Chương 316: The fall of all

Kealix's gaze focused beneath the fractured mask as the battlefield convulsed around him. The Tower of Ruin, once the pillar that upheld countless realms, once the axis upon which existence itself had turned, had become little more than a dying structure groaning beneath the weight of divine conflict. Entire landscapes caved inward beneath stray shockwaves. Mountains dissolved into oceans of molten stone only to freeze solid moments later beneath waves of frost.

The heavens above no longer resembled a sky at all, they looked instead like broken glass suspended over an abyss, countless shards of reality drifting apart while rivers of raw Atum bled between the fractures. And through that unraveling world came the Black Lion. The Black Lion erupted from the collapsing mountains. Stone vaporized around him as his massive frame tore through the remnants of the battlefield. Madness burned behind his eyes now. Rejection had adapted. It always adapted.

The more pressure placed upon him, the more violently his authority evolved in response, until even concepts that should have remained absolute became fragile before him. At the same moment, Unyielding Steel moved. The founder drew forth his personal blade, the greatest weapon within his endless arsenal, a sword forged from the first war ever waged between gods. Silver radiance burst across the broken world as he accelerated beside the Black Lion, both founders descending upon Kealix in perfect synchronization.

The Black Lion's colossal onyx greatsword came crashing downward, while Unyielding Steel's slender divine blade aimed directly for Kealix's throat. Kealix did not retreat. His stance widened slightly. One foot slid backward across the fractured earth while his fingers curled around a blade that barely existed at all, a weapon formed from pure Atum so dense and refined that reality struggled to acknowledge its presence.

The instant the Black Lion's sword descended, Kealix raised that near-invisible edge and redirected the strike. The impact never reached him. Instead, his blade slammed into the earth beneath them. The world shattered. A shockwave exploded outward. Vast chasms erupted across the Tower as continents folded inward like paper. Before the destruction could fully spread, Kealix pivoted smoothly, his Atum blade colliding against the flat side of Unyielding Steel's weapon. The deflection was incredibly precise.

Steel's attack veered aside by mere centimeters, yet those centimeters were enough to send the slash ripping harmlessly through the sky instead of through Kealix's skull. But the Black Lion was already moving again. He surged forward with terrifying brutality, abandoning technique entirely in favor of overwhelming force. His fist crashed into Kealix's face before the latter could fully reposition. A crack spread across Kealix's mask. Silence followed. Kealix froze.

His fingers slowly rose toward the fracture now marring the smooth black surface. Beneath the mask, his golden eyes widened with genuine disbelief.

"You..." His voice emerged low and dangerous, trembling with outrage.

"You dare..." The air around him darkened.

"This was a gift from my wife." Atum detonated outward. The Black Lion barely had time to react before a blast of condensed existence struck him head-on, launching the Black Lion across entire regions of the Tower. Kealix extended one hand, and chains erupted from the void. They wrapped around the Black Lion instantly, locking his limbs in place before slamming him into the remnants of a shattered mountain. Yet the others did not stop.

Unyielding Steel pressed forward relentlessly, silver hair whipping through the storm winds while the Pale Monarch and the Cowardly Flame converged alongside him. Above them all, the Mother of Dragons unleashed another catastrophic barrage, hundreds of beams of annihilation raining down from the heavens like divine judgment itself. Kealix frowned.

"Stop this tiresome act." He raised one hand. A spear formed behind him. No, calling it a spear would have been insufficient. It was a condensed pillar of Atum so immense and overwhelming that the surrounding fabric of existence bent beneath its presence. Then Kealix threw it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The projectile crossed the battlefield. The Mother of Dragons noticed too late. The spear pierced directly through her chest.

A scream unlike anything mortal ears could comprehend tore from her throat as the weapon impaled her colossal body. Her divine aura destabilized. Power drained from her like blood from an open wound, the Atum within her forcibly extracted by the spear lodged through her heart.

"ABBY!" The Black Lion's roar shook the heavens. The chains binding him exploded apart. Rejection adapted once more, denying the very concept restraining him. The Black Lion burst free in a frenzy of rage, his eyes wild as he stared at the dragon's collapsing form. Her body descended like a dying star, smashing into the earth below. She did not rise again.

"What did you do?!" the Black Lion screamed. Kealix watched silently from above.

"What else would I do?" he replied coldly.

"I took her soul." Something inside him snapped completely.

"You bastard!" he roared, charging forward with reckless fury.

"We are trying to save you!" His attacks became savage. Kealix weaved between the blows effortlessly at first, but the Black Lion no longer cared about precision. Then he caught Kealix. Massive fingers tangled into Kealix's hair before slamming his knee upward into the latter's skull. The impact split the air apart. Kealix crashed downward into the earth, and Leo followed immediately, straddling him as a barrage of punches rained down upon his body. Each impact sent cracks racing further across the Tower.

Yet beneath the assault... Kealix smiled. The earth beneath him had already become dust from the pressure. His body trembled slightly with each blow, but his golden eyes remained calm. Slowly, almost casually, he lifted one hand and caught Leo's next fist mid-strike. The Black Lion's eyes widened. A wicked grin spread beneath the fractured mask.

"Come now, Brother," Kealix murmured. His leg drove upward. The kick slammed into the Black Lion's abdomen with enough force to send the god hurtling backward through countless mountain ranges. Before Leo could recover, Kealix snapped his fingers. The sky darkened. Thousands upon thousands of Atum-forged blades materialized overhead. Then they fired. The Black Lion roared as the storm descended upon him.

He tore through countless blades with clawed hands, rejecting some, dodging others, shattering many through sheer force alone, but there were too many. Eventually the barrage overwhelmed him. One blade pierced his shoulder. Another his chest. Another his throat. And another. And another. Each weapon drained fragments of his soul upon contact. By the time the storm ended, his body had become little more than a hollow shell suspended in the sky.

The light faded from his eyes as he fell lifelessly toward the shattered earth below.

"You can do better than that, brother," Kealix said quietly. Flames erupted against his back. The Cowardly Flame had arrived. Heat beyond comprehension consumed the battlefield. Kealix staggered slightly beneath the sudden pressure. Then two blades struck him simultaneously. At the precise moment they reached his body, a barrier of Atum formed and deflected both attacks outward. Unyielding Steel did not relent.

With a snap of his fingers, countless divine weapons materialized around Kealix from every conceivable angle. The storm descended. Kealix released a shockwave. Atum exploded outward in a tidal wave, consuming the summoned weapons entirely. But Unyielding Steel continued forward regardless. Even now. Even seeing his allies fall. Even witnessing the hopelessness of their struggle. He still advanced. Kealix watched him silently as the founder's blade approached once more.

"Oh, how I wish things could have been different," he murmured softly.

"But none of you left me a choice." He raised one hand. Unyielding Steel's armor melted. The metal lost its nature entirely, becoming a flowing liquid that immediately wrapped around its creator's body. The founder's eyes widened in horror.

"No!" He tore himself free from pieces of his own armor, ripping flesh apart in desperation, but it was already too late. The liquid multiplied endlessly, swallowing him whole as it hardened around his form.

"Stop this madness!" One hand emerged from the metallic sphere, reaching desperately toward freedom before the steel consumed it entirely. Silence followed. Then a hand touched Kealix's back.

"Every last bit..." the Cowardly Flame whispered. Flames erupted.

"Every bit of my bravery... and my cowardice!" The heat that followed erased everything. The Tower disintegrated. the Dimensions within it melted apart. Atum liquefied beneath the inferno as existence collapsed into a void of burning nothingness. Yet through that apocalypse,"Not so fast." Kealix snapped his fingers. Reality reconstructed. The Tower reformed. The heavens returned. The earth restored itself. The Cowardly Flame stared in disbelief, fire flickering wildly around his shattered expression.

"Even without your authority..." he whispered hoarsely.

"How are you such a monster?" Kealix looked downward.

"I am but a man." He waved one hand. The earth split open beneath Joshua. Flames erupted from the abyss below, wrapping around the founder before dragging him screaming into the depths.

"And for your defiance," Kealix said quietly, "you shall remain within the hell I created for you." Only the Pale Monarch remained. Golden light surrounded her trembling form while divine blood dripped slowly from where she bit through her own lip. Her beautiful eyes shook with grief as she stared at the man she loved.

"My love..." she whispered.

"I am sorry. But you leave me no choice." Atum erupted from her body in radiant torrents. White light consumed the dimensions around them as a blade of pure radiance formed within her grasp, a weapon embodying absolute law itself. Kealix stared at her silently. Then he sighed.

"So," he said softly, "you truly would risk your own life if it meant protecting mine." A thousand chains of Atum erupted behind him and surged toward her.

"I cannot allow that."

"I cannot allow it either!" The Pale Monarch screamed as she brought her blade downward. The Tower split in half. Existence itself divided cleanly apart. Kealix's body was severed alongside it. The monarch remained there afterward, breathing heavily, staring downward at the devastation she had brought. Then,"Reverse." Her eyes widened. Reality reconstructed itself again. The Original Arcana had undone her attack entirely.

Panic surged across her face as countless chains erupted upward and wrapped around her body, dragging her violently to the ground. She struggled desperately, but the bindings held firm. Kealix stood before her completely unharmed. For a moment, neither spoke. Then slowly... Very slowly... Kealix reached upward toward his mask. His fingers trembled slightly. The mask slid free. Beneath it was not a monster. Not a god. Not some incomprehensible mistake beyond reason. Only a man.

Golden eyes stared down at her beneath long black hair flowing through the ruined winds of their dying world. There was no hatred in his expression.

"I wish..." he whispered quietly, voice barely audible amidst the collapse of creation itself, "there had been another way."