The Age Of Gods.
The divine battle had descended to every corner of the mortal realm.
Every land on earth was reduced to a wasteland, littered with lifeless corpses and stained with endless pools of blood. The skies darkened under the chaos of war, while lightning rained down from the heavens like divine judgment upon all who dares defied them.
Ancient swords and mystical weapons clashed across the whole earth. With every strike, lightning tore through the clouds, ripping open holes in the very fabric of space-time.
A single spark of light was powerful enough to tear entire continents apart, while the earth itself trembled beneath the wrath of the gods.
Leonidas the God of Destruction.
Agamemnon the Abyssal God of Disorder.
Moros the personification of doom, Supreme Admiral of Taurus.
These legendary figures that defied all natural cause were part of the entities that spread chaos and destruction across the entire Earth.
Countless civilizations, nations, and even continents had fallen, reduced to ashes with the blades of war. The once-thriving world had become a land of ruin, stained by blood and scarred by endless battles.
Mortal kind wasn’t prepared for this, not in a million years to come. They weren’t prepared for the advents of the Gods that was about to wipe out their entire race.
As these godlike beings fought and killed each other, far away at the peak of a towering castle, a man floated silently just above the roof with his hands clasped behind his back.
He stood at six feet and nine inches tall, and his presence alone carried an ominous and mysterious aura that none of the Gods dared to come close to.
A cloak as black as obsidian draped over his body, its dark fabric swirling wildly in the wind as if it were alive.
His eyes held a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer as he looked down at the chaos below, watching the destruction unfold without uttering a single word.
"So it has come to this?"
Azael Noctharis, one of the Nine Sovereigns appointed directly by the Absolute Being.
His terrifying obsidian eyes swept across the entire battlefield, watching the carnage that had consumed everything in its path.
More than half of each god’s army had already been slaughtered by their own hands.
Rulers cut down rulers.
Gods turned their weapons against other gods. Allies became enemies, and the battlefield had descended into a massacre with no distinction between friend and foe in the name of self righteous judgment.
But the most horrifying part was that the war couldn’t be confined to the Divine realm.
Their battle had transcended beyond it, tearing through the barrier that separated the Divine realm from the mortal world, allowing the war to descend upon Earth.
And now, mankind was paying the price.
"My Lord." Right behind him, a voice called out.
Dark energy swirled in a circle, then from within it, a dark figure slowly emerged.
As the figure fully appeared, the swirling energy gathered around it and formed a dark knight standing nearly eight feet tall. A large cape draped over its shoulders, its edges flapping in the wind.
The knight donned a streamlined dark helmet, with a long, tail-like piece extending from the top of its head. At its waist hung a large sheathed sword, resting at its side.
"I have returned." The knight spoke as it dutifully dropped to one knee.
"Report." Azael said with a irrefutable voice and turned around to face his soldier.
"The Elves have been eliminated, dragon kind has perished, three of the five realms has collapsed, and soon the mortal realm shall join them. It’s far worse than we could have possibly imagined, my Lord, what are we going t-"
"AZAEL!!!" Far above the clouds, a man shot downwards.
He descended like a meteor, tearing through the atmosphere at supersonic speed. The air detonated around him as a deafening sonic boom rolled across the sky, and the clouds split apart in his wake.
His target was undoubtedly Azael, yet Azael did not move.
He hovered still, exactly where he was with his hands still calmly clasped behind his back.
Even his soldier bowing before him remained completely still. He dared not move, not till Azael gave the command.
In an instant, the man reached him and drove his strangely designed, intricately crafted sword straight through Azael’s back.
SHINK!
The blade pierced cleanly through his body and emerged from his chest like an arrow passing through paper.
But even at that, Azael did not flinch, he didn’t even move a muscle, till he observed the blade that protruded from his chest.
"Ancient runes... The mark of Genesis..."
He didn’t need to look.
He could feel it, the raw, ancient energy that moved around the sword like a current.
"The Divine Sword Nullaris?"
"That’s right." The man said, twisting the sword deeper into his chest. "The Divine Sword Nullaris, it is said to possess the power to completely erase the past, present and future of anything it strikes, and even the Sovereigns are no exception."
"The Divine Sword Nullaris was said to have been lost in time, all to prevent the Sovereigns from toppling the balance of the world. But since you have it... I see, the other Sovereigns helped you find it in order to kill me. So you are the progenitor of this war? God Of War and Chaos, Valtos."
"As expected of the First Sovereign, however." A grin formed on Valtos face as he pushed the sword deeper into his back. "Just like to the rest of the Sovereigns, you were the greatest threat to my conquest, but now."
Valtos swung his sword violently to the side, forcefully tearing cleanly through Azael’s ribs.
Then his body began to disintegrate, breaking apart into countless tiny blue particles, and they drifted upwards like dust carried by the wind and faded into the clouds.
There was no corpse, no trace, no evidence that he was alive.
He was easily erased from existence.
Valtos heaved a sigh, relieved as he sheathed the divine blade.
He then looked down at the battlefield below, where thousands of lifeless bodies lay scattered across the blood-soaked ground.
Now that the greatest threat has been dealt with, it was finally time to finish the war.
But just as Valtos took a step forward, the knight’s presence caught his attention.
"What?" He was a bit confused. "Why are you still here?"
The knight before him was Azael’s greatest soldier, the Supreme General of his army. Now that Azael was erased from existence, he was supposed to follow as well.
But somehow the Supreme General remained motionless, completely unaffected by the Divine Sword’s ability.
"Maybe he’s just as curious as I am."
A single voice spoke and Valtos’s blood immediately ran cold.
He turned around, only to see purple particles gathering, swirling together before forming the shape of a man.
Bit by bit, Azael’s body materialized from the particles until he floated there once again.
"Did you really think crushing my heart and erasing me from existence was enough to kill me?"
Valtos’s eyes shot wide open, he didn’t even realize when his fingers almost loosened and nearly released the Divine Sword from his grip.
"How!? How can you still live!? Not even the eight Sovereigns are above the Divine Sword ability!"
"The Divine Sword erases the past, present and future of anything it touches. Those concepts do not apply to me, for I am beyond the past, the present and the future. You cannot erase what was and what is to be."
"Impossible! Are you saying you are beyond time and logic itself!?"
Slowly, Azael lifted a finger at Valtos, then said. "If erasing my existence was possible, then nothing will be as it is, for I exist everywhere, especially in you."
Valtos’s confusion slowly twisted into something far more disturbing, then a low, dreaded laughter escaped his throat.
"Ha... ha... HAHAHA!" He laughed as he mocked Azael. "You exist in me? You are crazy! Which is why I cannot let you live any longer!"
Before Valtos could make his move, Azael’s eyes glowed a faint purple hue. "Look within." Azael said quietly. "And you will see. God of War and Chaos, I am every thought you’ve ever made, every desire you have ever chased, and every outcome you have ever achieved."
Valtos froze.
His body instantly began to tremble as everything around him blurred. The sky darkened into blackness, and soon the space surrounding him dissolved into a pitch-black environment, swallowing everything in sight.
"That’s right... I am the plague that darkens your mind each time you killed your own people... I am Darkness."
Valtos let out a sharp, piercing scream as his entire body began to dissipate into countless purple particles. The particles rapidly spread upward, consuming him piece by piece until they finally reached the tip of his head.
Then he vanished completely, and in his place, another Azael emerged from where his body had been.
At the same time, the first Azael began to dissipate into nothingness, and the darkness that had clouded the sky around them vanished with him.
"Now that Valtos has been taken care of." Azael turned around, then he look down once more at the screams of war.
"You look surprised, what is the problem Agnes?" He said, addressing his Supreme General without looking back.
"It’s nothing my Lord, your unmatched greatness always seems to overwhelm me. It’s just like you predicted before, the balance of the world has shifted, the divine has descended, and mortal kind has paid the price for it. What are you going to do my Lord?"
Azael remained silent as he watched the gods as they slaughtered one another.
The purpose of the nine Sovereigns was to maintain balance and order across all realms, but eight of the Sovereigns had betrayed the balance and order for which they were created, granting the gods the means to slaughter and slay each other, eventually annihilating other realms in the crossfire.
Not only that, they had provided the God of War and Chaos with the location of the Divine Sword, Nullaris.
And now, even if the Progenitor of War was defeated, the damage was far beyond repair.
"There’s only one thing left to do." Azael finally turned around, drifting through the air to the Supreme General.
Then he stretched his right hand forward. "Take my hand, Agnes." He said to the Supreme General.
Agnes hesitated for only a moment before reaching out and taking Azael’s hand.
As the Supreme General took Azael’s hand, its glowing purple eyes widened.
In that instant, its range of vision expanded, multiplying a hundredfold. The world around them began to shift, transitioning slowly from day to noon, then from noon to night.
Then the transitions began to accelerate, from day to noon, then noon to night. The cycle continued, each transition accelerating faster and faster like the world was orbiting at light speed
Then it stopped, and all that remained was pure, unfiltered darkness.
"My Lord... Where are we?" The Supreme General looked around, but all he could see was darkness. Even when he glanced at his body, he couldn’t see it. "My body, it’s..."
"It’s alright Agnes, you have no body where we are, after all as far as this place is concerned, you do not exist, but by my authority, you do."
"Where exactly is this place my Lord?"
"We have gone back in time to the start of it all."
"Back in time?" Agnes voice carried a sense of urgency. "My Lord, do you plan on upsetting Chronos?"
"Chronos already betrayed the divine order by allowing Valtos to retrieve Nullaris, but do not be disturbed my soldier, for this is a place not even Chronos can access."
"After all..." Azrael slowly turned around as a bright light suddenly pierced through the darkness behind them, and the Supreme General followed, turning in the same direction.
"For Chronos to access a particular point in time, it needed to have started."
As they turned around, the Supreme General froze at the sight before them.
Two colossal hands emerged from the darkness, their palms raised toward a vast, spiraling mass of sparkling energy hovering above them. Countless lights swirled within it, resembling an entire universe caught within an endless cosmic vortex.
"My Lord!" Thanks to the brilliant light, Agnes body became visible, and he dropped to his knees as he praised his Sovereign. "You are the Supreme one!"
"No." Azael slid his hands into his pocket and took two steps forward. "The greatest source of darkness is before the beginning of time, I simply accessed that darkness in order to get here. There is no one greater than the Absolute being."
"But what are we doing here? At the beginning of time?"
"I am here to right the flaw that developed millennials later. Do not misunderstand, I cannot change the origins of what the Absolute being has preordained, but I can influence it. Five billion years from now, the Sovereigns will betray the divine order, and the gods wrath and war will descend upon all the realms, turning them to ashes. This time... I will protect the divine order and ensure it will never happen again."
At that moment, the two colossal hands slowly folded inward, their palms closing around the vast spiraling mass of light, stars, and primordial energy suspended between them.
Then Azael stepped forward. "Because you are my greatest soldier, I can only entrust you with this mission. Supreme General Agnes... Will you serve me till the very end?"
Agnes observed Azael for a moment, then with a firm fist to his chest, he declared. "My Lord, I will serve you for eternity."
The swirling cosmos in the colossal hands compressed tighter and tighter, galaxies collapsing into a single point as an unbearable brilliance gathered within their grasp.
"Very well." His face wore a weary smile, the kind of smile that tried to give hope when there wasn’t any. What he was about to do decided the fate of the world in exchange for his sacrifice.
BOOM!
The colossal hands opened.
A blinding explosion of primordial energy erupted from between their palms, expanding outward in every direction with unimaginable force.
Space itself burst apart as waves of radiant energy swept across the infinite darkness, scattering fragments of light and matter into the newborn cosmos.
Stars ignited, galaxies began to form, time itself was awakened, and through the heart of that cataclysmic birth, Azazel spread his hands to his side, releasing all his primordial energy at once.
The primordial energy surged further into the infinite darkness, from its boundless waves, matter condensed into countless planets, moons, and blazing suns. Solar systems formed, then blackholes, vast oceans of asteriods.
Gravity took shape, pulling worlds into orbit and shaping the structure of the newborn cosmos, and planets like Earth slowly formed from the gathering remnants of creation and reality screamed into life.
Once the universe had been fully created, the Supreme General existence faded beyond the boundaries of the newborn reality.
And Azael was no more.
On that day, at the very beginning of time, a great sacrifice was made, one final sacrifice to give the world another chance to exist.
From that moment onward, the existence of the Sovereigns became nothing more than a flaw, a contradiction left behind in this new life.
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