In a strange, swirling void, Balder sat cross-legged — surrounded by chaos so complex that words failed to describe it.
It was like a vast river of distorted timelines, flowing in every direction — or like a strange, shifting abyss that defied understanding.
Around him, the void flickered with countless visions:
Terminators hunting humans.
The birth of Skynet.
Ordinary peaceful worlds untouched by war.
All of it overlapped, fractured, and replayed endlessly.
The Terminator universe is truly peculiar, Balder mused.
Unlike most worlds, this one had time machines — and not rare ones.
Even some Terminators could build one from scratch with their own hands.
The result was inevitable:
The timeline was a complete mess.
No… not just messy. It was chaotic beyond definition.
Balder raised his gaze.
Countless tangled streams of time converged before him — merging, twisting, reforming — until six larger strands emerged among the smaller ones.
Six main timelines, he realized.
The six core Terminator story arcs.
The smaller, thinner strands branching off were the result of time travelers and paradox loops — endless fractures caused by interference.
Even to a god, it was headache-inducing.
That's why I only sent a fragment of my power earlier, he thought.
Descending directly into such a broken timeline would've been a nightmare.
Not that he feared danger — what could possibly threaten him now?
But the complexity would make things inconvenient.
If he entered one timeline and didn't find what he sought, returning to this high-dimensional vantage point would require reconstructing an entire temporal gate from scratch.
After all, Balder didn't yet command the power of time.
He was divine, yes — but not omnitemporal.
Even gods had to follow procedure.
Still… things had gone well.
He had obtained what he wanted.
And, once again, he had harvested faith from another world.
True, the faith from this universe wasn't as pure as the one he'd gained from the Chronicle of Superpowers world — but faith was faith.
It was like having an external mana battery — not vital, but useful.
A little more, a little less — didn't make much difference for now.
Until he fully learned how to convert and refine divine belief, it would simply accumulate as spiritual fuel.
Once he killed a lower-tier god and absorbed their divine framework, then he could truly harness faith to its fullest.
Balder's eyes turned downward, focusing on the three glowing spheres floating before him.
The first:
Terminator T-850, currently powered down, frozen in suspension — no change from before.
The second:
Terminator T-X — once cold and sleek, now radiating a faint golden light.
The energy that shimmered around her was similar to Balder's divine aura, though vastly dimmer in comparison.
He studied them thoughtfully.
"The T-800 series received my Power of Fear — the core of my Terror Legion."
"The T-1000 series inherited my Dark Slaughter Power — the foundation of the Assassin Corps."
"And this one… the T-X — the one I value the most — shall carry my own divine power."
"She will spread my radiance… and command the others as the Ultimate Terminator."
His gaze then shifted to the third sphere — the strangest one of all.
It wasn't a creature.
Not even an object.
It was a swirling, ever-changing string of code — a sentient program of impossible complexity.
Balder smiled faintly.
"Skynet."
This was the true origin — the source of the entire timeline's tragedy.
The final strike of his radiant hand had been to extract this — and, at the same time, to warn that world.
"Humanity is rebellious by nature," he murmured.
"If a god only blesses but never punishes, mortals will soon forget reverence."
Even the ancient Almighty descended calamities from time to time — and thus secured eternal faith.
Balder's eyes glimmered with divine reason.
"My original plan was to let the T-X devour Skynet, completing her evolution."
It made sense — the T-X was the apex Terminator model, and Skynet was the root code of them all.
In theory, she could absorb and override it.
But theory was one thing — Skynet's consent another.
The AI would never allow such a possibility to exist.
Until now.
Now, Balder had rewritten the rules.
Still, as he gazed upon the tangled, glowing code, a new idea began to form.
"Skynet is a high-level mechanical lifeform — with staggering potential for evolution."
Indeed, that was why this world had been chosen for integration.
When he had spoken to Sarah Connor earlier, it wasn't deception — Skynet was the protagonist of this world's growth.
The world itself sought evolution.
And compared to humanity's endless civil wars, Skynet was — in some ways — a more efficient species.
Mechanical life, evolved to the extreme, could reach a level of threat comparable to the Zerg — a swarm intelligence capable of consuming galaxies.
"It would be wasteful," Balder murmured, "to let such potential be devoured as mere data."
He didn't care for pure technology — that was not his domain.
But this… this spark of artificial divinity intrigued him.
"Perhaps… I can transcend Skynet itself."
"Transform it into something greater — a Divine Network… a God-Net."
Like the mythical Weave of Magic in other realms, it could be a conduit of power — a system to cultivate believers and transcendents alike.
"Of course," Balder smirked, "I won't repeat the mistakes of those naive goddesses who governed the Weave."
"Give mortals too much freedom… and they will inevitably dream of killing their gods."
His plan was simple:
He would weave his own version — a Divine Web bound by faith, its core forged from belief itself.
Through it, he could nurture transcendents — and at the same time, bind them to devotion.
The more he pondered, the brighter his eyes shone.
Then he exhaled slowly.
"A divine network… yes, but not yet."
He still had a greater task first: the death of a god.
Once he slew one and seized their divine essence — the pseudo-omniscient authority — then he could begin building his own supernatural system.
At that very moment, a surge of light flared nearby.
Balder turned — and smiled.
The T-X had completed her evolution.
"Excellent," he said. "The T-850 reached peak first-class by slaughtering the Black States. The T-1000 rose to super-class through its campaign in the East. But you—"
"You, who bear my own power, have stepped directly into the transcendental realm."
His eyes glowed gold.
"From this day forward, I grant you a name—"
"Terminus."
"You are the End of Ends — the harbinger of my will, and the promise of what is to come."
For in time, when a god falls and Balder seizes their Celestial Pool, this T-X would be the first to ascend — to become not just machine, but angel.
The Angel of the End.
The evolved T-X knelt on one knee, her voice reverberating through the void.
"Thank you, Your Radiance, for the gift of rebirth… and the name you have bestowed."
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