Rewind the clock several minutes earlier.
Far away from the collapsing battlefield where Heaven and Earth were beginning to rge... Amon Solaris and the Prophet were locked in a brutal final confrontation.
The isolated dinsion imprisoning them was falling apart. Cracks stretched endlessly across the artificial sky while the laws stabilising the realm shattered one after another. Entire chunks of space collapsed into nothingness before reforming monts later beneath surging grey mist.
The dinsion lock fluctuated violently, like a pendulum.
One instant, it appeared on the verge of total destruction.
Next, the Prophet forcefully stabilised it once more.
But despite his desperate efforts... The outco had already been decided.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
Black-and-white flas exploded across the dinsion as lunar mana surged like an ocean swallowing the heavens. The grey mist maintaining the isolated world was being burned away at a terrifying pace. Nyx pulsed within Amon’s grasp.
The black blade had fully transford, its edge now dyed in monochro radiance—the sa terrifying power as Amon’s Eclipse Arts.
Every swing split apart space itself while lunar flas devoured the Prophet’s authority piece by piece. Across from him, Joroxin staggered backwards.
Panting. Bleeding. His once untouchable aura had completely collapsed.
The ancient Demon Prophet stared at Amon with hollow eyes as his body slowly crumbled apart beneath the accumulated damage. His soul was nearing its limit.
The dinsion was collapsing. His plans had failed.
And for the first ti in countless years... Joroxin looked tired.
Amon lowered Nyx slightly and gazed at the defeated demon in silence.
"Joroxin..." he said quietly. "You’ve lost."
The Prophet remained silent for several monts before releasing a long, weary sigh.
"...Lost." His lips curled bitterly. "Yes... Perhaps I have."
Even after all his sches... After manipulating civilisations from the shadows... After engineering wars, betrayals, and disasters across multiple generations... He still failed to overco the monster standing before him.
Amon Solaris.
Joroxin slowly raised his gaze.
"We prepared for heroes," he muttered. "For kings. For chosen ones."
His ruined face twisted faintly.
"But not for a monster like you."
Amon’s expression didn’t change.
"No," he replied calmly. "Your preparations were fine."
The Prophet frowned.
"...What are you talking about?"
Amon stared at him quietly.
Truthfully, he hated Joroxin. The demon had destroyed his world twice over. He was responsible for endless suffering, endless death, endless despair.
And yet... Amon also understood him better than anyone else.
Because if Amon had continued living solely as Number 23... a weapon without emotion.
A machine built solely for survival... perhaps he would have eventually beco sothing like the Prophet.
Cold. Detached. A slave to another.
"Joroxin," Amon said at last. "You won in another tiline."
Silence.
The Prophet froze completely.
His ghostly eyes widened for the first ti since the battle began.
"...What?"
"You succeeded," Amon continued. "Humanity was wiped out. The world fell. The world beca a wasteland ruled entirely by demons."
The Prophet stared at him wordlessly.
Then slowly... Understanding dawned in his eyes.
"I see..." he whispered. "You regressed."
Amon shook his head.
"No. Not exactly." His gaze darkened slightly. "But sothing similar happened."
He had no intention of explaining Yue’s regression or revealing everything.
Still... Joroxin had earned at least this much honesty.
"Your plans worked," Amon admitted. "You just faced the wrong enemies."
For a brief mont, silence consud the crumbling dinsion.
Then suddenly... the Prophet began laughing.
At first, it was quiet.
Then louder. And louder. Until manic laughter echoed throughout the collapsing world.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Grey mist trembled violently around him as he clutched his face in amusent.
"I see now!" Joroxin roared. "I finally understand!"
Amon narrowed his eyes.
"Understand what?"
"My King..." The Prophet wheezed through laughter. "My King never intended to conquer your world!"
"...What?"
The Prophet pointed weakly toward Amon.
"I was never ant to win," he rasped. "I was rely a tool. A whetstone ant to sharpen your blade!"
His laughter beca almost hysterical.
"HAHAHAHA!!!"
Amon frowned deeply.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Heh..."
Joroxin slowly lowered his hand, his expression twisting into pity.
"Amon Solaris... you’re powerful beyond reason... yet still so naive."
The Prophet’s body was already disintegrating. His flesh had nearly vanished. His soul was unravelling. Even if Amon did nothing, Joroxin would soon cease to exist entirely. And knowing death had already arrived... The Prophet no longer had reason to lie.
"This Universe..." Joroxin whispered. "What do you think it truly is?"
"...Explain."
"To mortals, the Universe is everything. Your ho. Your reality. Your existence."
The Prophet’s hollow eyes glead faintly.
"But in truth..." His smile widened. "It is rely a playground."
Amon remained silent.
"A playground for Gods," Joroxin continued. "For beings like my King... and eventually... beings like you."
Those words caused Amon’s eyes to narrow slightly.
anwhile, the Prophet kept speaking.
"The Goddess Hyades believes she can preserve the world by preventing its evolution. She thinks monopolising the Mandate of Heaven protects this dinsion from destruction."
His laughter turned mocking.
"But she’s wrong."
For the first ti, Amon began gaining genuine insight into Hyades’s motives. She hadn’t rely been greedy.
She had been afraid... she thought she was protecting the world... but in truth...
"If my King truly wished it," Joroxin said calmly, "he could erase your planet with a single thought."
Amon’s expression darkened.
"He didn’t need armies. He didn’t need ."
The Prophet slowly spread his arms.
"This entire invasion..."
"...was ant to temper you."
Amon froze.
"To create Gods strong enough to inherit this dinsion," Joroxin explained. "To evolve your world into sothing equal to the Demon Realm itself."
The implication stunned Amon montarily.
If that was true... Then the Demon King had indirectly helped humanity evolve.
"...Why?" Amon asked coldly. "Why help us?"
"Because Gods grow bored."
The Prophet chuckled softly.
"For the longest ti, Urath was one of the few higher dinsions capable of producing true Gods. Beings with infinite lifespans eventually exhaust all aning."
His smile deepened.
"So what do they do then?"
Amon answered imdiately.
"...They play."
"Exactly."
The Prophet grinned in delight.
"My King and the other Demon Kings are effectively immortal. Even if their bodies perish, their essences remain bound to the laws of Urath itself. They will always resurrect eventually."
"They’re that powerful...?"
"In Urath?" Joroxin laughed weakly. "Absolutely."
Then his gaze sharpened.
"But what happens if a new dinsion erges?"
Amon remained silent.
"A dinsion strong enough to contain beings like them," Joroxin whispered. "A battlefield where their immortality is no longer guaranteed."
Realisation struck Amon instantly.
"...They want war."
"More than that." The Prophet’s eyes glead with madness. "They want risk, jeopardy and maybe... death."
For the first ti in countless years, Amon genuinely felt chilled.
The Demon Kings weren’t invading because they needed resources.
Or territory.
Or domination.
They simply wanted stimulation.
Conflict. Entertainnt.
An existence capable of threatening them.
"Hyades..." Joroxin muttered mockingly. "That foolish child thinks clinging to the Mandate of Heaven solves everything. But the mont stronger dinsions notice this world..."
He smiled.
"...your planet becos part of the ga."
Amon clenched Nyx tightly.
"So our only option is to evolve," he said grimly. "Beco stronger. Fight back against beings like the Demon Kings."
The Prophet laughed softly.
"Heh... exactly." His body had almost completely disappeared now. Only fragnts of his soul remained.
"This Universe is the playground of Gods," Joroxin whispered. "If you refuse to beco prey..."
His fading eyes locked onto Amon one final ti.
"Then grow stronger."
The collapsing dinsion began breaking apart completely. Grey mist scattered into nothingness. Joroxin’s soul slowly dissolved into particles of fading darkness. Yet even as death claid him... The Prophet smiled.
"Amon Solaris..." His voice beca distant. "I will rember your na."
The Demon’s body finally crumbled away. But before he vanished entirely, he left behind one final warning.
"Beco the God you were ant to be."
"Because that..." His voice disappeared into the void. "...is the only way you can save your world."
And with that... the mightiest demon Amon had ever faced...
The architect behind two ruined tilines... The Prophet of the Demon Cult...
Faded into oblivion, returning at last to the waiting embrace of his eternal Demon King.
Amon stood alone amidst the collapsing dinsion, silent as the final remnants of Joroxin’s presence faded into nothingness.
The grey mist dissipated. The artificial sky shattered. Fragnts of broken space drifted endlessly through the void while lunar flas quietly burned around him.
Yet Amon remained motionless.
The Prophet’s final words echoed repeatedly within his mind.
A playground for Gods.
Amon slowly lowered his gaze toward Nyx, whose black blade still humd with Eclipse energy.
Normally, he would have dismissed such words as the ramblings of a dying enemy.
Joroxin was a demon. A manipulator. A liar who had orchestrated the destruction of humanity across multiple tilines.
And yet... Amon’s instincts told him otherwise.
The Prophet had spoken the truth.
Not all of it, perhaps.
But enough.
Hyades’s obsession with controlling the Mandate of Heaven suddenly made sense. She wasn’t rely power-hungry. She was terrified of what lay beyond the boundaries of their dinsion. Because if beings like the Demon Kings truly existed...
Then, Solfea had never been safe to begin with.
The demon invasion.
Hyades’s tyranny.
The cycles of power that there was always a new challenger for the Mandate of Heaven...
Those were rely the beginning.
An appetiser.
Beyond their world existed monsters capable of erasing dinsions with a thought. Immortal beings who treated entire universes as entertainnt.
And now... With Heaven and Earth beginning to rge... Their world had finally entered the gaze of those higher existences.
Amon should have felt fear. Anyone else would have.
But strangely enough... He didn’t.
Instead, a familiar resolve slowly surfaced within his chest.
Amon had never been soone who drowned himself in despair.
Whether as Number 23 or as Amon Solaris, his life had always been simple. If an obstacle appeared before him... Destroy it.
If an enemy threatened his ho, kill them.
That was all.
Amon closed his eyes briefly before releasing a slow breath.
"I see..." His voice was calm. "So that’s how it is."
The shattered dinsion trembled around him as lunar mana slowly receded into his body.
"If the Demon Kings want to invade..." Amon raised Nyx onto his shoulder. "...then I’ll fight them."
No hesitation existed within his eyes. No fear. Only certainty.
For the longest ti, Amon had carved his path forward with nothing except the blade in his hand.
Gods, demons, monsters, fate itself—it didn’t matter what stood before him.
If they threatened the people he cared about... He would cut them down.
Simple as that.
The pressure radiating from his body intensified. Black-and-white flas flickered across the void as Eclipse energy surged violently around him.
"If they step into my territory..." Amon’s crimson eyes glimred sharply beneath the ruined heavens. "...then I’ll beco strong enough to kill them too."
BOOOOOOM!!!
The isolated dinsion finally collapsed completely. Space shattered like glass around Amon while endless darkness swallowed the remains of the battlefield.
Yet amidst the collapsing void... Amon smiled. A cold, fearless smile filled with absolute confidence.
"Bring it on."
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