The moment Elia finished speaking, the broken world fell into silence.
Not the silence of peace. But the kind of silence that arrives just before something irreversible happens.
The black-haired ruler lay on his back in the fractured sky of his own world. The planet beneath them was already collapsing. Vast cracks ran across continents and oceans, glowing with violent light as the planet struggled desperately to hold its structure together.
Entire mountain ranges were splitting apart. Oceans trembled, rising and falling as if the world itself had begun to panic.
Above him floated Elia.
The massive black crown above her head turned slowly in the air, casting a faint, dark reflection across the shattered sky. It radiated something strange. Something unknown. Something the ruler could not understand.
For the first time since he had created his universe… The ruler felt fear.
"You… you can't do this," he said hoarsely.
His voice trembled despite his effort to keep it steady.
"You're attacking another ruler. The balance between worlds—"
Elia didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she slowly raised one hand.
Space bent around her fingers as reality itself had softened beneath her touch. The air folded inward, twisting gently.
Then something appeared.
A sword.
It didn't look forged. It didn't even look summoned, but it looked as if a fragment of the universe itself had been carved into the shape of a blade.
Its edge shimmered faintly, carrying the quiet glow of distant stars. Inside the metal, fragments of galaxies drifted slowly, swirling like trapped constellations.
The ruler's pupils shrank.
"What… is that…?"
He could feel it, not power, but something deeper.
Authority.
Something that existed above strength. Something that felt like a rule imposed upon existence itself.
Above the broken sky, far beyond the limits of the world, three distant presences watched silently. They had been observing since the moment Elia stepped into the throne hall.
Now none of them spoke.
Oreleon was the first to react.
Inside his own palace, seated upon a throne carved from pale crystal, his violet eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the blade forming in Elia's hand.
"...So that's how it is."
His voice was quiet, thoughtful, as though a puzzle piece had finally fallen into place inside his mind.
In another distant realm, a crimson-haired ruler leaned forward slightly upon her throne.
Her long red hair flowed across her shoulders like burning silk, and her crimson eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Well now..."
Her lips slowly curled into a wide smile.
"This is just… WONDERFUL~!"
She laughed as her shoulders shook with excitement, her voice echoing through the burning sky of her world.
Yet a single drop of sweat slid slowly down from the corner of her forehead. Even she could feel it.
Fear.
In another corner of existence, a white-haired ruler watched in complete silence.
His calm eyes reflected the image of the collapsing world unfolding before him.
"...She's going to erase it."
A strange feeling rose inside his chest. Something unfamiliar. A weird emotion he hadn't felt since he was born, a new undiscovered feeling.
Back in the doomed world, the black-haired ruler struggled to stand.
But the moment he tried to move, the space around him tightened violently, crushing him back into the fractured sky.
Invisible pressure forced him down as if the world itself had turned against him.
He looked up at Elia, panic flashing across his face.
"You wouldn't dare!"
His voice rose sharply, desperation slipping through the cracks of his pride.
"If you destroy my world, the balance collapses! The other rulers will—"
Elia tilted her head slightly.
"The rulers?"
Her blue eyes drifted briefly toward the distant void as a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"They're already watching."
The ruler froze as the realization struck him instantly. This wasn't just a battle. He wasn't simply being defeated but was being made into an example.
Humiliation twisted across his face.
"You think this proves something?!" he shouted.
"You think destroying a world makes you stronger than us?!"
Elia looked down at him calmly. Her expression didn't change.
"No." She slowly raised the sword. "It simply proves a point."
The moment the blade lifted, the entire world began to tremble violently.
Mountains split apart. Oceans rose like towering walls before collapsing back into themselves. The sky fractured like shattered glass spreading across an endless horizon.
The ruler felt it instantly.
The structure of his world… The very laws that held it together… Were breaking.
"N–no…"
His voice trembled.
"No… stop!"
For the first time since his birth, true panic filled him.
"You can't erase a world like this! Even Oreleon would—"
Elia swung the sword.
Once.
A single, effortless motion. There was no explosion. No violent storm of power. No blinding flash. Just a quiet movement through empty space.
For a moment… Nothing happened.
Then a thin black line appeared across the planet.
It stretched from one horizon to the other.
Across continents, oceans, and the sky itself.
The ruler stared at it in horror.
"...No…"
The line widened. Reality itself began to split and the planet separated cleanly into two halves.
Not shattered.
Not destroyed.
Simply cut apart.
But the sword had not stopped there. The cut continued upward through the atmosphere and through the stars surrounding the world.
The world began collapsing inward.
The two halves of reality drifted apart as everything within them dissolved into fragments.
Mountains vanished.
Oceans evaporated.
Stars disappeared one after another like candles being quietly extinguished.
The ruler's body began to break apart as the structure of his world collapsed around him.
"You—!" His voice shattered along with reality itself. "This isn't—!"
Elia looked at him one last time. Her gaze was calm and Cold.
"That was something necessary to do…"
Her voice echoed softly through the collapsing void.
"So I did not go easy on you."
She paused.
"You should be grateful that you were killed by my hands."
The ruler vanished along with the final fragments of his universe where a world once existed…
Now there was only empty space.
Elia slowly turned her gaze toward the distant watchers.
"Well."
She smiled faintly.
"That should clear things up."
Silence followed. None of the remaining rulers answered.
They didn't need to as the message had already been delivered.
There had once been five rulers.
Now… There were only four.
Elia turned away from the empty void.
A gate slowly formed before her, its surface rippling gently like calm water. The black crown above her head dissolved into drifting shadows, fading away piece by piece. The sword in her hand scattered into faint starlight before disappearing completely.
She stretched her shoulders slightly, as if she had simply finished a small talk.
Then she stepped forward. Crossing the gate and returning to her beloved world.