The crown remained motionless above the ruined summit.
Not advancing.
Not retreating.
Simply hovering there beneath the fractured heavens while chains of black metal swayed slowly through the violent abyssal winds surrounding it, each movement echoing faintly across the battlefield like the sound of something ancient hesitating for the first time in countless ages.
And deep beyond the breach—
The Lonely King watched.
Silent.
Still.
Confused.
Kyūsei could feel it.
The enormous presence pressing against reality itself had changed again, not in power, but in emotion. The crushing hostility that had drowned the battlefield moments ago now felt uncertain, as though something inside the abyss had encountered an answer it genuinely did not know how to process.
Because he's my friend.
Such a simple sentence.
Yet the abyss had no response.
The second eye remained fixed on Kazuto now, unblinking beneath the shattered heavens while endless darkness churned slowly around the massive silhouette hidden beyond reality.
The Lonely King spoke at last.
Friend.
The word itself sounded unfamiliar on its tongue.
Like a relic pulled from ruins older than civilizations.
Kazuto exhaled tiredly while keeping his sword raised.
"Yeah," he said. "You know. People who stay beside you even when things get ugly."
The abyss became quiet again.
Kyūsei suddenly realized something horrifying.
The Lonely King truly didn't understand.
Not manipulation.
Not worship.
Not obedience.
Friendship.
The difference struck him immediately.
Every creature serving the abyss had bowed before it in fear or reverence.
Every world it touched had either attacked it or surrendered to it.
No one had ever simply stood beside it willingly.
And somehow—
That felt unbearably tragic.
The whispers inside Kyūsei's mind softened further.
Not angry now.
Almost distant.
We do not understand.
Kyūsei swallowed hard.
"I figured."
The second eye shifted slowly toward him.
Kyūsei forced himself not to look away despite the pressure threatening to crush his body beneath its gaze.
"You think being alone forever gives you the right to take people from their worlds," he said quietly. "But that's not connection."
The shadows throughout the summit trembled faintly.
"That's just forcing others to stay because you're afraid of losing them."
The moment those words left his mouth—
The abyss reacted.
Not violently.
Painfully.
The fractured heavens shook.
The enormous eyes narrowed slightly.
And for one brief instant, Kyūsei felt an emotion so overwhelmingly ancient and human echo from the Lonely King that his chest nearly tightened shut.
Guilt.
The realization stunned him.
The Lonely King had known.
Somewhere deep within itself, it had always known that what it was doing wasn't truly connection.
It was desperation.
The voice beyond the breach became quieter.
We feared silence.
Kyūsei's throat tightened.
Because he understood that too.
Back on Earth there had been nights where silence felt unbearable, where loneliness became so heavy that even meaningless noise seemed preferable to sitting alone with his own thoughts.
But still—
"You can't fill emptiness by consuming people," Kyūsei whispered.
The crown trembled slightly above him.
The Lonely King remained silent.
Kazuto slowly lowered his sword a little, though the winds surrounding him still swirled violently from the massive mana compressed around the blade.
"…man," he muttered softly, "this might be the weirdest therapy session in history."
Rufus immediately pointed at him.
"THANK YOU. Finally someone said it."
Even now.
Even during this.
Kyūsei almost laughed again.
And strangely enough—
The abyss noticed.
The second eye shifted toward the small exhausted smile appearing briefly on Kyūsei's face while Kazuto stood beside him bleeding and barely conscious yet still making stupid jokes during the apocalypse.
The Lonely King watched them silently.
Then the voice echoed once more.
You remain beside him despite fear.
Kazuto shrugged weakly.
"Yeah."
Even knowing what he may become.
"Still yes."
The winds around Kazuto weakened slightly as exhaustion finally began catching up to him, but his stance never wavered.
"People aren't just the worst thing they could become," he said quietly. "If they were, humanity would've ended itself ages ago."
The abyss fell silent again.
Kyūsei stared at Kazuto for several seconds.
Then sighed weakly.
"You really say profound things accidentally."
"I'm talented."
"You're concussed."
"Also true."
Lena pressed one hand against her forehead.
"I cannot believe this conversation is happening beneath an interdimensional catastrophe."
Mira answered calmly.
"Humans cope strangely."
Above them, however, the fractured heavens continued destabilizing.
The abyssal breach still stretched endlessly across the sky, pouring dark energy into reality while the giant hand descending from beyond the fracture remained partially manifested within the world.
Nothing had actually been solved yet.
The Lonely King still existed beyond the breach.
The abyss still pressed against reality.
And Kyūsei still carried something inside him connected to it all.
The temporary calm could shatter at any moment.
As if sensing that realization, the abyssal creature beneath the breach suddenly moved again.
Its countless eyes burned brighter while dark energy erupted violently around its body.
Unlike the Lonely King—
It understood rage perfectly.
The creature slowly lifted its head toward Kyūsei, then toward Kazuto standing protectively beside him.
And for the first time since the crown stopped descending—
Hostility returned to the battlefield.
The creature's voice echoed sharply across the summit.
The vessel rejects ascension.
The atmosphere distorted violently.
Black energy exploded outward from the creature hard enough to crack the summit beneath everyone's feet.
The second eye narrowed slightly.
But the creature continued.
Then the world remains unworthy.
Kyūsei's face paled instantly.
"Kazuto—"
Too late.
The abyssal creature raised both hands toward the fractured heavens.
And the breach began widening again.
Violently.
The Lonely King's attention shifted downward immediately.
The crown trembled.
The entire sky screamed as the fracture destabilized further beneath the creature's influence, enormous cracks spreading across reality itself while countless abyssal entities stirred once more beyond the darkness.
The creature had gone mad.
Or perhaps—
Fanatical.
It no longer cared what the Lonely King wanted.
It simply wanted the abyss to descend completely.
Lena's expression darkened instantly.
"If the breach expands any further, reality will collapse around the entire region!"
Kazuto slowly tightened his grip around the sword again despite his exhaustion.
"…there it is," he muttered tiredly. "Knew the emotional breakthrough wouldn't last."