Screeeech!
A clash of flame and fire.
The alloy-cast corridor beneath their feet shattered with a deafening bang as a blooming ring of fire incinerated everything around the two combatants. A dancing serpent of fire abruptly shot out, drawing a stellar cross upon the ground.
BANG!!
The edges of their greatswords scraped past each other.
There were no holds barred in this fight. The greatswords in both their hands had been at their maximum output from the very beginning:
Key of Radiance: Kalpaflame versus Might of An-Utu: Kalpa's End!
"Hah!"
The explosive impact forced Kiana back, yet instead of taking a defensive stance, she seized the momentary distance to rapidly spin her greatsword in mid-air—
And slash again!
CLANG!!
A muffled roar mingled with the sound of an explosion.
Kiana Kaslana.
Having fused the Authorities of the Void and Flamescion, she undoubtedly possessed the greatest combat power a normal Herrscher could achieve. The slowly rotating [Shattered Divine Ring] behind her symbolized a terrifying combat strength that surpassed the [Death Spots], the typical external sign of a complete Herrscher.
Without a doubt, this was a level equivalent to the entry-level "Moon-Buster Level (Surface-Wiping Level)" of an [Imperial Apostle].
If this were an ordinary civilization undergoing its trial, such power might even stand a chance against the Herrscher of the End. Unfortunately, the gap between her and her current opponent was not one that could be bridged by sheer willpower.
Moreover… whose will was stronger was still an unanswered question.
Zing—
Her feet sank deep into the ground.
Kiana's two-handed slash was pushed back by Kevin with just a single hand.
BANG!!
A furious shockwave erupted from their locked blades. A metal storm of sandstone and steel was kicked up, and Kiana's body was plowed backward, carving a trench nearly a hundred meters long into the ground.
"Hah."
The flames on her greatsword did not extinguish. Though her pale wrists seemed so slender compared to the hilt, her grip was firm and clean. There was not a trace of hesitation in her clear eyes.
CRACK!
A thunderclap on a clear day!
A flash of violet lightning tore across the sky, exploding directly in front of Kevin's eyes!
"—"
After a fleeting moment of silence.
BOOM!!!
A radiance that dyed the horizon red suddenly lit up the center of the silver-grey steel jungle.
Sword against sword.
Hand against blade.
Might of An-Utu once again blocked the dancing flames of Kiana's blade. Its wielder's beast-like claw, transformed from his pitch-black left arm, showed no fear of Mei's thunderous might, which could disintegrate matter at an atomic level!
Neither Kiana's wide, sweeping slashes nor Mei's fleeting, lightning-fast draws could leave a single scratch on Kevin.
They couldn't even accomplish the simple task of breaking his defense—
"Fire!"
BOOM!!
Deep blue flames exploded in the far distance.
A projectile decomposed and reformed mid-air, ultimately becoming two rapidly spinning drill-shaped shells that shot straight towards Kevin, who was pinned in place by both lightning and flames!
BOOM!!!
Amidst the violent explosion, Kevin made his first evasive maneuver of the entire fight.
His already inhuman right hoof stomped hard on the ground. A force combining ice and fire triggered an explosion, launching his body straight into the sky!
WHOOSH!
Tattered, bat-like wings unfurled in the air.
However, Kevin had barely stabilized himself before he had to face a crimson dragon descending from the heavens!
"ROOOOAR!!!"
Kurikara opened its draconic maw.
Intertwined lightning and fire condensed into an orb in its mouth, brimming with overwhelming destructive power, and it lunged to bite down on Kevin's head—
BANG!!
A shockwave burst two meters behind Kevin.
Kurikara's charge had been forcibly stopped by Kevin. Compared to its master, Kurikara's genuine Judgement-class combat power was simply not enough in a battle of this caliber.
"Grr-"
Its roar was suppressed deep in its draconic throat.
Kevin grabbed Kurikara's upper and lower jaws, forcibly shutting its mouth before executing a perfect shoulder throw, smashing it violently into the ground!
WHOOSH!
The dragon's body plummeted like a cannonball—
CRASH!!!
---o---
Hisss!
A surging pillar of fire shot skyward from the tip of Kalpa's End, its immense heat roasting the crimson-dyed city.
"If you can't save humanity…"
"Then defeating the Honkai is meaningless."
Kiana's voice wasn't loud, yet the will it contained had never been more resolute. This was the ideal she had learned from her father, the one passed down from her teacher: to save the world.
"It's just a matter of degree."
There was no hesitation in Kevin's reply.
The "juice" squeezed out by the Stigma Project would guarantee that some humans would survive… Just as he said, compared to the worst-case scenario of total annihilation by the Herrscher of the End, so long as even a small fraction of humanity survived, he would not consider their civilization to be destroyed.
"We have no other choice."
Before implementing the Stigma Project as a last resort, Kevin had actually waited a very long time, until all the other "Pioneer Projects" had been declared failures.
The light of the fire pillar grew even more dazzling.
The overlapping heatwaves even began to melt the city, turning the earth to scorched land.
"You can believe in us."
Mei, tightly gripping her long tachi, continued the conversation.
"...Just like Mei and Elysia believed in you."
"…"
Kevin hesitated for a fraction of a second.
Not because of the Stigma Project, but because of the two names—his lover and his comrade—for whom he had once shed tears.
"Everything you possess is nothing more than their unfinished attempts."
"But before the power of the End…"
The moment Kevin's voice fell, the sky-scorching pillar of fire crashed down.
"…it is meaningless."
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
---o---
The dust settled, and the raging flames subsided.
"Hm?"
Kalpa's End had undoubtedly hit its target—more accurately, an attack with such an absurdly large area of effect couldn't possibly miss.
But.
The main trio still had the strength to stand before Kevin.
They weren't unscathed, but they had indeed withstood an attack that they should not have been able to block.
"The Stigmata…"
The Stigmata passed down through the Kaslana family.
It contained the will and power (mostly the will) of the human part of "Kevin Kaslana." This was the final restraint Dr. MEI had left behind after she knew her own "end," to prevent Kevin from going berserk.
However…
This "Ancestor," who had helped Kiana and the others endure the final blow, was no longer capable of reaching across the ether to interfere with the Kevin of today.
"No matter."
Kevin raised Kalpa's End once again. Flames that were even stronger than before surged up the blade's edge, reaching for the heavens!
"It is merely one more slash."
Fwoosh!
"!!"
However…
The slash Kevin was about to bring down stopped in mid-air without any warning. In the center of his inhuman pupils, a shock he had never before shown appeared.
Human women.
Two familiar figures had appeared before Kiana and the other two without any warning. They neither put up a defense nor assumed any combat stance… yet their simple appearance caused a crack to form, for the first time in tens of thousands of years, in Kevin's unwavering conviction.
"Mei… Dr. MEI!?"
"Elysia…"
Although Kiana had fought valiantly just moments ago, faced with the sudden appearance of a "bigger Mei" in a very special sense, her paramecium-brain inevitably took over.
"No, Kiana."
Mei's eyes also held shock, but being more knowledgeable about the Fire Moth, she immediately knew who the name Kiana had mistakenly called out belonged to.
"This is…"
Their identical faces might have been difficult to distinguish, but seeing the person beside her, one could naturally deduce her identity.
"Dr. MEI."
At the same time, Mei's gaze, just like Kevin's, was completely fixed on the long, pink-haired woman before her. Although Mei could only see her back, as a "kindred spirit" who had personally pieced together her memories, Mei knew the owner of that silhouette all too well.
"Elysia."
Mei was certain she wasn't mistaken.
This wasn't some illusion or mental attack. The aura of the Elysia who appeared before her was identical to the one she had met in the Elysian Realm.
"Oh~"
Even her voice was the same.
"Mei."
Elysia turned to glance at Mei, then gently patted the shoulder of Dr. MEI beside her.
"It really doesn't matter which world it is."
"This child is so much like you… especially her preference for white-haired girls."
"Indeed."
MEI's response to Elysia was very simple. Her attention was still completely focused on Kevin.
At this moment, Mei also understood something from their brief exchange. The memory data of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers in the Elysian Realm had already dissipated. Having witnessed their farewells with her own eyes, Mei knew very well that it was impossible for them to appear in this world again. Mobius's "transference" experiment did have a high chance of success, but she never left that chance behind in the end.
The MEI and Elysia before them…
"Even after traversing three thousand worlds, I have never seen a possibility of defeating the Honkai."
The information Su had left for Mei allowed her to guess the most plausible possibility: they were not the MEI and Elysia she knew, but rather from a certain "leaf" on the Tree.
As for why she guessed a leaf and not a World Bubble…
They were alive.
That was the best proof, and also the greatest mystery.
In all of Su's observations of countless worlds, not a single one had successfully defeated the Honkai. Yet a living MEI and Elysia implied that the "Previous Era" of some parallel world had not been destroyed by Herrschers and the End.
In other words…
"Kevin."
Dr. MEI tilted her head up, looking straight at Kevin, who stood tall against the night sky.
"For you, who has endured fifty thousand years of solitude…"
"Surely, you can already deduce the answer yourself… the reason we are here."
"…"
"Where did we go wrong?"
The searing white pillar of fire receded back into the greatsword, and the scorching heatwaves gradually subsided.
Kevin's words were not even a question. Forcing down the myriad of thoughts in his mind, he only wanted to know the reason why he had failed to save "them."
Kevin did not possess the power to go back in time… such power could not be found anywhere. These familiar faces were not truly familiar. They had the same appearance, and perhaps even 99% similar experiences and emotions.
But!
She and she, were not she and she.
"…"
MEI and Elysia exchanged a quiet glance.
"Kevin."
Elysia took up the conversation.
"There are never two identical leaves on the Tree."
"…"
"…"
Kevin did not put away Kalpa's End, but neither did he continue his attack. A silent stillness fell over the silver-grey steel jungle.
"Which is to say…"
Kevin's gaze never once left MEI.
Though he knew she was not her, the memory buried deep in his heart, one that had never died, continued to awaken his "desire."
Even though Kevin knew very well that this wasn't real.
"Your experience cannot be applied here."
"Am I right?"
Contrary to the fervor hidden in the depths of his pupils, the coldness in Kevin's tone had completely fused with his inhuman body the moment the Earth was covered in "black ice."
"That's right."
MEI's answer was equally decisive and brief.
Without pausing, Kevin threw a new question at them:
"Can the Stigma Project defeat the Honkai?"
MEI and Elysia had appeared directly in front of Kiana's group, which meant they were not supporters of the Stigma Project… even if the "MEI" before him had likely proposed a very similar plan.
"We don't know."
"You didn't implement it."
Kevin, known as the "Sovereign" by the World Serpent, might not have been as powerful as the Kevin Kaslana from the Empire, but after tens of thousands of years without MEI, he had clearly become better at thinking.
"Correct."
"So you also cannot prove that the Stigma Project is ineffective, can you?"
Call it obsession or a demon in his heart.
For Kevin, the Stigma Project left behind by MEI was far more his child than the surname "Kaslana" ever was. The former represented not only his lover and his hope, but also the countless comrades… and indeed, the entire civilization that had perished on the path forward.
"Kevin."
"So much sacrifice is not necessary. We have many ways to help you."
"…"
"Honkai energy."
"Mei…"
No matter how many times he reminded himself in his heart, when he spoke this name, Kevin's voice still trembled uncontrollably.
"You… who has no compatibility with Honkai energy…"
"On you, I can feel a power that is in no way inferior to this body of mine."
For the first time, Kevin moved his gaze away from MEI, lowering his head slightly to look at his left arm, which had already become a beast's claw.
"Even your aura is just as formidable."
Kevin's voice grew much louder than before.
"Your arrival tells me…"
"That the Stigma Project… can actually succeed."
That's right.
Setting aside the "juice-squeezing" core of the Stigma Project, its surface effect was remarkably similar to the Emperor's [Origin Regression]. The birth and propagation of the [New Breed], one of the three major races of the Empire, had indeed drawn upon many of the results from the Stigma Project.
So, from Kevin's perspective, this parallel world that had defeated the Honkai had simply adopted a variant of the Stigma Project ahead of time.
"This…"
Kevin gave them no opportunity to interrupt.
"Is enough."