Beyond what any words could describe, the space, which should have been invisible and intangible, resembled glass struck by a heavy hammer. Interlaced cracks emerged before Li Zihan's eyes, unreservedly revealing the most fragile aspect of the world.
Crack.
As if something fragile had been shattered, a mutation occurred in the world.
Everything within the Divine Realm turned to flying ash, like burning paper.
Pitch-black spatial faults abruptly appeared, swallowing all matter drawn into them and annihilating it into nothingness.
When the local master made his decision, this world inevitably marched toward destruction, becoming a sacrifice for the Divine Sword.
In exchange, the Divine Sword—with a blade length of one hundred centimeters and a thickness resembling a cleaver—began to release a roaring torrent of platinum light.
Light and heat, terrifying to the extreme, surged forth.
This was a sure-kill strike.
A slash activated by sacrificing the Divine Realm and the God-King's lifespan.
If it were to land in the outside world, it would absolutely melt through the surface, shatter the crust, penetrate the mantle, crush the outer core—reaching the very center of the planet and exploding along a straight line. Then, it would extend without limit, destroying other planets.
At the cost of the Divine Realm, the divine sword capable of modifying astronomical charts was activated.
The Child of the Sage was strong.
Strong to a suffocating degree.
Whether it was the ability to effortlessly stack Authorities to display composite powers that crushed divine spirits, or the solar disk hovering high in the sky, both were incomprehensible terrors.
That was a monster capable of shaking the world...
No, a monster with the probability of affecting multiple parallel worlds and the outer universe.
He must die!
The man who was himself the God of Contracts roared, allowing his own power to be swallowed by the Divine Sword.
"Child of the Sage, let me send you on your way!"
Without hesitation, the God-King swung his sword.
While God blew the trumpet of world destruction, Mithra swung down the shining Divine Sword of Salvation, announcing the end of the world.
If I take that hit, I'll probably have to wait for the respawn timer.
As the Monarch drew his sword, the boy, who had long premonished what decision he would make, thought to himself.
Generally speaking, so-called gods and demons were merely clay chickens and pottery dogs before the Strongest Steel—entities that would die after one hit.
However—
Li Zihan's situation was unique.
He shared divinity with the Second Beast, Tiamat.
After the Honkai descended and Tiamat became his Companion Honkai Beast, the connection between Li Zihan and Tiamat became even closer.
He could even share Tiamat's Authority.
Therefore, his life was very "hard" (durable/tenacious).
Unless this strike from Mithra could cross the universe, follow Li Zihan's connection to kill Tiamat—who was still in the Honkai World looking after Sirin and waiting to hold her grandchildren—as well as all the monsters stuffed into the Imaginary Space, whatever he did would be useless.
If Li Zihan was hacked to death, he would just go home and wait for the respawn timer.
Theoretically, he could rely on this particularity to grind Mithra to death.
But—there was no longer a need to fight.
If nothing unexpected happened, after Mithra finished swinging this sword, Verethragna would rush back to succeed him as the King of the End.
Then, after Li Zihan finished his respawn timer and rushed back here, what would await him would be a fully armed, new King of the End.
At that time, he would likely get hacked again.
Li Zihan didn't mind dying once or twice, but the sensation of dying felt terrible.
So, let's take a step back first.
Feeling the terrifying light of salvation, the boy, whose understanding of the System was very close to a teleportation door and the Genshin Impact poison pool (gacha), quietly activated World Teleportation.
I'll leave the rest to someone else.
Like a player who opens a portal to run away when they can't win, the boy's figure returned to nothingness under the apocalyptic light named Salvation.
Immediately following that, an unprecedented roar resounded through the sorrowful world.
BOOM————!!!
The devastating flash swallowed everything.
Everything returned to silence.
The Rakshasa raised by the Sage was no longer in the mortal realm.
The God-King who swung the sword had also vanished.
Only a platinum Divine Sword remained, drifting lonely in the cracks of space.
"Did Mithra and Prometheus's child destroy each other?"
As if witnessing something very sorrowful, the voice belonging to the Warlord rang out within the chaotic spatial turbulence.
Immediately after, a gust of wild wind rose within the turbulence.
The Warlord, with the lion-faced mask—the God of Time and Space, Zurvan—floating behind him, appeared at the edge of the Divine Sword and gripped the hilt.
The voice of the Warlord, who was warlike to the extreme, sounded full of regret.
Just now, two ultimate warriors had died.
Neither had fallen by his hand, nor had he fallen by theirs.
He was like a stranger, waiting until they destroyed each other, and then occupying the strongest sword.
Really...
Forget it.
There's no point in thinking about this.
What I should do next is kill the other two God-Slayers, and then return to guard my own world.
The Warlord, who possessed an extremely dense attribute of Steel, effortlessly pulled out the Blade of the Strongest, and then cast his gaze toward that world which, for some unknown reason, seemed to connect many worlds.
There, two other God-Slayers still existed.
I hope there will be warriors strong enough in there.
Anticipating slaughter, and also anticipating being killed, the Warlord turned his head and spoke to the Master of Time and Space who had once followed Mithra.
"Let's go, Lord Zurvan. There are still two other God-Slayers waiting for us to behead."
Unexpectedly, the Creator God named Zurvan did not answer him.
He only stared fixedly into the distance, the snakes on both sides of the mask flickering their red tongues as if in warning.
Is there something there?
Almost in an instant, Verethragna reacted.
Then—
In his line of sight, ripples rose in space.
Immediately following, a handsome man stepped into this spatial turbulence.
He was a warrior.
Blue hair, a longbow hung on his back, and a sword in his hand.
It was Rama.
The King of the End, the Strongest Steel, the human form of the Divine Sword of Salvation...
As if seeing something incredible, the Warlord's pupils contracted violently.
That sword... it was identical to the one in his own hand.
"Lord Indra (Teishakuten), in accordance with my agreement with Lord Li, I will be taking over the battle from here."
Before Verethragna could react, the Strongest Steel, who yearned for eternal rest, swung his blade expressionlessly.
The Divine Sword of Salvation responded to its master's will, releasing platinum lightning that transformed into a rising, roaring "Mandala."
Under Rama's divine power, the Divine Sword Mandala had already expanded to a side length of nearly a thousand miles, creating millions of rays of lightning that tore through the void.
Countless bolts of extermination lightning rushed through the magic square of the Mandala, forming a sea of lightning that blotted out the sky, covering and bombarding the newly born Warlord.
The crisis named Death descended here.