Vorthis Empire, Royal Palace.
Viviana and Hyliana sat together on a velvet couch, a tea table before them. A magic screen hovered above the surface, projecting the horrors unfolding in the Sacaler Empire.
Hyliana quietly sipped her tea, her black eyes fixed on the image of her son—Aeren Vorthis—covered in blood.
She watched calmly as the people of Sacaler died at Aeren's hands. She had never imagined she would witness something like this. Yet, even in the face of such brutality, she felt nothing for the victims. Her attention was on Aeren alone.
On the ruthless precision of his actions. On the cold determination she had never seen manifest so clearly in him before.
Even as Aeren slaughtered the entire auction hall, her heart remained firmly on his side. She did not want him to lose. She did not want him to fall. But she also fully understood the consequences he was inviting. The world would not forgive this. The world would come for him.
Then she heard something through the magic screen—words that made her eyes widen.
Aeren… believed in things that did not exist. He is delusional. He is traveling from one world to another to find that thing.
Hyliana froze. Her understanding of her own son—shattered.
She couldn't grasp how any human mind could function like that. How such a person could exist. How someone with such fractured beliefs could still gain power so immense that entire nations saw him as a threat capable of collapsing the world.
Yet here he was—her son—doing exactly that.
Beside her, Viviana shifted uneasily, confusion and fear tightening her expression.
"Lady—Empress Hyliana… why are they reacting so early? Why are they moving against Aeren already?" Viviana asked, her voice trembling slightly.
She, too, considered Aeren her own child. She had never compared him to her daughter Ellie—never loved one more, never seen one as lesser. To her, they were equals, siblings meant to grow together and raise the Vorthis Empire to new heights.
But now… everything she envisioned was unraveling. And she needed to understand why.
Hyliana glanced at Viviana and immediately recognised the fear tightening her expression.
"Hm. Aeren did something a few months ago that almost destroyed the entire world," Hyliana said, her voice cold and steady. "That's why they're acting now—before it's too late. If Aeren stays in this world any longer, it might collapse within a year."
Her words echoed inside Viviana's mind like a hammer. Viviana gasped softly, nearly choking on fear.
"H–How? What did he do?" Viviana asked, her voice trembling. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
How could one person—alone—threaten a world full of experts?
How could Aeren destroy a world in months without any support? Without any weakness?
Hyliana answered without hesitation, as if discussing something trivial.
"I don't know the full details," she said, taking another sip of tea. "But I heard from someone named Samarth. He said Aeren brought something into this world—something that nearly consumed everything it touched. It only remained for a few moments. If it had stayed any longer… it would have erased everything. Even the entire space system."
Viviana froze. She stopped breathing. Her mouth fell open. Her mind went blank.
Something that could dissolve the world? The heavens? Space itself? And Aeren summoned it?
She wanted to ask more—but no words came. Her thoughts tangled. Her throat tightened. And seeing Empress Hyliana completely unfazed by what she had just described made Viviana slowly force herself to calm down.
But the terror stayed. Because now she understood: Aeren wasn't just powerful. He wasn't just dangerous. He was something that could erase existence itself.
A disaster wearing the face of a child she considered her own.
"What is that thing that consumed everything?" Viviana asked quietly.
The fear in her voice had vanished—not because she was calm, but because she had crossed the line where fear no longer mattered. Once she understood that something existed which could consume an entire space system… her mind simply accepted the truth:
Against Aeren—and against that thing—they were smaller than ants. Even if they wanted to fight… nothing they did would matter.
Hyliana didn't look away from the screen.
"No one knows," she answered. Her tone made it clear—this was the only answer anyone in this world could give.
Viviana exhaled slowly. Of course. If anyone truly knew what that thing was, they wouldn't be sitting here discussing it. They would already be dead—or the world would be gone.
She didn't ask further.
Instead, her gaze drifted back to the magic screen. Their entire conversation slipped from her thoughts as something far more important filled her vision.
Aeren and Samarth now stood facing each other—two beings whose clash might decide the fate of the world.
Viviana held her breath without realising it. The air around them felt heavy. Frozen. Like the silence before a star collapses. And in that moment, neither woman looked away from the screen. The past conversation no longer mattered.
All that mattered—was the battle about to begin.
***
Sacaler Empire, Auction Hall.
Samarth faced Aeren and raised both hands.
In an instant, two swords formed out of thin air, forged from pure divinity. Flames of radiant power burned along their edges, humming with destructive intent.
Without hesitation, Samarth sprinted toward Aeren.
Aeren did the same.
Samarth slashed with his right-hand sword—a blinding arc of divinity—but Aeren slipped past it with effortless movement, weaving through the flames as if they were slow. He reached Samarth in an instant and kicked toward his chest.
Samarth's eyes widened. He had expected a punch—not a kick. Still, he reacted quickly, crossing both divine swords to block.
Bang—!
The impact sent Samarth skidding backward across the blood-soaked marble, but he landed firmly. No injury. He smiled.
Good. Aeren was as strong as he had anticipated.
"Did I ever introduce myself to you?" Samarth asked calmly.
Behind him, the aftermath of his earlier sword swing became visible—the path of his blade had cut the auction hall in half, erasing the entire magical structure as if it never existed.
Aeren didn't even glance at it.
"Does it matter?" he replied coldly. "You're going to die anyway."
Aeren vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he reappeared inches from Samarth—no warning, no sound, just pure lethal intent.
Samarth's expression didn't change.
"Hm. It doesn't matter to you… but it matters to me," he said softly.
Before Aeren's hand could reach him, Samarth swung both divine swords at once, a cross of blazing divinity meant to erase anything it touched.
Aeren's eyes flicked to the swords—and he stepped back, slipping between the burning arcs. Dodging divinity again.
The air cracked with their movement. The ground trembled.
Aeren glanced behind him again. The auction hall—what remained of it—was utterly annihilated. Samarth's earlier sword swing had erased the entire structure, leaving nothing but shattered marble and drifting dust.
Aeren wasn't surprised. He simply looked back at Samarth.
"Why does it matter?" he asked coldly.
Then Aeren vanished. This time, he moved even faster—so fast that Samarth barely registered the question before Aeren was already upon him.
BAM—!
Aeren punched, the force so violent that the space in front of his fist distorted and cracked. Samarth crossed his divine swords to block—and both blades disintegrated into ash on contact. But the punch still did not reach him.
Samarth slid back across the floor, boots grinding into stone as he struggled to maintain his footing. Aeren noticed the backward retreat—and sprinted again.
Faster. Much faster. A blur. A shadow. A storm.
Aeren reached Samarth before he could even breathe and threw another punch.
BAM—!
But Samarth teleported a split-second before impact—his body flickering out of existence and reappearing several meters away.
Aeren slowly turned his head toward him.
Samarth was on his knees, coughing—no, vomiting blood onto the ground. His breathing trembled. His body shook from the shock of Aeren's raw physical power.
"You are… quite something, Aeren," Samarth said as he wiped his mouth and pushed himself back to his feet. Blood dripped from his lips, but his eyes held no fear.
"Not once in hundreds of thousands of years…" Samarth said, his voice steady despite the blood on his chin, "…has anyone harmed me this much."
He stared directly into Aeren's cold eyes. "You are the first."