If we reach 100 power stones, there will be extra chapters.
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"I see... so this is the cause after all."
He'd already suspected it before, but confirmation was always necessary.
Now, Yuu sat upon the throne of the Castle of Fate. The place that existed outside time and space itself.
Outside the castle...
Amidst the endless whiteness floated countless pastel-colored spheres. Those orbs, like stars in a white sky, were worlds, universes, and multiverses.
Each of those realms had its own kings, its own stories, and its own destinies.
It was, without a doubt, beautiful to behold.
But...
Something was seeping in from beyond infinity itself. Like ink bleeding into clear water. Like rot spreading through living flesh. Like nonexistence devouring existence.
At the sight of it, Yuu felt a faint tingling deep within his being.
It was unpleasant. Like feeling your soul being watched by something that should not be capable of watching.
"So it's finally reached this far, huh."
It was the darkness of nonexistence. Of annihilation. Of the absolute end of everything.
Olddy had named it The Void That Devours All.
Yuu rose from the throne and descended the stairs, walking along the red carpet that stretched between the floor's mist.
At the end, he pushed open the great door of the castle.
He stepped outside, and the massive doors closed behind him.
The pastel spheres representing bubbles of existence, tiny when seen from the castle window, were now colossal. Yuu felt absurdly small before them.
"Then it's time to get to work."
He stepped into the void and vanished.
Toward the darkness that sought to rot existence itself.
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He crossed the barrier of infinity and arrived before that darkness.
With his hands in his pockets, he looked up.
Instantly, his head throbbed with pain.
"Great. Even looking at this damn thing hurts."
Then he looked down at a specific universe, where the tentacles of darkness spread.
In one of that universe's worlds were Saeko, Saya, and the other girls.
So this was the first universe to be affected.
And the reason the zombies, and even the animals and insects, had Evolved was because of this darkness.
But it wasn't the kind of evolution that led to growth or improvement.
It was an evolution that corrupted existence itself.
It was the beginning of nonexistence.
If it spread, everything would cease to exist.
That was the purpose of The Void That Devours All.
"Jin-ah, huh."
She could purify zombies and enemies tainted by this darkness with her light.
Yuu stepped closer to the edge of the void.
"Alright then, let's see what the hell you are."
And he stepped inside.
The darkness engulfed him like cold water, except it wasn't cold in the physical sense. It was the absence of temperature. The absence of sensation. The absence of everything.
"This is uncomfortable."
He continued deeper, watching how the tendrils branched toward countless universes.
"I need to find the source. Cut off the serpent's head and fix this before it gets worse."
But the deeper he went, the more he realized something.
This darkness had no source.
"So this is what Olddy was always fighting, huh?"
He extended his hand and touched one of the tendrils.
Instantly, it tried to consume him and erase him from existence.
"Nope. Not today."
He resisted and quickly pulled his hand back.
The skin on his face began to crack, and when he raised a finger to touch it, he saw white blood seeping out.
"I see. A concept beyond omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence."
He couldn't destroy this thing directly.
"Alright then. I think I get what I have to do."
He could contain it by setting limits just like Olddy had done. Using his power as the Pillar to tell this darkness: "This far, and no further."
It probably wouldn't hold for long.
"Hmm... maybe if I fully fuse with the Castle of Fate, I could transcend further?"
Yuu looked into the past and saw that Olddy hadn't succeeded despite trying.
Maybe this was the answer to finally solve the problem.
"Well... no point thinking about that now."
He shrugged, closed his eyes, and began to channel his power.
The power of the Beginning and the End.
The power to define where something starts and where it ends.
And in this case, he needed to define where nonexistence ended and existence began.
"This is gonna hurt like hell."
It had been a long time since he'd faced a situation where his body, and his very existence, would endure so much pain. Still, he was used to it.
And it was worth it.
Because behind him, in that infected universe, were people who loved him. People who depended on him. People who deserved to exist.
"And as long as I exist... they'll exist too."
"Even if I have to become the wall between existence and nonexistence."
"Even if I have to hold the weight of the multiverse on my shoulders until I shatter."
"Even if I have to slowly consume myself, like Olddy did, until there's nothing left of me."
"Even then..."
"It's worth it."
And with those thoughts, he faced the darkest darkness.
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A single point of light shone brilliantly amidst the void.
"Beginning."
The light, or rather, Yuu, spoke those words as he extended a hand.
Where his hand touched the darkness, the darkness recoiled.
It looked like someone trying to mix water with oil mutually repelling.
"And End."
He extended his other hand.
And where that hand touched, the darkness didn't recoil, it simply ceased to be.
"Hmm..."
That's how it worked, after all. You couldn't just destroy Nonexistence. Because destruction implied it had existed first.
You had to end it, declare that its time within Existence, if it ever had one, was over.
And then give it a new Beginning.
That way, it could be transformed into something that could exist without threatening everything else.
It was a delicate, exhausting process. Painful, even.
Because as he fought this being that surpassed even him, his skin cracked more and more.
His very existence grew thinner the longer he remained here.
Then, finishing the act of giving End to that abstract being, and giving it a new Beginning, he began to walk deeper into the darkness.
Transforming nonexistence into existence.
And thus, the dark tendrils slowly dissolved.
In their place, bright energy, like Yuu himself, spread across the universe.
That darkness which had once granted Corrupted Evolution to living beings...
Yuu transformed it into an Evolution for the universe itself.
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