[ENTER: Multiversal Conflict Arc]
The void between galaxies felt colder after Khoseph's defeat. Shinji hovered beside Merus, the God of Creation's pearlescent suit still bearing cracks from their recent battle. Before them, space rearranged itself. Not torn, but seamlessly parting like dark curtains to reveal Amado. The drowned-moonlight blue of his skin seeming to absorb starlight. Eyes like frozen event horizons fixed on them.
"Hello there, Lord Merus!" Amado's voice was calm, conversational, yet vibrated unpleasantly in their bones. "Long time, no cosmic discourse."
Merus stiffened, creation energy flickering defensively. "Amado? What the hell are you doing here? Scavenging Khoseph's failure?" His glacial eyes narrowed with deep suspicion.
"Merely delivering a proper greeting," Amado replied, offering a slight, lipless smile that didn't touch his frozen eyes. "Courtesy in the void is rare. Best to maintain it."
"Hey," Shinji interjected, stepping slightly forward. The utter lack of warning from his Danger Sense who was going wild is profoundly unsettling; quieter than near Yamato's hearth. "Who's the blue guy? Feels... empty."
"Saganbo's primary hand," Merus hissed, his voice tight with ancient dread. "Amado. Don't let the calm fool you."
"I see..." Shinji murmured, scrutinizing Amado. "Still weird. Feels less dangerous than a startled rabbit."
"See?" Amado stated, spreading his hands slightly. "Harmless observer."
"So why breach the void now?" Merus demanded. "Your master's intent is clear."
"To formally declare war," Amado announced, the calm tone belying the enormity. "As Lord Saganbo decreed."
"Declare?" Merus scoffed. "We've been at war!"
"A skirmish. A retrieval effort," Amado corrected gently. "This is different. Lord Saganbo has decreed open hostilities. Now, the entire cosmos is your enemy."
PING! PING! PING! PING!
Four searing points of agony exploded across Shinji's back; high-powered energy slugs impacting with star-core force. "Ouch! Damn it!" He whirled around, ignoring the sizzling holes already sealing in his shirt.
Floating amidst scattered debris, grinning like a shark who smelled blood, was Shirou. His custom rifle smoked slightly. "Yo, Immortal Folk! Fancy meeting you in the scenic void. Again."
"Shirou?" Shinji growled, Act 3 energy flickering around his fists. "What the hell? Still chasing bounties in the apocalypse?"
"Biggest one yet!" Shirou chuckled, reloading with practiced ease. "Blue guy over there promised 1000 Space Dust if I bagged you. Seems redundant since he could sneeze you out of existence, but hey..." He shrugged. "A contract's a contract. And 1000 Dust buys a lifetime of quiet."
"Apologies for the ambiguity," Amado interjected smoothly. "Direct physical engagement is... currently proscribed. Procurement via subcontract remains optimal."
"Whatever," Shirou leveled his rifle. "My job just says 'acquire'. Doesn't specify how."
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Hypersonic slugs, superheated plasma streams, and micro-gravitic imploders spat from Shirou's rifle in a devastating, overlapping barrage. Shinji moved with transcendent grace, a blur of gold and green. He flowed between the projectiles; ducking under a searing plasma beam, twisting past a slug that warped space where it passed, his Danger Sense painting trajectories a fraction of a second early. He was a leaf in a hurricane, untouched.
Shirou snarled, switching modes. FZZZZT! FZZZZT! FZZZZT! Intense crimson laser beams lanced out, crisscrossing the void. Shinji phased through one, backflipped over another, landing lightly. *So this is it,* Shinji thought, the cold realization settling like stone. *No allies. No neutral ground. Every planet, every mercenary... all gunning for me. Enemy of the cosmos.* The weight was immense, but it forged his resolve into something harder than the void.
"Act 3: Spirit Pulse!" Shinji roared. A thick beam of pure white spiritual energy screamed from his palm.
Shirou's eyes widened. He threw himself sideways with desperate speed, the beam grazing his shoulder armor, vaporizing a chunk and sending him spinning. "Gah! Too damn close!"
Shinji was already a streak of light. Before Shirou could recover, Shinji's fist, wreathed in shimmering energy, connected squarely with his jaw.
CRUNCH!
The sound echoed dully. Shirou's eyes rolled back. His rifle tumbled away. He drifted, utterly still.
Shinji grabbed the front of Shirou's armored vest, hauling the unconscious hunter up. "Persistent pest."
"Marvelous!" Amado applauded soundlessly. "Efficiency and power. A delightful display, Sir Ka-zu-hi-ko." His frozen gaze sharpened infinitesimally. Saganbo's voice, cold and imperious, resonated in his mind: "Engage. Gauge his limits. Hold back. Stress, not shatter." Amado's response was instantaneous mental compliance. "Be careful, Sir Kazu. My turn."
"Huh?" Shinji frowned, still holding Shirou. "Still nothing. Are you just;"
"RUN!" Merus screamed, lunging.
Amado moved. Not with speed. He simply reoriented behind Merus. One bare blue foot lashed out with negligent grace.
CRACK-THOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact resonated through the quantum lattice of the 4th Galaxy. Merus didn't fly; he was erased from his position, transformed into a streak of shattered cerulean light hurtling through space on a trajectory that punched through the galactic core. The galaxy behind him... died. Stars winked out mid-fusion. Nebulae collapsed into singularities. Planets shattered. A silent, catastrophic bloom of light and annihilated matter erupted where a billion stars once spun.
The shockwave hit Shinji like a collapsing star wall. GRAAAAAAAAAGH! His Act 3 barrier shattered. Bones fractured. Organs ruptured. He was hurled backwards through the superheated debris, Shirou ripped from his grasp and lost in the inferno. Agony consumed him as Act 1 fought a desperate, losing battle against cosmic-scale trauma.
Amado drifted calmly through the galactic funeral pyre while tossing the unconscious Shirou on the nearest planet nearby at the same time with no wasted movement. "Fascinating. You endure a galaxy's death throes."
Shinji forced himself upright on a spinning hunk of molten rock, his body knitting rapidly, blood; luminous crimson; steaming off his skin. "Blocked... a universe-ender..." he rasped, defiance burning through the pain. "This... is a spark."
"Noted," Amado acknowledged. He raised his leg. The void beneath it began to fracture like black ice, reality groaning. "Scale requires adjustment."
"Don't you DARE!" Shinji roared, Earth flashing in his mind; a fragile blue mote in the vastness. "STOOOOOOP! THE EARTH!"
"Binary choice," Amado stated, his foot descending towards the breaking point. "Erase... or shield the ephemeral."
WHUMPF! His foot struck Shinji's desperately manifested spiritual shield. Psychic shockwaves screamed across surviving star systems. Shinji felt his transcendent core tear. Blood geysered from every pore as he poured his entire being into holding back the unmaking of everything. "BASTARD!!!!"
Saganbo's voice cracked like a whip in Amado's mind: "Stop it! That's too far Amado..."
Amado's foot halted instantly. The universe-shattering pressure vanished. "Apologies, my Lord. I got too heated there." A flick of his wrist dissipated the unmaking force. An almost casual backhand followed; not physical force, but a wave of spatial negation that disrupted Shinji's spirit, sending him tumbling away, dazed and bleeding internally.
"Mocking me?" Shinji gasped, vision blurring.
"I've concluded the assessement," Amado stated blandly. "Adequate resilience."
Merus, a broken figure trailing streams of frayed creation energy and luminous blood, materialized beside Shinji. "GO!" No hesitation. He grabbed Shinji's arm and violently tore a shrieking rift in space, dragging the wounded Transcended warrior through just as it snapped shut, leaving Amado alone amidst the cooling ruins.
Amado observed the empty space. "That was definitely satisfying. The speciman warrants no further study now does he? I'll come back then..." He vanished.
Meanwhile : Universe 3523
Lord Saganbo lounged on a throne forged from the weeping cores of a thousand neutron stars, their captured supernovae glinting like malevolent eyes. Before him, upon a dais of solidified entropy, stood seven figures whose mere presence warped the sparse light.
"Assembled?" Saganbo's voice was the scrape of glaciers over bedrock, echoing in minds, not ears.
A towering figure stepped forward, easily two meters tall. Clad in armor that seemed spun from compressed event horizons, it drank the light, leaving only an impression of lethal sharpness. Long hair, the color of moonlight on glacier ice, cascaded down his back. His eyes were polished obsidian, reflecting nothing. "We attend, Majesty." His voice was the grind of continents.
"Present and primed, Sir!" chirped another, vibrating with manic energy. Clad in sleek blue armor, he bounced slightly on the balls of his feet, hazel eyes darting. Average height, short brown hair; a coiled spring of violence.
A low grunt came from the back, where a figure shrouded in self-generated, resentful darkness pulsed with simmering power. "Here."
"Yes, Lord Saganbo." A woman's voice, precise and cool. Long, flowing pink hair framed a face of sharp, intelligent beauty. Deep brown eyes missed nothing. Her black armored bodysuit flowed like liquid shadow over a form radiating calculated lethality.
"Yes Sir." Flat, emotionless. The stoic figure stood impassive, hand resting lightly on the worn hilt of a simple blade. His presence was a honed edge.
"Yeah, present." Boredom dripped from the word. Leaning against nothing, a figure with a bald head scanned the chamber with disinterested jet black eyes. He stifled a theatrical yawn. "Thrilling ambiance."
"At Your Eternal Service, Your Supreme Majesty!" Rigidly at attention, the final figure with spiky red hair like frozen flame with sea-blue eyes. crackled with arcs of violet lightning that earthing harmlessly into the dais. Military precision defined his posture.
Saganbo let the silence stretch, thick and heavy. "Shall we commence the tedium of strategy?"
The blue-armored dynamo couldn't contain himself. "Of course, Sir! Let's crush the-" His voice cut off in a wet gasp as an invisible force, dense as a collapsing star, smashed into him. He hurtled backwards, cracking against an obsidian pillar, dark blood trickling from his lip.
"I requested contemplation, not noise," Saganbo stated softly, the threat colder than the void outside. "The silence was... pristine."
The dynamo scrambled up, wiping blood, eyes wide with terror. "S-Sorry, Sir! Won't happen!"
The baldie snorted. "That was really funny. What's got your circuits fried? Eager for a 'Most Obedient Lackey' star?"
The silver-haired titan turned his obsidian gaze slowly. "Extinguish your prattle, spark," his voice roared like thunder. "Offer deference, or I will extinguish you."
The baldie merely rolled his eyes. "Hmph. Sensitive."
Saganbo ignored them, his purple hair shimmering. "The Trascender... He has erased Khoseph."
A ripple of genuine shock passed through the gathering. The titan's obsidian eyes narrowed to slits. The dynamo gasped. "Khoseph? Defeated? But his spatial-"
"Reduced to pitiful ashes." Saganbo confirmed. He gestured, and Amado materialized soundlessly beside the throne like a summoned shadow. "How was it?"
Amado's frozen gaze swept the Monarchs. "He was a real problem... Him defeating Khoseph was definitely no fluke... He still can be taken care of as he is now."
"Compared to me... Where does he stand?" Saganbo commanded.
Amado paused, the silence thickening as he teases. "Not that far off. His potential; It's off the charts."
"Exaggeration?"
"What I've seen prohibits lesser conclusions. His growth vectors are exponential."
The sharp-eyed strategist's intelligent eyes widened in excitement. "He reached such an interesting level already?"
"Evidence is indisputed here Lord Saganbo," Amado stated.
"Intriguing," murmured the stoic swordsman, a flicker of predatory interest crossing his face.
The baldie nudged the swordsman with an elbow, a feral grin spreading. "Told you! Monotony's over. Hey, you tangled with him pre-glow-up, right? On that mud-ball?"
"Initial encounter pre-awakening... yes," the swordsman replied, his voice low. "Although he was practically a powerless mortal..."
"Wanna team up?" the baldie's eyes gleamed. "Crush the upstart? Double the-"
"SILENCE!" Saganbo's psychic roar wasn't sound; it was a physical force that slammed into them, shaking the citadel to its quantum foundations. Cracks raced through the neutron-star throne. Lethal energy arced, singeing the strategist's flowing hair. "ONE MORE UNAUTHORIZED SYLLABLE, AND I WILL DISMANTLE YOUR CORE MATRIXES AND FEED THE SCREAMING ECHOES TO THE PRIMORDIAL DARK! UNDERSTOOD?!"
Chastened silence fell, thick and heavy. Even the titan dipped his head.
Saganbo's fury receded, replaced by glacial command. "Deployement will include Torento," The blue-armored dynamo snapped to trembling attention. "Nirvana." The sharp-eyed strategist straightened, a flicker of pride quickly masked beneath professional neutrality, "Hunt the Trascender and bring him here. As simple as that. Inefficiency will be punished."
Nirvana bowed her head. "Understood, your Majesty." *Stuck with the hyperactive fool...*
Torento vibrated. "YES! We'll corner him, probe him, show him-!" He cut off as Nirvana shot him a venomous glare that promised retribution. *Operational silence, idiot!*
The shadowed presence at the back stirred, the darkness around him swirling with resentment. "Why deploy these clowns? I'll have him broken and delivered in hours."
Saganbo's gaze snapped to the shadows, colder than the void. "Do not overreach your utility. You are deployed when I decree. Not before. You serve at my pleasure for the power I grant, not by choice."
The shadows pulsed violently. "Your 'pleasure' is tedious. My strength isn't yours to grant."
Saganbo didn't move, but the pressure in the chamber spiked exponentially. The shadowed figure didn't flinch. Their gazes locked; not a physical stare, but a clash of wills made manifest. Space between them rippled, then CRACKED. A visible shockwave of pure spiritual force erupted, slamming into the surrounding Monarchs, staggering even the titan. The obsidian floor splintered. The citadel groaned.
"CEASE!" Amado's voice cut through the turmoil, sharp as a monomolecular blade. He didn't shout; he commanded reality. A counter-shockwave, precise and overwhelming, slammed outwards from him, neutralizing the clashing wills and cracking the dais further. "This serves no purpose!"
The pressure vanished. The shadowed figure let out a disdainful "Tchk!" and went back to the darkness near the wall, the resentful aura fading slightly as he went away.
Saganbo turned his attention back as if nothing happened. "Torento. Nirvana. Proceed."
The two Monarchs vanished; Torento in a flash of blue light, Nirvana melting into swirling shadows.
"Now," Saganbo's gaze swept the remaining four; the titan, the firebrand, the swordsman, and the bald soldier. "You will all fight each other in a battle royale. I want to be entertained."
The baldie blinked. "Fight? Who? Each other? Seriously?" Wariness warred with dawning interest.
The titan's obsidian gaze fixed on Saganbo. "My Lord, Monarchs clashing unrestrained... the collateral would be catastrophic. Adjacent realities-"
"Trivialities," Saganbo cut him off. "Amado."
Amado raised a blue hand. The space surrounding the four Monarchs shimmered, then underwent a profound transformation. A barrier snapped into existence, vast beyond comprehension. It wasn't a wall; it was a shimmering, multi-layered construct, each stratum flickering with the condensed image of countless galaxies and nebulae. It hummed with the density of compressed existence. "Activating Multiversal Containment Barrier. Structural integrity equivalent to the simultaneous collapse of 3,926 merged universes. Contained within: a stabilized pocket multiverse. Shatter stars. Unmake dimensions. Fracture time. External reality remains inviolate. Engage without restraint. Combat data is required. I hope you got that."
The barrier pulsed, radiating immense pressure. Inside, a pocket multiverse flared to life; swirling nebulae, nascent stars, and spiral galaxies condensing out of the structured void.
The firebrand; 'Raimei'; shined with sparks of lightning around him . "Understood, Sir! Calibration commencing!"
The baldie; 'Soereichi'; grinned ferally, his form blurring at the edges, smoke radiating. "Stress relief! Try not to break too easy, antiques!"
The stoic swordsman's; Kokuto's blade hissed free from its worn scabbard, a sound like a universe sighing. The simple steel glinted with cold, deadly light. He leveled it towards the titan. "Acknowledged."
The silver-haired giant; Daganu; sighed, a sound like mountains grinding to dust. He rolled his massive shoulders, the event-horizon armor shifting. "As the Cosmic Will decrees I guess."
Daganu's obsidian gaze locked onto Soereichi's black eyes across light-years of artificial space. Kokuto's blade hummed. Raimei became the heart of a newborn lightning storm. Galaxies within the barrier began to distort under the unleashed pressure. The orchestrated apocalypse began.
Far away, Shinji Kazuhiko, bleeding internally from galactic annihilation and Amado's negation, drifted in Merus's weakening grip as they fled through chaotic stellar streams. The weight of the entire cosmos, now actively hunting him with Saganbo's full might, pressed down like a collapsing star. The declaration had been made. The true war had begun.