Bakuzan staggered, breath short, eyes wide with astonishment.
"This is… this is impossible!!!"
Before him, Sakolomi advanced slowly, his gaze narrowing with cold determination.
A white and golden halo vibrated around him, as if the air itself refused to touch his body.
"Good…" he said in a low, relentless voice.
"Let's move to the next level."
No sooner had these words been spoken than he vanished — and the world shattered.
Impacts thundered across all planes at once. Blows flew, too fast to be seen, too powerful to be described.
Bakuzan, caught in the turmoil, replied with a nervous snicker:
"Haha… you can't hurt me, Sakolomi! In this form, I am beyond any harm!"
His voice roared.
"Even the Law of Isissis — the one that rejects all hostility — bows before me! Here, all aggression is erased, annulled, rejected as if it had never existed!"
But Sakolomi remained silent.
A light flashed through his gaze — brief, sharp.
He barely moved.
A shock.
Bakuzan was thrown backward, breath knocked out, his ribs cracking under the impact.
A real pain. Incomprehensible.
"No… no! It's impossible! My laws… my barriers…!"
Sakolomi had not stopped moving forward.
Each step seemed to rewrite the very coherence of the world.
His fists fell like sentences — billions of blows, billions of lights.
An infinite dance of pure destruction.
The strikes layered, timeless, unstoppable, erasing even the conceptual structures supporting the battlefield.
Bakuzan no longer understood.
His defenses dissolved. His axioms broke one by one, as if reality now refused to tolerate them.
"He breaks… everything…!" he thought in panic.
Every law, every principle, every absolute crumbled before Sakolomi.
It was as if his opponent embodied the limit of all that could exist — a living border nothing could cross or submit.
Bakuzan felt his mind falter.
What he faced was no longer mortal, nor even a conceptual entity.
It was something beyond, a being whose mere presence bent the laws.
Then, in a whispered mix of dread and admiration, he understood:
"He is no longer a man… He is a Transcendent… of the Palala… or perhaps of the Visnü."
He bowed his head, broken.
"One of those against whom nothing, not even the absolutes of Viraya, can impose limits because they are the ones who impose all kinds of limits."
Before him, Sakolomi slowly raised his eyes to the fractured sky.
His light engulfed the battlefield, and in that infinite radiance, all seemed to kneel before Rise as One.
"You bring shame…"
The voice echoed in Bakuzan's head like a reverberation from the depths of his own mind.
He startled, clenching his fists.
"Who is it?!"
The scene changed abruptly.
Reality collapsed around him like shattered glass.
In a breath, he found himself inside his own mind — a gray, misty space, where consciousness seemed to float between light and ruin.
There, he saw them.
Sitting on the ground, Validus breathed heavily, his gaze empty, exhausted by the intensity of the fight.
And before him, standing, was Isissis I — a silhouette of divine majesty, a thousand voices resonating in the air like a choir of fractured souls.
Every word he spoke made space vibrate.
"You are losing…" he said coldly.
"You disgust me, Bakuzan."
Bakuzan remained silent, head bowed.
It was not only his pride that had just been broken by Sakolomi…
It was also that of Isissis I and Validus, the two forces coexisting within him — two deities who refused defeat.
Then he understood the truth.
Something unbalanced inside him.
He still remembered Satan's words:
The day he loses his balance, Isissis will manifest to reclaim his essence.
And that moment had just come.
A double defeat — against Sakolomi, and against himself.
Isissis stepped forward, draped in light, each step sounding like a death knell.
His voice softened, almost paternal:
"Nothing is lost yet, you know…"
Bakuzan shook his head slowly, eyes filled with despair.
"It's too late. You don't understand, Isissis. There's nothing we can do against him. Sakolomi is… invisible to the three of us combined. He answers to no order, no law."
A thick silence fell.
Then Isissis smiled faintly.
"Oh…"
He raised his hand.
A light of absolute white, ancient and vibrant, was born in his palm.
It pulsed like a celestial heart — a primordial force.
"Limits, Bakuzan," said Isissis, advancing the light toward him, "exist only for those who choose to imprison themselves within them."
His golden eyes burned with ruthless brilliance.
"It is time to remember… and to use Retro-Genesis."
Bakuzan gaped, breath caught.
A shiver ran through him, for that word was not supposed to exist anymore.
"Retro-Genesis?!"
According to what Lilith had told him.
At the beginning, there was the original breath: Genesis. It marks the starting point of everything, whether sky and earth, light and darkness, life forms or ideas themselves. The term Genesis means birth, origin, creation, and symbolizes all beginnings — that of a world, a dimension, or existence itself. It is the moment when order is born from chaos, where every element finds its place in the great fabric of reality.
But beyond these ordinary beginnings, there exists what might be called the Great Genesis. It is not just the birth of worlds, but the emergence of beings capable of transcending them. These primordial entities are not simple deities: they embody the founding principles of existence. Their breath, thought, and will shape the entire universe. In their wake, all lower realities take form, all rules and laws stabilize, and even the concept of time and causality becomes perceptible.
These acts of creation — the Geneses — take different forms:
Total Genesis: the complete creation of a universe or reality from nothing. Everything that exists is engendered by the creator's will.
Fragmentary Genesis or Remodelling: partial rewriting of a reality, modifying certain events, structures, or timelines without destroying the whole.
Superposed Genesis: creation of a parallel reality that coexists with the old one, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in harmony, until the new reality imposes itself.
Selective Annihilation: targeted erasure of anomalies or distortions, allowing correction of precise elements without touching the whole.
Each method reflects the mastery level and authority of the deity using it, but all remain limited compared to the ultimate Genesis: Retro-Genesis.
Retro-Genesis is the most absolute expression of creation and destruction. It is not a simple rewriting or reorganization: it returns everything to a pre-conceptual state, even prior to the idea of existence or nothingness. It is the absolute end preparing a perfect restart, erasing all traces, memories, and vestiges. No entity, however powerful, can control it; only the force itself chooses its vessel.
Its activation follows a multi-step process: The Cry of God — a cosmic vibration that crosses all dimensions, announcing the end of existence as it is.
Total Suspension: all actions and movements cease, even thoughts and intentions, in absolute silence.
Existential Pressure: the consciousness of every being is overwhelmed by the inevitability of its erasure.
Annihilation: light and energy dissolve all forms, concepts, and laws, down to the memory of their existence.
Retro-Genesis prepares the ground for a new perfect order, where all can be reborn from the original origin.
But this force bears an extreme risk for its bearer. Whoever triggers Retro-Genesis cannot control it in any way. The slightest doubt, the slightest hesitation, and they are consumed before the cycle of destruction and renewal even begins. Retro-Genesis is not a tool of personal power: it is a cosmic instrument, beyond any individual will, a cycle of death and rebirth imposed on all things.
Lilith had once warned Bakuzan: Retro-Genesis had two faces — creation and destruction. And destruction, embodied by Isissis, was absolute.
If Bakuzan accepted Isissis's outstretched hand, everything would be erased. His family, his allies, those who mattered most to him… all would disappear, with no return possible. Even his quest, his reason for existence, would lose all meaning, for hell and heaven would be swept away, reduced to nothingness. Only absolute entities — beyond the Second Zone and lower planes — would survive, like Azazel, whose power exceeded the Second Zone.
Isissis I, imposing, held a moving light between his hands: Retro-Genesis. It pulsed like a concentrated sun, oscillating between destruction and rebirth.
"Take it… and erase everything. Thus, our dignity will not be lost with you," he said, his voice resonating through time and space.
Bakuzan shook his head, face grimacing: "No… I refuse! I cannot accept that… it would be irreversible!"
The light drew closer, almost sliding as if it had its own will, threatening to consume him. Isissis I advanced slowly, imposing his divine pressure: "Do not fear it… but if you weaken, if you refuse it, if you hesitate… it will sense you. And it will erase you and all that you protect."
"No!" shouted Bakuzan, his body trembling. "I will not use it! You have no right to force me!"
Validus, silent observer, watched the confrontation with disbelief. Isissis I's anger was palpable, an entity who could not accept defeat, even against his own chosen.
"You will use it, whether you want to or not!" growled Isissis, the light crackling at his fingertips.
In the material world, Bakuzan's body seemed to tear under the tension: cracks ran through his flesh and skin, mixing dazzling light and human resurgence. Every fiber of his being appeared torn between duty and survival instinct.
Sakolomi, who was advancing toward him, stopped abruptly, the vision of that pure light freezing him: "No… no… you can't…" he murmured, unable to comprehend what was happening.
Bakuzan struggled against himself, clasping his right hand in his left, as if to hold back the inevitable. Every passing second brought the absolute end closer.
"Bakuzan… are you okay?" cried Sakolomi, concern and confusion visible on his face.
Bakuzan's breath broke into a scream: "No!!!!"
And in a burst that tore the air, the light was projected. A blinding glow, infinitely pure and devastating, spread, engulfing everything before him. The world seemed to falter, the very laws trembled, and an apocalyptic silence fell, heralding the shadow of an absolute end.