"Irrelevant. I have achieved all my goals; it is time for me to return," Asher declared coldly, walking away calmly.
Krampus followed him, confused and uncertain about what he meant, until it dawned on him given the questions he had asked earlier.
Although Krampus wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, he was not stupid and understood the connections between Asher's questions and his seemingly vast ignorance about the Abyss.
"Return? Where to? Wait, are you coming from outside a wormhole?"
After Krampus followed Asher back to the place where they had first met, he saw the wormhole standing among the mountain rubble—an occurrence not uncommon in the Abyss—from which Asher had entered the Abyss.
Hm~ Krampus had noticed the wormhole before, out of the corner of his eye, but in his war enthusiasm had neither paid attention nor even thought that Asher could have come from there.
Wormholes were no rarity in the Abyss. They appeared now and then, scattered across the layers of the Abyss, and had by now become a native phenomenon of the world.
One could compare them to one of Earth's seven wonders of the world.
After his "conversation" with Krampus and the information he had gathered from his stories, Asher had already reached his goal. He seemed to have no reason to remain further in the Abyss since he had discovered the origin of the wormhole on Earth. Only one problem remained…
I should ask Renas later, lest someone come through the wormhole to Earth.
Asher approached the wormhole and prepared for the journey home.
Normally, he would have had no reason to bid Krampus farewell. He was merely a battle-hungry demon whom he had put in his place and from whom he had obtained information.
He had no worries that Krampus would pursue him and cause chaos on Earth, since despite his overwhelming defeat, he seemed far from resentful and merely enjoyed the moment of the fight.
Yet Asher hesitated just before stepping through the wormhole.
He turned to Krampus, looked at him intently, and asked indifferently, "Don't you want to come with me? You should already have realized what I am… You would fit quite well in the hell of my galaxy and would even gain the title of Demon King there!"
His question was quite direct. Asher had gained a fairly good impression of Krampus from their brief meeting and exchange.
Although he was a battle-hungry demon, so were all the demons of his endless war hells, focused solely on combat. Yet he could quickly see that Krampus had a conscience, which only a few demons he knew possessed, and he especially reminded him of a determined demon he once fought.
Moreover, he sensed a certain loyalty and even pride towards his current lord and origin, which spoke for itself and made it clear that this battle-hungry demon would not easily switch sides.
With such a personality, however, Asher could already guess the answer and did not hope much for acceptance.
Krampus looked astonished. This offer seemed to come out of nowhere, especially since he hardly knew Asher and found him hard to read.
It was true that by the special aura of creation and the incredibly pure divinity Asher radiated—not through a simple educated divine spark like the one Krampus possessed—he recognized that Asher was different.
This left few possibilities, among them that Asher was a creator god, of whom he had heard in myths. However, he hadn't given the idea much thought and wasn't particularly interested in his origin, so the sudden statement that he already knew what Asher was was both surprising and confirmed his earlier brief consideration.
Krampus stiffened slightly and became serious at the thought of serving Asher, returning his expressionless gaze.
But moments later, he grinned broadly, which slightly surprised Asher.
"Sorry, but I am loyally devoted to my lord. I cannot simply betray him, even if you have defeated me."
He proudly declared his loyal devotion to his lord, the demon king Mephistopheles, proving his deep loyalty.
Asher had already expected this and only smiled lightly upon receiving the anticipated refusal.
But just as he turned back to the wormhole and was about to enter, he heard something interesting behind him:
"That changes, however, if you manage to defeat my lord as well. Then he surely wouldn't mind if I served you."
Upon hearing this, Asher's eyes widened slightly, and he looked astonished.
I really didn't expect that. Hah. These words from Krampus might have sounded like betrayal to most regarding their lord, but he was simply speaking the truth, and those who knew Krampus understood he didn't mean it ill towards his lord.
The law of the Abyss—and especially this layer, the bleak plain—was that the strong rule over the weak. It was a law engraved in their souls, and no one here would be ashamed to submit to a stronger one.
After a moment, Asher realized how deeply this "law" was ingrained in the beings of this world and left final words as he stepped through the wormhole, leaving the Abyss once and for all:
"Very well, then next time we meet, I will also challenge your lord and defeat him in a fair fight and make you both my subordinates."
"Heh! I'm looking forward to next time," murmured Krampus with a broad grin and full of anticipation.
Earth.
Once Asher had returned after an uncertain time through the wormhole on the other side, at Mount Everest, he moved quickly, left Earth, and appeared atop the galaxy, on the platform beside Renas.
Upon arrival at the platform, he noticed something surprising.
Renas was strangely pacing nervously, and although his gaze was expressionless, he seemed visibly worried, which was completely unlike him.
The normally indifferent and robotic advisor behaved as if something terrible had happened, which immediately set off Asher's alarm bells.
He approached his advisor with a furrowed brow, but before he could ask what was wrong, Renas noticed him and called out:
"Shock. Master, where have you been all this time?"
His voice was filled with confusion, yet his gaze remained inappropriately indifferent.
Asher's frown deepened at the question. "What are you talking about? I wasn't even gone a day."
Renas, however, shook his head in denial and replied, "Negative. Your presence was absent from the galaxy for over three hundred years after you entered the restored world called 'Earth'!"
Asher's eyes widened in shock. He did not ask what had happened—the answer was obvious.
The wormhole.
It connected Earth, a world of the present in the galaxy of the gray dwarf, with a world elsewhere, the Abyss.
But this significant time discrepancy confirmed that it was not merely a portal that represented a passage to another place, but indeed a wormhole that connected Earth with a world of another timeline.
It could also be possible that the Abyss existed at a different time in the same galaxy or would exist in the future, which explained the connection to Earth, though this was just a theory.
The wormhole had indeed bridged space and time and connected to a world from another time, hence the time shift!
While only a day had passed for Asher, several centuries had passed in the galaxy.
This made clear that the Abyss existed in a rather distant time from the present or would exist in the future.
Asher told Renas about the wormhole and the Abyss, the information he had received, and the battle against the mystic-rank demon Krampus. After explaining everything, there was something he wanted to ask his advisor.
There was a previously mentioned problem the wormhole posed.
"Is there a way to seal the wormhole so that no one can pass through and enter Earth? I don't want beings from the Abyss suddenly appearing on Earth and causing chaos, now that it has just regained its peace."
A way to seal the wormhole. It seemed the best and safest choice to temporarily protect Earth from possible influence until I could tackle the Abyss myself…!
Renas appeared to consider the creator god's request until he nodded affirmatively and began to explain in his robotic voice:
"Positive. You are able, with your divinity, to cast a seal over the wormhole that prevents any entry or exit, thus sealing it."
"It would be helpful to possess the Law of Seals or the Law of Prisons, but even without, you are capable with your current divinity to create a sufficiently powerful seal to make the wormhole unusable."
The Law of Seals and the Law of Prisons. Both were powerful laws of reality used to close or seal things and each held immensely mysterious and powerful secrets.
However, both were laws that Asher, as god of ruin, had nothing to do with and thus did not possess.
"I understand, but as it sounds, a seal created by me without a law could, if not by overwhelming force, at least be weakened and destroyed after a certain time, am I right?"
Renas seemed somewhat surprised by Asher's insight, as he had only subtly implied this, but Asher had noticed it.
"Positive. A seal created with your current strength can be destroyed at any time by a being of cosmos rank or after exactly three hundred years by the power of a being of star rank."
Asher was slightly surprised.
Renas had apparently not explained this before, as it had not been necessary. According to his information, there was no being of cosmos rank in the Abyss, and three hundred years should be more than enough time for him to gather enough power to deal with the Abyss.
What amazed Asher even more was that a seal created by him—even at the rank of a supreme deity—would be so powerful.
He hadn't thought he would be capable of creating such a powerful seal that only someone of cosmos rank could destroy it.
Strangely, however, he did not doubt Renas' statement and quickly had a method explained to him to create a powerful seal and block the wormhole.
After Asher had the method of creating a seal explained by Renas, he appeared again before the wormhole on Mount Everest.
He began, as instructed, to release his divinity like rays of sunlight emanating from his body. By radiating his divinity, he seemed to have become a small sun, as even his eyes emitted divine light.
Then, as Renas had explained, he began forming hand signs and channeling his divine power at a spot before his chest.
The golden light slowly began to take shape and materialize.
It started as a glowing golden circle that slowly grew until it became as large as Asher himself.
Next, the interior of the circle began to form, with a strange octagonal pattern followed by peculiar, mysterious designs at the edge of the circle's interior. With every hand sign he made, the circle further assembled and developed until it finally reached perfection.
Great seal of otherworldly influence!
In the end, the approximately five-by-five-meter completed seal lay over the green wormhole and slowly dissolved into the air as if erased from the fabric of the world.
Instead, several golden chains suddenly formed around the wormhole, completely sealing it and preventing any ingress or egress.
Thus, sealing the wormhole succeeded, and now only one thing remained.
Afterward, Asher decided to restore the mountain peak to its previous state so that the wormhole was buried and hidden beneath the mountain and would not be easily found in an emergency.
Phew~ Done, everything went as hoped.
Asher stood for a moment in the sky above Mount Everest and stared meaningfully at the mountain peak.
After dealing with the affairs of Earth, the Abyss, and the wormhole, he decided to postpone his tour of Earth and first turn his attention back to his galaxy.
Several centuries had already passed during his absence, and especially on Gaia, great changes must have occurred that he wanted to inspect first to ensure everything was in order before taking some leisure time on Earth.
Yet there was something else.
As he turned his gaze away from the mountain peak, cast a last, conflicted look at the world, and finally left Earth, an unpleasant, hard-to-describe feeling arose within him.
It was a kind of melancholy and, at the same time, painful longing.
However, he chose to pay no attention to this feeling and skillfully suppressed it to focus on his work.
Before Asher turned to Gaia, he appeared in his palace in the Celestial Realm.
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