Twenty minutes ago.
From the mont Boros arrived with his spaceship and began the invasion, to the conclusion of his battle with Esdeath—everything happened in less than twenty minutes.
Noah appeared on a street in City A, calmly observing the Teyvat army's battle.
Then, he lowered his gaze to the ground beneath his feet.
More accurately, he was looking at the planet itself.
He let out a quiet chuckle.
"So, a Gaia consciousness, huh? I figured I'd run into a world consciousness or planetary awareness one day, but I didn't expect it to be so weak, pitiful, and helpless."
In the great universe, planets gaining sentience was perhaps the saddest thing imaginable.
Planets were inherently too weak. Their influence was limited. And worst of all, aside from their natural laws and physical rules, they lacked any high-concept Rule authority.
They couldn't defend themselves from cosmic threats. The mont they encountered a planet-destroying entity, it was ga over—total helplessness.
On top of that, they had to worry about intelligent life evolving on them and potentially threatening their own survival.
Unfortunately, this planet had already endured a nuclear war triggered by human civilization—which terrified the planet's consciousness.
So, it attempted to eliminate humanity.
It began frantically producing monsters.
But fate had other ideas. Humanity kept spawning powerful individuals. Eventually, a collective human consciousness without individual awareness ford.
This subconscious collective started pushing human evolution forward, generating more and more powerful humans.
Many of the S-Class heroes were born from this subconscious force. Even Blast—soone who could genuinely threaten the planet—erged from it.
But the collective will of humanity lacked true self-awareness. It operated only on instinct.
The planet's consciousness tricked Blast by using a spatial cube left behind by a divine being from the great universe, luring him away.
With Blast gone, the planetary consciousness resud mass-producing monsters.
But things went from bad to worse.
A fragnt of Ouroboros—a relic from the great universe—crashed onto the planet.
Before the planetary consciousness could rejoice, a human intercepted it.
Even worse, that human wasn't even aware of what they had picked up.
Originally, with Blast out of the way, the planetary consciousness had a shot at resetting human civilization back to the Stone Age.
Unfortunately, soone even stronger than Blast showed up.
Soone who, if he wanted, could destroy the entire planet with a single punch.
Now, the planet's consciousness was acting like a neurotic ss. It wanted to get rid of Saitama, but it was also terrified of him punching back.
It was like a woman who had been bitten by a rabid dog—swearing to kill it while hiding in a corner, trembling whenever the dog so much as barked.
And now, with two planet-destroying beings battling on its surface, the planet was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Even though it was protected by the unfamiliar energy of another planet-level being, it had no clue whether that protection might suddenly vanish.
Noah's eyes turned golden. Behind him, two divine rings ford from the principles of truth.
A smile crept onto his lips.
He loved nothing more than sentient worlds and planets—especially ones he could shatter with a punch.
Sentience ant communication.
Communication ant leverage.
Leverage ant domination.
He knew the inner workings of worlds and planets very well.
As long as he could maintain a world's survival, the planetary consciousness would sign any unfair contract.
He stomped lightly on the ground and spoke with a commanding tone.
"Hey, little thing. I know you're there. And you really don't want to accidentally crush you under my foot, do you?"
A weak, pitiful, helpless little girl's voice imdiately echoed in Noah's consciousness.
[Wh-What do you want...? I'll agree to anything... Just don't destroy .]
A sly grin crept across Noah's face—like a shady old man.
"Good. Uncle here likes obedient children."
Light flared from his fingertip as he quickly sketched a contract in the air.
"Here, sign this contract. If you don't, I'll crush you."
The contract was inscribed with two Great Truths, a formal agreent from a higher world to a lower one.
Of course, Noah had added plenty of hidden clauses. For a sentient being, it was basically a slavery contract.
[...]
The planetary consciousness froze.
As Gaia, it instinctively understood the contract's aning.
And ever since that golden door opened upon its surface, it knew—the intruders were from another universe, and they brought cosmic will with them.
Even more terrifying, among them was soone who could shatter the planet effortlessly.
It had imdiately played dead.
Then ca the humanoid manifestation of that alien universe's will—it had been petrified, terrified it would be erased.
Clearly, these beings weren't here just to cause random destruction. They wanted to absorb the planet into their own universe.
Noah clicked his tongue as the planet hesitated for a few seconds.
"What? Don't want to sign? I'll count to three. After that, I'm stomping you flat."
"Ready..."
"Three!"
He instantly finished the count. The power of Ouroboros gathered in his foot as he slowly raised it.
[No! Daddy! I-I'll sign! I'll sign!!]
The contract flared with light, fusing into the planet like a binding chain.
Reluctant as it was, faced with destruction, all pride ant nothing. Calling soone "Daddy" was a small price to pay.
Noah slowly lowered his foot, teasing.
"That's better. Oh, by the way, I like daughters. Got it? Gaia consciousnesses are always female—understand?"
[Understood, understood... Gaia is definitely feminine, Daddy.]
Noah nodded with satisfaction.
"And stop creating those disgusting monsters. Don't worry about humanity either. From now on, they'll dedicate themselves to protecting this planet."
The planetary consciousness had mostly been driven mad by humanity.
In normal circumstances, humans wouldn't be so insane as to destroy their own world. After all, without a planet, where would they live?
Noah looked toward Esdeath, who had just finished her battle, then turned toward Saitama, who was about to leave City A.
His form vanished into thin air.
Although the battle had affected a huge area—nearly half the cities on the planet—aside from chaos and panic, the damage was manageable.
Well, aside from the rabid news reporters and dia.
Unable to capture the battle between Esdeath and Boros, they instead focused their caras on unknown S-Class heroes charging into the spaceship to clean up aliens.
Saitama reached the edge of the golden barrier around City A. He stretched out his hand and tapped it.
His hand passed right through, like touching a phantom.
"It let through... Feels like an illusion. How did this thing block that big guy's attack from the sky?"
Genos replied, "Sensei, this must be so kind of superpower."
Saitama rubbed his bald head. "Superpower, huh? Like that flying chick—what's-her-na, Tornado or whatever?"
Genos: "Probably sothing like that."
Just then, a voice echoed.
"That's a spatial authority barrier. Not that you two would understand."
Genos spun around. "Who's there?!"
Saitama blinked, dead-fish eyes focused.
It was a young man with a divine halo glowing behind him. His presence stirred sothing within Saitama—a strange, exciting feeling.
Saitama asked with his usual dull gaze, "Have we t before? You feel... familiar."
Noah smiled and extended a hand.
"Well then, Saitama... a few years ago, I lent you my power. Isn't it ti you gave it back?"
As he spoke, the divine halo behind him flared with light—and so did Saitama's body.
A symbol of Ouroboros appeared on Saitama's forehead like a glowing tattoo.
Saitama jumped in surprise and imdiately looked at his glowing hands and feet.
"Wha—? I'm glowing!"
At the sa ti, he felt sothing within him—sothing like a shard of glass. He realized it was that very fragnt that granted him his imnse power.
Genos was shocked. "Sensei, there's a tattoo on your forehead!" He quickly turned his gaze to the boy responsible.
"What did you do to Sensei?!"
And yet, despite his alarm, Genos found himself unable to raise his weapon toward the boy. Sothing deep inside resisted the thought.
Noah curled a finger. Behind him, the Ouroboros Ring glowed with increasing pull. It revealed the shard inside Saitama, but couldn't forcibly extract it.
He wasn't disappointed—this was expected.
After all, it was a fragnt of the Ouroboros of a great universe. Sothing must have happened to the god of this universe for the Ouroboros to shatter.
Even though it was just a fragnt, its quality was terrifying. Consuming even a piece would elevate the Ouroboros in Teyvat one level—still low quality, but a step above the bottom.
Right now, Saitama was the rightful owner of the fragnt, and thus Noah needed his consent to claim it. Otherwise, the only option would be to eliminate him.
Noah was confident he could defeat Saitama—
—but this was a great universe. If the god of this universe took notice, things could get ssy.
Luckily, Saitama was simple-minded and still held a strong sense of morality.
Saitama snapped out of his daze and scratched his head. "Huh? That thing you want back—is it that glass shard inside ?"
Noah smiled. "Have you forgotten? Three years ago, you said you wanted to be a hero. So I lent you a portion of my power."
"For these past three years, it allowed you to break your physical limiter. So long as you trained, you grew stronger."
"Thanks to my power, you've beco the strongest being on this planet."
"But—greater power cos with greater sacrifice."
"You've lost your hair and your emotions. If you keep growing stronger, eventually you'll lose all emotion, becoming a being of pure reason."
Saitama's dead-fish eyes sharpened with rare focus.
"So that's it. That's why I lost my hair!" He wailed, clutching his smooth bald head and dropping to his knees.
"Aaaaaah—my hair!!"
"And my emotions too! You're right. Over these three years, I've cared less and less about things. I can't get excited about anything anymore."
"To lose all emotion in the end? That's terrifying! I'd be like a robot!"
Genos scratched his head awkwardly. "Sensei... being a robot isn't that bad. I can replace broken parts."
Saitama jumped to his feet and grabbed Noah's hand.
"Please take it back! I don't want to keep growing stronger. I don't want to lose my emotions!"
Back then, becoming strong had made him happy. But now, three years later, he realized sothing was wrong.
No monster could survive his punch. Sotis he couldn't even feel the impact before they vanished.
He missed the old days—the rush of being a hobbyist hero.
"Also, my power's too much now. Can you take part of it back too? Just leave enough... like the level of those guys who fought the spaceship earlier."
Noah stared at the serious look on Saitama's face.
The words he'd ant to say... suddenly paused.
Y-You're a bit too eager, aren't you? Not only are you so readily handing it over, you even want to weaken you.
You're making this too easy. Where's the sense of accomplishnt? You know what I an by that, right?
But... Saitama really was too honest.
Noah looked at him with a complicated expression, still smiling. "Alright then, as you wish, Saitama."
The mont Saitama offered the Ouroboros fragnt, Noah's divine ring began to draw it in.
With a hum, the shard erged from Saitama's body, emanating a soft silver glow.
A wave of Truth's aura erupted and expanded rapidly, covering the Earth—and then kept going. Mars, Venus, Jupiter, the Sun, Neptune... until it finally stopped at the edge of Pluto's orbit.
The aura of Truth was like a massive bubble, enveloping the entire inner solar system.
And this was just a fragnt. If its full power were unleashed, it could envelop an entire galaxy cluster.
Noah nearly drooled.
The quality of this Truth was insane. Even his own complete Ouroboros couldn't compare to a re fraction of this shard.
With a Truth of this caliber, how far could the Teyvat Universe expand?
Of course, it was still only a fragnt—its range of use was narrow.
The Ouroboros shard was encased within Noah's Ouroboros Ring.
He hadn't digested it—not because he didn't want to, but because it was simply too high in quality to absorb.
If he tried now, he might end up being consud instead. Worse, the Teyvat Universe could end up subordinate to this great universe.
As the shard was extracted, the Ouroboros tattoo on Saitama's forehead slowly faded.
Noah continued siphoning the Ouroboros power from Saitama.
Truthfully, Saitama's raw strength—though unshackled by his body's limiter—was only about on par with Blast, the top S-Class hero.
The real reason he could casually deal such absurd power was thanks to the Ouroboros shard.
Infinite possibility.
Normally, a human's chance of punching through a skyscraper is one in a billion. Ouroboros makes that probability 100%.
If it's not zero, then it's guaranteed.
After draining 99% of the Ouroboros power from Saitama, Noah stopped.
He figured he should leave a little behind—anything else would be too heartless.
Now, Saitama's power was at the level of a high-tier Middle God. Combined with a sliver of Ouroboros energy, he was now about equal to Blast.
In fact, Blast's destructive power was already at Primary God level. But without Rule Authority, his actual combat performance wasn't far off from a Middle God.
Without the shard, Saitama's suppressed emotions returned. His lifeless eyes regained light. And on his shiny scalp—hair began to grow.
Within monts, he had a buzz cut.
"Ahhhhh!! My hair! I grew hair!" Saitama shouted with joy, rubbing his head.
"Genos, look! I have hair! I'm not bald anymore!"
Genos blinked, then nodded. "Yes, Sensei. You have hair now."
"Thank goo—wait, where'd he go?"
Saitama turned around, but Noah had vanished.
Up in space, Noah watched him and smiled.
"That's right... you're not bald anymore. And you're weaker, too."
"System, begin the assimilation process. And start decomposing the Ouroboros fragnt so it can rge with mine."
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