I Am Honkai

Chapter 883: The Bootlicker Succeeded, But...

Current universe.

A searing purple-flame hurricane tore through deep space, shattering celestial bodies and devouring suns.

Among the stars, fragile spacecraft were swallowed in an instant by fusion-born blazing suns.

Even the hyperspace warp lanes that linked the sea of stars twisted, veered off course, and stalled under this true natural catastrophe. Countless unfortunate captains lost their bearings mid-jump, flung away or shredded apart.

Reports of interstellar disaster flooded the public navigation channels of the star regions bordering both the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way like snow in a blizzard.

Sapient beings who had lost contact, property, or loved ones rushed about in desperation.

Some desperadoes saw an opportunity for fortune—wealth lay in danger. They prepared to raise prices and run routes through disaster zones while the hyperspace lanes were in chaos. Some, better informed, knew that the universe’s number one terrorist, Thanos, was fighting the joint cosmic coalition sent to besiege him here. Sensing trouble, they fled far away in advance. Others chose to maintain order, evacuating nearby regions, forming volunteer groups to spread news of the catastrophe and prevent more people from stumbling in to their deaths...

And many more knew nothing, nor had any channels to learn the truth.

Some turned a deaf ear to the outside world. Some refused to believe and did nothing. Some could not escape and resigned themselves to fate. Some indulged in pleasure while they still could. Some hid trembling in shelters at home... the myriad states of living beings.

Selene did not care about any of this. Thanos did not care either. Or rather, at this moment, each saw only the other. No one else could fit within their sight.

One side only wanted to kill the opponent before her and seize the Time Stone within her body. The other appeared to want the same—yet in truth had other designs.

"Heh... is this all you amount to, Gorgon? Then let us begin harvesting the final victory from here." Thanos laughed savagely.

A grand ambition was a grand ambition. Love was love. Thanos believed he would save the world, redeem all life, and bring a new balanced order to the universe. But hatred was still hatred.

How many times had ’Gorgon’ slaughtered him?

Were it not for the Infinity Gauntlet and the favor of the goddess Death, he might well have died before accomplishing anything, cut down by the defenders of the old order.

Recalling that icy female lifeform, the swordsman, and the stubborn hounds who refused to yield, Thanos believed that his survival had been Death’s blessing.

Because the arrogant ’Gorgon’ had considered that he would be revived by the goddess Death—that killing him was useless, that he would inevitably return from the abyss. Greedy for a permanent solution, she had sought to eradicate him once and for all. That was what had given him room to breathe.

"Your arrogance is the root of your failure!"

"Heh. No matter how naive and laughable your population and resource policies may be... forget it. There is no meaning in conversing with a madman. Do you truly believe you have obtained Lady Death’s love?" Selene stated expressionlessly, a faint smile at the corner of her lips.

"Hmph! Gorgon, do not try to shake my resolve!"

Selene watched as Thanos, his aura growing ever more violent after being mocked, charged before her. Accompanied by a roar that surpassed any medium of sound transmission, purple energy lightning more majestic and massive than a planet’s diameter erupted.

"Do you even have a heart?" Selene did not yield in the slightest. She moved even faster than Thanos. Her right claw-blade merged like a knife and thrust downward in a single decisive strike. At the instant her piercing hand met his fist, reality itself seemed to distort. Crackling black-and-white arcs of lightning exploded outward.

The frenzied thunderbolt projectile was split in two and shattered at the waist, but the dispersed high-voltage energy did not simply vanish. Light and heat shockwaves beyond mortal comprehension expanded endlessly in all directions.

Warped arcs blasted outward. In a blink, three or four unfortunate stars reached their end. The surging shockwaves, spinning at near light-speed, cleaved the planets orbiting them in half, then crushed them, melted them, until they became radiant interstellar matter radiation waves alongside the supernovae.

Multiple star clusters were erased from the cosmic star map in a single breath.

Some harbored life planets integrated into interstellar civilization. Others contained only ’primitives.’

As the instigators, Selene and Thanos had already gone far before the supernovae erupted. What remained were expanding shells of gas and dust formed by interstellar radiation waves, silently recounting what once was.

Rewind.

Tearing through the void at faster-than-light speed, dragging a trail of purple-red sparks like a shattered starband, Selene beat her falcon wings, shaking off the clinging arcs of violet flame lightning. Her curved, bone-piercing claw-blades restored to form. A fluorescent green gleam flickered in her eyes.

Soul Disarray!

With a snap, Thanos wrenched his displaced arm bones back into alignment and immediately followed. The pupil-less wide eyes filled with purple lightning were replaced by a chaotic orange haze.

"Ungh!" ×2

Splurt—! ×2

Both froze.

One had her time segment severed, directly halted in motion. The other had his Spirit Origin interfered with, his form wavering as it was disrupted.

The next instant, both recovered and collided head-on.

Selene’s golden-glowing claw-blade pierced through and shredded Thanos’ chest first. Thanos followed immediately, smashing half of Selene’s body apart with a single punch.

Disgusting.

That was the meaning Selene and Thanos saw in each other’s eyes.

Such collisions had continued for a long time. The two had fought from the Andromeda Galaxy across the void to the outer spiral arms of the Milky Way, then circled repeatedly toward the Greater Magellanic Cloud. They smashed through several interstellar routes of the Shi’ar Empire, wheeled back toward the core of Andromeda, crashed through the Kree Andromeda front line, and carved one supernova-emptied ruin after another within Skrull territory.

They left a trail of stellar corpses and ruins in their wake.

"In terms of suffering, in terms of tempering, in terms of sacrifice—how could you ever surpass me!"

Thanos seized Selene’s claw-blade and bared his teeth in a grin. The red and orange Gems embedded in the Infinity Gauntlet flashed. Selene felt it clearly. The serpent-head tendrils that spewed radiant beams reverted into hair—ordinary hair. Her falcon wings hardened like plastic. Even her claw-blades began to soften.

Then came the twisting agony from her Spirit Origin. Her vision flickered bright and dark. The energy impact she had been gathering scattered. Even her thoughts stuttered.

"Die!"

The left hand clad in the Infinity Gauntlet howled forward. The sound of physical laws tearing space was shrill and piercing. Reflected in the golden bracer, Thanos panted heavily, eyes wide with desire.

The anticipation of imminent victory.

"Get lost!"

Hummm—

Golden flames.

They surged forth, blinding in brilliance. The golden light and phoenix-like flames overturned Thanos’ sure victory, breaking through his manipulation of the Reality Gem that altered her form. Selene’s claw-blade pierced through Thanos’ thick throat.

Her grip tightened. Every scale shimmered with incomparable cosmic energy. The crimson-gold claws closed, even crushing the vertebrae of his neck. From there, phoenix fire erupted. In deep space spread the scent of red flesh being roasted.

"The Eternals transform themselves by absorbing cosmic radiation into cosmic energy. Then let me see just how much your malformed body can truly stomach!"

Through the Sentry ’gate’ within her body, an endless torrent of primordial cosmic energy was transmitted through Selene’s claw-blade and violently forced into Thanos’ body. A trace of anger entered her tone.

"You..." Thanos’ expression changed. He truly had not expected Selene to find such a roundabout method to restrain him.

Every cell in his body began to boil.

Boil in the literal, physical sense.

Energy was being force-fed into him—an unprecedented, inexhaustible deluge. Whether he wanted it or not, it burrowed into his cells. Each time he tried to switch tactics, the emerald blaze filling Selene’s eyes forced him to drive the Soul Gem with even greater ferocity in resistance.

For a time, the effect of the Reality Gem was neutralized by the erupting cosmic energy. The Power Gem strained in direct contest. Both had torn open wounds in the other’s body. As for the Space Gem—it could not act. At this moment, Selene’s energy and Thanos’ energy were interconnected, sharing Gem characteristics and recognized as a single whole. Precise manipulation became impossible. Inside him, Eternal cells multiplied and swelled explosively, drawing a howl from Thanos.

Even this cannot defeat her?

At the same time, deep in his heart, Thanos acknowledged ’Gorgon’ more and more as a worthy opponent. Each served their own master. Only by defeating such an adversary could his path truly be complete. Without enduring wind and rain, how could one see the rainbow? This was the final storm he had to face.

"Cough... is this your final struggle? Ugh... pfft! I will never lose to you!"

Pink blood mist drifted from him. From his mouth he vomited writhing chunks of crimson flesh. His tangled muscles were riddled with thousands upon thousands of ’bullet holes,’ steam rising from them.

They were not external wounds.

They were internal.

Like cancer cells. When the great transporter Selene connected the Power of the Sentry, the Power of the Phoenix, and other multiversal-level energy sources into Thanos, the Eternal cells’ breakthrough-limit hyperactivation could no longer be restrained. They began infinite proliferation and transfer, devouring everything within Thanos as nourishment.

Endure it and live.

Fail and die.

Especially as Selene dragged at his consciousness, preventing him from withdrawing at all.

"Do you dare relax?" she asked. Emerald light ignited in her eyes. "To force me into such a state—you may take pride in that."

Thanos did not dare.

In his understanding, the moment he stopped the Soul Gem’s interference against Selene and was completely frozen in time, this version of Selene would kill him without hesitation. Whether Death would resurrect him or not, she would eliminate him first, regardless of when or where he might return from the shadows.

Emerald light burned in Selene’s eyes. "To force me into such a state—you may take pride in that."

A lie.

Hah... I’m exhausted. Finally found the perfect moment.

She had been troubled over how to inject her power into Thanos in a way that was natural, perfectly timed, and not abrupt.

Yes. Chaos magic, the Power of the Sentry, the Power of the Phoenix... did she gather them for herself?

No.

She gathered them for Thanos.

You think this was your own struggle?

Bullshit. Without my favor, Thanos, you would have been a bootlicker for all eternity.

The god you should serve—should yearn for eternally—should not be Death.

It should be me.

I—Eternity.

The Honkai Eternity of the First Firmament.

Others ignore you. I poured how much effort into you, playing house just to nurture you.

A kind heart, not a pretty face. Always thinking of what’s best for you.

Yet the movements of Selene’s hands were merciless.

Splurt!

Blood like stellar plasma sprayed from her claw-blade, soaking half of her shattered body. Thanos still refused to abandon resistance. But until the flesh of his neck was burned away entirely, he could not shake Selene’s arm even half an inch.

They remained locked in mutual impalement, stabbing and piercing one another. Only the surrounding living star systems suffered.

For Selene and Thanos were not stationary—they were moving.

As the Power of the Sentry and the Power of the Phoenix were forcibly injected, Thanos’ roars grew ever more heaven-shaking. At the same time, sweat poured down Selene’s body. She felt hollowed out, her vision dimming, weakness overtaking her.

Humm!

Hummm!!

Hummmmm—!

Who knew how much time had passed. Along the path they burned and annihilated countless lives.

Thanos... could no longer be called humanoid.

Engulfed in crimson phoenix flames...

Burning...

He no longer retained a human shape.

It was as though only a sheet of purple skin hung upon a specimen frame.

He looked miserable.

In truth, he was becoming more perfect, more complete, more pure.

The Power of the Sentry aside—for the Power of the Phoenix was the nexus of all spiritual and mental existence across the infinite multiverse, present and future. It was the creator and source of psychic force, the conceptual embodiment of life and emotion.

Even a fragment of it was of immense benefit to Thanos. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Of course, the premise of everything was survival.

The fire of the Phoenix was not so easily endured.

The Phoenix’s judgment would burn away the sin of desire, for it carried the totality of living beings’ emotions.

Unlike Selene, that alternative pseudo-host who had found a different path, Thanos had to truly endure the fire of judgment that incinerated the sin of desire. However much desire you bore, however many you intended to kill—so many tides of emotion from those beings would crash back upon you.

"Cough... cough..."

Though she still appeared intact, Selene’s Spirit Origin was already unstable. Her form began to flicker violently. Even as a transfer station, the burden was immense. She had to constantly activate the Time Gem to resist the Soul Gem’s interference. She was exhausted.

Selene cast a casual glance at Thanos.

He was grinding his molars, glaring at her without blinking. Within his corpse-dry eye sockets, dim orange light reflected her figure as she began coughing blood.

"I... can still... endure... for my daughter... for Her..." The words were ground out through clenched teeth.

"..."

They continued staring at each other.

The transformation was so extreme that even a new energy lattice began forming across Thanos’ skeletal layer, dense and overlapping. His flesh-and-blood body started converting into a coexistence of cosmic energy and physical form befitting a cosmic deity. His size began to expand accordingly.

It is enough.

Selene made her judgment.

This was not an act.

This Servant body was reaching its limit.

Huuuu—

"You are merely Lady Death’s plaything. She will never love you... Thanos."

One final provocation.

Selene closed her eyes.

The falcon wing that had been torn away by half began to glow. Light particles drifted down like rain from the body of the Beast Goddess.

Hummm...

"Hm?!"

The burning pain and foreign obstruction in his throat vanished. Thanos regained clarity. A breeze of dissipating spiritrons passed over him. A refreshing coolness filled his entire being, as though bathed in spring air. The sensation of fullness and saturation made him involuntarily moan.

"I have won."

Thanos murmured. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

It had been unbearably difficult.

As ’Gorgon,’ the greatest enemy of his life’s journey, disappeared—returning to the universe itself—that mysterious fluorescent green Gem floated quietly before him.

"The Time Stone." Thanos’ expression was complex as he reached out and took it into his palm.

Undoubtedly, he had succeeded.

He set the Time Stone into place. The Gem and the Infinity Gauntlet adhered automatically, fitting perfectly into the groove on the thumb. A stream of green energy flooded his entire body in an instant.

Thanos did not close his eyes to comprehend it.

Instead, he turned his gaze toward that final Infinity Gem.

The Mind Stone.

"I have already won."

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