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Seated at the edge of the Garden was the Supreme Star God, silently staring at the ruins of his creation.
We landed behind him without making a sound.
He didn't acknowledge our arrival. His gaze remained fixed on the destruction ahead, calm yet distant, as though he had already accepted what stood before him.
"So… did you find it? The End of the River?"
The question was directed at no one but Acamar.
"Yeah."
Acamar lowered his head before continuing.
"Right before he destroyed half of it, I finally understood. I grasped the true depth and length of the Pond. Just as you said, it was always a hint. I, Acamar… I am the End of the River. I am what comes after the Pond."
L
The Supreme Star God remained silent for a moment before finally shifting his attention.
"What are you going to do now, Antares?"
His question turned towards me, and I narrowed my eyes slightly.
I could only hope he didn't think I was about to stand on his side.
"I have a family now."
I began, my voice calm but firm.
"They need me just as much as I need them. Kalidor and everything born from it will become part of Paradis. I'll restore the Stars and the Pond I took before Algol's existential collapse… and then I'll leave."
My gaze hardened, for what I am about to say won't sit well with him. At worst, it might be the dawn of a new war. I don't want that. And the Self-Cause most certainly doesn't want that either.
But I have to say it. Regardless of what it might cause.
"I've spent years under your influence, and for that reason alone, I don't want you anywhere near Paradis."
I wasn't negotiating. I was simply stating what would happen.
Acamar visibly found the declaration unsettling, yet he gave no immediate reaction. He slowly turned and looked at me with a measured gaze, as though trying to understand how far I was willing to go.
"And what happens if I choose not to look the other way?"
The Self-Cause asked, genuine curiosity hidden beneath his calm tone. He wanted to know exactly what I was capable of now.
And he had every right to ask.
He was one of the few beings capable of interacting with Ether itself and drawing upon the Akashic Records. I might be the consciousness of Ether, but that did not make me all-powerful, especially when my Shell was only one among many, and the Star God originated from another entirely.
He was powerful. Perhaps even stronger than I currently was. I accepted that without hesitation. But with Entares… we could end him.
I only hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"Well…"
I said quietly.
"I won't be looking the other way when that time comes."
By the time the words left my mouth, I was already standing behind Kenos. My Apotheosis and Astral Body had vanished, leaving only my True Body.
Just like the Star God before, the Void Emperor sat in silence, staring at the Pond as it slowly reinstated itself at my command. Life returned piece by piece, worlds rebuilding, stars reigniting, and existence stitching itself back together as though the war had never happened.
"Years of planning… only for it to end like this. It's not fair."
His voice carried no rage, only exhaustion and quiet bitterness.
"You manipulated the Stars themselves. That isn't a minor achievement."
I answered honestly.
He had gambled everything on Algol and the Pseudo Void, trusting that they would finish what he started. He sacrificed everything for that outcome, including his fellow Dark Nebulas. And for a brief moment… they had won.
Had it not been for my Apotheosis and Entares' silent arrival, the Dark Stars would have claimed complete victory.
So no, what he achieved was far from insignificant.
"But I couldn't get around you."
He let out a quiet breath as he admitted it.
That much was undeniable. His manipulation had been exceptional, layered deeply enough to deceive nearly everyone involved. But the Mad Scientist had simply been better.
"I noticed the disturbance in the Violet Void when you spawned"
He began telling me what happened during the O-Class.
"I thought it was a mere reaction from the Void God, but as the wind blew, I noticed more and more abnormalities. I kept it to myself and stopped feeding from the Violet so as not to be spotted. It's one of the reasons my void never evolved."
"You noticed and escaped Entares's plotting. That's also no ordinary feat."
This was proof that Entares came to this Shell before I was reincarnated. Since then, their grand plan has been running until I've successfully attained Apotheosis.
"Are you mechanical now?"
He asked.
"No. But it's worth praising. Evolved or not, your Black Void is on part with Violet, perhaps Indigo."
Without a response, he stood up and faced me. Calm and pale, yet extremely dangerous.
"So… what now?"
He kept his gaze on me, his voice low and hollow.
"I was the first one here, and now it seems I'll be the last. I suppose this is how it ends."
For a moment, I found myself wondering what that burden truly felt like, to be the first Dark Star ever born and now the final one left standing.
"Belenos kept you alive for a reason."
"You could replace Absence with something else."
He replied
"I could."
I admitted, and that has to be the easiest thing I can do right now.
"But I won't. That isn't my role."
White is in charge of been the consciousness of Ether.
"So you're just going to leave me like this?"
"The Star God and Acamar didn't attack you."
Because they have plans, as always.
"You're not them."
He pushed back immediately.
Apparently, this was the point where most people chose death over life. But he existed before those dualities ever formed and was effectively indestructible. Death wasn't a simple escape for him.
"I doubt any more Dark Stars will ever emerge."
I said.
"You could build another army with God's Shadow… assuming Zhou hasn't already stripped that from you. But even then, it would never be enough. The scale of this war is broken beyond repair."
"I only acted because that was how I understood the war. The moment I realised you were the true mastermind, my path became fixed."
I let out a quiet sigh.
'What exactly am I supposed to do with you, Void Emperor?'
L
Then a thought surfaced. Strange… but not impossible.
"Come with me to Paradis."
He looked at me as though I had lost my mind.
"Not happening."
"Magos is there, and he's living happily."
"On a brainwashed mind?"
"Of course not."
I shook my head.
"The Asterians know exactly who he is. They know he's the Dark Star who invaded their home and killed countless people. They simply don't have the luxury of holding onto hatred forever. Everyone is too occupied with living their lives. Adding another species to what they call we won't be a problem."
I had done my best to make him understand. I was building something new, and even a Dark Star had a place within it.
"I thought he represented everything a Dark Star could become. And now the one he looked up to will be reduced to…"
He trailed off.
"You're thinking like a human."
I said with a faint smile. My expression hardened immediately after.
"And that can be both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."
I frowned immediately, for completely no reason.
"Magos didn't change overnight."
I said, unable to control what I've becom.
"Hell, he's still changing and has a long way to go. This is the only choice I can offer. So, what's your say, Kenos?"
I asked, extending my right arm, my expression shifting once more into one of anticipation."
Kenos hesitated. Anyone would. I can't decide for him but this is the only thing I can offer. I can kill him. After all he's done, he deserves to die. But in reality, I'm the bad guy. I can't decide his fate now that the Grand Plan has been accomplished.
I waited for his reply, the silence stretching between us. It hurt my pride to stand still, to let him speak first, but I held my ground. Pride barely registers after the Ritual.
"What are you planning on doing?"
He asked.
"To live a normal life... free from the hands that used to pull our strings."
I answered honestly. As Stars, we were nothing but soldiers without much choice. But it can change now, for him.
"To have a will that is ours alone. To be free, truly free, and finally taste the kind of freedom we were never ment to fell."
My words carried weight far more than just for myself.
This wasn't about Stars alone. Even the Dark Stars were shackled by the same chain, conscripted unwillingly into the Star God's approaching war. Following me might truly be the only path to freedom.
He frowned.
"How will I know you're not going to use me?"
A faint, knowing smile touched my lips.
"With my current powers, I guess you'll never know."
I said softly.
Then, slowly, he uncrossed his fingers, his hand reaching out toward me hesitant, yet undeniably real.
'Given his position as the last Dark Star, he also be a target for...'
As his fingertip brushed against mine, his body began to crumble, flaking away into purple ashes that drifted into the still air. His eyes widened in disbelief, a silent, fragile confusion that I had long anticipated.
It was all planned. So I stood still, calm, a faint smile resting on my lips as the Void Emperor's form dissolved, consumed by the Aspect of Death.
"And here I thought I could recruit someone like him."
A voice murmured, cold, detached, almost amused.
Suddenly, he was behind me. I didn't need to turn to know. His presence pressed against the fabric of Archè Matrix, like static bleeding through reality.
Still, I forced myself to turn, to appear weaker. That was one reason I used my True Body this time, not the Astral one. To make the lie believable.
And there he stood or rather wavered, like a glitch in Matrix. The Lord of Death, Atlas, was there, yet not there, a paradox given form. A presence identical to the True Void Singularity, the living absence at the heart of all things.
"Oh, you're awake."
I said with a lazy smile, relief flickering across my face before it was buried beneath indifference.
"Like you care."
My smile twitched into a crooked grin.
"Oops, busted."
I raised both hands in mock surrender, amusement dancing in my eyes.
"Quit playing dumb, Antares."
The grin faded at his words. My hands lowered slowly, and the lightness in my expression thinned into something quieter.
"You should know me by now. It's all an act."
I replied, my gaze steadying on him.
My brows furrowed as I studied him more carefully. The amusement vanished completely, replaced by cautious intrigue and a trace of unease.
"That's no mere existential Death. It's something wild… and dangerous. You've changed, Atlas."
I noted.
"Likewise. Never has there been a being who acts as the consciousness of Ether."
For a brief moment, my eyes narrowed. Then a smirk returned, slow and deliberate, though suspicion lingered beneath it.
'Never has there been a new Aspect of Nether. Why now?'
Perhaps Entares forsaw this a long time ago. Atlas was once tainted with his energy, this gave him the opportunity to convert him into an Aspect of Nether. How tricky.
"Well, I came here to retrieve the Void Emperor, but it looks like you've caught on and stole him for yourself."
"I was merely trying to add more life to Star Island."
"You're still clinging to that bullshit?"
"Call it whatever you want. But Annie is..."
"I'm not like you."
He intervened, drawing the line.
"I never was and never will. Just like you said, I, too, was merely putting on an act."
"Is that right?"
I tilted my head slightly, pointing to my left ear. He followed the motion, turning toward his own left, catching my signal.
"I doubt such a fragile human ornament can withstand your evolution into the Lord of Death."
I said smoothly. For the briefest instant, his composure faltered. I had caught him off guard.
He was still in love. He had to be. Otherwise, he wouldn't have tried to protect that earring. His touch alone, his very flesh, should've vaporized it in an instant.
Yet it endured. And that weakness hidden beneath all his Aspect told me everything I needed to know..
"You were not like me, but you became like me."
"So what if I kept the earring? That won't stop me from achieving my goal."
He snapped, his tone sharp but faintly defensive.
"Hmm..."
I murmured, raising a hand to my chin, feigning curiosity I didn't need to feel.
"I'm curious about such goals."
I tilted my head slightly, studying him through narrowed eyes, pretending to ponder the answer I already knew by heart. One born not from ambition, but from pain, he still refused to name.
Suddenly,
"So that's it."
I snapped my fingers with a sharp click.
"Now that I have a guess. How you evolved surely didn't make any sense. From a mere conceptual death that struggle against a Nebula to suddenly a force comparable to Algol."
I feign ignorance about Nether.
"You don't have to pretend. I'll tell you what you need to know."
He partially saw through me. But I'm all ears towards his perspective.
"After Spectre mysteriously killed me, It finally came to me."
"It?"
"Death."
"..."
"We had a brief talk which carried hidden tests, and my potential was revealed. Unlike Mors, who dreams of ending the Shells out of pure malice, I had a stubborn, unshakable resolve."
"Curiosity skyrocketed."
I replied, enthusiastic as a child.
"To surpass you... and put an end to you."
He said it plainly, a simple smile playing on his lips. The blindfold hid the glint in his eyes, but the hunger behind the words shone through everything else.
"Oh..."
I breathed as if the answer cracked something inside me.
He laughed then, a sound devoid of joy, carrying only bitter amusement and a bright, gnawing hunger.
"I envy you."
He admitted, his voice low with a rare, unsettling honesty.
"So I became gluttonous, feeding my wrath until it swelled beyond restraint, all to remove you. That is my pride. That is my dream."
The confession hung between us like a blade, childish in its cruelty, terrifying in its clarity.
In that moment, his ambition looked less like a path, and more like a wound he would never stop reopening, and he wanted me to watch him bleed and grow from it.
'To embody five deadly sins and phrase them in such an awesome phrase. How cool.'
That's what I'd say, but no. This is no time to joke.
"Were they always there?"
I asked quietly.
"The sins."
I pointed out, a calm smile on my lips. After becoming Ether, his past, thoughts, and feelings were but a memory at the back of my mind.
"There was."
He murmured, his gaze dropping to his fingers as if they still bore the stains of what he'd done.
"You'll never know how it feels, to be left aside, to watch everything move while you're trapped, shackled by those stupid Orders. And you..."
His tone hardened.
"You were born at the peak, untouched, breaking every constraint while the rest of us crawled just to see the sky. You stood alone at the top, isolated, unreachable."
He looked at his hand then, his expression softening into something almost human.
"No matter how far I reached, it was never enough. But when you gave me your hand, I tasted real power for the first time. It was... intoxicating. Yet even that was just a fragment of what you are."
He clenched his fist, and Death began to decay, unravelling at his touch.
"Right now, I am the final breath of every Shell... the inevitability beyond their Panoptis. Yet..."
The silence that followed carried the weight of everything he could never say.
'It's not enough.'
I finished his words.
'How's Death falling to something?'
I asked, the air trembling as White's presence flickered.
'Currently... the vessel before you, Atlas, wields the Nether Aspect of Death, obtained after usurping the rightful candidate, Mors.'
Its voice was steady, but I could feel the distortion rippling through it.
'Aspects were born... plural.'
It pauses.
'According to Entares, there's a new Aspect beside Void and Death. Wait... no... that's- forbidden... know-ledge-'
Her tone fractured, splitting into broken echoes as her form began glitching, Records collapsing. Even in omniscience, it seems we have boundaries.
'Let it rest for now. Karma has sealed the knowledge whatever Aspect this kid holds.'
Veldanava intervened, informing me telepathically.
'So he knows. Even after being omniscient, he knows better. Just who the hell is Veldanava?'
I just became the mind of Ether, but he knows more than me. That aside, he's able to interfere with me without permission, again.
'Entares, Veldanava, the Supreme Star God, the Outer Gods, just where do these things come form?'
That question gnawed at me ever since the Ritual. But the answers is buried way deep beyond my current powers.
"You're right. I still love Annie."
Atlas admitted, pulling me back to my senses.
"But I can't confront her now, not yet."
"Until you defeat me?"
"No. Not just you. This isn't about Kusho's goals. This is personal. When the time comes, the Circle of Inevitability shall be enforced."
His voice was low but resolute, and as he spoke, a purple mist bled out behind him, rising, twisting, and condensing into a portal that pulsed with silent fury.
"What's this, a declaration of war?"
I asked, smiling, though the air between us felt like it could shatter.
"A quarrel, a beef, a war... call it whatever you want. I've made myself clear."
He began to drift backwards into the mist, his expression unreadable beneath the blindfold.
"Until we meet again. Perhaps we won't."
The portal swallowed him whole.
Just before it sealed shut, my gaze caught a figure seated deep within the haze watching us. Silent and unmoving as if it had been there all along. It resembled the form Algol took earlier, yet this was more refined and real.
'Could it be... No.'
I shook my head.
"Whatever."
The war had ended. Casualties were minimal, and I had ascended.
But this, this peace is only the silence gifted before the storm. What's coming won't be simple death. It will be unravelling. Shells will crumble, and CREATION itself will wail.
Hell will not rise. It will incarnate. But before judgment descends, before the storm claims all, I must use this fleeting calm to complete my cultivation..
"Right after I spend time with my children."
I interrupted Mimu's pitiful narration, tearing open a portal to Paradis, to Star Island specifically.
"You need more experience, you amateur. I can't believe Ego actually chose you to handle the writing."
I shook my head, disappointed beyond words.
(You can replace the writer with a single thought. Why didn't you?)
"Don't question me, puny human. Know your place before I rewrite it."
My glare cut across Layers of Reality, piercing through the Originverse into the Megaverse, where he sat typing nervously.
(A-apologies, sir!)
He saluted awkwardly, hands still trembling.
"Ugh... How could I have fallen so low."
I spoke in disgust. Antares should be perfect, but that thing...
I sighed.
"Why am I even wasting my time on this?"
Muttering to myself, I turned and stepped through the portal, leaving the narrator in existential terror.
To be continued...