Blue-white threads of radiant light spread across the battlefield.
The frozen wasteland fell silent.
Ellie's sword trembled as endless streams of mana poured into its blade. Ancient patterns spread beneath her feet like a living scripture being etched across the snow. Every line pulsed with divine radiance before extending farther and farther until they formed an enormous circle that engulfed the battlefield.
Thousands of glowing particles drifted upward like feathers ascending toward the heavens.
Then—
The world disappeared.
White consumed everything.
Not snow.
Not light.
A boundless white void.
The mountains vanished.
The sky vanished.
Even the howling wind ceased to exist.
Only Ellie...
And the six Emperors remained.
Kai's pupils contracted.
"...A Divine Art."
For the first time since the battle began...
None of them moved.
Not because they feared death.
Because they understood exactly what stood before them.
Throughout history, countless warriors had mastered weapons.
Others had mastered mana.
Some had bent the elements themselves to their will.
Yet above every sword technique...
Above every spell...
Above every forbidden art...
There existed a realm reserved only for those who had reached the absolute limits of themselves.
Divine Arts.
They were not techniques.
They were not spells.
They were manifestations of one's very existence.
A Divine Art was born when a warrior's soul, abilities, mana, and unwavering conviction fused into a single perfect expression.
It was the ultimate declaration of who they were.
Not everyone could awaken one.
Many spent centuries searching.
Many died trying.
Some destroyed themselves the instant they attempted to invoke one.
History had proven a cruel truth.
Nearly eighty percent of the strongest awakeners would never awaken a Divine Art.
Only a rare few possessed both the talent and the resolve to manifest one.
Even among those who succeeded...
Mastering it completely was another matter entirely.
A perfected Divine Art transformed the battlefield itself.
It forced reality to obey its creator.
That was why every Emperor possessed one.
Every Divine Contractor possessed one.
In the modern age...
Only a handful of beings in the entire world could even dream of reaching such a level.
And now...
Ellie stood among them.
Her eyes slowly opened.
Within their blue depths...
Countless threads of fate shimmered.
"I see you."
The words were quiet.
Yet they echoed across the endless white world.
The Divine Art had begun.
Kai clenched his flaming fists.
"Attack together!"
The six Emperors exploded forward.
Lightning.
Flames.
Water.
Authority.
Verdancy.
strength.
Six overwhelming powers erupted at once.
The white void trembled.
Ellie didn't move.
She simply watched.
The instant the attacks entered her Divine Art...
Everything slowed.
Every mana current became visible.
Every heartbeat echoed.
Every intention appeared before it became action.
Thousands of translucent threads spread outward from every Emperor, branching into countless possible futures.
Some ended in victory.
Some in defeat.
Some in death.
Ellie saw them all.
She took one quiet step.
Raizen's spear missed by less than an inch.
Another step.
Kai's blazing fist punched through empty space.
A slight turn of her wrist.
Nerissa's little wave split harmlessly around her now she has no more water to use.
She wasn't becoming faster.
She already knew where every attack would land before it existed.
Inside Celestial Ruin, fate itself whispered its secrets to her.
The six Emperors realized the horrifying truth almost immediately.
They weren't fighting Ellie anymore.
They were fighting someone who had already witnessed the outcome of every strike they made.
For the first time...
The hunters had become the ones being read.
Kai's confident grin vanished.
"...I hate your Divine Art."
Ellie raised her sword.
The feathers of light circling the void suddenly changed direction.
Instead of drifting upward...
They descended.
Every feather that touched an Emperor became another radiant thread wrapped around their movements.
Not enough to restrain them.
Only enough...
To reveal them.
Every heartbeat.
Every breath.
Every shift in muscle.
Every flow of mana.
Everything was reflected back to Ellie like echoes across heaven itself.
Nothing inside Celestial Ruin could hide from its creator.
And for the first time in the battle...
The six Emperors hesitated.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
None of them moved.
The white void remained perfectly silent.
Blue-white threads of fate drifted through the endless space like rivers of starlight. Every thread connected to another, weaving an incomprehensible web around Ellie.
She stood at its center.
Motionless.
Calm.
Watching.
Her blue eyes glowed brighter than before.
She wasn't looking at the Emperors anymore.
She was looking beyond them.
She was watching every future they could possibly create.
Kai slowly tightened his fists.
"...She's reading us."
Caelus' expression darkened.
"No..."
His black eyes followed the countless glowing threads surrounding Ellie.
"...She's reading the future itself."
Silence.
Then—
Raizen laughed.
"Hah!"
"So what?!"
Lightning erupted around him.
"If she can see one future..."
His grin widened.
"I'll make a thousand!"
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The Emperor of Storms vanished.
Lightning exploded throughout the Divine Art.
One became ten.
Ten became a hundred.
Hundreds became thousands.
Afterimages filled the white void from every direction.
Every clone carried killing intent.
Every spear strike aimed for Ellie's life.
Kai moved.
Orange flames swallowed half the battlefield.
Nerissa stood there with Sylvara.
Darius ran to Ellie.
Caelus watched.
The Divine Art trembled.
Then...
Ellie moved.
One step.
Nothing more.
Raizen's first spear missed.
Not because she dodged.
Because she had already been standing where the spear would never reach.
His eyes widened.
"What—"
A second thrust.
Missed.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Every attack struck empty space.
Ellie wasn't reacting.
She was arriving before the attacks existed.
Blue-white threads shifted around her feet.
Each movement looked effortless.
Like someone calmly walking through falling rain.
Kai appeared beside her.
His flaming fist descended with enough force to split a mountain.
Ellie tilted her head.
His fist brushed past a strand of blonde hair.
Nothing more.
Kai's pupils shrank.
Impossible...
No one dodges that perfectly.
Ellie quietly whispered,
"I already watched you swing."
CRACK.
Her palm struck Kai's wrist.
Not hard.
Just enough.
His stance slipped off course and stumbled.
He collided with Darius' incoming punch.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
Flames and raw strength exploded together.
The two Emperors were thrown apart.
"Watch where you're swinging!"
Kai gritted his bloody teeth.
Before either could recover—
Ellie closed her eyes.
And used sacred push and pushed them all in the other empoers making them all on top of each other.
Caelus clenched his jaw.
"This is ridiculous."
His Authority exploded.
The invisible pressure increased a hundredfold.
The Divine Art shook violently.
"Let's see you predict this!"
The air itself attempted to crush Ellie.
Mountains of pressure descended upon her.
For the first time—
Ellie stopped.
Kai smiled.
"Got her."
Ellie slowly closed and opened her glowing eyes.
"No."
Blue threads suddenly erupted beneath Caelus' feet.
The Authority...
Turned back on its owner.
CRAAAAACK!!
Caelus dropped to one knee.
Blood burst from his mouth.
"...Impossible..."
Ellie had woven his own Authority into the Divine Art.
Inside Celestial Ruin...
Every action left behind a thread.
Every thread could be echoed.
Every echo could become fate.
Within this world...
Nothing happened only once.
Kai finally understood.
"...She's making our own attacks repeat."
Ellie answered softly,
"Everything leaves an echo."
"Every choice."
"Every mistake."
"Every future."
"And inside my Divine Art..."
"They all belong to me."
Silence.
Then the battle resumed.
Kai roared.
Flames erupted.
Raizen became lightning itself.
Darius ran to Ellie again.
And...
Yet...
Not one attack touched Ellie.
Every attack missed by inches.
Every overwhelming attack became another thread Ellie quietly redirected.
Minutes passed.
Then dozens.
The Divine Art consumed enormous amounts of mana.
Sweat rolled down Kai's forehead.
His breathing became heavier.
Raizen's lightning flickered.
Darius' punches lost their explosive force.
Even Caelus' died to his own ability.
Only Ellie remained calm.
She wasn't overpowering them.
She was exhausting them.
Making them waste everything.
One future after another.
Until only one remained.
Finally—
BOOM.
Kai staggered backward.
Panting.
Raizen dropped to one knee.
"...Damn..."
Nerissa started to shake.
Sylvara's breathing had become ragged.
Darius rested one fist against the ground.
Caelus laying dead on the void ground.
Every Emperor had been pushed to their limit.
None had landed...
A single hit.
Silence returned.
Only their heavy breathing echoed through the white void.
Ellie lowered her sword slightly.
Her own breathing wasn't steady anymore.
Maintaining Celestial Ruin was draining her as well.
Her vision blurred for a brief moment.
Hold on...
Just a little longer...
"Seraphina..."
"You have to come back..."
Kai suddenly laughed.
A tired...
Broken laugh.
"Heh..."
Then louder.
"Hahahaha..."
Ellie frowned.
Kai looked up at her, blood running from the corner of his mouth.
"You really think..."
He laughed again.
"...Lucifer is going to lose to Seraphina?"
Silence.
The words hung heavily in the white void.
For just a heartbeat...
Ellie's heart tightened.
Then...
She smiled.
Not confidently.
Not arrogantly.
Simply...
Certain.
"Yes."
Kai's smile slowly disappeared.
"...Why?"
Ellie's glowing eyes shifted toward the endless white horizon of the Divine Art.
She could feel it.
A presence.
Ancient.
Overwhelming.
Rapidly approaching.
It wasn't Seraphina.
It was someone else.
Someone whose mana made even the Divine Art itself gently ripple.
Ellie's smile widened.
"...Because..."
She whispered.
"She's going to have help killing Lucifer."
The six Emperors froze.
Kai's eyes narrowed.
"...What..."
He slowly stood despite his exhaustion.
"...What do you mean?"
"There a man who has arrived who is going to kill him."
Kai laughed again.
"Ellie do you really think their a monster who is capable of killing Lucifer?"
Ellie stared at kai for a minute and then spoke in a calm soft voice.
"One abomination comes to my mind."
Kai smiled.
"One?"
"and who is this abomination?"
Far away...
The sky above the northern mountains had turned black.
Lucifer's wings carved through the storm as he dragged Seraphina across the sky before hurling her downward.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
She crashed into the face of a frozen mountain.
The entire cliffside collapsed.
Countless tons of stone and ice buried her beneath the avalanche.
For several seconds...
Nothing moved.
Then—
CRACK...
A pale hand pushed through the rubble.
Seraphina forced herself onto one knee.
Blood trickled from the corner of her lips.
Her breathing was uneven.
The fingers on her sword hand trembled uncontrollably.
"...Damn..."
Her vision blurred.
She could barely keep her eyes open.
A shadow slowly fell over her.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Lucifer descended from the sky with slow, deliberate steps.
His wings disappeared.
Black flames danced lazily around his body.
Each step caused the frozen ground to decay into black ash.
He stopped only a few feet away.
His emotionless eyes looked down at her.
"I never liked you."
Seraphina slowly looked up.
Lucifer's expression never changed.
"Ever since the Divine Contractors chose you to become one of the Nine Emperors..."
"They praised your talent."
"They praised your heart."
"They praised your potential."
His lips curled into a faint smile.
"...It disgusted me."
Seraphina tried to stand.
Her legs gave out.
Lucifer sighed.
"You've already lost."
He slowly raised one hand toward the heavens.
Black flames gathered above his palm.
The surrounding light began disappearing.
The snow.
The wind.
Everything was swallowed by the darkness growing in his hand.
The air itself began dying.
Seraphina's instincts screamed.
Every fiber of her being begged her to run.
She couldn't.
Lucifer looked down at her one final time.
"...Now die."
The black flames condensed into a single sphere no larger than an apple.
Yet the mana within it felt endless.
"Black Death."
He brought his hand down.
Then—
A cold wind swept across the mountains.
...
Lucifer froze.
The black flames flickered.
The wind...
Didn't feel natural.
It wasn't cold enough to freeze flesh.
It was something far worse.
It felt...
Ancient.
Like something that had been asleep for thousands of years...
Had been awakened or something.
The mountains fell silent.
Lucifer's pupils narrowed.
"..."
Someone...
Was behind him.
A broken whisper drifted into his ear.
"So..."
The voice sounded hoarse.
Almost inhuman.
"...what the hell..."
Lucifer slowly turned around.
"...do you think you're doing?"
For the first time in centuries...
Shock appeared on Lucifer's face.
Standing only a few steps away...
Was a lone man.
Long, messy black hair swayed gently in the frozen wind.
His black robe fluttered around him.
His head remained lowered.
His face was hidden beneath strands of hair.
Dark red-black mana leaked from his body like smoke.
Lucifer unconsciously took half a step backward.
---
Far away...
Inside the white void of Divine Art: Celestial Ruin...
Kai's eyes narrowed.
"..who is this abomination?"
Ellie smiled.
"You don't know him."
Kai frowned.
"...What?"
Ellie's blue-white eyes reflected countless threads of fate.
"But the Divine Contractors..."
A faint laugh escaped her lips.
"...know him very well."
Kai's expression hardened.
"...Who?"
Ellie slowly raised her sword once more.
Her voice echoed throughout the white world.
"His name is..."
Silence.
Then—
"...Ernydor."
---
Far around the world...
Three divine contractors sat upon their thrones.
The moment that name echoed through existence—
Their eyes snapped open.
One contractor's hand tightened around the armrest of his throne.
Another slowly rose to his feet.
The third...
Simply stared into the distance.
"..."
"...He's back...."
The words barely escaped his lips.
For the first time in countless centuries...
The Divine Contractors looked afraid.