At the edge of the dimensional rift, a multitude of heroes flocked to the site of the carnage that had swept through the capital of Webenne. The scale of the destruction left behind by the four mysterious strangers froze the faces of all who arrived. What they discovered was nothing short of a nightmare come to life—a once-thriving city now reduced to a field of ruins and desolation. The dimensional rift, of an unprecedented magnitude, immediately caught their attention. A high-ranking hero stepped forward, reaching out to gauge the extent of the danger they would have to face. He was suddenly hurled back hundreds of meters by violent energy fluctuations.
The first hero, trembling, felt the weight of the threat. He murmured, his voice heavy with fear:
"These waves of energy... This is an SS-ranked portal, maybe even SSS. One thing is certain—we can't go in. If we fail to close this rift, it could wipe out humanity before we even have time to say goodbye to our loved ones."
The second hero, intrigued by the presence of such an enormous portal, wondered aloud:
"Which means that some fools tried to play hero against an SSS-ranked portal... It would take the energy of thousands of stars to create an S-rank rift. What monsters could have caused this catastrophe? Are we already doomed? Up until now, SS was the highest rank we've ever managed to defeat, and only with the help of the Rangers of Yorquin Terra."
The third hero, more analytical, spoke up:
"Wait, something's bothering me. I'd like to analyze this rift more closely—there's something intriguing about it. I'll prepare a detailed report. Stay calm, gentlemen. I need to focus my powers."
The fourth hero intervened, his tone calm but firm:
"Let Hayères do his work. He's the best equipped to analyze this breach."
Moving forward cautiously, Hayères activated a rare skill that allowed him to glimpse recent events. Fragments of the past appeared before him—fleeting glimpses of four terrifying beings: two aliens, a superior dragon, and Atachi, an incomprehensible force capable of obliterating entire planets. What he saw surpassed anything he could have imagined. The battles, the violence, the creation of the rift—all of it had been too brutal, too swift. The shock was so overwhelming that Hayères lost consciousness, overcome by the horror of his discovery. His body collapsed lifelessly, caught just in time by another hero, Zego.
"Quick! We need to get him to the nearest hospital!"
Another hero stepped in to take charge of Hayères. Among the dozens of heroes hanging back, amidst a heavy silence, some began to realize that enemies of an entirely different caliber had emerged.
The fifth hero, pragmatic, suggested:
"We'll have to wait. The temporal distortion significantly reduces our preparation time, but we must remain vigilant. Let's wait for Hayères to wake up for his debriefing. In the meantime, let's call for reinforcements—we need to prepare for the worst."
Meanwhile, inside the portal, Atachi walked peacefully, his calm demeanor a stark contrast to the panic spreading outside. Before him stretched an infinite field of flowers, bathed in the soft light of an unreal twilight, each plant shimmering under the golden glow. A gentle breeze brushed against his face, but he remained impassive, his gaze lost in the distance.
"I see you, and I feel you. Your time has not yet come, but I know where to find you, pawn."
Further in the vast field, an unknown presence perceived these words as a chilling shockwave. The mysterious being, startled, sought an explanation. How could this intruder sense its presence?
? – "He knows where I am? His gaze chills me to the bone. But I am the one who controls this reality—I am the master here... Let's see what he's truly made of."
"We both know why you're hiding. Come to me, so I can put an end to this charade that delights the cosmic entities. Stop hiding; you're providing an insipid spectacle for your audience."
The mysterious adversary, hearing these words, instinctively stepped back, disturbed by the revelation of a well-guarded secret.
"This guy is insane... By mentioning those who should never be named, he's made this trial even more lethal."
Atachi extended his hand, and without apparent effort, drew his adversary toward him, an invisible force seizing them. The observer, strangled, struggled in vain against this overwhelming grip. Blood spilled from their lips as they realized with horror that a mere Terranian had managed to injure them, someone who thought themselves untouchable.
Atachi – "So, what do you have to offer me today? Did you think you'd face a fool sacrificing himself for his world? Let me laugh—here, you're nothing but a slave to my will."
"I've never heard of a race capable of challenging me! Let me go, you filthy bastard!"
Atachi casually flung the figure to the ground. The observer, a red humanoid lizard, staggered to their feet. Their imposing stature dwarfed Atachi's, but humiliation was etched across their face. The cosmic entities, silent witnesses to the battle, burst into laughter, savoring the lizard's helplessness against this enigmatic mortal.
"I will kill you, bastard! Let the trial begin!"
Beneath Atachi's feet, reality tears apart, swallowing him into a bottomless abyss. He remains calm. The trial that awaited him was just another game in his eyes. On an endless expanse, trillions of creatures and indescribable calamities impatiently await him.
Atachi, observing the surroundings, muttered disdainfully:
"Humanity should have faced all of this? The absurdity of your games discourages me from annihilating you. If cosmic entities seek meaning in their pointless existence, you sadden me. I would be the first to extend my hand to you. Poor deities... you don't even know how to exploit your potential. You will always be individuals more pathetic than your creation."
Thousands of wyverns head toward Atachi. He had seen them long before entering this place. Suddenly, he grabs the sky, propelling himself at a blinding speed onto the back of one of them, delivering a punch so powerful it obliterates all the attackers in an instant.
Atachi, with a cold smile on his lips:
"The hunt can finally begin."
He falls into a sea of monsters, creatures so numerous and powerful that the ground itself seems to tremble. But nothing can stop him. A sense of hierarchy manifests as the ultimate predator makes his appearance.
The overseer, looking up at the sky, addressed the cosmic deities:
– "Let the show begin, oh great deities! Behold the exceptional subject we have here! Place your bets, the trial will be magnificent!"
Atachi, left alone for a few seconds, strikes the earth with such force that a crater millions of kilometers wide forms, turning billions of battles to dust. He stands at the center of this destruction, on the void he has just created.
Atachi, with a voice as calm as it is cutting, issued a warning to the overseer of the rift:
– "Tell your gods that I will kill them the day they meet me. I will provide them with a diversion that will bury them forever."
In the palace of the father on Titan, the latter notices the disappearance of his son on a neighboring planet. The tension in his gaze was palpable as he teleported without losing a second, trying to understand what had happened. Upon arriving, the sight of his son broken, barely alive, was an unbearable shock. Titan, despite his power, was in a pitiful state, his body shattered by the terrifying force of a single blow from Atachi. Rage ignited in the father's eyes, a burning fury that mixed with pain.
Father of Titan: "I will never forgive you!!! The Organization will fall, I swear!!!"
Without waiting any longer, he returns to his palace with Titan, now dying from Atachi's punch. He places him in a regenerative tank. He uses a power to view his son's memories from a third-person perspective. He notices Atachi, the one who defeated Titan, a minor deity, and Keryt, commander of one of Barbatéos' many armies, without any difficulty. An achievement of this kind was inconceivable to the father.
"This man is abnormal for the population that inhabits it. How could a simple Terranian defeat my son, who is capable of destroying this entire structure? He killed him in a single blow... No, it's because he decided to kill him at that moment. The will behind that blow was unrelenting. Titan... Rise!"
Titan's healing is complete, and he wakes up with a start. The first thing he sees is a terrifying hallucination: a nightmarish silhouette of Atachi standing before him, demanding to know why he dared to stand in his way.
"I will not lose!"
His father is shocked by what is happening before his eyes. This Terranian has traumatized his son. He calls him to order by exerting his aura over the entire planet. Atachi's shadow dissipates, leaving only bare reality: all of it was merely a torture from Titan's imagination.
"I'm sorry, Father, by containing my power so as not to destroy the planet Terra, I lost to Keryt even though I had the ability to defeat him. As for this Terranian, the blow he struck me... I felt it deep within myself, Father. It was so powerful that the blow he landed on me was actually just a spectacular, demonstrative strike, intended only to impress Keryt. But it was enough to kill a god."
Titan's father wonders about the purpose of this man's existence.
"He could be useful to us in the future. Your uncle Xavier might need a warrior of his level."
Titan, stunned at the mention of his uncle's name, responds with a harsh truth:
"Uncle Xavier? But we're talking about a whole different scale, Father. He's just a Terranian, even you don't participate in his missions. We live in a world that is not his."
"You're wrong, my son. His battle involves every individual, every living being, every possible cosmic structure. Do you wish to take your revenge on this Terranian?"
– "I want it, Father. I will face him, but this time, without holding back. He deserves an opponent worthy of him. If he manages to defeat me a second time, then I will kneel before him and beg him to join us."
"Then I'll search for him, and prove to me that I didn't raise you in vain, Titan."
Meanwhile, Atachi, on his side, continued to obliterate the monstrous creatures that populated the dimensional rift. Each blow he struck annihilated his opponents in an instant, no matter their power, whether they could destroy nations or entire planets. In just an hour, half of the monsters in the rift had already been eradicated by the one known as "The Calamity of Plagues."
The cosmic entities, watching the massacre from their inaccessible heights, were disoriented by how easily Atachi disposed of their creations.
? – "This is quite disappointing. We had raised the difficulty of this trial several levels, but nothing touches him. Their species is far from the most powerful we've observed, yet he is simply intriguing."
? – "Should we give him a real challenge? I would like to recruit this Terranian as our champion. I feel that he has the skills necessary to become one."
? – "Have you gone mad? This miserable being has no place in our tournament. I will prove it to you, here and now."
The entity conglomerates the remaining monsters into an abomination. An unspeakable thing, devoid of meaning, resembling a monster that humanity could not face. Atachi pauses for a moment, observing this new threat with a slight smile.
"If you think this will change your tragic fate, you are gravely mistaken about me. I suggest you infuse it with the strength you believe I possess. I wish to discover how much you underestimate me."
Atachi's arrogance fills all the divine spectators with rage. They grant the creature incomprehensible power. It becomes an abomination of cosmic power, its speed and strength defying understanding. Yet, when it attacks Atachi, none of its blows land, as if he were in another dimension.
Atachi, eager for a worthy challenge, taunts the deities.
"You are nothing but ignorants. In committing the sin of attacking my civilization, you have decided to make an enemy of the one who destroys systems. I will teach you respect for others. I suppose other worlds must have succumbed to your selfish entertainment. I sense in this creature the fighters, the warriors filled with hope who perished because of your misdeeds. It's time to pay, because if it's free, it's because you are its product."
With a simple gesture, without even turning around, Atachi annihilates the creature, reducing it to nothing in an instant. The cosmic entities, shocked and bewildered, could not comprehend how he accomplished such a feat under their watch.
Atachi, bored by such a ridiculous victory, offers a deal to the cosmic entities.
"I propose a deal. If you manage to defeat me with one of your champions, then I will submit to your every desire. But if not, I will hunt you down one by one, dig a grave with your bodies before each of your families, and ensure they share the same fate as you for eternity. Do you accept this deal?"
The gods' anger consumes them all. They desperately wish to kill him, but they have no right to intervene in the trial. An extraordinary pressure manifests over the overseer of the rift.
"I accept."
A champion has already been chosen to silence the most insolent of mortals who dared challenge the privileged. A halo of light descends from another dimension. The luminous halo tears through the veil between dimensions, revealing an imposing humanoid creature, descended from another plane of existence.
Its ebony skin contrasts with its dazzling white hair. Its body, sculpted to perfection that would make even the most powerful warriors envious, is adorned with an immense two-meter sword, a symbol of destruction.
"I don't fully understand why I am here, but they have given me the task of eliminating you. Though my restrictions have never been this intense. You are audacious, having attempted to walk a risky path. Today, you have reached the limit that I will make you regret crossing. I am Aracus, the Leviathan, slayer of hope."
"I found him in a rather strange dimension. Prepare yourself, my son. It seems you're not the only one wanting to challenge him."
Suddenly, a rift forms in spacetime, a dimension previously forbidden to the gods. Titan, filled with contained rage, descends at an astonishing speed, literally shattering the fabric of reality in his wake. His explosive entrance places him beside Aracus and Atachi in an instant, as if he had always been there.
Atachi slowly turns his head towards Titan, a cold look in his eyes:
"You? I already spared your life once. Do you think you can come back without facing the consequences?"
Atachi's aura fills the entire dimension. Aracus and Titan struggle to stay on their feet, suffocating under the presence of this completely degenerate being.
Titan (Terranian language): "I am Titan of Hyperion, minor god of creation! I fought Keryt before you, I protected your planet as if my life depended on it. The only way you thank me is by trying to kill me?"
Atachi stares at him, unflinching, then responds in a voice that seems to contain all the violence of the universe:
"I will ask you one simple question, minor god. Why do you speak so much when I am the strongest? Here, I decide your fate and the fate of the entities watching us. What have you come to do here, Titan of Hyperion?"
Titan, clenching his fists, responds with growing intensity:
"I recognize your strength, Terranian. I will need you. You seem to be the kind of warrior who has no equal in the heavens or on earth. My father would like to recruit you alongside my uncle, the most powerful being of all time."
Aracus: "I don't know who you are, minor god, but you are the laughingstock of the gods. You are at the lowest rank of divinity, and you show up before the highest? Your existence lacked so much meaning that you would interfere in our battle. Don't despair, I'll deal with your torments after I finish off this tiresome character."
Atachi, annoyed, uttered in a heavy, enraged voice:
"Shut up, Aracus, I never asked you to speak, as far as I know!"
With an invisible gesture, Aracus was hurled hundreds of kilometers away, his figure vanishing into the distance. Without a word, Atachi slowly moved toward Titan. Each step echoed in the space around them, making the air heavier, the atmosphere more tense. Titan could feel every fiber of his being scream under this crushing pressure. Every word that was about to come would be decisive, a matter of life or death.
"The most powerful? Let me reveal a secret to you, Titan. I am not the strongest, and I know that very well. But will your uncle be able to satisfy my need for ascension? I don't give a damn about your divine ideals and your selfish wars. I am an anomaly that seeks only to rise above the imagination of your minds confined by obscurantism."
Titan, though shaken, did not falter. His eyes burned with a newfound determination.
"Fight me, Terran. I would like to learn by your side. You are the kind of person one meets only once in a lifetime, while mine is endless. I admire this unique character, I have admiration for you, capable of overturning any obstacle. But I didn't ask you, what's your name?"
"Your speech betrays your ambition to impose yourself in this boundless world? Aracus! Titan! I'm waiting for you, standing firm. Whoever has the immense luck to touch me will have earned their life and their bargain. My name is Atachi Gosaiblaze, a simple Terran who abandoned his greatest ambitions because of the impotence of his world."