A strange silence fell over the group.
Not a peaceful silence — an implosive silence.
Everyone, even Mü Thanatos from her distant domain, found themselves locked in their own reflections. She had already spoken at length with Erasa... but this part of the story, this buried truth, was completely unknown to her.
As if a new piece had just been added to a puzzle already too vast.
It was finally Bakuzan who tore through the motionless air.
Bakuzan:
"Your father... has he never told you about his goal?"
The tone was not aggressive, but sharp. It was clear Bakuzan felt pressured, tense, as if every minute spent talking pulled him away from an urgency he refused to ignore. And in his eyes, Erasa understood he was beginning to suspect her of wanting to slow him down.
She lowered her head slightly.
She had no choice anymore — if she wanted his trust, she had to tell everything.
She inhaled deeply, then exhaled a breath of resignation.
Erasa:
"Alright... I will tell you everything.
My father's goal... is nothing other than to destroy the Dream.
Destroy everything.
The gods, the demons, every possible thing.
He wants everything to disappear... to become what is called My0x."
Bakuzan frowned.
Mù Sunghiun did not move, her gaze still as calm but attentive, almost inhuman.
Erasa continued, voice lower, deeper:
"My0x... is the representation of the absolute being.
A primordial code.
The ultimate state.
You cannot become My0x if you are subordinate to another entity.
And currently... my father is. With the God Father, they have contested this title since a time the Dream cannot even measure."
She glanced at Mù Sunghiun, then returned to Bakuzan.
"If the Dream still exists today... it is only because the God Father and the original Gods protect it.
But my father wants to forge entities powerful enough to fight these original Gods while he faces the God Father.
The winner will become My0x."
She swallowed, then added:
"If he succeeds... the Dream will no longer be destroyed, for he will become the absolute himself.
He will recreate new hierarchies, shaped according to his will.
But if he fails... then it will be the end.
The true end."
Erasa placed a hand on her chest, as if seeking an anchor point.
"Destroying the Dream is not simple, especially when entities like the original Gods exist.
According to the goddess Mü Thanatos... a boy unconsciously attracts the Deviants into the Dream.
And this boy..."
Her voice broke just a moment.
"...is your brother."
Bakuzan recoiled.
His eyes widened in an almost painful shock.
Bakuzan:
"My brother? Who are you talking about?
...Sakolomeh?"
Erasa nodded.
Bakuzan stepped back again, as if something had struck him in the chest.
His features tensed, his breathing grew heavier.
Bakuzan:
"It's been sixteen years.
Sixteen years since he disappeared.
No trace.
No news.
I searched for him with the others...
With Yuhida, Velda, Rivhiamë, Salomeh, Bakuran... even Satan...
We turned over entire continents.
Kingdoms.
Temples.
Sixteen damn years, damn it!
What did you do to him?
Where is my little brother?!"
His voice trembled, not from weakness, but from a devastating mix of rage, fear, and hope brutally revived.
Erasa did not yield to Bakuzan's anger.
On the contrary, her voice became as cold and sharp as a cracked crystal:
Erasa:
"Calm down.
He has nothing.
He is alive.
And if you really want to understand what is happening... you will have to master your emotions."
Mù Sunghiun slowly turned her head towards Bakuzan.
Her eyes, of unsettling calm, allowed no argument.
Mù Sunghiun:
"She is right. Hold yourself back.
Or you will lose the answers you have sought for sixteen years."
Bakuzan remained motionless, tense like a rope about to snap.
Erasa resumed, in an even graver tone:
"Your brother... Sakolomeh... is not just a lost child.
He is something very close to a Deviant.
Even... a living portal for them."
These words fell like a cosmic judgment.
Bakuzan, despite himself, felt his breath stall.
Erasa continued without giving him time to absorb:
"My father, ignorant of how to directly destroy the Dream, could have used Sakolomeh to attract the Deviants and cause a total collapse.
But luckily, the goddess Mü Thanatos intercepted before him.
She regressed your brother.
She transformed him into a mortal, in a universe very far from the Dream.
Far, very far from any influence.
He lost his memory, his role, and all traces of what he was... to remain invisible to the Deviants and Lucifer."
She paused.
Then, in a darker voice:
"But this is only temporary.
When we finish with Azazel... our next goal will have been to find Sakolomeh.
Remember when I told you the Deviants do not come by chance?
They are attracted by something?
That something...
was your brother."
Silence fell.
A heavy silence, as if the world held its breath.
Bakuzan finally sighed.
A long sigh, loaded with sixteen years of pain, dead hope, and resurrection.
Bakuzan:
"I...
I had to become an Ineffable because I was desperate.
I was convinced I had lost him forever.
I clung to nothing...
While in reality..."
His arms fell along his body.
His shoulders slowly relaxed, as if a colossal weight finally detached from him.
Then, with a half-broken but sincere smile:
Bakuzan:
"...it reassures me.
I will finally see my little brother again."
Erasa nodded, a slight smile crossing her face.
Erasa:
"There.
I prefer it when you radiate that energy."
She resumed, this time with a rarer softness:
*"Before... I lived with my father.
He wanted me to become his thing.
A weapon he would later throw against the original Gods.
But I don't care about his obsession.
I have met enough beings I love in the meta-reality to know I could never risk destroying everything... just to satisfy his desire to be the absolute.
He offered me everything he could...
Power, supremacy, all...
I refused everything."*
She placed a hand on her own heart.
"Then I left.
I searched for the goddess Mü Thanatos for a long time.
A very long time.
And when I finally found her... she raised me.
She freed me.
She gave me a meaning my father will never know.
I became her apostle.
And I will do everything she asks...
if it can save my father's Dream.
And the Deviants."*
After Erasa's revelations, a strange calm enveloped Bakuzan. The idea of finally seeing his brother made his heart beat with a new warmth, a glimmer of hope piercing the turmoil. Perhaps he should go find him first, before turning to Azazel. In any case, Erasa would not oppose that choice.
His gaze, marked by deep melancholy, remained fixed on the ground. Memories flowed, painful and luminous shards at once: the relentless searches, growing despair, the silent tears of their mother, then those of Salomeh and Bakuran. His own tears had flowed, bitter, through those endless years, convincing him that Sakolomeh was lost, taken away, like so many others, trapped in Azazel's claws.
This certainty had driven him to a rapid ascent, gaining power to confront Azazel as soon as possible, to free all captive souls, all chained sources.
Bakuzan, often called Black Grief, had carried his tears for his brother as armor for more than sixteen years.
A slight smile finally broke through his lips, while his fist clenched with renewed determination: "Finally, I will find my little brother..."
Raising his eyes, he met Erasa's gaze, a resolute smile lighting his face: "Let's change course."
Erasa and Mù Sunghiun stared at him, patiently awaiting the next move.
Bakuzan declared firmly: "Let's go directly to find my brother."
Until then neutral, Mù Sunghiun smiled faintly, while Erasa subtly slid down her black mask, barely hiding a satisfied smile. Apostle of Mü Thanatos, Erasa was proud of this choice, as was Mù Sunghiun, Angel of Light of Mü Thanatos. Both, faithful servants of Mü Thanatos's will, saw in Bakuzan perhaps the only one capable of helping Sakolomeh finally master what had slumbered in him for so long.