It turned into a sun—or rather, a fireball.
A little too big.
A miniature sun, only the size of a planet, blazed in the starry sky. It generated an unimaginable gravitational field, dragging the existing "moon" into itself. The whole thing transformed into pure energy and was swallowed entirely by the sun, followed by a violent explosion.
Thunderous sound and blinding light, blazing flames and lightning swallowed everything.
Fang Jie could see nothing and hear nothing.
But he himself could see:
It was self-destruction.
And so Fang Jie saw it as well.
"That was one huge self-destruction."
A majestic stellar howl blew everything out. Once the shockwaves dispersed, the "moon," slowly repairing itself with the gathered energy of the Path of Destruction, threw the three-star system out of balance. It drifted ever closer to the sun, while the self-destruction had flung away most of its "matter."
The barely constructed "Stable Era" instantly switched to a "Chaotic Era," and the stars began to drift.
"Destruction. I understand now."
Fang Jie, the one responsible for all this, grinned—a facial expression the locals had mastered with great proficiency.
He had gained a deeper understanding of the Path. Here, he was immortal and indestructible, shaping reality, erasing stars—walking alongside an Aeon.
Never mind how it worked. It was very scientific.
In Honkai, Herrschers directly possessed all kinds of infinite abilities through Imaginary Singularities.
Wait. Fang Jie looked toward the "galaxy" again, the manifested scenery of the Path, comparing it against knowledge he had once only casually followed rather than deeply studied.
"That's basically an ocean of extremely dense quasar-like bodies. Its actual radius is smaller than the radius of its gravitational field. It's like a black hole, yet it hasn't become one. I'm standing right at the boundary of its Schwarzschild radius."
Fang Jie suddenly burst into laughter. What unscientific scientific Aeon nonsense. Interesting—far too interesting.
Or perhaps this trace of his own Path was itself a collection of everything he knew and did not know.
"And these... this is practically the energy that can only be produced by a supernova explosion. These plasma aggregates, these energy storms, these... what she treasures is antimatter..."
Did every Pathstrider of Destruction receive a "testing ground" equipped to this extent?
No. At the very least, he had been glanced at.
It provided a pure environment, knowledge for creating suns, and... although he had swallowed most of it and then lazed around, Fang Jie had already gained a great deal.
Setting aside the one disguised as a sun, even this version of himself could clumsily create unstable miniature suns.
Once he returned to reality, there would probably be environmental restrictions, including but not limited to limitations imposed by Balance, along with other objectively existing constraints. How large an explosion you could create, how much energy you could release, and how much thermal efficiency you could achieve all depended on practice and mastery of these things.
Fang Jie finally understood.
Right. Returning to reality?
Thinking about that, Fang Jie looked back at himself once more, gazing down from a transcendent perspective upon the star system he had birthed and created.
It would exist here, even if the Aeon fell, even if he perished, even if it changed form.
Therefore,
Nameless one, lifeless one.
Remember all of this in your heart.
This is the path you must walk.
"Go. Leave behind my given name and surname. Set out once more. Now, I am Fang Jie."
The thought came to him out of nowhere. No—he had already said it aloud.
There was no reason why.
The black blood left behind by the corners of his eyes splitting open just so he could open them resembled tear tracks, despairing black distilled from the original gray.
Fang Jie had finally thought a great deal amid Belobog's snowy plains, so much that he had delved this deeply into the Path.
I will soar into the heavens and become the sun in the sky, stealing away your light.
I will melt because of it and fall upon the sea.
I will set out on a journey. I do not want the sun to set. I want to fly higher.
.
.
PS: Good morning!
No, no, actually—
Healthy Laughing Rin: So I Made My Move
"What happened?"
The world seemed to stand still. In an instant, everything took on a new form.
Black Fox Rin bared her teeth at that majestic voice and hurled a fireball at it. Then she returned in triumph to reality.
Power poured forth without end. It was not Honkai energy, but another kind of power. Very good, very strong, very wonderful.
So much so that Rin even had the spare capacity to contemplate philosophy.
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I going to do?
All of the past became clear in that instant. Those unbearably painful memories became bearable, becoming... lucid.
Fifty thousand years ago, Rin, who had still been a young girl, was suddenly told that she had become an existence called a Herrscher.
Though she was not attacked immediately, the girl who had later willingly accepted imprisonment by Moth to Flame for her sister's sake was still shot dead without resistance by soldiers inside a sealed, specially built prison that only a select few had the right to enter.
Ugly, laughable, tragic, and... let it all be destroyed.
After Rin died, pain, rage, and the Herrscher Core—
Childhood faded away. Corruption descended.
With the posture of a sovereign descending upon the earth, darkness shrouded humanity's remaining embers and exterminated them all, personally severing the foundation of the Previous Era. Even if Finality descended afterward, it merely came to restart the cycle of the world...
Rin, in the form of the Herrscher of Corruption, could only be shaken for an instant even by her sister.
Then she was sealed away by Dr. Mei.
There was nothing to be done. She had wavered again because of her sister.
After that, she was sealed within the Black Box, unaware of the passage of time, existing for more than fifty thousand years with hatred for humanity.
After that came the story of how, after accidentally breaking free of her seal, she encountered Yae Sakura, who looked so much like her sister and was likewise disappointed in humanity, making Rin happy.
But that Kallen... that blond bastard truly deserved to die.
Yet that resentment stopped there. It no longer grew.
When she thought of Kallen again, Rin unexpectedly realized... Kallen seemed to be just like many familiar people in her memories, walking toward the light.
So setting aside personal grudges, Kallen... had been right.
It was not a matter of why she thought this way now.
It was why her past self had thought that way.
I am Rin, and I am Corruption.
I have finally broken free of my seal and returned to the human world.
I will... kill humanity... destroy civilization...
Her great dream ended here.
"Enough!"
Rin easily broke free—or rather, she destroyed those endlessly entangling things.
Thoughts that should have seemed only natural stopped here. That hatred no longer clung to her as it once had. Right now, Rin only wanted a free body...
No, she probably no longer needed one.
With a single thought, she stretched out her hands and stared at her now-small palms, feeling her own tangible existence... yes, she no longer needed you, Yae Sakura!
Looking back, the severely injured Yae Sakura slept peacefully, practically like she was dead!
"Useless."
Looking at her miserable state, Rin was briefly lost in thought, recalling how she had once intended to make the foreign blond Kallen despair and had prepared to devour her in revenge...
It was a little embarrassing.
What a strange thought. Was she not quite normal anymore?
With that thought, as instinctively as she had used the power of Corruption to destroy the Previous Era, she used her new power to reconstruct Yae Sakura's body.
This was simple. She only had to do this first, then that.
—Power, I command you!
Yae Sakura's body immediately underwent cellular reconstruction. No matter what injuries or mutilations her body suffered, as long as either her brain or heart remained undamaged, she could recover through cellular reconstruction.
Rin had stolen this from that useless Pseudo-Herrscher before. Did that brat and that hot-tempered woman really think they could stop her from acting? Let them all be corrupted.
Still, that kid was rather strange. Nothing worked on him.
And why could she no longer sense that hot-tempered woman she had nearly completely corrupted? That was not right. Even if it did not work on that kid, part of him had still been corrupted.
Where exactly was she?
The clever Rin was a little irritable. This damned place did not even have Honkai energy. It was like someone who needed to breathe falling into the sea.
Having already efficiently adapted to this sea of stars, Rin continued treating Yae Sakura's wounds—removing the Pseudo-Herrscher Core that had symbiotically existed with her, grabbing it in one hand, and refining it in an instant.
This was simple. Just do this and that.
—Understand, disassemble, reconstruct!
She freely broke it down and reassembled it into two things: a Herrscher Core and a Stigmata.
She carefully returned the latter to Yae Sakura, maintaining her life force in this icy, snowy, damned, bizarre place.
Rin had originally intended to reclaim the former, but...
"It's not a good thing."
Though she still did not understand many things, did she not know whether a Herrscher Core was good or bad when she had been a Herrscher herself?
"I've got it."
Suddenly, her eyes lit up. Power flowed through Black Fox Rin as she activated the God Key forging process that had been set within her core as early as the Previous Era.
What it required was not merely a Herrscher Core, but also her true body—the foundation of her being, sealed within the damaged Black Box.
But at this moment, Rin could easily break free of all that. In turn, she forged those so-called foundations into a God Key, forged the black box into a scabbard, and drew a blade from within.
The final God Key of the Previous Era, the Key of Corruption—Jizo Mitama!
Staring at it, Rin could not help curling her lip. "So weak."
Only the fragment of her Authority of Corruption it inherited was worth looking at, but she could already do that herself. She did not even need a Herrscher Core, and could use new power as well.
What meaning did this blade have for her, then? Everything it could do, she could do too—and better!
She might as well destroy it.
Thinking that, Rin could not bring herself to do it, because...
"Forget it."
With a casual toss, she threw it to... not Yae Sakura. There was no way she would give it to her. Rin disliked her—disliked her completely.
Before you continue