The stream shifted suddenly. The darkness resolved into the infinite cosmos. Stars and galaxies and things without names stretching to infinity in all directions.
And at the center, barely visible, A lone figure walking toward the spiral.
The infinitely spiral stairway. Infinite steps leading to... something.
Completion. Transformation. Annihilation.
The Heaven's Key pulsed in sync with my heartbeat, assuming I still had one. Drawing me forward with inexorable pull.
I tried to resist. Tried to stop.
My feet moved anyway. One step. Then another.
Walking toward the spiral as if pulled by strings I couldn't see.
No. Not yet. I need to make sure they're safe. Michael. Gabriel. Heaven. I need to—
The spiral reached out, welcoming me. Consumed my objections with absolute certainty that felt almost gentle.
"You cannot resist this. This was always inevitable. This is your destiny. You touched the power. Now pay the price. Walk the path.
Become what you were meant to be."
"No," I whispered. My voice echoing across the infinite space.
The spiral pulsed again. Harder. More insistent. My form flickered, caught between existence and non-existence.
[Flash Goddess: Kokabiel-san! Don't go toward it! Whatever that is, stop!]
I couldn't hear them anymore. Couldn't respond. Everything narrowing to the spiral and the steps and the inevitability of what came next.
I took another step onto the stairway.
And the omniverse itself shook.
*****
DxD World
The change began slowly. Almost imperceptibly at first. Then cascaded into apocalypse.
Day became night.
Not gradually. Just instant, absolute transition.
The sun which had been high in the sky, simply vanished into darkness. Replaced by endless stars. Every star in existence suddenly visible. Impossibly bright. Impossibly close.
In a small village, a farmer stared upward, his plow falling from nerveless fingers. "What... what is that?"
His wife grabbed his arm. "The sun. The sun is gone. Oh God, the sun is—"
Some scholars remembered the last time it happened. But this was even larger than last time.
Then the laws of physics broke.
Rain that had been falling stopped. Droplets froze mid-air. Hung suspended like the universe had paused.
Then they reversed. Rose back into clouds that themselves were flowing backward, unraveling into nothingness before reforming into shapes that hurt to perceive—geometries that shouldn't exist in three-dimensional space.
"The water!" someone screamed, voice cracking with terror. "The water is flowing up!"
A river nearby stopped flowing. The water gathered into perfect spheres that began rotating in patterns that made no geometric sense. Flowing in directions that didn't exist, defying every law of physics and nature.
Light itlself bent around the world.
Colors that shouldn't exist bled into reality like wounds in the visible spectrum. Humans saw shades between shades, hues that made their minds ache trying to comprehend.
Some went mad just looking, their sanity unable to process the impossible colors.
Others wept at the terrible beauty, tears streaming as their brains tried and failed to understand what their eyes were showing them.
Then time itself shattered.
In one village, people aged. Years in seconds. Children became adults. Adults became elderly. The elderly crumbled to dust, their screams cut off as they ceased to exist, having lived entire compressed lifetimes in heartbeats.
In another village, the opposite. Adults reversed to children, their bodies shrinking, memories fading. Children to infants. Infants to... nothing. Erased as they rewound past conception, past the moment of their creation.
In a third village, time simply stopped. People froze mid-motion, caught in temporal stasis. A woman's scream stuck forever in her throat. A man's hand raised eternally toward the impossible sky.
Only their eyes could see, consciousness trapped in frozen bodies, witnessing the world continue around them while they remained locked in a single eternal moment.
Gravity fluctuated wildly, randomly. A merchant watched his cart fall sideways. Then upward. Then in spirals that traced impossible paths through space. His goods scattered in directions that didn't exist, floating away into geometries that made his eyes bleed from the strain of perceiving them.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" A priest stumbled from his church, crucifix raised with trembling hands. "GOD! GOD HELP US! THE WORLD IS ENDING!"
But God was dead. And no one answered his prayers.
The stars moved. Rearranged themselves across the sky. Forming patterns. Shapes. Almost like writing in a language that existed before language was conceived.
Some humans looked at those patterns and understood—understood too much. Their minds broke under the weight of knowledge they weren't meant to possess, cosmic truths that human consciousness couldn't contain.
A mother clutched her children desperately. "Don't look at the stars! Don't look! Cover your eyes!"
But it was too late. Her eldest daughter stared upward, transfixed, unable to look away. "They're beautiful, mama. So beautiful. They're singing. Can you hear them singing?"
"What are they singing, baby?" the mother asked, voice breaking.
The girl smiled, an expression of pure bliss "The end of everything. And the beginning. Both at once. Forever and never. Always and impossible."
Her eyes began to glow with starlight, pinpricks of cosmic fire in her pupils.
The mother screamed in fear as the girl started floating, towards the sky. Towards the heavens.
She never saw her again.
*****
The Chat group members watched in horrified silence as Kokabiel took his first step onto the spiral stairway.
His body disintegrated.
Instant dissolution. His physical form scattering into particles of light that spiraled upward like burning embers.
[Warning! Chat Group member Heaven's Wrath is Dead.]
The group members went paralyzed with shock. Their strongest member dying like that was something they couldn't imagine.
[Flash Goddess: NO! ]
[Last Master of Humanity: It can't be! KOKABIEL san!]
[The Fool: Did he.... just die? So simply?]
[Shadow Monarch : That stupid angel! Why didn't he stop!]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: He's... he's gone. He just dissolved into nothing!]
But then the particles reformed. Reconstituted into a barely-humanoid shape one step higher on the spiral. The figure looked less human now. More abstract.
Features blurring.
Only to dissolve again when he took another step.
Die. Resurrect. Die. Resurrect. Over and over. Each death more complete. Each resurrection more alien.
[Warning! the stream is showing forbidden knowledge! The system will now isolate the effects of witnessing something that shouldn't be seen for members safety. System might close the stream if it becomes too dangerous.]
[Girl Who Loves Reading: @Heaven's Wrath! Respond! Can you hear us?!]
[Shadow Monarch: @Heaven's Wrath! Answer us! Please!]
[The Fool: @Heaven's Wrath! Kokabiel! Say something! Anything!]
Nothing.
The Heaven's Wrath username remained gray. Offline. No response to any message. Only the notifications from the chat group.
[Warning! Chat Group Member Heaven's Wrath is dead! ]
[Chat Group Member Heaven's Wrath has returned to life]
[Warning! Chat Group Member Heaven's Wrath is dead! ]
[Chat Group Member Heaven's Wrath has returned to life]
They could only watch helplessly as the figure that had been Kokabiel continued descending. Continued dying.
Continued transforming into something that made less sense with each step.
[Flash Goddess: This isn't fair. He survived everything. The Dragon Emperors. The entire Swarga army. Lucifer and the Satans. He WON. He should be celebrating with his siblings in Heaven, not... not THIS.]
Youruichi clenched her fists, visibly affected by what she was seeing. Her usual playful tone vanished.
[Last Master of Humanity: What even is that spiral? Where is it taking him? What's at the bottom? My head hurts from just looking.]
Ritsuka felt her mind going blank just staring at the stream. It felt like watching something that shouldn't be seen by human eyes.
[The Fool: I don't know. But I think He's becoming something fundamental to reality itself. I feel some strange resonance to it.]
Klein was the most affected. His seer powers were becoming stronger. His connection to his path growing more stable every second.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: But at what cost? Look at him! He's barely even human or angel anymore! Each step takes away more of what he was!]
Kazuma was serious for once. He didn't know what was going on, but he was concerned for Kokabiel. The somewhat humorous angel who always spoke kindly, giving wise advice to everyone. He didn't want any of them to die.
[Shadow Monarch: How is that possible? He's simultaneously growing weaker and stronger. Dying and ascending. It makes no sense!]
Sung Jin Woo closed his eyes, his mind unable to understand. He had seen the architect, a being called god. But even it paled compared to what he was seeing now. Kokabiel was becoming something more dangerous than the architect.
[Girl Who Loves Reading: Maybe it doesn't have to make sense. Maybe this is beyond our ability to understand. We're just watching something that shouldn't be possible become real.]
*****
Asgard - Realm of Norse Gods
Odin's hall shook. Not from external force, from reality itself convulsing.
The Allfather stumbled from his throne, his single eye wide with genuine terror. "The Nine Realms! They're all shaking! The World Tree itself is—"
Yggdrasil groaned. The cosmic tree that connected all of Norse reality twisted, branches bending in impossible directions.
Some branches aged millennia in seconds. Others reversed, becoming saplings. Others existed in multiple states simultaneously.
Thor burst into the hall, Mjolnir crackling with defensive lightning. "Father! What's happening?! My lightning, it's not responding right! Sometimes it's fire! Sometimes it's ice! Sometimes it's, I don't even know what it is!"
"Reality is breaking," Odin whispered. "No, Not breaking. Being rewritten. Someone or something is changing the fundamental rules."
Heimdall appeared, his all-seeing eyes actually bleeding. "Allfather! I can see... I can see too much! Every realm! Every timeline! Every possibility! It's all happening at once!
I can see the end of Asgard! I can see us surviving! I can see us never existing! It's all real!"
"Don't look!" Odin commanded. "Close your eyes or you'll go mad!"
But Heimdall couldn't look away. Couldn't close his eyes. His power forced him to witness everything. All of it. Forever.
He started screaming in pain as blood flowed from his eyes.
Frigga rushed in, her magic flaring as she tried to put Heimdall into forced sleep. "What power could do this?! What being?!"
Thor had to knock Heimdall unconcious before he went mad.
Odin sank into his throne. For the first time in eons, he looked old. Actually old. "A power beyond gods. Beyond primordials. Something that exists on a level we can't comprehend."
Thor gripped Mjolnir tighter. "Then we fight it. We—"
"We do nothing," Odin interrupted quietly. "Because we can't fight concepts, my son. We can't fight the rewriting of existence itself. All we can do is hope that whatever is being born... has mercy."
The hall shook again. Outside, they could hear Asgardian warriors screaming as their bodies flickered between states. Alive. Dead. Never born. All simultaneously.
Ragnarok had been a fear. A prophecy of an ending.
This was worse. This was an ending and a beginning and an eternal middle all happening at once.
Olympus - Realm of Greek Gods
Zeus stood on his balcony, lightning dying in his hands.
His lightning; his fundamental authority, his divine power, was flickering. Sometimes it was lightning. Sometimes it was water. Sometimes it was concepts he had no names for.
"No," he whispered. "No no no. This can't be happening."
Apollo stumbled onto the balcony, his golden skin pale. "Father! The sun! MY sun! It's gone! I can't feel my domain! It's like someone reached into my chest and ripped out my—"
He collapsed, clutching his chest. Divine essence leaked from his eyes like tears.
Artemis appeared, supporting her brother. "The moon is gone too. All celestial bodies replaced by... by those stars." She pointed at the star-filled sky with shaking hands. "What are they?"
"Stars," Athena said quietly, appearing beside them. Her eyes reflected the impossible cosmos above. "All of them. Every star in existence made visible at once. It's... beautiful."
"Beautiful?!" Zeus rounded on her. "Reality is collapsing and you call it beautiful?!"
"Because it is," Athena whispered. "Terrible. Apocalyptic. But beautiful. The kind of beauty that breaks your heart because you know you shouldn't witness it."
Hera appeared, her regal composure shattered. "Zeus. The Titans. They're stirring. The barriers holding them are fluctuating. Sometimes they're sealed. Sometimes they're free. Sometimes they exist in both states. If they realize..."
The entire realm shook. Not an earthquake. Reality hiccupping. For a moment, Olympus didn't exist. Then it did. Then it existed in multiple places simultaneously.
Hades emerged from a shadow, his face grim. "The Underworld is in chaos. The dead are becoming living. The living are becoming dead. Charon doesn't know who to ferry anymore because everyone exists in all states simultaneously."
Poseidon materialized from water that had no source. "The oceans are flowing in every direction at once. I can't control them. My authority means nothing when water decides gravity is optional."
Zeus looked at his pantheon. His family. All of them showing genuine fear for the first time in millennia.
"What do we do?" Aphrodite whispered. "What CAN we do?"
Zeus had no answer. The King of Olympus, who'd overthrown his father, who'd defeated the Titans, who'd ruled for eons...
Had no answer.
Athena looked at the stars. And in them, she saw patterns. Recognized something. Someone.
"Kokabiel," she whispered. "This is coming from him. He's... changing. Becoming something else."
"Can he be stopped?" Zeus demanded.
Athena met his eyes. "Who would want to stop the birth of a new type of existence? Whatever he's becoming... it's beyond all of us. All we can do is witness. And hope."
She whispered softly. "Please be safe, Kokabiel."
The stars pulsed. Olympus shook again.
And the gods huddled together like frightened children.
Heliopolis - Egyptian Realm
Ra sat on his divine barque, perfectly still. The ancient god who'd sailed the heavens since before memory watched the cosmos transform.
Around him, younger gods panicked. Shouted. Osiris demanded explanations. Set asked to go and find whatever was causing this.
Ra said nothing. Just watched. And smiled.
"Grandfather?" Horus knelt beside him, concern overriding protocol. "What's happening? Your domain, the sun itself, it's gone. How can you smile?"
Ra's ancient eyes reflected the impossible stars. "I am old, Horus. So very old. I have witnessed the birth of civilization. Watched kingdoms rise and fall. Seen gods born and gods die."
"Grandfather, please—"
"And I am glad," Ra continued softly. "Glad that I lived long enough to see this. To witness something I never thought possible."
"What?" Horus asked desperately. "What is it?"
Ra's smile widened. "The birth of something eternal. Something that will exist after all of us—all gods, all mortals, all of creation, have turned to dust. I am watching the emergence of a fundamental force. And it is beautiful."
Isis appeared, her magic frantically trying to stabilize the realm. "Ra! If you know what this is, help us! We're losing cohesion! The realm is—"
"Let it be," Ra said peacefully. "You cannot fight this. Cannot resist it. Just witness. That is privilege enough."
Thoth stumbled forward, his infinite libraries crumbling behind him. "My knowledge! Everything I've recorded! It's all changing! History is rewriting itself! Multiple timelines existing simultaneously! How do I record what has no single truth?!"
Set snapped, his chaos magic going haywire. For once, the god of chaos looked terrified. "This isn't chaos! This is something else! This is—"
Ra smiled as he looked away from them. "The universe is taking the next step. And we are blessed to witness it."
The stars pulsed. The realm shook.
Ra closed his eyes. His smile never wavered.
"Thank you," he whispered to the cosmos. "For letting me see this before I fade."
Swarga - Hindu Realm
The Trimurti materialized in the central palace simultaneously.
Brahma the Creator. Vishnu the Preserver. Shiva the Destroyer. Three aspects of the supreme reality itself. Three beings who, together, governed all of Hindu cosmology.
And all three looked concerned.
"Indra, that fool!" Brahma said grimly. "He attacked the biblical faction without our consent. And by doing so, he awakened something that should have remained sleeping."
Vishnu's thousand eyes opened all at once, each one perceiving different timelines. "No. Not awakened. Birthed. Something is being born. And across all my visions, all possible futures, I see the same thing."
"What?" Shiva demanded, his third eye still closed but straining to open.
"Change," Vishnu whispered. "Absolute fundamental change. The universe as we know it... this is the end of an age."
Shiva's third eye opened. The eye that could destroy concepts. The eye that had destroyed demons and gods alike.
He looked at the transformed cosmos. At the impossible stars. At the spiral of infinity that was barely visible at the edge of perception.
And he closed it immediately, breathing hard.
"That... that thing. If I tried to destroy it, my destruction would be destroyed. It exists on a level beyond even our authorities."
"We need to stop it," Brahma said. "Before it—"
"We can't," Vishnu interrupted quietly. "I've seen every possibility. Every timeline. In none of them do we succeed in stopping this.
In most, we die trying. In the few where we survive... we do so by not interfering."
"So we do nothing?" Brahma demanded. "Watch as reality itself is rewritten?"
"We adapt," Vishnu said. "Whatever emerges from this... we must be prepared to exist alongside it. Or not exist at all."
Shiva opened his regular eyes. "What about Indra?"
They felt it. The King of Gods, being defeated utterly.
"He caused this, it's his sin to bear. " Vishnu said quietly. "I've seen what happens if we don't intervene. His life will be spared at the plea of a brother, only wounds shall remain that might never heal.
And this being will spare him only to deliver a message."
"What message?" Brahma asked.
Vishnu smiled grimly. "Don't interfere. Don't challenge. Or next time, there will be no mercy."
The three aspects of supreme reality looked at each other. And, for the first time in creation, found themselves helpless.
Dimensional Gap
Ophis and Great Red stood facing each other, their eternal battle forgotten.
Two Dragon Gods. The Infinite and the Dreamer. The Ouroboros Dragon and the Dragon of Dreams.
And both were stunned for the first time in their long lives.
"Something incredible is being born," Ophis said quietly. Her voice, usually emotionless, carried a note of something almost like wonder. "Something that makes even my infinity feel... small."
Great Red's massive form rippled with agitation. "My dreams show nothing. Every path forward, every possibility, leads to the same thing, erasure. If that being fully manifests, even my dreams will cease to exist."
"Then we should try to stop it," Ophis said.
"The world itself will be gone otherwise," Great Red agreed.
Two beings who'd fought since the creation of their world moved as one toward the source of the disturbance.
They crossed dimensional boundaries. Passed through reality layers. Approached the Underworld where the power emanated from.
And stopped.
The spiral. The infinite pathway. They could see it now, manifested in reality.
And walking up those stairs, disintegrating with each step yet somehow becoming more, was a figure they barely recognized.
"That's..." Great Red trailed off. "That used to be an angel I believe. I felt him before when he slayed Ddraig and Albion."
"Not anymore," Ophis said. "Look at him. He's transcending. Becoming something else. Something that exists outside normal existence."
They watched. And despite their godlike power, despite their ability to shape reality itself, neither moved to interfere.
Because they understood Instinctively.
If they tried to stop this, they would fail. And in failing, would cease to exist.
So they just watched. And trembled.
****
Some of the comments honestly pissed me off. It's not even 20 chapters yet some assumed they know what I will write and got mad with their own assumptions.
Some just didn't understand the plot and importance of some of it. I guess they forgot the first line of the story description.
I did say ai was used for refining, and I'm trying to cut down and edit as much possible, but solely focusing on the negatives doesn't make you a critic. I try to improve based on feedback, but some are just... Horrible.
Critics see both good and bad, and when someone never has anything good to say and only points flaws everywhere, I don't consider them a fan of reading at all. I am not perfect, neither are you. We all trying to do our best.
Some are just pure hate Comments and self projecting their personal lives.
If you hate it so much and can't wait till even the Begining arc to end before you start bashing a story, I can't help you. My head is still killing me but I came to post this chapter , then saw this.
Honestly, I realized yet again why I considered leaving this place multiple times before.
Sigh.