The remnants of the battle still lingered in the void.
The planet that had previously served as the center of the battlefield had been split into two massive halves by Valt's slash. Fragments of satellites and pieces of continents floated aimlessly through space, while the long rift left behind by Valt's sword still stretched across the cosmos, as though the wound was not merely damage to space, but a gap separating the very order of reality itself.
Valt Nacht stood in the middle of that void.
The Four Elder Dragons had been defeated.
For a moment, there was no sound.
However, that silence did not last long.
"It seems..."
A voice echoed from the distance.
"...Nacht has gone beyond the limit."
Valt slowly raised his head.
Among the cracks in space that remained open, a luminous figure descended slowly. He possessed a humanoid body clad in white-golden armor, with a pair of wings spread behind him. His face showed not the slightest trace of hesitation as he looked at Valt.
"Execute him."
The command sounded simple.
Yet after those words were spoken, something far greater began to move.
From every direction of the void, lights began to appear. At first, there were only a few points. Then their numbers increased into thousands, millions, until they eventually filled the horizon. Winged figures appeared one after another, carrying various weapons radiating sacred light.
Their numbers continued to increase.
Billions of angels.
They filled the space before Valt like an endless white ocean.
Yet before even one of them moved—
a sound rang out.
A trumpet.
Its sound was so immense that it could no longer be called an ordinary noise.
Its waves traveled through space and time, piercing every layer of reality beneath it. Stars along its path lost their light, galaxies distorted, and dimensional structures began to crack like glass under pressure from something far greater than their ability to withstand.
That sound was not merely heard.
It imposed its existence upon reality.
Far above the battlefield, Valeria Nacht sensed the change.
Her consciousness, merged with Hexacomb, immediately detected the damage occurring within the structure of reality. She raised her hand, and for the first time in an immeasurable span of time, her expression showed difficulty.
"Stabilize."
The command was directed at no one.
It was directed toward every structure within the range of her observation.
Yet even Valeria had to exert her entire authority to prevent the order of reality from collapsing beneath the echo of the trumpet.
Meanwhile, before Valt, the rift previously left behind by his slash began to move once again.
Something emerged from within the wound in space.
A slash.
It had no clear source. No sword swung it, no hand created it. It appeared as a consequence of the rift Valt had previously left behind, then shot through space at a speed that could no longer be understood through the concept of movement.
Its wave destroyed the order of reality along its path.
Valt merely watched it.
He did not move.
Then the billions of angels before him began to move simultaneously.
They raised their weapons.
An angel standing at the very front opened a luminous scroll sealed with a golden emblem.
"By the decree of Gabriel, Seraphim Angel."
His voice echoed among the millions of soldiers behind him.
"Valt Nacht has been declared a threat to the stability of the order of reality. Therefore, his existence has been ordered to be erased."
Valt remained silent.
The angel continued reading the decree.
"Do not give him an opportunity to resist."
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then—
the entire army moved.
Billions of angels shot toward Valt from every direction. Light filled the void, so dense that it seemed as though the entire expanse had transformed into a white ocean.
Yet something felt strange.
Valt did not dodge.
He did not even raise his sword.
His gaze remained fixed upon the approaching angels.
Normally, in a situation like this, a faint smile would appear behind his mask. He would make a sarcastic remark, test his opponent's abilities, or simply treat the battle as a game to measure the limits of his own power.
Not this time.
There was no smile.
No mockery.
No composure.
Only anger.
The first angel nearly reached his body.
Its spear thrust toward Valt's chest.
But before the tip of the weapon could touch his body, the space surrounding Valt suddenly changed.
The distance between the spear and Valt's body no longer held the same value.
The spear moved forward, but the space between them continued to curve and stretch. The harder the angel pushed its weapon, the farther the distance it had to cross became.
The angel was stunned.
"What—"
Valt raised his eyes.
"The power of space..."
His voice was low.
"...is not something you can force into submission through speed alone."
In an instant, the space surrounding the spear reversed.
The attack returned toward its owner.
The angel was thrown far away.
Yet thousands more immediately replaced it.
Swords, spears, arrows, chains, and various sacred weapons rained down upon Valt from every direction.
Valt finally moved.
Not through physical speed.
He simply disappeared from the coordinates where he had been standing.
One second later, he appeared several kilometers away.
Then disappeared again.
And appeared somewhere else.
To the angels, his movements looked like teleportation.
But that was not actually what was happening.
Valt was using the entire authority that had once belonged to Nihareth.
After defeating the Demon Lord of Space and Time, all of Nihareth's abilities had become Valt's. Space and time were no longer merely mediums Valt used to move. They had become something he could treat as extensions of his own body.
He could shorten distance without moving.
Extend space without expanding the territory.
Reverse the direction of temporal flow.
Stop the flow of time within a specific area.
Return a state to its previous condition.
Make two distant points become adjacent.
He could even force an attack to continue moving toward the past before the attack had ever been released.
The billions of angels continued attacking.
Yet every time they thought they had reached Valt, space would change.
Their attacks missed.
Their formations broke apart.
Some became trapped within space that continuously folded in upon itself, while others suddenly returned to their positions from several seconds earlier, as though their actions had just been undone by time.
Valt appeared in the middle of the army.
He raised his hand.
"Time."
Instantly, the entire region stopped.
Billions of angels froze in midair.
Their wings stopped beating.
The light from their weapons ceased moving.
Even the dust and fragments of the planet that had previously floated through the void lost all motion.
Valt walked calmly among them.
Yet that calmness was different.
There was no satisfaction within it.
He simply walked.
Until finally, an angel that could still move its body attempted to attack him from behind.
Valt stopped.
He did not turn around.
His hand moved slightly.
Space opened behind him.
The angel's attack entered the rift and emerged from another direction, heading straight toward its own army.
An explosion of light filled the void.
Valt then turned around.
"Why?"
The angel that had attacked him did not understand the question.
Valt continued in a low voice.
"You came after they failed to kill me."
His eyes turned toward the remnants of the Four Elder Dragons still far behind them.
"They came with the intention of killing me."
"And I defeated them."
Valt clenched his fist.
"So now you consider me a villain simply because I survived?"
There was no answer.
Valt gave a quiet laugh.
Yet that laugh sounded far colder than usual.
"Interesting."
One of the angels shouted from the distance.
"Do not defy Gabriel's decree!"
Valt stopped.
That name caused his expression to change.
Slowly, he turned his head.
"Gabriel?"
Pressure began to emanate from Valt's body.
Not an explosion of energy.
Not an ordinary aura.
Only a subtle change in the space surrounding him.
Yet the entire void began to tremble.
"He's the one who sent you?"
"Correct."
Valt lowered his head.
Several seconds passed.
Then he raised his face again.
"In that case..."
Crimson light began to emerge from both of his eyes.
"...tell him something."
Billions of angels raised their weapons again.
Valt gripped his sword.
"Never send someone to execute me..."
The space surrounding him began to distort.
"...if you cannot even comprehend what it is you're trying to execute."
A wave of spatial distortion spread from Valt's body.
Time throughout the entire battlefield began to rotate.
Past and future overlapped.
Some angels saw themselves attacking Valt before they had actually moved. Others suddenly witnessed possible versions of their own deaths appearing before their eyes.
Valt stepped forward.
One step.
Yet the distance between himself and the billions of angels disappeared.
He appeared directly in the middle of them.
His sword spun.
One swing.
There was no explosion.
No massive burst of light.
Yet space along the sword's trajectory was severed.
Thousands of angels were thrown away.
Valt continued moving.
Another swing cut through their formation.
Then space folded, forcing the entire army far behind them to collide with one another.
They attempted to scatter.
Valt reversed the direction of space.
They attempted to attack from different dimensions.
Valt pulled those dimensions toward a single point.
They attempted to escape through time.
Valt had already locked every temporal path.
For the first time since their arrival—
the billions of angels began losing control of the battlefield.
Yet Valt himself did not look satisfied.
He only grew angrier.
Because to him, the problem was not their numbers.
It was not Gabriel.
Nor was it the execution order.
What angered him was one simple thing.
They had come as though Valt had no right to determine his own fate.
And Valt Nacht hated anyone who attempted to define the limits of his existence.
Far above them, six wings slowly unfolded.
A new presence began descending from a higher layer of reality.
The angels stopped their assault.
Valt stopped as well.
His gaze slowly rose.
Behind the white light filling the sky, a figure began to descend.
Not an ordinary angel.
Nor merely a soldier.
Its presence caused billions of angels to lower their heads.
Valt simply stood there.
Then a voice far heavier than before resounded.
"Valt Nacht."
Valt looked upward.
"By the name of Gabriel—"
Valt immediately interrupted.
"Enough."
The entire battlefield fell silent.
Valt raised his sword.
For the first time since his battle against the Four Elder Dragons—
a faint smile returned behind his mask.
But this time, it was not the smile of someone playing around.
It was the smile of someone who had stopped holding himself back.
"If Gabriel wants my execution..."
His crimson eyes burned brighter.
"...tell him to come himself."
Space behind Valt opened once again.
Time began to turn.
And all the power he had inherited from Nihareth began to awaken simultaneously.
"Because I will not die simply because someone wrote an order for my death."
The billions of angels raised their weapons once again.
Valt lowered his body slightly.
His sword pointed forward.
"Come."
His voice echoed throughout the battlefield.
"Execute me."
Then—
the entire angelic army moved once again.
And this time, Valt welcomed them.