Earth.
Well, the real one.
It took 'time' to restore the 'real universe' to normalcy. The other planets and smaller 'worlds' wiped out by Finality? I managed to restore all of them—I mean all of them.
The Imaginary Tree's reach is also restored. Its system is interesting, to say the least.
Its trunk is considered to be the 'main world line'. It is the 'real universe', so as to speak. Any changes to the 'real universe' will cause real-time changes to the tree's branches.
That is the reason why Otto Apocalypse managed to create a new branch. He caused changes in the trunk itself, forcing Kiana to use her 'Void Renormalization'. Otto caused a man-made glitch within the Imaginary Tree.
Its response is to create a brand new branch—another world line where Kallen lives.
It is the extent of his 'False God' plan as well as the most plausible one he can carry out.
All of these yap points out to the Tree supplying all planets with Imaginary Energy. That is basically done through Aeons.
Aeons do not necessarily consume imaginary energy. Rather, their actions cause it to flow into a 'planet'. They are the Tree's gardenkeepers; the supervisors designated to influence worlds according to natural order.
As to which natural order to follow?
It lies in their concepts.
Thus, the somewhat flawed complex lifeforms are born. Their concepts are their sense of purpose. They can't go beyond it.
What I wanted to say—amidst these blocks of text—is that I repaired the connection issues of Aeons due to Finality. The 'Lostbelt' is made not just for me; it is also for them. They unknowingly fell into a trap.
If there are any blind guys willing to walk in a pitfall, I won't shy away from their requests.
"Hm…"
This yap could not match Mei's. I admit I will lose against her.
She's really cute.
If it was Mei, I am sure she would listen.
I briefly stared at my [Achievement Hunter]. No matter what I did, it was present beside me. I saw the achievement I got after defeating Terminus.
[Achievement Obtained: Free the End]
[Reward: Full Privilege]
"Free… Did they think of it as a bondage?"
In my hands, this universe will grow infinitely. It won't take long to reach a higher level. The same goes to the current me.
I vaguely felt that being a Controller is not the end.
"Hm…"
I left these thoughts for the future. Without Terminus, I can finally achieve that steady growth without facing deadly scenarios.
My eyes moved towards the reward. It is particularly meaningful.
[Full Privilege: Grants full control over Achievement Hunter]
Full control?
I have been using it without full control?
I fell silent for a while.
"There's a lot to the Achievement Hunter…"
I put these thoughts aside. I am sure it will help in reaching that level I felt. Then again, it is for the future me.
My hand made a pulling gesture to nowhere. A white door appeared. It was opened soon, revealing the identical Hua and Senti. Their eyes and temperament set them apart, though.
I learned a lot of things.
"This is…"
"Earth. The real one." I answered Hua.
"The others..!"
Senti got too excited. I can see she wanted to do something, though. She deftly took my left arm.
"Let's go see the others!"
"I can see your thoughts."
I flicked her on the forehead.
"Ow!"
Senti is a natural trouble-maker. I mean, why will she set up a divination booth used to scam people?
Knowing her stance on Mobius, I am 200% sure she will use our time to gain advantage against Mobius.
Her crimson-red pupils stared at me in grievance.
"It's better not to pick a fight with others."
Hua's sigh came from my right. She gently held my right hand. Her competitiveness is off the charts today.
Her eyes looked at me with a hint of bashfulness. She did not explicitly say it, but she wants to flex too.
Looking at the two of them, I let out a small laugh.
Although they have huge differences, a part of them remains the same.
"Alright."
As for the consequences of their actions?
That's something to worry about later.
*****
Fire MOTH had been doing a very good job keeping order on Earth. Despite the honkai beasts growing stronger, they did not suffer the same fate as the parallel Earth.
The Edict Edges and Evolution Cube alone brought their high-end combat powers to a brand new level.
There is also the knowledge given to them by Aleph. His first appearance as an Aeon did not let him break the solar system's imaginary barrier, though he managed to sneak through a gap.
From parallel Earth, he sent occasional messages to the real Earth. His second appearance came when both sides managed to send projections.
These opportunities are enough to send over useful knowledge and information to further their studies.
Finally, the Cocoon of Finality got damaged by Aleph. The failed hacking due to Terminus' interference is not useless.
Factoring these things, it was not surprising for the real Earth to be able to overwhelm the honkai.
Click-!
The people present in the main conference room looked at the door. It was supposed to be locked.
When they saw the newcomers, they fell silent.
"Ah? It's rare to see everyone together... well, where's Kalpas?"
Aleph's voice rang throughout the entire room. The ones who are talking about the usual countermeasures got interrupted.
"We left your seats vacant."
"Hum."
Aleph nodded to Mei. He walked inside the room while being sandwiched by two fiery women. Mei did not say something about Kalpas' behavior. In his eyes, meetings suck.
Everyone wanted to say something to him.
Kevin, for instance, looked at him in shock. He looked at Aleph, then to Hua, then to Senti, then to Mei…
This happened while Aleph, Hua, and Senti got seated. They had to separate due to Mobius and Kevin taking the seats beside him. The two got seated besides Vill-V and Eden.
"How did you do?" Kevin whispered to him.
There are a lot of things he wanted to talk to Aleph about. The latter's disappearance amounted to two years.
"It's good. I saw a lot of things. Spaceships like the ones straight out of Space Trek…"
Aleph chose not to say much.
"Let's wait until she finishes things up." He pointed out to Mei. "We will be talking about important stuff later."
As he said, Mei continued talking about Earth's next plan. She was halfway through briefing them about Earth's 'real situation' when Aleph entered the room midway. Except for her, Mobius, and Vill-V, the rest did not have a clear situation of other 'star systems'.
"The entire solar system is self-contained by a barrier of sorts. It prevents entry and exit of all kinds."
Although it was lengthy, everyone got the gist of Earth's situation. They are trapped within the solar system. Only by defeating the Cocoon of Finality will they be able to go one step further.
Naturally, nearly everyone looked at Aleph. It has to be noted that the people inside this room consisted of the original Flamechasers.
Aleph felt very melancholic.
"Everyone does not need to worry about it." He affirmed. "I got it under control… just now."
Everyone fell silent to the bombshell dropped by Aleph.
The latter stood up from his seat and stood together with Mei. His finger touched the projection, changing its contents to the Moon in the Earth's orbit.
"While I was gone, I managed to become a God. It's the ones you see in storybooks and mythologies. The ones who can do incredible feats." He explained. "The Cocoon of Finality can be called a God. Scientifically, we call them complex lifeforms."
It became Aleph's turn to explain things. Although he explained in very simple terms, some of them could not follow through.
'Other world? Solar system? Moon? Gods? Sir Aleph?'
Pardofelis almost let out a yawn. She was wide awake when Aleph appeared out of nowhere. She could not believe his return.
Later on, she started being lost in Mei's explanation. Aleph's dream-like situation sent her to the gates of dreamland.
Then…
She fell asleep. Her face was pressed on the desk. Her arms covered her sleeping face.
Lucky for her, nearly everyone was listening to Aleph. They went through a lot of things. It only took time to process his insane adventures.
Aside from Pardofelis, someone else is not paying attention.
'String…'
Elysia's gaze turned to the invisible red string on her right pinky finger. It connected her straight to Aleph.
She already knew about it from her counterpart in the parallel world. The parallel Elysia was ready to sacrifice herself to help Aleph complete his plans.
But then, Aleph did not expect his status to directly reach the top. He obtained the Controller status. He did not need Elysia's sacrifice to make his plans foolproof. Heck, even the parallel Kevin's help was discarded.
She ended up staying in the Lostbelt's moon. Her conflicting emotions were also passed to the real Elysia.
Thus, the scene just now.
The ones who caught her abnormalities are those who did not listen to Aleph—namely, Hua and Senti.
Their gazes met before they began talking using their 'Divine Consciousness'.
"Elysia too..?"
"It's not impossible. It's Aleph we are talking about."
"..."
Their small tricks did not escape from Aleph's eyes. He thought for a while and left them be. He intentionally directed his gaze towards Elysia. The latter's eyes got startled. She averted it to the 'screen' up front.
"...Aeons who govern it. I will be responsible for Earth. Those Aeons won't do anything bad to us."
Aleph left out his feats about Finality and likes. He knew everyone was still processing things. If he dropped one bombshell after another, this meeting will become a mess.
"Question."
"Yes, Vill-V."
"Can I create planetary-wide fireworks?"
"..."
Aleph looked at Mei and saw her 'up to you' judgement.
"Sure. It's only allowed after we settle things on the Moon."
"..!"
Elysia had a different interpretation about that. While the others began asking their questions, she sat in a daze.
It took an entire hour of meeting to dismiss everyone.
'I will have you for later.'
Just then, Aleph heard Mobius' voice inside his head. Her smile indicated she is about to do something to him.
Soon, everyone left. Only Mei and Aleph remained.
"Fu… it's over."
"You are not talking about this meeting." Mei replied.
"Yeah. It's not about the meeting. The final battle. I fought it and won."
He wholeheartedly told her his current strength.
"I can influence the entire universe. Ensure Earth's safety. There aren't many things I can't do." He stated. "We can think of our retirement now."
"Retirement…" Mei shook her head. "We need to stabilize Earth's situation first. I can pass this position once it's successful."
Aleph's words were not far-fetched. The number of things he could not do can be counted by one hand. All of them are related to the women around him.
He drew closer to Mei. He faced her in front before hugging her. He felt the long-lost realistic touch of her body. His face dug deeper on her shoulder.
"Everyone has a lot of questions for you."
"I can answer them later. It's our time now."
"..."
She fell silent while playing with his hair.
"How many children do you want?"
"...It's up to you."
"Then… we can try doing an initial test now."
Her words riled Aleph up. He did not hesitate to use his authority to create a brand new door.
Of course, it led to Mei's room.
"Let me listen to the feedback later."
[Achievement Obtained: Towards The New Tomorrow]
Just like that, Aleph's "retirement" life began.
*****
***
*
Afterwords:
This marks the end to the main storyline. An ending to the three hundred seventeen chapters of this fan-fic. This is the choice I came to after a lot of deliberation. I created this fic last year with two considerations in mind: Purely Honkai or World Travel. I went through a lot of revisions and decided to resolve every honkai-related stuff first. World Travel can come later. This is also my initial plan.
The thing is, plans cannot keep up to the changes. I loved every single bit of honkai lore I wrote in this fic. Never can I imagine I will be this deep into the honkai lore. Granted, I left the game a few years back and had to reread some stuff, but it worked, I guess. I fell in love with honkai's story all over again.
However, this year has been particularly draining to me. Second year college in an Engineering Course was tough. I retained some inspirations through noting them down, but the rest got flushed down to nothingness. It happened several times until it snowballed into a major issue.
What should I write after the honkai?
I thought of the interaction between power systems. Aleph's [World] introduced that intention of mine. I can have Tatsuya Shiba realize his powers, Albion return to the Fate World in full glory, visit Tensura to interact with that world, and so on. The only problem is me. I lost motivation. I am still motivated to write honkai stuff, but after that? I don't know.
To not fall into a deeper descent, I chose to end the main storyline here. It's tough. I love this fic. I placed here what I could not do in my first two fics. Most of the mistakes I made back then were avoided here. I love this fic.
Anyways, enough with the rants and problems. I want to talk about the things I love in this fic.
If you're thinking of the harem members, that's right. I love writing them. It's been quite tough scrolling through their outfits and reading their voice lines occasionally, but hey, it helps in characterization better. I do hope I gave them enough justice.
Another thing is Aleph himself. I deliberately wrote him to have continuous realizations. It took several times for him to reaffirm his will to fight against the honkai. The same happened when he faced existential (i.e., philosophical problems) as an Aeon. He had to face parallel Mobius and Mei to have his current will. It's just how life is. Things won't become absolute just because you had a single impactful realization.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone. To you, the readers, who have been reading this since chapter one. Counting the times we spent together, it's been a year. A lot of things may have happened in between, but I do hope this fic can bring you enjoyment to lighten up the day.
It means a lot for my story to impact other peoples' lives in a good way.
Once again, thank you.
PS: I will be uploading my new fic, "Cultivating in Honkai!", along with this final chapter. I will drop 11 chapters in one go, so do check it out.