Mage? Magic Engineer!

Even black holes evaporate. In fact, as an artificially induced mimic, it required Rorschach to continuously pour in Magic Power to maintain its spatial effects.

All the flesh and blood was rapidly sloughing off and being torn apart. The instant before concepts like temperature, mass, and velocity lost all meaning, it was ejected and converted into pure energy. Then, under Rorschach’s control, this energy was in turn used to sustain the black hole.

In theory, it would become self-sustaining until all visible and superficial contaminants were eliminated.

But an unexpected change occurred. Rorschach was currently using the vessel body created by Axiom Creation, and when he cast such powerful Magic, the stability of the bond with his Soul seemed to be affected. ’No, perhaps the problem runs deeper, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.’

’Just a little longer...’ He estimated that if he held on for less than an hour, all the flesh and blood would disappear. It would probably leave massive ravines and craters in the ground where a city once stood, like the surface of an apple after a small bite.

Rorschach wished it would be over sooner.

The black hole overhead seemed to have come alive. It could apparently hear and understand his innermost thoughts. The power of its devouring, grinding digestion spilled out, creating thick, arcing tendrils that constantly churned the surrounding flesh and earth, frantically shattering and absorbing it all.

’No, this isn’t what I wanted.’ Rorschach frowned, realizing the dangerous thing he had created was undergoing an even more dangerous transformation.

"Don’t you feel that something is amiss?"

A man’s voice suddenly rang out! Rorschach tensed instantly. ’Anyone who can get this close to me right now has to be a force to be reckoned with.’

He focused his gaze and saw a tall, middle-aged man with long, greasy hair. His gray, patched clothes appeared to be a Monk’s robes. Most peculiar of all, the man was standing on a door panel as if it were a boat, using a random flat piece of wood as a paddle. He rode the violent currents with ease, completely unaffected by the terrifying pull.

At his feet lay a burlap sack, just large enough to hold a person, and it was currently bulging.

Air, sucked into the mutated black hole, became a gale that howled past Gregory’s side. But his feverish shouts were even more tumultuous than the wind:

"People can never realize what miracles the Creator works through their hands! Only in hindsight can fools be moved to regret, remorse, or uncontrollable joy and trembling!"

"Unknown Mage, do you have any idea what you have created?"

The mad Monk’s eyes rolled so far back it seemed he was trying to see his own brain, leaving only the trembling whites. "Ha, haha! This is the true symbol of the Great Mother!

"To devour and then spew forth! To grant all things their end and then birth everything anew!

"Even the most devout believers cannot comprehend the meaning of Her dominion. They are merely thrilled by the scant Divine Power in an herb, or weep with gratitude when their own infirmities are healed.

"Even Her most favored and blessed would not dare conjure the Great Mother’s most primordial symbol under the gaze of other, false gods, nor can they resonate with Her so wantonly.

"And yet you have done it, young man! If you survive this, you will surely become an agent of the Mother Goddess’s will."

Seeing the severely mutated black hole, Gregory was driven into a frenzy. Rorschach, in contrast, remained perfectly calm, showing no signs of stopping or panicking.

"Primordial symbol? You mean that black celestial body in the Supreme Heaven?"

He remembered that in the Supreme Heaven, two giant celestial bodies—one black, one white—were in constant rotation. Compared to them, all other stars were but mere specks in the void.

They were the origin point of the universe’s creation and the final destination where everything was devoured. Their orbital dance continuously broadcast matter and energy in all directions.

"So you are not as ignorant as you seem. Do you understand now what these false gods and foolish mortals are fighting against? Do you—do all of you—truly intend to halt the turning of the world itself?

"Of course, most people are happy and content, just as countless others have died in blissful ignorance in the past.

"In the future, there will be no difference between those who resist the end and those who await the Mother’s embrace and forgiveness with all their hearts. They will all reach the end together. The same goes for the other Divine Spirits."

Gregory seemed to recall something. "Oh, that’s right. The false gods were the first to die. Only two or three are still in their death throes, even going so far as to cede their dominion and share their power with mortals..."

As Gregory rambled on, Rorschach noticed the black hole mutating further. The surface of the arcs flaring from it began to melt, dripping a viscous substance that now looked exactly like tentacles.

Furthermore, after absorbing and breaking down matter, it no longer dissolved it into the most primitive energy. Instead, it was accumulating that energy, gestating something within itself.

An incredibly oppressive aura gushed forth from deep underground, letting out a bestial roar as it passed through subterranean caverns.

Rorschach didn’t feel that the black hole he’d created was completely out of his control. On the contrary, he felt a nascent mental connection with it. A vague call reached him from within the chaos.

It had not only developed a consciousness, but was also inviting its creator to merge with the Black Ball.

’This form is not suitable for the Prime Material Plane...’ It transmitted this fragment of knowledge, along with a wave of pain.

Yes, the Black Ball was in pain. It had to constantly devour just to sustain itself, and the environment was filled with an aura it hated, not to mention the sunlight pouring down from the sky.

Only if Rorschach’s current "perfect body" and the Great Mage’s Soul merged with it, completing it, could the thing it was gestating finally be born.

And in return, Rorschach would gain unparalleled power...

The psychic call persisted. The black tentacles, while scooping up their "liquid food," cautiously approached Rorschach, as if trying to act like a gentleman extending a polite invitation.

Gregory watched on with satisfaction, not even bothering to hide the envy in his eyes. His expression clearly said, ’If you won’t take the offer, I will!’

Realizing the situation was now irreversible, Rorschach’s movements grew sluggish, his expression vacant. Fissures, like cracks in weathered stone, appeared on his body, with a brilliant, multicolored light shining from the gaps.

His movements slowed to a crawl. Finally, he uttered a few last words:

"Looks like I’ve... screwed up..."

The living black hole, able to sense Rorschach’s emotions, immediately grew excited. Thinking its creator had resigned himself to his fate, it hastily wrapped its tentacles around Rorschach’s body.

However, he wasn’t finished speaking: "Fortunately... in this world... no one understands... A-R-T... better... than I do!"

This was far from the first time Rorschach had dealt with such an incident. Being highly experienced, he had already considered the dangers of his true self acting personally, the necessity of using an avatar, and the significant risk of that avatar being co-opted.

Although events had gone awry—with his own creation being twisted and contaminated—his prior arrangements could, thankfully, still be put to use.

The moment this body had turned vacant, his Soul had already returned to the Boundary Land. It then "played" a pre-recorded sequence of actions and words.

From within this body, at the point where the Magic Circuits converged and the energy density was highest, [Rorschach’s Microscopic Decomposition Technique] activated. Within a minuscule speck of matter, the Nuclear Force was canceled out by a repulsive Magic Power.

This body had been created from Transmuting Dust. Though the dust had been stripped of its Divine Power and modified, its high-energy, unstable properties now reasserted themselves, reaching their apex through a chain reaction.

"F..." Gregory cursed. Seeing that the young Mage’s move to self-destruct was seriously wrong, he did something he had wanted to do moments ago but hadn’t dared:

He tucked the burlap sack under his arm and leaped, actively merging with the Black Ball that had been mutated and catalyzed by the Earth Mother Goddess.

In that instant, Ovord was the entire world. The space between heaven and earth first flashed bright, then plunged into darkness, then blazed with light once more, before finally falling silent.