The accusation lingered in the void, echoing like a curse across the endless horizon of nothingness. For a long moment, Oblivion did not answer. His form, indistinct yet terrible, simply existed in the silence of the great expanse. When his voice finally emerged, it was not a sound so much as a truth imposed upon reality itself.
"I am Oblivion," he said, his tone stripped of all warmth. "I am the nothingness and the absence. I bear witness to all things… until the end."
The words only deepened the fury in the In-Betweener's eyes. The eternal arbiter's fists clenched, light and shadow twisting violently around his form.
"You dare lie to us?"
A second voice cut through, calm and implacable. Infinity's presence bent the void, her gaze weighing heavier than galaxies.
"Still your tongue, fool," she commanded, her voice like the ringing of eternal bells. "He is the role of Nothingness. He cannot possibly be human. Yet… once, during the First Cycle of destruction, he did become so. The vessel that could withstand the weight of Nothingness was a human soul—Ritsuka Fujimaru."
Her words rang like judgment. She did not accuse, nor did she excuse. She merely recited the truth.
"In that first ending, Oblivion watched the multiverse collapse, not as himself, but as a human. He did as he always has—he observed." Her gaze softened, almost imperceptibly. "And when the First Cycle was undone, he cast Ritsuka Fujimaru existence from creation. Not out of malice, but because the bond between them was… too strong. Too dangerous. Yet now, another variant appears. Strange."
"Ah, yes!" Death interrupted, her voice bubbling with irreverent glee, as though she had no place in so heavy a conversation. She spun through the darkness like a child playing with shadows, her tone mocking and sing-song.
"Father's vessel isn't special at all. But that little human—he's good at understanding things. The nature of things. That's what makes him interesting!" She tilted her head, her empty sockets glowing faintly. "But I must admit, I never expected to see another of him appear."
Her laughter echoed like bells in a graveyard. None of the others dignified her words with a response.
Oblivion's form shifted, blue eyes flaring against the void like dying stars. His voice rumbled, absolute and merciless.
"I was not behind this Ritsuka Fujimaru. He is not my avatar. He is too weak to ever be such a thing."
But the In-Betweener was not swayed. His rage grew hotter, a storm tearing at the edges of the void.
"Lies!" he thundered. "This stinks of your hand, as always. You hide truths, as you always have. Coward!"
His hatred burned with the bitterness of countless failures. Each time he had sought to pierce Oblivion's secrets, he had failed. And failure, repeated through eternity, had turned to loathing.
Still, Oblivion did not move. He merely gazed into the void, as though everything—including the In-Betweener's fury—was beneath his notice.
And that, more than any denial, was what the In-Betweener could not forgive.
Eternity's voice resonated like the echo of creation itself, breaking through the mounting tension.
"Enough," he declared, his vast silhouette shifting across the void. "Pointing fingers at him achieves nothing. What matters is who is this varient, and he killed pheonix, unforgivable!!."
The In-Betweener's twin-colored eyes narrowed, wild and unhinged. To Eternity, he looked less like a cosmic arbiter and more like a lunatic drunk on contradictions.
Infinity sighed, her tone measured and graceful. "Then let us summon the Watcher. He may hold clarity where we do not."
Before her words could settle, space itself warped. A green-suited figure, masked and radiating the obnoxious energy of a fool who stumbled into places he shouldn't, swaggered into the council.
"Yo, boss! I brought your boy Uatu!" the stranger called, his voice grating and unserious. "Got some TVA crap to deal with. Don't wait up!"
Without further explanation, the masked enigma vanished as suddenly as he appeared. In his wake, Uatu the Watcher descended, solemn and immense, bowing his bald head toward the assembly of abstract beings.
"Hierarchy of everything," Uatu greeted, his voice the weight of inevitability. "The one you speak of—Ritsuka Fujimaru—did not emerge from your natural order. He was drawn here, summoned by human ritual. And he did not come alone. Others of his kind walk with him—humans imbued with forces that echo across realities."
The Watcher's enormous eyes flared, projecting visions of the summoning. The flickering images painted Ritsuka's arrival, his companions, and the strange ripple they caused in the fabric of the multiverse.
Death, her voice melodic yet childlike, broke the silence in a sing-song tone. "So he is the father vessel's variant? How delightful. And he is… handsome. My father was always so serious. Now I have both serious dad and handsome dad." She giggled, twirling as if mocking the severity of the council.
The others ignored her.
"This Ritsuka Fujimaru," Uatu continued with cold certainty, "is no product of this world. If he were a time-born anomaly, the TVA would have claimed him. He is beyond their sight."
For once, Oblivion stirred. His vast emptiness shifted, and his eyes—cold blue X's glowing in the dark—flickered with a rare spark of curiosity. "its real…" His voice was emptiness given form, and even Infinity turned her gaze toward him.
"What do we do with Ritsuka Fujimaru?" she asked softly, as though balancing possibility in her hand.
The In-Betweener's reply was immediate, sharp, and absolute. "He must be destroyed. His world is fractured. Its instability bleeds into the multiverse. If it is not erased, it will trigger an INCURSION. The collapse of everything."
A silence fell. Then, shockingly, Oblivion's nothingness resonated in agreement.
"The balance falters. Already the fault lines spread," Oblivion murmured. "The fracture will invite destruction. Incursion is not a possibility—it is an inevitability."
Infinity's gaze hardened. "Then we must act, before it comes to pass."
The In-Betweener's lips curved in a smile that promised both wisdom and malice. He tilted his head toward Oblivion, suspicion flickering in his mismatched eyes, but pressed on.
"There is one answer," he said, with a tone that dripped finality. "Let the Black Winter consume that world. The Devourer of Worlds will cleanse what is broken. Balance demands sacrifice." His smile widened, though a sliver of doubt lingered. "The timing is perfect. The Black Winter stirs once more. Better to feed it a doomed world than risk the ruin of the 616 Universe."
The council stirred uneasily, their infinite forms shifting like storms across existence. The solution was cruel. But necessity… necessity was never merciful.
The stillness of the Void Dimension fractured when the Living Tribunal raised a hand.
Three faces turned as one, their voice reverberating through every layer of reality.
"For the sake of the Multiverse, I pass judgment," the Tribunal declared. "Universe 40498 has risen beyond its rightful balance. Its power threatens incursion. I sentence it… to end."
The decree shook the nothingness around them, law woven into being.
"Universe 616 is the cornerstone of existence. It must endure and protected. Thus, 40498 shall be offered to the Black Winter. It will be devoured and erased, serving as the sacrifice needed for balance. From this moment forward, all aid to this doomed universe realm is sealed. To help them is forbidden… and will be considered rebellion against me."
The pronouncement rang like a cosmic gavel striking eternity.
The In-Betweener's mismatched gaze flared. His lips curled, happiness flooding him as if he had won the game at last. Ritsuka Fujimaru—the anomaly—would be destroyed, and with him, Oblivion's supposed vessel.
But when his eyes slid toward Oblivion, seated in his eternal silence, the triumph faltered. The void-being had not resisted, had not argued. Instead… there was something in his stillness, a faint smile concealed within nothingness.
The In-Betweener's stomach turned. He realized, too late, that he had been maneuvered.
"You…" he hissed, voice like a blade. "You're hiding something again. What are you planning?"
Oblivion's form flickered like the echo of erasure. His eyes—those cold, glowing blue X's—burned in the void.
"I plan nothing," Oblivion said, his voice a calm abyss. "I am witness. I am the end. Nothing more."
The In-Betweener bared his teeth, his fury barely restrained. "Hmph. Fine. But not even you can go against the Living Tribunal. He is the strongest among us. His word is law."
Silence.
Then Oblivion's voice, low and unfathomable, cut through creation like a knife.
"I wonder… do you truly believe he is the strongest here?"
The words lingered, poisonous and heavy. None dared to answer.
One by one, the entities dissolved into their realms—Eternity and Infinity folding into endless starscapes, Death humming as she vanished into shadow, the In-Betweener burning with rage as he stormed into contradiction.
Only two remained.
The Living Tribunal turned, his golden scales shimmering with infinite judgment. For a rare moment, one of his three faces curved with something akin to humor.
"…So. Is this part of your plan, Oblivion?" the Tribunal asked.
Oblivion's silence was unbroken, vast and unknowable.
"Hahahaha," the Tribunal chuckled, an unsettling sound in the void. "I know your games. You plan everything perfect. You will let your variant's universe fall, but you have… contingencies to save it. You always do. I will not interfere. Not this time. I shall keep a blind eye upon you."
The Tribunal's light dimmed as he vanished, leaving Oblivion alone in the expanse.
For a long time, nothing stirred. Then, slowly, Oblivion's vast throne of emptiness pulsed.
"…Interesting," he murmured, his voice carried to no one and yet everywhere. His gaze turned toward the mortal realm, to a single name echoing across existence.
"It has been… immeasurable time. And yet… never did I think to hear that name again."
Memories, faded and fractured, bled into the silence. A boy, once human. A soul that had carried him through the first multiversal cycle. A name that still clung to his essence.
Ritsuka Fujimaru.
Oblivion's cold eyes flickered with faint amusement.
"If you are truly Ritsuka Fujimaru reborn… then I already know how you will act. I already know your path. Every step. Every choice."
The nothingness curved into something like a smile.
"Because we are one. The end."
And with that, Oblivion disappeared into his own silence, leaving the multiverse to tremble beneath the weight of what was yet to come.
---
[Vormir – Persent Year 2008]
The winds of the dead world howled. Vormir was silence incarnate, broken only by the echoing whispers of the cursed souls bound to its barren rock.
From the veil of nothingness, a figure emerged. The dark presence of Oblivion—not bound by life, not bound by death—materialized upon the cold ground. His arrival warped the stillness of the planet itself.
The spectral guardian stepped forth, his crimson cloak dragging against stone as though tethered by eternity itself.
Red Skull.
He knew the presence of every soul, every shade that came to Vormir. But this one—this being—was wrong. His hollow eyes widened. He could not read it. He could not measure it. He could not even comprehend it.
Red Skull: "…You… are not bound to the laws of this place. Who… are you?"
Oblivion did not so much as glance at him. His voice resounded like judgment itself, echoing through the air, heavy and inevitable.
Oblivion: "Do not concern yourself, wraith. I am not here for you."
The entity drifted past him as though the cursed guardian were beneath acknowledgment. Step by step, the void-born figure approached the altar—the very heart of Vormir.
Upon it rested nothing. The Soul Stone… did not exist yet.
Red Skull trembled, compelled to speak, as though silence would only worsen his dread.
Red Skull: "…In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. A soul—"
His words were cut short.
A shift in reality itself answered him. Space bent, cracking like fragile glass, as Oblivion raised his hand. From his palm, concepts were rewritten—the absence filled with existence.
A surge of light coalesced into form.
The Soul Stone was created.
The fabric of Vormir screamed as the impossible was made real.
Red Skull staggered backward, horror etched across his face.
Red Skull: "…You—what are you…?"
Oblivion's eyes, endless and merciless, finally turned toward him.
Oblivion: "You will take this stone. Guard it as you always have. But when the time comes… you will give it."
Red Skull's voice cracked with desperation, half awe, half terror.
Red Skull: "…To whom…?"
The darkness around Oblivion stirred, and for the first time, his tone carried weight beyond command—it carried purpose.
Oblivion: "To a foolish human who will come for it. Remember this name—Fujimaru Ritsuka."
The cursed warden felt the name burn into his very existence. He nodded, unable to defy.
Red Skull: "…As you command."
Oblivion gave no acknowledgment. His gaze turned away, as though this world, this warden, and even the Stone itself were beneath the true vastness of his being.
And then—like a shadow retreating into nothingness—he was gone.
Leaving behind only silence.
Silence, and the weight of a name.
---
Note: this is the end of phoenix arc. The universe which Ritsuka was in is sentence to destroy. And the reason is because of Ritsuka and fgo characters. They are too OP. In a way Ritsuka indirectly caused this. This is actually a huge turning point of the story. That's why this arc is very important to whole story. I took this inspiration from my favourite Marvel FF.
Oblivion is the only character who can go against fate characters head on. He strongest after TOAA and TOBA.
I actually had one more surprise and the real reason for why I stopped introducing Fgo Characters to the story. I will reveal it in next arc starting chapters. Another reason is i don't want to focus more on Fgo characters. Just wait for next chapter.