Smoke clogged his lungs with every breath.
The KAEL staggered forward, armor half-torn and clinging to him by broken straps. Blood dripped down his chest in warm, steady trails, soaking into the dirt beneath his boots. His body trembled—each of his wounds pulsing like a heartbeat of agony, each one a reminder of how fiercely the city had tried to survive.
Around him, the world lay in ruins.
Buildings had collapsed into burning heaps. Streets ran red. Bodies of the fallen—soldiers, children, mothers—were scattered like abandoned memories. The air was thick with despair; the cries of those who'd lost loved ones echoed through the smoke. Fear and death clung to the atmosphere like a suffocating fog.
And above it all… she stood.
Alys Verllis.
A cold beauty suspended high in the sky, her crimson hair fluttering like a banner of war. Behind her hovered a halo of the same deep red—an ominous, pulsing ring radiating unnatural power.
The KAEL forced his gaze upward, jaw clenched despite the agony.
KAEL: "Alys Verllis… stop this chaos. Are you truly so desperate for power that you'd sacrifice innocent people—turn this city into a massacre?"
Alys tilted her head slightly.
Then she smirked—slow, elegant, cruel.
Alys: "Desperate? No. Thirst for power is second nature to humans. Besides… isn't it the rule of this world? Devour, grow stronger.
And if you think this is a massacre—" her eyes gleamed, "—then you have no idea what's coming next."
The KAEL gritted his teeth, ready to speak again, when a voice rolled through the smoke like thunder.
???: "Is everything going smoothly? And why is this one still alive?"
The air tightened, suffocating under the sheer weight of the presence that followed. A massive figure descended—his armor radiating a chilling aura, as if it drained warmth from the world.
Viron.
The KAEL fell to one knee, gasping for breath under the pressure alone.
Alys pressed a hand to her lips, smirking.
Alys: "Grandpa, it's too early to grant him death. Look at his eyes—still burning with determination. I want to crush that determination… watch as he sinks into true despair."
The KAEL's voice cracked as he clutched his chest.
KAEL: "Viron… you scum. If it weren't for you and your granddaughter, none of this chaos would've happened!"
Viron remained silent. His expression didn't shift; he simply stared at the KAEL—cold, unreadable.
Then, with a lazy flick of his hand, an invisible force slammed into the KAEL.
The world spun.
His body crashed through a collapsed building—stone and steel caving in around him. Blood spilled from his mouth as he coughed violently, vision blurring.
Before he could regain focus, shadows moved in the sky.
Several figures emerged through the smoke, descending like reapers. Each wore elegant armored robes, their presence as overwhelming as Viron's.
Alys: "Are preparations ready?"
All of them nodded in unison.
Alys: "Then… let's begin."
She stretched out her hand.
The rubble around the KAEL exploded outward as an unseen force wrapped around him. His body was dragged upward—helpless—until he hung suspended before her.
Alys: "You once called king. You tried to suppress us. And I'll admit—your plan to wipe us out for this planet's safety was nearly perfect."
Her fingers brushed his cheek, mockingly gentle.
Alys: "But you forgot one variable."
A crimson gem materialized beside her, hovering like a beating heart. Its power rippled violently through the air; the ground trembled beneath its presence.
Alys: "This gem flipped everything in our favor."
She leaned closer, eyes burning with wicked delight.
Alys: "Now… let me show you what true despair looks like."
The crimson gem hovering beside her suddenly flared—releasing a menacing glow that bled across the sky. The air vibrated violently, reality itself seeming to recoil from its presence.
Alys waved her hand.
With a burst of distorted light, an orb materialized—its surface flickering with shifting electronic signals, as though coded patterns were being written across its shell. She snapped her fingers.
Electric runes ignited.
The ground convulsed. Cracks split across the earth in every direction—fractures racing outward for thousands of miles like lightning trapped beneath the soil. From these ruptures, colossal metallic structures surged upward, humming with an ancient, predatory energy.
Suspended helplessly in Alys's telekinetic grasp, the KAEL could only watch.
He struggled, muscles trembling, blood dripping from his wounds. It didn't matter. Her power was overwhelming—vast, crushing, absolute.
The structures surrounding them trembled with a thunderous boom as they activated, their surfaces glowing with lines of pulsing crimson light. A guttural vibration rolled through the earth, as though the planet itself were screaming.
Then—
Everything began to die.
A deafening roar erupted as each structure funneled its accumulated energy upward—streams converging around the crimson gem at their center. The energies intertwined, forming a colossal formation that spread across the sky like an arcane eclipse.
Its reach extended across eighty-five million miles.
Within that range, life itself withered.
The KAEL felt it immediately.
His strength drained.
His breath thinned.
His vision dimmed.
It was as if his very soul was being torn from his body.
In the distance—far beyond his reach—he saw vegetation shrivel into ash. Forests crumbled to dust. Rivers evaporated. The ground split open, revealing molten lava gushing upward. Dark thunder rolled across the heavens, a funeral dirge signaling the end of the world.
Screams carried through the air—millions of them, overlapping in a rising crescendo.
The cries of those dying.
The wails of those who lost their loved ones.
The final whispers of a world collapsing.
Explosions erupted—continent-shattering blasts that wiped out entire countries in an instant. Cities were erased. Civilizations vanished in streaks of crimson light.
The KAEL trembled, eyes burning with grief.
KAEL (whispering, broken):
"Everyone… I'm sorry. I failed to protect you. This happened because of me… because I was weak. I'm so sorry."
Eight billion lives snuffed out.
A planet reduced to ruin.
His determination—once unshakeable—began to fracture.
Alys watched him with intoxicating satisfaction, her voice like poison-laced silk.
Alys: "You truly are Earth's strongest. Your life force exceeds all others… and that's exactly why this moment is so beautiful. Otherwise, how else could I show you such chaos?"
She gestured grandly at the devastation.
Alys: "Look at it—this paradise of destruction. The screams of the dying, the collapse of hope… It's a melody that blends perfectly."
Suddenly—
A deafening, earth-shattering crack ripped through the air.
A sound so loud it felt like it split the atmosphere itself.
Alys's eyes flickered upward. Her smile sharpened.
Alys: "Now… it's time for the real show."
High above, the formation—still centered on the crimson gem—pulsed violently. A surge of energy shot upward, tearing through the sky and ripping open a massive space crack.
The rift throbbed with an ominous aura, something ancient and monstrous leaking through.
Alys and Viron both stared at it, their expressions shifting from joy to astonishment—and for the first time, fear.
The other figures recoiled, their auras trembling, eyes wide with disbelief.
Something on the other side of that space crack was powerful enough to terrify even them.
And KAEL watched all of this unfold with a stunned, almost numb expression—shock freezing his thoughts, breath caught in his throat. For the first time in his entire life, he felt it.
True fear.
Not fear of death.
Not fear of pain.
But the primal, suffocating terror of utter annihilation.
The KAEL sensed the dangerous aura spilling from the widening space crack and fell silent. For a moment, he simply closed his eyes. A single tear slipped down his smoke-stained cheek.
He wasn't crying from fear.
He was crying because he knew what he was about to do.
His half-torn nanosuit flickered weakly—systems failing, plates shattered—but with its last reserves of energy, it materialized a blade in his hand. The weapon hummed, stabilizing as if responding to his resolve.
Then he did the unthinkable.
He began to burn his life force.
A golden aura ignited around him, faint at first… then rising, intensifying, roaring like a dying star refusing to collapse. The energy climbed higher and higher until even the air warped from the pressure.
Alys's eyes narrowed.
She sensed it immediately.
Something was terribly wrong.
She moved—about to crush him before he could act—but it was already too late.
A blinding gold light swallowed him.
A mark appeared on his forehead, glowing like molten script. His eyes snapped open—burning with raw, primal energy. The blast that erupted from his body tore through Alys's telekinetic grip and sent her skidding backward in midair.
The KAEL rose above the battlefield, a radiant figure blazing across the ruined sky—shining so brightly it was as if a second sun had descended upon the dying earth.
Alys stammered, her voice breaking for the first time:
Alys: "H-How… how can you still manifest this much power…?"
Below them, the land trembled. Cracked continents glowed under his golden radiance. Even the thick, suffocating black clouds turned brilliant white as they reflected his overwhelming aura.
But no one was alive to witness the miracle.
No one but Alys, Viron, and the robed figures.
Alys's momentary shock faded. A cruel smirk curled across her lips.
Alys: "Come, then. Attack me with your full force. I want to see how much power your 'hope' can muster after witnessing the end of your world."
The KAEL said nothing.
He simply raised his blade.
Behind him, a colossal golden sword—Spectra—manifested. It stretched across the sky, long enough to tear continents apart, its edges shimmering like divine judgment. The moment it appeared, the surrounding atmosphere trembled violently.
In response, Alys raised her hand.
Across the dead planet, the spilled blood of billions stirred. Rivers of scarlet twisted through cracked lands, gathering, condensing, forging themselves into an enormous beast-like claw—shaped from agony, hatred, and death.
Golden radiance and crimson malice collided.
Their auras clashed—
and the planet cracked.
Even the slightest contact between their powers shattered one-tenth of the planet's remaining mass, fragments breaking off and floating into the void.
Then the clash began.
The KAEL and Alys struck at the same moment. Spectra and the blood-formed claw collided with a detonation so massive it ripped thunder across the heavens. The shockwave tore apart the continents that remained, scattering molten debris into space.
Spectra shuddered.
It was being pushed back—overwhelmed by the monstrous claw forged from the blood of billions.
The KAEL felt it.
He felt himself weakening.
He had burned his life force earlier… but it wasn't enough.
So he ignited something far more precious.
His soul.
Pain unlike anything imaginable engulfed him—like being slowly submerged in molten metal, every nerve dissolving, every thought burning. But he endured it. He forced all of that agony, all of that fading existence, into Spectra.
The golden blade roared to life—radiant, divine, judgment incarnate.
Spectra descended again, brighter than the sun, and crashed into the bloody claw.
This time, it sliced through.
The claw tore apart with a sickening rip, and a violent explosion ripped through the sky. Alys reeled. For the first time, the corner of her mouth split, spilling a thin trail of blood.
She wiped it off, unfazed.
Alys: "So you burned everything… just to make me bleed a single drop?
How pitiful."
But before the KAEL could respond, the world changed.
The air ruptured with a low, unnatural hum.
Space twisted.
Time distorted.
Reality itself convulsed.
The surroundings trembled violently as the earlier space crack split even wider, warping the universe around it like a black hole tearing through existence. Everything turned chaotic—gravity shifting, sound bending, light distorting.
The KAEL, Alys, Viron, and the robed figures froze where they floated—no one daring to move an inch.
Then it emerged.
From the rift, a massive tentacle, coated in a menacing aura and lined with jagged fangs, slithered into their universe. Darkness dripped from it—an energy so vile it made the stars flicker. More tentacles followed, expanding outward until they covered an area over one light-year in size.
Alys dropped to one knee instantly.
So did Viron and the others.
Even their powerful bodies trembled uncontrollably.
Alys (voice shaking):
"Ohh… supreme being of Chaos… Lord Khaosyr.
Please accept us—insignificant, lowly beings."
She offered the crimson gem with trembling hands.
Khaosyr's tentacles wrapped around it.
The gem vanished into his maw.
This gem—filled with the life force of Earth, its people, and countless other regions within eighty-five million miles—was devoured in an instant. A pulse of satisfaction rippled through the monster's aura.
Then an energy stream flowed from Khaosyr, wrapping around Alys, Viron, and their followers.
Their genes twisted.
Their souls warped.
Their bodies evolved.
This was Khaosyr's acknowledgment—his acceptance.
And then his tentacles buried themselves into the dying planet, tearing it apart like wet paper.
The KAEL watched in horror.
Fear corroded his heart.
But he couldn't allow Earth—what remained of it—to be devoured like this.
Once, this planet was humanity's cradle.
Once, it held hope and dreams.
Once, it was home.
He stretched out his hand, ignoring the cracks splitting across his skin. His energy was nearly gone. His body was falling apart. But he forced himself forward, dashing toward Khaosyr, far away from what remained of Earth.
He closed his eyes.
His body erupted with light.
Behind him, a blazing sun materialized—his core.
His final power.
His ultimate act.
He chose to self-destruct.
His face twisted with emotion—sorrow, helplessness, regret, rage, hatred… but above all, grief.
KAEL (whispering):
"Forgive me… everyone.
I couldn't save you.
But I'll give everything… to save what's left of Earth…"
His energy peaked—violent, overwhelming—seconds from erupting in a star-killing explosion.
And then—
Everything vanished.
His energy.
His power.
His motion.
He couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
Couldn't speak.
Space and time around him were sealed—locked like an insect trapped in amber.
Far away, Alys burst into laughter.
Alys: "You really thought you could save anything?
You are in the presence of Lord Khaosyr—
a being who is destruction itself."
Energy from Khaosyr surged into her, merging with her body. Her eyes gleamed with red insanity.
Alys: "This planet… Earth… the one you so desperately wanted to save, right?"
She aimed her finger toward the planet's fractured remains.
The surrounding cosmos trembled.
The KAEL trembled with rage—but his sealed body refused to move.
Alys looked at him once.
Mocking.
Triumphant.
Cruel.
Then, with a gentle flick of her finger—
BOOM
A burst of crimson energy flew forth.
The KAEL watched in frozen silence as Earth—what little remained—shattered completely, exploding into dust and fragments.
He stared, unable to scream.
And something inside him shattered.
For the first time in his life, he felt absolute powerlessness.
Not the kind born from defeat—
but the kind born from witnessing a gap so massive, so impossible, that he understood:
He was nothing before Khaosyr.
Not a threat.
Not a challenger.
Not even a nuisance.
Just a being standing in front of an endless abyss that could devour universes.
His thoughts spiraled—rage, sorrow, regret, despair intertwining—until a cold voice sliced through them.
Alys: "Now that your purpose of saving Earth is over…
because it no longer exists…
your purpose ends here as well."
She raised her hand.
A blade of condensed blood formed instantly—sharp, gleaming, vibrating with murderous intent. A weapon forged from the death of billions.
Before the KAEL could react, she flicked her wrist.
The blade shot forward—
silent, precise, merciless.
It pierced his chest cleanly.
A massive wound exploded open, and before he could even scream, the bloody blade merged into his body, sinking into his flesh like a parasite burrowing into his soul.
Agonizing pain ripped through him—
not just the physical wound,
but the burning of his cultivation,
the collapse of his soul,
the shattering of his core.
It was too much.
His body convulsed.
His vision dimmed.
His strength evaporated.
Finally, he could no longer endure it.
His form began to fall—slowly, helplessly—like a broken star descending into emptiness.
As the last breath escaped his trembling lips, he forced his fading eyes upward.
Alys was already turning away.
Khaosyr's colossal tendrils were retracting into the space crack.
They were leaving—satisfied, victorious, unchallenged.
With the last fragment of consciousness he possessed, the KAEL whispered—hoarse, weak, but filled with a hatred deeper than the void:
KAEL:
"…If there is… a next time…
maybe…
maybe if such a thing truly exists…
I swear…
I will step down onto this reality itself…
and I will mark your end…
in the worst way imaginable…"
His hand dropped.
His vision faded to black.
And his heart—finally—stopped.
The KAEL's lifeless body drifted in the empty void, surrounded by the fragments of what once were planets, continents, and memories. Shattered pieces of Earth floated like ancient grave markers in the dark nothingness.
Then—
space split open.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
But with a perfect, absolute precision.
A seam of pure white light carved itself into existence, illuminating the void with a brilliance untouched by time or corruption. The radiance enfolded the KAEL's corpse, gently swallowing it, and the tear in reality closed as if it had never existed.
He was gone.
He reappeared in a vast, dark expanse.
A chamber—not built, but conceptualized—hummed with deep mechanical resonance, like the breathing of a cosmic engine. Its walls stretched infinitely in every direction, surfaces shifting with quantum mechanisms and invisible gears of reality.
Far in the distance stood a tower.
A structure so alien its geometry broke the mind. Its four-dimensional loops twisted through space like living equations. The aura it radiated distorted cosmic law itself—rippling through creation like the hum of an unseen god.
This place was not a room.
Not a dimension.
It was a realm outside realms.
The KAEL's lifeless form drifted toward the tower, guided by the same white glow still wrapped around his body. Space shifted—folding like silk—and suddenly he was no longer in the infinite chamber but inside the Tower Hall.
A hall so vast entire galaxies could drift inside it without touching.
In its center floated a sphere of pure white energy, surrounded by rotating rings carved with primordial runes. Its presence alone suppressed every law—gravity, time, causality.
The glow carrying the KAEL guided him directly toward it.
And then—
Space trembled.
A distortion formed beside his body, and from it a figure descended into existence.
The Supreme One Appears
He was silent.
He was motionless.
Yet his presence was a cosmic calamity.
A dark robe draped over him, absorbing every trace of light. His face lay hidden within its depths. Behind his head hovered a perfect ring of pure white energy, from which thin strands of power drifted like celestial silk.
In his right hand, he held a 4D Tesseract Loop, its geometry shifting with impossible patterns that defied mortal thought.
In his left, a simple staff—yet it felt more powerful than any star or deity.
He did not step—
reality stepped around him.
The space beneath the KAEL flattened into flawless obsidian glass. Dimensions bent in reverence. Laws of physics re-wrote themselves to accommodate his presence.
He looked at the KAEL's body once.
A single, silent glance—
and space folded, rearranged, and trembled.
Then his voice came.
It did not echo.
It existed.
A voice made of colliding galaxies and the whisper of creation's first dawn.
"Ohhh, little one… all beings are bound by the fragile strings of fate and existence. In my eyes, such limitations are less than dust."
"But what earned my attention was not destiny—it was your spirit."
"Even when faced with absolute destruction, you did not kneel. You faced it. You earned the right to be called a true Warrior."
The Tesseract in his hand shifted, and a thread of golden light detached from his celestial ring, wrapping itself around the KAEL's silent, broken heart.
"But where fate ends… I begin."
"You have earned a second chance."
His decree resonated like a universe being born:
"Rise."
Power surged—an ancient command rewriting reality around the corpse.
"I, the Supreme One—who rules existence itself, whom even fate cannot bind—I had no intention of passing from this reality. But the Cycle turns, and even I must heed the call of the Void."
"Hear me, inheritor."
The white sphere flared behind him.
"I pass down my full inheritance to you—
to break the chains of fate,
to stand above existence itself,
to become the beginning of a new epoch."
"All that I was, all that I amassed, all that I transcended…
is now yours."
"This power is not a gift—it is a burden of creation.
The universe is once again a blank canvas.
Do not walk my path."
"Forge a new Reality."
The cloaked figure tilted his head slightly.
A faint, soundless chuckle rippled through space—dry, ancient, amused.
"Hahahaha…
The end you witnessed?
It is merely the prelude to your ascent."
"Go now—
and taste the true meaning of the infinite."
The Supreme One stretched out his staff.
The white sphere of pure, absolute energy at the center of the hall—its rings carved with primordial runes—began to hum with a vibration so deep it echoed through dimensions. Slowly, the sphere compressed, its vastness folding inward until it became a single flawless orb of creation itself.
The Supreme One then turned toward the KAEL's lifeless body.
Guided by the shifting geometries of the 4D Tesseract loop, the corpse rose weightlessly. The orb drifted toward him like a second soul seeking reunion with its vessel.
When it touched him—
everything changed.
A force beyond comprehension struck the KAEL's body. The gaping wound in his chest sealed instantly, flesh and spirit knitting into divine perfection. The ashes of his self-immolated soul ignited into a roaring sun. His broken core solidified into a new cosmic nucleus, radiant and whole.
His hair, once smoke-stained and burnt, transformed into an ethereal, immaculate white—like woven strands of starlight.
The fusion shook creation itself.
Laws buckled.
Dimensions twisted.
The void trembled with the strain of harboring so much power in a single vessel.
Space cracked with blinding streaks of light. Time rippled backward and forward in chaotic pulses, unable to maintain stability.
Meanwhile, the Supreme One's form began to dim.
His robe dissolved into stardust.
The Tesseract's impossible shapes evaporated.
The staff faded like a dream slipping into morning.
As his figure thinned into silence, his voice—soft, ancient, amused—cut through the convulsing void:
"It's laughable, isn't it?
I walk toward nothingness… while you mark your beginning."
The cosmos shuddered.
The laws of creation fluctuated wildly. Reality itself seemed to mourn.
Across the vast expanse of existence—
in distant universes, forgotten galaxies, and eternal realms—
powerful beings felt the cosmic flux.
And they trembled.
Some knelt without knowing why.
Some collapsed in fear.
Some simply bowed in instinctive reverence.
It was not choice.
It was not understanding.
It was the Supreme Will of Primordial Chaos—
a cosmic law that commanded all existence to kneel before the passing of the Supreme One.
No being, no matter how ancient or how powerful, could resist.
All bowed.
All submitted.
All paid respect—
To the one who transcended fate, death, existence, and law.
The Supreme One sensed the gesture and—just before he faded completely—whispered in faint approval.
Then he vanished.
Gone.
Erased.
Returned to the Void that even gods cannot comprehend.
All that remained was the quiet, perfect form of the KAEL—white-haired, flawless, still floating in the quaking void.
Then—
Silence.
A silence so absolute it felt as if creation itself held its breath.
The KAEL's eyes snapped open.
Twin infernos of raw, unfiltered power surged within them.
Immediately, a flood of information poured into his mind—
techniques beyond mortal comprehension,
cultivation methods that bent laws of nature,
studies of cosmic law and primal forces,
knowledge of realities stacked atop realities.
He winced, gripping his head as galaxies of data swarmed into his consciousness.
Memories of Earth's destruction flashed.
Alys's smile.
Viron's cold gaze.
Khaosyr's abyssal tendrils.
His lips curled into a whisper:
"Alys Verllis. Viron. Khaosyr."
"The massacre you achieved was… temporary."
"The chains you relied upon? Ashes."
"The grief you gave me… is now the foundation of your end."
He sifted through the inheritance saturating his mind.
Only a portion of the Supreme One's knowledge was accessible—
the rest sealed behind cosmic thresholds.
A hint appeared in his mind:
Reach the designated level of existence… then the next gate will open.
He exhaled slowly.
Then crossed his legs.
In the heart of this dark, dimension-separated chamber, he began to cultivate.
Streams of cosmic energy spiraled around him.
Stars flickered into existence and died in the wake of his breathing.
A universal phenomenon—Spectra of cosmic marvel—manifested behind him like a newborn cosmos.
In the infinite vastness, where no law dared to intrude…
A new existence sparked.
And a new rise began.