The Sanctum Aeterna stirred.
Not from wind. Not from voice.
But from presence.
The pillars, those holding galaxies in stillness... shivered.
The mirror-sky beneath the gods’ thrones rippled with unseen pressure.
And the gods... paused.
Even Zeus, seated upon his throne of clarity, opened his eyes slowly.
Because he had arrived.
A pulse of silence swept across the room as Taufik walked through the open Gate.
He wasn’t cloaked in lightning like Zeus.
Nor did he burn with the solar grace of Amaterasu.
There was no divine hymn announcing him. No radiant glow.
He ca with nothing...
...except the crushing weight of intent.
Each of his footsteps echoed not like sound, but like truth being rewritten.
Odin blinked.
Brahma closed all four eyes at once.
Ra exhaled like a dying star.
Even the Outer Ones, watching from their veil-bound thrones, seed to tighten, their outlines trembling at the edges.
Not in fear... but in acknowledgnt.
Taufik stopped in the center of the room.
And for a long mont, he said nothing.
Then, he spoke.
"...Enough"
One word. No god dared interrupt.
"I let this Sponsorship Protocol happen," he continued. "Because I thought, maybe... this could bring balance. Maybe, gods would learn to give, not just take... I gave all of you a Chance"
His voice was cold. Sharp.
Not a storm, a scalpel.
"But what happened instead?"
He looked around.
"You all... started selling yourselves. Bargaining. Hoarding mortals like property. And the ones who couldn’t win the popularity contest?"
His gaze drifted toward the Outer Ones.
"They started breaking reality just to catch up’
Basukhi and Lembuswana stood behind him now, silent and massive. Their presence was no longer playful.
It was absolute.
Taufik raised his hand.
"Faith is sacred. Authority is sacred. And I will not let it be corrupted’
"From this day onward..." he said, each word a hamr blow to the divine. "...The Sponsorship Protocol is reset"
Gasps rippled. Protests stirred.
Zeus leaned forward slightly. "Taufik, are you..."
But Taufik didn’t look at him.
Instead, he looked at the Outer Ones directly.
"I know what you’re doing. Every corrupted shrine. Every warped follower. Every city turned into a playground for your experints"
"You’ve overstayed your welco"
Then, he snapped his fingers.
And for the first ti since its creation, the Sanctum Aeterna recoiled.
Symbols across the mirrored floor ignited.
A circle of light, no, judgnt, spread outward from Taufik’s feet.
The Outer Ones began to twist unnaturally, their forms unraveling slightly, like they were being rewritten.
"You are not part of this world," he said, voice cutting through dinsions. "You are guests"
He raised his hand slowly, palm open.
"... And I revoke your invitation"
The silence broke into an uproar.
So Outer Gods vanished on the spot, torn from existence near Earth.
Others scread in languages no god had heard.
A few resisted, but only for seconds.
Taufik didn’t destroy them.
He removed them.
He did not wage war.
He gave consequences.
When it ended, Taufik turned toward the others, the Known Gods.
"You still have your contracts," he said. "But abuse them, and I’ll co back"
He looked at Odin, Ra, Brahma, and Amaterasu, one by one.
"If you want followers, earn them. With more than promises and pridec"
Then... he turned to leave.
But stopped.
"Oh, and one more thing," he added, without turning. "...From this point on, no god may approach Earth without my permission"
A pause.
"And if you test that rule..." He smiled, without humor. "...you’ll see what it is Death truly was"
And then...
He vanished.
No flash.
No sound.
Only the mory of his presence remained...
...burning deep in the hearts of gods who had long thought themselves untouchable.
--------
After Taufik left the Sanctum Aeterna, after he expelled the Outer Gods, not only from the Earth but from the System itself... and back to the Saranjana Kingdom.
The cosmos trembled.
Because gods... are not creatures that accept defeat.
Not truly.
Not forever.
Their pride would never allow it.
They don’t retreat.
They wait.
And when they return... they do so with vengeance.
Taufik knew this.
He had seen it before.
Zeus was the proof.
He had not submitted, he had recalibrated.
Gods only stop when forced to their knees.
And so, when it began again... He wasn’t surprised.
[Master, they’re back]
Taufik stood beneath the boughs of the Great Tree once more. His expression was unreadable... flat, calm, resolved.
"...I figured," he muttered.
[They’re trying to forcefully enter Earth through dinsional pressure. Multiple Outer Gods. Multiple vectors]
Taufik didn’t blink.
[Master-]
"Open the barrier"
[...Yes, Master?]
"I said, open the fucking barrier"
[But Master-]
"Just do it"
A pause.
The System hesitated.
Then: [...Understood.]
And with that, the Barrier, the invisible wall separating Earth from the maddened outer cosmos was torn down.
At that exact mont:
[Warning: Multiple Reality Cracks Detected. Across All Continents. Cracks are bleeding]
[Master, the Cracks are too many. Even your Champions cannot handle them all]
Taufik closed his eyes briefly.
"...Then issue the mission to everyone"
[System Holders?]
"Yes. All of them. Every man, woman, and being who is holding a Replica. Reward based on the number of Cracked Beasts they slay. Add ranking tiers. Add everything we’ve got"
[Understood. Global Mission Broadcast in progress...]
Across the world, screens flickered. Interfaces chid. Millions felt the tremor through their System link.
And then...
[Master... They’re here]
Taufik opened his eyes.
The sky did not crack, it scread.
A pulse, thunderous and eldritch, bood outward from the edge of existence, so loud and furious it echoed around the planet.
A voice, ancient and wrong, roared:
"D’ARCHY!!! HOW DARE YOU!!"
The air shattered with the force of the na.
Birds dropped from the sky.
Mountains groaned.
The sea recoiled.
Taufik stood still, his cloak fluttering from sheer dinsional friction, the fabric humming against the broken laws of reality.
With a flick of his hand, no chant, no delay, he vanished.
In the next instant, he reappeared high above Earth, suspended in the void of the upper stratosphere, where gravity dared not reach.
He was alone.
But not for long.
One by one, they appeared.
No light. No teleport flash. They slipped in, like nightmares rembering how to be real.
Their forms defied understanding.
Limbs twisted the wrong way.
Mouths on shoulders.
Eyes on wings.
Wings not of feather, but of hands, of bone, of hunger.
They were legion.
A council of the grotesque, surrounding Taufik from every angle, as if they were the night sky’s true stars, and everything else a lie.
Taufik didn’t flinch.
He floated, hands at his sides, expression unreadable.
Then he spoke, voice calm but heavy with judgnt.
"...I gave you all a chance. rcy, in the form of exile. I removed you from Earth, not out of fear, but as a warning. I hoped you’d reflect, adapt... maybe even evolve... But you wasted it"
Silence... then howling laughter.
One Outer God surged forward, a mass of writhing teeth and symbols.
"BULLSHIT!" it screeched, voice like shattering mories. "Your so-called Sponsorship was always a scam! A system that favored the Known. The Old Gods. How could we compete against myths with temples built in stone?! They rembered them... never us!"
Another voice joined in, slithering and cold, like oil slipping into an ear.
"You tipped the scales, D’Archy.
Called it balance... but it was always control. You chose who got to be rembered. You locked us out of belief"
A third one, shaped like a crown of thorns stretched into infinity, echoed with disdain.
"We were rejected! Cast aside like shadows... while you elevated mortals to arbiters of divinity!"
"We are not myths," another whispered from ten mouths, "We are truths unspoken. And now... we will reclaim what was denied"
A booming presence, wingspanned across entire cityscapes, growled low:
"Even if you’re strong... facing all of us? Even the Highest being, the Eternity cannot stand against endless teeth. We may not kill you, but we will slaughter the mortals you care for"
"Their cities will burn," croaked a throatless god. "Their oceans will boil. Their skies will turn black with our return"
"You cherish them..." hissed another. "That is your weakness"
A pause.
The sky quaked. Earth’s mana scread in protest.
And Taufik... simply looked around at the circle of monsters.
Expression blank.
Eyes clear.
He let the silence stretch for one breath... then two.
Then he said, quietly:
"... Done?"
No rage. No threat.
Just a question. And in it... finality.
Taufik exhaled.
A slow breath.
And with it, the sky dimd, not from clouds, but from sothing deeper.
Sothing final.
Sothing inevitable.
Around him, a dark aura surged, not re shadow, not wrath.
But death.
Not the kind that kills.
The kind that ends.
The kind that forgets.
His voice ca low, cold, rciless:
"...I don’t have that much ti to hear your complaints"
The world seed to hold its breath.
His eyes, once warm with patience, now glowed with the silent promise of oblivion.
"You want to co?"
The Outer Gods recoiled slightly, not in fear, but in recognition. They knew what this was. This wasn’t divine rage.
This was the presence of the end.
"...Just co," Taufik said.
And with that... The aura detonated.
Not outwards.
Inwards.
The void collapsed into him, like all things were being drawn toward a single, inevitable conclusion.
Behind him, the sky split open into a black spiral.
A maw that was not space, but Concept itself.
The Concept of Death.
Not dying. Not decay. But the final stroke in the book of being.
And the Outer Gods... they charged.
Screaming.
Roaring.
So in rage.
Others in desperation.
And still others... in joy.
Because even among gods... There were those who lived for destruction.
And Taufik?
He welcod them all.
One step forward...
And the war between gods began.
....
...
..
.
User Comments
0 comments from readers