Finality

"Put down your weapons. I only came to talk."

Sera kept his gun pointed at Finality and spoke coldly.

"If you want to talk, then drop the disguise. Talk to us with your own face."

"Hahaha, that was my mistake. My apologies."

As he spoke, Finality returned to his own appearance.

Himeko silently watched Finality shed his disguise.

"Can we talk now, then?" Finality said, making to walk over and sit on the sofa.

"Stop." The tip of the gun pointed at Finality's die.

"Hey, hey, young man, even if we're enemies, can't you at least let an old man sit down to talk?"

Finality raised both hands.

"You can sit."

Sera gave Busitu a look.

Busitu gave Finality a complicated look, but still went to ask a clerk for a chair.

Busitu pushed the chair over near Finality. Finality sighed, paid no mind to the gun tip in front of his die, and pulled the chair over to sit down.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Finality didn't speak immediately. Instead, he glanced at the coffee on the table before opening his mouth.

"Ah... this is what normal coffee should be."

Himeko's fists clenched.

"So... you're not denying any of it, are you?"

"I never intended to deny it, my daughter."

Finality shook his head.

"I've only ever lied to you once in my life: when we first met. Himeko, I am your father-Ryusuke.

I enjoyed and cherished the days I spent playing your father, you know? On those nights when you thought I was busy with academy affairs, I was in another world, bringing destruction down upon them."

Finality's tone was nostalgic.

"As a former navigator, why did you fall so far?"

Himeko's voice was angry and tinged with disbelief.

"You call it a fall. I call it transcendence."

Finality took out a stack of cards and drew one, holding it up for everyone to see. On it was a masked fool.

"Back then, people called him Weidi. He thought he could bring smiles to the unfortunate and overthrow tyranny for the world.

The golden rose he gave to an unfortunate person was taken away; people were insatiably greedy.

He led people to overthrow the machines' tyranny, only for the oppressed to become machines; people preyed on the weak.

Even Aha seemed to have died, turning a blind eye to chaotic, frenzied Elation.

But that fool didn't give up."

Finality drew another card. It depicted a person in white robes.

"He took a new name and boarded the train, believing that as long as he followed the train, followed the 'Trailblaze,' the stars would bring him an answer.

But he was wrong.

People always liked to turn paradise into hell. In the end, he came to believe that throughout the long night, only suffering could select the noble.

Akivili was wrong too.

What the galaxy needed was neither distant horizons nor paradise.

And my next stop is not here.

At the end of the world,

I have seen it!

The flames of Adlivun light up the stars."

Finality's voice grew increasingly impassioned.

"And you, who will give the galaxy its true trial.

If you know the narrowness of human nature,

then please bring down the final test upon the galaxy.

Only a trial feared by all can make human nature shine."

"You're wrong."

Himeko shook her head and spoke in unison with Suzi.

"Humanity is far from perfect, of course, but we won't give up."

Himeko was a staunch idealist. Nothing in the world was good enough, but she would help everyone who shared her ideals set foot on the road toward them.

"The method you speak of is wrong in itself."

Sera didn't first ask about the things that puzzled him.

"Teaching a man to fish is better than teaching a man to fish. You gave an unfortunate person a Curio rose that could turn stone to gold, but you didn't give him a way to keep it, and in the end he became a tool for the greedy.

You gave people a virus to overthrow the tyranny of mechanical life, but you didn't teach those people what equality meant. What you taught them was to use strength to subjugate the weak, so they preyed on one another.

Though I'm not a follower of Elation, the Elation in my heart is knowing the ugliness of human nature while still believing in its beauty.

And then choosing to fight for all that is beautiful in the world."

"Perhaps."

Finality smiled.

"But it's already too late."

"Next question. How do you know about Finality?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you should know, or rather, have seen the future, right?"

"That's impossible." Sera shook his head. "You couldn't possibly have seen any other possibilities for my fate."

"Your fate is naturally hidden from me. But in your battle with Shuhu, even though you withdrew that energy at once,

I still caught a glimpse of the possibility left by its dispersal, and saw the god who embraced all beings.

The god paid no mind to an ant's prying. I saw the trial known as Finality."

A trace of fanaticism entered Finality's voice.

"In that timeline of Finality, I saw humanity truly shine."

"Sorry, but your fantasy has been shattered." Though Sera said he was sorry, his tone remained cold.

"As things stand, I won't be bringing a trial down upon the galaxy."

Yaoguang and Busitu, listening nearby, breathed sighs of relief. Though they didn't know exactly what it was, if it could make a Lord Ravager say something like that, it was best that it never appeared.

"What a pity."

Though Finality called it a pity, there wasn't the slightest hint of regret in his voice. After all, he'd only been giving it a try.

"Now that we've finished talking, I'll take my leave."

As Finality spoke, he had just risen to his feet.

The others had been ready and struck in an instant. Sera shattered Finality's die with a shot, and Busitu's cane pierced through him.

"Hahaha... was that really necessary?"

Finality smiled as he watched it happen. Though his body had been gravely wounded, his tone remained unhurried.

"You should know that killing this me is useless."

"You don't need to worry about that." Yaoguang was smiling, but her tone sounded as though she wanted to choke Finality to death with her words.

"See you next time." Finality adjusted his hat, and his figure dissolved.

"Even though I'd already heard you say it, seeing this really is a headache." Yaoguang spread her hands.

"That's why we need General Yaoguang to see through the self Finality created with Imagenesis, one that exists in another possibility, and anchor the real him."

"The Demon Lord Beyond the Firmament really gives Feifei Fox a headache. Good thing you're here this time, White Kitty."

Himeko stared silently at the coffee cupped in her hands, lost in thought. Suzi held her hand, silently comforting her.

"There's something about Finality that gives me a bad feeling."

Sera's intuition was sounding a frantic warning.

"Wait." Yaoguang seemed to have thought of something.

"Sera, the last resort you mentioned wouldn't happen to be the trial Finality was talking about, would it?"

"..."

Sera avoided Yaoguang's gaze, falling somewhat silent.