Tues's laughter was a venomous thing as he pointed at Verlord. "Nero. Kill him."
Nero, his eyes glazed over, his senses still trapped in the illusion of the Gate of the Second, obeyed. He lunged, a fist powered by the fused might of Divine and Hell Gates aimed to erase Verlord from existence.
But at the last possible millimeter, the blow faltered. The world-shattering power behind it simply... vanished. The punch landed with no more force than a gentle push.
Tues's smirk vanished. "What? Again?!" he snarled. "Nero! Kill him! NOW!"
He barked the order over and over, but each subsequent strike from Nero was weak, hesitant, powerless. Enraged and confused, Tues strode forward to physically inspect his puppet.
That was his mistake.
The moment he was within arm's reach, Nero's eyes snapped into focus. Clarity and fury blazed within them. It was a trap.
CRACK-BOOM!
Nero's next move wasn't a technique; it was pure, concentrated vengeance. An "All-in-One" strike that channeled every ounce of his rage, his pain, and his will into a single point. It connected with Tues's chest with the sound of a continent breaking. Ribs shattered into dust. Tues's eyes bulged in utter shock before he was hurled backwards, consciousness fleeing for a few precious microseconds.
The hold of the Gate of the Second broke.
Nero fell to one knee, gasping, the real world crashing back into his perception.
Baltimore rushed to his side. "Child! Are you alright? What happened?"
"It's you, Grandpa Baltimore," Nero panted, disoriented. "I... I don't know. It was like all my senses were lying to me."
"It was the essence of the Second Gate," Verlord stated grimly, his own body trembling with adrenaline.
Nero's eyes widened. A memory surfaced: Obsidian and a mysterious figure whispering, 'All complexities lie in simplicities.'
"So that's what it meant," Nero whispered. "But how do I fight it?" He surged to his feet, his gaze locking onto the stirring form of Tues. He charged.
Everyone watched, horrified, as the scene repeated itself. Just centimeters from Tues, Nero's fist froze in mid-air. His eyes glazed over again. The illusion had reclaimed him.
Tues scrambled back, creating distance, his face a mask of fury and pain as he used his power to mend his shattered ribs. "How?!" he spat, blood trickling from his lips. "How did he break free? He's only a First Gate user! I must be careful..."
Enraged, he turned his power on Verlord and Baltimore. "You two! Attack him!"
Under the compulsion of the Gate of the Second, the two powerful figures had no choice. They turned on Nero, launching a brutal assault. They beat him down, but Nero's Hellvine form was too resilient, his healing factor too strong. Their efforts, while devastating, could not land a permanent injury.
Tues saw an opportunity in the chaos. He's distracted, fighting them while still under my influence. This is my chance.
He focused, gathering energy for a spiritual attack—a technique designed to sever Nero's Spiritual Root, the core tether between his soul and body. Once severed, it could never be healed by any physical or magical means. It was absolute annihilation.
"Got you!" Tues hissed, unleashing the invisible lance of energy.
But Nero, even blinded and deafened by the illusion, moved. He dodged with impossible perfection, the attack harmlessly slicing through empty space. In the same motion, he retaliated, his fist blowing Tues's head apart for a second time.
Tues reformed further away, now utterly infuriated. He discarded Verlord and Baltimore like toys and charged Nero directly. "HOW?! How are you detecting me?!"
Nero let him come closer, and closer still. A cold smile touched Nero's lips. "Caught you."
He had prepared his own spiritual attack. A blade of pure soul energy meant to sever Tues's heart from his body. Tues twisted at the last nanosecond, and the blow meant for his heart sheared through his arm instead. The limb disintegrated into motes of light, and Tues was sent flying miles away, screaming in agony.
As he crashed, Tues's analytical mind, honed over millennia, finally pieced it together. He felt it—the way the very energy in reality thinned around Nero. He's using his own immense aura as a sonar net, Tues realized. He floods the area with his spiritual pressure. Anything that enters it, he feels the shape of its spirit. That's how he's tracking my true location through the illusions!
Nero approached as Tues stood, clutching his vanished arm.
"You use your aura as a spiritual radar," Tues stated, his voice laced with a grudging respect. "You feel the shape of any spirit that enters your field. That's how you differentiate my true presence, even under my control. Am I right?"
Nero offered a faint, tired smile. "You're smart enough. I don't need to correct you. And this trick of yours... it won't work on me again."
Tues returned the smile, a horrifying, manic thing. "Then how about the Third Gate?"
"Field of Maya."
The world dissolved. The Astral Plain, Aryavarta, the stars—everything vanished, replaced by a shifting, hellish landscape of nightmare and desire. This was the power of the Third Gate: not terraforming, but absolute reality-warping illusion.
I have to end this now, Nero thought, desperation clawing at him. I don't understand the full scope of the Second Gate, and now he's using the Third. If I miss my chance, I'm dead.
He pushed his aura-sensing technique to its absolute limit, but in this manufactured reality, even his spiritual sonar was distorted. He couldn't pinpoint Tues. "What is this crazy power?!" he roared in frustration.
He focused harder. I won't fail. I won't fail! Hurry... show yourself!
A presence materialized right behind him. "Caught you." Tues's voice was a whisper, but his speed was magnitudes faster than before. A blade of condensed reality, aimed at Nero's heart, thrust forward.
Is this how it ends? Nero thought, the world slowing to a crawl.
SHUNK.
But the blade did not pierce his heart. A figure had materialized between them, taking the lethal blow meant for Nero.
The sacrifice created a microsecond of opening. Nero didn't waste it. He struck with everything he had, a blow fueled by grief and fury.
KOOOOOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic. The "Field of Maya" shattered like glass. The real universe snapped back into view. The force of Nero's counterattack obliterated nearly a third of the planet Earth and every celestial body behind it in the solar system. A parallel wave of energy from Tues's failed strike annihilated everything in the opposite direction. When the light faded, only the ravaged, broken husk of Earth remained, floating alone in a void of debris.
Nero, breathing raggedly, looked at the faceless, shimmering figure that had saved him. It began to dissolve into light.
"Who...?" Nero whispered.
Baltimore, his face etched with profound sorrow, answered. "They were the wandering souls... all those slain by Fernando's tyranny. They saw you fighting for their justice. When Tues activated his Third Gate, they... they called to me. They asked me to forge them a temporary alchemical vessel, one strong enough to hold thousands of souls for a few minutes."
Nero—and through their bond, Eri—felt a wave of devastating emotion. "But why? Why would they...? Hey! Are you okay?!" Nero called out to the fading light.
"They are gone," Baltimore said, his voice breaking. "Vanished into nothingness. That was the price for saving you. A final, complete erasure."
Nero fell to his knees, a silent prayer for the nameless souls who had given everything for him.
Verlord approached cautiously. "Hey, boy... is it over?"
Nero's whole body trembled with unimaginable fatigue. "I... I hope so."
CRACKLE.
The sound wasn't from the dying planet. It came from above.
Every survivor looked up. The sky tore open not in one place, but in a hundred. Through them marched an army. But these were not demons or mortals.
They were Gate Users. Dozens of them. Their auras radiated power that dwarfed Tues's—Second Gates, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and even Sixth. And at their head, a figure whose presence crushed reality itself: a Seventh Gate User. Beside them marched legions of powerful gods, Valkyries, and Archangels, a pantheon of absolute judgment.
The leader raised a hand, indifferent.
Nero reacted on pure instinct. He threw every last shred of his power into a barrier, enveloping his friends and the tiny spot of land they stood on.
The leader's hand swept down.
A wave of pure, undiluted cosmic authority washed over the Earth. It did not explode. It simply... ceased to be. The planet turned to ash and was scattered on the solar winds. Where Earth had been, a single, brilliantly shining object hovered: the Eternal Fragment.
A minion retrieved it and presented it to the leader.
Nero looked around. His barrier had held. They stood on a small, floating island of rock, the last remnant of their world. The horrifying realization dawned: everyone outside the barrier was gone. His mother. Every civilian. Every life that had once thrived on Earth. Erased.
Nero's grief curdled into a rage so vast it threatened to consume him. He looked at the leader, his voice a raw, broken thing.
"You bastard... What the FUCK do you think you are?!"
He charged, a final, desperate comet of fury against an uncountable galaxy of power. He was effortlessly swatted down by the mere minions of the army, his body broken, his power spent.
One of the minions leveled a weapon of pure light at Nero and his friends, ready to grant them the mercy of oblivion.