"My Lord, I know You've entrusted me with helping govern this place as well. But I truly want to know what lies beyond all these layers of reality. If You permit me, please allow me to accompany You there one more time."
David looked at his compass and thought for a moment. "Yes."
Mendicore thanked him profusely.
As the new leader of High Heaven, Sherubiel, together with representatives of the angelic attendants and soldiers, also expressed their deepest gratitude to David for everything he had done since the day they first met until the present.
"I'm certain that You'll be able to bring Johann home again. I understand now that he's the one who means the most to You. Once again, thank You, Great Lord David..." Sherubiel said before bowing, followed by the other angels. David simply nodded.
He instructed Mendicore to create a portal to the summit of High Heaven's tallest mountain. He stepped through it, followed by Mendicore, leaving Sherubiel and the others behind.
***
A short time later, Sherubiel, accompanied by the same angelic servants, went to the building where Geriel had been "detained" by David. She saw her former master still pinned to the wall with Grunginus through his chest. His eyes remained half-open, but he was no longer capable of saying a single word. Sherubiel merely looked at him for a moment without speaking before quietly leaving the building again.
***
At the mountain's summit, David and Mendicore encountered another strange sight.
David remembered that the last time he had come here, the doorway leading to the next realm had looked like an ordinary house door. Now it had transformed into a massive gateway resembling an electronic device, with a large glossy white circle at its center, like a compact disc.
"W-Why has this door changed? The last time I saw it, it wasn't like this..." Mendicore said in confusion.
"Let's keep going." David said as he pushed the gate open. It slowly swung open.
The first thing they saw was still a gray rocky landscape with a stone staircase before them. They immediately stepped through, and the gate closed behind them.
Mendicore was captivated by the scenery stretching endlessly before it, unlike anything it had ever seen in any realm. David, however, looked shocked. The scenery was completely different from what he had seen before. He remembered an endless sea of clouds, with colors resembling dreadstone below and starstone above. Now, instead, there were two infinite walls standing before and behind them, glowing with brilliant yellow light.
What made the sight even stranger was that both walls were covered with endless rows of white 0s and 1s, constantly shifting in unpredictable patterns.
"My Lord... I never imagined this was the Primordial Plane! It turns out it's made of digital code! We'll meet Johann very soon!" Mendicore exclaimed excitedly.
"No. This is completely different... Come on, let's climb!"
David began ascending the staircase. Mendicore fell silent for a moment before following him. They continued climbing the perfectly straight staircase. David felt that this path had changed as well. Previously, it had spiraled upward. It wasn't long before they reached the same floating rocky platform. He expected another gateway to be waiting ahead. Instead, another endless wall blocked his path. David slowly approached it while staring intently.
Suddenly, two enormous black spheres emerged from the wall. Within each sphere, a brilliant crimson circle formed, resembling a pair of eyes glaring furiously at David.
"W-What is this, My Lord??? Is this Prime Desire??? Is it also the one keeping Johann imprisoned???" Mendicore panicked.
David simply shook his head and took another step forward while glaring back into those crimson eyes.
"YOU HAVE NEVER MET ME BEFORE! I AM THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM, THE ONE WHO GOVERNS ALL OF EXISTENCE!" Its heavy voice echoed violently throughout this realm.
"Move!" David barked the single word.
"YOU HAVE COMPLETELY DESTROYED THE ORDER OF ALL EXISTENCE FOR THE SAKE OF A SINGLE PERSON! I SHALL CONTINUE TO KEEP HIM HERE, FOR HE MUST ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED—EVEN FOR WHAT HAS BECOME OF YOU! YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT WE ALL EXIST BECAUSE OF HIS 'DESIRE'! IF YOU WISH TO PRESERVE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ALREADY GAINED, LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE... AND FORGET HIIIIM...!!!"
David's anger immediately reached its peak. A sword hilt appeared in his right hand. He instantly activated the Starstone energy blade and raised it high above his head.
"YOU INTEND TO THREATEN ME WITH THAT MERE WEAPON?!?! IT IS USELESS...!!! REMEMBER THIS! YOU WERE CREATED BY ME FROM HIS 'DESIRE'...!!! I STAND ABOVE YOOOUUU...!!! THIS IS MY FINAL WARNING! SURRENDER... AND RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL WORLDDD...!!!"
David did not even flinch at The Absolute System's threats.
Suddenly, the blade's yellow energy turned into a blinding white light.
At its center, an incomprehensibly dense black energy appeared.
The surroundings instantly dimmed.
Mendicore immediately recognized what David had done. He had summoned the power of the Element of Desire into the sword.
"I finished the entire game... and I reject the ending you gave to me!" David's voice was unwavering.
"N-NOOOOOO...!!! T-THIS... THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE...!!! T-THIS... THIS IS THE POWER THAT SHOULD BELONG ONLY TO HIM...!!! 'THE DESIRE THAT EXISTS BEFORE EVERYTHING' WILL NEVER ACCEPT WHAT YOU ARE DOING...!!!"
David immediately drew back into a throwing stance, aiming directly at The Absolute System.
"So you need your 'God,' do you? Then take this! Now get out of my way! I want to meet Johann..."
The moment he finished speaking, David hurled his Element of Desire sword.
The instant it struck The Absolute System's body, an enormous white-and-black flash spread across the entire wall, accompanied by violent eruptions of the same impossible energy.
"N-NOOOOOO...!!! W-WHY... ARE... YOU... DOING... THI-I-I-IS...?!?! Y-YOUUU... T-TRULY... ARE... 'T-THE ONE... BEYOND... EVERYTHI-I-I-NG...!!!'"
The eruption continued growing until it engulfed The Absolute System completely. Then, after a sight utterly beyond the comprehension of reality itself, the white-and-black energy vanished. Everything returned to the endless sea of clouds as it had been before.
At the end of the plain, David finally saw something, a simple house door. The very door that should have stood atop High Heaven's highest mountain. He walked toward it and before opening it, he turned back toward Mendicore.
"Your journey finished here. You can return there now."
David calmly opened the door, stepped through, and closed it behind him.
Still unable to comprehend everything that had just happened, Mendicore suddenly remembered the altered ending of The Mayhem that David had once demanded from the game's developers.
He had requested a scene where, before Hellraider entered the final battle against the boss in the Primordial Plane following Ruciphar's defeat, he would stand before that very gate, remove his helmet, and turn toward the screen as though looking directly at whoever was watching the cutscene.
With an utterly expressionless gaze, Hellraider would raise the middle finger of his right hand for several seconds before turning back, opening the gate, and allowing the game's ending credits to begin.
"I'll never forget everything that happened throughout every reality...
An ordinary soldier who was once forced to survive the horrifying terror of another realm eventually became the one who brought terror back upon that realm...
Yet I also witnessed another human watching him from beyond a different reality...
When those two realities became one, that person—Johann—resolved to remain by David Hellraider's side, despite being nothing more than an ordinary human without expressing any power whatsoever...
Yet, in the end, he was the one who caused everything in this reality to exist...
In return, David resolved to find once again the person who had made him what he had become, even if it meant taking dominion over every reality along his journey...
And yet, in the end, he never once claimed any of those realities as his own...
Instead, he entrusted each of them to those of us who had once traveled alongside him...
I, Mendicore, shall forever call Lord David...
'God of A Godless Realm.'"