Wish of the Honkai: Saga Eins

{21}- Reason & Sacrifice | The Final Countdown

[Fenghuang Down, 1st Power: Oneiric Emergence]

[Sunderer of Reality]

The blade of flames and light descended upon Otto Apocalypse, destroying all of his Divine Key simulations. As he held on to his Oath of Judah, Void Archives unleashed a blast of energy upwards to counter the attack brought forth from the dreamscape.

"We've won-"

BA-DUMP

An unusual yet suffocating feeling took over my entire body, and I felt myself on the verge of collapse. "Shit, what the hell-"

Master Gabriel! Your Honkai reserves are hitting its lowest possible point! If you keep this up, you'll lose your physical form! 

"Hah... no wonder.... I suppose I did use up too much energy... saving Edison, creating the Ethereal Sandbox, and activating its Zeroth Power..."

I was about to collapse until I saw Welt at the edge of my vision, who was still holding onto his Star of Eden, unleashing its maximum output of gravity downwards, locking Otto and Void Archives in place.

"Damn it... I can't just give up here, can I?"

Summoning the last of my strength, I detached my armour and shot it towards Void Archives, halting its energy beam and knocking it out of the gravitational imprisonment circle. As it clattered to the floor, Otto's last line of defence against the full might of Fenghuang Down's 1st Power came undone, and he was inches away from the gigantic blade of flames.

Then I reached my limit. 

I didn't want to admit it, but I failed.

Because milliseconds before it hit, the Unceded Reality came undone, and I fell to the floor before we seemingly descended 5 meters each, all flopping onto the ground. In the air above me, several machinery parts faded out of existence, including certain parts that looked like mimicries of Abyss Flower, Void Archives, and the Star of Eden.

It was at this moment I finally realized what the Ethereal Sandbox's Zeroth Power really was.

The 3rd, 2nd, and 1st were all enigmas to me. I simply 'knew' how it worked when Ritsu transferred the information to me in the mindscape, but as for the Zeroth, even Ritsu couldn't decipher it. But now I see it. And Otto probably saw through it too.

I should've realized it the moment he used Elysion Pedion. Otto's Void Archives couldn't use the Zeroth Power of its simulated Divine Keys, so why was he able to in my reality? And the same with me, with Fenghuang Down?

The Unceded Reality has a law for every worldscape it creates. The law for that particular mindscape was 'any Divine Key's Zeroth Power can be used unconditionally, but the other powers remain the same in terms of energy consumption. No wonder I felt no pressure in doing so when I unleashed that Quasi Black Hole from my Star of Eden copy. But as for Cosmic Juggernaut...

 I believe I see the reason to what it is now, Master Gabriel. 

Ritsu's voice came through, and I responded immediately.

"What do you mean?"

I placed a camera on the outside world before the Key boxed us in that worldscape. It turns out that you did not create any imaginary space, nor did you rewrite the laws in that particular plane. I'm assuming Otto and Void Archives learned of this too in the final moments. 

So? What is it? 

Although I believe that according to your plans and potential, you could indeed achieve the previously mentioned feats. However, just now, you made something similar to a VR and AR game.