"Rise! RISE my kin!"
RUMBLE!
"Obey! OBEY the summon of our Lord!"
RUMBLEEE—!
Atop a mountain of corpses that pierced the clouds, a floating skeletal figure raised his arms high. He watched with sinister glee as the mountain of corpses moved like a hundred million tiny pieces coming to life.
But it was not himself that he was happy for.
Turning around, the hooded skeletal figure dropped to the ground. Reverence filled his hollow fire-eyes as he looked up at a high-hovering shadowy silhouette whose every move radiated unimaginable power.
"My Lord, it is done!"
The shadowy being gave no response at first. A pair of crimson-red eyes could be glimpsed from within the veil of shadows surrounding him, and those eyes scrutinized everything like a god seeing through the truth of the world.
Then came his voice, sounding like it had been soaked in the deepest depths of Hell.
"Good," he said, an eerie grin creeping through his veil. "My Horde grows ever more."
"Yes, my Lord!"
The skeletal figure–who had a title so terrifying that even SSS-Rank Hunters would wet themselves in fear upon hearing it–acted like a loyal servant to the shadowy entity overlooking everything from above.
And it wasn't just him who acted this way, for when the mountain of corpses quit shaking and countless millions of the undead rose like a tsunami, they too displayed their absolute subservience. "LORD!" they roared, their distorted voices rippling like cannon blasts.
The Shadowy Overlord's unnerving grin widened, reaching both sides of his unseen face. "Go, my Horde, take this world as your trophy," he commanded, his voice resonating across heaven and earth like the will of God himself. "All the lives within will be your prey—Consume—Devour!—EVOLVE!!"
"ROOAARRGGHHH!!!"
An endless number of Undead of numerous different races shook the world with their bloodcurdling bellows. Trillions of lives all over the planet felt themselves sink into despair upon hearing this, all hope of surviving this catastrophe vanishing.
Zooming out from the evilly cackling Overlord and his incalculably large Horde, one could see the planet they were on. It was large–far larger than Earth–but the majority of its once lush surface was now obsidian-black, exuding the aura of death wherever one looked.
However, if you zoomed out even more, an even more horrifying image would appear… for this planet was but one among an innumerable number of darkened planets spanning several solar systems, Galaxies, and even clusters of Galaxies.
The only difference between this planet and the rest of them was that this one was still futilely struggling… whereas the rest had already fallen.
Fallen to the Horde.
"KAKAKAKA—!"
Evil laughter echoed throughout multiple Galaxies as the nemesis to all things living had his army of the Undead conquer yet another Highest-grade Life Planet.
"You who stand at the pinnacle of the Universe, do you remember now!?"
A voice laced with an incomprehensible level of hatred.
"Do you remember what you did that day!??"
The Shadowy Overlord became slightly deranged as he peered into the heavens above, looking at something only he could see.
Silence…
"No response…? Very well…" The Shadowy Overlord's expression froze–before he suddenly grinned wider than ever before. "VERY WELL—! THEN I'LL FORCE YOU TO REMEMBER!!"
"CONTINUE TO COWER ON YOUR PAPER THRONES—DO SO UNTIL THE DAY I COME UP THERE TO RIP YOU RIGHT OFF THEM!!"
OOOM!
The Heavens shook with an ungodly level of fury, but what more could they do other than that?
Having escalated to this point, there was no stopping it anymore.
There was no stopping the Horde.
There was no stopping the vengeful entity who commanded it.
There was no stopping… the Second Coming of the End.
And for an immovable force that could not be stopped, there was only one possible thing that could be done…
"Initiate the Reset."
An ancient, cosmic voice reverberated from a spot in the Universe that existed beyond normal means. The words spoken by this voice elicited gasps from other ancient entities; however, they soon quieted down when their highly advanced minds calculated every possible route and realized this was the only way forward.
At this realization, they along with the whole Universe went deathly silent.
Then, outside the Universe, in an endless sea of sparkling "marbles", the marble that represented their Universe dimmed and cracked.
"This!?"
The Shadowy Overlord felt something go terribly wrong, with the time-space continuum itself on the verge of collapse. It didn't take long for anger to consume his heart as he realized–even now–he was being denied his revenge.
"YOU DARE!??"
He wouldn't allow it!
He refused to allow himself to fall here!
He'd never accept being defeated by a group of cowards who'd rather sacrifice all life in the Universe than fight him themselves!
"YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! I SWEAR—!! I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILLLL YOUUU!! KILLL YOUUUUUUU—!!!"
CRACK—!
The cracks on the Universe's surface spread at breakneck speeds. And in his last moments, the Shadowy Overlord was able to glimpse the cosmic existences standing above all Mortals—the same ones who took everything from him.
He saw their indifference.
An indifference that considered him and every other living being as mere garbage.
The very same indifference they had in their cold gazes when they looked down at his crippled body all those years ago…
With a bubbling fury welling up within him, the Shadowy Overlord trembled. As his ethereal figure rapidly disintegrated, he spoke not with anger but with a calmness that terrified even the Cosmic Ancients themselves.
"If you think this is enough to keep me away from you, then you're sorely mistaken. You took me for a fun little plaything, did you not? You and every other Race that serves under you. ALL OF YOU DESERVE TO DIE. But no… That is too easy an ending for you–too merciful."
"For everything you've 'blessed' me with over the millennia, I'll ensure that you receive ten times the blessings. So wait for me. Anticipate the next time we meet—" With only half his face yet to disintegrate, a creepy grin was all that could be seen of the heavily disfigured face hidden beneath the veil. "—Because I know I will."
SHATTER—!
The Universe shattered, its fragments scattering in the endless Origin Sea—before eventually piecing itself back together in a different spot, where it would reside for the next unforeseeable amount of time.
The Catastrophe had been successfully averted.
And with the Astral Consciousnesses of the Ancient Cosmic Beings connected to the Universe itself, they lost nothing but the Power of Faith from this Reset.
They could start anew—with peace of mind at the absence of that abomination.
At least, that's what they thought would happen…
"Hmm?" The oldest of the Cosmic Ancients turned his starry head up, only to shockingly realize that reality was spinning. "T-This can't be…!"
To his and the horror of all the other Cosmic Ancients, they were forced into a temporal anomaly–where the timeline of the Universe started to rewind.
"NOOOoooo—!"
However, the shouts of the Cosmic Ancients fell on deaf ears—and the Universe's timeline rewinded to when the beginning of their eternal nightmare first began…