The Abyss settled back into his original shape and smiled at Eli. “Interesting. Do you recognize who I am?”

“Then tell me, boy—who are you?”

“Boy, huh? By age, I’m not far behind you anymore.” Eli shook his head with a lazy grin.

“Ancient stock?” The Abyss’s eyes raked Eli up and down, as if dredging for a name from silted memory.

After a long quiet, he frowned. “One through Nine—which one are you?”

Eli waved it off. “Let it be. You’ve got things to do, don’t you?”

“How do I know you won’t get in my way?” The Abyss’s smile tilted, light as mist.

“I’m the one who repelled the early-timeline invaders.” Eli laced his fingers behind his head and watched him with a teasing calm.

“…Fine.” The Abyss shrugged, helpless as a wind-bent tree. “Then you already know how what I do next will shape the future cosmos?”

“You want the Hero to live under a new name, and you want the twin worlds’ power to guard this universe. I know.” Eli flicked a hand, easy as tossing a leaf.

The Abyss gave him a long, deep look. “You…”

“Don’t be startled, Edward. You’ll know who I am soon.” Eli’s tone turned playful, and he vanished with a whoosh.

The Abyss squinted. He knew the man hadn’t gone far—just hiding in the cloudbanks, peeking like a timid sparrow.

Idiot mask or not, the man knew too much.

He only hoped the fool would keep his word and not interfere. At a moment like this, he couldn’t let any unknown factor draw breath.

As for him claiming he’d stopped those invaders—well…that needed proof.

He scattered the cluttered thoughts and set off toward the Celestial Realm, footsteps steady as a tide.

Eli sprawled in the clouds, spat out the blade of grass in his mouth, tucked his hands behind his head, and settled in to watch the show.

Inside the Celestial Realm, Birand was cutting a road through heaven. Bodies of Angels covered the world built on cloud, and blood with a holy scent splashed onto immaculate altars.

A hellscape painted on sacred marble.

The maker of it all dragged his exhausted body onward, deeper into heaven’s halls.

From start to finish, the Abyss trailed him, a silent shadow at his back.

The Abyss sighed, wind through pines.

Celestial God, you’ve gone too far. He lifted his gaze toward a particular height. If you’d simply executed Birand, we wouldn’t have this avalanche.

He shook his head, both weary and wry.

You wanted a beast that never stops tearing your enemies, but you couldn’t chain him. So I’m left to mop up your storm. He sighed again, then raised a hand. A stream of pure energy flowed like springwater into the fallen Angels.

This power was nothing like holy aura, yet no blood rejected it. It slipped in like light through latticework, and kept a sliver of life alive.

“These are prime material for the future fight against Father. It’d be a shame to lose them.” The Abyss chuckled, then stepped after Birand and vanished.

Not long after, Eli drifted near and smiled. “Same old guy. With that temperament, how did he become the Abyss? Maybe he should’ve been the Celestial God.”

He whistled, then followed in the Abyss’s wake.

“This is the last time.” After a long silence, the Abyss looked at the girl and let out a sigh.

“Mm. I understand.” Edlyn smiled at the mirror. Cracks like golden lightning veined her face.

“In a month, break through or be broken—you’ll break through. I can push the limit to that point. That’s all.” His face was blank stone; his words were bare fact.

“Mm.” Edlyn nodded and touched the crack—only to find she’d touched tears instead.

Her small face was webbed with golden light and wet with grief. She choked softly. “I’m ready.”

“Maybe making you was a mistake.” The Abyss stood quiet for a heartbeat, then spoke, cool and pale.

“My help ends here. I’m going to withdraw my power soon.”

Edlyn blinked. Gentle light smoothed the fractures, and her features returned. She stared at him, startled. “What did you say?”

“…I carry too much power. Too many burdens. I’m tired.” The Abyss stretched like a cat in sun. “Next, it’s your era. When the dust finally settles, you’ll understand. But listen—both you and he must succeed. There’s no retreat.”

“Mm.” Edlyn nodded, voice soft.

“All right. That bastard should be in the Celestial Realm making trouble by now. According to the record, you go too—bring back some of the Celestial God’s pure energy. It’ll make it easier when I deal with her, and let me add a few strokes to the canvas.”

“Got it.” Edlyn rose and shot into the sky.

The Abyss smiled at her receding silhouette, then coughed twice.

A copper-sweet taste climbed his throat. He frowned, forced the blood down, and faded from sight.

Silver light flashed at the spot he’d left. A long spear stabbed out of nowhere and hammered into the earth, blasting a wide crater where he’d stood.

Everything around froze, as if the world had been pinned under glass.

A sparrow winging up from the trees hung midair, trapped between beats.

Smoke thinned. A white figure appeared in the crater, a broken sword in one hand and a long spear in the other. A silver cloak draped his frame, and the hood shadowed his face.

He glanced around, head tilted. “Nice. He slipped away again. I just wanted him to fix my sword. Why so jumpy?”

Space rippled, and the man faded like breath.

A faint voice lingered in the stillness.

“Even missing the Abyss’s imperfect repairs, this sword’s a burden to me. It should return to its master. Abyss, let it find its owner on its own.”

Eli stood aside, watching the Abyss fold into silence, while the Abyss kept his gaze on the man slaughtering the Celestial Realm.

This was the cradle of heaven’s rare flora—herbs, holy water, all sacred substance born from cloud and star.

Birand dragged his spent body and six half-dead Angels onward, step by step, like a tide that refused to recede.

He stopped at last before a waterfall descending straight from the sky.

He lifted his head, half release, half pain.

A spring of unknown source poured from the starfield and into the pool at his feet, splashing flowers of foam again and again.

He loosened the rope that bound the Angels.

He walked to the pool.

He dropped to one knee.

He drew out a soul already shattered, and lowered it toward the River of Life.

In Eli’s and the Abyss’s eyes, that broken soul howled with pain. A heavy curse clung to it like frost.

Yet amid the curse, a sacred glow breathed—holy under ash.

Eli understood at once.

This was Icarina, the one sacrificed.

But the moment Birand’s hand neared the spring, the sky turned. A lightning-laced javelin flew for his chest. Eli moved to stop it, but the Abyss caught his wrist. The Abyss gave him a cool look. “I told you—too soon. Stir this now, and you die.”

Eli frowned and watched the javelin drive into his past self.

It knocked Birand back, then punched through his heart and nailed him to the ground.

“Argh!” Birand ripped the javelin from his body with a savage yank and threw his head back toward the vault.

“Celestial God!” He roared at the endless firmament like a desperate beast.

“Birand, you still won’t give up.” The Celestial God’s voice spilled from the sky.

To beings like Eli and the Abyss, whose strength eclipsed all, her voice was a woman’s.

To everyone else, it sounded like a chorus of blended throats, law weaving a mask rather than her intent.

“You finally woke. Any later and I’d have wiped the Celestial Realm clean,” Birand snarled, face twisted.

The Celestial God’s brow creased. She saw the Angels chained by Birand drifting toward true death, so she quietly drew heaven’s power and unraveled their wounds where he wouldn’t notice.

“Let it go, Birand. Icarina is dead. Obey, and I’ll forgive your offense.” She let out a breath that sounded like a sigh.

Birand laughed, low and hoarse. “Give up? I crawled out of the Inferno to hunt you down. Give up? Celestial God, didn’t know you told jokes. Hear me—so long as I breathe, I’ll spit ruin at you. As long as you live, this obsession won’t die.”

He laughed harder. “Until the end of time, I’ll cradle this hatred, until my blade takes your head.”

Birand’s voice surged like thunder, and everyone nearby—save the Abyss, the Celestial God, and Eli—dropped into unconsciousness.