Half a month later.
Within Celestia.
Elliot slowly opened his eyes, his vision hazy.
Outside the window, countless enormous Skyfrost Nails floated in midair, illuminating the endless sky.
"Oh, you're awake."
A familiar voice came from beside him.
Elliot turned toward the sound—and froze.
Sitting not far away, legs crossed and smiling cheerfully, was… himself.
Elliot's eyes widened in alarm, and he sat bolt upright.
"Why so jumpy? You look like you've just seen a ghost," the other Elliot said lazily, voice casual and teasing.
"Who are you?! Why do you look exactly like me?!" Elliot demanded, keeping his guard up.
"Half a month apart and you've already forgotten me? I'm hurt, Elliot. We've been together for so long," the other replied mockingly, his tone laced with sarcasm.
Then, smiling faintly, he stood and began walking toward Elliot.
"Don't come any closer!"
In an instant, five Planet Befalls shimmered into being around Elliot's hand, the air vibrating with divine energy.
"Alright, alright, I won't move." The other raised both hands and took two steps back before sitting down again.
Seeing that he wasn't attacking, Elliot cautiously lowered his guard and tried to recall what had happened.
Images flashed wildly through his mind like a storm of memories—until everything stopped at the moment he detonated the five Planet Befalls.
After that, nothing but darkness.
"The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles! Where is she?!" Elliot suddenly stood, ready to rush out the door.
"The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles? Isn't she right here?" said the other Elliot, still lounging comfortably.
"Here...?" Elliot frowned in confusion.
In the next instant, a wave of murderous intent erupted from him, shaking the room. The five Planet Befalls rose once more, floating threateningly around his hands.
"You're the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles!" he shouted. The resemblance was too uncanny—so this was her true form!
"No, no, no, I'm not!" The other quickly waved his hands in protest.
"You're not? There's only the two of us here—so what, it's me then?!" Elliot sneered.
"Maybe it is."
Snap.
With a crisp snap of his fingers, countless memories surged into Elliot's mind—memories that weren't his own.
Karmic corruption.
Lord of the Netherworld.
Every piece of information flowed deliberately, intentionally.
They had waited and plotted for thousands of years—for this very moment.
They had spared Guizhong and Marchosius. Orobashi had chosen to stay behind.
They had absorbed every soul gathered over a millennium, struck down the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles in an instant, and completed their vengeance.
They had rebuilt the Netherworld, concealed it, infiltrated Celestia, seized all of the Sustainer's authority—and then split off a separate body.
When Elliot finally grasped the full scope of what had happened, he stood frozen for a long, long time, unable to take it all in.
The karmic corruption… was good?
All the suppression, all the attempts to seize his body—were they only to push him to grow faster, to drive him forward?
Had the Ninth Reincarnation been a setup from the very beginning?
Eavesdropping on their communications, the devouring of the Abyss, the settlement in Qingce Village—every step had been part of the plan?
Elliot's mind reeled.
The very thing he had sworn to destroy—had been the one to complete everything in the end?
He hadn't unleashed a massacre, hadn't driven Teyvat into ruin, hadn't drowned the world in blood?
He couldn't believe it. He refused to believe it.
And yet...
In his Eighth Life, when he'd been on the verge of complete collapse, it was the karmic corruption that had saved him.
Back then, he hadn't understood. The corruption had always coveted his body, desperate to possess it—so why had it returned control after succeeding?
Now he knew.
The eighth incarnation simply hadn't been strong enough to finish their revenge.
That life's power, even at its peak, could rival only an Archon—still far beneath the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
So in the eighth life, they hadn't taken over. They had continued to wait.
More astonishing still, that incarnation of him had personally met the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles—yet even then, the karmic corruption had held its wrath in check?
Their greatest enemy had stood right before them, and they endured it.
Such restraint left Elliot in awe.
"You… you're the karmic corruption?" he asked, barely able to form the words.
"Did sleeping for half a month fry your brain?" the other retorted.
Elliot hesitated, then asked tentatively, "The Lord of the Netherworld...?"
"Ah, that's better. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" The Lord of the Netherworld grinned in satisfaction.
Elliot still couldn't bring himself to accept it. It was too absurd—too unreal.
The same corruption that once demanded slaughter, that drove minds into madness, was now his savior.
"You killed the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles?"
"Mhm."
"Then you took control of my body, came to Celestia, and inherited her position?"
"Yep."
"So now you're the ruler of the Netherworld, and I'm… the new supreme ruler of Teyvat—the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles?"
"That's right."
"..."
Elliot was speechless.
Completely numb.
He had thought this life was over—that his final explosion would at least take one or two of the Sustainer's shaders down with him.
But instead, that blast had merely forced the four shaders back into the Sustainer's body. None had died. It had only shredded her robes and left her slightly injured.
Someone that powerful—and yet the karmic corruption had killed her instantly.
Even knowing it had absorbed the souls of a thousand years, Elliot still found it unbelievable.
He could have accepted a fierce battle, several rounds of struggle—but an instant kill?
That was far too absurdly strong.
...