[Last Episode: [And across the Chaos Universe, every guild — Ice Knights, Dark Lords, Solar Dragons, Black Phoenix, Force Light — surged forward to meet the herd as it began, all at once, to rampage.]
Chapter 121, Episode 121
[The Primus World — The Herd and the Rally]
[The creatures kept coming]
[Every ruler, every guild member, every combatant who'd rushed the tear in the sky was cutting them down, and every time one fell, two more rose from its ashes with the same insane hunger in its many eyes. Kai's darkness swallowed one whole and it simply reformed a heartbeat later somewhere else in the field]
[Stella Rose shattered another into a thousand pieces of black-hole gravity and watched the pieces crawl back together]
[The Manipulator, Siriusniyo, and Beatrice fought at the center of it, cutting a path through the herd with the specific efficiency]
[And above it all, Isaac was still locked with Voriath blow for blow. Neither one giving an inch]
[The Sutur Ignition Form burning at a temperature that had no register left in it, and Voriath matching every strike with the calm, terrible precision]
[Isaac felt his own limit approaching]
[He looked down — past Voriath, past the herd, at everyone fighting below]
Isaac: I need your energy.
[The words carried, somehow, across the entire battlefield — through the fire, through the fighting, into everyone's chest at once.]
Kai: What... that's more like a killing intent
Isaac: I know, Lord Kai, But at this rate, All of you. Lend me your power. Everything you've got left.
[A pause across the field. Weapons still swinging, creatures still dying and reforming, and somewhere in the middle of it, hesitation.]
Stella:That's not a small ask. Lending power pulls directly from a person's source. You're asking us to weaken ourselves in the middle of a fight.
Isaac: I know what I'm asking.
Nebula: If we give you everything and it's not enough—
Isaac: Then we're already losing anyway. At least this way we go down swinging with everything we have instead of holding some back and losing slower.
[A silence. Then Apollo of all people, was the one who broke it.]
Apollo: He's right. What good is holding reserve if the war ends before we get to use it?
Cyra: Agreed...
[One by one, they turned toward Isaac. The rulers first. Then the guild members, the Empire States, everyone still standing.]
[The Manipulator, mid-swing through a creature's neck]
The Manipulator: Do it. All of it.
Siriusniyo: Whatever you need.
[Beatrice just nodded, sword already glowing brighter as she began to funnel her own reserve toward him.]
Energy Convergence — Cosmology-Wide.
[It started as threads. Faint lines of light and heat and power stretching from every combatant in the field toward Isaac, thin at first, then thickening as more people committed, as more sources opened and poured themselves into the current]
[It hurt. Everyone giving felt it — the specific ache of a source being drawn down, of power leaving faster than it could be replaced]
[Guild members staggered. Rulers grit their teeth and still they gave]
[Isaac stood at the center of it, the entire convergence flowing into him, into the Sutur Ignition Form, into a single point building behind his raised fist]
Isaac: Voriath.
Voriath: I see it.
[And for the first time, something genuinely close to concern crossed his face]
[In his head, the calculation was simple and brutal: every subordinate he'd sent to this war was dead or scattered, his creatures were a delaying action at best, and he was, in this exact moment, the only thing standing between an entire cosmology's combined fury and its target.]
Voriath: You would burn your own strength to end me.
Isaac: We would burn everything.
[Everyone in the field yelled —the raw noise of a cosmology throwing its whole weight behind one moment.]
Isaac: This is for every world you touched.
Isaac — Cosmology's Fury. Released.
Issac: Have a sweet life sucker!!!suckered!!!! GO TO HELL!
[The blast that left his fist didn't look like fire anymore. It was the combined output of an entire cosmology's remaining strength, compressed and aimed, and it hit Voriath dead center]
[The light of it reached across dimensions and multiverses that had no idea this war was happening felt the shockwave pass through their skies]
[Voriath raised both arms and he tanked it]
[Barely]
Voriath: Such power... the combining energy from the cosmology... it's hard to handle
[The force pushed him back through a dozen collapsing stars, through the shell of a dying galaxy, and when he finally stopped, he was on one knee as blood — real, dark, refusing to stop — poured from a dozen wounds across his body]
Voriath: —
[He didn't have words immediately. He looked at his own hands. At the blood that wasn't slowing.]
Voriath: I can't heal through this.
[He said it quietly. To himself. And then, more quietly, began to try anyway — pulling threads of his own regeneration together in secret, buying himself whatever margin he could without showing it.]
[Around the field, some of his creatures had survived the blast's edge. They began regenerating, dragging themselves back together, and turned once more toward the fighters.]
[They charged again]
Voriath: I am quite surprised the creatures survived a cosmological energy attack...Impressive I must say, they aren't useless after all
『The Arrival — A Woman Who Doesn't Need to Try』
[Nobody saw her come in]
[One moment there was a creature bearing down on a cluster of exhausted Solar Dragons guild members, jaws wide, regenerating even as it moved]
[The next moment it was in pieces — its concept and its abstract self both unmade in the same motion, before anyone had registered a blade had even been drawn]
[Then the next creature, then the next]
[Each one erased in a fraction of a fraction of a second — faster than the interval it would take light to cross the width of a single atom, faster than the concept of "before and after" could apply to the motion at all]
[It was that her sword's arrival at each target and her decision to strike existed as the same instant, with no travel between them, because for her light itself]
[The herd, whatever remained of it, stopped existing in under two seconds]
[Everyone turned]
[The woman stood in the settled dust where the last creature had been. Long hair with blue bleeding into purple bleeding into pink, with one bright streak of white near the front]
[She wore layered samurai armor, red and black and gold shoulder plates over a high-collared dark shirt, wide white kimono sleeves trimmed in careful pattern-work, and at her waist, sheathed now, a red-and-gold katana that hummed faintly with light even at rest]
[She looked at the battlefield. At Isaac, bruised and burning, locked in his standoff with a bleeding Voriath. At The Manipulator, Siriusniyo, and Beatrice, weapons still raised. At Mercurius and Xuantian, collapsed on the ground, unable to rise. At every guild, every Empire State, every ruler, all staring at her]
[She smiled]
Meltryllis: Well. This looks like it's been a long day for everybody.
[Voriath, on one knee, blood still running, looked at her with an expression that was — for the first time in the entire war — something close to alarm.]
Voriath: Who are you.
Meltryllis: Well, time to introduce myself, My name is Alter Meltryllis Xibala.
[She said it simply]
Voriath: You erased my creatures. Concept and all. In less time than causality itself takes to register.
Meltryllis: I did.
Voriath: Where did you come from.
Meltryllis: Nowhere you've been. I doubt you'd find it if you looked. I've been around a while. Forty billion years, give or take. I stopped counting properly somewhere past the first ten billion.
[Isaac, still locked with Voriath, glanced over despite himself.]
Voriath: Forty billion years.
Meltryllis: Give or take.
Voriath: That predates my parents.
Meltryllis: By a fair margin, yes.
[The Manipulator lowered his sword slightly, staring. Siriusniyo had gone very still. Beatrice — normally unbothered by anything — was watching Meltryllis with genuine, open curiosity.]
Voriath: What are you.
Meltryllis: A swordswoman. That's really all there is to it. Nine hundred years of pure blade-work, and then a very, very long time after that of being the only thing light knows how to obey. I'm not a Hyper. I'm not a source-user in the way you understand it. I simply am what light is, and I know how to swing a sword better than anyone who has ever lived.
Voriath: That power. I want it, Your more like glazing the hell out of yourself
[He said it plainly, blood still running down his arm, on one knee, and yet the want in his voice was completely unguarded.]
Meltryllis: Of course you do.
Voriath: You understand what I'm building. What I need to build it.
Meltryllis: I understand exactly what you want. You want the authority I hold over an absolute concept, because absolute authority over one thing gets you closer to absolute authority over everything. It's not a complicated want. Most people who reach your level want the same thing eventually.
You're not going to get it from asking nicely
Voriath: Everything can be taken with enough force.
Meltryllis: Try it, then.
[She said it lightly.]
[Voriath's hand tightened around the Chaos Nihilikinesis Sword. He didn't move.]
[Something in him — some very old, very careful instinct — held him back.]
Meltryllis: See, you already know. Whatever you're calculating right now, some part of you already ran the numbers and didn't like the answer.
[A pause. She glanced past him, at Isaac, still burning, still holding the line.]
Meltryllis: He's doing well, by the way. Your fire boy.
I[saac, through gritted teeth: "Isaac."]
Meltryllis: Isaac. Doing well, Isaac.
[Isaac didn't have breath to spare for a response. He just kept pressing.]
[Meltryllis folded her arms and watched, entirely relaxed]
『Inside Death — Leo and Satanael, Still Talking』
Leo: Okay but seriously. If you could eat anything right now, after two million years of not eating anything, what would it be.
[Satanael]
「Leo, we are discussing how to escape a state of active non-existence.」
Leo: I know. I'm multitasking.
[Satanael]
「You don't have a body currently. There is nothing to multitask with.」
Leo: I have a very active imagination-body. Answer the question.
[A long pause. Then, almost reluctantly:]
[Satanael]
「...Something warm. I don't have a specific reference. Whatever you would call comfortable.」
Leo: Soup guy. You're a soup guy. I called it.
[Satanael]
「I did not confirm soup.」
Leo: You confirmed warm and comfortable. That's soup energy.
[Satanael]
「Focus, Leo.」
Leo: Fine, fine Okay. Real talk. How close are we.
[He straightened, or did whatever the equivalent of straightening was in a space with no body.]
[Satanael]
「Closer. The rebuild through the covenant thread is progressing. But the framework on the other side is under significant strain right now — every source in the cosmology is being pulled thin. It's making the anchor point harder to stabilize.」
Leo: Isaac's doing something big.
[Satanael]
「Very big. I can feel the pull even from here.」
Leo: Then we need to hurry.
[Satanael]
「We need to be careful. If I rush the rebuild and get it wrong, you don't come back whole. You come back as an approximation. That's worse than staying here longer.」
Leo: How much longer.
[Satanael]
「Not long. The thread is nearly taut.」
[A pause. Leo looked around at the strange not-space they occupied, at the man with white hair and blue eyes standing across from him, patient in a way that only came from having existed since before patience needed inventing.]
Leo: Hey. Satanael.
[Satanael]
「Yes.」
Leo: When we're both actually alive again, at the same time, in the same place — I want to properly introduce you. To Luna. To the guild. Everyone.
[Satanael went quiet for a moment.]
[Satanael]
「You want to introduce me. As a person.」
Leo: You are a person. It's about time everyone else knew that too.
[Satanael]
「...I would like that.」
Leo: Good. Also you're getting soup. That's non-negotiable now.
[Satanael]
「Focus on the thread, Leo.」
Leo: I am focusing. I'm focusing on soup and the thread. Multiple things at once. That's what I do.
[The thread pulled tighter. Somewhere on the other side of it, the shape of the living world was starting to come back into view.]
『The Primus World — Isaac Falters』
[The rally's blast had cost Voriath badly, but the King of the Multiverse did not stay down for long]
[He rose. Quiet, bleeding and furious]
[The Sutur Ignition Form was still burning, but the cosmology-wide energy he'd converted into that last blast had cost him too. Every hit Voriath landed now found less resistance than the one before]
[Voriath's fist connected. Then his knee. Then the flat of the Chaos Nihilikinesis Sword across Isaac's ribs, sending him skidding through the wreckage of the battlefield]
[Isaac hit the ground and didn't get up immediately]
[He was breathing hard. Blood in his mouth, bruises blooming faster than his regeneration could clear them]
[Isaac, quietly, to himself]
Issac: He's — almost impossible—to beat
[He stared up at the cracked sky. At Voriath standing over him, patient, waiting to see if he'd get up.]
[And somewhere in his chest, a memory surfaced — Leo's voice, from a hundred conversations, from the fight they'd had together just hours ago: I want to be stronger than you. One day we find out.]
Isaac: ...Not yet.. Not yet... Not yet... not yet...
[He planted his hand against the cracked ground.]
Isaac: I'm not losing to him before I even get the chance to beat you properly, Leo.
[He pushed himself up.]
[Bruised. Bleeding. Every part of him screaming that he'd given everything he had. And still, he stood.]
[Around the field, everyone watching went quiet — the guild members, the rulers, Meltryllis with her arms still folded, all of them watching a man who should have stayed down refuse to.]
Voriath: You're still standing.
Isaac: Yeah... This Fight isn't over yet!.. Voriath!!
Voriath: Admirable. Foolish. But admirable.
Isaac: Save the compliments.
[He raised his fists. The fire around them dimmer than before, but present. Refusing to go out.]
[Then three more figures landed beside him]
[The Manipulator. Siriusniyo. Beatrice]
Siriusniyo: You're not doing this alone anymore.
Isaac: I had it—
Beatrice: You very much did not have it... you have reached your limit... you cannot simply fight voriath in your current state... let's just take it from here
The Manipulator: We're joining. That's final.
[Isaac looked at the three of them. Then, despite everything, huffed something close to a laugh]
Isaac: You know what's funny... I trained soo many years to match Leo... and then here I am, almost beaten to death by voriath... I simply cannot accept defeat until Leo comes again...I will fight till death comes for me
[Voriath watched all four of them square up against him and, despite the blood still running down his side, smiled.]
Voriath: Welcome back, triplets.
[He rolled his shoulders once.]
Voriath: Let's refight this properly, then. And this time, I'll erase all of you from existence together. No more playing dead. No more half-measures.
[He raised his free hand.]
Voriath — Revival. Authority of the Dead.
[Threads of dark energy stretched out from his palm toward the ruined battlefield's edges, toward the places where his fallen had been left]
[Xuantian rose first, scythe reforming in his grip]
[Then Mercurius, his form flickering back into coherence]
[Then two more — a man with True Darkness Flame curling off his shoulders and a longsword at his hip, and a woman whose presence alone seemed to fracture the ground beneath her feet]
Voriath: Galacik. Jaxx. You're needed again.
Galacik: Understood, my lord.
Jaxx: Whatever's left to break, I'll break it.
[The three of them — Xuantian, Mercurius, Galacik, and Jaxx — turned toward the four fighters standing against Voriath, weapons rising in unison.]
[And then, from the open dimensional path above, more arrivals]
[The Eastern World's subordinates, finally reaching the Primus World after everything — Jeannette at the front, Laxcarseel beside her, Lilura and Pandorami close behind, Antoinette reading the battlefield before her feet even touched ground, Martha's sword already drawn, Infinite's cold hum of analysis running, Jairulioyo's lightning crackling at his fingertips]
Jeannette: We're here.
[Isaac, glancing back, surprised]
Issac: You made it.
Jeannette: We weren't going to sit still while our Lord's rival carried this alone.
Laxcarseel: Point us at something.
[Isaac gestured at the reformed group of Voriath's revived subordinates.]
Isaac: There.
[The Eastern World subordinates moved without hesitation, weapons and abilities already flaring, closing the distance toward Xuantian, Mercurius, Galacik, and Jaxx.]
[Meltryllis watched all of it happen from where she stood, arms still folded, expression somewhere between amused and genuinely fond]
[She made no move to join]
[Siriusniyo, mid-fight, called over]
Siriusniyo: You're not helping?
Meltryllis: Not my fight. Not yet, anyway.
[Beatrice, cutting through a strike aimed at her side]
Beatrice: what.. are you saying you could end this in about four seconds.
Meltryllis: I could. But that's not really the point of watching, is it?
[She smiled — small, patient with a smile]
Meltryllis: Besides. I think this one still needs to be theirs.
[She settled in to watch.]
To be continued....