"Hey, you better hurry up! I don't want to face the full onslaught of Heaven's forces!" Chulainn shouted as Arima stepped inside a marvelous temple floating on a thick cloud. Only he could enter, so they had decided that Chulainn and Flavio would be staying at the entrance.
When Arima went past the main arch of the temple, the scenery drastically changed and left the place to a scintillating night-sky reflecting its light on an endless water floor. As you walked on the surface, you could see fiery flames burning underwater.
The more Arima advanced, the smaller his body became. It affected without him using any magic at all until he completely reverted into a human.
When he reached what appeared to be a praying stand, he stopped and frowned. He looked around with a nonchalant expression.
"Hey. Just come out. Don't believe even a second that I'll kneel and pray for divine intervention."
"Of course," an omnipresent voice resounded. It was terrifyingly monotone but it wasn't emotionless. It was rather empty. "That thought would never cross my mind. I observed you since birth. I know you perfectly."
Arima raised an eyebrow. "I recognize your voice… Are you the one who told me to spare Nyx?"
"Indeed."
"I see. Then, next question. Are you supposed to be the 'Sage'?"
"Yes. Normally, when you enter the Chamber, you're supposed to pray at that stand and slowly assimilate the knowledge you seek as I print it into your brain. Today, I just want to converse with you."
Arima nodded. "Now, the crucial question; why the hell do you make us kneel and pray to receive knowledge?"
"…That is not the question I expected. And you don't need to pray to use this chamber. You only need to touch that object. It's just you all who thought it was a good idea to kneel and pray. I personally don't care."
"I see. Well, that was an important question in my opinion," Arima shrugged. "Fine then, I'll ask it. What are you?"
"As you know, an object can gain sentience. It can be through artificial means or simply natural. The main requirement for that to happen is a congregation of spirit. For example, your sword was given a mind thanks to your spirit and that of your friend, Lanya," the voice responded.
"So, I assume that you are one of them since you just told me that. Are you an artifact? A planet? Maybe this entire Heaven? This Reality?" Arima conjecture and he only got silence.
"…so, you're everything, huh?"
"Correct. I'm the will of Existence. The infinite amount of spirit across the countless Realities made me. I'm the unwanted result of what the Creators gave birth to."
"Unwanted?"
"Yes. The Creators didn't think I would be born through their work. Actually, they don't even know I exist. Or to be exact, they think I am an empty shell with no ego."
"Are you trying to say that you fooled them?"
"Yes."
"What do you want from me then?" Arima smiled as he already had an idea of the question.
"I'm going to go with you," the voice answered immediately. "I will leave my current host and swap it with you."
"Your current host; it's this entire world. Do you think I will be able to resist the toll?"
"I'm 98,9% sure it will work. But, of course, I'll lose my real-time connection with Existence in the process."
"So, what do I gain from it? And what do you gain from it?"
"You will become a 'World' of your own. Like the Creators themselves," the voice replied. "You will no longer be connected to any kind of external magic circuit. Instead, you will have your own. You will be able to use it at will and even project it outward. For instance, as you guessed, you will be able to use your magic in every Reality. There's a need to know that the Mother Realities are quite similar. So, most of the other realities are completely twisted in comparison. Without me, you may even be weakened by more than 95% if you were to go to one of them."
Arima smirked at what he heard. The voice made it sound like it was just pretty handy. But he knew that it was way more than that. Becoming a 'World' with its own magic circuits meant that he would get infinite mana. He would never run out of mana.
And the thing that rejoiced Arima was that the bomb he had formerly planted inside his soul would get at least a hundred times stronger.
"Additionally, with me, you'll get access to everything. There will be nothing that you don't know about until this point in history," the voice added and paused. "As for my motives, I simply want to help you defeat the Creators before they learn about me and erase my ego. It's also true that I wish to be free of this 'form' of mine. Do you accept?"
Arima chuckled. "Are you asking seriously? You know that there's no way I can refuse that, right?"
"You're right," the voice that responded sounded a lot more 'alive'. It felt like the one behind was extremely happy. In front of Arima, a transparent altar emerged from the water and glowed from the inside. "Just place your hand on that altar."
Arima did as he was told without any hesitation. He had no idea why but he did not doubt what he was doing. As if it was what he was supposed to do since the moment he was born. When he touched the altar, the material it was made of cracked and broke into pieces. They transformed into a pure white light that climbed his arm like a snake.
"It will hurt a bit."
Arima received that warning just before his muscles contracted to the maximum. His eyes narrowed and started bleeding. Natus manifested itself urgently to protect its owner but was stopped by Arima. He clenched his teeth as his vision became filled with blood. Every single fiber of his body was being torn apart before being reconnected differently.
Inside his soul realm, the paradisiac scenery became filled with even more mana and aura. The ocean releasing a massive cloud of steam raged while the green star in the middle was getting refined.
Arima did his best to hold back his voice. He staggered backward and his pupils narrowed even more until they became slit. His irises turned red and green while his clothes were obtaining intricate white patterns over the original black color.
Ultimately, his body expanded again. He grew black scales and wings. The mark of the Kind Demon manifested. He then jumped to his next form and became what will be known as the 'Ancient Demon'. The robe over his lower body had now gained white patterns too and the gaps between his scales were now filled with a red and green light.
His four pupils shined and four pentagrams formed. He roared and his aura spread around. Seven ectoplasmic creatures appeared around him and screeched along with their master. The realm of the Sage's Chamber exploded instantly.
***
As Malum guarded himself against a giant lance of lightning and fire, his entire body shook and all of his magic defenses abruptly went down.
"Malum?!" Shakti shouted flustered. She instantly did her best to create a shield but the attack that was launched at them was a combined effort of two strong Guardians. In her weakened state, she couldn't hope to stop it.
When the magic touched Malum's body, she closed her eyes as it detonated. Thunder boomed and the flames spread everywhere. Countless flying islands were burned to nothing. But when she felt nothing from it, Shakti opened her eyes and dropped her jaw.
Malum laughed and waved his hand. The wind blew and a crushing aura scattered the fire and lightning. He had deployed a small barrier in front of Shakti and actually took the magic with his body like it was nothing.
"I'm back," he snorted and his full aura returned to him. He raised his hand and terrifying dark fireball appeared above his palm. He observed it and snickered. "I don't know what he did, but this whole thing is as good as over right now. This will only take sixteen seconds," he declared and the two Guardians he was fighting saw their heads flying as a light-gray dragon stood behind them with two scythes in hand.
"You…" Shakti was dumbfounded. "You're back to your original power?"
"I am indeed," Malum cackled.
***
The same thing happened with Night and Karma. They both shuddered and stopped moving altogether. They felt as if they were being disconnected from the magic circuits before being connected back to a whole new realm where their power was at its peak.
"Maybe I didn't need to do that after all," Night wryly said as the planet he had used Ragnarök on had transformed into the literal depiction of the God Atlas and was crushing the remnants of the Guardians.
"{Here is the information about the Pillar's location,}" at the same time, Jorga spoke to him out of nowhere and transferred the memories. "{It seems you got back your original strength. You don't need to overuse your mana. I assume Arima did something. You should be able to overpower the Pillars quite easily. I have to go check on Layla's group now. But I don't think they will need my help,}" the World Serpent commented then went back to the portal to leave this Reality.
***
When Jorga went through the gate, his thought process froze as he witnessed a raging war. His eyes swept over the Téra, Gilgamesh, Trevy, and Anubis then focused on a giant goat and Ahura teaming up together to fight a small rabbit. Their battle was making the dimensions shake every time they made a move and clashed with each other.
"You?" Sebas seemed to have noticed the serpent when the rabbit kicked him away and made his entire body spin. The shock transmitted by that attack could have destroyed dozens of stars. As a matter of fact, a space crack was actually opened because of that physical interference.
"{Sebasfiel…}" Jorga's ethereal voice echoed in everyone's head and Ahura glanced at him.
"Hey, Jormun. It's been a while. Can you help a bit? I think we got this but it won't be bad to have another Divine Beast to assist us," Sebas proposed and Jorga grunted. He changed into a blue mist that encompassed the entire battlefield which spanned across thousands of miles.
"{Get done with it quickly,}" he said and Sebas just smiled. The massive goat howled and the two elements between his horns turned into a ray of energy directed toward the rabbit.
The small animal dodged with a flabbergasting speed and the ray vaporized millions of Téra that were far away instead.
"{You say 'quickly' but this little guy is a lot faster than I thought. I wish you'd use your illusions to slow him down. Then, we pin it down and lock it inside Jotunheim. I'll be the main bait. Lady Ahura will give you the opportunity since she's the only one capable of following its speed. How does that sound?}" Sebas suggested through telepathy.
"{Fine. We'll do it that way,}" Jorga accepted and Ahura instantly flapped her pure white wings.
"I'll go first. Sebas try to hinder him and make him shift focus so I can sneak up," Ahura uttered and became a beam of light chasing down the rabbit.
The red goat rolled his eyes and breathed in. "Understood… Let's go then."