Tokyo, top floor of the Wuxiang Society's secret branch building.
Seeing the news sent by his subordinates, Murasaki Senichi's handsome and refined face changed into a fierce expression.
"Damn it! Damn it! A bunch of useless trash!"
He had long lost his former composure, cursing his incompetent subordinates with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
The plan to kidnap the Holy Emperor had been thwarted halfway, and the first wave of Gastrea had failed to destroy Nia Honjo shelter enough to infuriate him.
Not long ago, after learning that the Holy Emperor had reunited with Kikunojou Tendo and was heading toward Tokyo from the outer districts, he had immediately sent his most elite members to intercept them.
If they could eliminate these two key figures, the Tokyo area would be unable to resist.
But once again, things didn't go as planned. The three mechanical warriors he sent had all lost contact.
Among them was even a police officer ranked within the top 100 in IP rankings.
"Why can't three battle-hardened mechanical warriors defeat a few brats?!" he nearly shouted. "Even if Satomi Rentaro and Kisara Tendo were with them, they should have been exhausted from the beast tide. Are those mechanical warriors just eating for nothing?!"
"Yes, a little girl did it," the Wuxiang Society's [Four Wings] member in charge of the operation reported, cold sweat dripping down his forehead. "There's a strange girl with them. She doesn't look like a Cursed Child, but her strength is incredible. Both mechanical warriors fell to her."
"You're telling me that two mechanical warriors, capable of fighting a hundred men at once, lost to a girl who isn't even a Cursed Child?"
"That girl isn't ordinary! She can fly! Guns and explosives can't harm her!" the Four Wings member hurriedly defended his failure under Murasaki Senichi increasingly intense gaze.
But to Murasaki Senichi, all the excuses sounded like just that excuses.
He had been forced to abandon Tokyo, which was almost within his grasp, to the Gastrea. His other plans had failed one after another, and now his subordinates couldn't even handle the simplest tasks...
His anger was boiling over, and his patience had reached its limit.
Bang !
He pulled the trigger, and blood splattered.
The Four Wings member fell to the ground, eyes wide open, his blood staining the floor red.
After venting some of his anger, Murasaki Senichi regained a sliver of composure and tossed the still-smoking gun aside.
Looking at the Wuxiang Society members sitting silently around the conference table, he slumped back into his chair and exhaled deeply.
"Forget it. Even if the Holy Emperor and Kikunojou Tendo aren't dead, the chances of Tokyo surviving 100,000 Gastrea are slim. We have nothing left to do here."
Rubbing his throbbing temples, he said in a hoarse voice, "Suspend all operations and plans in Tokyo. Prepare to evacuate."
Hearing this, the members present breathed a sigh of relief.
Though the Wuxiang Society would lose much by abandoning its years of arrangements in Tokyo, it wouldn't be a fatal blow.
After all, there were five [Five Wings]-level cadres in the Wuxiang Society, and Murasaki Senichi was just one of them.
He would bear full responsibility for this mission's failure.
If not for his desire to make amends, the others would have already evacuated the doomed city.
"My Lord..."
Just as the Wuxiang Society members were about to leave, one of them looked at the tablet in his hand and said tremblingly, "Another piece of news has come in."
Hearing this, veins bulged on Murasaki Senichi forehead.
Though it didn't specify whether it was good or bad news, the word "another" was enough to indicate it wasn't favorable.
He hadn't heard any good news all day.
Suppressing his anger, he reopened the screen and looked at the message.
It was a video.
Captured directly from a frontline reporter at TV Tokyo, the video was less than three minutes long.
As Murasaki Senichi watched, his expression shifted from confusion to shock, then from shock to disbelief.
Finally, when he saw the flames engulfing the black sea of Gastrea outside the Monolith, his face filled with despair.
His hands went limp, and the tablet fell to the ground.
Crack…
The sound of shattering echoed.
It was unclear whether it was the tablet's screen or something inside Murasaki Senichi that had finally broken.
"How is this possible..."
He slumped in his chair, pupils dilated, as if he had witnessed something unimaginable.
Seeing their leader's reaction, the others' faces turned grim, and they too clicked on the video.
One by one, their expressions darkened.
"What kind of technology is that? Why have we never heard of Tokyo hiding such a trump card?!"
"One hundred thousand Gastrea wiped out in less than a minute. This is absurd!"
"Has the authenticity of this video been verified?"
The Wuxiang Society members erupted into anxious discussions, filling the previously silent meeting room with noise.
Now, they were finally panicking.
If Tokyo had been destroyed, the consequences of the failed plan would have fallen solely on Murasaki Senichi, leaving them unaffected.
But now, with 100,000 Gastrea reduced to ashes in an instant and Tokyo greatest crisis averted, everything had changed.
Even the Holy Emperor and Kikunojou Tendo were still alive.
If they leaked information about the Wuxiang Society, coupled with this city-destroying plan, their reputation would plummet.
They could only operate in secrecy, becoming rats scurrying in the shadows, hunted by everyone.
Murasaki Senichi stared at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, saying nothing.
He knew his standing in the Wuxiang Society would plummet.
Years of effort and ambition would be wasted.
That explosion hadn't just destroyed 100,000 Gastrea it had obliterated his dream of conquering the world.
"Honjo... Nia..."
Though the figure in the video was blurry, he recognized her.
When he had seen this woman infiltrate a secret base that should have been unknown, he had suspected Nia Honjo had some hidden power.
Now, that suspicion had been confirmed.
An unknown fear gripped his heart.
It was like encountering a monster in a dark forest. Even with a shotgun in hand, he couldn't feel safe.
The worst part was that he had provoked the monster.
After dealing with the beast tide outside the Monolith, what would this monster do next?
The answer was obvious.
"Where is she now? Find her location immediately!"
Recalling the scene of Nia Honjo disappearing into a spatial rift, Murasaki Senichi grew increasingly uneasy. He stood up abruptly and shouted, "No, wait! Don't waste any more time. Evacuate now! Leave this damned city immediately!"
The last sentence was almost a scream.
There was no time to gather personal belongings. Even critical information was abandoned and destroyed.
Murasaki Senichi and his men rushed to the building's rooftop.
Seeing the armed helicopter parked on the helipad, this black steel beast offered him a sliver of comfort.
He didn't know where Nia Honjo was now.
He didn't know how she would attack them.
But he knew that if he could escape this city, the sea would be vast, and the sky would be limitless.
At this moment, even the mission's failure and his shattered ambitions didn't seem so unbearable.
With his abilities, as long as he worked harder, there would always be another chance.
As long as he survived.
Just as he was about to board the helicopter, his body suddenly froze.
He looked up at the sky, which had turned pitch black in an instant.
"It's.... dark?"
Staring at this unnatural phenomenon, Murasaki Senichi Adam's apple bobbed nervously.
The others reacted similarly.
Not just them everyone in Tokyo was stunned by the sudden darkness.
Whether it was the citizens sheltering at home, the looters roaming the streets, or the soldiers and police rushing to their posts, all looked up at the dark sky in shock.
Yes, pitch black.
It was as if a solar eclipse had occurred, with the sun obscured by a dark force that swallowed every ray of light.
It sent chills down everyone's spine.
A spatial rift appeared in the sky above Tokyo.
From it emerged a girl with a polluted halo above her head and slender, bat-like wings behind her.
Immediately, every electronic screen in Tokyo was hijacked.
No matter what had been playing before, they now displayed the girl's image.
"Nia...?"
In the Holy Residence, Satomi Rentaro stared at the figure suddenly appearing on the TV screen, sitting up in shock.
Disbelief filled his eyes.
"Is that Nia?"
Kisara Tendo covered her mouth in astonishment, carefully examining the girl on the screen.
Though her face was the same, her demeanor and attire were nothing like the cheerful Nia Honjo they knew.
It was as if she were a completely different person.
They felt an unfamiliar strangeness deep in their hearts.
They had also seen the footage broadcast on the news earlier.
The Gastrea tide had been wiped out, and Tokyo greatest crisis had been resolved. All that remained was to clean up the remnants.
They had been ready to throw a grand celebration for Nia Honjo upon her return.
"Ms. Honjo, what are you going to do now?"
Through the window, the Holy Emperor gazed at the small figure in the sky, deep worry etched on her face.
Anyone who had spent time with Nia Honjo could sense that something was wrong.
At this moment, everyone in Tokyo was either looking up at the sky or staring at their screens, waiting with fear or anticipation for the next move of the girl who could alter the heavens.
The entire city fell into an eerie silence.
"I come for judgment."
Nia Honjo didn't speak, but her voice penetrated every screen and reached everyone's ears.
Or perhaps it came directly from their hearts.
Then, using the dark sky as a backdrop, she projected tens of thousands of images.
Like a live broadcast, these images showed ordinary-looking people going about their daily lives.
Some were CEOs conducting business.
Others were scientists researching in labs.
Some were registered police officers fighting Gastrea.
As Tokyo citizens watched, unfamiliar information flooded their minds details about the lives of the people in the images.
Under the Divine Eclipse Volume's scrutiny, their privacy was laid bare.
It was because of this that, upon seeing the true faces and actions of these people, the citizens' expressions turned to anger.
They realized that all these individuals, despite their varied appearances, shared one common identity: sinners.
On the rooftop of the Wuxiang Society building, Murasaki Senichi body trembled violently.
His face turned pale, his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
Because, among the tens of thousands of images, he saw his own panicked face.
Beside him, other Wuxiang Society members also stared in horror at the scenes in the sky that belonged to them.
It was like rats living in sewers suddenly exposed to light their ugliness and filth laid bare, with nowhere to hide.
If Nia Honjo hadn't appeared, they would have continued their carefree lives, hiding in the shadows, feeding on the corpses of their kind to strengthen themselves and satisfy their selfish desires.
No one would judge them.
Because there was no God in this world.
But now, the power of judgment had been taken by the fallen angel!
Let the flood of destruction wash away the sins of this world!
The Pen of Narration scribbled furiously across the blank pages of the Divine Eclipse Volume.
Each of these sinners was given their verdict.
"Ugh!"
A Four Wings member beside Murasaki Senichi clutched his chest, his face twisted in agony.
"Save me... save..."
Another member gasped for air, his breaths shallow and labored, like a broken bellows.
Not just around Murasaki Senichi.
Across Tokyo, across Japan, and even across the world, the same scenes played out in every human city.
Each image clearly showed how each sinner died.
It was like a living hell on earth.
No one wanted to stop this.
No one could stop this.
In the sky, the girl who held the power of life and death appeared so slender and frail, yet her aura was overwhelming, suffocating.
Though she stood alone, compared to her, everything in the world seemed as insignificant as dust.
Beside Murasaki Senichi, agonized wails continued.
But they soon ceased.
Minutes later, he was the only one left standing.
Strangely, Murasaki Senichi no longer felt fear.
Perhaps it was because his fear had been exhausted, and he knew resistance was futile. All that remained was a calm acceptance of his impending death.
Gazing at the figure in the sky, who seemed like a god descending, he suddenly recalled the words of a preacher from his childhood, in the era before the Gastrea emerged.
Who can endure the day of His coming?
Who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire, like fuller's soap.
The refiner's fire purifies gold, and the fuller's soap cleanses cloth.
And when the great One appears, the sins of this world will be exposed, along with its impurities and filth.
Then, they will each face their judgment.
Feeling his body weaken, Murasaki Senichi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly closed his eyes.
His judgment had come.
Soon, all the people in the images lost their vital signs.
Tens of thousands of silent, lifeless images projected an unsettling sense of death, yet they also seemed sacred.
In Tokyo, the first person knelt.
Then the second, the third, the fourth...
They worshiped the god of death in the sky, offering their faith to the judge who had cleansed the world of sin.
Religion had long vanished from this world.
But now, everyone in Tokyo had a new faith.
The judgment from the fallen angel had finally ended.
In the Holy Residence, the Holy Emperor, who had witnessed the deaths of tens of thousands, clenched her fists tightly.
Thanks to Nia Honjo, the Gastrea outside the Monolith had been nearly wiped out.
Thanks to Nia Honjo, the Tokyo area no longer had to worry about harassment and attacks from the Wuxiang Society.
No, not just Tokyo.
With the world's cancer eradicated, the entire world would be renewed.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Honjo, for making you do these things," the Holy Emperor whispered softly.
As Nia Honjo collaborator, the Holy Emperor knew how much she had resisted killing. But now, for the sake of this world, she had become a blood-stained god of death.
Looking up at Nia Honjo in the sky, complex emotions flickered in the Holy Emperor eyes.
Nia Honjo seemed to sense her gaze.
She tilted her head slightly, meeting the Holy Emperor eyes.
The next moment, a sheet of white paper appeared before the Holy Emperor.
Blinking, the Holy Emperor looked at the paper filled with various pieces of information and gasped softly.
The contents were incredibly precious.
It contained new design ideas for custom weapons, methods to reduce the cost and risk of mechanical warrior transformation, and even the weaknesses of the Stage 5 Gastrea, the [Zodiac]...
Any single piece of information here would cause a global frenzy if released.
The Holy Emperor breathing quickened.
Her hand holding the paper trembled slightly.
It was as if she held not paper, but the hope of the entire world.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, she felt a sense of foreboding.
Why did she feel as though Nia Honjo was entrusting the world's future to her?
As this thought arose, the Holy Emperor looked up at the figure in the sky again.
"Ms. Honjo!"
Her eyes widened.
Others reacted similarly, rushing to the window and staring in panic at the figure gradually becoming transparent.
It was as if the apostle of God, who had descended from heaven, had completed her mission and was preparing to leave this world that wasn't hers.
[I have fought the battle for you]
[I have walked the path you should have walked]
[It is up to you to keep the path you should keep]
[Stay true to your ideals and do not tarnish them]
[From now on, justice and a crown await you]
Nia Honjo looked at the Holy Emperor, her indifferent voice seeming to come from the depths of her heart.
"I will," the Holy Emperor vowed solemnly in her heart. "I will make this world a better place, to honor your expectations and the trust of everyone who believes in me."
Nia Honjo withdrew her gaze.
The images of the tens of thousands of dead vanished, and the sun, once obscured by darkness, shone brightly once more.
It dispelled the cold, bringing a sense of warmth.
Facing the sun, Nia Honjo closed her eyes.
Her figure, bathed in sunlight, completely disappeared from the world.
The sins of the old world had been erased by her hand.
The chapter of the new world would be written by them.
---
Epilogue
Nia Honjo was gone.
But the legacy she left behind gave hope and strength to the people of this world.
The Holy Emperor generously spread the nun's gospel to the world.
The erosion rate blocker formula, custom weapon designs, methods to reduce the cost and risk of mechanical warrior transformation, the weaknesses of the Zodiac...
Though the world fell into chaos for a time due to the sudden loss of many key figures, life went on.
The old blood died, and new blood was injected, breathing new