Arisu, without a moment's hesitation, plunges his sword into Aliya's energy core. A flash of energy erupts as the machine wavers under the impact. But Aliya, despite her devastation, fights to stand, her body counterbalancing the pain. Pandore, though weak and out of fuel after her previous battle against Arisu, senses the imminence of danger. Despite her declining energy, her system begins to react. She rises, despite her lack of energy, her obsession with her creator allowing her to develop her first emotion.
Pandore, her energy nearly exhausted, uses her remaining resources:
"Code restrictions removed. Quantum utilization and optimization of computational power. Solution found after 24^76 simultaneous calculations. Overlord operation creation initiated. Execution."
Aliya, her eyes shining with a mix of despair and hope, makes one last plea:
"Pandore, save me, I beg you... If my consciousness does not merge with yours, all will be lost, and our two minds will fade into oblivion."
Arisu withdraws Keldel, preparing to finish off Pandore to retrieve the Singularity without any nuisances being able to challenge him. Aliya's body collapses, but before she falls, Pandore catches her and teleports her near Titan, despite the faint energy still animating her.
Aliya, on the brink of certain death, asks Pandore:
"I'll handle him... I beg you, Pandore... Kill Arisu of Sinongara!"
The mecha, with only an almost empty fuel tank, slowly transforms. A robotic feminine form, merging quantum intelligence and a perfect combat structure, emerges, ready to fight.
Arisu, coldly, displays the box he holds in his fingers, a sinister smile on his lips.
"The army of Megerya shouldn't take long to arrive, the box is back in my possession (shows his hand). We will reclaim this kingdom and unify the world before facing the Great Terror."
Pandore prepares to launch Operation Overlord. She utters her first words with a non-robotic voice, inevitably shocking Aliya and Arisu.
"The enemies of my creator must be annihilated. Arisu of Sinongara, take the honor of being the first victim of this ignoble lineage."
Across worlds, in the ominous sanctuary of the Great Terror cult, a man stands upright, alone amidst a sea of lifeless bodies. Dust and death permeate the air, every abandoned weapon bearing the last breath of its wielder.
Darkness, dense and palpable, emanates from a gigantic portal, a cursed passage to a source of ancient and unfathomable malevolence. The man, impassive, has left only chaos behind him, an unrelenting barbarian, harboring no resentment toward his victims, only an insatiable thirst for destruction.
A deep rumble, like the roar of the earth itself, shakes the air, followed by a destabilizing glow that cuts through the darkness. The space around him shudders, as if reality itself bends under the effect of this terrifying phenomenon. Then, with a crash of stones and debris, titanic creatures, gigantic nightmare shadows, emerge from the gaping portal.
Their silhouettes, exceeding a hundred meters in height, dominate the horizon, etched into the dense darkness like nightmarish entities from the abyss. The appearance of these giants is not just a vision of the apocalypse; it is a manifestation of pure, raw power, an inevitable promise of terror and destruction.
In the midst of this apocalyptic scene, a figure advances, cloaked in a cape woven from the very fabric of darkness. The man moves without a word, his silence crushing as a prelude to the chaos unfolding around him. He is the herald of horrors, the shadow of the master, and every step he takes seems to declare irrefutable power.
"So, you are the famous Terranian summoned by the Emperor of Sinongara. How ironic... I am curious to know what drives a people like yours, a people capable of conquering everything."
Atachi advanced with a faster, almost mechanical step, like an automaton guided by an unfathomable objective. Behind him, the remains of his battles bore witness to power that seemed to defy all logic. Yet his gaze remained detached, almost absent.
"I am merely an impostor. I am not the Terranian destined to protect this world. My sole purpose is to advance my disciple. Terra's projects do not interest me."
These words, spoken with disarming coldness, made the figure standing before him falter. A commanding presence, radiating dark and oppressive energy, stared at Atachi with a mix of incomprehension and indignation.
"What are you doing here, Terranian? I recognize your immense power, but the fact that you turned our First World into a cemetery dripping with impure souls is proof of your involvement in our conflict. I genuinely seek to understand you, Terranian."
Atachi, unflinching, retorted in a neutral, almost indifferent tone:
"I simply came to find opponents who might be interesting. You can unleash your so-called Great Terror, unleash several if you have the power—it won't change a thing. It must not be a creature powerful enough to threaten either the hero of Megerya, myself, or my disciple."
The figure's anger exploded, and he roared at Atachi after such a display of disrespect:
"Are you claiming that you came to these sacred places just to find a decent opponent? You must be a Terranian arrogant enough to think that your actions will remain without consequences forever! We are not the ones who control the cult; we are the representatives of the Great Deity of Reincarnation. Scourges of Hell, kill this pest immediately!"
The creatures unleashed themselves on Atachi. But the Terranian did not move. He had no need to. Something, an invisible and relentless force, annihilated the monsters from within. Their fall was as brutal as it was inexplicable. In an instant, they were reduced to decomposing carcasses, bodies dead for days. In shock, the figure recollected through his abilities what had just transpired before his eyes. Nothing could explain their defeat.
Under Atachi's impassive gaze, the tension grew. The master of darkness, a being sculpted in arrogance and power, briefly wavered before Atachi's overwhelming aura—a force so immense it seemed to bend reality.
In a detached tone, Atachi declared:
"I merely accelerated their heartbeats. This generated internal shockwaves, hastening them toward premature decomposition. My objectives are simple: find an opponent worthy of me, master your science, gather materials, and destroy evil. As for this Great Deity, it will fall, sooner or later, by my hand. It's only a matter of time."
An instinctive chill seeped into the mind of the master of darkness, a warning his intellect immediately rejected. Smirking cruelly, he replied, his voice as sharp as a cleaver:
"So, you've made your choice. But know this: no one can oppose the Cult of Great Reincarnation. Terra will therefore be erased from the multiverse map."
The silence became heavy, the air charged with electricity. Atachi remained impassive, but his aura became oppressive. In perfect synchrony, the two colossi assumed combat positions. When their first strikes collided, the impact unleashed a shockwave so powerful it distorted the surrounding space.
"You have rather limited ambitions; you are an individual constrained by a stupidity that frightens me to the utmost. I am the great Ictum Protom, former heroic deity reincarnated to fulfill the desires of my god whom you dared provoke!"
Propelled backward by the force of the impact, Atachi stood back up effortlessly, a slight smile gracing his lips.
"A being subjugated by a divinely tyrannical nature is but a blasphemy compared to those who have God within them. Do not mistake, Ictum, your god has corrupted you with empty promises. I will not kill you for that—you are far too naive. My name is Atachi Gosaiblaze, probably the most powerful of the Terranians."
The rage of Ictum reached its peak. With a gesture, he released a domain of dark energy, a tide of darkness engulfing the space. He summoned a titanic power right at the beginning of the battle.
"Ultimate magic: Primordial Elemental Essence!!!"
An immeasurable flow of energy burst from Ictum's body, a combination of the 10 primordial elements fused at the core of the ancient hero. Mixing the elemental magics of air, water, fire, earth, ether, time, space, void, gravity, chaos, light, and darkness, forming a condensed and dense aura around a single being capable of destroying everything.
Ictum deployed hundreds of magical spears, subsequently manifesting his sacred sword infused with his ultimate magic. The Terranian grabbed the space and propelled himself forward, taking the exploding spears as they struck Atachi. Ictum began launching an assault against Atachi at a speed hundreds of times faster than light. Atachi seemed largely overwhelmed by such speed. Despite his supernatural reflexes, Ictum managed to wound him.
The stoicism of Atachi continued to impress Ictum. He leaned gently toward his ear to announce:
"Don't worry, I'll take you a bit more seriously now."
The humiliation persisted, and Ictum's determination to overcome this ignorant figure drove him to play his most powerful cards.
"Chaos Magic: Entropy Surge!"
Feeling imminent danger, Atachi decided to instantly retreat into the distance. The darkness accumulated around a point in space, and Ictum plunged his sword into this source of chaos. Teleporting behind Atachi to finish him off, he slashed Atachi with precision, forcing him into a precarious position, crushed by the spell.
Deep distortions affected the supposedly invincible body of Atachi, significantly boosting the figure's ego. Atachi had collapsed while his adversary stood over him.
"People like you know only a fraction of true power. The arrogance you've shown me reflects your current appearance... A mere monster."
"Why do you say that, ancient hero? The fight has only just begun; don't make me believe you think this could deliberately affect me."
Yet the chaos magic altered his body, pushing it to mutate into rather strange forms. But Atachi, although momentarily affected, adapted, his wounds closing with terrifying ease.
Disheartened, Ictum tried again, using an even more destructive technique.
"Chaos Magic: Form Decomposition!"
Ictum charged, his sword raised like a black lightning bolt, radiating energy that seemed capable of breaking the very fabric of reality. Around him, the air vibrated with magic so dense it made the earth tremble and the skies crack. With a scream of rage mixed with perverse satisfaction, he dove toward Atachi and planted his sword directly into his chest.
The blow was brutal, relentless. The weapon pierced Atachi's heart like a hot blade cutting through ice. A deathly silence settled, the universe suspended at that moment.
But the unthinkable happened.
Atachi, though impaled, slowly rose. His body, already decomposing, seemed to lose all coherence. His movements were jerky, imprecise, as if an invisible force were manipulating a broken puppet. His outlines became blurry, abstract, defying all visual logic. Then, against all odds, his form stabilized. Within seconds, he had regained his original appearance, as if Ictum's blow had never occurred.
"I hope I won't have to repeat myself, Ictum: I possess immunity to magic. I told you, find better, or perish."
"Stop spouting nonsense! I am Ictum Protom, chosen by my god to represent him—I cannot lose to you!Final combination: Celestial Nexus Magic! Reborn of Void!!!!"
The air around Ictum imploded into a vortex of pure energy, a titanic wave bursting from his being. Destruction was not its only goal: each annihilated fragment was instantly recreated, reinvented in an ideal state. The very dimension, unable to withstand such force, collapsed. The laws of the universe wavered under this indescribable chaos.
When the explosion of energy subsided, Ictum, on his knees, was panting, drained by this excessive assault he had once used to destroy a galactic calamity. Yet Atachi remained there, intact, standing.
Disbelief gripped Ictum. How could this being survive an attack that had once cost his own universe its existence? His reality crumbled in the face of this living impossibility.
"How...?! It's impossible! I struck you head-on! How can you still exist?!"
Aware of his opponent's foolishness, Atachi simply replied:
"Your attack was powerful, I admit. If you had used the same technique with mana, I think I might have been injured at my current power level. But even without immunity, your attack is completely inconsequential to me. Find another tactic if you don't want to perish."
The battle stretched on, like an eternal duel, each assault resonating as a symphony of destruction and defiance. For hours, Atachi seemed to face Ictum with disconcerting ease, his aura exuding a form of omnipotence, unshakable despite the intensity of their exchanges. Yet he never showed effort or weakness, plunging Ictum into growing anguish.
Out of breath, his knees buckling under his own weight, Ictum collapsed. His thoughts were a torrent of disbelief and despair, his gaze wavering toward the man who had reduced him to powerlessness.
"Of all the prophecies the oracles could have foretold, I should never have met you. You are one of the deviations that have changed the course of history. The Terranians... I never knew they held such power. These demons should have been erased from history before even emerging."
Atachi, his expression neutral, slightly furrowed his brow at these fear-filled words. His voice, calm and composed, rang out like an unyielding bell.
"I have not yet used my powers even once during our entire confrontation. And I can assure you, I truly do not possess such a capacity."
Atachi's words resonated in Ictum's mind, who revisited every moment of their duel. The reality was relentless: Atachi had never resorted to anything beyond his mastery of close combat and his unparalleled resilience. The truth struck him like a thunderbolt.
"You are indeed the first to have forced me to use more than one percent of my physical strength; I congratulate you. For your information, I had to use 3% of my strength. You are the greatest warrior I have encountered so far; you lift my spirits."
He murmured in a broken tone:
"You're lying... I cannot be that far from you. It's impossible... Great Deity of Reincarnation, grant me the strength to annihilate this being who dares defy you!"
A divine lightning bolt struck Ictum, saturating his body with celestial energy of terrifying intensity. With every passing second, his power grew, transforming him into an almost inconceivable force. Yet, in the face of this meteoric ascent, Atachi remained unperturbed, advancing with crushing serenity.
Before Ictum could reach the peak of his metamorphosis, Atachi struck. His fist, charged with a power transcending all logic, tore through the air and crushed his adversary with implacable precision. The impact created a blinding flash, reducing Ictum's surge of power to nothingness.
A heavy silence fell, broken only by the final gasps of a shattered body, bathed in its own blood. Without a word, Atachi turned away and walked off, ready to confront the real troublemakers: the representatives of the cult who had defied the natural order.
A few hours before the titanic clash between Atachi and Ictum, another conflict was shaking the order of things. In the skies of Sinongara, Pandore, a being of unfathomable intelligence, initiated Operation Overlord to eliminate Arisu.
Using quantum entanglement, Pandore stood behind Arisu with the box containing the Singularity. Having assumed a blank visage, her head tilted slightly toward her creator's enemy, where a demonic smile appeared, adorned with a murderous intent no artificial intelligence should possess.
"I am initiating the absorption process of the energy source. I have already found a way to draw from such an immense quantity of energy. Arisu, you are undoubtedly prime prey; I shall endeavor to offer Keldel to my mistress."
She launched the absorption process while remaining connected to Aliya. Shocked, Arisu decided to put an end to this farce. Faced with this desecration, Arisu, filled with anger and despair, rushed forward at a speed transcending all mortal limits. He turned, drawing on the bond uniting the sword to its wielder. Each of his strikes carried an increasingly alarming violence.
But Pandore's absolutely transcendent intelligence allowed her to achieve absolute prediction of all the movements Arisu could make—an adaptation no mortal being in this world could surpass.
Arisu's mind wavered briefly. Painful memories surged: his humiliation at the hands of his brother Baldur during the great war, his betrayal, his supposed death. But these past wounds reignited his rage. His pure thirst for vengeance became an unstoppable force, unleashed by the pain of years of suffering and accumulated hatred.
A celestial light then enveloped his body; he invoked divine essence:
"Divine Form!!! Keldel, grant me your infinite power! May this strength lift me to defeat absolute evil!"
At the same moment, Pandore, unshaken, assessed the situation.
"Detection of Megerya's army approaching. Titan's Healing: activation in five seconds... four... three... two... one. Healing in progress."
Aliya, in the midst of healing, demonstrated an unprecedented determination, announcing in a voice filled with awakened hope:
"We are ready to heal you, Titan. Listen to me; I believe in you. You will have the strength to rise again. Live!!!"
The absorption rate was sufficient to begin the balancing healing of Titan. Aliya was healed, pushing the bond of the two consciousnesses to merge into one between her and Pandore.
Five thousand meters above the capital, portals opened. A rain of soldiers descended from the sky; millions of warriors fell upon Sinongara. On the ground, Baldur, having already annihilated the first wave of enemies with his paladins, stood ready. But the war had only just begun.
Then, a blinding light exploded, flooding the entire kingdom. A moment of silence settled, suspended between chaos and destiny, before the world definitively plunged into turmoil.