Chapter Two – Heir of Oblivion
Five years passed…
Yet they did not pass over Lina.
They crossed her—crushed her beneath their weight—and left her on the other side, harder than before.
The child who once stood behind Thaddeus, watching ruin with wide, silent eyes, had become ruin itself. She was no longer a witness to annihilation—she was its executioner.
She stood at the heart of the void, her small body unmoving amid a cosmic chaos that refused to settle. Around her drifted the remains of shattered continents, fractured landmasses floating without order, still bleeding fire and molten seas, as if the planets had only just died and their wounds had yet to cool.
Her eyes held nothing. No rage. No pleasure. No hesitation. Only a cold, lethal focus—as if erasing worlds were a mundane act unworthy of thought.
But when she turned toward Thaddeus…
That cruelty shattered.
In its place came a distorted mask of innocence. A child's smile—wrong, fragile—utterly incompatible with the blood and devastation surrounding her.
"Brother Thaddeus… was my performance good?"
Thaddeus chuckled softly—the laugh of someone who believed himself above all things. He extended his hand, drew his dagger, and spoke with chilling indifference:
"Good… but the ending must be clearer."
He flicked the blade.
The nearby planet split cleanly in two.
It did not explode at once. Instead, it cracked slowly, its core collapsing inward, until it transformed into a raging inferno—an internal storm of fire that devoured itself. Lina sat atop the back of the great white celestial whale, watching without the slightest emotion, as though observing a successful training exercise.
Then the void trembled.
Gravity tore. Space warped unnaturally. A small vessel appeared, stopping directly before the whale. Thaddeus frowned, reached out with his power, and dragged at it violently—but the ship did not move. He increased the pressure. Space cracked around it.
Still, it remained unmoved.
The hatch opened.
A girl stepped out—entirely white, as if carved from cold light itself. Her long silver hair fell without motion, untouched by vacuum or force. The moment her aura erupted, gravity itself reversed.
Thaddeus was yanked toward her by a sudden, overwhelming force. His feet slammed into debris; bones in his leg shattered instantly. He ignored the pain.
He retreated at once, ordered the whale to pull Lina away, then unleashed his power.
The gravity of the ruling charge detonated.
Comets and asteroids were dragged in, colliding, intertwining, fusing into a colossal dragon—its body forged of molten rock, its jaws crushing planets, devouring them whole.
She raised a single finger.
Devouring Seal — Activated.
Space collapsed inward.
The dragon was torn apart. Its rocky body crushed to dust. Light itself bent, twisted, and vanished. Thaddeus was dragged violently forward; the skin of his arms split open, blood scattering through the void, his shoulder bones torn from their sockets.
As they drew closer, both felt the same resonance.
The same origin.
The same blood.
The Celestial Kano Dragons.
But Thaddeus's eyes caught the emblem on her chest.
Skynet.
In that instant, madness erupted.
He roared, forcibly redirected the pull, and charged. But the pressure of her aura crushed his chest—ribs snapping one after another. One pierced his lung. Blood poured from his mouth.
He did not stop.
He tore at his clothes, drew his dagger, lunged—and reached her neck.
The pressure shattered the blade, grinding it into dust. His hand followed. Bones burst through skin, blood exploding outward into the void.
He laughed.
With his remaining hand, he threw a punch. She blocked it. He seized her throat with everything he had left and hurled them both at insane speed toward a nearby planet.
The impact was not an explosion.
It was a collapse.
The planet imploded from within. Its layers crumbled, transforming into a sphere of seething magma.
She kicked him away, shattering his jaw, breaking free—but he grabbed her face and drove his knee into it. The sound of bones cracking echoed through the void. He released an electromagnetic surge; her arm was torn apart, flesh charred away, bone exposed.
She stood.
Her body was breaking apart—yet she stood.
This time, her eyes were filled with shock.
She kicked his face. The blow shattered every tooth he had, split his cheek, tore through his tongue. He spat blood and teeth into the void—and kept going.
At that moment, her fingers completed the seal.
Devouring Seal — Second Stage.
She released it.
Thaddeus's body warped grotesquely. His spine bent at an impossible angle. Skin peeled away. Muscles tore apart. His scream made no sound—yet the void itself trembled. The stellar field collapsed. Meteors evaporated. Light went dark.
Then…
He stood.
No skin. Muscles exposed. Blood boiling.
But standing.
He understood the seal.
He understood the inheritance.
He activated it himself—and charged in absolute madness.
She tried to activate her seal again.
They collided.
A colossal explosion tore everything apart.
Thaddeus plunged through the blast. His body burned. His flesh vaporized.
Yet he emerged.
He seized her head with both hands, crushing down, snapping her neck slowly, lifting her to finish her—
And in that instant…
One strike.
A dry, cracking sound.
Thaddeus's body was flung away, crashing into the debris, and fell motionless.
Unconscious.
Blood drifted around him as the void returned to silence—
as if nothing had ever happened.