10,000 Years Later
The chamber—once silent, once frozen outside the flow of creation—now pulsed with unimaginable power. Waves of energy rhythmically surged outward from the KAEL's meditating form, enough to warp the structure of the dimension itself.
He sat unmoving, cross-legged, yet the universe seemed to revolve around him.
Hovering around his body were Runes—no longer simple symbols, but living hieroglyphs of cosmic law. They drifted like silk threads woven from the fabric of reality:
Rune of SpaceRune of TimeRune of Finality (pure white)Rune of Darkness (deep void-black)Rune of Dominion (gold)
These five runes fluttered and resonated in perfect harmony, orbiting him like sovereign blades awaiting their master's call.
With time, their hum deepened.
Their glow sharpened.
And then—they began to change.
Within the KAEL's inner world, his core was no longer a simple energy point.
It was a singularity.
A black hole at the center, connected to countless satellite black holes by a massive circular ring carved densely with primordial runes.
Then—
The merging began.
The satellite black holes trembled, distorted, and were pulled into the central core with soundless, horrifying gulps. One by one, the miniature singularities collapsed into the main one, feeding it with impossible density.
The rune-etched ring glowed blinding white—
then it too was swallowed.
A universe-shaking pulse detonated from the core.
Energy spread outward in all directions, condensing, reshaping, constructing—
A miniature world emerged, floating in the heart of his inner cosmos.
At first glance, it seemed like only a few thousand miles wide…
but within the core, its internal space expanded to 10,000 kilometers in dimension.
At its center stood a colossal pillar of cosmic runes, anchoring this internal universe and stabilizing its rapidly evolving structure.
In the chamber, the five runes orbiting the KAEL underwent their metamorphosis:
Space → Great Law of SpaceTime → Great Law of TimeFinality → Great Law of AnnihilationDarkness → Great Law of DeathGold → Great Law of Dominion
Each law expanded to an enormous radius—3,000 kilometers wide, vast enough to crush planets by their mere presence.
As these powers settled, the KAEL's body began to change.
His mortal genetic limit—18—shattered.
He climbed past 100…
500…
1,000…
Finally stopping at 4,090.
A number utterly impossible for any mortal, any deity, any known existence.
He was, in all definitions—
a god born from broken fate.
Behind him, countless runes materialized, forming a massive ring of cosmic laws, and from it hung shimmering, silk-like energies—robes made of pure existence.
His eyes snapped open.
The chamber distorted.
Space tore.
Time hiccupped.
Reality bent beneath the weight of his gaze.
He raised a single hand.
With a flick of his finger—
space cracked open like fragile glass.
He whispered, voice echoing like a cosmic decree:
"It's been 10,000 years…
I have finally reached the level of Galactic Pulse Ascendant."
His thoughts wandered briefly—
"The first realm: Astral Vein Initiate.
The second: Stellar Core Awakener."
"And now… the third. I stand at its peak."
He glanced around the vast chamber—
the place that had taken him in, rebuilt him, and set him on a new path.
Slowly, solemnly—
He knelt.
"I won't disappoint you… whoever you are, wherever you now reside.
I swear it."
His vow resonated throughout the dimension like a sacred oath.
The runes etched along the infinite walls flickered—
dimmed—
and then shattered.
The entire chamber trembled violently.
Reality twisted, cracked, and began to disintegrate.
Its purpose was complete.
A portal of swirling light opened before him.
The KAEL rose, his aura shaking the fading dimension.
Without hesitation, he stepped through.
Behind him—
The chamber collapsed into nothingness,
its existence erased from the fabric of all realities.
Far beyond the broken remnants of the Supreme Tower, in the vast tapestry of the cosmos, lay the Ascendant Nexus Plane—a fractured realm of distorted space-time barely held together by the lingering remnants of ancient cosmic wills.
Here, on the First Land, stretched the Aetherium Continent, a continent so massive its shadow alone could eclipse stars.
A land of legends.
A land of war.
A land on the edge of collapse.
And at its heart—
the kingdom of Aethelgard.
A radiant golden metropolis, futuristic towers glistening under the pale jade river that flowed beside it. From a distance, the kingdom appeared serene, prosperous, divine.
But as one approached…
the illusion shattered.
The air was suffocating—thick with the coppery smell of blood.
Hundreds of corpses lay heaped at the shattered gates. Warriors who once defended the continent with pride now lay twisted, broken, unmoving beneath the crimson sky.
And standing beyond the carnage was an army of thousands.
Cold. Silent. Obedient.
At their front stood a towering figure in obsidian armor—scales glimmering across his neck and forearms, horns curling from his temples, and on his forehead, a glowing symbol pulsing with malevolent energy.
Kadoth.
He inhaled deeply—enjoying the scent of slaughter as if it were perfume—and grinned with sadistic delight.
Then his eyes found them—
a trembling group of Aethelgard soldiers attempting to shield a young boy.
A boy dressed in shattered white-gold armor.
His silver hair matted with dirt and blood.
Pointed ears quivering with fear.
Tears carving trails down his pale cheeks.
Nel.
The last prince of Aethelgard.
A child carrying the final flicker of a dying lineage.
Kadoth's grin widened.
Kadoth (mocking, amused):
"Nel… how many corpses must decorate your gates before your people finally surrender?"
Nel bit his trembling lip, voice cracking as he forced out a reply.
Nel (shaking, but firm):
"…My kingdom may fall… my people may die…
but I will never bow to a monster like you."
Kadoth slowly clapped, a cruel smirk spreading.
Kadoth:
"Stubborn brat. I tried to be merciful… truly I did."
He sighed dramatically.
"But mercy has its limits."
With a flick of his wrist—
the ground convulsed.
Above them, space tore apart like decaying paper.
A colossal eye manifested in the sky—so large it eclipsed the horizon. Its iris churned with hatred older than civilizations; its pupil devoured the light around it.
The soldiers froze.
Nel's knees buckled.
Even Kadoth's own army flinched.
Kadoth's grin became feral.
Kadoth:
"Since these are your last moments…
allow me to add an extra touch."
The monstrous eye opened fully.
A soul-crushing pressure descended like a mountain falling from the heavens.
Screams erupted from Nel's guards as a psychic shockwave burned through their minds.
Nel clutched his head, screaming—eyes rolling in agony.
Kadoth walked leisurely toward him, enjoying every moment.
Kadoth:
"Hiding behind your soldiers again?
How long do you think that will save you?"
He reached the weakened prince—
and slammed his foot onto Nel's head.
The boy crashed into the ground, coughing blood, vision spinning.
Kadoth laughed.
Kadoth:
"Pathetic. Truly pathetic."
He squatted down, voice dripping venom.
"The mighty kingdom of Aethelgard… reduced to this."
He tapped his chin mockingly.
Kadoth:
"Let's revisit history, shall we?"
He leaned closer, whispering like poison.
Kadoth:
"If your ancestral guardian hadn't vanished…
If your father hadn't 'tragically died'—"
Nel's eyes widened, breath caught.
Kadoth sneered.
Kadoth:
"Oh wait. He didn't die tragically.
He was betrayed.
By the one he trusted most—
your mother."
Nel's heart snapped. His pupils shook violently.
Kadoth continued mercilessly.
Kadoth:
"Yes… she did it willingly. Proudly. Happily.
And once she served her purpose…
I tore her apart."
Nel choked on his breath, tears flooding.
Kadoth:
"And at the end?
She begged to see you.
Begged for forgiveness.
Begged for a second chance."
His laugh exploded through the ruins, loud and cruel.
Nel's despair deepened into a void no mortal could endure.
Kadoth lifted his hand—
and a shimmering blade of condensed malice materialized.
Kadoth:
"Farewell, little prince."
Nel sobbed, voice cracking.
Nel:
"Please…
I wish for nothing but a miracle…
Why must I suffer this fate…?"
His voice broke.
"What did I do to deserve such… injustice…?"
Kadoth raised the blade high—
The sky shook.
The ground rumbled.
A wind unlike anything in this plane swept across the land—heavy, divine, cosmic.
A voice descended.
Deep.
Resonant.
Unyielding.
A voice that made armies freeze.
A voice that made Kadoth's smirk turn still.
A voice that made the dying prince look up with trembling hope.
??? (voice like rolling thunder):
"This is the harsh reality of the cosmos…"
The air distorted.
Light bent.
???
"…and the cruel truth of fate."
Kadoth took a step back, eyes narrowing.
His instincts screamed—
Danger.
Run.
Hide.
Submit.
But he couldn't move.
A pillar of crushing pressure descended from the heavens with a deafening roar.
BOOOOM!
The impact struck Kadoth head-on, launching him hundreds of meters across the blood-soaked ground. His armored body slammed through stone and steel, carving a long crater before skidding to a stop.
The battlefield froze.
The air itself trembled.
The despair-filled sky cracked open—
revealing a vast, glimmering expanse of cosmic light.
And from that rift… a figure descended.
He did not fall.
He stepped down from the heavens.
Each footstep shook the entire continent.
The armies—even those with monstrous bloodlines—fell to their knees involuntarily. The air around them thinned. Breathing became a struggle. Reality bent.
Kadoth's expression twisted into something he had never experienced:
Pure submission.
Sweat streamed down his face, his limbs shaking uncontrollably.
In front of this being, he felt like a speck of dust—a mistake of existence.
With a single, casual flick of his hand—
CRASH!
The monstrous eye looming in the sky shattered like fragile glass, dissolving into motes of black mist.
Nel, who lay barely conscious on the ground, lifted his tear-stained face.
His trembling gaze met the descending figure—
and everything inside him broke.
Then healed.
A spark of warmth.
A flicker of hope.
Nel's lips quivered.
Nel (voice shaking):
"…Grandpa…?"
The figure finally touched the ground.
He stood tall—overwhelming yet calm.
Long black hair cascaded behind him like a river of night.
Horns shaped like a regal crown curved elegantly from his head.
A black robe embroidered with ancient runes flowed around him, untouched by dust or blood.
It was him.
Valen.
The Guardian.
The Missing King.
Nel's grandfather.
Valen approached the boy with quiet steps.
Nel collapsed into sobs the moment Valen knelt beside him.
Nel (choking, trembling):
"Grandpa… look… ever since you went missing… and father… died…
Everything fell apart.
I-I'm sorry… I'm weak… If I were strong… none of this would have happened…"
Valen gently placed his hand on Nel's head.
A warm, soothing glow enveloped him.
Valen (softly):
"You may be weak in strength…
but your courage—your refusal to surrender—is far greater than you realize."
He wiped Nel's tears with his thumb.
Valen:
"You've endured enough.
Rest now."
His palm shimmered with gentle energy, and Nel's consciousness drifted into peaceful sleep. Valen gestured, and an ethereal guardian appeared—lifting Nel and carrying him away from the battlefield.
Then Valen's expression changed.
All softness vanished.
His eyes turned cold.
Merciless.
Murderous.
He turned toward Kadoth.
The ground cracked beneath Valen's footstep.
Kadoth staggered to his feet, eyes wide with terror.
Kadoth (stammering):
"Y-You… You weren't missing…?
Why… why appear now—after so long…?"
Valen did not answer.
Instead, he raised his hand—
and snapped his fingers.
The world darkened.
A domain unfolded—an absolute, inescapable realm.
"Absolute Field: Beast Claw."
The sky twisted into streaks of silver and black.
A monstrous pressure swept across the battlefield.
Thousands of Kadoth's soldiers screamed—
their bodies instantly sliced into ribbons of flesh, shredded into mist by invisible claws.
The sound lasted one second.
Then silence.
Kadoth stood alone, trembling violently—somehow untouched.
For a heartbeat… he dared to hope.
Then Valen appeared before him—without sound, without movement, simply there.
He grabbed Kadoth by the throat.
Kadoth's legs kicked helplessly, his claws scraping against Valen's wrist to no effect.
Valen's voice was calm.
Too calm.
Valen:
"Since these are your final moments…
I will also put in some extra effort."
The symbol on Valen's forehead ignited—
a blazing sigil of ancient authority.
The mark pulsed.
Kadoth's soul ruptured.
A piercing, indescribable agony tore through him—like countless blades carving through his very existence.
Kadoth's scream split the sky.
He thrashed, writhed, begged—
but the domain allowed no escape, no mercy, no hope.
In seconds, the tide of the battlefield had changed completely.
Valen—the missing Guardian—had returned.
Night had fallen over Aethelgard.
What remained of the grand tower stood bathed in the pale, swirling glow of the Ascendant Nexus Plane. The distant screams of battle had faded, replaced by an unnatural stillness—one that pressed heavily against the soul.
Valen stood beside Nel, his black cloak stirring faintly in the cosmic wind. The battlefield's blood had been washed away, but the weight of what had been revealed lingered in the air.
Nel's tears had long since dried.
In their place was something colder.
Heavier.
Truth.
Valen spoke at last.
His voice was calm—too calm—carrying the subtle resonance of ancient Law.
Valen:
"It began eight years ago… when my disappearance became inevitable."
Nel turned fully toward him, clutching the silver pendant at his chest.
Valen's gaze drifted to the horizon, eyes reflecting memories he had buried deep.
Valen:
"I once overheard a conversation between the ancestor of the Lunareth Kingdom—Xras—and a man concealed beneath a dark robe and mask."
His jaw tightened.
Valen:
"I did not recognize his face. But his aura…"
"…it was suffocating. Crushing. So heavy that even I felt my instincts screaming."
Nel's breath hitched.
Valen:
"Xras addressed him as Master."
Silence followed.
Then—
Valen:
"They spoke of a 'Lord's Will.' A plan to absorb Omphalos."
Nel's blood ran cold.
Nel (hoarse):
"…Omphalos… the Core?"
Valen nodded.
Valen:
"The heart of the Ascendant Nexus Plane. The anchor of its existence."
"If Omphalos is absorbed, this entire realm—this continent—will fracture into nothingness."
Nel's fingers trembled.
Nel:
"Then the war… the invasion…"
"…it wasn't conquest."
Valen:
"No."
"It was extermination."
"A convenient excuse to erase those who might interfere—especially Aethelgard."
Valen exhaled slowly.
Valen:
"I followed the Master."
The air around them felt colder.
Valen:
"He led me to a desolate plane. Barely a few hundred miles wide."
"But the moment my foot touched it… reality shifted."
Valen's hand clenched unconsciously.
Valen:
"It felt like stepping into a hostile dimension. My instincts begged me to flee."
He paused.
For the first time, fear flickered across his face.
Valen:
"Then everything became still."
"And I realized…"
"…I was being stared at by the Abyss itself."
Nel shuddered.
Valen:
"Even now, recalling it sends chills through my soul."
Valen's voice lowered.
Valen:
"To escape, I burned nearly forty percent of my essence."
"My life force."
"I survived—but barely."
Nel swallowed hard.
Valen:
"I knew then that the fate of the Nexus Plane depended on my survival."
"So I gambled."
Valen raised his hand.
With a snap of his fingers, a soundless barrier formed around them—an invisible wall of Law sealing space itself.
Valen:
"What I tell you next is a secret carried only by royal blood."
The air warped.
Valen's body began to crack.
Dark scales crawled across his skin. Muscles surged. His frame expanded, towering, monstrous. Horns twisted upward like a crown forged from the abyss itself.
In seconds, where a man once stood, there now coiled a cosmic dragon—vast, ancient, overwhelming.
Nel's breath caught in his throat.
Valen (resonant, thunderous):
"I am a Cosmic Beast."
"An Abyssal Dragon."
The chamber trembled beneath his presence.
Valen:
"This truth is known only to Aethelgard's rulers."
"Your father knew."
"Now… so do you."
Slowly, Valen reverted to his human form.
He looked skyward.
Valen:
"In this form, I descended into Lake Anathema."
"A forbidden place. A gamble with death itself."
His voice hardened.
Valen:
"I lost an arm. A leg."
"Still, I reached the tomb where the pure essence rested."
Valen closed his eyes.
Valen:
"But as I approached it… space locked."
"Then came suppression."
His lips trembled slightly.
Valen:
"It felt like planets crushing my body."
"I couldn't even raise my head."
Years passed in his words.
Valen:
"My body decomposed."
"Hope faded."
Then—
Valen:
"I saw visions."
Nel leaned forward.
Valen's voice lowered, heavy with awe and uncertainty.
Valen:
"A being who commanded the cosmos itself… choosing his own end."
"And another…"
"A young man—carrying a will capable of defying reality."
He slowly opened his eyes, the memory still burning behind them.
Valen:
"Then… the suppression vanished."
He exhaled deeply.
Valen:
"Perhaps the end of that supreme entity caused a disturbance in the Cosmic Will itself—a slight, temporary fracture in the fundamental laws that bind existence."
His gaze sharpened.
"But that fleeting imperfection… was enough."
Valen:
"In that instant, I seized the opportunity. I absorbed the pure energy essence before the laws could mend themselves—"
His voice steadied, resonant with quiet triumph.
Valen:
"—and broke through."
A pause.
Valen:
"I fully entered the Astral Vein Initiate realm."
Nel could no longer hold back.
He rushed forward, embracing Valen, sobbing.
Nel:
"Grandpa… you endured all that…"
"For us…"
Valen held him firmly.
Valen:
"The danger isn't over."
"But I believe everything will be fine."
He looked up—toward the endless stars.
Valen (softly):
"Because that young man I saw in the vision…"
Valen's voice faltered.
The air shuddered.
A shrill, reality-splitting screech tore through the night as the very roof of Aethelgard's grand tower was ripped apart. Stone vaporized. Spatial layers peeled back like torn parchment.
Two figures descended.
One was clad in a dark, rune-stitched robe, its patterns writhing as if alive. His face was concealed behind a smooth, black mask devoid of features—no eyes, no mouth, no humanity.
Beside him hovered another figure—Xras, ancestor of the Lunareth Kingdom—his posture stiff, his aura trembling with restrained terror.
A servant.
Valen's gaze hardened instantly.
His voice dropped, carrying the weight of ancient Law.
Valen:
"I know you are not the one who seeks the ruin of this Plane.
There is another… hiding behind you."
His eyes burned.
"Show yourself—
or face the judgment of the Abyssal Beast."
The masked figure tilted his head slightly.
When he spoke, his voice carried no echo, no emotion—only an ethereal whisper that bypassed the ears and resonated directly within the soul.
The Master:
"Valen of Aethelgard.
You survived the Gaze of the Abyss our Lord."
A pause.
"Commendable… for a specimen of your rank."
Xras visibly flinched.
"But survival does not equal victory. You are insignificant—
a mote of dust before His presence.
You are unqualified to even stand beneath His shadow."
That was enough.
Reality howled.
Valen released his restraint.
Valen's human form exploded outward in a storm of cosmic force.
Scales darker than the void erupted across his body, etched with ancient runes that pulsed with blue-white radiance. His form expanded, coiling across fractured space itself. Massive wings unfurled, blotting out the sky.
The Abyssal Dragon had returned.
Pure cosmic energy—refined within the Lake Anathema—roared around him, distorting the Ascendant Nexus Plane.
Valen (Dragon Form):
"My victory is guaranteed by Omphalos itself!
I will burn you—and your Lord's scheme—into ash!"
He roared.
The sound rippled across the entire Ascendant Nexus Plane, shaking continents, collapsing spatial seams, and sending terror through every living being who heard it.
Valen inhaled.
The cosmos trembled.
He exhaled a torrent of condensed cosmic energy—brilliant blue and white—capable of collapsing planetary fragments and unraveling dimensional anchors.
It surged toward the Master.
The Master did not move.
Did not raise his hand.
Did not react.
Instead—
A single ripple emerged from his mask.
Not energy.
Not Law.
Nothingness.
Ability — The Flawless Null
The moment Valen's Cosmic Breath touched the ripple—
It vanished.
No explosion.
No deflection.
No resistance.
The energy, the Law binding it, the concept of the attack itself—
was erased.
Space reverted to pristine vacuum, untouched, as if the breath had never existed.
Valen recoiled violently.
His instincts screamed.
Years—years—of cultivation, wiped away without effort.
The Master:
"Your power is loud, Valen.
But its origin is flawed."
"You fight using the product of Law."
A pause.
"I fight with the removal of Law."
Valen roared again, abandoning Law-structured attacks.
His physical form dissolved into a vortex of Pure Cosmic Essence—his ultimate defense. An ephemeral body composed solely of Lake Anathema's refined energy.
He surged forward.
Valen (Internal):
He cannot nullify what has no defined Law structure!
The cosmic storm swallowed the Master whole.
For a moment—
hope flickered.
Then—
The Master raised one hand.
And touched the storm.
Reality inverted.
Valen's radiant cosmic energy twisted—
its blue brilliance curdling into a venomous, sickly green.
Valen (Agony):
My source—! He's turning my life essence into poison!
His own breakthrough essence—years of sacrifice—was being rewritten, corrupted, weaponized against him.
The vortex collapsed.
Valen was forcibly expelled back into human form, stumbling.
His veins blackened.
His skin cracked.
Valen:
"What… what kind of Law is this?!"
The Master:
"The consequence of borrowed power, Abyssal Beast."
"You are Life.
I am Anti-Life."
"You are Cosmos.
I am Cosmic Null."
Valen knew.
This was defeat.
He ignited the symbol upon his forehead—the Mark of the Abyssal Dragon.
Valen:
"I may lose the battle—
but I will not lose the war!"
"Dragon's Mark: Absolute Scatter!"
He detonated a massive portion of his core essence.
A chaotic burst of cosmic force tore open multiple dimensional fissures, overwhelming Nullification through sheer disorder.
Space screamed.
The Master raised his hand again.
Behind him manifested a Law of Null, over 1,000 kilometers wide—a rotating void that devoured all existence.
From it, Null condensed into a sphere in his palm.
He lifted it.
The sky thundered.
Wherever the energy touched—
existence ceased.
Entire regions of connected planes vanished.
Screams echoed faintly through dimensional fractures.
Valen watched, frozen.
Then—
The sky rippled again.
Ancient warships emerged. Armies followed.
The Ascendant Nexus Plane responded.
Massive Law-charged attacks converged on the Master—
And were erased.
All of them.
Within a certain radius, everything became Null.
The Master sighed.
The Master:
"Deal with it, Xras.
We cannot allow the Lord's plan to be delayed."
Xras bowed.
He shattered a pendant.
A portal tore open.
The army of the Lunareth Kingdom surged forth, colliding with the defenders of the Nexus Plane.
War ignited.
And above it all—
The Master stood untouched.
Watching.
The clash between the two armies surged like a tidal wave.
Steel met steel.
The Ascendant Nexus Plane screamed under the weight of war.
And then—
Everything stopped.
Space locked.
Time froze.
Screams were cut mid-breath.
Blades hung motionless in the air.
Explosions paused like paintings suspended in glass.
A single spark ignited in the void.
Crack.
Space shattered splintering like fragile crystal torn apart by an unseen hand. The fracture spread outward in jagged lines, and from within it poured an immense, suffocating pressure that descended upon the Ascendant Nexus Plane.
The pressure was absolute.
Knees buckled.
Souls trembled.
Even Laws recoiled.
From the torn space, an entity stepped down.
His very first step struck reality like thunder.
A deafening boom echoed across the plane, and tiny spatial fissures spider-webbed beneath his feet. The continent groaned, barely holding together.
No one dared to move.
Not the armies.
Not Xras.
Not even the Master.
The entity raised a single hand.
At once, a vast section of space—containing thousands of soldiers from both sides—fell under his control. The air twisted. Dimensions folded inward like collapsing paper.
The entity whispered, his voice carrying a chilling finality:
"Half Dimension."
Space shrank.
Not compressed—
erased.
The entire battlefield segment collapsed into nothingness, vanishing without sound, without explosion, without residue. Thousands of existences were simply removed, as if they had never been born.
Valen stared in horror.
His instincts screamed danger beyond comprehension—but his body was too damaged, his essence too unstable to react. Worse still… the entity's gaze radiated an unnatural malice, something colder and deeper than the Master's Null.
This was not conquest.
This was casual extermination.
The entity moved again, drifting toward the center of the Ascendant Nexus Plane.
The Divine Ground.
The core region where the natives prayed—
where Omphalos' reside and its influence was strongest—
a place revered as sacred, a wellspring of divine essence.
The entity hovered above it, surveying the land with predatory interest.
Then he smiled.
A slow, malicious grin curved across his face.
And he spoke.
"It's really been a long while, Theodore."