Twenty minutes later.
Redhardt Von Molinhurst lay sprawled in the center of a mile-wide crater of pulverized earth and shattered Maiju. His chest heaved, his armor was glowing a dull, cooling orange, and he was laughing. It was a wheezing, triumphant sound that echoed across the quieted plains.
"Did you... see that... Shinji?" he gasped, closing his eyes. "The tide... always... wins."
He let his head fall back, his muscles finally surrendering to the "Force Overload" of his FlowState. He needed to rest. He had beaten the Mad Monster.
But the laughter didn't stay his own.
From a jagged ridge a mile away, a different sound erupted—a hysterical, high-pitched cackle that chilled the marrow of the surviving Royal Knights. A figure stepped out of the shadows of a standing obsidian spire. It was Dartivus Vaderius, perfectly unharmed, his cloak billowing in a wind that shouldn't have existed.
The Vaderius Redhardt had "liquefied" was nothing more than a heap of melting, modified marrow and shadow—a High-Tier Clone.
"Pathetic," Vaderius hissed, walking toward the Ukyo Gates with a rhythmic, heavy stride. "You spent your life force to kill a shadow, Molinhurst. This kingdom is truly doomed. The book is written in ash."
Vaderius raised his hands, and a Black Flame of pure gravitational heat began to coalesce between his palms, its light sucking the color out of the surrounding air. He prepared to incinerate the gate and the medics within.
"Back off," a voice colder than the grave cut through the heat.
Vaderius stopped. Behind him, the air didn't just ripple—it bled.
Zen Severus Faust and Xyzer Aethelgard stood there. Zen's black trench coat seemed to absorb the light, his leather-bound Faustian Ledger floating beside him, pages fluttering like the wings of a dying bird. Beside him, Xyzer looked utterly bored, his tattered royal robes dragging in the dirt, his crown tilted at a precarious, mocking angle.
"Orizon's mongrel and the Suicidal King," Vaderius turned, his grin widening into something monstrous. "More fuel for the pyre."
"I don't care about your pyre," Xyzer sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "I was having a perfectly good nap in my ruins. But Zen here promised me that you might actually be capable of killing me. Don't disappoint me, monster. I've had enough of 'existence' for one lifetime."
THE MULTIPLICITY OF SIN
Vaderius didn't wait for a monologue. He thrust his hands forward, launching a massive wave of Black Flame at Zen.
"Summon: CABRAS, The Demon of Greed!" Zen yelled, biting his thumb and smearing blood onto his ledger.
The hunched, multi-limbed creature erupted from the ground, opening its bottomless chest. The black flame was sucked into the void of the chest like water down a drain. Cabras let out a metallic gurgle, its jewelry rattling.
"You're fast, Mad Monster," Zen rasped, his skin turning a shade paler. "But you're a glutton for destruction. Let's see how many of you there really are."
Vaderius laughed and snapped his fingers. From his own shadow, six identical clones of himself rose, each wreathed in the same destructive gravity. They lunged simultaneously, a barrage of black meteors.
"Xyzer!" Zen shouted.
"I'm going, I'm going... god, everything is such a chore," Xyzer murmured. He stepped forward, not bothering to dodge. As the first clone's fist neared his face, Xyzer reached out and touched its wrist.
"The Script of Nullity: Title Page – EXISTENCE."
The massive, ethereal Tome manifested between them. Xyzer's eyes tracked the lines of the clone's life. "Ah, a copy. A footnote. How trite." Xyzer's finger smudged the "Existence" line. The clone didn't just stop; it blurred into a grey mist, its physical density deleted from the world's ledger.
"Zen, handle the crowd," Xyzer said, yawning. "I'll look for the 'Original' draft."
THE BATTLE OF THE SIX PATHS
The remaining five clones surged. Zen's ledger spun wildly.
"Summon: SABANOS, The Demon of Wrath!" A four-armed beast of molten iron slammed into two clones, its Red Zone turning the very oxygen around them into a series of explosions.
"Summon: HOTHOS, The Demon of Sloth!" A hooded, faceless figure drifted behind Zen. Its Entropic Silence slowed the molecules of a third clone's gravity-well, making its "Black Flame" flicker and die as if it had forgotten how to burn.
Vaderius—the real one—sneered. He bypassed the demons, his speed increasing until he was a blur of obsidian light. He lunged for Zen's throat.
"The Confessional!" Zen screamed, making eye contact.
For a split second, Zen "read" the black soul of Vaderius. He saw the pride, the hunger for godhood, and the deep-seated envy of the living.
"Summon: ASTRATA, The Demon of Envy!"
The serpentine shadow emerged from Vaderius's own shadow. It tasted the Mad Monster's blood and instantly shifted its form, perfectly replicating Vaderius's Obsidian Gravity. The two forces clashed—gravity against gravity—creating a localized vacuum that tore the ground into shards of stone.
"You use my own power against me?" Vaderius roared, his voice cracking the sky.
"No," Zen spat, blood leaking from his eyes as the "Burden of Debt" began to crush his own stamina. "I'm using your failure to be unique against you."
THE SUICIDAL KING'S INTERVENTION
Xyzer walked through the chaos of exploding demons and gravitational rifts like a man strolling through a park. A clone tried to impale him from behind with an obsidian spike.
Xyzer didn't turn. He simply opened the Personality Page of the Tome.
"You're fueled by 'Absolute Obedience' to the Pact," Xyzer whispered. He took a ghostly quill and crossed out the line. He wrote: NIHILISM.
The clone stopped mid-swing. Its arm dropped. It looked at its own hands, then at the sky, and let out a long, weary sigh. It simply sat down on the battlefield, refusing to fight, staring into the distance with the same empty eyes as Xyzer.
"There," Xyzer said. "Now you understand. Isn't it much better to just give up?"
Vaderius, seeing his clones being deleted or turned into philosophers, lost his mind. He pulled all his gravity inward, preparing a "Supernova" of black fire that would level everything in a five-mile radius.
"I WILL ERASE YOU ALL!" Vaderius screamed.
"Zen," Xyzer called out, his voice suddenly sharp. "The 'Original' is overstaying his welcome. Shall we end this chapter? I'm getting a headache."
"Agreed," Zen replied, his voice a ghost's whisper.
THE COMBO: THE APOCALYPSE OF THE SCRIPT
Zen opened his ledger to the Final Page, dripping a torrent of blood onto the parchment.
"JUDGMENT DAY: THE GREAT RECKONING!"
Seven pillars of black fire erupted, trapping the real Vaderius. Chains of Pride and Envy hooked into the Mad Monster's soul, pulling him toward the pit. The Colossal Avatar of Purgatory began to form, its skeletal hand reaching down.
But Zen didn't strike yet.
"Xyzer, now! Rewrite the ending!"
Xyzer appeared beside the Avatar. He grabbed the Historical Page of Vaderius's life. "Your history is a series of murders. A boring, repetitive tragedy. Let's add a Final Footnote."
Xyzer wrote his own name into the record as the "Editor of the End."
"ULTIMATE COMBO: FINIS GEHENNA."
Zen's Avatar gripped Vaderius, and Xyzer slammed the Script of Nullity shut at the exact same moment.
The result was a cosmic paradox. Vaderius wasn't just being judged; he was being unwritten while reliving his sins. The gravity of his own body collapsed into the void created by the Script.
"NO! I AM A GOD!" Vaderius's voice echoed one last time before his entire existence was compressed into a single, two-dimensional piece of parchment.
Xyzer caught the piece of paper. He looked at it for a second—a drawing of a screaming monster—and then simply let the wind blow it away into the fires of the battlefield.
THE SILENCE OF THE VOID
The clones vanished. The black flames died.
Zen collapsed to his knees, his face as white as marble, his breathing a rattling rasp. "Is... is it over?"
Xyzer stood over him, looking down at his own hands. He looked disappointed. "He couldn't do it. Even with all that power, he couldn't delete me. My book is still indestructible."
Xyzer looked toward the Ukyo gates, then at the unconscious Redhardt in the distance.
"This kingdom is interesting and the rest is amazing like this vibrant world, Zen," Xyzer said, offering a hand—not to help Zen up, but to steady himself. "But the world is still a very messy draft. We have a lot of 'cleaning up' to do before I can finally get some sleep."
Zen took the hand, leaning on the Suicidal King. Two broken leaders, standing amidst a graveyard of monsters, as the first rays of a dark dawn began to break over Gonaya.
[TO BE CONTINUED]