The truth revealed by the Creator hung in the air like a heavy, living presence. It didn't soften what Ultimate had done, nor did it justify the destruction he continued to cause—but it illuminated the path that led him there. And seeing it, feeling even fragments of it, was enough to change everything.
Layla felt it first.
Her eyes remained half-closed as if she were still inside those memories. The echoes of Ultimate's loss throbbed inside her chest like a bruise. The grief wasn't hers… but it was so painfully familiar it could have been. She saw versions of herself in the loneliness he carried, in the silence he endured, in the burden of expectations that broke him long before darkness ever touched him.
She swallowed, voice barely above a whisper.
"…He wasn't born a monster."
Striver didn't speak at all.
He simply stood there, breathing slowly, trying to process the torrent of visions the Creator had poured into his mind. His heartbeat was uneven. His thoughts were scattered. Every image replayed like a broken movie: a boy losing home, losing people, losing hope until all he had left was emptiness.
Though Striver couldn't understand all of it, he recognized the emotion behind it.
The unfairness.
The fear.
The pressure to survive.
The feeling of carrying everything alone.
He knew that feeling too well.
Since childhood, he had learned to hide pain behind silence. To endure pressure because no one else would take it from him. And the hardest truth he had learned was simple and cruel:
At the end of the day, people walk through their struggles alone.
No matter who stands beside you.
"Ultimate doesn't see the universe anymore," Striver murmured quietly. "He only sees what it took from him."
The Creator said nothing. There was no denial. Only a deep, ancient sadness in His eyes.
---
Somewhere far from them… Ultimate sat alone on a planet of sand.
The world was enormous, stretching endlessly in all directions—yet compared to him, it still felt small. He sat in silence, towering over the desert like a fallen titan. The planets orbiting this lonely system drifted helplessly around him, tiny and delicate like ornaments he could crush without effort.
He stared at the cosmic emptiness before him.
His eyes were dark—hollow—stained with loss so deep it seemed to swallow the stars reflected in them. Every moment, violent thoughts flickered through his mind like sparks: worlds ripped apart, civilizations erased, entire galaxies silenced.
These weren't thoughts he chose.
They were wounds screaming inside him.
Memories twisted by grief.
Darkness whispering encouragement.
A small, twisted smile tugged at his lips. The kind of smile someone wears when pain replaces sanity.
He wanted revenge.
Revenge on the universe that took everything.
Revenge on the silence that followed.
Revenge on the emptiness that consumed him.
He remembered them—
His brother's laughter.
His mother's warmth.
His lover's voice.
The friends he once trusted.
Gone.
He had once dreamed of returning home someday. Of seeing his brother's children. Of watching his family grow. Of living long enough to see peace.
But those dreams had withered the day the planet died.
And he was all that remained.
His heart tightened painfully as the memories surfaced. He took a heavy breath, trying to stay calm—only for space around him to warp.
A fleet of ships materialized.
Slender. Metallic. Gleaming with artificial courage.
They surrounded him like insects closing around a sleeping beast.
Ultimate's eyes shifted slightly, barely interested. Energy beams burst from the ships, streaking across the void toward him.
He didn't flinch.
The attacks evaporated the moment they touched him, dissolving into dust as if the universe itself refused to let them harm him.
He released the smallest trace of his aura.
The ships disintegrated instantly.
Silence returned.
Colder.
Deeper.
Darkness tightened its grip on his heart again.
With a slow, tired exhale, Ultimate rose into the air. He hovered above the solar system he had once created, gazing at it with both affection and hatred.
One hand flicked.
A massive distortion formed—a swirling black void that grew rapidly, consuming stars, planets, and everything within its reach.
In a single moment, the entire solar system collapsed into nothingness.
Ultimate didn't look back.
"Ha… I hate life," he muttered, turning toward another system.
He walked through the void as if walking across a quiet street, leaving extinction behind him like footprints.
---
Back with the Creator…
Striver looked up slowly, his chest tight.
"We know what happened… but we still can't beat him. He's too strong."
"He is powerful," the Creator agreed, "but he is not unstoppable."
Layla frowned. "He destroyed entire systems like dust."
"Yes," the Creator said. "But not because his power is unmatched—because his experience is."
His gaze shifted toward Layla first.
"You are my right hand. Time and space are not barriers to you—they are tools. They bend at your command. You must stop limiting your thinking to the rules of your home planet. You are far beyond that."
A ripple of cosmic authority radiated from His words, and Layla felt space itself tremble around her.
Then His eyes turned to Striver—deep, all-seeing, and impossibly heavy.
"Clifford… reborn as Striver."
A chill ran through Striver as the Creator continued.
"You were chosen not for strength, nor for discipline, but for imagination. Ultimate can recreate what has already existed. But you… you can create what never has. What never could. Your will shapes reality directly. Nothing binds you except me."
Striver's breath caught.
He didn't know whether to feel honored… or terrified.
Layla folded her arms. "But power means nothing without skill. And we lack experience."
"You will gain it," the Creator said, voice steady. "In the mindscape I have formed. Years inside will pass in less than a heartbeat here. You will face every creature I have ever created."
Striver stretched lazily. "Okay, but how do we get out?"
"When you become imaginative enough to escape," the Creator replied. "That is how I will know you are ready for the second round."
Layla opened her mouth to ask another question—
But she never got the chance.
Their bodies trembled.
Their souls vibrated.
Reality itself twisted around them.
An unseen force pulled them forward, swallowing them whole.
---
THE MINDSCAPE
They landed in darkness.
A vast, endless, violet void stretched in every direction—so big even their cosmic senses couldn't find an end. It was a place without stars, without planets, without sound.
Just infinity.
Striver stared into the distance. "Woah… Creator didn't play."
Layla nodded, scanning the area. "Stay alert. Something's—"
A sudden force slammed into Striver's chest.
He staggered back, shocked. "What the—"
Layla snapped into battle stance, eyes sharp.
But before she could even identify the direction of the attack, something cut across her back. Not deep, not bloody, just enough to sting—a reminder.
She didn't panic.
She pivoted sharply, hand raised, trying to see the attacker.
But the void swallowed everything.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
No aura.
Only silence.
Striver exhaled carefully. "Okay… I think training started."
Without warning, the entire void rippled like water.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of glowing shapes emerged from the darkness. Their forms were twisted, shifting, impossible to fully define. Each one carried a different power, a different threat.
Layla tightened her fists.
Striver cracked his neck.
Layla spoke first.
"If we think like humans, we lose."
Striver nodded slowly.
"If we think like beings with no limits… we win."
The creatures roared.
The void shook.
The first wave attacked.
Striver closed his eyes, letting imagination flow through him like electricity.
Layla moved beside him, bending space itself with a flick of her wrist.
And together, without hesitation…
They lunged into the endless battle that would shape their destiny.