Back in the Hall of Eternal Eyes, a ripple passed through the viewing curtain of light.
The multiverse was watching.
Entire races fell to their knees. Empires shattered from the sheer pressure of witnessing the clash.
Esteemed Pikra whispered in horror.
"No foresight. No prediction. Only… inevitability."
Seu fell silent, feathers of nirvanic fire dimming.
Eon turned to Vatae, who had not moved.
"You knew this would happen."
Vatae chuckled again.
"I am not a prophet. I am... beyond knowing."
Eon narrowed his eyes.
"Then who are you? What are you?"
Vatae stood.
His voice now thundered like infinite collapsing dimensions.
"I am Vatae. My existence transcends the loops of time and the webs of space. Your multiverses? Your kingly ruler? They are echoes of a truth you have yet to understand."
"I existed before the dream of reality. Before even chaos had a name."
"The Kingly Ruler of Above is not your god. He is a fragment—a soul-avatar of the Ancestral Creator, who never sleeps, who watches all things as one watches a candle flicker."
The others recoiled.
And Vatae grinned, maniacal and magnificent.
"The Source is not your beginning. It is your prison. And I… I have already stepped beyond it."
The chamber trembled.
Seu whispered, "Then what are you planning?"
Vatae tilted his head.
"Nothing… yet. But I do enjoy a good war."
He lifted his hand, and the curtain of light spread to all realms.
Every soul, every creature, every being saw.
They saw the clash of Anu and the Crowned Ones.
They cried. They screamed. Some knelt in worship. Others repented. Some sought death. Others prayed for rebirth.
For they knew this battle was not of gods.
It was the collision of ideologies, origin, and transcendence.
And only one would ascend.