PROLOGUE

  “Project S.E.R.A.P.H is finally complete.”

  A middle-aged man in a white lab coat whispered in awe, his eyes reflecting the glow of the massive cylindrical pods before him. Inside, five tanks slowly drained. Water cascading away to reveal five artificially-engineered human bodies—identical in every detail, with long jet-black hair and flawlessly symmetrical female forms.

  “Congratulations, Doctor,” said the woman beside him, holding a control tablet displaying the laboratory’s environmental readings. Behind her white opaque spectacles, she watched the numbers quickly change, and her long black hair fell neatly down her back.

  The doctor did not acknowledge her gratitude. His attention burned only toward the miracle before him.

  His hands trembled as he reached toward the glass pods. “With this, we will break every rule this world has ever chained us with,” the doctor said, his voice trembling with triumph. Then his tone sharpened. “P-0, you should be excited to meet your sisters. Unlike you—a failure—they are perfect.”

  The woman’s fingers tightened around the tablet—but only for a heartbeat.

  “Yes, Doctor.” Her voice felt numb—as though she had accepted those words long ago. She then exhaled softly, returning to her work without lifting her head.

  “Beginning release sequence. Sustainment system disengaging in three… two… one.”

  SHHHHHH—

  Steam burst outward, enveloping the lab in a dense white fog. From the ceiling, dozens of snake-like cables shot downward, latching into the new bodies with wet mechanical clicks.

  “Transfer of SERAPH system and neural data—100% complete,” P-0 reported.

  The doctor’s lips curled into a trembling smile. “Vitals. Read them.”

  “SERAPH-EX-01, stable.”

  “SERAPH-EX-02, stable.”

  “SERAPH-EX-03, stable.”

  “SERAPH-EX-04, stable.”

  “SERAPH-EX-05, stable.”

  A mad laugh escaped the doctor, echoing sharply across the metal chamber. He spread his arms wide, triumphant.

  “Perfect. All of them—perfect! With the SERAPH, we will build a new world—and abandon this broken one. Soon, nothing will stand in my way—”

  BUZZZ— BUZZZZ—

  “Intruder detected. Warning. Intruder detected. First wall breached. Second wall breached. Error—Ghrrrr—Eighth wall breached. Error— Ghrrrr—All firewalls and defense mechanisms compromised.”

  The alarm shrieked across the facility, red lights flashing violently.

  “What? That’s impossible!” P-0’s calm cracked for the first time, her mechanical heart felt slamming into her ribs. “We have ten layers of security. No one could break through all of them that fast—”

  Suddenly, every light died.

  The lab plunged into darkness.

  For a heartbeat, there was only silence.

  Then—a single cold, neon-blue central emergency light flickered on, casting long, distorted shadows around the pods.

  Both the scientist and P-0 stared toward the massive front entrance— a colossal reinforced gate, ten meters thick, forged of layered adamantine and orichalcum alloy. The strongest barrier humanity had ever engineered.

  From the other side came a sound.

  Soft. Calm.

  Almost polite.

  KNOCK.

  Someone was there.

  KNOCK… KNOCK…

  The sound was real. Terrifyingly real. And there was someone out there powerful enough to make the metal tremble like that.

  The doctor’s triumphant grin evaporated, replaced by a face drained of all blood.

  “Who is it? Are we under attack? How many are there?” P-0’s voice trembled as her fingers flew across the console. Endless red error messages flooded the holographic screen. Defense system offline. Manual override denied.

  “I—I’ll try to restore the defense system—”

  “There’s no need. Besides, it's all useless now—” The doctor’s voice was steady, almost eerily calm. His eyes gleamed—not with fear, but with anticipation—as they narrowed at the sealed door. “I already know who it is.”

  “You do?” P-0 turned to him, stunned. “Then—who are they?”

  “Not they.” His voice dropped, almost to a whisper. “Just one.”

  The knocking suddenly stopped.

  Silence—so heavy it swallowed the room whole. And maybe for an instant, P-0’s gulp was heard.

  And then—

  BOOOOOOM!!!

  The ten-meter-thick reinforced gate was ripped from its place and hurled like paper—launched hundreds of meters into the sky. It disappeared beyond sight, leaving behind a storm of sparks and twisted metal.

  Smoke and debris blasted across the laboratory.

  Through the swirling fog and the dim neon-blue emergency lighting, a silhouette stepped through the smoke.

  A woman—tall, composed, and calm. Long silver-white hair fell like starlight down her back, catching the blue glow. P-0 stared, breath frozen, struck by the beauty of the intruder.

  “The weather is terrible outside,” the intruder said casually, brushing dust from her shoulder. “I knocked. But no one answered. So, I had to let myself in.”

  Only then did P-0 notice what the intruder held loosely in her left hand—a massive mechanical arm, nearly three times her size, effortlessly carrying it around like a doll.

  P-0 stumbled backward, horror striking her like lightning.

  “T-That’s the hand of the Tenth Guardian. The strongest sentinel guarding the lab.” She swallowed hard. “W-Who is she?”

  “That’s not a simple intruder,” the doctor murmured, eyes wide with awe and fear. “That is a god. The one prophesied to come.”

  The intruder blinked once, mildly impressed. “Oh? You’ve heard of me.”

  She lifted the broken mechanical hand effortlessly and tossed it aside like a useless toy—metal screeching as it skidded across the floor.

  “Yes. I had always known,” the doctor said, breath shaking. “I was warned that one day, you would come to stop me.”

  “Well, that simplifies things,” she replied calmly. “Then, can you please shut down whatever you’re doing here? Because it’s doing your world no good.”

  “This world?” The doctor laughed bitterly. “A world already on the brink of extinction? Why would I care? No one cared when life on this planet withered away? When everything I loved perished? So why now?” His eyes went wild with grief and fury.

  “That’s tragic…” the intruder whispered. “…but if you drain the world core to create new life by force, this planet will collapse entirely, and no new life will ever start here again.”

  “Then let it fall!” he roared. “I will seize the power of the world core—and make it my stepping stone to break this cycle of extinction forever—even if it means defying the Divine System!”

  The intruder’s eyes hardened, glowing faintly like burning stars.

  “Then I suppose I’ll have to stop you.” Her voice was quiet, mournful.

  “It’s fate, after all.” The doctor turned and slammed his hand onto the control panel.

  “Doctor, wait—if you do that—!”

  From the mechanical appendages attached to the five Seraphs, a surge of radiant blue energy erupted—lightning crackling violently through their bodies, poured directly into their veins.

  The lab shook, machines erupting with sparks. It felt like witnessing the rekindling of life itself.

  [Absorbing the World Core System. COMPLETED.]

  [World-2347 System Down.]

  [ERROR…] [ERROR…] [ERROR…]

  [REBOOTING…]

  [ERROR]

  [Foreign System Invasion] [ERROR] [ERROR] [RESISTANCE] [ERROR]

  [NEW SYSTEM FOUND]

  [INITIALIZING NEW SYSTEM]

  [DOWNLOADING NEW SYSTEM]

  [SERAPH SYSTEM DOWNLOAD COMPLETE]

  [SERAPH SYSTEM ONLINE]

  The doctor smirked, meeting the intruder’s eyes just as he saw the confirmation message: the entire world core’s power had been transferred to the five Seraphs.

  “As I said—this is fate,” he whispered, madness burning in his eyes. “And also… your end.”

  Silhouettes moved within the smoke.

  Five figures stepped out from the pods—five artificially created women, identical to one another, their bodies eerily similar to the intruder’s own form.

  Their faces were obscured beneath sleek, neural opaque spectacles, supported by a system developed by the doctor himself, making them sentient beings that were now beyond the grasp of the divine system itself.

  “Meet the Seraphs.”

  The doctor spread his arms like a priest unveiling a miracle.

  “Separated from the Divine System, I forged a new system of my own—S.E.R.A.P.H—granting them true freedom. Each possesses power equal to a World Core. Power that not even gods can match.” He leaned forward, smiling with madness. “Are you not afraid?”

  “Afraid?” The intruder sounded confused, as if the doctor had just then made a bad joke. “There are only five of them. You will need more than that.”

  “I see, so that’s how you want to play it.” Rage twisted the doctor’s face. He slammed his fist onto the control panel.

  “SERAPH program—first directive: eliminate the intruder. Kill her. But keep the body intact. I want to dissect her and see what she’s worth.”

  The reaction was instantaneous.

  Four of the SERAPHs launched forward with blinding speed, floor tiles shattering beneath their feet.

  The fifth vanished—dissolving into thin air like a phantom.

  In the next heartbeat—

  WHAM!!!

  A flying kick dropped from above.

  The intruder didn’t even look up. As if sensing it by instinct, she lifted her elbow and blocked the strike with a metallic crack that rippled shockwaves across the room. She pivoted and delivered a back-blow that sent SERAPH-05 crashing through a reinforced wall like a meteor.

  The remaining four charged in with terrifying speed, tearing the air apart.

  Each strike that missed cratered the ground or ripped through steel walls, turning the laboratory into a collapsing battlefield.

  The intruder moved like flowing water— proving herself untouchable. She caught SERAPH-02’s arm mid-punch, spun, and hurled her like a cannonball into SERAPH-04, the impact flattening machinery as the two were buried in debris.

  But then the rhythm shifted.

  SERAPH-01 and SERAPH-03, who had been hanging back, suddenly became aggressive—attacking with uncanny synchronization. Their strikes came eerily close, brushing the intruder’s cheek and slicing strands of her silver hair.

  She blocked them, but with noticeably more effort. Her eyes narrowed with interest.

  The doctor’s laughter split the air.

  “Now do you understand? The SERAPH system allows them to evolve—rapidly. They share sight, data, and combat experience in real time. Every second, they adapt to your moves, analyze your flaws, and exploit them. Soon they will tear you apart!”

  The intruder landed lightly on a half-destroyed ground, dust drifting around her.

  She smiled—like a child who had just found a new game.

  “That’s… actually interesting. Let’s see how far they can go.”

  The SERAPHs surrounded her once more, rebuilding their formation and charged. Their coordination tightened—like a single organism. Their attacks flowed seamlessly, combos chaining one into another with frightening precision.

  And yet—

  They still couldn’t touch her.

  Every time their fists cut through the air, the intruder woman slipped past them like a ghost. Every kick, she redirected effortlessly. Her body flowed faster—reacted sharper—moved with an instinct far beyond their shared calculations.

  It was as if the intruder herself was learning and adapting at double their speed.

  The doctor’s expression twisted—shock replacing arrogance.

  “H-How—? They should be overwhelming you!”

  “P-0!” he screamed. “Initiate override! Allow full release of power—100% output!”

  “But doctor, we still haven’t tested their powers.”

  “You really think there is time for that. Give them total access to the SERAPH system!”

  The five SERAPHs withdrew in formation, standing rigid as P-0’s trembling fingers raced across the control interface, initiating the override command.

  “All limiters and restrictions have been removed from the SERAPH.”

  Energy flared around the Seraphs—violent blue lightning ripping through the air as their power surged far beyond human comprehension.

  The intruder slowly lifted her gaze, expression suddenly cool.

  “No matter what you do,” she said softly, almost pityingly, “your SERAPHs will never defeat me.”

  The doctor snarled, veins bulging with rage.

  “How dare you—! Let’s see whether you will be able to say the same after seeing what they do next.”

  The five Seraphs repositioned themselves, four forming a star-shaped formation with SERAPH-03 standing precisely at its center.

  What are they planning? The intruder wondered, as if she were looking at children playing a game in a playground.

  Before she could react, the space around her began to warp. The world twisted like melting glass, and in an instant her coordinates shifted—she now stood trapped at the very center of the formation, Seraph-03 replacing her original position.

  A coordinated assault began.

  Seraph-01 sprinted forward, arm morphing into a gleaming obsidian blade, aura erupting around it like burning starlight. Through the tablet readouts, P-0 watched numbers spike wildly.

  [SERAPH-01: Engaging Aural Arts—Sixth Form: Radiance Impact]

  Designed from the distilled data of every sword master in history, Seraph-01 executed the technique flawlessly—an evolution of swordsmanship mortal humans could only dream of.

  The fact that the SERAPHs could use aural arts on their very first attempt was a testament to the truth that they were the epitome of evolution the doctor had always dreamed of.

  At the same moment, Seraph-02 thrust both hands forward. Black flames surged, twisting into a tornado that devoured the air around it.

  [SERAPH-02: Activating Hell Flare]

  The undying flames of the underworld that devoured the light itself.

  And then Seraph-04’s eyes snapped open, glowing a vicious violet.

  [SERAPH-04: Astral Eyes—Gravitas Field]

  The gravitational pressure crushed the air, forcing the intruder’s body downward. The ground cracked beneath her feet.

  “She’s caught,” P-0 whispered.

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  “Now it ends,” the doctor declared. “Even she cannot withstand all three at once.”

  But in that suffocating pressure, the intruder woman raised her head.

  Her eyes ignited.

  A wave of pure magical energy burst from her skin, tearing through the lab like a hurricane. Values on the tablet blinked red—quickly overflowing the number of digits the software supported. The surrounding magic was disappearing at a catastrophic rate.

  “No…” P-0 gasped. “The readings—she’s absorbing every particle of magic in the area. All of it!”

  “You mean to tell me,” the doctor choked, realization freezing his blood, “she was fighting the Seraphs without using a drop of magic until now and with only pure physical strength?”

  Even under crushing gravity, the intruder tried to move despite the crushing pain her body was enduring.

  “Only her head is free!” the doctor muttered. “It will take far longer before she can free her body—SERAPH-01 will behead her first!”

  SERAPH-01’s blade screamed downward—cutting a lethal arc meant to sever the intruder’s neck.

  But—the intruder simply turned her head.

  And bit down on the blade.

  CRAAAAAAAAACK!!

  The sword broke into two, with the remaining half lodged between her jaws.

  Everyone froze.

  Even the SERAPH’s mechanical breathing halted for a second.

  Then the Hell Flare from SERAPH-02 thundered forward, about to engulf her completely—

  The intruder forced her frozen arms backward, muscles screaming under impossible gravity, and in a swift motion clapped her hands together.

  BOOOOOOM!!!

  A colossal shockwave detonated outward, tearing apart the structure of magic itself.

  The tornado of black flames burst apart into countless embers, scattering like dying fireflies.

  With the momentum of that motion, she spun and drove her foot into SERAPH-01’s chest—sending her crashing backwards into the lingering hellfire.

  SERAPH-01 screamed, consumed by her own ally’s flames.

  The intruder didn’t stop.

  Using the spin, she jerked her neck and spat the broken blade fragment from her mouth—launching it like a bullet.

  SHNK!!!

  It embedded itself cleanly into SERAPH-02’s throat.

  SERAPH-02 dropped, choking as black flames sputtered out around her.

  Two down.

  Three remained.

  SERAPH-04—still reeling from the shock of seeing the intruder break free from her restriction field—felt something she had never experienced before. A sensation foreign to her since the moment she was born, only minutes ago. She couldn’t grasp what it meant.

  Not until a massive wave of aura slammed into her from behind.

  She turned, confused—too slow.

  “You still look pretty with one eye,” the intruder said calmly.

  A hand, stretched unnaturally long, pierced straight through SERAPH-04’s eye socket, and a colorless fluid burst out in a violent spray.

  “It’s strange how you all look so similar to me,” the intruder murmured, tilting her head in curiosity as the shattered optical visor fell away, revealing SERAPH-04’s face beneath it.

  “But you’re still so weak.” She scoffed, as if the entire battle was nothing more than a child’s game.

  She tossed the broken Seraph aside as if she were nothing more than a discarded doll.

  “It’s not over. You’re done for!” the doctor shouted, his voice trembling with certainty—almost desperation.

  The intruder woman didn’t even look at him. She rotated her body, pulling her fist back as dense power began to coil around her arm, forming a black sphere of compressed raw magical energy that bent the very air around it.

  For a second, it felt like she swung her fist in empty air. But then the space in front of her flickered—SERAPH-05 appeared behind her, a dagger inches from her throat.

  But her punch landed before the blade could reach her.

  The impact hurled SERAPH-05 like a ragdoll, sending her crashing through the air. The shockwave ripped the laboratory roof apart, shaking the facility like an artificial earthquake.

  Metal beams twisted, alarms screamed, lights shattered, and debris rained around them.

  For the first time in ten years, daylight pierced the facility.

  But it was not sunlight.

  Above them hung a dead, charcoal-gray rock, suspended in a sky turned sickly yellow with radiation and toxic dust. Acid storms howled across a broken horizon—no birds, no clouds, no life in sight.

  The world outside was dead—a decaying wasteland collapsing on itself.

  An apocalypse.

  The doctor’s hands shook as memories crashed down on him.

  A decade of grief.

  A world that abandoned hope.

  A choice born of desperation.

  And he remembered why he created the SERAPH system.

  Not out of greed. Not for conquest.

  But to save this dying world at any cost.

  And the answer to which he arrived after decades of research was— too cruel

  The intruder turned toward the last remaining SERAPH-03, who had exchanged positions using her teleport field. But this time, instead of preparing to fight, something inside SERAPH-03 snapped.

  A sudden jolt—every fiber of her synthetic nervous system screamed in terror, commanding her to retreat rather than face the intruder head-on.

  Acting on an instinct she had never been programmed to feel, she teleported behind the doctor and clutched the back of his coat, trembling violently. Her head bowed, she shivered like a bullied child hiding behind a guardian, too terrified to even lift her eyes.

  The doctor glanced back at her briefly, expression unreadable, before lifting his gaze toward the intruder.

  “Have you always been this strong?” he asked, pushing his glasses up with a trembling hand. His voice was rigid—shocked, yet still refusing to surrender. “It took you only a minute to crush the creation I spent my entire life on.”

  “Yeah,” the intruder replied casually. “By my standards, they were pretty weak. Though I suppose they might’ve given other gods a hard time.”

  “That’s harsh… but thank you for your honest assessment.” The doctor forced a thin smile. “But you’re not the first of your kind I’ve encountered. I already knew how strong you were going to be. I’ve already seen an Outer God with my own eyes—one that killed every god in this world and devoured every living being on it.”

  “I hope you’re not trying to put me in the same category as those hideous things,” she said, voice suddenly cold. “I have nothing to do with them.

  “I see,” he murmured. “But they were merciful enough to leave me as the last human alive. Looking back, it's funny, knowing that I was at the forefront of the resistance, fighting against the Outer God, and it was all useless. We were nothing, even less than insects.”

  The doctor’s voice cracked faintly—not with fear, but with rage born from unbearable memories.

  “And that’s when I understood what true power really means. If it weren’t for the Divine System, those monsters would never have come here. That’s when I decided—to create a world free from its control.”

  “Believe me,” the intruder woman said, sighing. “You’re not the first. I’ve seen worlds colder and collapse without the Divine System.”

  “As if I’d believe anything from the Divine System’s puppet.” The doctor’s voice sharpened with fury. “It’s always the privilege of the strong to trample the lives of others without even realizing it. And they do it without even realizing it by doing nothing, or simply by existing. So, tell me—where was your Divine System when this world was dying? When this world needed hope the most? And—why are you here now, when I am finally trying to fix things my own way?”

  “I don’t have an answer to that,” the intruder admitted quietly. “But I know this—if you continue with what you’re doing, you won’t just destroy this world. You’ll put countless other worlds in danger, too.”

  “Do you think I’ll just stand by and surrender my fate to your Divine System?” the doctor roared. “I have already tried defeating one omnipotent being once with just means and lost everything in the process.”

  The doctor looked up at the hopeless sky filled with dust and pollution. And once again realized the fact that there was no life left beyond these four walls around him.

  “But I have learned from my mistake. This time, I would rather stain my hands with blood and take what I want—even if it means becoming a monster. I’ll commit the greatest taboo and break the balance of the world. This fake reality, this fake life, these fake instincts the system injected into us. No matter what, the truth which I have seen with my own eyes will continue to guide me. That’s right, it isn’t me who is wrong. It’s this crappy world system. So, I will be the one to fix it.”

  The intruder looked at the doctor with quiet pity. “You’re delusional.”

  “I am delusional, am I?” the doctor laughed softly, though his eyes burned with fury. “Tell me—do you think you are the strongest because you serve as the protector of the Divine System? Or are you the protector of the Divine System because you are the strongest?”

  The intruder raised a brow. “For a scientist, you’ve got quite a way with words.”

  “What you accomplished here today was possible only because you were born a higher being,” the doctor said, voice trembling with rage and grief. “If I had been given that kind of power, I could have saved the people precious to me. Isn’t that the truth—that in the end, power alone decides who lives and who dies? Survival of the fittest. Isn’t that what your Divine System fears? That is why they sent you—not to save this world, but because it feels threatened by my SERAPH system.”

  The intruder woman exhaled slowly. “You might be right—or you can be completely wrong. Perhaps I was guided here by the Divine System—but what I choose to do from here on is my decision.”

  The intruder’s blue eyes glowed fiercely, unwavering.

  “Am I the strongest? Was I born this way?” The intruder let out a quiet laugh. “Do you think I haven’t asked myself those questions for eras? There’s nothing more pathetic than those who drool over power, thinking it’s a one-stop solution to all. Power comes from within, and the world merely responds to the will that wields it. And because I understand power… I say to you: power alone is meaningless without the resolve to carry its weight.”

  The doctor stared at her in silence, then gave a broken smile.

  “So that’s how you really feel. You’re a fool. Parading around, pretending you’re the one in control.” His voice turned icy. “One day soon, you’ll regret being so naive.”

  He turned sharply, looking down at SERAPH-03, still trembling on the floor behind him like a terrified child. His eyes burned with disappointment and disgust.

  “So you turned out to be a failure too… just like her.” He spat the words, then shifted his gaze to P-0, who stood frozen in shock. “But you can still be useful to me.”

  “Doctor… what do you mean?” P-0 whispered, unable to understand the doctor’s next move when the SERAPHs had already failed.

  Suddenly, a black console appeared in the doctor’s hand—something P-0 had never seen before.

  Without hesitation, he turned the keys and tapped a rapid sequence across the device. The floor split open with a hiss, and mechanical arms shot upward, locking onto SERAPH-03 and pinning her against a circular frame.

  “Doctor—wait! What are you doing!?” P-0 called out, panic rising in her voice.

  “I’m sorry, P-0,” he said coldly. “It’s time you finally serve your purpose.”

  “What… are you talking about…?” Her voice cracked.

  More mechanical clamps emerged from beneath the platform, shoving P-0 into a sealed chamber.

  “Did you really think I kept a piece of scrap like you around out of affection?” he hissed. “It had always been for this moment.”

  The door slammed shut, and a surge of purple electricity flooded the container. P-0’s body convulsed violently, and consciousness slipped away—her final fading vision fixed on the man she had trusted more than anyone.

  The next second, before the intruder could even tilt her head, she sensed it—

  P-0’s unconscious body was radiating a new, unnatural type of energy, one that didn’t belong to this world. Something impossibly vast.

  “I see…” The intruder narrowed her eyes. “So, you succeeded in creating a species capable of manipulating cosmic energy as well.”

  The doctor scoffed. “No. She’s just a failure who couldn’t control the power she was given.” His lips curled into a cold smile. “But I found a fix for that, too. You’ll see soon.”

  As he spoke, the chamber containing P-0 suddenly exploded with a pillar of cosmic light, shooting straight upward.

  It tore through the laboratory ruins, pierced the sickly yellow atmosphere, and continued climbing—siphoning cosmic energy from P-0’s core at a rate no being should survive.

  In the sky above, something impossible happened.

  A glitch appeared.

  The sky turned black and hollow, like an empty void stretching into infinity.

  The distortion spread like an infection devouring the sky.

  The doctor smirked, as if waiting for her reaction. “Do you know what that is?”

  “I know,” the intruder replied, unimpressed. “You’re tampering with the world barrier. That’s a new one even for me.”

  The doctor’s smile widened.

  The next moment, even that hollow expanse shattered.

  Just like puzzle pieces falling apart, the sky broke into fragments of nothingness.

  Cosmic pressure bled through the cracks. The world barrier—the last protective fabric of this dying world—was being torn open.

  Even the atmosphere trembled as air was dragged upward into the vacuum of outer space.

  The doctor calmly put on a gas mask, breathing through an artificial support system while chaos consumed the world.

  Above them, colossal mechanical floating monoliths took position. Curved plates shaped like satellite wings aligned in a perfect circle, forming a circular ring around the cosmic energy column.

  The ring began to funnel the collapsing world barrier’s energy, compress it, and redirect it—all of it—straight down into the circular frame where SERAPH-03 was still trapped.

  [WORLD BARRIER ERROR]

  [ENGAGING AUTONOMIC REPAIR ALGORITHM]

  [SCANNING FOR WORLD-SYSTEM CORE]

  [FAILURE]

  [WORLD BARRIER: TOTAL COLLAPSE CONFIRMED]

  A blinding, multicolored beam consumed SERAPH-03’s entire body.

  At the same time, the fallen SERAPHs’ bodies—those defeated before—crumbled into particles of light. Like obedient souls, they flew toward the beam and merged into it.

  This continued for a full thirty seconds—until the last fragment of the world barrier’s power was absorbed.

  The pillar dissipated into dust and color.

  When the light finally dimmed, the figure revealed within was no longer SERAPH-03.

  In its place floated a black, featureless figure. Her form rippled like a void in the night sky, while pieces of the broken world barrier plummeted around her, striking the ground like dying stars.

  Her long, mist-like hair drifted as if underwater—devouring light instead of reflecting it. And her presence alone distorted the space around her.

  [WORLD BARRIER ABSORPTION COMPLETE]

  [COSMIC ENERGY LEVEL: 1000%]

  [INFUSION STATUS: SUCCESS]

  [SERAPH SYSTEM: ENTERING APOETHEOSIS LAYER]

  [INSTALLING EDEN SYSTEM MODULE]

  [DOWNLOADING: EDEN SYSTEM]

  [INSTALLATION: SUCCESSFUL]

  [EDEN SYSTEM: ONLINE]

  The doctor spread his arms, proud—victorious.

  “Behold,” he declared. “EDEN—the final form. The next evolution of the SERAPH System.”

  The cosmic entity slowly opened her eyes.

  Twin suns ignited within her sockets, burning with golden light far beyond anything human or artificial.

  The next second, EDEN raised her hand.

  Black matter swirled into existence—dozens of massive spheres of compressed void formed around her like orbiting moons of death. With a flick of her wrist, they shot forward at impossible speed.

  For the first time, the intruder woman stepped back—a small, sharp movement, but enough to show that she acknowledged the threat. Her body instinctively reacted as she blurred away from the incoming barrage.

  The black spheres slammed into the ground—and each one immediately contorted into a giant black bubble, swelling for a heartbeat before collapsing into a single pin-sized point.

  Space folded inward, crushing everything within and leaving behind perfect circular holes carved into the earth. Its edges warped like reality had been erased.

  EDEN wasn’t done.

  More droplets of black mass dripped from her hand, each expanding mid-air before falling to the ground. From those masses emerged creatures—shifting silhouettes of living darkness shaped like nightmare Seraphs.

  The intruder felt it instantly.

  Each creation carried the aura of a true Seraph. EDEN had evolved to the point she could create life.

  The doctor burst into hysterical laughter.

  “You were so full of yourself earlier! What did you say then? ‘It’s just five versus one? Hahahaha!” He gripped his head, laughter spilling out like madness. “What’s your answer going to be now?”

  The intruder cracked her knuckles.

  “Nah,” she said. “I think I’ll still win.”

  “H—huh?” The doctor’s smile faltered. Her tone didn’t match the situation at all.

  The intruder exhaled, stretching her neck. “I guess playtime’s over.”

  For the first time in a long while, she felt the need.

  Two streaks of light shimmered around the intruder’s waist—two scabbards manifested out of thin air.

  She drew them.

  A black blade in her left hand.

  A white blade in her right.

  EDEN’s command echoed through the air, and the newly created minions charged as one.

  The intruder—moved.

  In a single sweeping arc of silver-white light, she cut down several minions at once. She advanced through the army with fluid speed—so fast the Seraphs couldn’t even react, only fall as their bodies were sliced apart in passing.

  The shadows exploded into fragments of darkness as she carved her way through them.

  EDEN countered instantly.

  She summoned five metallic rods—floating like her puppets. They snapped together, forming a hollow cylindrical barrel. A vortex of energy gathered inside it, compressing space and light.

  Without hesitation, EDEN fired.

  The intruder didn’t dodge.

  She lifted her white sword, letting the colossal beam crash directly into its edge. The world rattled. The beam bent like water against her blade, and instead of dispersing or being reflected, it was absorbed in an instant by the white sword.

  Then—

  With a single black slash of her other sword, the energy she had received shattered into dozens of razor-thin light streaks, each one—piercing the heads of every remaining Seraph minion.

  One by one, they burst into clouds of cosmic dust.

  EDEN’s head snapped back in shock, an inhuman howl ripping from her.

  As if the death of her creations—her children—reverberated through her core.

  EDEN, realizing the overwhelming strength of her opponent, moved to unleash her most destructive technique.

  Raising both hands, she compressed her cosmic energy into a single point, creating a pitch-black void that tore open above her. Within seconds, it expanded—swallowing clouds, light, and matter—growing into a devouring sphere that began absorbing the very substance of the world.

  “I see what it’s trying to do,” the doctor murmured, strangely amused. “It’s the creation of a new world.”

  And just as he described, the void condensed into a dense energy core, mimicking a newborn World Core. As the stolen matter spiraled around it, the sphere grew at terrifying speed—engulfing half the planet in moments.

  In the infinite darkness, now remained only two masses: a dying husk of a world, where the doctor and the intruder stood. And a newly forged artificial world, cradled in EDEN’s hands.

  “I see… so this is my end,” the doctor whispered, strangely peaceful. “Even if I won’t live to witness your downfall, I’m satisfied knowing my creation has surpassed even the Divine System.”

  The doctor closed his eyes peacefully, accepting that when the two worlds collided, everything — himself included — would be reduced to nothing.

  Birth and destruction merging into a new Big Bang, the genesis of the world he had always desired.

  The intruder stood motionless as the ground beneath her disintegrated, collapsing into the newborn sphere that would soon crash down upon her. Yet instead of fear… she smiled.

  EDEN returned that smile with a twisted, triumphant one of her own. And with both hands—hands capable of lifting an entire world—she hurled the artificial planet at the intruder.

  And in response, the intruder simply focused on her white sword.

  [AURAL ARTS: TRINITY SERIES: SECOND FORM: EON]

  A faint chime rang out, like a forbidden clock striking an impossible hour.

  The air froze.

  Colors drained away. Reality dissolved into streaks of silver.

  An unseen radius unfurled from the intruder’s white blade.

  Inside this domain, gravity vanished. Motion halted, and all sound ceased. Even all cause and effect came undone.

  Everything — falling rubble, drifting dust, even sparks in the air —was locked in absolute stillness. All except the intruder.

  She walked through the frozen world as though moving inside a suspended painting.

  Raising her black sword, she traced a single, almost gentle stroke.

  What followed was a line.

  A thin, delicate line carved across the paused universe.

  Time attempted to resume… and failed.

  Its target was not Eden.

  The world she cut simply cannot reassemble.

  The slash expands outward like a silent shockwave.

  To an observer outside the EON sphere, it appears like this:

  One blink.

  Space and all existence severed in one strike.

  And the world ahead of her simply ceased to exist. Forever erased from existence.

  ◇◇◇

  What… happened?

  Why is it so loud?

  Where’s the doctor?

  A burning ache rushed through me, then immediately faded into icy numbness.

  My body felt cold. Detached. I couldn’t feel anything below my neck—just numbness, spreading like frost.

  What’s going on outside? Why are huge chunks of rock falling from the sky… and why does the sky look so colorful, like someone exploded a star right above us?

  It’s… beautiful.

  Outside, massive chunks of earth rained from the sky.

  The heavens were streaked with colors—blues, reds, and golds swirling like someone had detonated a star across the atmosphere.

  It was terrifying. And… beautiful.

  A crystalline droplet slid down my left cheek.

  I already knew why my body felt foreign. Most of it had melted away when the doctor used me as a sacrifice, draining every last trace of cosmic energy from my core.

  Through the chaos, a voice spoke—irritated, bored even.

  “Seriously? Did that old man really thought that a lab-grown experiment could compete with me? When everything special about them came out of a bottle? That thing couldn’t even speak.”

  Someone was still alive. Someone was near.

  A strange warmth filled my hollow chest—painful, gruesome… but comforting all at once. Almost like hope.

  “I… don’t want to die…”

  I didn’t know if the words actually escaped my throat or if they only existed inside my mind.

  “That’s a tall order,” the voice responded, closer now. “But you’re a sturdy doll to have survived all this.”

  Through hazy vision, I finally saw the intruder standing before me. The woman raised her blade.

  So this is it.

  She’s going to kill me, too.

  At least… the pain will stop.

  I closed my eyes.

  “Kugh—!”

  A blade pierced directly through my chest. My breath hitched, but instead of fading into darkness, instead of relief or cold or anything the books said death should feel like…

  …warmth spread through me.

  I opened my eyes.

  A black blade was stabbed through my body—yet from its edge, red blood slid downward and seeped into me in glowing streams.

  But it wasn’t my blood.

  My gaze followed the blade’s length—and there she was. The intruder had impaled her own chest with her white sword. I felt it unmistakably: she had pierced her soul core.

  “Why…?” I croaked, barely forming the word.

  “Be quiet,” she muttered, annoyed but gentle. “Otherwise, it’ll take longer. And we don’t have much time.”

  Light—divine, radiant—flooded the once-gloomy black sword. Soul energy surged through it, pouring into me.

  I was a being whose life depended entirely on borrowed energy from the world barrier… but the cosmic energy in the air had already vanished. Without a source, I should have died.

  Her blood—her soul core—was the only thing my cells could absorb.

  And she was giving it to me.

  When the light finally dimmed, she slid the blade out of my chest. I gasped, feeling… whole. Weak, but alive.

  “What… is your name?” I whispered.

  “Urza,” she answered simply.

  So that was her name.

  “—Gwahaahahahaaaaa…”

  A monstrous cry rippled through the empty void above us out of nowhere.

  This outer layer of space, beyond the shattered world barrier, should have been silent… and yet that roar vibrated straight through my bones.

  A cold shiver crawled down my spine as I felt the energy radiating from the direction of the voice. Even without knowing what it was, my body instinctively recoiled.

  “What… what was that?”

  Urza’s expression tightened.

  “You don’t know?” she muttered. “Don’t tell me that psycho doctor destroyed the world barrier without knowing the consequences.”

  She pointed upward.

  A gigantic cylindrical body was moving at an enormous speed towards us from outer space. Even from so far away, I was able to make out its size. But as for its body, instead of flesh, it felt more like it was made of corrupted cosmic energy.

  “That thing… is just a giant space worm. A creature that feeds on worlds. And right now, even I’d rather avoid fighting with it unless I absolutely have to.”

  A worm that eats entire worlds.

  The world barrier… That was the only thing that kept this creature away. But the moment even a small breach opened, the worm would sense the energy of a world core—its favorite meal. And when it does… it comes without fail.

  A cosmic calamity.

  Knowing there was even less time, I asked the one thing I most needed to know, my voice trembling, still confused. “Why did you save me?”

  “You are surprisingly stubborn for someone who was dying only a few minutes ago,” Urza sighed and then, for a moment, turned away. “There’s no special reason. Call it a whim.”

  “Then… what should I do from now?” I asked, knowing the doctor was already gone and this world was already heading to its destruction.

  “Hmmm…” Urza actually paused to think.

  “Forget about me. And make sure we never have to meet again.”

  Then she tapped my forehead lightly with one finger—and she shoved.

  “Forget about me. And make sure we never have to meet again.”

  I slipped.

  My vision flipped.

  And instead of landing on the ground—

  —I fell through the void.

  …straight onto soft, cool earth.

  A patch of vibrant green grass cushioned my landing.

  Slowly, I stood.

  Moist soil pressed gently between my toes. Fresh grass tickled my bare feet.

  A cool, gentle breeze brushed my face, and only then did I notice—my hair had turned silver-white, fluttering freely in the wind.

  So many sensations flooded into me at once—warm, cold, soft, alive—poured into me all at once.

  “She told me to forget her…” I whispered, overwhelmed.

  “…but how could I ever forget her?”

  ◇◇◇

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