---
The Milky Way burned with whispers. The Knoll fleets were gone, their Peak Galactics cleaved apart with one swing of a blade. Across the empire's core worlds, panic and awe spread faster than light.
Above the chaos, Kai hovered in the void, golden eyes half-lidded. Below, rebellion brewed like fire in dry grass.
Ema's voice shimmered beside him. "They're already fracturing. A single push, and the Knolls will collapse."
Kai's lips curved. "Let them cling to hope a little longer. A game isn't worth playing if the opponent folds too quickly."
His laughter drifted through the stars, quiet but heavy enough to bend the silence.
---
Far beyond the Milky Way, in a region forbidden to mortals, an ancient eye watched. The Primordial Overseer of the Outer Spiral, robed in threads of law and entropy, sifted through reports of the Knoll war.
When the latest transmission arrived, he nearly dismissed it as another failure. But as the footage played—the moment Kai whispered "Cleave" and a galaxy fleet split in half, existence itself unraveling—the Overseer's composure cracked.
He froze, staring at the impossible blade. His aura flickered, destabilizing the very chamber he sat in.
"This… is not Law. This is not Power. This is… Concept."
His breath shuddered. Without hesitation, he sealed the recording in a crystal of time and cast it upward, across the veils of reality.
"To the Council. At once."
--
The message pierced through layers of space, reaching the Fortress of the First Flame—the throne-world of the Primordial Humans.
It was not a citadel. Not a palace. It was a floating fortress the size of a supercluster, forged of living flame and eternal stone, drifting through the abyss like a god-made weapon. Stars shrank beneath its shadow; galaxies looked like sparks against its hull.
Around it, thousands of chained suns burned eternally, feeding its power. The fortress itself pulsed with laws so ancient that void-beasts dared not exist within ten million light years of its walls. To mortals, it was not a fortress. It was creation's executioner.
Within its heart sat the Council of Dominion—nine Primordial Humans whose presences rivaled galaxies. Each sat upon a throne carved from a different Law, their voices bending the void.
---
The Overseer's crystal was played.
Kai appeared, calm as still water, golden eyes cold. The moment Cleave was summoned, the chamber shook—not from the video, but from the resonance. Even across untold distance and barriers, the Concept bled through. For a heartbeat, even Monarchs felt as if they might be split apart.
The hall fell silent when the footage ended.
Finally, one Primordial broke the silence, his voice like colliding stars.
"A boy. An Early Sage. And yet… he cuts as though he were void incarnate."
Another sneered, radiance flaring like a billion suns.
"Overhyped. A lucky child wielding a strange weapon. The Knolls were always weak."
But an elder, draped in darkness older than time, spoke softly, and the others quieted.
"He did not kill them. He severed them. Their fates, their names, their futures… undone. That is Concept. And Concept is not luck. It is apocalypse."
The chamber quaked. Even Monarchs rarely wielded true Concepts.
The High Arbiter, clad in white fire, raised his hand. His aura pressed entire galaxies into silence.
"We debated a late Sage. That is folly. The Overseer was right to escalate. If this child matures, he will not be a threat. He will be an extinction."
His eyes burned, and his words carved themselves into the void.
"I propose a Monarch Enforcer."
--
The chamber erupted like a collapsing universe.
"A Monarch? Against a boy?"
"Insanity! We only hold six Universal Realm powers in all existence, and you would waste a Monarch on a child?"
"You overestimate him! His realm is Early Sage at best!"
But the High Arbiter's voice thundered over them all.
"You all felt it. Even through the recording, his Concept threatened to split us. What happens when he grows? Will you gamble the survival of our kind on arrogance?"
The arguments faltered. Reluctance lingered, but fear won.
Slowly, one by one, the Primordials lowered their heads.
The decision was sealed.
---
Deep within the Fortress, a chamber trembled. Chains of law unraveled, and a colossal figure stirred. His body was carved from voidsteel, his eyes twin eclipses. When he opened them, realms shivered.
Lord Calyrex, Monarch of the Ninth Filament.
A messenger bowed low, unable to withstand his aura. "My lord… the Council commands your descent. The target is named Kai. An Early Sage."
Calyrex rose, stretching, his very movement twisting spacetime. He almost laughed.
"A Sage? You woke me for this?"
But then the messenger handed him the crystal. Calyrex watched, silent. And when the moment of Cleave came, even he frowned. For an instant, his Monarch's aura buckled.
"…Concept." His grin widened, sharp and cruel. "Now I see."
He turned toward the abyss, voice like the tolling of a cosmic bell.
"It has been long since I cut down a rising star. Let this child amuse me before I erase him."
---
Back in the Milky Way
Far away, Kai stood above the fractured Knoll Empire, his eyes half-lidded. But in the depths of his soul, he felt it—a ripple. A predator's gaze from beyond the veil of galaxies.
Ema's voice was steady. "They debated long, but it is decided. A Monarch comes."
Kai's lips split into a slow, eager smile.
"Good. A late Sage would have been boring. But a Monarch… finally, a worthy stage."
His laughter echoed across the void.
"The Knoll Empire was just the warm-up. Now… the real fun begins."
---