For the first time in millennia, hope had a face.
Her name was Eris.
And somewhere within her spirit — deep, faint, and trembling — was a spark of something once lost.
She had begun experimenting.
Not in magic, not in combat, but in ideas.
Using the crystal Caelum left behind, she began reconstructing the schematics of a machine once known only to Lysia Verrian. She spoke to herself with the same cadence. She drew symbols with uncanny precision. Sometimes, she even laughed like her.
Caelum watched from the shadows of his hidden sanctum.
And he remembered.
For the first time since Lysia died, he began to remember why he once loved the world.
But not everyone welcomed this.
In the Divine Realm
The gods were watching.
They had watched the War of Eight Billion.They had watched the destruction of the heroes.They had watched their temples fall one by one in silence.
And now — now — they watched in horror as her soul flickered back into the world.
The gods spoke among themselves.
"He's found a new vessel.""The curse did not break him — it sharpened him.""He cannot be allowed to have her again."
And so, they descended.
The Second Fall
On a quiet morning, when the sky should've been blue, clouds twisted into golden maelstroms.
Eris stood in a forest clearing, adjusting the floating coils of a mana circuit she had rebuilt from memory.
Then the world went silent.
Seven beings of light appeared around her — beautiful, towering, and terrible.
Their halos burned like stars.Their weapons were forged from pure divinity.
They looked down at her as one would look at a virus.
"You carry something that does not belong in this age," the first said.
"You will not be allowed to awaken her fully," said the second.
"You are an error," the third declared.
Eris trembled. "I… I don't even know what you're talking about."
The gods raised their weapons.
"Then you will die in ignorance."
The Return of the Immortal
But before the blades could fall—
He came.
The sky split open with no sound.A dark line carved through space itself.And from that breach stepped a man wrapped in black, silver-haired, eyes filled with stormlight and eternal sorrow.
Caelum.
The gods stopped.
They recognized him.
One whispered, "…It's him. The Cursed One. The Godkiller."
Eris turned, eyes wide. "You came…"
He said nothing.
He simply stepped forward.
"Leave her."
The gods raised their weapons again.
And the world turned white.
The Slaughter of Heaven
The fight was not balanced.
The gods had numbers.
Power.
Eons of worship behind them.
But Caelum had something else:
Every martial art ever conceived.
Every magic school, broken and rebuilt.
Every spell, rewritten for destruction.
A mind that understood not just what gods were—but how they could die.
One by one, they fell.
He dismantled the war god's spear by turning its faith against itself.He shattered the voice god's mouth with sound woven from silence.He burned the goddess of purity with memories of humanity's filth.He killed the god of time with a blade that erased moments from existence.
And when only one remained—
The sky turned black.
The Throne Beyond Skies
He was summoned.
Not asked.
Not invited.
Pulled.
Caelum's body vanished in a beam of divine fire, and when he opened his eyes, he stood before the only god who had ever spoken to him directly.
The Supreme One.
The god of all creation.The one who had cursed him with eternity.The one who had watched Lysia die and did nothing.
He sat on a throne carved from galaxies.
Behind him, time did not exist.
His eyes saw everything.
"You have killed my children," the god said.
Caelum didn't bow.Didn't speak.
He drew his blade again.
The Supreme God raised a hand.The blade shattered.
And then—
They fought.
Not with weapons.
But with laws.
Caelum rewrote the laws of motion. The god turned his thoughts into gravity wells.Caelum bled stars. The god bled creation.Caelum screamed, and galaxies shuddered. The god whispered, and black holes ignited.
It was not a battle of power. It was a clash of definitions.
And in the end…
Caelum lost.
The Choice Beyond Defeat
The god stood over him.
"You are strong. Stronger than any mortal."
He knelt beside Caelum, eyes unreadable.
"And still you fight. For a soul long gone. For a girl reborn in pieces."
Caelum coughed blood and whispered, "You… let her die…"
"I did," the god admitted. "Because I wanted to see what you would become."
Silence.
Then the god held out his hand.
"In your defeat, I offer one final test."
A golden light formed in his palm — divine power, pure and boundless.
"If you truly want to change fate… take this. Rewrite the weave of the world."
Caelum reached out.
But the god pulled it back slightly.
"One condition," he said. "You may have power beyond limits. Time, stars, creation itself. Anything."
"…But not her."
The words hit harder than any blade.
"Not her," the god repeated.
"You will not resurrect Lysia. She belongs to a timeline that no longer exists. And even I… cannot return her."
Caelum trembled.
"…Then why offer me this?"
"Because you still believe you can save others. That is your curse. That is your hope."
The god smiled faintly.
"And hope… is the cruelest divine gift of all."
And with that—
He cast Caelum back to Earth.
Back on Earth
Caelum awoke in the clearing.
Eris was still there — untouched.
Sleeping.
He watched her chest rise and fall.
And for a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he whispered:
"They said I can't have you back…"
"…But maybe… maybe I can protect what you loved."
He looked up at the sky.
And for the first time in ten thousand years, he no longer asked the gods for answers.
Because now—
He would become the answer.