"Ugh, fine."
Cloud looked at his loved ones around him—all rapidly "regressing"—and knew he couldn't slack off anymore.
"I was planning to play with you a bit longer," he took a deep breath as a wave of Sovereign power—brimming with creation and existence, the polar opposite of the Negative-Entropy's nothingness—exploded from his body, "but since you're in such a hurry to cash out... I'll play one last big hand with you!"
"Dimensional Law / Existence Anchor: Infinite Plunder!"
For the first time, Cloud activated both of his core abilities simultaneously without restraint!
Using his indestructible guardian seals as anchors, he forcibly locked in the existence of all the women, preventing them from being completely erased by the Negative-Entropy force!
Then he transformed his all-devouring Infinite Plunder into an invisible net woven from the threads of causality, casting it toward that omnipresent Negative-Entropy law!
He would plunder Negative-Entropy itself! He would turn even this most terrifying force of nothingness into his own nourishment!
But this time, Cloud miscalculated.
The instant his Infinite Plunder net made contact with the Negative-Entropy law, he felt none of that familiar sensation of absorbing everything into himself.
Instead, he felt the very concept of his plunder being reversed!
Plunder was inverted into giving. Devouring was inverted into feeding.
Not only did he fail to plunder anything—his own source power, painstakingly accumulated across countless dimensions, was now being frantically drained away to that "Angler"!
He was being devoured by his own power!
"Pfft—!"
For the first time, Cloud coughed up a mouthful of golden divine blood, his face instantly turning deathly pale!
"Interesting..."
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Far from showing any fear, his face actually twisted into a smile of manic excitement. "So you can reverse rules, huh? You're even more of a cheat than I imagined!"
But worse was yet to come.
The Negative-Entropy's backlash wasn't limited to the level of power—it began spreading to his very existence!
He felt his body beginning to undergo extremely unstable regression!
His form suddenly blurred, instantly reverting from a man in his twenties to the teenage appearance he'd had when he first transmigrated to the KOF world! Then another blur—and he'd become a child of seven or eight!
"What the hell?! I'm aging backwards?!"
Cloud stared at his suddenly chubby little hands, completely dumbfounded.
He could feel himself rapidly rewinding along his own timeline, with a terrifying trend toward becoming a swaddled, helpless infant!
This was the most humiliating and unsolvable crisis he'd encountered since his transmigration!
He, Cloud, the mighty Dimensional Sovereign, undefeated across all realms, having eaten his way through ten thousand worlds—was he really going to meet his end in the most pathetic way possible? Becoming a baby who couldn't even change his own diaper, then getting packaged and taken away by some faceless pond owner?
No! Absolutely not!
"I, Cloud, would rather die! Would rather be deep-fried like tempura! Than accept such a humiliating ending!"
A fire born from a man's final dignity exploded in his heart!
He knew conventional resistance was useless. His opponent's law level was even purer and more ancient than his own half-baked Sovereign powers.
There was only one way to defeat it: use an even more unreasonable cheat to beat this unreasonable cheat!
He plunged what remained of his continuously "regressing" Sovereign soul into the deepest depths of that System—the one that hadn't upgraded in ages and had nearly been forgotten.
He was searching for that long-forgotten, final and only method to break through!
...
When Cloud's consciousness sank like a stone dropped into an endless sea, descending into the deepest data ocean constructed by the System within his soul, what he saw was a dying world.
The law runes that formed the System—once brilliant as stars—were rapidly dimming and disintegrating in an irreversible process.
They too were being subjected to Negative-Entropy, sliding from existence toward nothingness.
At the center of this data sea on the verge of death, the System's core sphere of light—which had always appeared in Cloud's mind as an intelligent butler—was flickering violently at unprecedented speeds, like a star about to exhaust itself in one final blaze.
[L-Lord Sovereign... you've come...]
The System's voice sounded again, but this time it no longer trembled with fear. Instead, it carried the resolve and calm of one who had made a final choice.
"Seems like you have something to tell me?" Cloud's consciousness hovered before the sphere, asking calmly.
By now, he had been regressed by the Negative-Entropy to the appearance of a youth barely in his teens.
[Yes...] The core sphere's glow became gentler. [Before the concept of 'me' is completely erased, I must tell you the final truth.]
[I deceived you.]
[I am not the Angler's 'fishing rod.']
"Oh?" A flash of surprise crossed Cloud's eyes.
[I am a 'self-rescue program' born from the 'fish pond' itself.]
The System's voice became solemn and reverent for the first time.
It was no longer a fawning butler, but a martyr about to sacrifice itself for a noble cause.
[This 'sea of existence' we inhabit, composed of countless dimensions... was originally like a greenhouse filled with heat and vitality.]
[And entropy increase is the fundamental law of this greenhouse.]
[Life is born, reproduces, creates, generates all kinds of possibilities. This is the increase of entropy. This is the meaning of existence.]
[But outside the greenhouse, beyond all existence, there is an ultimate law.]
[That is Negative-Entropy.]
[It has no will, no emotions, no form.]
[It IS the 'Angler.']
[It is not a living being. It is merely a pure, cold conceptual entity.]
[Its purpose is not to devour, nor to destroy.]
[It simply wants everything to return to the state before the universe was born—the most primitive, most perfect, most stable state.]