The void after the Death Prayer was not black, nor was it white. It was a silent, weightless suspension a place where time had been folded back on itself like a piece of parchment.
Before the absolute reset could sweep away every lingering echo of the ruined omniverse, a single, solitary thread of high-dimensional consciousness surged back through the temporal stream. It was Future Null the dark-matter titan who had fought for three thousand years, whose body had turned to stone, whose soul had bled crimson across the stars.
Through the fracturing corridors of the past, his fading future self projected a single, urgent signal.
The transmission reached back back past the apocalyptic clash with the 8th-Dimensional Herald, back past the destruction and restoration of the realm, back to the early days when Null was still an unrefined, mortal teenager training under the watchful, arrogant gaze of Umbros and Fang.
In that distant memory, while a younger Null breathed heavily, wiping sweat from his forehead during a grueling physical sparring session, a strange, cold static had momentarily hummed in his ears. Back then, it had felt like a fleeting hallucination a strange, shadowy warning about a Great Destroyer creeping through the higher dimensions, an absolute horde that would one day consume space and time itself if Null did not force his body past every known limit.
It had been a warning from his future self, planted into the timeline like a seed in the dirt.
And then, the transmission snapped. The memory shattered.
Everything went entirely, completely blank.
Silence.
The noise of tearing dimensions, falling stars, and screaming gods vanished. The cold, suffocating dark matter evaporated into nothingness.
Then came the sound.
A high-pitched, sharp, rhythmic gasp for air followed by the sudden, raw wail of a newborn baby crying for its first breath.
"Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah!"
The infant's cries echoed in a warm, dimly lit room that smelled faintly of scorched ozone and ancient incense. The blinding, chaotic lights of the omniverse were gone, replaced by the soft, ambient glow of a localized realm hearth.
Hovering directly over the newborn child's forehead, the air warped violently. Specks of brilliant, golden-black origin energy gathered together in mid-air, condensing atom-by-atom. The ambient gravity in the room shifted slightly as the energy solidified, forming a pristine, throbbing Prime Stone. With a gentle, resonant chime, the artifact settled directly into the newborn's chest, sinking beneath his skin and pulsing in perfect rhythm with his tiny, beating heart.
The silhouettes of two adults stood over the cradle. Their faces were blurred by the heavy, residual divine mist lingering in the room, but their presence radiated an overwhelming warmth, pride, and relief.
The father leaned down, his massive, calloused hands gently scooping up the tiny infant.
The baby had a mop of soft, pitch-black hair sticking to his forehead. Like all newborn infants, his eyelids were kept tightly shut against the unaccustomed light of the physical world, but beneath those thin lids lay eyes that carried a rare, striking sky-blue hue.
As the father lifted the child into his arms, the baby's crying slowly subsided, replaced by tiny, soft giggles as he kicked his small legs in the warm air.
"Look at him..." the father whispered, his voice rich and deep, trembling with quiet pride. "I was once like you, little one..."
He chuckled warmly, a deep rumble that vibrated through his chest as he held his son close.
"Seems like you've been chosen by Umbros, haven't you? Hahaha! It looks like that arrogant old deity finally found himself a brand-new host."
The father's smile softened, but his tone gradually shifted, growing heavier as he looked down at the Prime Stone glowing beneath his newborn son's skin. The light reflected off the father's blurred features, casting long shadows across the room.
"Being a Prime Stone user isn't a gift, my boy," the father murmured softly, his voice carrying the weight of someone who understood the dark burdens of origin energy. "It's a target painted on your soul. The power inside you... it comes from the Almighty's blood. Higher-dimensional entities, cosmic warlords, space-time devourers... they will all come searching for that stone in your chest. You will face a future filled with wars you didn't start and battles that will test whether you deserve to keep breathing."
The mother, resting nearby, let out a soft, melodic laugh at her husband's solemn speech.
"Babe," she said gently, her blurred silhouette shaking her head in amusement. "Null is still a baby. He can't understand a single word you're saying right now! Hahaha!"
The father blinked, looking back down at the laughing newborn in his arms, and let out a sheepish laugh of his own.
"Yeah... yeah, you're right," he admitted, smiling warmly as he cradled little Null against his shoulder. "He's just a child."
The father held the baby close, completely unaware that deep within the infant's spirit, the wheel of fate had already begun to turn setting the stage for the unwritten king to rise once more.
END OF CHAPTER 104.5
SEE YOU TOM