In truth, everything the Abyss Order had done had been laying the groundwork for Kang Jie's "transcendence" at this very moment.
Three Abyss Heralds, plus one Dragonblood Nail, whose intrinsic nature was three. Added together, they made four, and then seven. Combined with Dvalin's authority and the unidentified orb of light inside his own body, the ritual of transcendence was naturally ready.
Kang Jie vaguely remembered the scene when he had obtained that white orb of light:
"From now on, let's go our separate ways and make our own fortunes," their steady old leader had said. "Getting our hands on a treasure of this caliber, plus the ability to create divine weapons without limit... That's enough to set us up for life."
To be fair, their old leader had divided the orb of light they had obtained amid adversity equally into four parts.
Strangely enough, even though the leader had deliberately tried to make his own portion look bigger, the orbs had remained equal in size after being separated.
As though they had been meant to be divided into four from the start.
After obtaining the orb, Kang Jie had returned to his hometown of Mondstadt. From then on, his nightmare began-
He often saw fragmented, tragic scenes, and he often tried to stop them from coming to pass. But no matter how he tried to change things, the scenes were bound to unfold as foretold.
According to members of the Abyss Order, this was the great authority of "time."
"Did you know?" Kang Jie's body floated high into the sky. "I've already seen Mondstadt's future."
"Darkness will surely engulf everything, and tears in the dead of night will burn forever."
"No one will be spared, and no one will survive. The wind will no longer visit the ruined soil, and the ashes of civilization will fall in place of snow."
When he finished, cyan wind wrapped around his body. When the light faded, a deep black crown adorned with blue and cyan had appeared above Kang Jie's head.
A terrifying pressure radiated outward, sweeping across all of Mondstadt. Anyone could see that Kang Jie had now surpassed even the gods.
Even so, among the elite squad, a strong pink-haired girl still intended to speak her mind with conviction:
"Can you see the future too?" Linaya asked, her tone challenging.
"Oh, miss, what a strange question." Kang Jie smiled helplessly. "If I didn't have that ability, where would this despair surrounding me have come from? Everything we do, everything we think, everything is merely part of fate."
"But why do you have to despair?" Linaya pressed. "The future is tragic, so what? Are you really going to give up everything you have now for an outcome you don't even know when to expect?"
"It's not giving up..." Kang Jie raised his arm as he spoke. "It's another way to save them."
"I'll bring Mondstadt a gentle death, a death countless times better than the brutal end originally in store."
"Dead is dead, no matter what," Ronava snapped angrily. "Gentle or not, death won't bring the dead back to life!"
"What gives you the right to wantonly profane every life in Mondstadt?"
Clearly, the two girls' successive challenges had left Kang Jie struggling to save face.
In truth, he had been struggling inwardly all along. At heart, he was not really a scoundrel. So he could not unleash a disaster that would engulf everything with a clear conscience.
"...I'm doing this for everyone in Mondstadt, for the world I love!" Once again, he found himself an excuse backed by a righteous cause.
"Then in your eyes, the people of Mondstadt must be family too, right?" Columbina's voice was as ethereal as ever. "But I think family should help each other, shouldn't they?"
"..." At that, Kang Jie was left completely speechless-he still could not get past the barrier in his own heart.
"Good, very good!" Unfortunately, while he was hesitating, a blind fool jumped out of his own accord. "Kang Jie, you've completed your transcendence."
"So now, it's time to fulfill your promise to the Abyss Order!"
"Heh..." The man in the air curled his lips. "A promise? What an interesting word."
"Mr. Pyro Abyss Lector, allow me to ask: has your Abyss Order ever fulfilled a promise made to the creatures of the surface?"
"What do you mean by that?" The Pyro Abyss Lector's tone suddenly turned terrifying. "If you dare break your oath, the legacy of the great ancient kingdom of Khaenri'ah will surely-"
As it spoke, a crimson shield had already appeared over its body. Ordinarily, shattering that shield would absolutely require an Alienation Reaction to suppress the Abyss first, followed by enough elemental power to break it.
But for Kang Jie at this moment, conventional methods had long since lost their meaning.
"You aren't even willing to answer my question directly." His tone remained polite. "Then the answer is quite clear."
He raised a hand slightly, and a storm struck the Pyro Abyss Lector's body in response to his will. The supposedly impenetrable shield shattered instantly, because Kang Jie had absorbed the "Abyss" that sustained it in an instant.
"When I possess a light that shines brightly enough..." In his palm, a large mass of Abyss was still struggling desperately. "There's nothing to fear from the darkness."
With that, he opened his mouth and swallowed the mass of Abyss in an exaggerated motion.
And when the Pyro Abyss Lector was reduced to ashes, all the monsters the Abyss Order had gathered immediately began to riot.
Great swarms of Hilichurls poured up from beneath the ground. Ruin Graders flashing with red light stood in astonishing formations. In addition, dozens of stiff-moving Abyss Heralds appeared out of the void.
Acting Grand Master Jean and the others rapidly turned pale, because even with so many elite monsters already present, there was no sign of the monsters slowing down as they emerged and appeared.
"...I told you," Kang Jie, floating in the air, said solemnly. "I'll personally see Mondstadt to its end."
"So you demons and monsters can go die first."
He did it with ease. At his will, scorching and freezing storms plunged from the heavens, tearing the bodies of countless monsters apart in an instant.
Giant tornadoes ravaged every part of Mondstadt, yet they carried nothing away except the monster remains that filled the sky.
In just a few seconds, the monster coalition, vast as the waves, was all but wiped out. A crisis that could have destroyed a nation was casually resolved by Kang Jie as he was now.
And as he did all this, there was nothing but pure joy on his face. For he was certain: this was right.
"What kind of stats are those?" Tang Wang, who had been silent since earlier, was now a little dumbfounded.
He could vaguely sense that the source of Kang Jie's power was the "Epitome Invocation" that had originally belonged to him.
But the question was, what could he do now to get that ability back from Kang Jie, who seemed to have completed his transcendence? Negotiate?