— — — — — —
Buried beneath layer upon layer of folded space lay the innermost cell of the prison barrier—a chamber so remote it no longer held a single inmate.
"Wow… the last members of the Order of End in here are dead," Natsuki said, staring at the empty cell, her expression tangled with something hard to read. "So… that means the Vampire King's people… were the ones you killed a year and a half ago?"
Ryo, the culprit in question, shrugged.
Back then, he'd only been thinking about clearing out the prison barrier—saving Natsuki some trouble. How was he supposed to know what this "Order of End" even was? A criminal was a criminal. He'd dealt with it. Simple as that.
"Kind of pitiful when you think about it…"
Natsuki spared the nameless cultist a full three seconds of silent mourning.
"Done!"
Up ahead, Algol clapped her hands and rose from a cluster of spell formations.
"I tweaked the spell formula that ugly bastard gave us. Should be stable enough to travel to a parallel world now."
She dusted off her hands and added, "Just in case, Ryo, you might need to step in and lock onto the right time period."
"That part's easy." Ryo wasn't exactly a master of time-space techniques, but this much he could handle.
Traveling to parallel worlds was like jumping sideways—from one bench to another placed perfectly parallel. That was crossing worlds.
Jump to the front of the bench? You're in the past. Jump to the back? The future.
Anyone with a decent grasp of spacetime mechanics could pull that off.
Well… anywhere except Little Garden. The past and future there were locked by the Central Core. Anyone who tried hopping around freely would earn praise from a One-Digit being—for sheer stupidity.
"Alright. Natsuki, wait here. This shouldn't take long."
As he spoke, Ryo stepped into the center of the formation.
"Fine," Natsuki replied, moving outside the circle.
In the middle of the formation, Ryo fueled it with magic generated from his Cosmo while grabbing the hand of Celesta—who looked like herself on the outside, but was Algol at her core.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Hurry up. I still need to redo my nails for the third time," Algol said, rolling her eyes.
"Unbelievable."
Ryo muttered and poured power into the spell.
Clang!
Golden light burst from the formation etched into the ground. Blue-gold arcs of electricity crackled violently through the air, dazzling and loud.
The moment the spell activated, the space at its center twisted visibly—like the inside of a washing machine mid-spin.
And then—
The colors in Ryo's vision warped.
Blacks deepened. Grays darkened. Every shade smeared into thick strokes, like oil paint dragged across a canvas.
Whoosh!
Wrapped in golden lightning, Ryo vanished from the center of the formation.
"They left?"
Natsuki frowned in surprise.
"Huh?"
Ryo's voice suddenly echoed from the now-empty center, "Giada, you're playing around again…"
A hand shot out of thin air, reaching into the distance. It seemed to grab something—someone—before snapping back just as quickly.
Silence fell.
Only Natsuki remained, standing outside the formation, stunned.
---
On Itogami Island, at the entrance to the Keystone Gate—
"Pff!"
President of MAR, Shahryar Ren, coughed up a mouthful of golden blood and dropped to one knee.
His suit had been torn open—from left chest to right abdomen. Beneath the ripped cashmere lay flesh shredded by claws.
"Poisoned claws, huh? Giada that lunatic—always so savage."
He forced himself upright, mocking her even as he straightened his suit, trying to maintain some shred of dignity.
"Oh? Not running?"
Behind him appeared the green-haired Primogenitor—Giada Kukulcan—smiling faintly as she examined her nails.
"It's been nearly seven thousand years since I last killed a Deva. The feeling… nostalgic."
"With the blood of your own people on your hands," Shahryar spat, "doesn't your heart ache?"
"Not really."
Giada shrugged. "Back then, I was the one suppressing rebels within the Deva. What's your point?"
"There's a damn point."
Shahryar roared like he was making some grand declaration—
And then grinned viciously. "At least I stalled long enough to activate the Keystone Gate!"
Hum—
A colossal surge of spiritual energy rose from beneath the sea, rushing through the earth's ley lines into Itogami Island and converging on the Keystone Gate.
In seconds, the concentration of spiritual energy soared so high an ordinary human wouldn't even be able to breathe.
The main doors on the first floor of the Keystone Gate blazed with light—so bright that the space beyond became impossible to see.
Giada's pupils shrank.
"I see. The Keystone Gate is a portal to another realm."
"That's right!"
Shahryar spun and rushed into the glowing doorway. "If you've got the guts, come kill me in a realm where you can't summon your familiars!"
"Idiot."
Giada sneered. "If I didn't push you into activating the gate, how would I hand over coordinates of that other realm to the leader? How else would we turn its dragon species and Deva remnants into disposable pawns for the community?"
At that moment—
A hand suddenly reached out from empty space.
It grabbed something.
And pulled back.
In that split second, Giada saw clearly what the hand had seized.
She saw Shahryar's face.
And froze.
"Giada, you're playing around again…" The faint, reproachful voice drifted through the air.
Giada immediately shrank back, not daring to say a word.
...
..
The view shifted.
Withered yellow forests stretched across the horizon, broken ruins scattered everywhere.
Shahryar opened his eyes wide and burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
"Let the Chaos Bride scheme all she wants—in the end, I'm the winner, the future King of Devas!"
"Giada, you'll soon realize what a catastrophic mistake it was to let me reach the Other Realm!"
"As long as I find the weapon Cain hid here—the one sealing a Primogenitor-class familiar—what Four Primogenitors? What Holy Ground Treaty Organization? They'll all kneel before me!"
"Um…"
A hesitant voice interrupted him.
Shahryar turned.
A young man stood nearby, dressed in a gray robe, looking shy and awkward.
"You mean Cain…" the young man scratched his head. "Are you talking about me?"
.
.
.