The Endless Abyss deepened.
From every layer of darkness, they arrived.
Satan, wings folded, crown lowered.
The Seventy-One Demon Lords, each a walking catastrophe, kneeling without hesitation.
Death, silent and reverent.
The Four Apocalypses of the End, embodiments of extinction itself, bowing as equals acknowledging something older.
All who derived from darkness recognized him instinctively.
No announcement was needed.
No proclamation.
They felt him everywhere.
Rayon ruled the Endless Abyss not as a king, but as its state of being.
He was omnipresent within it—every shadow, every void, every unlit corner. He was everywhere and nowhere. If one stared into darkness long enough—
The darkness stared back.
And if a mortal—or even an awakened—looked directly into Rayon's eyes?
They fell.
Not physically.
Existentially.
Into the abyss.
Rayon did not command attention.
He no longer needed it.
Plans dissolved effortlessly now.
The city.
The vessels.
The posturing.
All irrelevant.
He had seen the end.
And the end was coming again.
The timeline where everything ended was not erased.
It was approaching.
So Rayon's new goal was simple.
Grow.
Prepare.
And when those beings arrived again—
They would not interrupt the story.
They would be written out of it.
Back on Averis-
Rayon opened a portal.
Not tearing space—parting it.
The abyss folded inward, and in a blink—
He stepped into Nyk's apartment.
Erethon followed, hands in his pockets, whistling.
Vorthalaxis slipped seamlessly back into Rayon's shadow.
The portal closed.
Nyk looked up from the couch, cigarette halfway to his mouth.
"…Damn," he said slowly. "Bro, you were gone for a couple hours—maybe a day—and now you're practically glowing. Come on. What's wrong with me?"
Rayon glanced at him.
Then at Christine, who was very obviously pretending not to fix her clothes.
He smirked faintly.
"You got it better."
Nyk blinked.
Then realized.
"…Aye—nah—"
Rayon walked past him.
Erethon snorted.
Christine turned red.
Nyk sighed deeply and rubbed his face.
"…Man," he muttered, "I hate when you're right."