Youri stood suspended in the endless, silent expanse of the watery abyss, the dark currents drifting slowly around him like a living void. There was no sky here, no ground—only the illusion of depth stretching infinitely in every direction. Faint ripples of dim light moved beneath him, as if something vast stirred far below the surface of reality itself.
In front of him hovered Altopereh.
No longer the towering, world-devouring entity he once knew, it now existed in a condensed, humanoid form—its body composed of dense antimatter layered over a frame that mimicked a human shape. Yet despite its size, its presence distorted the abyss around it. The "water" bent and curved unnaturally near it, unable to remain still.
Altopereh tilted its head slightly, studying Youri.
"That look again," it said, its voice no longer a monstrous roar but something quieter—colder—echoing through the abyss as if the space itself carried its words. "You still measure power by what you can see."
Youri didn't move. The weightlessness of the abyss pressed against him, but his focus never wavered. "Last time I saw you," he said slowly, "you were swallowing entire battlefields… tearing space apart." His eyes narrowed. "Now you look like this."
Altopereh's lips curved faintly. "And yet," it replied, raising one hand as threads of black energy spiraled around its fingers like liquid shadows, "you can feel it, can't you?"
Youri didn't answer.
Because he could.
The pressure here was heavier than before. Not overwhelming—but concentrated. Like everything Altopereh once was had been compressed into something far more dangerous.
"This form," Altopereh continued, drifting slightly closer without disturbing the abyss around it, "is not weakness. It is refinement. The form you knew before was excess… a weapon shaped for annihilation." Its voice dipped. "This is what I was… before they interfered."
Youri's gaze sharpened. "The knight."
At that, something flickered in Altopereh's eyes.
"Yes," it said. "One of them."
"The ones from Sacros," Youri added, testing the word.
Altopereh didn't deny it. Instead, it began to circle him slowly, its movement leaving faint distortions in the abyss like ripples in still water.
"They are not warriors in the way you understand," it said. "They are enforcers of balance. Keepers of boundaries between realms. When something… exceeds its place… they intervene."
"And you exceeded it," Youri said flatly.
Altopereh stopped in front of him.
"I was it," it replied.
Silence settled between them, thick and heavy.
Youri exhaled slowly. "You said you weren't even here before," he said. "You were somewhere else. A different dimension."
Altopereh nodded faintly. "A prison layered beyond Tartarus. A place designed to contain what cannot be destroyed." A faint chuckle escaped it. "They believed sealing me twice would be enough."
"And it wasn't," Youri said.
"No," Altopereh replied. "Because of you."
Youri frowned immediately. "Don't twist that. I didn't help you."
"You didn't intend to," Altopereh said calmly. "That is why it worked."
It drifted closer again, and this time the abyss reacted—currents tightening, space bending subtly.
"That antimatter discharge," it continued, "did more than destroy your enemies. It fractured the boundary between realms. It created a path… one even they did not anticipate."
Youri's expression darkened as flashes of that moment returned—the cannon firing, the void collapsing, reality itself folding inward.
"So what now?" he asked. "You're free?"
Altopereh looked down at its own form, flexing its fingers as faint fractures of dark energy pulsed along its surface.
"Not entirely," it said. "The knight… forced my essence back into the core."
Youri's eyes narrowed. "So you're sealed again."
Altopereh shook its head.
"No," it said. "Not sealed." Its gaze lifted back to him. "Bound."
The word lingered.
Youri felt it immediately.
A connection.
Subtle… but undeniable.
"…To me," he said quietly.
Altopereh smiled faintly. "You are beginning to understand."
"I didn't agree to that," Youri snapped.
"You didn't need to," Altopereh replied. "Your existence already anchors me. That is why he didn't destroy you… "
Youri's thoughts raced. "He could have ended me," he said. "I saw what he did out there."
"Yes," Altopereh said. "He could have."
"Then why didn't he?"
For the first time, Altopereh didn't answer immediately.
The abyss around them shifted—barely noticeable, but different. The currents slowed… thickened.
Then Altopereh spoke.
"Because this is no longer just about me."
Youri's chest tightened slightly. "Explain."
Altopereh's gaze locked onto his.
"The boundaries between realms are weakening," it said. "Tartarus… your world… their domain… they were never meant to intersect. But now they are."
Youri felt the weight of those words settle deep.
"And the knight?" he asked.
"Is not alone," Altopereh replied. "What you saw was one of many."
Youri clenched his jaw. "Then why leave us alive?"
Altopereh moved closer—closer than before—until the space between them almost collapsed under the pressure.
"Because something else has drawn their attention," it said.
Youri didn't like the tone of that.
"What?"
Altopereh's voice dropped.
"You."
The abyss reacted instantly.
A deep, low tremor rippled through the endless waters—not a sound, not a shockwave, but something deeper. The entire space shifted, as if something far below had moved.
Youri's eyes snapped downward instinctively.
The darkness beneath them… wasn't empty anymore.
It was moving.
Another tremor followed—stronger. The currents twisted violently now, spiraling outward from a point far below.
Youri looked back at Altopereh. "Is that them?"
Altopereh's expression hardened—but not in fear.
"No," it said.
The abyss darkened further, swallowing what little light remained.
"This…" Altopereh continued, its voice now carrying that ancient, monstrous resonance once more, "is something far older."
The water around them began to distort—stretching, folding, as if reality itself was being pulled inward.
Youri felt it in his chest.
In his bones.
"What is it?" he demanded.
Altopereh's gaze dropped into the depths below.
For the first time—
it wasn't amused.
"…It means," it said slowly, "you will finally know the truth."
The abyss opened.