Lehistaltumel
A coalition of twelve dominant multiversal sovereigns within the Demiurge's Image—
the same entities that once damned an Alternate Anathasia to a forgotten ending.
This time, however, they chose to act.
With the Demiurgic Being absent, LehistaItumel saw an opening, an Image without a master.
Except, from across the Image, four sovereigns had already taken action.
"…What is this?" one of them muttered, watching as a multiversal bubble flickered before being snuffed out like a candle.
Then two.
Then three.
Then a dozen—
"This…" another murmured, watching as more multiversal bubbles vanished, reduced to nothing but drifting cosmic dust.
All sovereigns unaffiliated with the four rogue entities were extinguished, leaving behind only raw celestial residue. The rogue sovereigns gathered it silently, condensing it into a single, pulsing orb.
Two members of LehistaItumel stepped forward, attempting to erect a blockade.
Or so they intended.
"You no longer exist."
The Image stilled.
The two sovereigns froze, then began to fray at the edges of their being.
The rest could only watch as their allies faded, unraveling into pure energy before being claimed and absorbed into the orb.
"Your power plays can wait," a voice echoed.
A luminous woman manifested before them, clad in a ruffled purple dress, her presence calm, absolute.
Three other entities took form behind her.
The remaining eight members of LehistaItumel recoiled.
"The Sovereign of Time…" one muttered, his gaze darting.
"The Sovereign of Space… The Sovereign of Termination…"
His eyes fell upon the woman at their center.
"And the Sovereign of Beginning…"
His breath caught.
Why are they here?
Did they see through us?
"We should begin with these individuals," Rhetoma said.
The Sovereign of Space, his form a writhing mass of fractured dimensions, shifted as his distorted voice rippled across the Image.
"They are," Neighgratta added calmly.
The Sovereign of Time stood beside him, clad in flowing gold and white, her gaze distant yet precise.
A third presence unfolded behind them.
Colossal.
A fusion of biomechanical and chitinous anatomy, countless tendrils extending from its central mass. At the center of its torso, a vast circular aperture churned. Like a singularity barely restrained.
"These entities," it said, its voice mechanical, final,
"are the focal point of the Image's sustained discord."
The aperture pulsed.
"Their involvement in the disappearance of the Demiurgic Being is not improbable."
This was Usi-tha—
The Sovereign of Termination.
"Less talk," a woman in purple said calmly,
"More work."
Three members of LehistaItumel vanished.
Not shattered. Not displaced.
Simply dismissed.
Their existence unraveled into raw cosmic energy, immediately drawn into the orb resting in her hand.
Notchera—
The Sovereign of Beginnings, stepped forward.
"Time is slipping," she said evenly.
"Let's conclude this."
And with that, there was no battle.
No resistance.
Only sovereigns of higher authority disintegrating those beneath them, repurposing their remnants as fuel for what was to come.
Within the multiverses contained inside the Image, civilizations remained blissfully unaware.
Reality Supremes were not.
They scrambled, desperate, to delay the entropy already gnawing at their foundations.
Stars detonated prematurely.
Others collapsed inward, birthing black holes that tore open the fabric of their universes from within.
The disappearance of the Demiurgic Being did not merely doom the Image.
It had already begun to permeate downward—
Into every reality that depended on it.
Within the Demiurge's Image, sovereigns had begun to weaponize entire multiverses.
Collapsed realities were torn free, hurled as raw material against rival sovereigns who dared oppose them.
Structures failed one after another.
Multiverses were reduced to drifting cosmic dust.
The Image was tearing itself apart from within, corruption bleeding outward through its own foundations.
—
Outside the Demiurge's Image
"They are… destroying each other," I muttered, my jaw tightening as I watched the sovereigns turn on one another.
"My, my. How truly unfortunate," Roselia said as she stepped beside me, arms loosely crossed while she regarded the projection.
"As expected of them," she continued lightly. "Even as gods, they still seek domination. Quite the opposite of our nature."
She leaned closer, then slowly pulled away, her dress flowing softly.
"So," she asked, "what do you plan to do, Rania?"
Kagariel, the Second Outer God, lowered one of his colossal heads, observing the feed in silence before shaking it gently.
"This entropy…" he murmured.
"Is not something I remember coaxing."
He inclined one of his heads, the projection shifting, revealing a fading figure.
"This is—" I breathed, recognition tightening my chest.
"The Demiurgic Being of this Demiurge's Image," he cut in.
Within the projection, the being had already been reduced to paradoxical rot, its existence fraying, collapsing into incoherent amalgamations of what it once was.
I immediately turned to Roselia.
For the first time, she looked genuinely surprised.
"This is the same rot that destabilized the Collective Sphere before," I murmured, my brows furrowing. "Isn't it?"
Roselia nodded slowly, her arms falling back to her sides.
"Looking at how it behaves…" she said quietly, eyes fixed on the projection,
"It is quite certainly similar to that girl."
Kagariel tilted one of his heads, looking down at us.
"What exactly are the two of you referring to?"
All three of his heads lowered, drawing close to me and Roselia.
I looked up at him, eyes narrowing as memory surfaced.
"Something invaded and tried to destabilize the entirety of the stratums," I said quietly. "Something tied to Miss Anathasia."
Roselia took over, flicking her wrist once as she spoke.
"It was a failed alternate future self of Miss Veridielle, apparently."
Her gaze drifted back to the destabilizing Demiurge's Image.
"Something that defied every principle within the structure we barely understand."
She paused, then turned fully toward Kagariel.
"An amalgamation of paradoxes born of the Contradictory Sphere."
Her eyes hardened.
"It seemed to harbor quite the hatred toward Miss Veridielle."
Kagariel nodded one of his heads, the other two contemplative.
"Strange…" he murmured. "How did I not notice…"
Roselia immediately cut in, her tone sardonic.
"How indeed. That entity came from the Ruins, and yet our beloved Ruin Guardian failed to detect it?"
She chuckled softly, shaking her head.
"It seems you were truly in a deep sleep, failing to even sense the sudden intrusion of an entity of that scale."
Kagariel fell silent.
His presence seemed to wane, though his vast form remained, looming, eclipsing Roselia as she looked up at him, her expression still smug.
"Well?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"What do you have to say to that, oh Second Outer God?"
I immediately grabbed Roselia's wrist, shaking my head as my eyes met hers. But instead of backing down, she tore her gaze from me and glared at the hydra before us.
"You're supposed to be the second most capable after Miss Veridielle," she spat, her tone turning venomous, "and yet when a threat finally rises, you're absent?"
"You were the closest to her. You should have noticed something."
Her eyes burned with something I couldn't understand.
"Rania and I should never have had to face that thing in the first place had you just fulfilled your function."
Her voice lowered.
"I had to take out Drovkah because you were careless."
She didn't look away.
"I almost lost Rania because of your incompetence."