Gemini glanced up at the enormous sigils, which were the culprits responsible for enabling this pseudo-battle of Divine Will…a one-sided form too, no less. Generating two blades of energy this time, he shot a look at Hereward, who was still trying to adapt to the immense pressure that had blanketed the floating platform, and then generated multiple orbs of black-gold light around him.

With an opponent capable of rewinding time or altering reality over and over again, Gemini wasn’t going to get up close and personal until the opening presented itself. The second sword in his hand was to also prevent the Abyss Sovereign from making use of that knife easily — even if he destroyed one of Gemini’s weapons, the other was almost certainly poised to inflict damage.

More importantly, that knife definitely had something going for it.

Before the orbs of light could even move, however, the enemy had reappeared right in front of him. Silver flashed through the sky and Gemini slashed out twice, each attack targeted at a different, randomised point.

The silvery strike stopped in its tracks, with the Abyss Sovereign doubling back slightly. A moment later, two flashes of black and gold sliced through the area where his throat and left arm had been, and a cold chill ran down Gemini’s back as his foe’s eyes glinted.

Without waiting for anything, Gemini’s instincts kicked in. The orbs of black-gold light hovering around him detonated on the spot, and the Abyss Sovereign reeled from the explosion. At the same time, the impact sent Gemini backwards, but since he had already steeled himself, he was able to recover two seconds before his foe.

That two seconds was more than enough.

With such an opening, Gemini didn’t hesitate. Melding the two blades together, he worked his will madly and thrust his hands skyward, creating an enormous pillar of black and gold radiance. The conflagration of energy tore through the huge sigils that were hanging in the sky, pierced through the black dome that had blanketed the Central Circle, and changed night into day.

“Go down for me!” Roaring, the Demon Sovereign brought down the gigantic pillar of light, smashing at the floating platform itself.

Colour fled from the world as the manifestation of Gemini’s maximum output of divinity — which had drastically increased with his earlier epiphany — was intercepted with a harsh silvery arc of light. The resulting blast of wind forced Gemini back, and the black dome, which had been torn through by that manifestation earlier, completely shattered from the clash.

“Did that do it?” Gemini gasped. The nebulous pressure that had been trying its damnedest to lock him down had completely vanished, which was a good sign. After all—

“No, not yet!” Hereward, who had been liberated from his bindings, roared once, and the space in front of Gemini fractured. An arc of silver light, some twenty metres long, slammed into the fractured area, only for its trajectory to be diverted by Hereward’s working.

Gemini felt his heart chill as the arc of light skimmed past him by a few centimetres. The intense radiance that followed their clash died down shortly afterwards, revealing the Abyss Sovereign, whose hair was slightly dishevelled.

“After all that…” Gemini bit his lips. That was the largest opening that he had managed to create so far, and he hadn’t held much back in that working of his either.

“No matter.” Hereward chuckled. “Gaius. You’ve lost. The Locomotives of the North should be speeding over, now that your alteration of natural law has been destroyed. Give up.”

“Give up?”

The Abyss Sovereign chuckled, and the gigantic sigils that had enabled him to rewind time over and over again reappeared in the sky. “One person, two people…makes no difference to me.”

“What if you add us in?”

Two presences abruptly flared from the highest floor of the Cradle, and Gemini felt his spirits lift as Thasvia and Archduchess Gaia flew up to join them, weapons at the ready.

The Abyss Sovereign looked at the four of them evenly. “I see you’ve made some sacrifices. But again, you’d be dreaming if you think I’m going to give up this easily. Just four people — don’t underestimate me.”

A cold stillness began to emanate out of him, and the silvery dagger in his hands began to glow with a silvery-black light. “Zeroth Release.”

“Dodge it!” Hereward shouted.

A small smirk appeared on the Abyss Sovereign’s face as the four of them scattered in different directions, before he stabbed upwards into the sky. A horrible black scar, one that transcended the darkness of the night sky, appeared high above the sky.

“This was a necessary part to the ritual,” a quiet voice whispered through the night. “But I suppose opening it up earlier wouldn’t hurt either.

An incredible suction began to tug on everyone present. Gemini and the other two great gods could withstand it with ease, but the same couldn’t be said for Archduchess Gaia, who had to resist it madly.

“Retreat, or be pulled inside. Your choice.” The Abyss Sovereign turned his eyes back to the other three. “Let’s go.”

His body rippled from view once more, and Gemini felt the back of his neck tingle. The sensation abruptly vanished a moment later as the Abyss Sovereign directly reappeared in front of Thasvia and punched out at her abdomen. Green energy erupted outwards, but his fist had somehow found the openings in her defences.

Gemini darted forward at that moment, and once again, the sigils up high flashed.

“This is cheating.”

“Says the people who pulled me into a battle of Divine Will not too long ago,” the Abyss Sovereign replied. “I haven’t forgotten how you kept trying to crack my moves when I was still a Demigod.”

The smile on his face faded. “But time’s up.”

“Time—" Gemini’s words cut off as a disturbing sensation caught him by surprise. The grey border, which should still have been an hour away, had abruptly sped up, sweeping through the four of them without much ado.

The Abyss Sovereign reappeared back on the floating platform as the grey border closed in on the Cosmic Egg. “It was close, really. Midnight, sunrise, whatever. What really mattered was that I was able to fill up the area that the Border of Transmigration couldn’t. Since my knowledge remained, even when I rewound time on a small scale, I just needed to buy a bit of time.”

“Wait!” Gemini called out.

“The time of creation is at hand,” the Abyss Sovereign replied. “The process is set in stone. There is no need to wait any further.”

Orb began to shake as the grey border, which had been once so vast, became thinner and thinner. Within seconds, it had condensed into a thin line that sat squarely on the Cosmic Egg, which began to glow with a prismatic radiance.

A single heartbeat rattled the whole of Orb, just as the fleet of Locomotives broke through the horizon. The reinforcements, which had arrived before midnight, could have been the trump card, the final force to turn the tide, but…

They were just a bit too late.

“Gods of Orb.” The Abyss Sovereign’s voice swept out through the world, a calm voice that Gemini couldn’t bring himself to block out. “The creation of an artificial world is the final form of a Divine Kingdom. It requires an indomitable will, a fervent desire to manifest one’s reality. My desire was to create a world that lacked the circumstances for conflict, a world that would allow anyone and everyone to live freely. I was led to such an understanding by the Demon Sovereign and the final aid I received from the Abyss itself — a friend now departed.”

The grey line connecting the Cosmic Egg to the black, boundless rift above began to light up. Energy fluctuated madly, turning into black lightning that connected both the sky and the land. The shadowy form of Celestia, the huge globe that had a transient tint to it, was shrinking rapidly, returning to its origin.

“It requires a world seed. The amalgamation of life and souls, reconstructed into a virtual reality for hibernating souls to live in. This world seed was Cybral, the final creation of the old gods of Orb. In the moment the old gods of Orb became the Abyss, the released power was more than enough to house billions of injured souls, creating a world that defied cause and effect. This was the blueprint in which I made use of to create the impossible Celestia.”

The Cradle of Creation started to crumble apart, turning into black streaks that funnelled themselves into the Cosmic Egg, which was now floating in silence. Gemini didn’t know why he was saying all these, but he had a feeling that the Abyss Sovereign had a message he couldn’t quite grasp.

“It requires energy on an unimaginable scale. This energy came from the Abyss, the final form of the gods of old Orb. With me as the bridge, with their blessings, I channelled their wishes and their energy, making use of their wills to open a new dimension and to power my creation.”

The Abyss Sovereign floated over to the Cosmic Egg slowly, enormous quantities of will and power surging around him. “This is the result. And now—hmm?”

Orb quaked at that moment, cutting off his words. A familiar, albeit tremendous, presence washed across the world, and once more, the dark night scattered. A white dragon, its form radiating a might that seemed to be the equal of the Abyss Sovereign’s.

“Aldnath…” Thasvia whispered.

The Dragon of Time burned itself into Gemini’s eyes. “He came back.”

“From the future, no less,” Hereward muttered.

Gemini took a deep breath. Their backup plan, which was sending the Dragon of Time to the future, had yielded fruit…in a way. Somehow, Aldnath was able to travel back here, to this point, but he could not detect any strength from the manifestation.

“God of Creation, Gaius.” The Dragon of Time’s will spread out throughout the area, echoing with a surreal might. “I have watched the world. Abandoned my own home. Wandered through a future both dark and bright. Found my own path. And now, I return to the fulcrum of the absolute, the place of destiny.” “

He paused for a moment, and an extreme fatigue radiated outwards. “My journey of a hundred thousand years is over, for my goal is to send you a message. Congratulations. Celestia has been created. The paradise you envisioned came into being. But leave no regrets behind. Hear the people out. Let them reason with you. Give their alterations, their resolves, a chance.”

The Abyss Sovereign narrowed his eyes at the Dragon of Time. “You do not possess any combat power. You do not belong here. You…are from the future, no?”

“A future that will now collapse.” The Dragon of Time nodded slowly, its enormous, radiant frame beginning to crumble apart. A boundless, paradoxical sense of life and death emanated outwards from him, and Gemini felt a complex sense of sorrow. Aldnath had returned from the future. Not to fight, but to convey a single message. The price he paid for doing so, however…

Was it worth it?

The other great gods, who had realised this point too, were silent.

“By saying this, you have altered the future…so, that’s why you are dying.” The Abyss Sovereign stared at the crumbling form of Aldnath. “Does that mean that I will inevitably accept their suggestions, were I to listen to them?”

“I came here, at the peak of my might, as a being that the future you accept as an equal, just to convey a message.” Aldnath’s presence bloomed once more, and Gemini faltered slightly. “Is that not enough for you? And besides, you did have that intention. You just failed to carry it out back then.”

“I failed to carry it out back then?” The Abyss Sovereign took in the sight of the crumbling dragon, his eyes alight. Black lightning flickered around him, but Gemini could feel his fighting spirit ebb away. “For your resolve…so be it. Whatever changes that these resolves might bring will not affect my grand plan. Go in peace, Dragon of Time.”

“Don’t write me off just yet. Let us meet again when my incarnation matures, friend,” said Aldnath. “At that time…remember to treat me to some Du Contee.”

“Du Contee…heh. Hahaha!” The Abyss Sovereign looked at the Dragon of Time, and then smiled. “Yeah. Let’s.”

The white light and the tremendous presence of Aldnath began to weaken, and the world watched on in silence as the Dragon of Time faded away. The Abyss Sovereign watched the whole thing in silence, and then looked at the Cosmic Egg.

That little exchange was more than enough for Gemini to gain a scant understanding of what had happened to Aldnath. He grew stronger, formed a friendship with the Abyss Sovereign of the future, and then finally found a way to return home, to this very point.

Gemini didn’t quite know what to think or say, but fortunately, he didn’t need to either.

Divinity abruptly surged out of the Abyss Sovereign. The Cosmic Egg, which was now coloured in both black and white light, pulsed once more, a heartbeat that swept through Orb. The thread that connected the Cosmic Egg to the rift between dimensions abruptly expanded, swallowing the little azure globe.

“Let there be a stairway to Celestia!” The Abyss Sovereign’s words rang through Orb, and the Cosmic Egg shot upwards, launching itself into the black void beyond. At the same time, the channel that had propelled the Cosmic Egg into the rift unravelled, becoming a vast field of frozen threads.

Azure light twinkled once, between the rift between worlds, filling it with a starry sky. Another ripple surged out from the Abyss Sovereign, and Gemini found himself standing on the floating platform, along with the other great gods.

The Abyss Sovereign looked at them in silence, and then waved his hand once more. The Paragons and Demigods that had served as distractions earlier also appeared on the platform, stumbling backwards and falling all over the place from the shock of their sudden relocation.

“The Abyss Sovereign—”

“That’s…Celestia?”

Surprised cries rang through the raised platform, and a few clear-minded fellows settled into defensive stances.

“There’s no need to fight. The battle is over. Celestia has been created,” said the Abyss Sovereign. “But…I have promised to hear out everyone’s words. As such, I shall offer everyone one chance.”

“One chance?” Paragon Kolya took a step forward.

“Yes, Kolya,” Gaius replied. “An interrogation of wills. Resolves that prove themselves to be strong enough will be accepted. Whatever ideal you hold, should it prove strong enough, will modify Celestia.”

He snapped his fingers once, and the channel that led straight up into the new starry sky came apart into innumerable threads, threads were now in everyone’s hands. “Paragons, Demigods and great gods of Orb. Collectively, everyone present represents the pinnacle of an ideal, of a vow. Now is the time to test those vows.”

Black and white light danced around the Abyss Sovereign. “Let us begin.”