POV - Tobio Ikuse
Tobio woke up screaming.
His chest heaved. His fingers gripped the sheets. Sweat clung to his skin like ice. For a moment, he didn't remember where he was. Then the image returned: black wings, cold eyes, a presence so overwhelming it shattered everything.
"Satanael..." he whispered. The name clawed through his brain like a curse.
The room was quiet. Sterile. A suite? He sat up slowly, realizing he was alone, but voices came from the next room. Familiar ones.
He swung his legs off the bed. They trembled, but they held. The floor beneath his bare feet was marble, too expensive for any hospital.
Tobio opened the door. The next room looked like a luxury lounge.
Cao Cao sat in a leather chair, arms crossed. Beside him were Le Fay, Arthur, Jeanne, Heracles, George, Leonardo, and Marsilio. All seated on expensive-looking sofas.
"You're awake," came Natsume's voice.
He turned to see her standing near the kitchen island, Lavinia beside her, who looked like she hadn't slept for days. Natsume crossed the room and hugged him tightly.
He returned it.
Then he noticed.
"Where's Sae?"
"Easy now," Heracles said, stretching with a groan. "You start sprinting, and you're gonna faceplant. I don't do CPR."
Tobio frowned, looking toward the tall glass window.
There, a white-robed figure stood, wine in hand, back to the room.
"So," Cao Cao said, voice tight, "now that we're all here, maybe Riser Phenex would like to explain?"
Riser turned slightly. The city lights behind him cast his profile in gold.
"Look at you, torn from the jaws of death itself. I trust you thanked me properly in your nightmares?"
Tobio didn't laugh.
"Where is Sae?"
Riser took a sip of wine. The woman beside him, a purple-haired beauty in an evening dress, stayed silent.
"Satanael defeated me," Riser said casually. "Took her with him."
Tobio's fists clenched. His voice cracked. "What, no—"
"I marked Hanezo Himejima," Riser interrupted. "Right before I knocked him unconscious."
George perked up. "You put a tracker on him?"
"Of course. I'm not an idiot."
Tobio's voice was raw. "Can you find her? Can you help me save her? Please—" He hated begging, but he didn't care.
Riser's face looked impassive and said. " It's likely that Sae is with them. If you come with me to this place, you will have the opportunity to save your friend"
Cao Cao stood up. "Where is she now?"
Riser waved a hand. A magical projection appeared, showing a red dot blinking deep within a mountain range.
"That seems to be her location, which I assume is one of Satanael's old fallback sites. He's probably hiding in a subdimensional layer tied to it."
Arthur stood, arms crossed. "Then we need a plan."
They gathered.
Riser, Arthur, and Cao Cao mapped the infiltration route:
1. Leonardo would stay behind, using his Balance Breaker to deploy Bandersnatchs and Jabberwocky remotely as reinforcements.
2. George would use Dimension Lost to hide the team and Leonard from detection and create an emergency retreat point.
3. The main team: Riser, Yubellana, Tobio, Lavinia, Natsume, Arthur, Cao Cao, Jeanne, Heracles, and Le Fay.They would strike from three points, collapse inwards, and reach the ritual site. No mercy. No delays.
They infiltrated the facility in silence. Satanael's remaining subordinates were weak. Too weak.
"This is off," Lavinia whispered.
Then, in an instant, the world warped.
Everyone was teleported.
They arrived in an endless white void, like mist on glass. Floating platforms spread like shattered stone.
"This isn't the physical world," Riser muttered. " Somewhere in the spirit world."
And then he appeared.
Satanael.
His wings spread behind him, Twelve of them, vast and black as abyssal pits.
"Welcome," he said. "To my masterpiece."
Tobio stepped forward. "What the hell are you doing with Sae?"
Satanael's eyes glinted. "She is the conductor. A soul bridge. Her unique resonance makes her the ideal node."
"Node for what?" Cao cao demanded.
Satanael raised a hand. A projection appeared: at least 30,000 human souls. Suspended. Glowing threads connected them to a giant arcane circle.
"This is the Abyss Project. A ritual designed to refine the evolution of sacred gears. Humans are adaptable, resilient, and fragmented. Perfect for channeling dimensional shifts."
Tobio took a step forward. "You're using people. Innocent people. For what?"
"To create a god-killing weapon," Satanael said without hesitation. "You may call it horror. I call it heritage."
Riser narrowed his eyes. "This is madness."
"No," Satanael replied, amused. "This is progress."
Then he smiled.
"Now... amuse me a little longer."
They attacked.
Arthur raised Excalibur Ruler. Cao Cao summoned the True Longinus. Jeanne and Heracles moved in tandem. Lavinia activated Absolute Demise. Tobio's shadow rippled.
And Satanael stood there.
Waiting.
POV – Tobio Ikuse
The first strike was silent.
Cao Cao moved like a comet, spear blazing with a white-hot aura, the divine light of the True Longinus cutting toward Satanael's throat. At the same moment, the glassy floor beneath them cracked as Lavinia's Absolute Demise emerged in a storm of spiraling frost, tendrils of biting cold racing toward Augusta. Wind exploded from Riser's back as wings of flame surged open, his body vanishing in a burst of pressure. Tobio couldn't even process who moved first.
The battle had begun.
Satanael merely raised a hand. Gravity buckled.
Cao Cao's spear stopped inches from his face, suspended by sheer force. Lavinia's ice doll halted mid-lunge, frost freezing in place like a paused film. Riser flickered into existence behind Satanael, his hand already raised for a strike—
"Dismantle."
A ripple of invisible force cleaved through the air. The sound was delayed. Buildings in the false skyline above split apart, glass and steel unraveling. Satanael twisted his body at the last possible instant. The attack grazed his robe.
Riser's eyes sharpened.
"You're slower," he said. "Something's changed."
Satanael smiled, even as he dodged another high-speed slash.
"You're observant. Very good."
Behind them, the floor cracked. Twelve titans of shadow emerged, the Bandersnatch. Leonardo, hidden within George's dimensional pocket, had summoned them all at once. Towering monsters, each one over 100 meters tall, roared with inhuman fury and descended upon Satanael like a tidal wave of living darkness.
And then came the Jabberwocky.
Two hundred meters of nightmare. A humanoid monstrosity of fangs, armor, and writhing limbs.
It struck with a fist that crushed the surrounding buildings of the dimension like paper.
Satanael raised one hand. A spear of pure light formed in his palm.
He hurled it.
It pierced Jabberwocky's chest. The monster reeled. The other twelve Bandersnatch lunged as one, bringing down the sky with their collective weight. Light clashed with shadow. The dimension rippled.
Lavinia and Augusta, meanwhile, clashed like avatars of opposing elements. The ice doll screamed silently, conjuring blades of crystal that shattered through flames. Augusta laughed, wild and thrilled, her Incinerate Anthem manifesting a giant of violet fire that struck with waves of incandescent heat.
"You've improved!" Augusta shouted.
Lavinia didn't answer. Her eyes were red.
Tobio summoned his blade. Canis Lykaon growled in his mind.
"We need to end this now," Tobio muttered.
Cao Cao heard him.
"Agreed. He's not operating at full strength. That ritual's draining him."
Riser spoke without turning. "He can't access his full power while anchoring the ritual. That's our opening. Don't waste it."
George deployed Dimension Lost, shifting their terrain constantly to deny Satanael stable footing. Lavinia pushed harder, ice sealing Augusta's feet to the floor.
Then Cao Cao unleashed Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin. Seven orbs glowed and spun around him.
"Chakkaratana."
The air bent. All of Satanael's light spears vanished, disintegrated by the artifact destruction sphere. He narrowed his eyes for the first time.
Riser took the moment.
He raised his hand. A fire field ignited.
The sky burned.
An entire radius of several kilometers turned into a typhoon of dark flame. A crimson cyclone, shredding reality itself, tearing through light constructs, steel towers, even warping the very magnetic field of the dimension.
Satanael raised a barrier of light.
It cracked.
Cleave.
Riser appeared before him, wings ablaze. He slammed his fist into Satanael's side.
The barrier shattered. Satanael was flung into a burning tower.
A feather fell from his wing.
Everyone paused.
Lavinia's voice trembled. "He... he's bleeding."
Satanael lay sprawled amid the flames, smiling.
Tobio stepped forward, gripping his blade. "How do we stop the ritual?"
Satanael laughed.
It wasn't cruel. It was amused.
"Stop it? Oh, child... I am not some Saturday cartoon villain who waits for the hero to arrive before starting the plan."
His body twitched. The ground began to pulse.
"Do you think I would have brought you here if there was even a chance of failure?"
A pulse of energy swept outward.
"The ritual was completed an hour ago."
The entire pocket dimension screamed. Space groaned. A pressure unlike anything before flooded the battlefield.
"Now," Satanael said, eyes glowing with divinity, "I merely reap what I sowed."
Power surged. The dimension, a space the size of continental Europe, trembled.
Light cascaded from the sky, warping into grotesque shapes. Cries of distant, dying things echoed from nowhere. A massive magic circle appeared above them, one larger than a country, inscribed with names and numbers, glowing with the names of the sacrificed.
30,000 souls.
"No..." Le Fay whispered.
Satanael rose slowly, his limbs no longer broken, his wounds sealing with radiant black light. He floated above them, wings of nothingness spreading behind him: vast, formless appendages that devoured light.
His aura swallowed the battlefield.
A god had awakened.
Leonardo's creatures froze. Even they couldn't act.
"This…" Cao Cao gasped, taking a step back. "This isn't Satan-Class. This is beyond It... This is transcendence."
Satanael's eyes locked on Cao Cao.
"Your spear was bathed in the blood of a crucified god," he said. "How poetic. You should try bathing in mine."
The True Longinus trembled in Cao Cao's hands. His aura flickered. Even the spear seemed to struggle to remain steady under the pressure of Satanael's existence.
Cao Cao screamed, orbs rotating wildly, True Longinus pulsing with white-hot wrath. " Attack, now!"
Everyone attacked.
Riser unleashed a tornado of fire. Lavinia unleashed the full wrath of Absolute Demise. Tobio went into his unstable Balance Breaker, black and silver energy spiraling around him. Cao Cao charged, spear held like the wrath of Heaven itself.
It was glorious.
It was hopeless.
Satanael didn't block. He didn't flinch. He merely existed, and their attacks fell away like dust.
One by one, they were repelled. Not crushed. Not wounded. Just stopped. Each effort countered with perfect precision. As if he saw the shape of their souls and moved accordingly
From high above, Satanael laughed.
A sound like thunder, like scripture read in reverse, like ten million locusts singing at once.
And then—
An explosion.
Sudden. Violent. Blinding.
A core of black and white flame erupted from Satanael's chest. It bloomed outward faster than sound.
BOOM.
The wave of destruction engulfed the entire battlefield.
Bandersnatchs were obliterated in an instant, their towering forms dissolving into ash. The Jabberwocky howled, body torn apart, reforming—and then torn again. Mountains shattered. Rivers boiled away.
A dome of destruction expanded outward like a second sun, eclipsing the false sky.
And then silence.
Nothing moved.
Nothing breathed.
The air had been turned to fire.
POV: Riser Phenex
The explosion was massive.
Even for him, it was almost too much.
The sky of the pocket dimension had turned into a sea of flame and smoke. The ground trembled under the force, like the entire space wanted to collapse. Riser hovered in the air, flames curling around him in a tight shield. When the last wave passed, he lowered his hand and let the protective fire fade.
"It worked," he said softly.
Below, the others had barely survived.
George's Dimension Lost had formed a barrier just in time. They were crouched inside it. Scorched, shaken, but alive. He saw Tobio, Lavinia, Cao Cao, Arthur, Marisillio, Le Fay, Natsume and even Leonardo, half-faded behind a shimmering veil of the Dimension Lost.
Farther away, Augusta and Walpurga were still standing, barely. The two witches had managed to raise a layered barrier, but it had cracked like glass. Walpurga was on her knees. Augusta was breathing hard, her eyes locked on Riser, not with hate, but confusion.
Tobio pulled himself to his feet, still dazed. "What... worked?"
Riser didn't answer.
He gave a faint smile, then turned his gaze back toward the burning horizon. There was nothing left of Satanael. Not a single trace. No energy, no pieces. Just ash and a silence that rang louder than the explosion ever had.
That was enough.
Inside, Riser was quiet. Not calm but focused. He was already retracing the steps in his mind. Every moment, every decision that had led them to this outcome. There had been no guarantees. Only risk.
It had all started with the feather.
During their first clash with Satanael, he had managed to land a hit on Satanael and take a feather from his wings. A single black feather, just one. It only happened because Satanael was playing with him. He had kept it with him. He remembered the way it pulsed faintly, even after being severed.
To most, it meant nothing. But Riser had been trained to see connections. Both due to Kelzior's knowledge as well his own. To look at the world not as it was, but how it could be used.
That feather wasn't just part of Satanael's body. It was part of his essence. Still spiritually linked. Still resonating with him. And that made it more than a souvenir.
It made it a weakness.
Riser didn't tell anyone. Not Tobio. Not Lavinia. Not even Cao Cao. Because if any of them had known, they would've asked questions. They would've tried to help. And this wasn't a plan that could survive outside hands.
He only needed one person.
Valerie.
He summoned her two days before the mission.
She didn't ask questions. She never did with him. Riser showed her the feather, and she understood enough. The rest he explained in careful, simple steps.
Valerie's Sacred Gear, the Sephiroth Graal, was more than a healer's tool. It could reach into the soul, touch the edges of time and fate. It could rewrite what shouldn't be rewritten. Riser didn't want to use it recklessly. But this wasn't recklessness.
Together, they began.
The first step was resonance disruption. Using the Graal, he and Valerie infused the feather with specially crafted sigils, drawn from a mix of ancient rituals and modern soul-theory. Not curses. Not destruction. Just... instability. A slight misalignment in Satanael's internal structure. Subtle. Invisible.
Like a cracked mirror that still reflects, until you look too closely.
Then came the inversion layers. Valerie used energy from the Graal to inscribe counter-rhythms into the feather, things that Satanael's angelic nature couldn't detect, but couldn't ignore once reabsorbed. Tiny fractures. Off-key notes. Not enough to stop him. Just enough to make everything fall apart when it mattered most.
They couldn't test it. They had one shot.
The plan was simple in execution. Keep the feather hidden until Satanael started the final phase of his ritual. Then reintroduce it into his presence, masked by the chaos of battle. Let him absorb it again, unknowingly. Let the structure twist from within. Let the new power, the synthetic Longinus, try to harmonize with a broken core.
And then watch it collapse.
They didn't know exactly what would happen. Maybe nothing. Maybe he'd die quietly. Or maybe, like today, he would ignite from the inside out.
In the end, the plan worked. Perfectly.
But Riser was relieved.
He didn't tell the others. He didn't explain the feather, or Valerie's role, or how close they had all come to dying if even one thing had gone wrong.
Instead, he let the silence hang.
Let them assume he had something up his sleeve. Some Phenex family technique. A backup plan. That was fine.
Tobio needed something to believe in.
Cao Cao needed to think he'd lost a gamble, not been outplayed.
And Lavinia, well, she was already dealing with too much.
Valerie?
He had already thanked her. Quietly. Just once.
She didn't want the attention. And he didn't want the world to know that he has got the sephiroth graal. If word got out that the Sephiroth Graal could disrupt divine rituals, rewrite soul structures, sabotage transcendence itself, it would bring down every faction on them.
So Riser stayed quiet.
Not to take credit. But to protect her.
To protect the future.
Because deep down, Riser knew this wasn't the end. Satanael wasn't just a mad scientist with a god complex. He was a sign. Proof that he couldn't depend on canon knowledge.
The world was changing. The old powers, devils, angels, humans, dragons, they were all clinging to outdated roles, watching their relevance slip through their fingers. New forces were rising. Unknown threats. And worse, known ones learning to adapt.
Riser had seen it coming.
That was why he acted.
Why he prepared.
Because for him to achieve his dream, strength alone wouldn't be enough.
Cao Cao had strength.
Satanael had strength.
But only one of them was still breathing.
Riser looked up. The burning sky above was starting to fade into gray. The pocket dimension had been damaged beyond repair. Soon, they'd all be ejected back to their world.
He closed his eyes and took a slow breath.
Then opened them again.
"Checkmate," he said softly.
Nobody heard him.
That was fine.
The important moves were made in silence anyway.
And the next one?
He was already thinking three steps ahead.
POV: Riser Phenex
Riser stood at the edge of a collapsing dimension, arms folded as warped firelight danced in his amber eyes. Above him, the sky cracked and peeled like broken glass, dimension-space groaning as Satanael's death ripple spread outward.
Satanael was gone. Nothing left but smoldering ether.
And then he saw her.
There, at the heart of the ritual circle: Sae Toujou. Kneeling. Convulsing. Screaming.
A blizzard of light poured from her mouth, her eyes, even her skin—thousands of tiny white fragments. No. Souls. Countless human souls, torn from her body like feathers in a storm. Riser narrowed his eyes.
"Well. Can't have that," he muttered.
This hadn't been part of the plan. Originally, he just wanted to stop Satanael, then approach Tobio Ikuse and his group. Be the charming devil and recruit powerful Longuin users for himself. But this? This was better.
A gift. Waiting to be taken.
He had stood at the edge of power for so long. Borderline Ultimate-class. Not quite there. Not truly. There had always been a gap, some intangible wall between him and the next step. But this? This could be the catalyst.
Now, this might be the push.
He vanished in a blink, flame trailing behind him like a whip.
He reappeared before her—Sae, still kneeling, face contorted, as if the process was tearing her apart from the inside out.
Riser raised his hand and pressed it gently to her head. His demonic energy surged into her like a tide, stabilizing the violent tremor of her soul, but not with kindness. With intent
The escaping souls slowed. Paused.
Then reversed.
Sae screamed: high, raw, animal.
The souls flowed back into her like a reversed flood, pushing against her from all angles. Her veins glowed white-hot. She convulsed.
And from behind, voices.
"Riser!" Le Fay shouted, breathless. "What are you doing?!"
He didn't turn. "Reaping what Satanael sowed."
Cao Cao and the others caught up. Tobio surged forward, eyes wide in horror.
"Stop!" Tobio shouted. "What the hell are you doing to her?! She's in pain!"
Natsume's face twisted. "Let her go!"
Only George stayed back, eyes sharp, calculating. "He's… stabilizing the ritual."
Everyone turned to look at him.
George adjusted his glasses. "Satanael used Sae as a soul bridge, a vessel to connect thirty thousand humans to the synthetic Sacred Gear. But with his death, the ritual destabilized. Riser is now acting as a substitute catalyst."
"A what?" Natsume snapped.
"He's continuing the ritual," George said grimly. "But using his demonic energy as a stabilizer and catalyst. And with that level of precision? You'd need immense magical control. Absolutely monstrous."
George glanced at Tobio, face grim. "It will likely kill her."
Tobio looked back at Sae, her body convulsing harder under Riser's touch. "No. No, he wouldn't…"
He ran forward. "Riser! STOP!"
Riser didn't flinch. Didn't look.
"Why are you doing this?!" Tobio screamed. "You said you'd save her!"
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes. "Tch. We should've never trusted a devil."
He raised True Longinus. "Everyone. Move in."
A pulse of heat burst out in front of them. A sharp, concussive boom. They stumbled back as violet flame tore into the space between them and Riser.
Yubelluna hovered above them, hair wild, eyes blazing.
"You will not pass," she said.
She threw down her staff. The ground exploded in light and smoke and when it cleared, a barrier stood between them and Sae.
Lavinia slammed her hand against it. "Damn it—!"
Behind the barrier, Riser remained focused, but his thoughts flicked briefly to the structure surrounding him.
This isn't just a standard ward, he mused. It's running on multiple leyline circuits: two high-class demonic leyens from Emberhold, directly linked. I prepared them for emergencies like this. Layered with mid-tier leyens and dozens of low-class leyens spread like sigil anchors across the substrate, all feeding into a tertiary generator node.
He watched the light flicker in symmetrical pulses.
And the barrier spell itself… expertly woven. Interlaced matrices with reinforced magical harmonics. A puzzle box wrapped in infernal logic. Not invincible, but durable enough to stall even a Longinus-tier assault for a few minutes.
He allowed himself the briefest smirk.
Elegant execution. As expected of Yubelluna.
Riser listened to the chaos behind him but didn't turn. His hand stayed on Sae's head. Her screams echoed through the barrier like broken glass scraping metal.
Perfect. This was no longer Satanael's design.
This was his.
The souls spiraled, slowed, turned one by one, then in floods. Thirty thousand lives. Human souls, refined, vulnerable, bursting with raw meaning. They collapsed into her form. Her frame arched, twisted, until her body couldn't take anymore. Riser's other hand traced a sigil midair. He whispered something ancient. Forgotten syllables. Language from before devils had kingdoms.
The ritual circle flared white. Sae shrieked and dropped.
Her body hit the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Nothing moved. No breath. No cry.
Then—
A core. Floating. A small red sphere, like blood crystallized into glass.
Riser caught it. Lifted it to his lips.
Tobio slammed his fist against the barrier. "No! Don't—!"
But Riser already tilted his head back. And swallowed.
The change hit instantly. His aura didn't surge, it detonated. Energy poured from him in sharp waves, snapping the air like a thunderclap. The ground cracked. Space warped.
From borderline Ultimate-class… past it. Rising. Climbing.
And still climbing.
Every second, his strength doubled. Tripled.
Riser exhaled, slow. Calm.
Finally, he thought.
Ultimate-class. Solidified.
And more. Not Satan-class. Not yet. But no longer just dancing on the threshold.
He turned.
Tobio was on his knees now. Shaking.
"You promised," he sobbed. "You promised you would save her."
Riser looked down at him, voice smooth.
"I said you'd have the opportunity to save her."
Tobio froze.
Riser's smile didn't reach his eyes. "And you had the opportunity. It's not my problem that you are too weak to do so."
Silence.
Lavinia took a half-step back. Even Cao Cao said nothing. The horror on their faces was enough. Then, Riser raised his hand again.
He spoke, not in the devil tongue, nor human, nor draconic. Older. Cruder. Reality buckled under the sound.
Sae's body twitched once. Screamed one last time.
Then she shrank. Her limbs collapsed inward. From the flesh came out light. Light to shape. Until it was nothing but a glowing red orb. He plucked it from the air. Popped it into his mouth. And swallowed. The dimension trembled. His power flared again, even higher. Pushing past even the limits of most Ultimate-class beings. Borderline Satan-class. Still not there but close. So close.
He turned. Calm. Serene.
"Yubelluna."
She appeared beside him instantly, still maintaining the barrier.
"Let's go."
And they vanished, just like that. Leaving the others behind in the ruins of a dimension, trapped behind a violet wall, surrounded by screams that had finally gone quiet.
⸻
They'll never understand.
The crying. The begging. The screaming.
All of it, useless.
They're still trapped in the human frame. Still measuring life by warmth, by bonds, by the illusion of permanence. Still acting like death matters. That sacrifice has weight. That pain makes something real. But I've seen the truth.
I saw it the moment I opened my eyes in this world and realized I had been reborn. Different world. Different laws. Same mind.
Reincarnation is real. Not poetic. Not hypothetical. Literal.
And if it's real, then death is irrelevant. Just a reset button. A revolving door of identity, loss, and repetition. You don't end. You loop.
It's not beautiful. It's not hopeful. It's meaningless.
Because if you just come back again and again—what value does anything have? Love, loss, glory, despair. All of it erased by the next cycle. Your victories become someone else's backstory. Your tragedies fade into static. The wheel turns. The roles change. You start over.
It was enough to drive a man insane. Or enlightened.
I chose the second. I stopped caring about the narrative. About playing the role of hero, villain, victim, mentor. None of it lasts. None of it means anything.
So I asked a better question:
What can I make that doesn't get erased?
That's what matters now.
Not saving Sae. Not earning Tobio's trust. Not impressing Lavinia or outplaying Cao Cao. They're interesting. Useful. Even entertaining. But they're fragile. They break. They die. They get replaced.
Just like the last world. What I need… is permanence. Not the kind you write in a book. Not legends or memory.
Real Immortality.
I'm not talking about long life. Not immortality in the way most dream of it. That's just prolonged irrelevance. I want to become a constant. An unerasable pattern.
Truly omnipotent.
And if I have to use the soul core of thirty thousand humans to take another step toward that goal? Then so be it.
I could've helped Sae. Could've given Tobio his happy ending. Could've had Lavinia at my side, grateful, loyal, broken in the way I prefer my tools.
But all of that would've slowed me down. Saving one girl won't reshape the universe.
This?
This ritual, power, transcendence, does.
Let them hate me. Let them scream and call me a monster. Devil. Liar.
They're not wrong.
I took the path they couldn't. I made the choice they feared.
That's why I'll become something more than them.
Something they can't follow. And if I fail?
If this world falls apart and I die like everyone else?
Then I'll try again. Next world. Next version. Same goal. Until I reach the end of everything and rewrite it. No gods. No fate. No cycle.
Only me. The first true constant.
Riser Phenex. Not a devil. Not a man. But the one thing even eternity can't erase.
Pov: Le Fay Pendragon
The world was quiet.
Ash fell like snow from the shattered sky, drifting through the remains of the broken dimension. Where once Satanael's ritual had twisted reality into something monstrous, now there was only silence and the stench of betrayal.
Le Fay stood among the others. Tobio knelt beside Sae's remaining body parts. He didn't cry at first. He just stared at one of her eye balls, mouthing words that no sound could carry. Then his breath hitched and he broke. Screams tore from his throat, raw and brutal, as if the grief itself was clawing its way out of his chest.
Natsume had her hands over her mouth, trembling. Lavinia didn't speak. She just stared at the space where Riser had vanished, her eyes wide and hollow. Her knuckles were white around her wand. Arthur stood beside her, motionless. Jeanne crossed herself, muttering prayers that sounded more like curses. George was silent, staring down at the scorched remnants of the magic circle.
Cao Cao stood alone. He wasn't trembling. He wasn't weeping. He was… still. But Le Fay had never seen him like this. He looked like a man possessed.
His jaw clenched. His eyes were alight with something terrible: pure, incandescent rage. Not loud. Not screaming. Cold. Righteous fury.
And then he stepped forward.
"Look at what they've done," Cao Cao said, voice like thunder wrapped in iron. "First Satanael. Now Riser Phenex. And before them? Every god, every devil, every myth that deemed humanity lesser. Always the same. Always above. Always watching."
His hand curled into a fist. "They toy with us. Sacrifice us. Speak of fate, of balance, of divine will. And yet when we die, it is alone. Forgotten. We are the fodder in their wars, the bricks in their towers, the nameless prayers they never answer."
He raised his spear to the dim light above.
"Why should we kneel before such powers? Why should we serve beings who treat our lives like currency? What justice lies in a world where thirty human souls were fed to a devil—and another devil called it progress?"
The others slowly looked up. Eyes wide. Listening.
"I say no more."
His voice rose, echoing through the dead air.
"I say farewell to obedience. Farewell to servitude. Farewell to peace if peace means silence before monsters."
He pointed his spear to the distance, toward the place where Riser had disappeared.
"We have been used. Again. And again. But let this be the last time. We are not their pawns. Not their cattle. We are human and there is nothing purer, nothing worthier, than that."
He turned to them now, sweeping his gaze over every face.
"We will not be quiet. We will not be afraid. We will fight not for prophecy, not for gods, not for glory but for each other. For the weak, the lost, the innocent. For those who scream and are never heard. For those who died believing someone would save them."
He stepped onto the cracked ground and raised his spear to the sky.
"Let all hear us! Be they god or devil, angel or dragon, yokai or forgotten spirit—be they yet unborn or already decayed! If any shall raise their hand against mankind, if any shall twist our souls or spill our blood for their designs, then we swear this:
"Be they gods or devils, angels or beasts,
born of heaven or forged in hell,
bright of light or cloaked in shadow,
I name them all foe:
whoever brings harm to humankind.
By this vow I am bound, and bound shall be all who swear it beside me:
Neither law, nor love, nor mercy, nor fear,
neither the swords of kings nor the prayers of saints,
shall shield them from our wrath.
We will hunt them, we will hound them,
to the edge of the stars and beyond the end of time.
Not fate, not heaven, not death itself
shall grant them refuge.
We will raise our blades before the breaking of day
and strike until the last evil is unmade.
This oath we swear:
Death to those who defile mankind.
Vengeance unending upon those who enslave or sacrifice us.
And may the world break and the stars fall
should we betray this vow."
He drove the spear down into the cracked earth with a sound like thunder.
"Witness our oath, O Lord of Hosts, Yahweh,
and you gods of distant lands
Shiva, Vishnu, all who watch from high places:
Remember this oath!
Let no star forget it!
Let no god forgive it!"
Then Arthur stepped beside him, sword drawn. "I swear it."
Jeanne followed, her blade gleaming. "So do I."
Leonardo, trembling but firm: "I swear."
Marsilio's voice was low, furious. "They'll pay. All of them. I swear it."
Heracles cried. "This i swear also."
George bowed his head and placed a hand over his chest. "By the souls they sacrefieced, I swear."
Tobio stood last. His face was streaked with tears, his voice hoarse. But it rang with steel.
"For Sae. I swear it."
And one by one, they raised their weapons: every blade, every staff or fists, every will hardened by fire and betrayal.
Le Fay didn't raise hers. Neither did Lavina nor Natsume.
She watched them, her heart heavy with dread.
Something had changed. Something irreversible. The weight in the air wasn't just resolved. It was fury. It was vengeance. It was Fate. And it was absolute.
She felt as though they had crossed a threshold and there would be no coming back.
Even victory, she feared, might one day look like loss.
AN: Another chapter down, and this one absolutely drained me. I had to keep rewriting it just to make sure things made sense, though let's be honest, it probably still doesn't. I swear it was all way cooler in my head.
The final bit, where Cao Cao makes his dramatic oath, was inspired by Fëanor's oath from Tolkien. I wanted it to feel heavy and serious, since this moment kicks off the formation of the Hero Faction and shows that Riser's chaotic actions actually have consequences.
Anyway, feedback is always welcome, whether it's thoughtful critique, unfiltered insults, or just a confused "what did I just read." Let me know!