At the moment the brain worm was about to be torn apart, Chu Hao finally moved.
"My spoils of war…"
The black and crimson vortexes in his eyes spun violently, like two black holes—dark and pure.
"You dare to take what's mine?"
Chu Hao hated nothing more than losing control of a situation.
And now, after spending countless resources to find this dying brain worm, it was slipping out of his grasp.
As his fury rose, the abyssal territories connected to him began to collapse into nothingness. Like matter itself was crumbling, the abyssal lands disintegrated, and every Zerg near the area followed—turning to dust and ash.
The wave of destruction spread at an incredible speed, but even that wasn't enough to save the dying brain worm—his rightful prize.
The battlefield was far too vast.
Even this newly opened war zone beneath Chu Hao's feet spanned the size of several planets.
No being, not even one many times faster than sound, could cross that distance to kill the Zerg surrounding the brain worm in time.
But—
"You damn insect… so willing to obey that Hive Mind's will?"
"Fine then!"
Chu Hao's gaze fell upon the brain worm lying motionless on the ground, awaiting dissection.
Its pathetic loyalty filled him with disgust and anger.
"Then I shall make you, the loyal one, rebel."
"As long as your internal organs aren't completely destroyed, I can analyze the Hive Mind's model—and how it connects to its will."
"Remember this. What I give you is both a blessing and a curse!"
Chu Hao took a deep breath.
As his thoughts moved, deep within the Endless Abyss, the halo of the Seven Deadly Sins began to spin rapidly.
A beam of light—formless, yet born of darkness—merged with Chu Hao's divine fire and shot forth from the ruins deep within the Abyss.
It struck the brain worm.
And in that instant, something new appeared within its compound eyes—emotion.
It lived.
For the first time, the self-awareness long suppressed beneath the Hive Mind's will broke free. It became the master of its own body.
A being born of the Hive's will—now separated from it—had awakened.
Though it hadn't yet understood what was happening, nor why it suddenly felt so strange, danger surrounded it.
The other Zerg still tearing at its flesh made it feel true fear.
Death.
The concept of death appeared in its mind for the first time.
And the newborn brain worm instinctively resisted it.
It did not know why it wanted to live—but it wanted to.
It feared the eternal silence and darkness of death.
And so, guided by its primal instinct, it began to fight back.
---
Slash!
The limbs coiled beneath its abdomen shot outward, piercing the Zerg dissecting its shell.
Slash!
A blade-like limb drove straight through its companion's compound eye—the most fragile and fatal part of their bodies.
The act halted the dissection.
Its other limbs swept through the remaining Zerg tearing at it, forcing them back.
Though the Hive Mind's voice thundered within its head, demanding it stop its rebellion and die, it could hear only one thought—
It wanted to live.
Even without knowing what life meant, even if life itself was meaningless—a futile struggle against the universe's entropy—it still wanted to survive.
The seeds of desire began to take root in its mechanical, ignorant mind.
A faint, unfamiliar voice began to fill its thoughts.
The brain worm drew in its damaged limbs, huddling behind the corpse of another Zerg to shield its wounded back from further attacks.
Then it opened its jaws and screeched at the swarming Zerg that looked exactly like it.
The first cry of a newborn life.
But its kin didn't stop.
The Hive's will was absolute.
Just as a blade limb was about to pierce its shell—
A storm erupted.
A storm of black mist swept across the battlefield, consuming every Zerg in front of the brain worm.
The black mist reduced them all to ash.
From within that darkness, a man with black hair and black eyes emerged.
He looked down at the brain worm crawling weakly on the ground, its compound eyes staring back at him. A faint smile crossed his face.
"No struggle, no purpose of life…"
"Congratulations. You've come alive."
The next moment, the black mist wrapped around the brain worm, binding it tightly before hurling it into the Endless Abyss.
Chu Hao exhaled softly.
"At last, not a wasted trip."
"Alright, time to move out."
He prepared to contact the Demon Prince Fabuti, telling him to gather whatever resources could still be taken from this world. Once the world's laws were secured, they would retreat.
But then—
Chu Hao suddenly looked up toward the sky.
No—
Not just him.
Every being—god or Zerg—looked up at the outer layer of the newborn multiverse.
A rift was widening there.
And from it came singing—
Songs praising divine glory, the Creator, and all things pure and beautiful.
Countless sentient beings were moved to tears.
Demons, however, spat in disgust.
Along with the song came feathers—countless radiant feathers—so pure and holy that anyone who saw them wanted to kneel.
Each feather bore sacred warnings, each so sincere that one might abandon everything to follow eternally.
"The steps of the angels."
The Archangel of Judgment, Gatekeeper of Heaven's Gate, third heir of the Heaven Mountain, High God Peter—
Had arrived.