By now, Noah’s actions were no longer hidden beneath the surface—they were openly carried out right before the face of the Tree and Sea’s Great Will. He had assud the Great Will of the Tree and Sea would surely descend upon him with pressure, restricting his actions.
Exaggerating slightly, it could even have directly cast Teyvat out entirely.
"No, no, no... sothing is very wrong here. In fact, it’s downright strange."
Noah frowned. The Great Will of the Tree and Sea was behaving peculiarly.
No matter how mighty a world, it could never escape its instinct for growth.
If a world were likened to a human body, then he now was like a parasite siphoning its nourishnt. The normal reaction would certainly be extermination or rejection—even if the parasite could bring so benefit.
Once it threatened the body’s health, it would never be tolerated.
"Unless..."
Other than that, there could only be one possibility. Noah’s lips began to curl upward.
"How long has it been since I felt this way? This thrill, hahahaha..."
"System, begin scanning all activity of the Tree and Sea, then analyze its trajectory of growth."
[Ding! Scanning in progress.]
[Scan complete.]
[The Tree and Sea was advancing toward the level of a standard multiverse. Yet the span required for this growth was incredibly vast. Quantified, it was equivalent to 7.64 × 10^321.]
[That span was far too long. But—if it devoured and dismantled the Teyvat Universe, then the Tree and Sea would acquire infinite cosmologies and multiversal templates. With such ready-made multiversal components, its path to becoming a true multiverse would shorten to rely 10^12—about one trillion years, the span of a universe’s lifeti.]
Hearing the system’s words, Noah couldn’t help but laugh aloud.
"Well, well, well! As I thought—it must be this way."
"You shear my wool, while I pluck one of your feathers. And in the end, you still plan to swallow my Teyvat whole. Truly a fine sche! No wonder you ignore my actions—you’re just fattening the pig for slaughter, aren’t you?"
How amusing. He sought to devour the Tree and Sea, and it was scheming to devour him. Both had arrived at the sa idea.
The Great Will of the Tree and Sea must have thought: not only would devouring him allow it to ascend to multiversal level, it could also seize the ability to annex worlds.
The system’s ability to annex worlds was far beyond multiversal—at least infinite multiversal, perhaps even outerversal-level.
Now that Noah had beco a super single-universe being, he could indeed annex universes on his own. But it was nothing like the system’s flawless precision. His own attempt amounted to crudely forcing two universes together, barely managing to fuse cosmologies amid endless conflict.
And as for the system’s true power—he could not comprehend it. Much less could the Great Will of the Tree and Sea.
"Since you want to fatten the pig, then I’ll make you lose everything. And when you are weakened, I’ll turn the tables and devour you instead."
For the Great Will of the Tree and Sea to imagine swallowing Teyvat—it was pure fantasy.
Not to ntion that it was only at weak multiverse level. Even if it beca a standard multiverse, it could never devour Teyvat.
For he himself was Teyvat entire. To consu Teyvat, one would have to deal with him first.
And to deal with him, one would first have to overco the protection of the system.
The system’s protection was power beyond multiversal asure.
...
anwhile, in the Star Rail Universe—
The universe had beco sealed. All universal energy began to sink into dormancy, its activity plunging drastically.
In particular, both Imaginary energy and Quantum energy dropped to the minimum threshold required to sustain a standard single-universe cosmos.
Severed from the Imaginary Tree, the universe instinctively entered the most economical survival mode.
At the sa ti, the eighteen Laws once sustained by the Aeons detached, converging at the universe’s center to form its ultimate cosmic authority.
This was the necessary step of any world cut from the Imaginary Tree—to stabilize its structure.
Once its structure was fixed, the universe fell into stasis, incapable of further growth.
And if that structure were ever damaged and not imdiately repaired, the universe would fall into unending decay.
This ultimate authority of the universe was the embodint of its structural control. In other words, it was the Ether Anchors.
Whoever held the Ether Anchor Points beca the absolute god of that world.
Yet once they appeared, they were imdiately claid and bound by Noah’s Super-Prival power as his own possession.
At the sa ti, with the universe’s energy activity falling to absolute zero, all transcendent beings within it felt their strength drastically wither. The power they could wield was far lower than before, and panic spread instantly.
Even the power of the Paths sank into dormancy.
After all, the force of a Path also required the use of universal energy.
Most severely affected were the eleven Aeons locked in battle against Aether, the Sovereign of the Abyss, within the dark side of the universe.
Buzz, buzz, buzz—
Threads of Law were drawn away from their Holy Bodies, causing their power to plumt at terrifying speed.
Originally, the eleven together could still maintain a slight advantage. But now, with their Laws constantly siphoned away, they could no longer withstand Aether’s Pseudo Star Map Creation. A single pillar of pitch-black radiance smashed through them, shattering their divine forms.
Crack—
A column of black aurora pierced straight through the cosmic barrier, shooting into the void beyond.
Even from Teyvat, this spectacle could be seen.
This was an attack born of cosmology itself, one that did not directly damage the Star Rail Universe.
Had it struck the universe directly, the blow could have shattered its Möbius loop, causing irreparable destruction.
Crack! Crack!
Qlipoth’s Holy Body shattered more than half. Their hands could no longer form the colossal hamr, and the blazing stars within their body dimd. Even their Path began to waver. One step further, and the Path of Preservation itself would break.
Though the Paths were by nature beyond universal constraint, their strength depended on breadth of concept—the more universes they spanned, the stronger they beca.
If a Path covered only a single universe, it was rely at single-universe level, often weaker still. The Aeon of the Hunt, for instance, showed only the might of cosmic structure.
If a Path extended across multiple universes, its wielder ascended to strong single-universe level. Yet even across ten thousand universes, it could not surpass to super single-universe—for this was a question of essence, of tofu and steel.
[What has happened to the universe? Why is it trembling—why is it falling silent?]
Amber Lord was utterly stunned. The power once bestowed upon him when he beca an Aeon was now being drawn away by the universe itself.
Since the day he began building the Wall, the universe had never undergone such violent change. Now, the entire cosmos seed to be dying. Everything was falling into silence, and he could barely feel any vitality left within it.
He had built the Wall precisely to prevent the universe’s aging and death, so that even if the cosmos perished, he could at least preserve the portion protected within the Wall.
But now, all the Aeons had been grievously wounded by a single eruption from Aether’s Pseudo Star Map Creation. Their strength continued to collapse, dropping at frightening speed.
Though they had not yet fallen below standard single-universe, they teetered at its threshold.
As masters of their Paths, the foundation of their strength was that a Path’s coverage of even one universe equated to standard single-universe. Yet within that rank, they were among the weaker, comparable only to the most ordinary Almighty Gods of Teyvat.
The advantage of a Path was that it transcended the boundaries of a universe, forming a philosophical network that spanned multiple universes.
But the Laws did not belong to them. They were rely executors of the Laws.
Without Laws, as re masters of Paths, their strength was reduced by at least seventy percent.
"Lord Heavenly Principle has taken action."
Aether ceased his attack and looked beyond the cosmos.
What he saw shook him to his core: the radiance from Teyvat pulling the entire great universe away from the Imaginary Tree, drawing it toward itself.
"The majesty of Lord Heavenly Principle... it’s beyond belief."
"No matter how many tis I look up, I feel my own insignificance."
Now he felt that Lord Heavenly Principle was even further beyond him than when they had first t.
And he Himself was at standard single-universe level—one of its upper ranks.
"Hehehe... it’s over, Aeons."
Aether turned back toward the Aeons, shattered and weakened, their power reduced to a tenth of what it had been.
The universe itself had fallen away from the Imaginary Tree, and with that, its rank was imdiately degraded. Though it retained the scope of a great universe, its very mass was already collapsing.
For without Truth, a universe was no true universe, but a malford child.
Only those universes attached to the Imaginary Tree could possess a proper cosmic rank.
As the universe degraded, so too did the Aeons.
From executors of Laws, they had beco re masters of Paths. Though they still retained the potential of strong single-universe beings—potential was all it was, unrealized.
The Aeon of Abundance, Yaoshi, had their Holy Body fractured. Of their six arms, three were broken. Abyssal infection had seeped into them. Even as the Aeon of Abundance, they could not heal it.
For the Abyss was no sickness they could cure. It was the other face of the universe itself. Their voice, usually steeped in compassion, now carried anger.
"I feel the universe weeping, in sorrow, in pain, in lantation."
"Outsider, what have you done? Even when you imprisoned us, you never sought to harm the universe. Are you now truly destroying it?"
"All life is already suffering—why destroy the very soil of their survival?"
The abstract, mosaic-like Aeon of Equilibrium spoke in indistinct tones.
[This is not the work of the Outsider. The universe itself lants. The universe is becoming independent. The umbilical cord to the Tree of Existence has been severed. This universe... has been judged unnecessary because of this war.]
As one of the top three Aeons, he understood well the nature of cosmic existence.
Of all Aeons, those most ignorant of the cosmos were surely Voracity and the Hunt.
"Hahahaha! Should we call it sorrow, or amusent?"
The Aeon of Elation, Aha, burst into wild laughter. His once-repaired masks were now all shattered and broken, yet he laughed with joy.
"What I thought was rely a cosmic war of shocking scale... has triggered a judgnt. The universe has been pruned by the Tree of Existence itself, cast down toward the Sea."
For he, who often climbed the Tree of Existence, had seen such fallen universes before. And from that, he had co to understand the pruning chanism of the Imaginary Tree.
Worlds with no future, uncertain futures, warped cosmic structures, or otherwise abnormal universes were all subject to judgnt, to be pruned and cast down into the Sea of Quanta.
And before a universe could even reach the Sea of Quanta, it would often disintegrate under the tearing forces of its fall. Only small worlds could endure long enough to reach the Sea.
Yet even small worlds, once fallen, beca bubble worlds—a slow suicide. The longest-lived bubble He had ever seen lasted only a hundred thousand years before dissolving.
"Moreover, the world has sealed itself. Unless its cycle is broken, we cannot escape either, hahahaha."
The greatest reason universes shattered during descent was not external strain, but the refusal of higher beings within them to remain trapped in a dood world. From within, they broke the loop apart.
[Analysis, analysis... comncing analysis... interference detected. Unable to perceive cosmic conditions. Priority: break the domain known as Pseudo Star Map Creation.]
The voice of Nous resounded. But despite all the Aeons besieging Aether for so long, they had never truly shaken the Pseudo Star Map Creation. How could they break it now?
[The universe’s sorrow... mories of its cries for help... even the universe itself is pleading for salvation...]
The Aeon of Rembrance, Fuli, whose form of countless mirrors had only partially reford, stirred. For him, the universe’s mory of its own plea was a supre mory—far more aningful than any battle.
"We are no longer your match, Sovereign of the Abyssal Universe. What path will the universe take? Oblivion—or assimilation with you?"
The Aeon of Harmony, Xipe, their body of starlight veils torn apart, let dark-blue blood spill like scattered stars.
"In ti, you will see. I am not the one who decides. For now—this battle ends."
Aether gave no direct answer. Raising his hand, He began to contract the entire dark side of the universe.
The Cosmology itself detached from the Star Rail Universe—and with it, the Aeons were drawn into its collapse. Compressing the Cosmology, He wielded it as a prison, sealing the Aeons within.
Before, the Laws of the Aeons had rampaged chaotically, preventing this. But now, he could finally enact it.
Against the seal of the Pseudo Star Map Creation, Aeons who retained but a tenth of their power were nothing more than fish in a barrel.
In but a single breath, the Pseudo Star Map Creation reford as a celestial globe, floating upon Aether’s palm. Within it, eleven glowing points of light shone.
These eleven points were the eleven Aeons—sealed away within the cosmic prison.
—
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