Time fractured. Or maybe it was merely perception. The anomaly—a breach that refused to be contained by any law or layer of reality—shifted and pulsed across the Mega-Cosmology. Entire multiverses trembled, yet Ren Kai remained motionless, sealed within his fifteen-year-old vessel.
And yet, his presence was absolute.
Where the anomaly reached, existence itself questioned its stability. Stars froze mid-explosion. Universes blinked into non-being and back in a rhythm dictated by… nothing but the anomaly's will.
The anomaly's voice echoed: "Why do you resist? You are sealed. You should not be here."
Ren Kai's awareness extended effortlessly, scanning the anomaly like one examines a fragile crystal. He did not speak aloud; words were unnecessary.
"I do not resist," he thought. "I merely exist. And existence itself cannot be undone by what has no foundation."
A wave of impossible energy radiated from the breach, reshaping probability and narrative alike. Time loops twisted, logic dissolved, and yet… Ren Kai's step, though unseen, stabilized everything in an instant. The anomaly flickered—not with pain, but with surprise.
It tried to act. Forms collapsed, equations unraveled, stories snapped in half. All of this should have overwhelmed him.
And yet, a single thought from Ren Kai—a mere consideration, a quiet acknowledgment—was enough to erase the threat of collapse before it even began.
The anomaly recoiled. Not in fear, but in recognition. "You… are different. You do not behave as anything should."
Ren Kai's awareness stretched outward, touching all layers of the Mega-Cosmology. Even sealed, he could perceive the Supreme Point / Monad, the Absolute, the Narrative Layer, and the Ultimate Ensemble.
"Every layer of reality bends toward me," he observed calmly.
"Every story, every law, every possibility… is already mine to understand."
The anomaly hesitated. It tried to vanish into non-existence, to slip beyond the bounds of perception. But even its retreat was calculated according to Ren Kai's awareness. Wherever it tried to hide, he already knew, already understood, already integrated its impossibility into his sealed yet omnipresent mind.
"I do not need to act," he thought, and the anomaly—which should have been unstoppable—simply ceased to interact. Not destroyed, not captured, not changed.
It merely… existed differently, as though the universe itself had quietly adjusted its rules to accommodate Ren Kai.
A truth settled over the multiverse: some constants cannot be challenged. Some presences are inevitable.
And as the anomaly lingered, uncertain, the cosmos whispered once more:
"Ren Kai… even sealed, is the axis upon which infinity turns."
A calm settled. The first confrontation had ended before it even began. The anomaly had been tested… and the constant had prevailed.
But deep in the folds of all that is and could be, the question remained:
What happens when the seal finally ends?