No one understood the name.
"Theodore."
Why did this being speak it with such familiarity?
Why did the very fabric of the Ascendant Nexus Plane recoil each time it was uttered?
The entity—shrouded in dense, abyssal darkness—slowly stretched out his hand.
The air screamed.
A tide of thick, malevolent aura surged forward, coalescing and condensing until it formed a grotesque manifestation: a colossal one-eyed monstrosity, its iris glowing with ruin, its gaze alone enough to fracture laws.
The eye opened.
And the Divine Ground shattered.
Sacred land, prayed upon for countless eras, split apart into drifting fragments. Ancient formations collapsed like sand. From the broken heart of the Divine Ground, something was finally revealed.
A golden spherical core, radiant and ancient.
Omphalos.
It pulsed weakly, as if wounded.
The entity stared at it.
Then he spoke.
"…How long has it been, Theodore?"
His voice descended like a cosmic verdict.
Space trembled.
Pressure rolled outward across the Ascendant Nexus Plane, crushing continents and bending dimensions.
The entity tilted his head slightly.
"An era?"
"A million years?"
A low, distorted chuckle echoed—twisted, amused.
"Or have you lost count… while hiding?"
The golden core flickered, its light wavering.
At last, a voice answered.
Not loud.
Not threatening.
But unbearably heavy.
Theodore:
"…You should not have come here."
The entity paused.
"Oh?"
His abyssal maw curved into a cruel grin, darkness folding inward like a wound.
"After all this time," he said softly,
"that is all you have to say?"
He stepped closer.
With that single step, black aura exploded outward like a thunder wave. Nearby planes fractured. Entire layers of space peeled away, unable to endure his presence.
"Aren't you tired, Theodore?"
His voice sharpened, predatory.
"Tired of running."
"Tired of sealing yourself away."
"Tired of sacrificing others… just to delay the inevitable."
The space around Omphalos warped violently.
"It doesn't matter anymore."
The entity's gaze locked onto the core.
"I have finally cornered you."
From the center of his chest, a dark purple glow ignited.
Then—
It bloomed.
Several massive tentacles erupted outward, each lined with deep violet irises that opened one by one, staring hungrily at existence itself. Around him, three enormous purple spheres manifested, orbiting symmetrically. Their rotation unleashed a storm of black and violet lightning that swallowed the skies.
The Ascendant Nexus Plane screamed.
The tentacles and eyes aligned.
A vortex formed.
The three spheres spun faster, becoming the center of a devouring spiral as the entity began to absorb Omphalos.
The golden core flared in response.
A burst of radiant power erupted outward, clashing violently against the vortex. Light and darkness collided, sending ripples through the surrounding dimensions.
Then—
A fraction of that golden power surged away from Omphalos.
It enveloped Valen.
Inside his fading consciousness, Valen found himself standing in a vast, luminous void.
Before him stood a figure—blurred, indistinct, yet unbearably radiant.
He did not need to ask who it was.
Theodore.
The figure looked at Valen, his presence calm despite the chaos consuming him.
Theodore:
"Your body… your will… are you capable of bearing my power?"
Valen felt it then—the weight of what was being asked.
This was not strength.
Not glory.
Not survival.
This was sacrifice.
If he accepted, there would be no turning back.
If he refused, everything would end.
Valen clenched his fists.
He thought of Nel.
Of Aethelgard.
Of the countless lives trembling beneath the storm.
He did not hesitate.
He nodded.
Valen:
"If it saves them… then use me."
For a brief moment, Theodore's light seemed to soften.
Theodore:
"…Very well."
Golden radiance surged.
Valen's body began to transform.
Bones reforged.
Blood ignited.
His form expanded, reshaping into a colossal Golden Beast Dragon, scales etched with ancient runes, eyes blazing with immortal authority.
The Golden Beast Dragon opened its colossal maw.
A deafening roar erupted—
a roar so absolute it shook space itself, sending fractures rippling through the void like shattered glass.
The entity answered.
A furious, abyssal roar thundered back, thick with hatred and annihilative intent. Two wills—creation and erasure—collided before a single blow was struck.
Then—
They moved.
Without hesitation, the Golden Beast Dragon surged forward, its body accelerating to near light-speed. Space screamed as it parted before him. Every clash that followed birthed chaos—shockwaves tearing apart dimensional layers, scattering cosmic debris like dust.
Each of the dragon's golden scales began to pulse, igniting with radiant power. With another roar, countless beams of condensed light erupted from his body, lancing outward in all directions and forcing the entity backward.
The entity hissed.
Its tentacled eyes flared with malicious purple light.
Behind it, a vast formation unfolded—runes rotating in a sinister array. From its center, a monstrous, singular eye emerged, glowing with boundless malice.
The eye fired.
A cataclysmic blast tore through the void.
The Golden Beast Dragon barely twisted aside—
the beam grazing past him before detonating behind his form.
BOOM.
The explosion swallowed entire spatial layers.
The dragon roared again, fury burning in his eyes—not desperation, but unyielding resolve. His body glowed brighter, bathing the storm-darkened void in brilliant gold, like dawn tearing through eternal night.
He rose higher.
Golden rune-chains manifested around him, ancient symbols of sovereignty and protection weaving together into a radiant barrier. They rotated slowly, humming with absolute authority.
With another thunderous roar, the Golden Beast Dragon charged once more.
This time—
The entity raised its tentacles, clearly irritated.
Behind it, space entered a constant loop of destruction and reformation, collapsing and rebirthing endlessly. From that distortion emerged a three-mile-long Law Path—
a pure embodiment of annihilation.
The Law of Null.
It condensed instantly and surged forward.
Wherever it passed, time, space, matter, and concept ceased to exist. Entire histories were erased mid-motion. The Law of Null advanced directly toward the charging dragon.
And then—
It struck the golden rune-chains.
Instead of erasing them…
The Null deflected.
The annihilative law shattered outward, collapsing in on itself like a failed paradox.
The entity froze.
Stunned.
For the first time—
confusion rippled through its abyssal presence.
The Golden Beast Dragon halted mid-air.
His voice resonated—not merely as sound, but as cosmic truth, echoing across Ascendant Nexus Plane.
"You think I feared the Law of Null?"
"I am the bearer of the Origin of Light itself."
The dragon's eyes blazed.
"If Null erases the Origin of Light—
then Null erases the event that allows Null to exist."
"Null deletes its own foundation."
Golden runes flared violently.
"A cosmic contradiction."
The void trembled.
"And so the universe enforces a failsafe."
"Any Null applied to Origin collapses inward… and disperses."
Light erupted.
The Golden Beast Dragon's form transformed, engulfed entirely by Origin Light. His body elongated, coiling into a vast golden dragon-serpent, over ten miles long, radiant beyond comprehension—a legendary form akin to the divine dragons of ancient myth.
He wrapped around the entity.
Once.
Twice.
Tighter.
Golden rune-chains slammed shut, binding annihilation itself.
The entity screamed.
A sound of rage, pain, and disbelief.
The Golden Beast Dragon roared back—a roar of final resolve. His body shone brighter and brighter, the rune-chains pulsing with finite, irreversible power.
Then—
He turned his head.
Just once.
His gaze fell upon Nel, sobbing amidst the ruins.
And Nel heard his voice—not through air, but through the soul.
"Don't cry, Nel."
"Grandpa isn't going to die."
"I'll live on inside you—"
"not as flesh and blood…"
"but as will, memory, and strength."
The dragon faced forward once more.
And released everything.
A cataclysmic explosion erupted—
In the heart of that catastrophic convergence, the so-called Master and Xras felt it—
Chains.
Invisible, absolute, forged not of matter but of inevitability.
They bound their existence, crushing their will so completely that neither could lift a finger, nor even summon fear properly. The Master reacted on instinct alone, invoking his Law of Null as a final refuge—layers of annihilation folding around him like a defensive cocoon.
But it was meaningless.
The eruption of the Origin of Light did not merely overpower defenses.
It erased the possibility of salvation.
Null fractured.
Law unraveled.
Fate itself screamed.
The Master's shield shattered like brittle glass, his scream tearing free for a single, agonized instant before being swallowed whole. Xras followed—his form dissolving, his soul unraveling, his existence fading into absolute nothingness.
No rebirth.
No echo.
No trace.
A blinding surge tore through the heavens—ripping apart thunderclouds, pulverizing spatial layers, and sending titanic shockwaves rippling across the entire Ascendant Nexus Plane.
Space buckled.
Time collapsed.
And within that overwhelming radiance—
A legend reached its end.
The blinding radiance slowly receded.
Ashes of shattered thunderclouds drifted across the void.
Broken laws whimpered as they tried—failed—to reassemble.
Survivors stood frozen, hearts trembling, believing it was finally over.
Nel stared into the emptiness, tears still falling.
And then—
BOOM.
A thunderous spark ignited without warning.
Space screamed.
The heavens shattered again as violent purple lightning tore through the Ascendant Nexus Plane, wrapping the dimension in a storm far darker than before. A piercing, inhuman scream echoed—one that carried rage, hatred, and refusal to end.
From the darkness, something manifested.
It was no longer the abyssal monstrosity of before.
This time, it stood in a humanoid form—tall, twisted, terrifyingly refined.
A deep purple glow burned at the center of its chest, pulsing like a corrupted heart.
Jagged fangs lined its face and limbs, forming living armor.
Two pairs of burning violet eyes opened simultaneously, each gaze radiating malice.
The entity had been reborn.
Its eyes locked onto the golden core.
Omphalos.
This time, there was no one left to shield it.
No Valen.
No Golden Beast Dragon.
No Theodore strong enough to resist.
The golden core trembled—its will dim, weakened, helpless.
The entity raised its hand.
Runes flashed violently.
A vortex formed—dark, spiraling, devouring.
Before anyone could react, the entity began to absorb Omphalos.
The Ascendant Nexus Plane screamed.
The semi-stable pocket of shattered space-time began to collapse, cracks racing across reality as its core was drained. Mountains folded. Skies fractured. Entire sections of the dimension started slipping into nothingness.
Despair washed over every living being.
This was the end.
And then—
The laws themselves shuddered.
Every operating principle—space, time, causality—felt a sudden, overwhelming shock.
Space fractured again.
But this time—
Golden light poured through the cracks.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
But with absolute authority.
Streams of golden Law surged outward, shredding the thunderstorm like paper. Pressure rippled across the void in vast waves—strong enough to pulverize planets, yet perfectly controlled.
Everyone froze.
The entity stiffened.
Space split into massive, floating blocks as radiant light flooded the battlefield.
From the center of that brilliance—
A young man stepped forward.
Cosmic energy wove itself into existence around him, forming flowing robes of pure law.
Behind his back hovered a massive ring of cosmic principles, radiant and immeasurable, from which silk-like energies cascaded like celestial banners.
His name—
Kael.
The moment his foot touched space—
CRACK.
Reality shattered beneath him like fragile glass. Shards of broken space screamed forward, slicing through the void toward the entity.
A drop of thick, black blood slid down the entity's face.
Silence followed.
Kael lifted his gaze.
And in that instant—
An immeasurable pressure descended.
The entity was pinned.
Its limbs locked.
Its instincts screamed.
Its very existence recoiled.
Kael turned his eyes away—not toward the enemy, but toward the collapsing Ascendant Nexus Plane.
Slowly, calmly, he raised his palm.
Golden runes ignited.
The Great Law of Dominion manifested.
A colossal golden domain—three thousand kilometers wide—expanded outward, radiant with sovereign authority. It enveloped the shattered region, stabilizing collapsing space-time, forcing the broken dimension to obey once more.
Reality bowed.
The storm quieted.
And for the first time since the catastrophe began—
Hope returned.
Kael's gaze slowly swept across the battlefield.
What he saw was not merely destruction.
It was loss.
Shattered cities lay like broken bones across the Ascendant Nexus Plane—civilizations erased in moments despite generations of effort. He saw warriors who had fallen protecting nothing but ruins. Parents kneeling over lifeless children. Lovers clutching one another beneath collapsing skies, their promises ending before they could begin. Elders who had lived long enough to believe in peace—now watching it dissolve into ash.
Entire histories had been reduced to silence.
The sight struck Kael deeper than any attack.
It reminded him of his own past.
Of the world he once stood upon—burning.
Of the people he failed to save.
Of the moment Alys Verllis turned his world into a graveyard.
And now, once again, a selfish will sought to reduce existence to nothing more than fuel.
Kael's anger did not explode.
It condensed.
He descended toward the Entity.
Each step caused space itself to ripple, as if reality had turned into water beneath his feet. The pressure of his presence rolled outward in waves, forcing shattered laws to realign simply to endure him.
The Entity struggled to stand.
Purple blood spilled from its mouth as it coughed violently, its form trembling beneath Kael's authority. Yet it still smirked, defiant even as its body betrayed it.
"I don't know who you are," the Entity rasped, "but you've made a grave mistake intervening."
Kael looked at it coldly.
"Really?" he replied. "And why is that?"
Annoyance flickered across the Entity's face.
"With the power you're exerting… you must be at the final stage of the Astral Vein Initiate realm—one who comprehends gold laws."
It laughed harshly.
"You're only slightly stronger than the one before you. He sacrificed himself to save all this—and still failed."
Its eyes burned with malice.
"You're bound by the same fate. You will perish just as he did."
Behind the Entity, the Law of Null began to manifest.
Two massive claws of absolute erasure formed, space and time collapsing wherever they passed. They lunged forward, tearing toward Kael with annihilative intent.
Kael spoke calmly.
"Fate, you say?"
He raised a single hand.
Space shattered like glass.
A colossal black hole erupted into existence, swallowing the claws whole. The Null vanished without resistance, erased by gravity so absolute it denied even erasure itself.
Kael snapped his fingers.
The Entity awoke elsewhere.
Not a battlefield.
Not a plane.
But a grave.
The dimension was filled with corpses—millions upon millions—drifting across fractured space. Bodies twisted and broken, suspended in eternal stillness. Reality itself lay cracked, each fissure bleeding rivers of crimson that flowed without direction, as if gravity no longer existed.
At the center hovered something vast.
The Law of Death.
Absolute. Final. Unquestionable.
Ancient formations revolved around it—glyphs carved from annihilation itself—radiating a pressure so immense it crushed thought, erased resistance, and silenced will.
Then—
A pair of golden eyes ignited above.
They burned with such authority that the universe itself felt insignificant—reduced to drifting dust before them.
The Entity froze.
Shock shattered its composure.
"That…" it whispered, trembling.
"That is the Law of Death."
Its voice quaked.
"The truth I have pursued across countless eras…"
It lifted its gaze toward the eyes above.
"And you—who are you? Why am I here?"
No answer came.
Instead—
The corpses moved.
One by one, the dead began to rise.
Broken bodies dragged themselves across shattered space, hands clawing, mouths frozen in silent screams. They seized the Entity—countless hands gripping its form—pulling it down into the sea of death.
Its power vanished.
No strength.
No authority.
No escape.
It was torn apart.
Flesh separated.
Essence ripped free.
Existence dismantled piece by piece.
Then—
Reconstruction.
The Entity reformed.
Whole again.
Only to be seized once more.
The cycle repeated.
A thousand times.
Each death worse than the last.
Each rebirth sharpening the pain.
Each repetition stripping away resistance until only raw awareness remained.
The Entity screamed.
It begged.
"Enough… please… let this be my final death."
The golden eyes did not move.
And so it continued.
Hundreds more deaths.
Thousands.
Rage dissolved.
Despair eroded.
Until even hopelessness faded—replaced by something far more terrible.
Understanding.
The Entity stopped screaming.
Not because the pain lessened—
But because it finally understood.
Death was never the destruction of the body.
Nor the release of the soul.
Death was helpless repetition.
To die knowing you will return.
To suffer knowing there is no conclusion.
To beg for an end—and realize the universe does not grant mercy.
This was the truth mortals never reached.
Fear is not dying.
Fear is continuing without purpose.
The Entity looked up once more at the golden eyes.
No hatred remained.
Only clarity.
"So this is death…" it whispered.
"Not an ending—
but eternity without escape."
And for the first time since its existence began—
The Entity truly feared death.
The endless cycle broke something inside it.
Not its body.
Not its power.
Its will.
The vast domain of Death trembled. The immense formation that had governed the cycle of slaughter and rebirth began to flicker, its runes losing coherence. The Law of Death itself shuddered—as if acknowledging that its purpose had reached an irreversible conclusion.
The collapsing formation folded inward.
From its heart, a new shape emerged.
A spear.
A judgment forged not from metal, but from absolute Death itself.
The spear was colossal, its shaft etched with countless runes of mortality and finality. Streams of deathly power coiled around it like serpents, shrieking silently. Above it, five massive layers of ancient formations manifested one by one, each amplifying the spear's authority—stacking inevitability upon inevitability.
It was not a weapon meant to kill.
It was a verdict.
The Entity stared at it.
No fear.
No anger.
No resistance.
After enduring the cycle of death and rebirth millions of times, all desire had eroded. Even instinct had faded. There was nothing left to cling to.
Only acceptance.
The spear descended.
It pierced the Entity cleanly through its core.
For a single instant—
everything froze.
Then—
BOOM.
A catastrophic explosion of Death erupted, swallowing the entire dimension in blinding, silent annihilation. Essence, law, and identity disintegrated simultaneously. There was no scream this time.
No rebirth followed.
The golden eyes above slowly closed.
The Law of Death fulfilled its final function.
The dimension collapsed inward, folding into absolute nothingness.
Back in the Ascendant Nexus Plane—
Nel and the others saw only this:
Kael stood calmly in midair.
He snapped his fingers.
And the Entity vanished.
No explosion.
No struggle.
No resistance.
To them, it lasted less than a heartbeat.
They did not see the eternity of suffering.
They did not witness the millions of deaths.
They did not feel the despair that crushed even an immortal will.
Because it all occurred in a severed layer of time and dimension.
What was years of torment there—
was less than a second here.
Silence fell.
Then—one by one—
Nel, the survivors, the warriors, the elders, and the wounded all knelt.
Not out of fear.
But reverence.
At that moment, golden essence began to fall like gentle rain across the Ascendant Nexus Plane. It shimmered softly, infused with the Great Law of Dominion—the evolved, sovereign form of the Law of Gold.
Wounds closed.
Broken bodies healed.
Fading lives stabilized.
Even fractured space-time gently realigned under its authority.
Nel looked up at Kael, tears streaming freely now—not from despair, but from overwhelming gratitude and awe.
At the center of the Divine Ground, the core Omphalos pulsed steadily.
Its cracks sealed.
Its light strengthened.
Then it flared.
A warm, embracing radiance spread outward—gentle, ancient, and filled with profound gratitude.
A voice echoed—not aloud, but directly into existence itself.
Theodore.
His will resonated with calm relief and solemn respect.
The Ascendant Nexus Plane had been saved.
Kael lowered his gaze to the core.
"What was that entity?" he asked quietly.
"And why did it want to absorb you?"
The golden light of Omphalos shimmered.
Theodore paused.
Then—
he began to explain.
The golden light around Omphalos dimmed slightly, as if gathering strength to speak one final truth.
Theodore's voice flowed outward—not loud, not weak—
but heavy with the weight of millions of years of regret.
Theodore:
"Millions of years ago… when I still possessed a physical body…
when I was not a core, not a will, not a guardian…"
A faint ripple passed through the plane.
"I was a cosmic beast—
roaming the universe freely, uncovering forgotten regions of creation."
A trace of bitterness entered his tone.
"I was arrogant.
Fearless.
And blind."
The golden light flickered.
"That arrogance cost me everything."
"During my wanderings, I discovered a broken pocket of space—
fractured, unstable, and utterly foreign."
The air itself felt colder.
"Curiosity drove me inside."
Theodore's voice tightened.
"It was a realm of absolute darkness.
Shattered fragments of space floated endlessly,
and at its center lay a dark essence—
sealed beneath countless layers of ancient runes."
A pause.
"I wanted to consume it."
The light trembled.
"That decision became my greatest regret."
Theodore's voice darkened.
"The moment I touched it, the darkness enveloped me.
It fed upon me… relentlessly."
"And because I was a cosmic beast whose lineage carried the Origin of Light—
I was the perfect prey."
A low hum echoed through the plane.
"As it devoured fragments of my Origin…
that entity was born."
"I was terrified."
"With what remained of my strength, I tore myself free
and fled that cursed space."
But escape was not salvation.
"The darkness clung to me.
It eroded my existence for tens of thousands of years."
"I lived in agony—
my body breaking,
my soul unraveling."
Theodore's light dimmed, then steadied.
"At the brink of death, I made a final choice."
"I merged my Origin of Light fully with my soul,
abandoning my physical body."
"I became a wandering will—
neither alive nor dead."
"Eventually… I found this semi-stable pocket of space."
A warmth spread faintly through the plane.
"I settled here.
Over time, I mastered it.
As my Origin resonated with its laws,
this realm acknowledged me."
"Thus… I became its core."
"Omphalos."
Theodore's light pulsed gently.
"I sealed this plane from the outside universe…
hiding from the mistake I had created."
"Thousands of years later…
wounded, betrayed humanoids arrived here."
"I healed them."
"They shared their sorrow.
Their betrayal.
Their hope."
"They built lives.
Generations followed."
A trace of fondness entered his voice.
"This place became a home."
"Then another cosmic beast arrived—
from a different lineage."
"Young… yet wiser than I had ever been."
"Valen."
Theodore's light shimmered warmly.
"Together, we watched this world grow."
The tone shifted—heavy again.
"But the darkness I created never forgot me."
"It came to hunt me."
"And to devour everything I protected."
The light dimmed.
"In this final battle…
I consumed nearly all that remained of my Origin of Light."
"I am no longer strong enough to sustain this plane."
A pause.
Then—gentler.
"And yet… I feel peace."
Theodore's light turned toward Nel…
then toward the people of the Ascendant Nexus Plane.
"These beings lived beneath a small sky,
unaware of the vast beauty and cruelty of the cosmos."
Then—toward Kael.
Theodore:
"Savior…
may I entrust this realm—
and its people—
to you?"
Kael looked across the broken plane.
The wounded.
The grieving.
The survivors.
Something stirred within him.
He nodded.
Kael:
"You may leave them to me."
Theodore's light brightened—
no longer flickering.
"Thank you."
Streams of radiant light surged outward, weaving through the semi-pocket space, stabilizing it one final time. A colossal pillar of light rose like a silent sun.
"This marks my end."
The pillar slowly faded.
But before the light vanished entirely—
A fragment of the Origin of Light separated.
It condensed.
Took form.
A small, newborn cosmic beast, radiant and gentle, drifted forward.
Theodore's fading voice spoke one last time:
Theodore:
"This child carries my essence…
the Origin of Light…
and Valen's lineage."
"She is the proof that we once existed."
A low, resonant hum spread through reality itself.
The semi-pocket space began to fade—layer by layer, law by law—dissolving like a forgotten dream. Light unraveled into silence, and when it was gone, the Ascendant Nexus Plane no longer floated apart from existence.
It emerged into the true cosmos.
Unfamiliar winds swept across the land.
Starlight replaced artificial skies.
The universe breathed around them for the first time.
Kael stood still , clutched the newborn cosmic beast.
_________________________________________
Epilogue
An era ended.
A primordial mistake was erased.
A cosmic burden was finally passed on.
And beneath Kael's watch—
a new chapter of the cosmos began.