The Omniverse didn't recover.
It adjusted.
The space around the ruins of the Extreme Magic Academy slowly stabilized, but the damage went deeper than shattered platforms and broken dimensions. Something fundamental had been exposed, and reality was quietly trying to hide it again.
Too late.
Zento sat against a fractured wall of floating stone, his armor finally retracting into his body in broken pulses. Every muscle screamed. Every breath tasted like blood.
"They weren't here to stop us," he said hoarsely.
"They were here to check if the seal was still holding."
No one argued.
Kaiser leaned nearby, flames faint and unsteady around his hands. His usual fury was gone, replaced by something colder — calculation.
"So Executors were disposable," he muttered.
"Judicators were auditors."
"What comes after that?"
Nyx answered quietly.
"The answer gods don't like admitting."
Reflexo looked up from where he was stabilizing Renox's condition with threads of light.
"Which is?"
Nyx's jaw tightened.
"The Originals."
That word carried weight.
Not power.
History.
THE ONES BEFORE THE GODS
Nyx stepped onto a larger fragment of debris so everyone could see her. Around them, the remains of the academy drifted silently — a graveyard between realities.
"Before the current pantheons," she began,
"before divine hierarchies, before thrones…"
She paused.
"There were rulers."
Zento looked up sharply.
"You mean the Demonic Divine Warriors?"
Nyx shook her head.
"No. They came later."
"They were the response."
Silence followed.
Even Shadow Xenon turned slightly.
"The Omniverse wasn't always ruled by gods," Nyx continued.
"It was governed by constants — beings born directly from reality's first collapse."
She looked at Shadow Xenon now.
"Executors weren't created to enforce balance."
"They were created to prevent those constants from being remembered."
Kaiser's flames flared involuntarily.
"You're saying the gods rewrote history."
Nyx laughed once, bitter.
"Gods are the rewrite."
A NEW PRESENCE
The air shifted again.
Not violently.
Cautiously.
A ripple passed through the space behind them, like someone testing whether reality would allow their arrival.
Shadow Xenon turned immediately.
"Show yourself."
The ripple solidified into a tall figure wrapped in layered armor that looked older than language itself. No divine glow. No aura of authority.
Just pressure.
His face was visible — scarred, tired, human.
He raised both hands slowly.
"Easy," he said.
"If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't be standing here."
Nyx's eyes widened.
"…Virex."
The man smiled faintly.
"Still alive. Still disappointed."
Zento pushed himself to his feet.
"Who is he?"
Nyx didn't look away from Virex.
"The first god who defected."
That landed hard.
THE DEFECTOR'S TRUTH
Virex stepped forward carefully, stopping well short of Shadow Xenon.
"I was there," he said.
"When the Executors were designed. When the Judicators were justified."
He glanced at the ruins.
"And when the Extreme Magic Academy was tolerated."
Reflexo frowned.
"Tolerated?"
"It was bait," Virex replied bluntly.
"A controlled environment to identify anomalies before they matured."
Zento felt sick.
"So the students—"
"Collateral," Virex finished.
"Or future threats. Depending on who you asked."
Kaiser's flames surged dangerously.
"Say that again."
Virex met his gaze calmly.
"I won't apologize for it," he said.
"I abandoned that system too late."
He turned to Shadow Xenon.
"And you…"
"You weren't supposed to exist anymore."
Shadow Xenon's voice was ice.
"Yet here I am."
Virex nodded.
"Yes. And that's the problem."
WHAT COMES NEXT
Nyx crossed her arms.
"Why come here now?"
Virex exhaled slowly.
"Because the gods are scared," he said.
"And scared gods do stupid things."
He looked at each of them.
"The next phase won't involve Executors or Judicators."
Zento swallowed.
"Then what?"
Virex's expression darkened.
"They'll send what they used to end the First Rulers."
Silence.
Even the void felt tense.
Shadow Xenon spoke.
"Name it."
Virex hesitated.
For the first time, he looked unsure.
"They're called Eidolons," he said.
"Living weapons made from erased realities."
Reflexo's light flickered.
"How do you fight something like that?"
Virex looked at Shadow Xenon.
"You don't."
"You survive it."
Shadow Xenon turned toward the drifting ruins, blood still running from his wounds.
"Then we'll do better than survive."
Far beyond the fractured space—
Something ancient shifted.
And for the first time since the Omniverse was rewritten,
the past began to wake up.