What is a Magic God?
Life must die, apples must fall downward, one plus one must equal two... These are unchangeable laws of the material world. But beings who can use magic described in grimoires to break, reconstruct, create, and reverse these absolutes—make one plus one equal three, make apples fall upward, make the dead live again—
Those are the so-called Magic Gods.
The nature of a Magic God, simply put, is "infinity." They possess complete mastery over all dimensions, all elements, all phases within the universe. They can overturn all laws, freely distorting, destroying, and creating the world. To them, the world is fragile and collapsible at a touch.
The power of a Magic God is beyond comprehension. Without being a Magic God oneself, their power cannot even be described.
In this universe, they are the supreme beings at the highest tier. Just ten Magic Gods alone account for over 99.999999% of all magical power on the magic side.
Truly, after learning about them, Selene never thought her own accomplishments to be all that grand.
Because of the nature of Honkai, Selene could not isolate herself from the world, enter seclusion, and seek enlightenment like a Magic God. For her, expansion, conquest, and development were the core paths toward ascension.
And Selene had undoubtedly chosen the simplest, most direct, and most brutal method—war!
No matter others' wishes, every material world, universe, or parallel plane encountered during the Empire's expansion was molded and guided by Selene, and gradually absorbed—devoured by the war machine known as the "Sacred Selene Empire."
Population, territory, resources, technology, culture, civilization... all became the rungs of the imperial ladder that carried Selene toward the boundless summit.
In this process of expansion and assimilation, no matter how much praise the imperial scribes or loyal generals offered—no matter how glorious the songs from the Empire's heartlands, the Honkai-dimensional multiverse, or the mid-stage colonies of expansion—massacres were still massacres. Deeds done could not be undone.
The seemingly preferential policies toward colonies were never a faint light in the darkness, but rather shackles—firmer than any terrifying metaphor, more inescapable than death itself.
Essentially, Selene treated them as currency. She simply extracted every bit of value from them in a more efficient and sustainable way.
A sustainable strip-mining, so to speak.
Selene could accept their praise without guilt—because those were her achievements. She deserved universal acclaim.
But by the same token, Selene never denied that she was the greatest tyrant in the entire Empire. She could have chosen to implement gentler, more enlightened policies with time and effort—she could manage that too.
But that would be exhausting. In every sense. She would have to impose countless constraints on herself, constantly negotiate, drastically reduce administrative efficiency. Sorry, but Selene's actions made it clear: she was lazy, impatient, and somewhat brutal.
Negotiate with me? I'll exterminate your entire race, simple as that.
Thus, every step forward, every inch of ascent—what supported Selene's rise was endless slaughter and bones. Every trace of authority she wielded, every layer of elevation, reeked of blood, despair, and rust.
Truly, Selene envied the Magic Gods' explosive leaps of enlightenment—like ascending to divinity in a single breath.
From ants beneath one's feet, trampled without a thought, to suddenly swelling large enough to nearly rupture the very universe that birthed them.
Some mages became Magic Gods by gouging out their right eye, offering it to the Well of Mimir, and hanging upside down from a tree to attain enlightenment.
Some Magic Gods were formed from tens of thousands of servants buried alive in a pharaoh's tomb, their godhood created around a mourning woman hired to wail at the funeral, and exalted by the faith of myriad followers.
Some became disillusioned with the mundane world and deliberately took their own lives to ascend as xian corpses, shedding worldly filth and stepping into the realm of Magic Gods.
Some Buddhist monks, filled with a desire to save all living beings, voluntarily performed the ritual of sokushinbutsu—sealing themselves in a small underground chamber, refusing food and water until they starved to death and became mummified corpses. In doing so, they gained the power of a Magic God.
There are Magic Gods who originated from voodoo zombies, formed by integrating multiple cultural traditions into a unified divine being.
There is the Queen of the Underworld, wife of Pluto from Roman mythology...
...
That easy? Seems like... even I could do it.
Compared to Selene's grand, turbulent, multi-world expansion fueled by countless beings as resources, the ascension of Magic Gods felt almost mundane.
It gave Selene an illusion—a strange impulse. Wasn't one of them born from the collection of thousands of servants entombed alongside a pharaoh?
Simple. I could go try that right now. It's just burial sacrifice.
Sure, I don't need that, but I could always build a tomb. I'd just scale everything up by a factor of tens of millions—use an entire rebellious life-bearing planet as the unit. I'd massacre every last resister and bury them alive as offerings.
Then I'd create a divine persona centered around some chosen "epithet" and have my court scholars write a mythical epic on the spot for mass circulation. Should work... probably... maybe...
Of course, she was joking. Selene knew very well that this world's laws were unique.
Trying to reproduce them in her Honkai Dimension was unrealistic.
Although the exact conditions were unclear, it seemed that beings who claimed to be Magic Gods had to read and comprehend a large number of original grimoires, then use those insights to manifest their power in special ways.
Based on that, one theory was that capturing Index and mastering the full knowledge of the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum," then drawing out its power, could allow one to reach the realm of a Magic God.
As for Selene wielding her power... well, it was easier than breathing or drinking water. It didn't even need any forewarning—just a thought, and it would come.
A casual hand clap or finger snap? Purely a matter of habit.
Not to mention the properties of Honkai—in the Honkai Dimension, in the world under her control, wasn't Selene already a Magic God of sorts?
She possessed absolute mastery over all dimensions, all space-time, and all parallels within the universe. She could overturn every law of physical reality, twisting, altering, creating, and destroying entire individual universes.
"Magic Gods, huh."
When the crimson-eyed beauty paused her assault, Selene's mind, which had momentarily wandered off, snapped back to reality.
Beneath her: yellow sand, searing wind, a sun red as blood.
The world had completely changed. What had once been a boundless sea was now parched land. The pitch-black silt that once rested unseen on the ocean floor had been scorched again and again until it dried to dust—then shattered by violent tremors and gusts into powder.
A blast of heat swept through. Unbelievable as it seemed, the central region of the former South Indian Ocean was now experiencing a full-blown sandstorm!
"Formula Art: Detonation!"
Boom boom boom boom—!
Tens of millions of mysterious explosions were rapidly and precisely triggered. Blinding radiance became a storm of annihilation, sweeping away all obstacles.
The furious cascade of blasts overwhelmed even sound itself. No noise could be heard. Tectonic plates were ripped apart, massive chasms stretched for hundreds of miles, unfathomably deep. All traces of the past were blanked out. All life was scoured clean. Nothing remained but a barren surface devoid of recognizable fragments.
Fortunately, both combatants exercised restraint—controlling their output while constantly reinforcing the continental shelf that served as their battlefield. Otherwise, even the aftermath alone would have been enough to destroy the Indian Ocean and its surroundings, triggering unprecedented global climate and geological disasters.
Yet even so, to human civilization, this was nothing less than the end of the world—an apocalyptic collapse.
Buzz!
"Though my constitution resembles a Magic God's, there's still a vast gulf between us."
Parting the smoke, Selene held the crystal-like Voidstar Anchor in a relaxed, backhanded grip. Her other hand rested lightly on her chest, gleaming with an ominous violet-red glow.
"The most terrifying kind of attack in this world is power that defies explanation. And just how much do you understand about me, Ollerus?"
Grrrrk... Grinding teeth filled the air with a menacing rasp.
At the heart of the sea of sand, atop the central dune, Ollerus knelt on one knee, panting heavily. Blood streamed from a gash on his forehead, dyeing one of his eyes a deep rust-red.
His skin was exposed, limbs twisted unnaturally—especially his hands, battered from clashing directly with Selene. The gruesome deformations were evident. Even with a body near-Magic God level that healed rapidly, the injuries showed just how fierce the clash had been.
More than ten thousand shattered Voidstar Anchors lay embedded in the sand. Wisps of purplish-red energy flickered before fading. All of them had been broken—as if they were toys smashed by a child.
"Hah... hah..."
Aside from the woman who had stolen the Magic God seat from him with just one eye, and others like her—this was the first time Ollerus felt his power was truly insufficient.
That woman possessed the qualification to confront those who had reached the realm of Magic Gods.
A Magic God of science still in development? That Aleister actually managed to find someone like this to assist him willingly!
Especially Selene's physique and terrifying regeneration—it gave Ollerus a visceral sense of that concept exclusive to such beings: "infinity." If he couldn't obliterate her on a molecular or atomic level in an instant, then the next moment, Selene would simply be fully restored, back to peak condition.
And achieving that was something only a true Magic God could do!
Even if Ollerus was a quasi-Magic God, he still belonged within the realm of mortals. What he couldn't do, he simply couldn't. Even if he had the ability through rituals and preparation—what, did Selene look like the kind of puppet who would just stand still and let herself be hit?
Besides, the concentrated malice now converging upon the world was too intense. Ollerus could sense it—waves of overwhelming hostility.
Aleister, that magical genius qualified to ascend to Magic Godhood (though he had rejected it), had spent centuries preparing. Add the Catholic Church's accumulated resources over millennia... what was he planning? A guess began to form in Ollerus's mind.
"He's looking to die."
"And whether he does or not has nothing to do with you. If you wanted to remain in seclusion, you should've stayed hidden. What's the point of meddling now? Fiamma of the Right is already dead. That maid, Silvia—do you want her to live, or do you want her to die?"
Selene asked casually. Crack! With a single motion, she shattered the fabric of the physical universe to her left. Amid the drifting purplish-red crystal fragments, a dull groan echoed.
Ollerus's face changed drastically upon hearing it. "You dare!" Opposite the dimensional rift Selene had torn open, the woman now gripped by the throat was none other than Silvia—the maid who had followed him here to retrieve Fiamma of the Right.
"Why wouldn't I dare?"
The threshold for malice had already been reached. After fighting to this extent and with satellite broadcasts long since cut off, Selene had no reason to hold back.
She glanced toward the blonde woman across the rift. "I heard from Carissa. At Buckingham Palace, there was a maid who often broke decorations while trying to fend off assassins despite being a guard. She got scolded often. Recently, she ran off to Milan, ignoring orders. That was you, right?"
"Silvia, the Royal Family's highest-ranked shrine maiden and a 'Saint.' A disobedient servant like you—I'll consider this a favor to Carissa, cleaning house."
Whoosh!
Leaping to his feet in fury, Ollerus roared, "If you dare harm her, Selene—I swear! I will sink Academy City into the ground—! Your family will also... mmph—!"
It could be said that Silvia was one of his few true confidantes in this world—his taboo!
BZZZZZT—!
Ollerus activated a magic formula.
But in the next instant, Selene's lips curled into a satisfied smirk. Her gaze shifted—and the moment Ollerus's vision refocused—
"Damn it! When did she—"
ROOOOAAARR—!!
Selene had vanished. Replacing her in his sight—eight ferocious dragon heads, charging straight for him, baring their fangs in a frenzy!
With a soft crack, the eight dragon heads in the sky let out simultaneous howls before being crushed by an invisible force. They shattered into countless light particles, dissipating midair. As the dragons vanished, the figure they had hidden—Kamijou Touma—grunted.
Yet the black-haired, spiky-headed boy did not go flying. From the stump of his right arm, an unseen vortex emerged, then was swallowed by a greater power from within Kamijou himself. His right hand quickly regenerated.
His fist was already inches away.
Thud!
Ollerus spat out blood mixed with flesh.
"Corrosion... when did that happen..." In his peripheral vision, he saw Silvia—her hand shaped like a blade, piercing his waist. Glowing with the marks of Honkai Corrosion, Ollerus gave a bitter, silent smile.
"After all, I'm not a true Magic God. 'Imagine Breaker' really is our nemesis."
His abdomen and spine had been bent by the strike. A jagged bone jutted out, tendons stretched, blood everywhere. Ollerus collapsed.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. Silvia stared blankly at her bloodied right hand, tinged with purplish-red light. Behind her, Selene slowly withdrew the hand she had placed on Silvia's shoulder to channel power into her.
"Tch. You really do care about her. Afraid your counter-formula might kill her, you disabled all your automatic counterattack spells."
With a swift hand-chop, Selene knocked Silvia unconscious. Looking at the fallen Ollerus, she raised a hand.
Zzzzzzt!
Five Subspace Lances fell—one to the torso, one to each limb—pinning him down and locking him in place.
"Selene... you, he—?"
Clutching his fully restored right hand, Kamijou Touma stared in a daze at Selene, whose platinum angelic wings spread behind her back, a corona above her head, clad in radiant armor. She looked more like an angel than the real thing.
He was stunned. When did you become part of the magic side?
"Fiamma of the Right's ally. And enemy."
Nodding slightly to Kamijou, Kanzaki Kaori, and Stiyl, Selene didn't say more. Her eyes turned to the body of Fiamma, now fully transformed into the Roman Catholic Church's "Archangel." Aleister's figure had already disappeared.
"Displaying the coordinates of the Magic Gods' 'Hidden World' in base-10... truly a genius idea."
Her crimson pupils shimmered. In the boundless darkness, Selene saw a single speck of silver light moving.
"Aleister, my dear Chairman... will this be your end?"
Darkness.
Thicker than ink. Not just that—it surged toward Selene from all directions, as if bearing down through Aleister's own perspective, endlessly pressing in.
Selene understood—this was a phase.
"Well then, time for the real body to start moving."
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