In Midas's mind, a single question existed.
"Why? After everything we struggled for, after all the blood we shed carrying the weight of this world… what the hell does any of this mean?!"
The Sun God watched him for a few moments, debating whether he should eliminate him right then and there. However, what he did instead was smile. He was going to tell this human about his plan and how he had orchestrated everything for it to end this way. The Sun God was arrogant and proud; it felt natural to him to bid this world farewell with a few final words.
His figure contrasted with Midas's, though they were very similar. In fact, the difference was that one of them was about to lose everything.
"What does it mean, you ask? Well, you see, last Hegemon of humanity… this world is doomed to disappear."
He raised his arm toward the sky.
"Even now, a battle spanning hundreds of eras is being fought as we speak. The Void struggles to reach and consume this planet, and it has been so since the countless eras that came before you… Mortal, you have no idea how long I have been fighting."
Midas couldn't believe what he was hearing. One of the gods followed by countless civilizations was giving up.
"So that's what this is all about? It's inevitable, so you surrender?"
The Sun God laughed upon hearing the last word.
"Hahaha… surrender? Yes, perhaps some of the less diligent gods have given up, but not me. Hegemon of humanity, unlike my brothers, I will not surrender. I will fight until the bitter end."
Midas couldn't understand why he was doing all this, what his true objective was, and, above all, why he was the only god who had appeared.
"What about the god of thunder or the god of death? Why hasn't any of them shown up?"
The Sun God pointed with his finger toward the rotating machine—the machine of the end of the world—slowly turning behind Midas.
"They are there… well, what remains of them."
Midas's eyes widened.
"You see, that machine behind you needs energy to function. Unfortunately, tearing apart the fabric of reality is no easy task, even for us. So, by using all the energy of this world as fuel, we can force a miracle."
Midas was furious. These so-called gods had used the deaths of his comrades, of his loved ones, to make that thing work. Midas had only one last question.
"Why are you doing all this?"
The Sun God answered as if he had been asked something completely natural and logical.
"To live."
Midas said nothing. He simply clenched his teeth tightly; he could feel his gums bleeding from the effort.
"You see, this world is doomed. Some gods simply grew tired of living, so I convinced them to at least be useful to my plan."
The Sun God placed his hand behind his head, as if slightly embarrassed by what he was about to say.
"Well… if this world is doomed, why should I die with it? Wouldn't it be better to simply go to a reality where the Void does not exist? By the way, thank you very much for helping me. If it weren't for your fierce resistance, none of this would have been possible, and we wouldn't have been able to accumulate enough energy."
It was time to end this. There was nothing more for the Sun God to say, so he took up his weapon once again.
The harsh reality struck Midas's mind. Ariel had known about this all along, carrying that burden. Most likely, if they hadn't been attacked, she would have had to kill her companions with her own hands to feed the machine.
Midas lifted her and carried her. For some reason, the Sun God did not stop him; he didn't want anything to happen to the corpse while he killed God.
He looked at the darkened horizon and used simple magic to make her body float, slowly but surely, toward the west, away from the battle that was about to unfold.
"Finished?"
The Sun God raised his sword, ready for battle. Midas was about to do the same, but at that moment…
The sound of a saber striking the ground echoed. A blood-covered Alnis, her gaze filled with hatred, slowly rose to her feet despite being on her last breath, using every ounce of strength left in her body to stand before the arrogant God.
Midas had never seen the jovial Alnis so angry, but his heart ached. He didn't want to keep watching the people he loved suffer.
The Sun God, on the other hand, barely paid any attention to the small demon.
"Good, two against one. Not that I really care; I'll allow it, given your effort."
However, Alnis's sword vanished the moment she managed to stand. Instead, her faithful viola was now in her hands.
"Alnis, don't—"
Midas spoke, worried she would overexert herself. Any attempt to use more Vox energy would result in her disappearance, but when Midas looked at her, he knew: she had already made her decision, and it was only right that Midas did the same.
Drawing the Sword of Storms—the weapon that had belonged to his father, the previous Hegemon, a gift from the god of thunder—
The Sun God laughed upon seeing the beautiful blade.
"Yes! This is how the final battle of this world should be. Come, Hegemon of humanity, make it worth my descent here."
Alnis played her viola. However, this time it was different. Midas could feel it: what she expressed in these final moments with her last breath was not a song of despair… it didn't feel like it. Quite the opposite—it was a song of struggle. The last song Alnis offered to this world was not one of defeat, but one of victory.
Slowly, Alnis's body began to fade, dissolving into particles that rose upward, leaving this world.
Midas knew it: the last breath his friend left behind was not one of bitterness, but of hope—one she entrusted to him… and he would not fail her.
Midas's body recovered. He felt his magic return to its peak, restoring a great portion of his mana.
He took his stance, raising the Sword of Storms. This time, he was resolute: his blade would taste the blood of this god. So what if he surpassed him by a rank, being a semi-transcendent? So what if he was the damned Sun God? At this moment, he was nothing more than his enemy, and Midas would not back down—not when he carried the ghosts of his own.
A voice echoed in his mind.
"Come on, Midas. Let's kill that arrogant god and save this world."
Behind him, for some reason, he could still hear Alnis's voice speaking to him as she played that song.
"This is a historic battle. My artist's soul is resonating… it needs a worthy name… I've got it! Its name shall be: the battle of the storm and the sun for humanity."
Midas's gaze sharpened, catching every movement of the God. This would be the day the storm would darken the light to give this world a tomorrow.
Midas lunged forward, his sword wrapped in lightning, taking the initiative.
The Sun God responded, clashing his blade against Midas's.
"Come, Midas! Show me what you're capable of!"
Midas could feel his body growing faster with each passing second. Alnis's song was making him more powerful than he could imagine.
But it wasn't just the song. In his right hand, a rune shone brightly—it was the rune Ariel had given him. Even in her final moments, knowing something like this might happen, she chose to support Midas.
Energy coursed through his body, making him feel stronger than ever.
Their swords clashed with ferocity. Both—God and Hegemon—fought for what they desired. Midas fought to honor the memory of all who had supported him; the Sun God fought to save his life.
Midas created distance, firing lightning from his left arm, but the Sun God, at the same time, unleashed beams of light, which Midas dodged with incredible speed.
The Sun God had expected an easy victory; however, to his surprise, Midas kept growing stronger, faster. Meanwhile, he could not fight with more power than what he had used to descend into that body.
In the sky, another celestial battle raged. Solar explosions, along with thousands of transcendent beings and the Sun God's true body, fought a brutal war against the Void, which used all its strength to force its way toward the machine.
It was an apocalyptic sight. The Sun itself moved relentlessly across the firmament, destroying colossal dark tentacles. Yet, the most important battle was not, curiously, the one in the sky: the Sun God had to kill Midas to win.
A sphere of fire formed above the Sun God. The sphere instantly burned everything around it; the corpses of monsters were reduced to ash.
However, thanks to his armor, Midas was unaffected by the ability.
Midas could feel it—his body was slowly reaching the level of a semi-transcendent, so he needed to prolong the battle.
But the Sun God abandoned his defense and launched himself into the attack with a speed as fast—or even faster—than Midas's. He had realized he needed to end this now.
Midas tried to dodge the attacks, but it was impossible. The Sun God wielded his sword as if it were an extension of himself—the skill of someone who had fought for millions of years… or so it should have been.
But Midas noticed something: his sword had a flaw. It seemed he wasn't used to using it; it was as if an old, dust-covered machine had been forced to start up again—and worse, that machine was utterly confident in its own ability.
Alnis's voice sounded, satisfied.
"Millions of years being nothing more than a despot who never faced anyone without relying on his divine tricks."
Alnis was right. Midas could see it: if this were a battle against his true body, using his divine powers, he wouldn't stand a chance. But this god, in his arrogance, had decided that the bare minimum would suffice, using a body that was only semi-transcendent.
The god's blade sliced through his shoulder, breaking one section of his armor. Heat and the smell of burned flesh rose—but not faster than Midas's sword in that moment.
He knew this fighting style. Midas had seen these movements hundreds, thousands of times while training with Ariel. He understood: the rune, her words, her love, the time they shared, the training… all of it had been for this moment.
His blade broke through, taking advantage of the opening created by the god's mistake. Lightning erupted and tore through the god's flesh, sending his helmet flying from the impact.
The god vanished in a flash of light, retreating backward. Now his face bore a large, ugly scar as blood ran down. The Sun God tried to bring his hand to his face to heal the wound; however, Midas was already in front of him, not giving him even a moment to breathe.
It was already too late. Midas had reached the rank of pseudo semi-transcendent.
The Sword of Storms slid savagely through the god's openings, cutting through his armor.
"Damn mortal, LET ME GO!"
Alnis was ecstatic, her music resonating louder than ever.
"COME ON, MIDAS, KILL GOD! You are the storm that will cover his arrogance!"
However, suddenly, the great Sun battling the Void cast its gaze upon the earth. An instant… but in that instant, a gigantic beam of light descended. Seeing such an attack, Midas had to stop pursuing the god, seeking to escape the massive strike.
He used Lightning Step to retreat, but even so, the shockwave inflicted severe burns as he was thrown backward. That was the attack of the Sun God's true body.
In the distance, the Sun God stood once more, his face twisted with rage. His yellow hair was now soaked in blood, and his wound, for some reason, did not heal despite his use of demonic power.
"Filthy demonic energy… Midas, I will tear you to pieces. How dare you make me bleed?"
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Alnis laughed uncontrollably within Midas's mind. The demonic energy, opposite to the Sun God's divine energy, had to be her doing—driven by the fury of a race enslaved and subjugated by the very god who feared them. Alnis had sung her tragic story dozens of times to her friends; today, Midas would take revenge for many things, and this was one of them.
The Sun God rose into the air; his energy once again reached a peak, nearly breaking into the transcendent rank.
Now, thousands of beams of light appeared behind him, all aimed at Midas.
"DISAPPEAR, HUMAN!"
Midas gave it his all to dodge every one of these attacks, moving with the speed of lightning.
But at one moment, the Sun turned its gaze upon him again, forcing him to retreat once more from the god, who now seemed to have given up on close combat.
The darkness on the horizon grew larger and larger, slowly advancing. Cries of ether echoed in the distance: thousands of transcendent beings, soldiers of the Sun God, were dying because he wanted to kill this mortal instead of fighting the true threat.
Midas was furious. This filthy parody of a god did not care in the slightest about anything but himself and his plan. Fueled by renewed anger, Midas surged forward with all his strength, blocking beams of light with his own lightning. Some inevitably struck him, inflicting wounds across his body.
His armor was not omnipotent, but it had done its job well enough.
Midas was now just meters away from the god, who hovered in the air.
"Come, if you dare."
That was exactly what Midas had in mind.
Ascending from below, he was at a disadvantage, so he used all his momentum not to face the god's sword, but to rise above him. It would be necessary for his next attack.
Midas rose and struck at the Sun God's greatest weakness.
"Sun God! There are many things I don't understand, but I know one thing—you are nothing but a damn coward."
The god was furious. Who was this mortal to dare rise above him?
"You are nothing but an ant. Even now, I defend this world—I have defended it for eras—and you miserable insects dare tell me… ME… that I am a coward. You know nothing of this struggle. You have lived under my light all this time. If not for me, all of you would be dead."
Midas looked at him sincerely. He no longer felt even the slightest bit of respect.
"It doesn't matter if it's the Void, it doesn't matter if it's you. I will fight every one of you who dare treat us like tools. So what if you created us? So what if you have protected us all this time, Sun God? We, living beings, were born without asking, from the simple desire of others like us… but it is throughout our lives that we decide what to do with them. And I, Sun God, choose to be the storm that will protect this world from your light."
A lunatic expression appeared on the Sun God's face. His pupils contracted—he had reached the limit of his patience.
"MIIIIIDAAAAAAS!"
He charged at Midas with his incandescent blade, but suddenly, the god noticed his hair rising from static. When he looked again at where Midas was supposed to be… a massive bolt of lightning descended.
Midas spoke a single word:
"Storm Cataclysm."
In an instant, the world took on the color of lightning. The greatest thunder humanity had ever known resounded that day. Yet there were no people left to hear it. A bolt so powerful it seemed as though a second Sun had risen upon the earth… a Sun that, this time, unleashed all its power and fury for humanity.
This blue sun was Midas's power.
Midas retreated as fast as he could. He knew that attack would not be enough to destroy him, but it would buy him time for what he needed to do.
Midas arrived before the machine that sought to destroy humanity. By the god's own words, he did not know how it would fulfill its function, but he knew he had to stop it.
Ariel's mistake and regret… he himself would correct them. His sword seemed to crumble slowly as it gathered power one last time; he had pushed it to its limit too many times.
One final strike was all he could make.
Midas rose before the machine. A single cut to destroy it was what he needed, but he didn't know how strong it had to be, so he took no chances. Midas would give everything in this final strike—a strike to save this world, whose humanity had long perished, yet he held hope that, through his sacrifice, new life would one day arise. That thought brought him peace.
Lightning answered his call one last time, ready to follow his command once more.
"MIIIIIDAAAAAAS!"
A furious voice echoed in the distance. The god was approaching, half his face burned, one arm gone, his body nearly split in two—yet still relentless in his desire to prevent Midas from destroying his creation.
"Damn it…"
Midas needed only a few more seconds.
Seconds the god would not grant him.
But at that moment, a bestial roar from an enormous creature was heard.
In the distance, where Leviathan's corpse should have been, Void energy had seeped in due to the god's negligence in pursuing Midas, allowing the Void to revive its champion.
A breath of fire from a furious, dying dragon shot forth, halting the god in his tracks. That was all the time Midas needed.
"Goodbye, Alnis… thank you for everything."
Alnis's voice echoed one last time.
"I'll be waiting for you, Midas, wherever we go now."
"Goodbye, Ariel… and goodbye to this world. I devoted my entire life to defending it, and I hope that, in the end, my actions meant something."
Those were Midas's final thoughts before he struck the machine, which exploded, shaking reality with its power.
—End of Prologue—