---o---
"Delicious."
At the kitchen table, the rather scantily clad Goddess of Venus was devouring a grand meal cobbled together from the leftovers of Bronya and Kiana's lunch, letting out a cry of admiration.
"Is it really that good?"
The young man—whose condition was very similar to Kevin's, requiring only Honkai energy to sustain his bodily functions—looked at the dish, which he himself would have been too lazy to even pick up his chopsticks for, his expression one of slight astonishment.
"Yes! The flavor is incredible."
The goddess, completely oblivious to the fact that her meal was composed of scraps from the dishes a certain someone had prepared for his little princess and his lover, nodded emphatically, stars sparkling in her eyes.
"Hey, hey, hey, are you sure you're not the god of cookery?"
The god of cookery?
Li Zihan searched his memories.
Among the dead from whom he had stolen experience, there were indeed some who had been called gods of cooking.
Hmm, this was after he had gathered a bunch of near-death master chefs and, feeling his own skills were still lacking, decided to find the tombs of top-tier chefs and perform a bit of necromancy.
He'd snatch their experience and immediately cancel the ritual, sending the summoned souls straight back home, saving himself the trouble of even waiting for the chefs to die naturally.
In Li Zihan's hands, the Authority of the Fire-Thief had clearly been developed to a level that would terrify even Prometheus himself.
"I guess so."
The young man, not entirely sure what level his own culinary skills had reached, replied thoughtfully.
"Well, you're amazing."
The goddess, who was eating a platter of leftovers, let out a satisfied burp.
The stew he had made yesterday had been a half-hearted effort, so she hadn't noticed anything special. But now, after eating this platter, she suddenly understood the effect of a dozen world-class chefs combining their talents.
This surprisingly easy-to-please goddess looked at the young man opposite her, who seemed to be lost in thought, and felt increasingly satisfied.
Hmm, he's a scumbag, for sure, but he's also exceptionally talented.
If this guy were to get on his knees, offer all his treasures, and propose to me, I suppose I could consider it.
As for his past romantic history?
After witnessing me, the prototype of the love goddesses Freyja and Aphrodite, would any man—aside from that idiot Gilgamesh who's always acting all gay with Enkidu—still care about other women?
Likely due to the influence of the original Ishtar, the goddess thought with a misplaced confidence in her own charms.
"By the way, what are your plans now?"
The goddess, who had taken a slight interest in this man who suited her tastes, asked him seriously as he seemed to be spacing out.
"I'll probably try to take out Kingu, then kidnap Chaldea's Master, and then try to discuss some things with Chaldea's acting director."
Li Zihan shrugged.
Kidnapping Guda and her accessory was, naturally, a means to threaten Goetia with the Doctor's first Noble Phantasm.
And taking out Kingu was related to dealing with Tiamat, as well as how to resolve the Freezing of the Human Order.
The so-called Singularities were special regions formed by twisting history with seven Holy Grails conjured by Goetia.
The Holy Grail corresponding to the Seventh Singularity—the Absolute Demonic Front—was in the hands of the mama's boy named Kingu.
In order to resurrect his mother, Tiamat, he had allowed the goddess known as Gorgon to acquire Tiamat's divinity, causing the two to resonate.
When the time was right, Tiamat, who had been sealed by the Sumerian gods in the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, would return to this side of the world through the collapse of the Human Order's foundation, her connection with Gorgon, and the power of the Holy Grail.
The best way to prevent Tiamat's arrival in the mortal world was to confiscate the mama's boy Kingu's Holy Grail, sever her connection with Gorgon, and repair the Human Order.
But repairing the Human Order only prevents the Incineration of Humanity, doesn't it?
The upcoming Freezing of the Human Order would still be a very tricky problem.
After all, the so-called Foreign God was an entity that even the Machine God Zeus—who was powerful enough to wipe the planet's surface clean on a whim and stronger than Arjuna Alter—felt he could not defeat.
Li Zihan wasn't entirely sure what level of strength "stronger than Zeus" entailed.
If it was weaker than the Stellar Fortress—the Machine God Chaos—then it would be simple.
He'd just head back to the Campione! world, find the King of the End, Rama, and use his fusion of celestial weapons—the Divine Sword of Salvation—to slice it in two.
The Stellar Extinction Sword (hmm, the Divine Sword of Salvation is a short sword), you deserve to own it.
But if he couldn't slice it, that would be very bad.
If he couldn't find a way to deal with the Foreign God by then, he would have to bring in an even more overpowered character.
No matter how terrifying the Foreign God was, it couldn't be stronger than the ever-present ceiling of the Type-Moon universe, the alien civilization of the Velber, which had yet to exceed the scope of the universe, right?
The young man chuckled softly, already planning to connect the Second Beast—Tiamat—to himself, a pseudo-Herrscher, turning her into a conduit between the Honkai world and the Type-Moon world.
The Foreign God is a civilization, isn't it?
He wondered if they would still be in the mood for their fancy shenanigans after suddenly getting a face full of Honkai.
"What's the point of you doing all that?"
The goddess, completely unaware that this man was thinking of leading the "Tree" that treats worlds as leaves into this world, sighed.
Compared to listening to these profound-sounding speeches, she would much rather hear some sweeter words.
Like, for example, decorating a temple for the cutest goddess in the world.
Or offering all his treasures to the most charming goddess in the world and sincerely proposing marriage.
"Who knows? Maybe it's to resurrect all the Lostbelts."
Vaguely recalling that the Pruning Phenomenon occurred because there wasn't enough energy within the solar system to support numerous parallel worlds, the young man spoke as if joking.
The Imaginary Tree possessed the ability to reverse entropy and was never short on energy. If its roots were to truly extend into the Moon Cell world, it might actually resurrect the Lostbelts for the sake of more "possibilities for civilization."
"You really know how to joke."
The goddess, who had heard the term "Lostbelt" from his mouth, laughed as if she had just heard something hilarious.
Just as life exists through competition, history also has its victors and losers.
The "present" is the history of the victors, based on correct choices and correct prosperity. This is called the Pan-Human History.
And the history of the losers, based on wrong choices and wrong prosperity—a "history of humanity that has reached a dead end" due to insufficient potential—is called a "Lostbelt."
Lostbelts were paths abandoned by parallel worlds, world lines that had already died.
One must remember that Goetia's grand achievement was merely to rewind a single world line back to the planet's birth and replace the Earth.
The difficulty of resurrecting a single dead Lostbelt was no less than that of Goetia completing the Incineration of Humanity.
And resurrecting all the Lostbelts...
That was simply impossible.
The young man, whose true thoughts were a mystery, laughed.
"Yeah. Just kidding."