A blinding white flash streaked across the light screen—
And then everything fell into absolute darkness.
Those who had been watching were startled, a chill running down their spines as instinctive fear took hold.
Astral Express
Welt Yang and Himeko exchanged looks.
"…What just happened?" Himeko asked quietly.
Welt adjusted his glasses, his tone grave.
"It seems she failed to properly control the Stellaron's power…
The Engine of Creation detonated."
Himeko shuddered.
"If that's true… then March and the others—"
Welt nodded heavily.
"At that distance, their chances of survival are extremely low."
That was already an understatement.
No one had ever truly witnessed a Stellaron detonation before—
But with so many Stellarons activating simultaneously, the resulting explosion would be beyond estimation.
Unless a miracle occurred, anyone closest to the Engine would almost certainly perish.
Stellaron Hunters
Kafka's expression was unusually dark.
On the sofa, Firefly stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what she had seen.
Bella had hand-crafted multiple Stellarons and stuffed them into the Engine—
Even to the Stellaron Hunters, that level of recklessness bordered on insanity.
And then the Engine exploded on the spot.
"…Then Star and the others…"
Firefly let out a soft sigh.
Silver Wolf didn't look any better.
Bella's existence had completely derailed Elio's script.
She was an anomaly beyond prediction—
The future shown on the light screen had already diverged from all destined paths.
From the moment Bella appeared, fate itself had gone off the rails.
Chatroom
March 7th: "What's going on?! Why did the screen suddenly go dark?!"
Boothill: "Holy scrap metal—she blew the Engine up herself! What in tarnation is that girl even here for?!"
Kamisato Ayato: "This gentleman's way of speaking is… fascinating."
Arataki Itto: "Hahaha—what's an 'uh-oh-bear'?"
Star: "Bella's not exactly the sharpest tool. Stuffing that many Stellarons into the Engine—of course it'd explode."
Seele: "You're awfully calm… but we were right next to it. That blast should've killed us."
March 7th: "Huh?! So… future us died?"
Firefly: "Maybe a miracle happened. Until the screen shows the outcome, it's too early to jump to conclusions."
Lumine: "She's right. Our world experienced something similar before."
Bronya: "You mean this screen once showed your world's future?"
Navia: "Yes—and we also saw the screen go completely dark back then."
Cocolia: "Then what happened? What happened after that?!"
Furina: "Turns out our world had exploded, so everything went black for a while."
Cocolia: "?!?!?!"
Bronya: "What did you just say?! Are you lying to me?!"
Welt Yang: "That conclusion is logical. With so many Stellarons activated simultaneously, the explosion would be immeasurable."
Sparkle: "Hahahaha! I've never seen anyone rob a world and blow themselves up in the process—this is priceless."
Bronya: "That's impossible! If your world exploded in the future, why are you all so calm?!"
Eula: "Our world wasn't destroyed by Bella. Our Master got angry and stepped on it."
Paimon: "Yeah! As long as Master doesn't get mad, our world won't explode!"
Lisa: "And you're missing something important—
Even if Jarilo-VI exploded and everyone died, Bella herself would be completely fine."
"She was standing closest to the explosion…"
"And she'd still be unharmed?"
"That's impossible."
March felt her scalp go numb.
In the vast cosmos, planets exploding wasn't unheard of.
Legend spoke of Star Gods destroying entire star systems during ancient conflicts.
Even an Emanator could annihilate a galaxy under the right conditions.
But to endure a planet-level explosion at point-blank range—
That was horrifying on an entirely different level.
"Our… Jarilo…"
Bronya's vision darkened as her voice trembled.
"Our planet… explodes in the future?"
"What are we supposed to do…?"
Star and Dan Heng exchanged looks.
"…Did you hear what the people of Teyvat said earlier?"
"They said their world was crushed… by their Master stepping on it."
One step.
A planet gone.
Both of them froze.
"What kind of existence is their Master?"
"…Now I'm genuinely curious."
[The pitch-black void of space]
Amid massive drifting meteors, a figure sat casually in the cosmos, legs dangling.
"Damn it!"
"I forgot to reinforce the Engine's load capacity before activating the Stellarons."
Bella looked utterly regretful.
With an annoyed palm strike, the surrounding meteors disintegrated into cosmic dust.
With her view unobstructed, she looked into the distance.
Several shattered train cars floated silently through space.
"…The Astral Express, parked near Jarilo's orbit?"
She rubbed her chin, eyes narrowing.
"So they detected the energy anomaly and warped away early…
But still lost the tail section?"
After waiting quietly for some time—
Bella stood up.
"I focused so much on stuffing Stellarons that I forgot to duplicate the Engine itself."
"Tch. Gotta redo everything."
She scratched her head in frustration.
"Now what was that power called… the one that rewrites causality?"
She thought for a long time, then laughed awkwardly.
"Ah—right. The Finality Demon God."
"Causal Weaving."
"What a pain. Way less convenient than Big Head's conceptual alteration."
Her crimson eyes suddenly flared.
As her gaze swept across the void—
Ripples spread through space itself.
When she stopped observing, the affected region peeled away, isolated from the surrounding cosmos.
In an instant, Bella entered a strange consciousness space.
Before her stretched a film reel—
Endless, extending beyond sight.
And looming before both Bella and the reel—
A colossal shadow began to materialize.
When its eyes glowed red, the phantom solidified.
The Finality Demon God
A power born during the Spiral Force Awakener's evolutionary process—
Surpassing time, surpassing space,
Capable of freely rewriting causality itself.
Once Spiral Force Awakeners evolved far enough to alter concepts directly,
This Demon God faded into obscurity, forgotten within their long memories.
"Poor big guy…"
"Were you abandoned by them?"
Bella shook her head with a bitter smile.
Such an absurdly terrifying power—
Reduced to gathering dust in the corner of someone's mind.
The Finality Demon God emerged fully.
Bella turned her attention back to the endless film reel.
"…Hm?"
She frowned at the scattered images of Jarilo-VI's shattered remains and broken train cars.
Then her eyes lit up.
"Oh. I forgot to target the timeline."
"The Demon God's real purpose is to re-weave futures."
"This reel shows the future after Jarilo exploded."
"No wonder it got shelved. Way more effort than conceptual rewriting."
Complaining, Bella dragged her hand backward along the reel.
Where her fingers passed, the film stretched in reverse.
She stopped when Jarilo-VI reappeared.
"We'll have to re-weave causality from this point."
The selected frame extended outward—
Forming a second reel.
Then that reel split into countless others.
"Because you selected a point in the past,"
the Demon God intoned mechanically,
"your presence as a variable will generate infinite parallel worlds."
"Please choose one future that satisfies you."
Its massive jaws opened, rows of steel-like fangs exposed.
Bella shuddered.
"Ugh… you're ugly."
"I can't imagine what Big Head and the others were thinking."
"Can I choose all of them?" she asked mischievously.
"Of course," the Demon God replied.
"As long as you don't mind the chaos of parallel worlds."
Bella stuck out her tongue.
"That's pointless."
"Creating a bunch of Jarilo variants doesn't help me at all."
"I'll take the main timeline."
"The rest—I don't need."
She pointed to the first reel, placing her finger before the explosion frame.
"Everything after this—I don't want."
"But the train escaped via warp before the explosion. Can you really restore everything perfectly?"
It was Bella's first time using causal weaving—
She wasn't fully confident.
"Certainly."
"Even if the train warped away, it cannot escape causality."
"When causality is rewritten, reality must follow."
"No matter how many light-years it traveled, it will be returned to Jarilo's orbit."
"All beings and objects will match their original state—
Memories, consciousness, and will included."
"You may rest assured."
Bella nodded.
Using a power capable of reshaping the fate of an entire cosmos—
Just to restore one destroyed planet—
Was, admittedly, overkill.
"Alright. Do it."
With her command—
The main timeline reel was cut.
The explosion sequence and all subsequent possibilities were severed.
All discarded timelines—parallel worlds and futures alike—merged into a single mass and were fed into the Demon God's mouth.
Crunch. Crunch.
Bella grimaced.
"So unused timelines get eaten, huh."
"Spiral Force Awakeners really are full of bad taste."
As the Demon God finished—
The consciousness space dissolved.
Bella returned to the cosmos.
Below her—
A pale white planet floated quietly.
Nearby, a long train hovered peacefully in orbit.
Everything looked exactly as it had when she first awakened.
"…Great."
"Gotta do it all over again."
She complained once more—
Then vanished without a trace.
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