The light of everything around him melted into a chaotic sea of light before his eyes, and all the sounds in his ears were replaced by a low-frequency hum from deep within his skull.
That was not hearing, but a dimension of perception forcibly pried open, dragging his consciousness toward some indescribable place.
In the process of his soul and consciousness constantly ascending, a mass of darkness seemed to appear before his eyes. No, that was not darkness, but a "non-color" that constantly devoured itself, heavy enough to crush his chest.
The chaos began to rotate, twisting and circling in a way that defied geometric common sense, with countless ribbons of light and shadow weaving into a vortex that constantly expanded and collapsed.
In the center of the vortex, something was squirming.
He tried to see it clearly, only to find his brain strongly resisting. That thing had no fixed form, as if it were composed of light, shadow, and liquid pain. Countless limbs waved in the chaos, and every movement caused cracks to spread through his sanity.
Then, he heard a sound. It was not language, but a noise that tore directly into the soul, filled with infinite madness and indifferent Nihility.
Hail! Azathoth! "■ ■ ■ ■!"
Countless cracks opened across his body, and from those cracks grew pale bony hands, twisted tentacles, crimson eyes, and giant mouths dripping with saliva.
His body and flesh constantly twisted, mutated, and expanded, changing from the appearance of a handsome youth into a giant pillar of flesh and blood, fully ten thousand meters long, piled up from flesh.
The color of that giant pillar of flesh was impossible to describe. The moment one saw it, it was enough to overturn all previous understanding of color. It was as if a color constructed from countless rendered hues had transcended the limits of colors visible to living beings, reaching an unprecedented height.
From the countless fissures that opened on that giant pillar of flesh, some emitted low sobs, some emitted painful wails, some emitted fanatical praise, and some emitted long, drawn-out chants.
Chaos, distortion, depravity, madness.
The second after hearing the sound, the sanity of 99% of the people in the entire Tengu City was torn to shreds, their perception of reality became completely chaotic, and everything before their eyes became bizarre and grotesque.
Some people began to tear at their own flesh because they felt their souls were trapped within their bodies. Some people began to gnaw on the friends and family around them because they felt that this way, everyone could be together forever. Some people began to constantly sew themselves together with the people around them because only in this way could they ease the loneliness in their hearts. Some people tore open their own throats and began to chant and sing along with the chaotic, depraved sound in the distance.
Even the protagonist of fate, Shido, had lost his mind at this moment, collapsing on the ground, his eyes devoid of luster, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Kotori, meanwhile, was bathed in flames. Within the flames, she began to pray to some unknown deity. Yoshino's flesh completely mutated into a green rabbit walking on two legs. Tohka's body surface constantly hardened, and her skin began to shift toward gray, as if she were transforming from an organic life form into an inorganic one.
In just an instant, the world seemed to have fallen into the apocalypse.
Even the fated final boss, Takamiya Mio, who had been hiding in the shadows and constantly watching Shido, had not mutated or been driven mad, but she had also fallen into chaos, with infinite double images in her view and countless people whispering in her ears.
The apocalypse had arrived.
The Sprial of Contradiction in Caelus's hand had accumulated enough attack counts. In the repeated weapon clashes, the flaming longsword in the angel's hand became easier and easier to shatter. Although it could be reconstructed each time, it shattered faster than the time before.
Whenever the Angel tried to use its special abilities to interfere with the battle, Cyrene, who had been embracing Caelus, would use the power of memories to directly interfere. Although she could not stop the Angel's actions by freezing its memories, she could cause its actions to deviate, causing its abilities to fail or be deflected.
The Sprial of Contradiction in Caelus's hand shattered the flaming longsword blocking his path once again. Then, the ceremonial sword in his other hand parried another flaming longsword. Taking advantage of the opening where the Angel had nothing to block him, he lifted his leg and delivered a fierce kick, striking the Angel right in the chest.
The Angel was sent flying a long distance by this kick, while simultaneously feeling something invade its body, causing a vast amount of power to dissipate.
"Cough!"
The Angel coughed up blood, which quickly turned into particles of light and dissipated into the sky.
"What power is this?"
Before the Angel could stand up, a spiral sword pierced its heart, pinning it to the ground. The power that had just invaded its body was rapidly dissipating the energy within, forcing it to spend a second repelling that power, which was why it had been caught off guard.
"It is a gift from God, called Abundance, the will to return everything to all living beings."
"Ah... return everything to all living beings, is it?"
The Angel tried to pull out the Sprial of Contradiction stuck in its heart, but because it had clashed with this weapon many times, the amount of contradiction accumulated on it was already enough for the Sprial of Contradiction to cause terrifying damage to it. The power from the Sprial of Contradiction and the power of Nihility constantly destroyed the Angel's body, leaving it unable to muster any strength.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the Angel tilted its head slightly and looked at Caelus, who was slowly walking over, and said, "You won. You defeated me. But without me presiding over it, the Path of the Flaming Sword cannot be officially opened, living beings cannot walk this path of sublimation, the separated parallel worlds cannot return, and space-time will become even more fragile due to the battle between you and me."
"And even if you kill me here and completely erase my existence, perhaps billions of years later, I will appear again. After all, the desires of living beings are never satisfied. I will once again unfold the current path. Perhaps it will not be in its current form, perhaps it will not be filled with objects of love like it is now, but this path will eventually appear again."
"This is truly a meaningless battle."
Caelus arrived at the Angel's side and said, "Just a moment ago, a very unlucky guy was using his ability to observe my existence, and he saw the one existence on me that should never have been seen."
"But I also borrowed his ability through this, the power known as Existence, and the reason I walked over slowly just now was to familiarize myself with this power."
A colorless flame ignited in Caelus's hand. He placed his burning hand on the Sprial of Contradiction, and the colorless fire spread along the weapon to the Angel's entire body.
The Angel felt its own existence being continuously devoured, everything it possessed being taken away by the person in front of it.
"The winner takes all, and the loser has nothing. It is only natural, it should be so."
The Angel did not put up a final resistance, but calmly accepted that its own existence was being completely taken away by the person opposite it.
When the Angel was engulfed by the flames and disappeared, Caelus pulled the Sprial of Contradiction from the ground, put it away, and then looked at the Kabbalah Tree of Life that carried countless parallel worlds.
He raised the power that essentially came from all living beings high into the air.
"I say, let what belongs to all living beings return to them."
The flames in Caelus's hand turned into countless sparks, flying into one world after another.
Watching the scene as splendid as fireworks, Caelus calmly raised his hand and pointed at a world that had already been stained pitch-black. That was the world he had previously been in, and also the world that was about to be destroyed after some unlucky guy saw him.
In that world where everything was about to be destroyed, all the living beings who had fallen into madness suddenly raised their heads and looked at the sky.
A gray hourglass appeared there, with a hand holding both the top and bottom ends of the hourglass, and the sand inside the hourglass was flowing upward at this moment.
Subsequently, everything in the world began to reverse.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)