Raditz opened his eyes, feeling as though he had woken up in a different reality entirely. His mind was heavy, laden with a supernatural fatigue, but a voice inside told him he couldn't afford to sleep.
He looked around.
He was surrounded by the flames of war. Boundless starlight illuminated the sky with blinding intensity, while the chaos of heaven and earth shook the very pillars of creation. Firestorms rose from the ground to the zenith. He was surrounded by the same massive stone pillars he had seen with Zamasu, but they were different—ancient, yes, but majestic, holy, and untouched by the decay of eons.
Wait... wasn't I just in the ruins with Zamasu? Raditz thought, disoriented. Why... why is everything in chaos?
Suddenly, the sky screamed.
Raditz looked up and gasped. He saw them—the Gods of Destruction and the Supreme Kais! But not just the ones he knew. There were dozens of them, working in perfect synchronization to fight against a tide of darkness. Terrifying giant beasts, creatures of pure shadow and bone, flew in swarms across the sky. Their skeletal wings beat against the atmosphere, causing the air to explode with transparent shockwaves that shattered the ground below.
Raditz realized with a start that he was indeed at the Ancient Ruins, but not in the present time.
This is the ancient past.
He looked around frantically, but no one paid him any attention. He was a phantom, an observer unstuck from time. He had a sinking feeling that this was a dream—or a memory etched into the location itself.
The astonishment hadn't ended. A row of figures passed over his head, descending like a whirlwind of divine light. They shone like stars, their arrogance and grace impossible to hide.
Angels.
Every Angel was joining the fight!
Raditz froze. Whis had explicitly told him that Angels were bound by neutrality; they never involved themselves in combat. Yet here they were, staffs glowing, fighting with a seriousness that shook the void.
Raditz's pupils trembled, filled with boundless fear. If the Angels had to fight, that meant the situation was beyond catastrophic.
Then, he saw him.
Floating above the chaos, commanding the battlefield, was the Grand Minister.
He was not just the commander; he was the core force of the defense. For the first time, Raditz witnessed the true limit of power in the multiverse. The Grand Minister didn't need to throw punches or fire ki blasts. His hands wove through the air, manipulating the very laws of the universe. With a flick of his wrist, reality distorted, crushing the shadow beasts into nothingness.
Raditz turned his head and saw the ground piled high with corpses—unknown monsters that defied biological classification. But even as he watched, the dead monsters dissolved into dark particles, ascended to the sky, and reformed to attack the Gods again.
They had no ki signature. They felt illusory, as if non-existence had been forcibly given form.
"Continue to resist! Wait for the arrival of the Omni-King!" the Grand Minister's voice echoed across the battlefield, calm yet commanding. "We must keep these negative energies out of the interface!"
The halo behind the Grand Minister's head shone like a sun, inspiring the weary Gods to hold the line. The dark creatures, however, had a clear goal: they were rushing toward the center of the Ruins, trying to shatter the foundation of reality.
"Damn it! It would be great if we could actually kill them!" a God of Destruction shouted, wiping purple blood from his lip. "These damned negative energies keep coming back!" Even Hakai could only temporarily restrain the monsters formed from the void.
"Do not complain," the Grand Minister chided gently, though his eyes were sharp. "Where there is righteousness, there will be evil. This is the fundamental rule of the cosmos. Even Lord Zeno cannot violate the balance."
"We can only wait for Lord Zeno to perform the Great Seal."
Light of every color exploded across the horizon. The attacks roared like thunder, wiping out all matter in their path, leaving nothing but the vast, indestructible floor of the Ruins.
Listening to their conversation, Raditz began to understand.
As he had suspected, this multiverse existed in a state of duality. No matter how time and space changed, there was always a Positive and a Negative. The Positive side was the living multiverse they inhabited. The Negative side was the sealed dimension—the dumping ground for the entropy and malice of existence. The Demon Realm was likely just a small pocket of life bred within that darkness.
And here—the Ancient Ruins—was the dividing line. The dam holding back the ocean of nothingness.
Light collided with darkness. Countless phantoms and translucent rays shot through the earth and sky. Invisible blades split the ground. An ocean of darkness struck from afar, dimming the stars, as ferocious, roaring skeletons emerged from the dark sea.
"It is too late!" The Grand Minister looked at the crumbling surroundings. The structural integrity of the Ruins was failing. The barrier couldn't withstand more impacts.
If the negative energy broke through, the result would be total annihilation. Not death, but erasure.
Raditz's heart beat like a drum. Although he was not physically experiencing the battle, the oppressive atmosphere was suffocating. Suddenly, a realization struck him as he counted the combatants.
Yes... there are eighteen!
He saw eighteen Angels. Eighteen Gods of Destruction. Eighteen Supreme Kais.
The rumors were true. There were originally eighteen universes.
Just as the line was about to break, the Omni-King appeared.
Zeno floated down, flanked by his two tall guards. He raised his small hands, and supreme power—pure, childish, and terrifying—spread outward. The light illuminated the entire dimension, dispelling the rolling darkness for a brief moment.
But even Zeno could not wipe out the negative energy out of thin air. You cannot erase "nothingness." You can only suppress it.
"Ne..." Zeno looked at the cracking barrier, his high-pitched voice thoughtful. "There's not enough material. No wonder it can't be sealed. The gap is too big... We must fill it with cosmic-level things."
Zeno turned his blank eyes toward the eighteen groups of Gods.
"It's decided. Let's use the bottom six."
"L-Lord Zeno..."
"This... this cannot be!"
The Gods of the lower-ranked universes turned pale. Terror washed over them. It was obvious what Zeno meant. He intended to use the mass and existence of six entire universes as a "sealing patch" to isolate the negative energy and restore balance.
Although it was the only way to save the remaining twelve, no one wanted to be the sacrifice.
The Grand Minister took a deep breath, his face unreadable. "There is no other way. It must be done."
The Angels of the six condemned universes looked calm. They understood their duty. They silently lowered their heads, waiting for the moment to stop functioning.
"Seal!"
Zeno squeezed his small hands into fists.
CRACK.
It wasn't an explosion. It was an implosion of reality. The matter of six universes—galaxies, stars, planets, lives, Gods of Destruction, and Supreme Kais—was instantly unraveled. They didn't just die; they became the mortar for the wall. Their existence filled the defects in the Ruins.
The annihilated energy of the six universes successfully strengthened the barrier. The negative energy vanished instantly, cut off from the Positive realm.
As for the Angels of the erased universes... they did not vanish. They were pulled toward the Great Tree, curled up into balls of light, and embedded into the branches, entering an eternal, dormant sleep.
The Gods who survived felt a wave of relief, followed immediately by a chilling fear.
The battlefield fell silent.
Raditz watched, sweating profusely. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. Zeno wiping out six universes didn't surprise him—he knew the Omni-King was capable of that. What terrified him was the reason.
The Ruins were the seal.
If Zamasu and his "Benefactor" were tampering with this place... if they were using the dormant Angels... they weren't just playing with power. They were risking the collapse of the barrier between existence and non-existence.
If the Angels were demonized, or if the seal was broken, the disaster would be irreversible. Even Zeno might not be able to fix it a second time.
The more he thought about it, the colder he felt.
Raditz shuddered. His vision went dark, and his body seemed to float upward, pulled away from the ancient memory.
His consciousness snapped back. This time, he really woke up, his eyes flying open in the present reality, the horror of the dream still clinging to his skin.
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