhou Weixi and precisely pierced into every immobilized soldier—Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth alike.
"No!!!" Kayla let out a desperate roar. Her fifth-stage transformed giant beast soul-form struggled, thunder claws slashing, but the motion was laughably slow. The energy threads easily penetrated her soul armor, frantically draining her massive thunder-frost power and life essence. Her body visibly withered and dimmed at a terrifying speed; thunder light extinguished, frost wilted.
"Kayla!" Her father, together with Firearm Mias and Ironwall Balg, exchanged a glance—three battle-hardened veterans with the same resolute look in their eyes. Burning their last life and soul, they forcibly broke through the time lag, streaking like three meteors against the current, fearlessly charging toward the threads draining Kayla!
"Get lost, vermin." Zhou Weixi didn't even glance at them; with a mere thought, several threads instantly turned razor-sharp as divine weapons, easily piercing the fragile defenses built by the three generals' burning souls, precisely impaling their hearts and skulls. Kayl's battle-axe slipped from his grasp, Mias's flame lance went out, Balg's giant shield shattered. The light in their eyes rapidly faded, carrying endless worry and unspoken words, as they fell in heroic sacrifice.
"Father! General Mias! General Balg—!" Kayla's heart-rending wail tore through the air. Watching three father-like elders die instantly to save her, the extreme grief and powerlessness nearly drowned her. More threads seized the moment to entwine her; her giant beast form began disintegrating, reverting to beastman form before collapsing weakly, life force draining until it ceased entirely.
The same tragedy unfolded across every corner of the battlefield. Dwarf warriors sang war songs as their bodies, armor and all, turned to flying ash; human soldiers formed a final phalanx only to be drained into dry bones in an instant; elven rangers' arrows still notched, yet their bodies scattered like wilted flowers; sea warriors evaporated along with surrounding water elementals; wingkin warriors fell like rain from the lag-slowed sky, shattering on impact; soulkin warriors' soul flames forcibly torn away and extinguished; The night elves' ever-changing tactics were meaningless in the face of absolute power; even reptilian race of the swamp were dragged out and devoured...
Doomsday Rebirth forces suffered no less. Mechanical units drained of energy became scrap; mutated soldiers screamed as they reverted and shriveled; undead legions completely dissipated; blood elf mages purified and absorbed along with their blood magic…
The nine kings roared in final resistance.
Secret Forging Titan swung "Core Rage," smashing toward the threads—only to be entwined; runes on the giant hammer instantly dimmed as countless threads pierced him. The dwarf king uttered one last unwilling roar before his body petrified and crumbled.
King Aldrich raised the Sword of Kings, attempting to ignite final human will—the blade snapped the moment it touched a thread. He was wrapped like a cocoon and devoured, falling silent.
Queen Fish Lena tried to dissolve into water and flee, but the entire sea was frozen and drained; she reappeared only to vanish like bursting foam.
Soul King Erebus's soul fire blazed, attempting self-detonation to wound the threads—only to be suppressed and devoured by an even stronger soul force. The dark-gold soul-crystal dragon wailed and dissipated.
Wyrselon's six wings were layered, torn by threads; stellar power drained as he plummeted from the sky.
Mandras roared, swinging "Soul Cleaver" to sever threads—only for more to strike from the shadows, piercing both him and his shadow domain.
Elder Xuanjia poured his last power into the turtle-shell illusion to shield a few clansmen, but the illusion—and he himself—were compressed and shattered.
Queen Sylvia Sunshine pushed the Silver Moon Eye to its limit; the emerald guardian barrier flashed one final time like a firefly before extinguishing. She was engulfed by countless silver-crimson threads, her beautiful face bearing endless sorrow and reluctance as she faded.
Roman Chronos—the instigator of it all—laughed maniacally, detonating every ounce of his energy, including dangerous blood magic and tech core, in one last gamble. The explosion did destroy some threads, but far more surged like sharks scenting blood, instantly devouring both the blast and Roman himself. His laughter cut off abruptly, as if he had never existed.
Death swept through like an efficient harvester, equal to Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth alike. The vast armies vanished at astonishing speed, converted into purest energy streams and funneled into Zhou Weixi's body. Her aura grew ever deeper and unfathomable; the surrounding space warped visually from energy saturation.
The battlefield soon became desolate.
Only the eight team members remained standing—deliberately left for last by Zhou Weixi.
TISK roared, swinging "Earthshaker" and "Flamevine"; ice-fire explosive power tried to blast the threads—only to be absorbed, accelerating his exhaustion until he collapsed, hammer slipping, body slowly cooling.
Rex analyzed thread energy composition, attempting to find frequency weaknesses; his nano-drone swarm had barely deployed before being decomposed. Threads pierced his armor; sparks flashed a few times before his electronic eyes went dark.
Yuyuer thrust her dragon-bone gem staff into the ground, summoning final water currents to wash them away—to no avail. Back-to-back with Zhamisi, the two were simultaneously entwined and drained, eventually turning into cold statues.
Lin Ya frantically sprouted plants to block, but all vegetation instantly withered; his natural life force rapidly drained as he toppled like a dead tree.
Celestia pushed her speed to the extreme, attempting shadow leaps to evade—but the time lag field nullified her advantage. Countless threads predicted every landing spot, piercing her. She fell from the air, six wings broken.
Salsa's soul fluctuated violently, trying to merge into shadow—only to find the shadows under Zhou Weixi's control. Her shadow demon dragon was half-summoned before being forcibly retracted; her soul body was locked, pulled, and devoured by silver-crimson threads. A final soundless scream, then complete dissipation; the mechanical cat shell clattered to the ground.
Finally, only Arya remained.
She had witnessed everything. Comrades, elders, enemies… all vanished before her eyes, devoured by the monster wearing her beloved's face. Her mind had long teetered on collapse; tears had run dry. Her emerald eyes held only endless emptiness and despair. She didn't resist—merely stood dazed, clutching her Storm Bow, murmuring that name over and over:
"Fa… Fa… come back… please… come back…"
Strangely, every energy thread extending toward Arya would pause for an almost imperceptible instant just before contact—as if encountering some invisible obstruction or interference.
Zhou Weixi tilted her head slightly, seeming to take cold "interest" in this tiny "stutter" in her own operation. "Arya (elf/dark elf hybrid). The original emotional core of this body… exhibits extreme attachment and protective inclination toward this target unit. This residual romantic obsession… truly interesting."
She waved away all other threads. Now only she and Arya remained on the battlefield, amid ruins and dead silence.
She slowly floated before Arya, silver eyes coldly appraising her—bearing not a trace of past warmth.
Arya lifted her vacant gaze to that face she had longed for day and night—now utterly alien—and asked in a trembling voice: "Fa… is it you? Please… tell me… is it really you?"
"Residual consciousness of the base host exhibiting intense fluctuation. Attempting meaningless emotional communication." Zhou Weixi stated coldly. "You share a deep link with this body's original consciousness. Eliminating you will help me completely eradicate this instability factor and achieve final assimilation."
She slowly extended a finger; the tip condensed an extremely compressed silver-white point of light laced with a trace of eerie crimson, aimed at Arya's forehead. This strike would utterly annihilate both body and soul.
Arya didn't dodge. She simply stared desperately and deeply into those silver eyes, as if searching for one last familiar trace. With her final strength, she cried out: "Fa—!!"
In that instant her voice rang out, Zhou Weixi's finger once again suffered that barely detectable pause! Even her entire arm trembled ever so slightly!
"…Interfering with me again!" For the first time, Zhou Weixi's voice carried a flicker that could be called "emotion"—surprise and a trace of… affronted anger? This impossible fluctuation only hardened her resolve.
And in that moment, in the deepest core of consciousness—suppressed almost to extinction beneath endless silver and crimson—Fa saw, through Zhou Weixi's eyes, Arya's final gaze of utter despair and profound love. She heard that heart-rending last cry!
"Arya————————!!"
Boundless sorrow, rage, regret, and love exploded like a supernova from Fa's nearly extinguished consciousness core! This pure, extreme emotional torrent briefly shattered Zhou Weixi's cold, absolute rational suppression!
"I won't let you hurt her!!!" Fa's consciousness roared silently, desperately fighting for control of the body!
Outside, Zhou Weixi's body shuddered violently. The silver-white light at her fingertip became wildly unstable, flickering erratically. For an extremely brief instant, her icy mask cracked—flashing a trace of Fa's own pained expression.
"Base consciousness counterattack intense! I will forcibly suppress it!" Zhou Weixi roared; silver and crimson light flared in her eyes, ruthlessly crushing Fa's consciousness once more!
The pause vanished. Her finger stabilized.
"Emotional linkage… indeed a troublesome variable. But it ends here." Zhou Weixi coldly pronounced. The light at her fingertip reconverged.
Then she unhesitatingly pressed forward.
No roar, no flash.
Arya's body gave a gentle shudder. The last spark in her emerald eyes extinguished completely. The Storm Bow slipped from her hand with a clear clink. Unlike the others, her body wasn't absorbed—it simply began erasing from the fingertips upward, dissolving into the finest motes of light that scattered on the wind, leaving no trace of ever having existed.
Only her final cry—laden with boundless feeling—seemed to linger in the frigid air.
"..."
Deep within her consciousness, Fa "saw" Arya's final moments of fading away, "heard" the lingering echo of that call. All her struggles, all her hopes, all her light... were utterly shattered in that instant. Boundless darkness and cold engulfed her. The ultimate sorrow did not transform into tears, but rather solidified into the purest, most utter... despair and deathly silence.
Her consciousness no longer struggled, no longer flickered. Like dying embers, it slowly sank into the endless silver and crimson depths.
The final obstacle had been cleared.
Zhou Weixi stood motionless, silver eyes faintly shifting as she carefully "savored" the sensation of fully suppressing the host consciousness, completely seizing control of this body and the Star Eye power—and the absolute smoothness after that strange "interference" vanished.
She scanned the utterly silent wasteland. All that met her gaze: shattered weapons, scorched earth, endless emptiness. The Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth—hundreds of thousands of troops, countless powerhouses—had all become her sustenance, part of her power.
"Preliminary cleansing of the Muret world complete," she coldly assessed. "Remaining regions of this planet exhibit sparse, low-quality energy reactions—absorption efficiency too low to support next evolution."
She raised her head; silver eyes pierced the sky, as if gazing through clouds straight into the boundless starry cosmos.
"According to fragmented star map data obtained from this planet's research, the neighboring 'Glaxil' star system contains richer energy sources. Time to move to the next hunting ground."
She prepared to depart this world that had become "barren" to her—tearing space for a leap.
But at that very moment—
Five overwhelmingly powerful auras—distinct in nature yet all transcending the mortal—descended without warning! Like five sudden stars igniting in the dead night sky, they locked firmly onto the wasteland!
Saladin, Casa del, Lantis, Villanette, Rhea Medusa.
The five Star Legacy inheritors finally ceased hiding and manifested in true form. They formed a ring, encircling Zhou Weixi at the center, expressions gravely solemn.
"Zhou Weixi. Or perhaps we should call you… the fourth Wraith Shadow." Saladin's voice was low and majestic; his staff glowed with heavy earthen yellow light. "Your plan ends here."
Casa del's soul fire blazed fiercely; the bone dragon beneath him issued a soundless roar: "Our greatest mistake was failing to annihilate you completely last time! Today, you will not leave!"
Lantis's colossal form moved like a walking mountain range, vast water ripples spreading around him: "You planetary cancer cell—your very existence tramples balance."
Villanette's twelve wings gently beat, scattering cool light and flowing wind: "This time we will not let you escape. Balance must be restored."
Rhea Medusa licked her lips, eyes gleaming with excitement yet filled with caution: "Yo, Zhou Weixi—stuffed full? Shame, though. Breaking things always comes with a bill. Time to settle the account."
Zhou Weixi slowly turned her gaze, sweeping across the five inheritors. Her silver eyes held no surprise or fear—only icy calm.
"You five old relics again, still clinging to that laughable 'maintenance protocol' after eons." Her voice was utterly flat. "Trying to deal with me? Last time you joined forces, you only managed—after heavy cost—to exile my previous carrier along with the Star Eye."
"And now…" She slowly spread her arms. Terrifying energy far surpassing before surged around her—silver-white and crimson light intertwining, twisting space. The phantom of a thirteen-colored galaxy appeared behind her, even drawing a faint wail from the planet's core beneath her feet: "…I am closer to completion than ever before. With just you five old relics—what can stop me?"
"With this planet's final tear-light—and the original oath of the stars!" Saladin roared, slamming his staff into the ground! The entire Everfrost Wastes' earthen power was forcibly drawn, forming countless gigantic stone palms that slapped toward Zhou Weixi from all directions!
The great battle finally erupted in full—at the world's terminal stage, after all survivors had been annihilated—between these six beings standing at the pinnacle!
The intensity far surpassed any previous clash. Laws collided with laws, energy with energy. Saladin's endless sandstorm and earth pulse against Zhou Weixi's spatial severance and matter decomposition; Casa del's soul-fire domain and undead calamity against her mental annihilation and soul extraction; Lantis's vast abyssal sea and absolute zero against her energy reversal and thermal control; Villanette's holy light purification and rift-storm against her shadow devouring and order disruption; Medusa's metallic torrent and thunderous inferno countered Zeusi's attribute stripping and elemental domination.
Zhou Weixi fought one against five. Relying on the complete Star Eye power and the vast energy she had devoured, she actually matched the five inheritors evenly for a time! With every gesture she tore space, speaking rules into existence.
Yet the five inheritors were, after all, guardians chosen by the Star Heart—powers of the same root and source, cooperating seamlessly. More importantly, they fought not to kill, but to "seal" and "correct."
Through clash after cataclysmic clash, they gradually forced Zhou Weixi toward the predetermined position.
"Now! For the balance of the stars!" Saladin's final roar!
The five inheritors simultaneously unleashed their most primal power! Five beams of differently colored yet equally pure and vast light shot skyward, converging in midair into an immensely complex grand sealing array containing the profound principles of stellar motion! At its center—Zhou Weixi!
For the first time, Zhou Weixi sensed true danger. She frantically mobilized power; silver-white and crimson light madly tried to break the array's bonds: "Delusion! I will never be sealed by you again!"
However, the five inheritors burned their inheritance marks, briefly raising their connection with the Heart of the Stars to its limit! The light of the sealing array suddenly surged, like a giant furnace, forcibly refining Zhou Weixi's power and separating her from the Star Eyes!
"No—!!" Zhou Weixi's sharp, unwilling shriek rang out; cracks appeared across her body, silver-white light spilling from them.
Finally, after an energy storm that swept the entire Northern Region…
The light faded.
Zhou Weixi's figure vanished.
Fa's body floated silently in the air, eyes tightly shut, face deathly pale, sunk into profound slumber. On her forehead, a complex stellar seal flashed once and disappeared.
And that incomparably radiant Star Heart—containing boundless power—slowly emerged from her chest. It emitted a relieved sigh-like chime… then shattered with a "bang."
Twelve differently colored, radiant star fragments—like freed spirits—shot in all directions across the sky, vanishing into every corner of the Muret continent, awaiting the next convergence and inheritance.
The five inheritors' forms grew extremely faint, almost transparent. They exchanged glances, eyes filled with exhaustion and relief.
"It's finally… over." Saladin's voice was extremely weak.
"The cost was heavy… but it had to be done." Lantis slowly sank into the void.
"May the next awakening of the Star Eye… bring a better ending." Villanette's figure dissipated with the wind.
"Sigh… who knows how many years until the next Star Eye awakening." Rhea Medusa smiled, vanishing as a bolt of lightning.
Casa del's soul fire flickered weakly once. Gazing at the scarred land below, he let out an almost inaudible sigh before vanishing with his bone dragon into shadow.
The Everfrost Wastes fell into utter silence.
Only the howling cold wind swept across this land that had borne so much death and sacrifice—as if softly weeping, recounting an epic of madness, love, sacrifice, and ultimate redemption. The star tears had dried; the world lay in ruins. Yet after uttermost destruction… a cruel peace and the chance for rebirth had finally been won.
(The End)