The Hero’s sword carved a blazing arc through the air, slicing apart the light blades Kaeya had conjured. Radiant fragnts shattered like glass, scattering across the battlefield before dissolving into sparks.
Kaeya clicked her tongue in irritation and lunged forward again, her own blade trailing a crescent of golden light. Hiro t her strike head-on. Steel clashed against steel, shockwaves rippling across the rocky ground. She pivoted sharply and slashed upward—
Hiro’s arm split open, armor cracking. For a brief second, it looked as if the limb would fall apart entirely.
But then—
A soft blue radiance enveloped him.
The wound sealed instantly. Flesh rewove. Armor restored itself as if ti had reversed.
Kaeya’s eyes flicked sideways.
Aoi stood at the rear, staff raised, violet eyes glowing faintly beneath the healing aura.
"Aoi " Kaeya muttered. "We used to be almost like sisters."
"Why the hell are you all this powerful after turning to the enemy side?" she snapped, frustration leaking into her voice.
The four forr heroes moved in flawless coordination, their expressions emotionless. No hesitation. No doubt. Only execution.
At that very mont, behind her, Tyler activated the Annihilation Magic Cannons once more. A concentrated beam roared forward, tearing a hole into the spatial distortion surrounding the castle. The air warped violently.
Without another word, Tyler stepped through the breach.
The cannons remained behind.
"He’s in..." Kaeya exhaled, then imdiately spun back into combat.
Arnold’s massive shield slamd down, blocking her next strike entirely. The impact sent a tallic shockwave through her arms.
"Arnold," she said lightly despite the situation, springing off the shield’s surface to gain distance. "You used to drool around ."
She flipped midair and landed gracefully.
A blade of shadow sliced through the space she had just occupied.
Felch erged briefly from darkness before vanishing again.
"That was close..." Kaeya pouted. "Still sneaky, huh?"
Suddenly—
A humming sound rose behind her.
One of Tyler’s abandoned Annihilation Cannons swiveled.
Its barrel glowed blue.
And it aid directly at her.
Kaeya didn’t flinch.
"I was waiting for you," she murmured.
Her fingers tapped several concealed switches embedded along her wrist bracer.
The cannon’s glow intensified—
Then exploded.
The self-destruction sequence triggered instantly, tearing the device apart in a controlled blast.
Two plump figures were violently ejected from within the wreckage, tumbling across the rocky ground.
The plump young man groaned. "How did you find out?!"
Kaeya didn’t answer imdiately.
Before Tyler had entered the castle, he had leaned close and whispered to her:
"Listen carefully. They’re all living puppets now. Look at their eyes—they’re the sa shade as the white tiger we rode. And those two we ’rescued’? Probably demons in disguise. Expect a sneak attack."
She had been ready ever since.
Now, as the disguised demons scrambled to recover, Kaeya tightened her grip on her sword.
She had been waiting for them to reveal themselves.
And now—
There would be no more surprises.
┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉
Inside the heart of the castle—
—or whatever the structure truly was—
there existed a vast chamber where gravity itself seed optional.
Broken walls drifted like islands in a dark ocean. Shattered doors rotated slowly in midair. Pillars floated upside down, cracked and suspended as if frozen at the mont of destruction. There were no visible boundaries. No ceiling. No floor. The space stretched endlessly in all directions, fading into a haze of distorted light.
It was not architecture.
It was chaos given form.
A small circular rupture tore open in one of the drifting stone slabs.
Light burst through it.
Then a figure stepped out.
Tyler.
Behind him, the rupture sealed with a faint crackling sound.
He had fired multiple Annihilation Magic Cannons at maximum output, forcing a concentrated spatial breach through the looping distortion outside. Instead of entering through the "gate," he had simply carved his own entrance.
And it had led him here.
He slowly turned, surveying the surreal chamber. Floating debris cast long shadows that shifted without any clear light source. The air itself humd with unstable energy familiar energy.
"You have co..."
The voice echoed without direction.
Tyler lifted his gaze.
Hovering several ters above him was a man clad in black armor trimd with crimson veins of light. His presence distorted the surrounding space subtly, like heat warping the air.
The Demon King.
The sa one Tyler had encountered before.
"I told you," the Demon King said calmly, "we would have our fight after conquering each other’s lands. Why the rush?"
Tyler tilted his head, unimpressed.
"Oh? Is this supposed to be your palace?" He glanced around at the drifting rubble. "I expected sothing more... palace-like."
A faint smirk touched the Demon King’s lips.
"This place is constructed from chaos fragnts. The very things you have been trying to collect."
Tyler’s expression sharpened instantly.
"You know about the chaos fragnts?" he asked. "You are also a Orion Cube Holder? No wait? Gailo?"
The Demon King laughed.
A deep, layered sound.
Then—
his face shifted.
Features lted and reford. The armor altered subtly. The eyes changed.
Standing before Tyler now was a far too familiar figure.
Gailo.
Tyler’s brows furrowed. "What the hell? You’re the Demon King... and you’re also the Demon General?"
"Correct," Gailo replied smoothly.
Tyler took a slow breath. "I don’t understand. Why were you guiding us in the forest? Why tell us to wait for the final battle? Why invite us to kill you? Why betray yourself?"
Even he realized how absurd that sounded.
Gailo’s grin widened.
"Because it was entertaining."
The floating debris trembled slightly as his aura intensified.
"All I wanted," Gailo continued, "was to bring you here."
Tyler’s gaze hardened.
"Before you arrived in this world, I was already here," Gailo said casually. "In fact, I ensured that every Orion Cube holder who entered this realm eventually found their way to ."
Tyler felt a cold weight settle in his chest.
"What did you do?"
Gailo spread his arms theatrically.
"I harvested them."
The words echoed.
"I used their bodies. Their souls. Even their gacha-awarded special objects. I broke them down into chaos fragnts. I an Orion Tesseract fragnts and collected them."
"That’s impossible," Tyler snapped. "We can’t sense those fragnts unless we are the artifact itself."
Gailo chuckled. "Nothing is impossible. I designed a thod long before entering this world."
He gestured toward the endless chamber.
"This entire ’castle’ is my artifact. My gacha reward."
Tyler’s eyes narrowed.
"You rember the legends of the First Demon King? The one said to gain power from a fallen teorite?"
Gailo laughed.
"No teorite. That was . I brought power from another world."
He pointed upward. The floating chamber pulsed faintly.
"In the gacha selection, we were given three choices. I used luck and chose this, an artifact capable of storing and refining chaos fragnts."
Tyler instinctively touched the copper pot hanging at his waist. His own gacha reward.
"But the Decateron..." he muttered. "How did it not notice?"
Gailo’s eyes glead.
"They might notice. But what can they do?"
He spread his hands mockingly.
"They are bound by their own rules. They created the trial system. They must abide by it."
Tyler clenched his jaw.
"So why collect all of this? What are you building?"
Gailo’s smile slowly shifted from amusent to sothing darker.
"It will take ti," he admitted. "Perhaps a million years."
His voice didn’t waver.
"But I can reincarnate. Again. And again. And again."
The chamber pulsed violently.
"I do not need haste."
He leaned forward slightly.
"And do you know what I am creating?"
Tyler said nothing.
"Gateways."
The word echoed like a revelation.
"This Orion Tesseract," Gailo continued, "is a chaos treasure. It allows traversal across worlds. Universes. Tilines."
His eyes burned with manic brilliance.
"Imagine it, Tyler. You love won, right?"
Tyler’s silence deepened.
"Now imagine with one thought you are in A world populated only by won. And another world where won worship n as gods. And another world where won dominate n entirely." Gailo laughed softly. "Whatever preference you have, you simply step through and enjoy it."
His tone grew more feverish.
"You want to acquire eternity? Leap forward and take it."
"You want to go to the beginning of existence? Travel backward."
"You want to kill gods before they’re born?"
"Or stand at the end of everything and watch reality collapse?"
His voice bood across the chamber.
"With this completed Gateway, you can be anything. Obtain anything. Rewrite anything as your wish."
The debris around them began rotating faster, drawn into subtle spirals.
Tyler finally spoke.
"And after that?"
Gailo tilted his head, "After conquering all worlds?"
"Yes." Tyler nodded.
Gailo smiled, "Then I’ll move to the next layer. Nothing truly ends."
Silence fell.
Tyler now understood.
This was not about ruling a kingdom. Nor about defeating heroes. It’s Not about trials either.
Gailo’s ambition extended far beyond a single world.
He wasn’t aiming for domination. He was aiming for ownership. Of the multiverse itself.
The chaos fragnts humming in the chamber.
Gailo studied him carefully.
"You see it now, don’t you?" he asked softly. "This world is nothing. Just a stepping stone. After I get my own Gateway, I will dominate the whole multiverse."
Tyler’s expression beca unreadable.
The floating debris slowed.
The endless chamber seed to tighten.
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