After endless ages had passed, Maitreya Buddha entered extinction.
Maitreya's Pure Land crumbled apart with him.
More than one Maitreya Buddha had died.
Dipankara Buddha had died as well.
This also meant that every Pure Land of the Buddhist sect had utterly collapsed.
The entire divine powers lineage had now seen all its first-rank beings enter extinction. It could be said that this lineage had been completely severed.
No, that was not right. Since Dipankara Buddha had also entered extinction, it meant that all the Buddhas of the Past World had passed into nirvana.
But... there was still hope.
For before the World Honored One Tathagata entered extinction, he had once told Shariputra, who had intended to follow him into extinction: "Shariputra, in the Future World, after immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable kalpas, uphold the true Dharma, fulfill the path practiced by bodhisattvas, and you shall become a Buddha, named Vajra Light Tathagata."
Now, those immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable kalpas had passed.
Maitreya Buddha had exhausted every bit of his foundation.
Dipankara Buddha had drained every last drop of his wisdom.
At the same time, upon the first-rank battlefield...
Medicine King Buddha fell.
Medicine King Buddha had secured the time of immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable kalpas through every possibility available to him.
Now, through Maitreya Buddha wielding all the might of his status as the "Future Buddha," through Dipankara Buddha's personal guidance, and through Medicine King Buddha resisting the chaotic melee of all first-rank beings—
At last, their efforts bore fruit.
In the "Future World," in this distant future, they had cultivated a Buddha of the future.
Immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable kalpas were a span of time that vastly surpassed even the calamity of Retribution of Karmic Sin.
Had it not been for this chaotic, dark spacetime, no one knew how long it would have