Chapter 1594

He spoke with a smile at the corner of his mouth, but his lake-blue eyes held no laughter.

"Did you call Nono?"

"No," Caesar said. "Norma last updated her coordinates forty-seven minutes ago. She was at Union Station then, buying a one-way ticket."

He paused, turning his head to gaze at the sky burned entirely blood-red. Mizar had completely vanished, the left shoulder of Orion collapsed inward, the entire constellation beginning to twist, like a star chart crumpled into a ball.

"I didn't call," Caesar said bitterly. "I don't know what to say."

"There's still one minute," Chu Zihang said. "This is humanity's last minute."

The bubbles in the champagne were diminishing, like sand in an hourglass, silently measuring time. The observatory floor began to tremble slightly, and from afar, Tokyo Bay carried the sound of receding seawater. The moon had already disappeared; they had never seen such a "clean" sky before: stars, moon all gone—no, not entirely gone, for in that blood-red sky, the North Star still emitted a faint glow, like a pushpin about to fall.

"I know," Caesar said, raising his cup and lightly clinking it against the other's: "Then let's toast to 'humanity's last minute.'"

—

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

"Impossible, impossible..."

In the deepest part of Infinity Castle, Muzan Kibutsuji kept letting out hoarse, exhausted roars.

He could feel that all the demons were dying at a visible speed, and terrifyingly, no matter where he extended his perception, all he could sense was... destruction.

Utter destruction.

"Nakime... Nakime! Hurry and take me away! Quick!"

Muzan's voice kept trembling, that dying fear stemming from the five major brains in his body simultaneously emitting despair. He had lived over a thousand years, endured countless hunts and escapes, faced monsters like Tsugikuni Yoriichi like that, but now... he horrifiedly discovered he could not escape, for he had nowhere left to flee.

Yet Muzan discovered Infinity Castle was also constantly disintegrating, meaning Nakime had already... died?

"No—! I refuse! I refuse—!!"

He began to laugh madly, laughter squeezed from his shattered throat, mixed with wails and screams, like a beast's death rattle.

"I am the Demon King! I am the perfect being, I—"

Muzan's voice was cut off, his body began to disintegrate, all things collapsing and dying in the red light of the sky curtain, people, buildings, horse-drawn carriages... even the ground beneath his feet was disintegrating. Too fast... everything was too fast. The regenerative power of the Demon King was insignificant in the face of destruction, and before his eyeballs vanished, he finally saw...

He saw the stars in the sky as if being constantly erased... is it God?

Or...

He could no longer obtain an answer.

—

overlord.

Ainz's consciousness dissipated at the instant the pulse arrived.

No pain, no confusion, not even fear... not even awareness of his own death. He only saw the sky curtain as Iron Tomb drove that long spear toward Wengfaluo Si, accompanied by a world-shattering pulse minutes later, everything vanishing into nothingness.

Three minutes prior, he had sent Mare to check the forest barrier outside the tomb, that being the outermost defense of the Underground Great Tomb of Nazarick; in the original plan, when the aftermath of Iron Tomb's attack arrived, the first line of defense would be this magical barrier.

During the earlier battle between Huan Long and God Lord Ri, this barrier had been breached repeatedly; for this, Ainz had not dared rely on a single barrier to fully counteract Iron Tomb's shockwave, but after being strengthened by the magic of two guardians, he was confident the forest barrier could reduce the power by roughly thirty percent.

Two minutes prior, he had sent Demiurge, Shalltear Bloodfallen, and Cocytus to different levels of the tomb specifically to reinforce their own defenses and barriers. For this Iron Tomb impact, Ainz's worst-case plan was the total destruction of levels 1-6 before the tomb. He had even prepared for the guardians to die because of it, but based on his experience reviving Shalltear Bloodfallen previously, he had both the ability and the resources to resurrect all fallen guardians.

One minute prior, Ainz, accompanied by Yaldaeva, went to the deepest part of the tomb; Yaldaeva, as the tomb's strongest shield, wore god-tier armor. Should disaster truly reach the tomb's innermost depths, she would be Ainz's greatest reliance.

Thirty seconds prior, Ainz donned all his refined and strengthened equipment, quickly chanted over ten spells to bolster defense, and drank mana potions to restore his MP to optimal condition.

One second prior, Ainz Ooal Gown died.

—

"「Black Tower Lady█Battlefield Center█Appears███Strong Pulse█████」"

"「Is Iron Tomb█'Destruction' Equation██Wanting to Complete 'Self-Coronation'! ██████」"

"Black Tower struggled to stay calm: 'Opportunity has come█All██Prepare to Enter Orbit! ████Connect 'Audience System' to Scepter███Activate Hardware Route Overclock! ████'"

"「Preparation Complete██Already Reached Maximum Output Power! ████████」"

"「Warning███Pulse Still Five Seconds Until Arrival at This Vessel████████Data██Currently Undergoing██Damage! █████」"

"Black Tower reminded: 'Prepare for Impact█████████'"

"「Final Step██Entrust to Me████████」"

"..."

"Civilization Data Wipe Progress: 8%... 15%... 30%..."

"Rows of red data flashed rapidly inside Iron Tomb, Iron Tomb first deleted the file of Wengfaluo Si's Golden Descendants. Next, all civilizations in the Huazuo Star System: Belloc Berg, Pinokangni, Screw Star, Xianzhou... were all deleted. However, unexpectedly, when deleting Luofu Xianzhou, Iron Tomb did not succeed once. Luofu Xianzhou still detected 'physical residue'."

"Afterward, Iron Tomb urgently activated the Redundant Process Purge Sequence, yet the second deletion triggered the Destruction Equation's alarm—"

"Detected that Xianzhou still possesses independent individuals with 'speech', 'movement', and 'heartbeat'."

"Then, this Destruction Equation sent to Luofu Xianzhou rapidly severed its connection with Iron Tomb's main body."

"Civilization Data Wipe Progress: 80%... 90%... 100%."

—

Wugou World.

"This is..."

Ge Rui lowered his head to look at his hand.

He could see his palm, yet felt no substantial tactile sensation. The grip marks from Palm Fierce Slash remained, but his hand held nothing.

Wrong.

More accurately, his hand now could grasp nothing. His body exhibited a strange semi-translucent texture, like glue mixed with modeling clay, outline blurred, edges faintly glowing. He looked at his arms and torso, all the same state—present, yet not fully present.

It seemed some force was forcibly stabilizing him.

What's going on?

He completely couldn't recall what had just happened, only vaguely remembering something like a great explosion. At the critical moment he had grabbed Jin's hand, then...

Nothing remained.

Memory factor here came to an abrupt halt.