Chương 315: This end

Gathered around Kealix, the chains suddenly stirred with violent life, writhing across his body like living serpents. The air tightened as a single voice echoed across the collapsing heavens of the tower, vast and absolute enough to shake even gods from their certainty. Every founder froze. Their bodies trembled with disbelief as their gazes slowly turned toward the one among them who should never have betrayed them. Bathed in celestial radiance stood the Original Arcana.

Its form had shifted completely, no longer resembling the calm and distant entity they had fought beside for countless ages. Six elegant arms extended from its divine body, each wrapped in flowing strands of luminous Atum that bent reality. Its long silver-white hair drifted upward as if gravity itself no longer dared command it, while countless symbols rotated behind its back like fragments of unfinished creation. In that moment, the Arcana resembled less a god and more the embodiment of divinity itself.

The Mother of Dragons reacted first.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she roared. Her fury erupted instantly into action. She opened her jaws and unleashed a beam of pure destruction. Space screamed as the attack crossed the battlefield, tearing through the foundations of the tower itself before crashing toward the Original Arcana. The Arcana merely frowned.

"Vanish." One hand rose calmly. The beam struck. And ceased to exist. Its very nature had been altered. The concept of destruction itself unraveled upon contact, rewritten into harmless light before dissolving into glittering particles that scattered harmlessly through the air. The founders stared in disbelief as the impossible unfolded before them. The others wasted no time recovering from their shock. Black Lion and Unyielding Steel moved simultaneously, both exploding forward.

They crossed the battlefield in an instant, surrounding the betrayer before another command could be spoken. Yet even they were too late. The Pale Monarch still held the chains binding Kealix. But love alone was no longer enough. The chains had been forged from her devotion, strengthened by her desire to keep him alive, to preserve him no matter the cost. Yet Kealix's determination eclipsed even that.

His will crashed against hers like an unstoppable tide against fragile glass, and the moment it did, the chains shattered. A colossal shockwave erupted from his body. Pure Atum flooded the battlefield in a violent wave, tearing through heaven and earth alike. The founders staggered as reality bent beneath the pressure. Mountains split apart. Entire sections of the tower collapsed into the abyss below. The sky cracked further, fragments of broken reality drifting overhead like shattered mirrors.

The Original Arcana moved behind Kealix, six arms spreading outward protectively as countless strands of altered reality formed around them.

"Enough," Kealix said softly, raising a hand. The Arcana fell silent. For a moment, its eyes narrowed with irritation, yet it obeyed. One of its hands rose gently.

"Illusion." At once, the countless blades embedded within Kealix vanished like fading dreams. The wounds covering his body dissolved alongside them, disappearing as though they had never existed at all. Blood evaporated into crimson mist. Torn flesh restored itself. Even the hole through his chest faded into nothingness. Kealix inhaled deeply. Then he looked toward the founders once more.

"This is my fight," he said quietly.

"I shall do this alone, Grandfather." The Original Arcana stared at him in silence. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Part of it truly had once been his grandfather, the Justice Card itself forming a fragment of its being long ago, and though its expression remained unreadable, it finally stepped back. The battlefield belonged to Kealix once more. Across from him, the founders slowly recovered.

Their divine forms flickered unstably beneath the overwhelming density of Atum flooding the battlefield. Their godly states would not endure much longer under such pressure. Kealix noticed. And he intended to end this before they collapsed. Fairly. He stepped forward once. Then stopped. For several long moments, silence consumed the battlefield. No one moved. No one spoke. Then Kealix opened his mouth.

"Seal." Every eye widened. All the Atum surrounding him collapsed inward instantly, condensing violently into his body before disappearing entirely. His overwhelming aura vanished. His conceptual authority faded. The terrifying pressure suffocating reality itself disappeared in a single moment. He had sealed away his own power. All of it. The founders stared in disbelief. Now he stood before them not as the transcendent being capable of rewriting existence itself, but as a human.

Yet beneath the mask, Kealix smiled.

"Yes," he whispered to himself.

"I can still defeat them." He closed his eyes. Then opened them once more. Nirvana awakened. The world transformed. The raw structure of existence revealed itself before him, countless luminous strands of Atum weaving through reality like infinite veins beneath creation itself. Every movement of space, every pulse of time, every fragment of matter became visible to his senses. The sheer amount of information crashed into his mind with unbearable force. Agony erupted through his nervous system.

But pain no longer mattered. He had endured far worse. Kealix raised a hand toward the heavens. And then he vanished. Not teleportation. Teleportation required traversing space. Kealix instead traveled through the Atum composing space itself, moving along the underlying structure of existence faster than thought could comprehend. He appeared before the founders.

The Mother of Dragons roared furiously as her colossal draconic form condensed inward, transforming into a towering human woman clad in crimson-black scales. Horns curved from her head while slitted eyes burned with fury bright enough to ignite worlds. Beside her, the Black Lion surged forward.

"Very clever," she mocked coldly.

"Abandoning your power." Kealix chuckled beneath his mask.

"Oh, please, Abby. You should know by now I could defeat someone like you even without it." Rage exploded across her face. She erased the distance between them instantly, her fist tearing through reality itself as it rushed toward his mask, And the moment before impact, the Atum surrounding Kealix recoiled violently. The force rebounded. Abbynerr's eyes widened as her own momentum turned against her.

She was launched backward with catastrophic force, blasting through the surface of the tower and disappearing into the abyss beyond.

"ABBYNERR!" The Black Lion roared. He charged. His fists descended, yet Kealix weaved through them effortlessly, gliding between attacks with precision as though he had already witnessed each movement before it happened. Then he struck the Black Lion's chest lightly with his palm.

"Move." He was blasted backward. But before he could recover, the strands of Atum wrapped around his body, dragging him violently back toward Kealix against his will. Kealix attacked relentlessly now, every strike shaking the tower to its core. The Black Lion crashed through mountains again and again, forced repeatedly back into combat. Then the others joined.

The Cowardly Flame surged forward, engulfed in frost and inferno alike, while Unyielding Steel descended from above, blade already falling toward Kealix's skull. Behind them, the Pale Monarch extended her hand calmly.

"Your bones shall erupt whenever you move." The rule activated. Kealix moved, And his skeleton exploded beneath his flesh. Blood burst from his body. Bones shattered through muscle and skin. Yet in the same instant, Nirvana reconstructed them. The Atum composing his body reformed before the destruction could hinder him. He caught Unyielding Steel's descending weapon barehanded and crushed it apart effortlessly. The founders' eyes grew. The Cowardly Flame slammed both palms downward.

Towers of ice and flame erupted toward Kealix from beneath the battlefield itself. Kealix waved one hand. The strands shifted. The very nature of the attack changed mid-flight, rendered harmless before dissipating into nothingness.

"Impossible!" Unyielding Steel shouted.

"Nirvana cannot do this! What exactly is that power?!" Kealix smiled faintly beneath his mask.

"Nirvana," he answered calmly, "in its truest form." He flicked his fingers. A wave of pure Atum erupted outward. The founders raised their arms as the force smashed into them, driving them backward through collapsing mountains and broken skies alike.

"None of you ever understood it," Kealix continued quietly.

"You learned Nirvana, yet never once sought its origin. Its true nature." His voice lowered.

"But I did."

"In my search, I discovered where Atum began. Where Chroma was born. The source beneath all existence. A realm beyond everything... a place where only beings like me can survive." A beam suddenly tore through the tower from behind him. Kealix twisted the Atum instantly, forming a spiraling current that swallowed the attack whole before it could touch him. Then the heavens split apart.

Two colossal talons descended from above, larger than continents themselves, followed by a draconic skull vast enough to eclipse the shattered sky.

"DON'T TOUCH MY HUSBAND!" The Mother of Dragons had returned, her true form finally showing itself. Hundreds of beams erupted from her jaws simultaneously. They crashed toward Kealix. Kealix sighed. The founders retreated. Entire sections of the tower vanished under the assault. His Atum barrier trembled violently under the pressure, cracks spreading across it faster and faster. His body was reaching its limit. The Pale Monarch's rule remained active. Every movement destroyed his skeleton from within.

Nirvana repaired the damage constantly, but the strain was accumulating faster than even he could maintain. His fists clenched. Enough.

"This ends," Kealix whispered coldly.

"Now."