Inside one of the private cabins of the Arena reserved for them only, the La Croix siblings watched silently as the stage was once again being consumed by dark clouds… though clouds only in name as it resembled more a sea of darkness, flowing like water with eels of red lightning jumping over its surface.

“…Granolf, is this what I think it is?” Gwenef asked her brother, her tone solemn. Barely a second prior, she had been watching the Beast Emperor’s spell being launched, but then, everything was utterly smothered in ebony and crimson lightning, shaking the spatial layer once again.

Her brother had been silent for a while now, ever since the moment he viewed the lightning at the beginning of the fight. He was far from being a fanatic believer; the Basilica’s faith was selfish in a way. But there wasn’t a way for him to explain how he felt when the source of said faith appeared before him.

“Gwen…” He breathed in. “What I’m about to tell you is something that is only kept to the members of the Basilica,” he stated and lifted one finger, black lightning highlighted by a blue hue appearing at its tip. “We are all initiated in some way when joining it… We are shown the way to the Cross in Old Eden and made to touch it.”

Gwenef glanced at him worriedly.

“We get the usual stuff; stories and names imprinted in our minds. But if we stay a bit longer… we are ‘blessed’ with visions,” he snorted as if the idea of blessing was a joke. “Sometimes, it’s only a glimpse of a dragon or a warm and welcoming landscape, but at others… we are shown why a night that is eternal must be feared.”

Granolf closed his eyes. “We see a vision of the world and ourselves. There is no sound or light. It is quite serene. Then, darkness surrounds everything, red light flashes, lightning bolts blacken our sight, and the next thing we know, the world is destroyed and our body is impaled.”

“…”

“And then, we wake up,” the Cardinal smiled. “And we learn our first lesson…”

* * *

“Nothing escapes Nox Aeterna.”

Rakna’s vision swam in the dark and his ears whistled. He didn’t know where those words came from or how they reached them; they just rang in his head. The second that his Slātta Raja had hit and he heard the dragon roar, for a moment, he had blacked out.

He opened his eyes and tried to blink away the obscurity until he realized that his eyes simply had stopped working. He heard Eye of Symphony report to him the healing progress… and then, he finally recovered his sight and the rest of his senses at the same time.

“Aah… that… makes too much sense,” the therian uttered with a derisive smile. Somehow, from the moment he had fallen unconscious to now, he had been hurled away and made to crash inside one of the elevations crystallized by his supernova.

As he lay inside the ruins of said geographical mark, he stared right back through the hole he made and what he could see across. An otherworldly disaster; there was no other word for it. A storm of lightning, taking the form of a crowned pillar of energy.

Rakna grunted and pushed himself out of the crumbling crystal. Cyan vapor escaped through his skin as the Eion snapped back his bones in place and rebuilt his muscle fibers.

Three of his wings that had been bent out of shape were forcefully stretched back to normal, while the burn scars on his face mended; caused by a direct lightning strike that had fried his eyes earlier and sent him all the way here.

[| Restoration At 96% Completion… 97, 98, 99… 100% Completed. Eion Resources Have Fallen To 12%. Regenerating Resources… Time Required; 276 Minutes. Mana Usage Recommended. |]

Listening to his Eye’s analysis, Rakna realized how badly he had just been injured. He looked down at Allegro and saw tears, burns, and holes stitching themselves up with Eion strings.

“…don’t you think you’re being a bit mean to your adorable nephew, old man?” The therian blankly said while looking up at the sky overtaken by the depiction of a night eternally dwelled by storms.

“Point me where that adorable nephew is supposed to be and I’ll get back to you,” an equally deadpan voice responded, though its loudness and deep growly echo would have conveyed terror to its listeners more than anything else.

Hovering in the air, a creature of legend peered down at the therian. It towered over forty meters in height, with two pairs of black feathered wings, lined in silver and red, spanning an even greater length. It had black scales interconnected by a pattern of red lines converging toward a mark over its heart and a mane of silver fur growing from its head to the end of its tail.

A pair of horns sprouted from the sides of its head and crackled with lightning. Its arms and claws were covered in a thicker layer of scales and were currently crossed as if condescendingly viewing lifeforms below it.

Its crimson eyes, of which the irises’ outlines were defined by green pigment, and silver slit pupils focused on Rakna while a grin formed on the dragon’s face, showcasing a full row of fangs.

“This is my penultimate state,” Arimane spoke, his voice making the world shake. “It’s probably the most you will be able to see today. Evolving one last time implies matching my original self and fully embodying the true power behind the name of ‘Ahriman’. If that happens… you can make your prayers,” he said in a joking tone.

“…”

“What is it? Lost for words?”

“Are you compensating for something with your size?” Rakna dryly retorted, extending his hand to receive Sonata flying to him at his command. His hand wrapped around the handle of the one-handed sword and Arimane rolled his eyes.

“Right…” The dragon dragged his speech for a moment. “Just saying, kid, every time I take these forms, I always limit my size for practicality. Frankly, I never even tried my true size. If I did, I might even be bigger than Asgorath now that I think about it,” he muttered to himself.

Rakna raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that probably means nothing to you,” Arimane snorted. “Take it this way then. With my true form, I could swallow a planet whole in just one bite.”

“…I don’t see how that invalidates my point.”

“…”

“…”

* * *

“…it just keeps getting worse,” Kaelith sighed. “I don’t even dare to imagine how these two lived in the past. Did they just jab each other every morning or something?”

“Heh, I can see it,” Allan snickered.

“…your friend is barely standing though,” Zialtra commented plainly.

She was right. From what everyone could see, Rakna was completely fine outwardly. He may have sustained heavy damage a moment ago but his regenerative capability had to be outstanding for it to heal damages inflicted by a bolt of Aeterna. Or simply just unique.

However, now, the therian was faced with a much different challenge. He may stand unharmed for the most part, but his strength was barely allowing him to do so. Currently, the entire spatial layer was filled with one presence; the Kind Demon.

It had long surpassed the scope of a mere Host. Arimane had reached a level of power you would only see outside the System. Standing in front of him, even if he didn’t actively press his aura down on you, would feel like you are slowly dying.

‘…if he wants to last longer, he’ll have to reveal all his secrets,’ Nyx thought with a scowl. ‘He needs to raise himself as a ‘False God’ in a sense. He needs his own ‘Domain’ to rule over to fight back against the Eternal Night… Is there even a reason to hold back now?’

The Night Goddess looked around. ‘His allies are some of the strongest while his enemies already know of his true capability. There’s not much time left; Reigen will soon ‘Ascend’. Considering all of this, Rakna’s decision is obvious…’

“You’re thinking too much, Nyx,” Higure suddenly said out loud with a hand on her cheek. They all looked at her confusedly. “My devourer will go all out. Not because he wants to stand equal to his uncle, or because he wants to stop him. He wants to show everything he has against the one whom he owes a debt of life…” She smiled fondly. “He wants the man who raised him to be proud.”

“…the cat said something sensitive. The world is ending today,” Hans uttered blankly.

“Shut up, you little shit!”

“| Well then, what are you waiting for? |”

Before any further comment could be made, Arimane’s voice resounded. The dragon grinned and spread his arms as if awaiting a strike. Just with those small movements, the lightning writhing in the shadows around him thundered even louder.

“| If you dawdle for too long, it’ll get risky. I’m doing my best to slow the process down over here, you know? |” The dragon said with an exaggerated sigh. “| I’m so strong that I’m having a hard time stopping myself from becoming stronger. |”

“Good to see the Eternal Night God is a humble man,” Azheim snorted.

Rakna, on the other, showed an almost disgusted expression. “| That is the most moronic sentence I have ever heard you say, old man. |”

“| Suck it up, kid. It’s the humble truth. |”

“My image of the Kind Demon is completely ruined…” Kaelith shook her head.

“Really? I always thought it was obvious from within Egregore,” Astraea hummed. “I mean, doesn’t it sound normal for someone who has a title designing him as both ‘kind’ and ‘demonic’ to be an oddball? My peers in Egregore would all agree that Eternal Night is a bluntly bizarre person.”

“Stop making sense, you’re hurting my head…” The vixen whined cutely.

“| Aah, whatever. Just do it, Rakna, |” Arimane’s tone abruptly changed. “| Show me everything you’ve got. Show THEM! |” The dragon smirked. “| If you truly bear the name of ‘Blade’, in my mother’s honor, I can’t have you be anything else than the strongest! |”

Every spectator of the Arena held their breath in silence.

“| So, what are you waiting for?! The weaklings watching us right now can’t do anything else but reel in their incompetence! We’re woven of the same cloth, Rakna! Now, it’s time for you to wear it in full! Make me proud and show me that you’ve risen above my legacy! |”

In that instant, everyone saw it. A small grin appeared on the therian’s face.

* * *

“Honestly…” Rakna huffed lightly and Allegro began to sizzle. Circuits of Eion sparked alight on his gloves and his very flesh began to fuse with his equipment. His clothes were ready to become one with the Alkahest material; awaiting the body to transform.

“Speeches like that don’t suit you, old man.”

“Heh, was it too pretentious, after all?” The dragon cackled.

“But well, I suppose that I have no other choice if it’s for the honor of my adoptive grandmother.”

“…oi, what about my honor? You never even met my mom!”

“And I respect her a thousand times more,” Rakna nodded sagely.

“Ungrateful brat…”

“Regardless, you were the one who goaded me, old man,” the therian followed up, his body making crackling noises much the same way Arimane did when shifting into a dragon. “Take responsibility for it; you better save my ass if I get a Stele Inversion again.”

“Stele Inversion?” The Demon raised an eyebrow. “Who the hell do you think I am? I can heal that in a second. If I wanted, based on this place’s terminology, I could instantly raise your level by a few thousand. To get rid of a measly Stele Inversion, I could rewind time or brute force your soul into obeying my control.”

Rakna froze for a second. Even he had to take a moment to understand what he had just heard. But in the end, he raised his head with an innocent smile, “My dear uncle that I love very much, could you repeat that about the lev—”

“No,” Arimane deadpanned.

“…tch,” the therian clicked his tongue. “Fine,” he muttered and closed his eyes. As if on cue, a wave of shapeless power spread out from his body like a shockwave. It momentarily disturbed even the clouds of Nox Aeterna.

The dragon grinned widely. ‘He’s already tapping into Existentiality. To impose changes on the World with just willpower… it’s the key to becoming a Primordial God and he already has it despite not even being close to that level of strength,’ he thought in amusement.

A beat of silence passed by in the spatial layer and a purple ember drifted by right as Rakna opened his eyes. In the next instant, a pillar of soul flames completely shrouded him and surged until the sky where it bashed into the shadows.

Immediately, Nox Aeterna thundered, but not in a typical way. There was a different timbre to the sound as if it was a cry of pain rather than an aggressive snarl. Arimane looked up at the flowing pillar of flames and watched as they slowly encroached into his clouds as if devouring them.

“I knew your soul power wasn’t flashy just for the sake of it,” he uttered with a smile. Then, he heard a loud howl coming from within the expanding geyser of soul flames. It ironically mirrored his own roar from earlier.

Arimane laughed and looked back at the base of the pillar where the flames were starting to scatter but remained ablaze in the air as if there was an invisible combustible under each of them.

A shadow walked out from inside of it, the flames dragging behind as if they had just been attached to it like shed skin. At first sight, the silhouette looked at least five meters tall, and when two pairs of wings were deployed in full behind it, the soul power made way for their master.

❮ ◈ ❯

Your Title, Divinity Slayer, has reacted!

The opponent has been recognized to be partially Divine; +10% ATT, MA, & DEF.

---

Your Title, Elysian Pariah, is reacting!

You are resisting Arimane Reigen Blade’s aura more effectively.

---

Philosopher’s Ardent Soul is combusting Nox Aeterna…

Your Title, The Kind Demon’s Kin, is reacting strongly!

Your Title, Anti-Divinity, is reacting!

❮ ◈ ❯

“How does it taste, kid?” Arimane huffed.

A werewolf with five tails and whirling purple eyes adorned by golden crosses stood in the center of the cyclone of Ardent Flames as they ate more and more darkness and lightning. A longsword was held in his right hand, big enough to paint a threatening picture on its own along with a guard and a hilt carved out of obsidian.

❮ ◈ ❯

Combusted energy is highly compatible.

The Divinity contained within the core of the Obsidian Star has greatly increased!

---

Your level has increased!

Your soul power has increased!

❮ ◈ ❯

“—my divinity.”

Rakna didn’t answer, his daunting eyes as unreadable as ever. He exhaled quietly and purple smoke came out of his mouth before he spoke, growling.

“[Shards of Clarity Abide the Star’s Tyranny.]”

Arimane’s lips quivered for a brief moment. “Aah… that. Yes, I’ve seen it before.”

“[Ought The Blades of Fragility Rend Your Flesh,]” the werewolf chanted and stepped forward, his soul flames coalescing around him, imitating a third pair of wings on his back as well as four more tails. At the same time, the rough image of a flower field appeared at Rakna’s feet.

“[In a Dark Firmament, The Star Prowls the Light.]”

While singing his Cōl Lāli, Rakna flapped his wings and appeared up in the air. He pointed a finger at the dragon and a granulated orb even smaller than before began to form. Wordlessly, it was fired into a narrow beam of dark purple energy. Its width was lesser than the previous one but in speed and overall piercing capability, it trumped it by far.

However, Arimane impassively raised his arm to face the Slātta Raja. The obsidian shards bounced off his scales and a lightning bolt struck from above to swallow the spell whole; piercing through its natural transmuting properties as if they didn’t matter.

“[In Eternal Redemption, The Wolf Sings and Confers.]”

The dragon lowered his fuming arm and barely had the time to blink before he saw Sonata expand to the size of a building and fall on him from above.

‘Hm, so he did turn it into his Soul Weapon,’ Arimane thought as he summoned Karma back. Due to his draconic form, it had obviously changed to fit him. The katana had maintained its general shape and curve but was enlarged to a state similar to a saber, with ridges along its flat side, and a chain coiled in between the hilt and blade, acting like a makeshift guard.

Arimane met Sonata with a single arm parry, the repercussions forming a bubble of turbulent wind around them. Right afterward, the Eion weapon flared with power and Crescent of a Falling Star and 10 000 Nights of Severance were activated at the same time.

“[In Between The End and Beginning.]”

“[Sits the Tamed Mayhem of the Philosopher.]”

The explosion of the perks assailed the dragon, slightly pushing him backward, even if it was just by a few meters. ‘…he’s testing the waters while finishing the lullaby,’ Arimane concluded, releasing air through his nostrils to scatter the remnants of smoke and energy.

“[Star Puppetry.]”

Arimane twitched as he heard a chant that wasn’t a ‘verse’ and looked around him to see hundreds of clones each pulling out a sword from the many that had been strewn on the ground earlier. The blades were filled up with purple flames the second that the puppets put a hand on them.

“[Spilling Blood and Smothering Death.]”

The dragon smirked internally. ‘Of course, he wouldn’t have conjured so many constructs just to give me an example,’ he thought and warily eyed the star puppets as they started casting a spell. ‘That’s a very advanced form of cloning…’ He mused and turned to the original Rakna who was preparing to swing Sonata as a greatsword.

‘This is quite dangerous… that star’s sharpness can easily breach my scales,’ he snorted. ‘If I don’t do anything about it, that is.’

““[Natcattira Pirippāṉ,]”” the puppets intoned as one and swung their respective weapons.

“[Accel,]” Arimane uttered and instantly, the world began to slow down as his body gathered time into itself. The dragon observed the almost frozen surroundings and huffed.

“You know, despite being my Domain, I never used Nox Aeterna to its utmost,” he spoke up as if someone was listening. At the lowest, he was about a thousand times faster than the regular flow of time at the moment. Most people would fail to catch his appearance, much less his voice. But as he stared at the stilled figure of the werewolf, it was as if he expected him to hear it anyhow.

“I was more of a mage capable of using everything. Though, well, spirits never liked me for some reason… Little shits refuse to even get close to me,” he grumbled.

“Regardless, I created my Eternal Arts during those times. Most of them don’t deal with my Origin Magic at all but every ‘First Art’ spell is a trump card of mine,” the dragon grinned and clasped his hands. “So, I had the brilliant idea… why don’t I just make Arts for Aeterna only?”

For a moment, at those words, one could have sworn to see the soul flames escape the flow of time just to flicker in incredulity.

“Hahaha! So, admire it, kid!” Arimane laughed and slowly unclasped his hands, slowly unveiling a small, quiet, and singular sparkle of black and red lightning. It was moving around in small circles like a fish swimming in a bowl.

“[Tu Primus] (You Are the First).”

“[Voco Te] (I Call You).”

“[Creo Te] (I Create You).”

“[Nomino Te] (I Name You).”

“[Aeterno Te] (I Immortalize You).”

“[Te Concedo] (I Grant You).”

“[Third Art of The Undying Night, Originem Fulmine, Ignula.]”

The name was spoken and the peaceful spark thundered to life. In the blink of an eye, time reverted to its normal flow and the slashes that should have cut the dragon apart never came.

Instead, every single Star Puppet abruptly collapsed, their head missing and cruelly replaced with a charred and fuming stump. Then, Rakna himself had one knee on the ground, his eyes wide open in shock as he looked at the missing half of his torso, charred as if lightning had torn it off him. The problem was that he had not sensed such a thing ever happening.

The only thing he had felt was his instincts screaming danger. His body had moved according to it but afterward, all he knew was that a part of his body was missing. There was no impact nor trace of magic. Not to mention… there was no blood or burn; all of it was scar tissue.

It was as if this injury had always been there in the first place.

“Ignula,” Arimane raised his voice and the serpentine lightning bolt flew around the dragon’s head like a happy pet. “It’s the name I gave it. It’s the first lightning bolt to ever grace Existence. It split the darkness at the dawn of time and was granted eternity through me. When I call its name, it strikes as it did billions of years ago. Whenever Ignula attacks, you cannot sense it. But not because it is too fast or too stealthy.”

The dragon cackled. “Ignula smites the beginning of creation and life. In other words… by the power of this cute little thing,” he smiled at the small bolt springing on his claw. “You might as well have been born with half of your torso missing. Your puppets were ‘born dead’; they never cast that spell. You were born ‘injured’; you never swung your sword.”

“…” Rakna frowned and with no emotion on his face, ordered Sonata to float up and cut off the scar tissue, before pouring his Mana and Eion Nanites into regrowing the missing flesh and organs.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Arimane grinned. “Would you have been erased from history had Ignula killed you? The answer is no. This is not time manipulation, after all. It’s not even a matter of causality. My spell strikes who you are now, by targeting who you were before.”

“However, it does negate influence on the World. Such as how your puppets’ spells vanished because they never were alive to cast them. Though, as you can see, the swords they used to do it were not repaired. That Ignula killed them at their creation doesn’t cancel what they have already done; just what they were doing.”

Arimane laughed as if what he had just explained was a light-hearted repartee. “Still, kid, I kind of expected you to survive by using your own Origin Magic. But to think you managed to dodge something that happened at the moment of your creation with only instincts… even to my standards, that’s a bit scary. People much stronger than you would have died to this spell without even realizing.”

The werewolf’s eyes warily glanced at the meek bolt of lightning swirling around in the air.

The dragon snickered. “You can rest easy, Ignula can only strike once per target. There’s only a single ‘beginning’ in one’s Existence; it cannot be altered twice. Though… it doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous on its own. Nor is it limited to living beings.”

With a detached expression, Rakna looked at his regenerated arm and clenched his hand. His soul power blazed even more intensely as he indifferently opened his mouth,

“[Pitying Fairness and Collecting Hearts.]”

The Ardent Flames flared up and seeped into the ground, a wave of soul power filling the air on a physical level. The spatial layer quaked and three circles hollowed the dark sky; turquoise, scarlet, and dark purple light seeping through each of them.

Arimane smirked and Ignula let out an electric hum as if curious, flying about innocently.

“[The One, They Call Harvest.]”