Chapter 52
An endless blue planet.
No land.
No mountains.
Only water.
The sky above was clear—vast and empty.
Soft waves rolled across the glowing ocean surface.
Shirin stood on the water as if it were solid ground.
One arm hung loosely at her side—
burned.
Blackened.
Still faintly smoking.
Her breathing was uneven.
Across from her—
A slim woman draped in deep violet.
Messy black hair veiled one glowing teal eye.
The other half-lidded.
Distant.
Cold.
A wide-brimmed cloak flowed behind her, etched with faint luminous patterns.
Beside her hovered a ghostly teal arm.
Pulsing quietly.
—Nova.
"C… can you just roll over and die already?" Nova said flatly.
Shirin let out a soft laugh.
The burns along her arm began to fade.
"Godlight Regeneration"
Golden light traced along her skin, restoring flesh.
"Sorry," Shirin replied calmly.
"I can't do that."
Nova's visible eye sharpened slightly.
"Then I'll change that."
The ghost arm shot forward—
Light-speed.
It hardened into a fist mid-flight.
Shirin vanished.
"Instant Teleportation"
She reappeared high in the sky.
The ghost fist struck the ocean.
The impact detonated the surface—
Water exploded upward in a towering column, waves spreading violently across the planet's endless sea.
Shirin hovered above.
Watching.
(It's about time…) she thought quietly.
But doubt flickered in her eyes.
She didn't want to use it.
Below, Nova looked up.
The ghost arm returned to her side, reforming smoothly.
"Are you just going to keep running?" Nova asked, voice dull but edged.
Shirin inhaled slowly.
"No…" Shirin said softly.
Her hands tried to come together—
They stopped.
An invisible resistance pressed against her palms.
Something inside her pushing back.
Rejecting it.
Her fingers trembled.
She forced them closed.
"Vampire Death Garden."
The command echoed.
The planet went dark.
From outer space, it became a black dome.
The endless ocean hardened—
Water turning to cracked gray stone.
Dark flames ignited across the surface, burning without fuel, without wind.
All light was swallowed.
Silence descended.
Then—
They appeared.
Countless skeletons lay across the stone ground.
Each frozen in the exact position they met their death.
Nova looked around.
Confusion overtook her calm.
"What is this…?" she whispered.
"A domain?"
Shirin's voice echoed across the realm.
"Oh, my fellow vampires… I have brought you a gift."
Her gaze settled on Nova.
"Please take her from this world."
"What are you muttering about up th—"
Bones shifted.
One skeleton moved.
Then another.
Then all of them.
They rose.
Slow.
Rigid.
Unnatural.
A skeletal hand burst from the ground beside Nova.
She didn't notice.
Her focus remained forward.
The hand grabbed her ankle.
Her head snapped down.
"What—"
She kicked.
Nothing.
The grip tightened.
Black flames ignited from the skeletal fingers.
In the next instant—
Nova was engulfed.
"AAAAAARRRGH!!"
Her scream tore through the dark sky.
Pain flooded her nerves like a thousand suns burning beneath her skin.
She tried to regenerate—
It failed.
The flames bypassed it.
Panic broke her composure.
She ran—
Stumbling straight into the advancing skeletons.
Like a drunk fleeing a nightmare.
She tripped.
Fell.
The worst mistake.
They surrounded her instantly.
Bony hands seized her limbs.
They pulled.
Tore.
Flesh ripped.
Arms separated.
Legs wrenched free.
They devoured her like starving beasts.
Her screams filled the realm—
Then weakened.
Then faded.
More skeletons crowded the spot.
Nothing remained but movement.
Shirin watched.
Expression empty.
More gathered over the remains.
A single tear slipped down her face.
Then another.
Blood.
Her hands were still sealed together.
Holding the realm open was tearing at her body.
(My battle is over.)
Her fingers slowly separated.
The domain collapsed.
Like burning paper disintegrating from the top down.
Darkness peeled away.
Stone dissolved.
Flames vanished.
The ocean returned.
Blue sky.
Soft waves.
As if nothing had happened.
Shirin stood alone.
Breathing quietly.
And the water beneath her rippled gently.
Shirin let out a soft sigh.
Her eyes closed.
Her body dropped toward the ocean below.
(I can't move… Am I… going to die here?) she said to herself.
She never hit the water.
Her body stopped—
Hovering inches above the surface.
"Amazing work," said a voice beside her.
"You can rest now. Leave the rest to the others."
Shirin forced her eyes open with the last strength left in her.
Velara.
She stood beside her, smiling softly, leaning slightly toward her.
"Your existence is in good hands," said Velara.
"My father sent me. So don't worry."
(Father… who even is that?) said Shirin internally.
She didn't have the strength to speak aloud.
Her consciousness faded.
Her magical power had dropped too low.
Her body automatically entered sleep mode—
Recovering from opening the "Undead Realm Of Vampires".
Velara straightened up.
"Take her to the hospital," said Velara calmly.
"Understood," said three gorgeous girls dressed in micro-skirt doctor uniforms.
They immediately moved to Shirin's side.
Velara looked up at the sky.
The gentle expression she wore vanished.
Her eyes turned serious.
(Father… seems to be doing well,) said Velara internally.
Velara belonged to the Serivans — the first daughters Haruto created.
Their bond with their creator ran deep.
They could sense his well-being.
His emotions.
Even danger.
"Please be safe, Father," said Velara softly.
She turned toward a portal that opened before her.
The three nurses stepped through with Shirin in their arms.
Velara followed.
The portal closed behind them—
Like a jacket being zipped shut.
On the planet below—
Chatzkel and his army clashed with Viro's forces.
The Beastmen were being driven back.
The Angel of God army had multiplied—
reinforcements descending in endless waves.
Numbers alone began to suffocate the battlefield.
Bright lay in a massive crater carved into the side of a mountain.
Smoke rose around him.
His body wouldn't respond.
Clothes torn.
Blood staining the stone.
He tilted his head back slowly.
Light was descending.
Bright had lost.
He couldn't even stand.
All he could do was watch.
Light landed softly before him.
He extended an open palm downward.
Golden energy condensed into a dense sphere—
pure, silent, lethal.
Light's expression carried certainty.
There was no future where Bright survived this.
(Oh shit…)
Bright panicked internally.
(This is it. I'm actually going to die.)
Point-blank.
No escape.
No defense.
"Farewell—"
The blast should have fired.
Instead—
The golden sphere burst apart like fragile bubbles.
Light froze.
His eyes widened.
Color drained from his irises.
He stumbled backward.
Then—
His body collapsed.
On impact, it disintegrated—
spiraling upward into ash.
Gone.
No rewind.
No reset.
No return point.
Even his existence failed to revert.
This was the work of the highest authority—
Ultimate Skill: "Thanotós Sovereignty"
Death, absolute.
Bright blinked.
"What the fuck…?" he muttered, one eye narrowing in disbelief.
Footsteps approached from behind.
Soft. Measured.
They stopped beside him.
Bright turned his head slightly.
Velara stood there, framed by drifting dust.
"Where are your manners?" she asked calmly.
A faint blush crept
across Bright's face.
Not from fear.
From her presence.
He opened his mouth—
Nothing came out.
Her beauty short-circuited his brain.
"You're not beyond healing," Velara said gently.
She lowered gracefully to one knee.
With careful hands, she lifted his head just enough and pressed a blood-red vial to his lips.
"Drink."
Bright obeyed.
Warmth surged through him instantly.
If he had to die—
He wouldn't have minded dying like this.
For him—
This was love at first sight.
Light's death?
Already forgotten.
A red glow pulsed across Bright's body.
Wounds sealed.
Bones reknit.
Energy restored.
In seconds—
He was whole.
Velara stood.
Bright rose with her.
She stepped back, creating distance.
"My work here is done," she said, turning toward a forming portal.
"I'll be leaving."
She paused at its edge.
"M–Miss!" Bright called out nervously.
Velara glanced over her shoulder, mild confusion in her eyes.
"Can I… have your name?"
His fists tightened at his sides.
Building courage.
"My name?" she repeated softly.
"It's Velara."
A brief pause.
"Velara Satoru."
(Velara… Satoru…)
Bright repeated internally.
The surname struck something in his memory—
But before he could ask—
She stepped through.
The portal closed.
Sunlight returned.
Bright stood there in silence.
Then exhaled slowly.
"…Damn it."
Opportunity lost.
Meanwhile—
Velara was already light-years away.
Moving across
the universe in seconds.
Healing the wounded.
Stabilizing collapsing fronts.
Bright?
She had already forgotten him.
In the distance—
Noah straddled Divine's body.
And kept punching.
Again.
And again.
And again.
There was no resistance left.
Divine's body convulsed weakly beneath each impact, shockwaves running through limp flesh.
Blood splattered across Noah's face.
Across his arms.
His hands were soaked red.
Divine's face had caved inward.
Bone exposed.
Fragments of skull visible.
Brain matter crushed beneath Noah's knuckles.
One eye had burst from its socket—
dangling at the side of his ruined head, still attached by torn flesh.
Noah stopped.
Silence fell.
He rose slowly from the corpse.
There was
no mistaking it.
Divine was dead.
A brutal death.
Noah kicked the body aside
like discarded trash.
"You're done already?" Bright's voice called out.
Bright approached from behind, hands in his pockets, a faint smile on his face.
"The same goes for you," Noah replied, turning around, resting a hand on his hip.
Bright didn't answer
immediately.
He looked down.
Then up.
Into the sky.
Countless shattered
planets drifted above—
broken worlds still burning in orbit.
"…No," Bright said softly.
Noah followed
his gaze.
"I see…" he murmured.
Chatzkel and Viro's battle no longer belonged to a single world.
One planet wasn't durable enough to withstand them.
They moved across galaxies—
colliding in orbit,
vanishing,
reappearing—
Until they landed on a
flame-covered world.
The planet burned endlessly.
Exploding lava seas.
Magma rivers tearing through cracked mountains.
Volcanic skies choked in ash.
Chatzkel lunged first.
A sharp, compressed fist tore through the air toward Viro's head.
Viro raised his forearm calmly—
Redirected it.
Effortless.
The impact split the magma
ocean behind him.
In the same motion, Viro's fist drove into Chatzkel's abdomen.
The force lifted Chatzkel's muscular frame clean off the ground—
shockwaves ripping through the volcanic crust.
Chatzkel exhaled sharply—
Then hammered a fist downward.
Viro vanished backward, boots skidding across molten rock as the strike shattered the land where he'd stood.
Then—
Something changed.
Above them, countless white beams began flowing across the planet's sky.
They converged upward—
into a single pillar of white light piercing endlessly into space.
Both stopped.
Slowly turning toward it.
For a moment—
They forgot the battle.
That beam…
It wasn't random.
It was Axiom.
The light intensified.
Space trembled.
Then—
Viro's body jerked violently.
He was seized.
Pulled upward against his will—
Dragged into the same ascending beam racing toward the source of that white light.
Haruto stood before the pillar of white radiance.
It pierced through infinite space—
a beam stretching beyond sight, beyond measurement.
The light wasn't expanding.
It was ascending.
(…Fuck.)
Haruto's jaw tightened.
(The one time I try to show restraint… it gets thrown back in my face like garbage.)
He exhaled slowly.
Kindness.
Mercy.
All it had done was give his enemy time.
He understood it now.
A good heart, in war, was just hesitation wearing a noble mask.
Space folded.
Haruto teleported.
He reappeared on the edge of a mountain cliff.
A vast forest stretched behind him, illuminated by the white radiance spilling across the horizon.
The sky glowed unnaturally bright.
"Seraphina," Haruto said calmly, eyes still on the beam.
"Wasn't the fusion supposed to take much longer?"
『That is correct.』
Her voice resonated within him.
『The time cap was removed by an external force. Most likely originating from Subject Axiom's universe — Universe 001.』
Haruto's eyes darkened slightly.
"I should've killed him on the spot," he said coldly.
"No delay. No conversation."
A pause.
"Phase II," he continued. "Define it."
Seraphina responded instantly.
『Phase II marks the stage where an entity begins exerting direct influence over reality.』
『At this level, universal constants may be manipulated. Governing laws can be altered. Space itself may be overwritten.』
A brief silence.
Then—
『However, Master—understand this clearly. They are not yet integrated with the universe itself.』
Haruto's gaze sharpened.
So.
He could rewrite.
But he was still separate.
Light beams spiraled inward from every direction, feeding the central radiance.
Stars bent.
Galaxies tilted.
Energy streamed like rivers into the core.
Then—
Detonation.
The white mass erupted.
A blinding expansion swallowed countless galaxies in an instant.
Within the fading light—
Figures emerged.
Countless.
Wings unfurled across the void—vast, radiant, layered in white-gold flame.
An army reborn.
At the forefront stood one above them all.
Six wings.
Three on each side.
Still.
Commanding.
Absolute.
Axiom.
Haruto looked up at them, eyes steady.
Understanding settled instantly.
They had evolved.
Not just restored—
Elevated.
Below, fallen angelic forces reappeared across the battlefield.
Bodies reformed.
Halos reignited.
Resurrection.
Even Divine returned.
But not Light.
There was no need for explanation.
Ultimate Skill: "Thanotós Sovereignty"
Death under its authority was absolute.
It ignored revival.
Denied reversal.
Living up to its name as the strongest.
The sky trembled again.
Portals opened around Haruto—
layered.
Precise.
Below the cliff, against the mountain wall, one portal split open.
Hrachya stepped through.
Her presence sharp.
Measured.
Behind her marched her soldiers in perfect formation—
golden armor gleaming, discipline radiating from every synchronized step.
Another portal opened.
Felicia emerged.
Silver armor wrapped her forces—
sleek.
Minimal.
Revealing more than concealing.
Curved.
Lethal.
They were all women.
Another tear in space—
Chatzkel's remaining soldiers arrived, stepping out in silence, eyes already locked onto the sky.
The battlefield was reforming.
Lines being drawn.
Haruto watched the six-winged figure above.
(Guess it's time…)
he thought calmly.
(To send my spiders into the war.)
He had prepared for this.
Every branch.
Every escalation.
This wasn't reaction.
It was design.
The air thickened.
Above—Angels reborn.
Below—Forces assembled.
And at the center—
Haruto lifted his gaze.
The next phase of war began.