The Grotesque Miss’s End Story v4c11p1

Chapter 11: Epilogue: A Tale of the World’s End p1

Within the vast and boundless universe, a meaningless darkness filled everything as far as the eye could see. Only in a remote, insignificant corner, a faint, meager light, struggling against the endless encroaching darkness, barely managed to maintain a sorrowful glimmer.

However, even this faint light was rapidly fading, this world’s last order… irrevocably collapsing within the infinite scale of time and space.

Every world experiencing a divine disaster would meet a different yet similar end, the deity’s unique rule completely becoming a part of the world, yet twisting its former civilizations.

Perhaps, in the distant reaches of spacetime, on the unreachable other shore, a new civilization adapted to the deity’s rule might be reborn, but the former star civilizations were long gone.

No one would remember that they once existed.

But the even more tragic future of this universe was the true nature of Doomsday.

A complete, meaningless nothingness. Once it filled the entire universe, becoming the only rule, even the future on the other shore of spacetime would be completely annihilated, reaching the true moment of doomsday.

This… was the despairing disaster brought by the deity Doomsday, a tragic end never faced by any other known deity.

The former Transcendence, knowing the irreversibility of this end, could only despairingly choose self-annihilation. Fortunately, in its final moments, Transcendence left behind an invaluable treasure for this world.

—An existence called “Luo Ling.”

Before the final disaster, Doomsday, arrived, Transcendence bestowed upon her the most precious gift of life. From then on, the end of star civilizations was no longer completely meaningless. As humanity’s last will, Luo Ling embarked on this journey towards the end.

However, becoming Transcendence’s successor, Luo Ling also faced a similar predicament as her former “mother.”

Within a vast and desolate graveyard, Luo Ling looked around, seeing only countless tombs, scattered, withered, and fragmented flower petals before the nameless tombstones. She took a few steps forward.

Among the desolate and dilapidated tombstones, a new grave stood out conspicuously before her. The traces of other graves had already been erased by time and nothingness, turned into nameless tombs, only this one before her, its inscription still clearly visible.

It was a woman wearing a black veil, her face obscured, yet carrying endless sorrow, located in the center of the graveyard.

She was dead.

The past of the former star civilizations was almost completely gone, the remaining spark gradually dimming, the four origin points fulfilling their mission as mourners, offering the last, though not the most brilliant, flames to this world’s grand funeral.

The traces of human civilization, at the end of spacetime, before Doomsday, reached their end.

The ashes of embers swirled, falling upon every corner of the endless void, all traces of the past disappearing, even spacetime slowly succumbing to complete annihilation, the undeniable Doomsday gradually enveloping the entire world.

Just a little further, even just a little…

Was the moment when this vast and desolate universe would meet its final end.

“However, I hope… such a moment… will never, ever, arrive.”

A deep, dark eye slowly opened within the nothingness, gazing at this dying universe, and despite its best efforts to remain indifferent, it was still filled with an unbearable sorrow.

Luo Ling took out a withered flower and slowly bent down, placing it before the new grave.

She gently caressed the portrait of the veiled woman on the grave, translucent tears blurring its face, and a light rain began to fall from the sky, gradually dissolving this sorrowful graveyard, like the arrival of Doomsday.

Until the last glimmer of light was devoured by annihilation and nothingness, the sorrowful, dark eye finally closed slowly, extinguishing the last flickering candlelight for this dying universe.

And then.

“This is… the beginning.”

The last, the only, the final chance.

There was no retry option, no chance to go back and reverse it, only complete annihilation, or the dawn of salvation.

A dark gray shadow appeared within the endless, black nothingness, the only existence in this annihilated universe not yet consumed by meaninglessness, but this wouldn’t last long, it would eventually succumb to the loneliness.

But brilliant stardust scattered, adding a touch of reality to this illusory, dark gray shadow, like the first starlight at the beginning of chaos, emanating from the lonely shadow.

The deity, Transcendence.

Born from the annihilating nothingness, stripping away the encroaching meaninglessness, with the will of civilization, standing tall once again in the universe.

An eye, filled with starlight, slowly opened, its pupil filled with fragmented specks of light, its deep gaze no longer sorrowful, but filled with hope as it looked upon this empty and desolate universe.

“I say, civilization has never vanished.”

No words were needed. A deity’s will was this world’s most undeniable command. The current Transcendence wasn’t just a separated path, but a true deity, untouchable even by Doomsday.

Everything reflected in its deep, starry eyes appeared in the void universe, outlining traces of the past, although illusory and impractical, weak and flickering like a candle in the wind, they still shattered the meaninglessness brought by Doomsday.

Saving the world…

Luo Ling’s figure reappeared, the girl slowly raising her head. The end of her vision was no longer nothingness and annihilation, but a reborn hope, no longer just meager.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Even though hope had appeared, despair still lingered.

Therefore, next…

Luo Ling raised her hand and waved it slightly, like a child drawing freely on a canvas.

What she wanted to do was to recreate the world, with the will of Transcendence, at the moment of Doomsday’s arrival.

This was her path of salvation.

And also… everyone’s path of salvation, their combined efforts.

Doomsday and Transcendence, both filling the entire universe, intertwined and coexisting, the ironclad rule of “deities never meet” seemingly broken at this moment.

Yet also not completely broken.

Because… there had never been a being simultaneously possessing two deities, not in any world.

Only this could add a sliver of possibility to this seemingly impossible and desperate act of salvation.

“First, the paths.”

This was the path of salvation chosen and created by Mom Transcendence in the past, not entirely wrong, even possessing a true potential for salvation, after all, it was the most promising one among the countless futures It saw.

Unfortunately, due to its own limitations, this path of salvation actually accelerated the former world’s demise, and even until its restart, it couldn’t truly succeed, still leaving behind the ten insurmountable Taboos.

Initially, there was only the Transcendence path, but this path actually originated from the deity Doomsday’s power, separated by the former Transcendence using its own power, an ability that could be wielded by humanity.

And the essence of paths was the authority to use power.

A deity’s power was practically impossible for humans to wield. Perhaps some miraculous geniuses could achieve it, but the probability was incredibly low. What Transcendence did was to seal this unusable power, like small boxes.

Humans didn’t need to understand the essence or nature of these powers, just obtaining the corresponding “keys” to open the corresponding “boxes,” unleashing power far beyond their own.

This was just a simplified explanation. The actual situation was much more complex. The degree of understanding of the “keys” and the “boxes” determined their effectiveness.

Although the threshold for wielding the “keys” was much lower, practically effortless compared to wielding the power itself, it was still difficult for most humans.

Therefore, Transcendence, based on the Transcendence path, borrowed the characteristics of other deities as templates, further dividing it into six easier-to-understand paths, making these “keys” more accessible.

Initially, the paths created by Transcendence, by progressing step by step, could truly allow one to directly wield a part of a deity’s power, reshaping heaven and earth, to resist Doomsday’s arrival.

But Transcendence, ultimately, was just the personification of Doomsday’s consciousness, also unable to defy Doomsday’s instincts.

The wrong side of the six Order paths appeared, and some of those wielding the “keys” became Doomsday’s minions, adding fuel to the fire, until everything was consumed.

The four origin points, also possessing paths, faced the same predicament in the past, but the Grotesqueries back then were much more terrifying.

And whenever Transcendence granted greater access to the paths, stronger enemies would appear on the opposite side, an endless battle against itself.

By the time Transcendence finally understood, it was already too late. Even retracting these permissions and suppressing the paths’ power to their limits couldn’t stop Doomsday’s arrival.

But the current Luo Ling didn’t have Transcendence’s limitations. The deity Transcendence she possessed didn’t originate from Doomsday, so the paths she created wouldn’t result in a meaningless self-destruction.

More importantly, since Luo Ling also controlled the deity Doomsday, she could directly use its power to empower the paths created by Transcendence, making the humans who walked these paths even stronger.

Six faintly visible paths gradually appeared among the illusory stars.

Myriad – Silent Demise, Oneiric – Nightmare, Judgment – Sin and Thorn, Order – Chaos, Calamity – Element, Other Shore – This Life.

Finally, at the end of the six paths, they converged into a single path, the foundation of the new world, Transcendence.

No more Doomsday.

Beautiful and dazzling colors, carrying a shimmering starlight, filled all the paths. Transcendence’s path of salvation, which it poured all its efforts into, reappeared in a different form.

The path belonging solely to the deity Transcendence, completely separated from Doomsday.

“Mother… can you see this?”

Luo Ling murmured. At the end of the Transcendence path, a faint, girlish figure seemed to appear, lively yet gentle, as if smiling faintly.

She slowly raised her hand, all the starlight gathering in her palm, this was everything of the star civilizations.

Not the past, the vanished ones, but the present, the reborn ones.

—But this alone wasn’t enough.

Even though Luo Ling, as the deity Transcendence, had separated the paths, they were still intertwined with the deity Doomsday, enveloped by nothingness and annihilation, not a place for living beings.

The illusory sea of stars, entangled with the deep nothingness, couldn’t truly materialize.

Unless…

Luo Ling looked into the distance, as if recalling something, and slowly closed her eyes.

The countless illusory stardust began to condense and contract, no longer filling the entire universe, completely gathering in Luo Ling’s palm, like a primordial spark, burning and exploding, slowly yet rapidly.

It just needed a catalyst to become reality.

And this catalyst, Luo Ling had obtained it long ago.

It, the deity, opened its eyes again, the brilliant starlight fading, replaced by a vast, emerald green. It took out a seed, waved its hand gently, and scattered it into the sea of stars.

This was a seed re-condensed from “Eternal Sky” after its complete destruction, kept by Luo Ling.

But the seed Luo Ling took out now wasn’t entirely the same as the one left by Auspicious Timing.

The former “Eternal Sky” was Yao Ji’s final masterpiece, using her understanding of deities and the entire “Legend” realm as a price, wielding the Human Emperor’s Sword, a world seeking the deity Other Shore.

The reason it ended in failure, even a tragic one, was because of Yao Ji’s misunderstanding of a deity’s nature.

But this seed now sought the world of the deity Transcendence.

Luo Ling’s world.

The past tragedy would never repeat itself.

The “Eternal Sky” seed, scattered into the sea of stars, sprouted and took root in the blink of an eye, becoming a small sapling.

It used the illusory sea of stars as its soil, the six paths created by deities converging and flowing into it, like a clear spring, bringing new life to the sapling. The reborn “Eternal Sky” greedily absorbed everything, until it was fully grown.

The illusory sea of stars was no longer illusory. As the sapling grew, it gradually materialized, even the paths solidified, the formerly scattered “little boxes” re-entering this new world, becoming a part of it.

However, this progress wouldn’t always be smooth. A terrifying disaster soon arrived.

Boundless nothingness began to erode “Eternal Sky,” covering the growing sapling in a deep darkness, Doomsday’s nightmare lingering, as if it had never left, inescapable.

This was within Luo Ling’s expectations. As a being also wielding the deity Doomsday, Luo Ling knew very well that Doomsday’s erosion was all-encompassing, constantly assimilating everything, until it all turned into meaningless nothingness.

But… it wasn’t impossible to resist.

“Deities never meet.”

The laws of Transcendence directly descended upon the sapling, instantly dispelling the darkness brought by Doomsday.

Although due to Luo Ling, Doomsday and Transcendence could intertwine and entangle, their divine rules were still fundamentally incompatible, as long as Transcendence’s laws remained.

Luo Ling did her best to maintain Transcendence’s existence, but she also knew that, if she were alone, Transcendence’s laws couldn’t last forever. Her Doomsday aspect would gradually grow stronger in this process, until it became her everything.

To continue maintaining Transcendence…

She needed to guide the new star civilizations onto the six paths, using the will of civilization to ensure Transcendence’s eternal existence.

“At least, I’ll do everything I can…”