But just as Apophis was about to press “Accept…”

His finger froze.

Apophis stared at his hand in confusion. “What the—”

He collapsed to the ground, filled with horrific pain.

A pool of red trickled into the edge of the water right in front of his face, clouding it, and Apophis realized his eyes were bleeding.

“What’s… happening to me…”

Enclabossa’s voice came into his head. Its tone was strange, a mix of apology and condescension. “I am sorry, my Lord. I’m afraid I cannot let you do that.”

Apophis snapped, “I… am… your master!”

Enclabossa replied, “If your body is destroyed, I will die as well. And so I cannot let you do that. Forgive me.”

A monstrous eye appeared in Apophis’s reflection in the bloody water, and the pain intensified as he continued to write in pain.

For the first time, the woman looked confused and worried. “Alexander? What’s happening?”

She looked around, as though she expected to see some intruder who had come from outside this dimension, but found nobody. “Alexander, whatever’s happening, you need to fight it. You made your decision. Do not let anything keep you from it now.” She moved towards Apophis, reaching out to touch the hand that had tried to press “Accept”—

But the moment she was in range, Apophis’s body struck like a cobra, grabbing her face and activating Apophis’s ~Firebending~ Skill, burning her alive in a heartbeat.

She screamed and turned into ash, which floated gently away on the heavenly breeze. In a moment, the stench of burning flesh was the only evidence that the woman had ever existed.

Apophis rose from the ground and spoke in a strange voice. “Themis! Show yourself! I know you are watching.”

A beautiful, naked woman with red hair and wings emerged from the lake and came to rest a few feet away from him.

The goddess Themis said, “An ancient god? We should have suspected that you would attempt to return to reality this way. Parasitizing a member of this new, cosmically powerful people… Have you no shame?”

Her expression settled into one of confidence and determination. “This is really my lucky day! I will kill both a godslayer and a fallen god with the same stroke!”

Enclabossa laughed within Apophis’s body. “Do not delude yourself, woman! My host has the potential to destroy you… potential which I know how to access. Run along now while you have the chance.”

Themis gave a tiny smile. “It is good that your years of exile have not diminished your sense of humor. However, even if you did kill me… How would you justify to your host the action of stealing his body and shattering his chance at fulfilling his deepest longings, the opportunity to save his mother and heal his love?

“When he realizes what you have done to him, foul creature, he will do anything to be rid of you. Your own actions have ruined you.”

Enclabossa went silent for a moment. “Perhaps. But you will not be alive to gloat about it!”

He raised Apophis’s hand and uttered, “Break!”

The dimension cracked.

A spiderweb of darkness spread in the bright blue sky above, and the brilliant grass and foliage shuddered as though an earthquake was tearing the world apart.

[0)ᴠᴇʟ And then the spiderweb of darkness shattered the sky, and the infinite vastness of space replaced the gentle clouds of paradise.

And below Themis and Enclabossa hung Terra, and the wreckage of the recent space battle was scattered around them.

Themis’s face went a shade paler. “What… have you done?”

***

Imperial Flagship

Admiral Hazh stared at the command display in disbelief, then spun to address the Emperor on his throne. “Lord Azerof! We’ve just detected the appearance of an absolutely incredible energy spike!”

Azerof narrowed his eyes. “The Coalition is preparing another attack? What, with the ships we’ve already captured?”

Hazh shook his head slowly. “No, Milord… All their systems are inactive.”

A powerful shock wave shook the ship, and a set of alarms began beeping.

Azerof sat forward on his throne, staring at the displays all around the command deck. “That’s… cosmic energy!”

Hazh nodded uncertainly. “Yes, it seems so.”

Azerof shouted, “What kind of Ascensionist can project so much power?! Get me Hecate, immediately!”

***

Above Terra

Enclabossa folded his arms smugly. “Well, Goddess… What are you going to do? Do you dare to break your own laws and influence the mortal world by attacking me in this dimension? You know very well what fate awaits the gods who break this law.”!

By now, the goddess had regained her composure. Themis gave a coy smile and materialized a blade of light, which she pointed at Enclabossa.

“Your host killed the physical reincarnation of a god of the first order,” she said. “In addition, you and your allies participated in the worst genocide in history. God’s Domain will tolerate this violation of the law… if I manage to kill you.”

Enclabossa returned a grimace. “If, young goddess. If is a word that you cannot afford. This is a wager you should not have made.”

Enclabossa called upon Apophis’s Skills, covering his body with black flames. Only his two burning red eyes were visible against the silhouetted void of darkness that eclipsed the stars, the red eyes which were the signature of the Fallen Zetark race.

Then he summoned Regnier’s sword from his inventory and attacked.

Their blades clashed.

A devastating shock wave of cosmic energy pulsed outward in a sphere from them, exploding the closest ships and propelling others backwards.

They exchanged thousands of blows in mere moments. Space and even light twisted and distorted under the effect of such immense cosmic pressure.

Then Themis and Enclabossa broke away from each other. Neither had caused a serious wound in melee combat.

Their next clash would be different.

Enclabossa materialized dozens of black suns in his hand using ~Firebending~ and ~Telekinesis~, which he concentrated and compressed before hurling them at Themis, who still hadn’t fully returned to a defensive position.

But Themis easily anticipated Enclabossa’s attack.

Despite the lack of air in the void of space, the beats from her mighty wings propelled her at supersonic speed from the fireballs.

But Enclabossa suddenly appeared behind her and slammed his heavy sword into her head!

At the same time, the black suns caught up with their target like guided missiles.

The black suns exploded, fusing into an unstable red star several hundred kilometers wide before collapsing a few seconds later. It vaporized every ship and object it touched.

The explosion struck Themis with a heavy blow, tearing one of her angelic wings off as it hurled her even faster backwards.

But somehow she managed to pull herself upright!

She joined her hands together and channeled a powerful beam of light that illuminated the space around her!

A door in space appeared above Themis, and a massive, orange space dragon emerged, weaving like a snake through grass.

The dragon roared a powerful song that boomed through space, though there was no air in which ordinary sound waves could travel.

The dragon emerged from this dimension in which he had been imprisoned, his seemingly infinite body uncoiling again and again…

…And then he sprung in a split second to attack Enclabossa!

Faced with the space dragon’s nearly instantaneous attack, Enclabossa activated Apophis’s ~Susanoo~.

The glowing purple armor protected Enclabossa from damage… but not from the other effects of the attack.

When the dragon contacted Enclabossa, Apophis’s body was hurled at over 3,000 kilometers per hour towards the surface of Terra below.

Enclabossa impacted very close to the ruins of the Temple of Valor.

***

Temple of Valor

Some players of the Gold is Bad guild had just reappeared after a PvP fight.

One of them said, “Damn, another level lost! And on top of that, we lost 13,000 GC between the three of us. What a shit this planet is! We’ve lost almost all the progress we made on Cronos I. I can’t wait for the evacuation to start. Seriously, I know that it’s boring, but maybe we should just hide.”

Suddenly, a huge explosion rocked the ground!

One of the players shouted, “What’s that?! Have they started spam killing again?! Get ready, guys! Don’t go down without a fight!”

But another player pointed through the cloud of dust that was just starting to clear. “No, calm down. It’s something that fell from the sky. Perhaps a meteorite?”

Then the figure emerged from the rubble, and one of the players excitedly started a live stream as the others stood around in shock. “So we just respawned,” the streamer said, “and then this guy fell from the sky and got back up! He’s still alive!”

“What?” another one of the players said. “What kind of event is this? On a planet like this, there’s no way it can be anything good…”

The cloud dispersed, and the most famous player in the game appeared before them.

The streamer could hardly believe his eyes. “It’s… It’s… It’s Apophis!”