The sky above the Pacific Ocean was no longer cracking.
It was tearing apart.
Not a single rift.
Not a lone portal.
The entire night sky split open like ancient fabric ripped apart by an invisible hand.
Dark violet light seeped through the wounds.
One by one, the surrounding stars went dark.
Every satellite in orbit shut down simultaneously.
The digital clocks aboard the research vessel stopped.
The engines fell silent.
Even the waves rising beneath the ship... froze in place.
It was as if the world had forgotten how to move.
On the deck of the research vessel, everyone stood motionless.
Farhan stared at the monitor, now filled with nothing but chaotic lines.
"A-all systems are down..."
Lila bit her lip.
"They aren't broken."
She looked up at the sky.
"Whatever that thing is... its very existence is defying the laws of physics."
Bimo swallowed hard.
"...I miss the days when we were only being chased by monsters."
Sinta stood at the front of the group, even though her hands were trembling.
"Stay focused, everyone!"
Her voice cut through the rising panic.
"If we fall apart now, we'll be dead before it even touches us!"
Dika stood beside her.
"Look at me."
He met each team member's gaze in turn.
"We're still breathing."
Which meant this wasn't over.
Arga stirred.
He had no idea how long he'd been unconscious, but the violent vibration of the MBG Lunchbox in his hands dragged him back to awareness.
He slowly lifted his head.
Above him, the sky was tearing open.
The thirty glowing grains of rice inside the lunchbox spun faster and faster.
Not out of fear.
They were responding to something.
Recognizing something.
High above—
Even Nihilath took half a step back.
His four crimson eyes narrowed.
For the first time, the King of the World Eaters looked... uneasy.
Kai noticed.
His expression hardened.
"...Impossible."
Arga turned toward him.
"You know what that is?"
Kai stared at the torn sky.
Dark violet light reflected in his eyes.
"I've only read about one being in the ancient records of the Guardians."
He drew a slow breath.
"A creature so terrifying that even the Void fears what might awaken it."
The rift widened.
Then—
Something opened within it.
An eye.
A colossal violet eye.
Larger than a city.
Larger than a storm.
Larger than anything the human mind was meant to comprehend.
Its eyelid moved slowly.
And the moment that eye looked down upon the Earth—
The ship's crew collapsed to their knees.
The air grew thousands of times heavier.
The ocean level dropped several meters, as if an entirely new force of gravity had seized the world.
Bimo fell to his knees.
"...That's just an eye?"
Dika forced himself to remain standing, though his entire body trembled.
"If that's just an eye..."
"...I don't want to know how big the rest of it is."
Nihilath let out a furious roar.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
He spread his wings wide.
The entire force of the Void gathered inside his mouth.
A sphere of black energy, as large as a mountain, formed before him.
Farhan stared at a monitor that had briefly flickered back to life.
"Energy levels at maximum!"
Nihilath unleashed everything he had at the sky.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A colossal beam of Void energy shot toward the violet eye.
But—
The attack vanished.
It didn't explode.
It didn't collide with anything.
It simply... disappeared.
Like a single raindrop falling into an endless ocean.
Silence.
Then the enormous violet eye narrowed slightly.
Something descended from within the torn sky.
A tentacle.
But the word tentacle was far too small to describe it.
It resembled a living continent, moving through the heavens.
Ancient patterns of light covered its surface, their incomprehensible shapes enough to make a human mind ache just by looking at them.
The tentacle fell.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
It slammed into Nihilath from above.
The King of the World Eaters was hurled through the clouds, crashed into the ocean, and plunged toward the seafloor.
Mountain-sized waves erupted in every direction.
The Guardians were forced backward by the impact.
Gaia Primordia let out a low, rumbling growl.
For the first time—
The ancient World Guardian braced itself, its posture shifting into unmistakable caution despite its grievous injuries.
Bimo stared at the violently churning sea.
"...Nihilath just got swatted like a mosquito."
Kai spoke in a low whisper.
"No."
"...He was reminded of his place."
Then a voice emerged inside the minds of every living creature.
It wasn't heard.
It was forced directly into their consciousness.
Deep.
Ancient.
Hungry.
"Such a tiny planet..."
The clouds began swirling backward.
The polar ice caps cracked.
The oceans began boiling in scattered regions across the globe.
"...teeming with life."
Arga clutched his head.
The voice seemed to bore straight through his bones.
The MBG Lunchbox blazed more violently than ever.
The thirty grains spun as if they were about to burst free.
Lila turned toward him.
"Arga..."
"The lunchbox is reacting."
Farhan glanced at the one data feed that was still functioning.
His face went pale.
"It didn't come here because of the Earth."
Everyone turned toward him.
Farhan pointed at Arga.
"It came because of the resonance coming from him!"
Silence fell.
The colossal violet eye moved slowly.
It wasn't looking at the ocean.
It wasn't looking at the Guardians.
It was looking at—
Arga.
His entire body stiffened.
His heart stopped for one second.
Then the voice echoed again.
This time, it spoke only inside his mind.
"At last..."
"The seed has grown."
Arga stumbled backward.
"What...?"
Kai immediately turned toward him.
His expression changed.
He knew something.
But before he could speak—
The ocean exploded.
Nihilath burst from the sea with a roar of unrestrained fury.
His body was covered in wounds.
All four of his eyes burned with madness.
He looked up at the sky, then lowered his head.
Not in anger.
In fear.
Bimo froze.
"...The monster king is afraid."
Dika tightened his grip on his metal rod.
"Then we're finished."
A portal opened behind Nihilath.
He was trying to escape.
But a second tentacle descended from the sky.
Faster.
Larger.
CRASHHHHH!
It coiled around Nihilath's body.
The King of the World Eaters roared and thrashed, biting at the enormous appendage and unleashing blasts of Void energy.
It was useless.
The tentacle slowly dragged him toward the torn sky.
Into the darkness beyond the galaxy.
Into a place whose very name terrified even monsters.
Before he disappeared, Nihilath turned his four crimson eyes toward Arga.
For one fleeting moment, his gaze seemed almost pleading.
Then he was gone.
The entire ocean fell silent.
No one spoke.
Then—
The thirtieth grain of rice inside the MBG Lunchbox began to shine on its own.
White-golden light flooded Arga's body.
His feet lifted from the deck.
His eyes began to glow.
And a final voice echoed across the entire world.
"My legacy has been found."
The sky tore open even wider.
And something far too vast for the human mind to comprehend—
began to emerge.