Chapter 342

Let there be light

In the primordial chaos, as spoken in the Old Testament, the blazing divine light illuminated all ten directions of mountains and rivers.

Heaven above, earth below, east, west, south, north.

The gate of life, the position of death, past and future.

As if returning to the primordial chaos of ancient times, amidst unpredictable disorder, within the destruction symphony of the entity descending from beyond the stars, the light that once opened the chapter of creation reappeared upon the world under the proclamation of the Supreme Being.

Immeasurable light bathed the myriad worlds; all that remained was an endless, boundless white.

The chaotic, turbulent world suddenly fell silent; only the element of light played the heavenly melody illuminating all things. Wherever one stood, whatever being one was, under the resonance of the Law of Light, a silhouette appeared within their vision.

Its radiance was too brilliant to discern its face; it wore a cloak and stood in the void above the head of the black giant.

It raised its right arm, pointed at the black giant amid countless illusory wings, and the black giant likewise raised its arm, reaching out to grasp the silhouette. Unlike the gentle light, the gaseous light within the black giant—capable of dissolving all things—was wildly turbulent and brimming with destruction.

Yet even so, this scene was as solemn and majestic as the Book of Genesis, causing all who remembered it to recall Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam."

But compared to the black giant, tens of kilometers long and entirely pitch-black, the radiant silhouette was minuscule—tiny as dust—and in the next instant, it was seized in its hand.

Under the influence of a pseudo-solar nucleus, photon gas the size of Jupiter generated massive energy explosions every second.

Yet this capture lasted only a moment.

In less than three seconds, the black giant's hand—tens of kilometers long and still expanding—suddenly shattered like a mirage, spilling forth countless streams of colorful light. This rupture spread like a collapsing wall, racing along its arm, body, and head.

By the time the black giant realized what was happening, it was too late; the light and heat leaking from its body converged at the silhouette's fingertip, sucked and compressed into a single point—a miniature, blazing sun.

In an instant of release, more violent than a storm, more furious than thunder, a beam of light that devoured all matter surged into the sky, heading toward the depths of the universe. Anything in its path met a fate of either disintegration or direct vaporization.

As if most of the light had been swept away by this beam, when the radiance faded, the silhouette within the eyes of all beings rapidly transformed—countless illusory wings enveloped it from behind, forming a light cocoon.

Beyond imagination, both the Heroic Spirits and the extraterrestrial star-creatures stared in bewilderment, their thoughts briefly blank.

Then, the residual light solidified into tangible threads, bending and twisting, weaving and entwining, until they formed a colossal tree of light that stretched from earth to heaven.

The giant tree swayed its branches, growing endlessly; when it reached its limit, it split open and leaned toward both sides.

At the point of rupture, space twisted, and a golden gate several kilometers wide slowly opened.

"That is the heavenly gate from myth."

As if confirming their thoughts, beyond the golden gate lay a sacred plain carpeted with green grass; within the "Heavenly Realm," half the sky was a daytime blue, like a summer dawn; the other half was a night sky studded with stars, occasionally pierced by falling meteors.

People saw the heavenly guardians, with dual wings and clad in crimson armor, gazing down from the divine realm above—they stood at the edge of the golden gate, praying together, praising:

"You are One, and also the Ten Thousand."

"You are the Instant, and also Eternity."

"You are the Beginning, and also the End."

"You are the Creator, and also the Sovereign."

"May Your Dao walk upon the earth, as it walks within Your Kingdom!"

As the sound of a heartbeat echoed across the world, a flood poured forth from the Heavenly Realm; the light elements rejoiced, conveying gospel and joy to the planet's "companions," appearing together in every corner—like fireflies illuminating darkness, entering all things and emerging again from within.

They carried away wounds, diseases, and negative emotions.

More than awe, what filled the hearts of all beings now was serenity and peace.

Believers stared dumbfounded at the images transmitted by the light elements, listening to the heartbeat-like sound within the cocoon, tears flowing unbidden from their eyes—they seemed to understand they were witnessing a moment of greatness.

Finally, the heartbeat ceased.

Crack—

The instant cracks appeared on the cocoon, shards of divine light drifted down like feathers; Su Lin, clad in a classical robe woven from light particles, radiated divine majesty, treading upon the remnants of the black giant, his eyes—bleached white-gold by extreme divinity—gazed down upon all upon the earth.

Before the gaze of all beings, every ray of light obeyed His will, swirling around His palm; from the black giant's remains, a "sun" flew out and was seized in His right hand.

This was the final image; His form gradually blurred, as if too sublime to be etched into mortal minds, and then all returned to stillness—except

Tohsaka.

"Impossible," Lord El-Melloi II's hands dropped, his pupils trembling as if shaken by an earthquake: "Impossible, how could it—"

Not only him—every Servant and Master who witnessed this scene looked exactly the same.

Compared to the abilities displayed by Weigong Shilang, compared to the mystery of his past life, the name that had only appeared in descriptions and prayers—now descending into reality—felt even more dreamlike to them.

Gilgamesh's crimson eyes locked onto that figure, murmuring: "Why did it descend?"

As if sensing something, he sharply turned his gaze toward Weigong Shilang, who had already fallen and now lay in Illyasviel's arms.

This movement triggered instinctive mimicry from others—but the next instant, the Chaldea team looked from Weigong Shilang beside them to Su Lin, then up at the figure in the sky, and froze in a crash.

Beneath the Greater Holy Grail, beside Weigong Shilang and Illyasviel, a figure appeared—identical in face to the one above, but clad in a luxurious purple robe, with white hair.

He pulled up the azure longsword embedded in the earth, brushed off its dirt with his hand, and smiled lightly:

"Lying drunk upon a beauty's lap—you've got quite the luck. But could you at least take care of my sword? I looked away for a moment and it ended up like this."

"Though we spent some time preparing, you didn't need to go so wild just now. That surge of soul power isn't something your current body can fully withstand—unless you've also transformed yourself into a soul-materialized form."

"Shilang doesn't need soul-materialization; my power is enough to support him," Illyasviel smiled, holding Weigong Shilang. "As long as Shilang wants it, I can give him all my power."

It seems the output of Ye Zhetian Corporation will soon undergo an industrial revolution in quality and speed.

Su Lin sighed inwardly, then turned to face the "Human Evil" over there.

How to put it—he really does look quite a bit like Weigong Shilang.

He glanced again at Gilgamesh, and temporarily abandoned the idea of tormenting Mr. Jin—after all, that would be too undignified.

Feeling the gaze upon him, Tenzan Lixiang and the others tensed their muscles.

"Thank me, this is free treatment. For the same level of healing, I charged the Divine King Jiang Taixu ten thousand jin of divine sources per person," Su Lin flicked out a coin forged from light elements, landing on Weigong Shilang's body, accelerating his physical recovery.

High-grade healing techniques are in high demand in any world—even though the Third Magic can achieve the same.

"I'd have thanked you wholeheartedly if you hadn't staged that whole show beforehand—now I'm only nine-tenths grateful," Weigong Shilang joked weakly. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know what they're dawdling about," Su Lin had sensed something was off and logged into "Type-Moon Online" ahead of schedule; he glanced at his personal panel's console:

"Oh, they're here."

On the administrator's backend interface, one authorized ID after another was logging into the game.

Antigonus is creating a personal character.

Sunset-Memorized Memory successfully created a character and is loading personal items.

Li Feiyu logged in successfully.

Zhongli is watching a tutorial on using the personal panel.

I, Who Serve as Tian Di's Enforcer Against All Enemies, logged in successfully.

Wanting to Be a Trash Can in the Next Life is setting a personal template.

Master Lan logged in successfully.

Yan Di logged in successfully.

Yuan Huang logged in successfully.

The Gray Witch logged in successfully.

Book Mountain Under Heavy Pressure is creating a personal character.

Bai logged in successfully.

"Amazing." Su Lin's eyebrow twitched twice; luckily, he was facing away from others, and this area had been sealed with a soundproofing spell—otherwise, just by reading his lips, they could have told what he said.

These people have incredible adaptability—they really are treating this like an MMO.

The handsome protagonist Su Lin sighed, changing his alt-account ID "God of Light" to "I Am Not God."

"Alright, next, it's time to place the crystals." Su Lin flicked his sleeve and flew skyward, holding the Skyblue Jade Void Sword.

"I hope the other two actually do something—just half of what I just earned would be enough."

Lu Mingfei and Klein, two guys who couldn't produce even a bottle of Drunken Immortal Wine in half a year—I specifically told them to go big. They won't just hide again, will they?

"Yuanban," Weigong Shilang said to Su Lin as he left: "Please, keep maintaining the Gem Sword!"

"Weigong-kun," Tohsaka Rin gazed at the sky, her Gem Sword trembling slightly, causing the Parallel World image above to flicker.

"This is a dream, isn't it?"

She suddenly smiled beautifully, like a flower in full summer bloom.

"Definitely a dream," Tenzan Lixiang rubbed his eyes, took a breath, and clapped his hands:

"Alright, we can return to Chaldea. There's no Special Point or Anomaly Belt—what do you think, Mash?"

Even if there is a Special Point, it's probably that one—the kind of Sub-Special Point that appeared in dreams before.

"Senpai, don't give up," Mash's voice was slightly panicked.

"That just now seemed right—ask Jeanne and the other Church Servants!"

"A tremendous presence seems to have joined this Holy Grail War."

El-Melloi II frowned, gazed deeply at Weigong Shilang, then quickly regained some composure.

"The person who appeared beside Weigong Shilang just now seems to know him—I'll go see if I can gather any information."

But the Chaldea side—Da Vinci and others—had gone silent; no one knew whether they were stunned or analyzing the current situation.

At this moment, the remaining seven representatives of the apex lifeforms from other planets in the Solar System began their counterattack. Unlike the primates dwelling on this planet, they had no clear concept of Su Lin's appearance and no extraneous emotions.

Sent by the planetary will, they were embodiments of the planetary will itself—its sole purpose: to resume the interrupted action and complete the mission.

Even though that individual had demonstrated the power to annihilate them.

Yet many of the Servants summoned by the Counterforce did not know how to act; they prayed, hoping their deity would grant them revelation.

The Celestial Corpse floated freely through the cloud sea, selecting a suitable seedbed; when it chose a growth site, it descended from the heavens and rooted itself into the earth.

"Will that one strike again?"

Before Mash could finish speaking, a heavy sound of iron hooves echoed from the horizon—like horses trampling the earth, yet coming from beyond the sky.

From the moment the God eliminated the Black Giant to now, barely a minute had passed. Just as everyone thought that being would strike again to destroy the remaining seven "Aristotles," thunderous hoofbeats reverberated across the city's sky.

Then, the neighing of horses echoed throughout heaven and earth.

In the void, thousands upon thousands of crows flew in from nowhere, forming a black vortex.

"Did those planetary-level spiritual base entities launch an attack?!"

The answer came in the next second—for the Pluto lifeform whose body oozed highly corrosive blood.

Or the being three kilometers long, its body shaped like a cross, its outer skin formed of luminous minerals, releasing a rain of light to pierce the earth and trigger earthquakes.

Or Oort, who had traveled from the distant Oort Cloud, slept on Earth for years, and resembled a spider, roughly forty meters in length.

All these entities were attacked simultaneously!

A golden tide surged across the earth—the shield that had been cast and shattered before now reappeared, covering the planet's surface—but Weigong Shilang beneath the Great Holy Grail made no move.

Boom—

"Sssss!!!"

A piercing, unyielding shriek of pure fury rang out, accompanied by the crisp, recurring sound of shattering crystal—a massive, black, curved spear wrapped in pure light struck Oort down fifty li from Yuanzang Mountain.

Instantly, when all eyes turned toward that spot, it was not that "God" who appeared—but a colossal eight-legged celestial steed!

The steed exhaled Lei Ting, stepped forth upon the waves, its back bearing a curved spear, crows circling above its head; the deity upon its back was wreathed in flame, raising the spear high, a lightning orb coalescing at its tip, illuminating Oort's monstrous spider-legs.

The impossibly hard shell, alongside shattered crystal, reflected

The lone-eyed figure clad in dark-gold armor, draped in a dark-blue windcloak.

(End of Chapter)