A massive platinum-white book floated high above Starsea.

One glowing word after another drifted from its pages and flew toward the gateways of the worlds.

Occasionally, words would also peel away from the Sigh Bridges that connected the prisons, leaving the bridges themselves and crossing into the worlds beyond.

It was almost as though the sighs could hear the call of those worlds and were willingly passing through their gates.

Once, BS Rita had used words to record civilizations and worlds.

Now, those same words were transforming back into civilizations and worlds, becoming places where living beings could once again settle and thrive.

One prison after another disappeared.

The cube-shaped prisons gradually transformed into forms familiar to every race.

They became the moons that countless beings would someday look up at each night.

For a time, every newly formed moon had several players gathered around it, working tirelessly to construct harbors and world docks.

Meanwhile, the players still stationed in the remaining prisons accelerated their invasions.

Because everyone had realized something.

Rita was rebuilding worlds faster than they were conquering prisons.

If this continued, BS Rita would end up waiting for them.

And nobody wanted that.

As time passed, Rita’s efficiency continued to increase.

While World Sigh was busy shaping worlds through its words, she would already be heading toward the next prison to harvest its Order.

The two processes advanced simultaneously.

By the twenty-third day of the game, the number of vanished prisons had reached five thousand.

Then Rita suddenly stopped.

She raised her head and looked toward the sky.

The enormous Eye of Surveillance, which occupied nearly the entire heavens, had opened once more.

Instantly, every living being across every prison felt it.

Everyone looked upward.

Whenever the Eye’s gaze descended, every Prisoner was forced to acknowledge it.

The prisons’ vision-blocking mechanisms no longer mattered.

No matter which prison they occupied.

No matter how deep inside its countless layers they were.

Everyone could see through every wall and every cell.

Everyone could see the world outside.

The second time.

It had opened for the second time.

And the pressure it brought was far greater than before.

Every remaining cube prison emitted harsh creaking noises.

The players who were still outside, constructing docks around the newborn worlds, were instantly reduced to ash.

Their bodies scattered into Starsea without even a chance to react.

At the same time, a tearing sound echoed through space.

The Sigh Bridges that had already lost their words shattered one after another.

Only the bridges that still retained fragments of text managed to survive.

Several prisons closest to the Eye had already begun to crack.

Rita reacted immediately.

Without hesitation, she converted every idle unit of soul fire into shields and spread them across the sky.

She placed them directly between Starsea and the Eye of Surveillance.

Vast quantities of soul fire condensed into nearly tangible blue flames.

The flames covered the heavens.

The shaking prisons stabilized.

The surviving bridges stabilized.

For a brief moment, the catastrophe halted.

Then things became worse.

Under the Eye’s gaze, four crimson points suddenly appeared on Rita’s body.

Her fatal weaknesses.

The Eye had found them.

The silver starlight within the Eye’s pupil began to shimmer.

The countless strands of cosmic mist drifting throughout Starsea immediately converged.

They formed arrows.

Massive arrows trailing brilliant tails of starlight.

Each one locked onto one of Rita’s four fatal points.

The attack came instantly.

Soul fire condensed around her body, creating layer upon layer of protective barriers.

But these arrows possessed terrifying penetration power.

They pierced through every defense.

Through every shield.

Through every layer of protection.

Then struck her weaknesses directly.

Her health dropped to seventy percent in an instant.

The situation became even more dangerous because Rita could not move.

Controlling nearly a hundred million soul fire at once resembled a massive channeling technique.

If she moved carelessly, the entire network of soul fire maintaining the prisons could collapse.

From the corner of her eye, she saw familiar figures attempting to leave their prisons and come to her aid.

Rita immediately created a new rule.

"No one may leave their prison."

The rule spread across Starsea.

At the same time, she sealed her Pet Space.

Completely.

Cutting off even the possibility of Nivalis reaching her through their bond.

As her authority took effect, every one of the remaining 4,999 prisons became surrounded by two gigantic rings made of white flower petals.

The rings rotated around the prisons like celestial halos.

Like chains.

Like planetary rings.

Sometimes intertwining.

Sometimes separating.

Yet never breaking.

At that moment, neither gods nor world leaders could escape.

Everyone was trapped.

Lightchaser exploded in the group chat.

[Lightchaser]: So when it’s her turn, suddenly nobody gets a choice anymore?!

[Deceitful Bloom]: She gave us one.

[Deceitful Bloom]: It’s a single-choice question.

[Lightchaser]: ???

[Lightchaser]: Whose side are you on?

[Deceitful Bloom]: ???

[Deceitful Bloom]: Definitely not yours.

[Lightchaser]: Don’t act innocent. I can literally see you trying to rush out too.

[Lynx Duke (Quiet Mountain)]: Lightchaser.

[Lightchaser]: Here we go again.

[Lightchaser]: Can you stop saying my name like a mother scolding her child? We’re not related!

[Cinders]: Lightchaser.

[Deceitful Bloom]: Lightchaser.

[Foolishness]: Lightchaser.

[Maple Syrup (Starsea)]: Lightchaser.

[Mistblade (Starsea)]: Lightchaser.

And then more followed.

Name after name.

Screen after screen.

Nothing but:

Lightchaser.

The elf stared at the flood of messages.

Then silently closed the chat window.

She stood with a sour expression and looked toward the figure high above Starsea.

Her mood was terrible.

Rationally, she knew the ending of this Epoch could not be called tragic.

Perhaps it wasn’t perfect.

But it wasn’t a disaster either.

Rationally, she also knew that if BS Rita couldn’t defeat the Eye of Surveillance, then the rest of them charging out would accomplish nothing.

Yet she still wanted to go.

And she knew everyone else felt the same.

Even the people joking around in chat.

Even the people pretending everything was fine.

Then Lightchaser’s expression slowly became strange.

Because Rita really had found a solution.

Nobody knew what skill she had used.

But the four glowing red points on her body suddenly began moving at incredible speed.

Lightchaser blinked.

"...What?"

Since when could fatal weaknesses move?

Why were Rita’s weak points completely different from everyone else’s?

The attacks intensified.

More and more starlight arrows appeared.

Yet because their numbers increased, their individual power decreased.

Soul fire transformed into countless shooting stars under Rita’s control.

They surged forward to intercept the incoming arrows.

Collision after collision filled the sky.

The assassination continued for half an hour.

A full thirty minutes.

During that time, nearly all available soul fire was diverted toward defense.

Every prison.

Every game.

Every invasion.

Everything stopped.

The entire flow of the Adjudicator Game came to a standstill.

Only after thirty minutes did the Eye finally close.

The surviving prisons once again lost sight of the outside world.

Vision restrictions returned.

The final thing Lightchaser saw before her prison was sealed once more was a throne formed from golden lightning.

And atop that throne sat Rita.

Her back perfectly straight.

Her posture flawless.

Her dignity untouched.

Anyone else might have been fooled.

But Lightchaser couldn’t be.

She had raised BS Rita herself.

She knew every expression.

Every habit.

Every sign.

And she could tell.

Rita was reaching her limit.

For the first time, a thought surfaced in Lightchaser’s heart.

If BS Rita were left behind in this Epoch forever...

Could anyone still call this ending a happy one?