Chapter 130: Ch 130 : Unbounded by Rules
The scene of the past reached its grim conclusion. From his vantage point in the River of Time, Sunny had witnessed the slow, agonizing decay of a hundred thousand years. He had seen the suffering, a poison that had seeped into the very soul of trillions of worlds and countless lifeforms, all orchestrated by an enemy that never once broke their promise.
He felt a profound weariness, the exhaustion that was as high as a mountain and as deep as the ocean, because he was constantly watching the trauma of all these lifeforms. he could’ve skipped it, but he didn’t. he wanted these scene to etch into his heart, as this will be the motivation he needs to not let his lifeforms go through the same fate.
"Why?" Sunny whispered, his voice a ghost in the river of time. "Why did the Void create such evil? Without the Void Beasts, there would be no demons, and none of this suffering would have ever happened." He watched as the old Gods, after a hundred thousand years of ignorance, finally began to grasp the true, insidious nature of the demonic game.
The scene shifted to a somber council of light. The ornate mirror in Adam’s throne room now connected to dozens of other divine beings, their ethereal forms shimmering across the cosmos. Freya’s beautiful face was etched with a guilt so profound it seemed to dim her natural radiance.
"Adam... I was wrong," she confessed, her voice trembling. The treaty she had once labelled as a path to peace had become the very weapon used to bleed their creations dry. She felt the weight of every mortal life lost, a burden too heavy even for a goddess.
The oath they had all sworn now felt less like a shield and more like a cage. If they broke it, their own divine talents would shatter, leaving them as gods in name only. To watch their people suffer and die was a bitter pill, but to become powerless was to invite an even swifter annihilation, as the demon lords could return, but they couldn’t.
"It’s not your fault, Freya," another God’s voice rumbled through the connection, his form a being of pure, starlit energy. "We all agreed to that flawed treaty. We all walked into their trap."
"Our only option now is to develop a God so powerful that they can contend with the Demon Lords directly," Adam declared, his voice ringing with the grim resolve of a king who had just accepted a devastating defeat. The arrogance was gone, replaced by the heavy burden of leadership. "As for their demonic children, we Gods can hold them back."
The reason behind creating a new God was simple, the oath was only applicable to the old Gods, if they can create a new God, more powerful then the current Gods and the counter to the power of Demons, that would be able to stop this suffering of the lifeforms.
He issued a command that sent a ripple of divine power across the multiverses. "Use every bit of your faith. Shrink your worlds. Pull your borders inward to a space where you can watch every corner, where no invading demon can go unchecked!"
Across the cosmos, a great retreat began. Entire multiverses, once sprawling tapestries of galaxies, began to fold in on themselves. The light of a billion stars was drawn inward, coalescing into smaller, denser, more defensible realms. It was a desperate, monumental act of self-preservation.
But the Demon Lords were watching.
In their fortress of malice, Deimos smiled. "Keep maintaining the pressure," he said to the other lords. "I will be right back."
"Is that necessary?" Maledictus asked, she knew that the question was unnecessary, but she still asked in worry, Deimos simply nodded, and the hall fell silent.
And then, something impossible happened. Deimos, the most powerful and cunning of the seven, the architect of their victory, simply... ceased to be. His body did not fall or explode; it unraveled, his physical form dissolving into a wave of pure, chaotic discord that washed over the entire demonic realm. He had, with a simple thought, killed himself.
It was not an end. It was a masterstroke.
Sunny, watching this from the River of Time, felt a jolt of ice-cold realization. He finally understood the horrifying brilliance of their enemy.
Demon Lords were not like Gods; they were living concepts. As long as discord existed in the universe, a Demon Lord of Discord would always be born.
His death was merely a strategic reset. The oath he had sworn was for his current life. By ending that life, he had freed himself from its bonds. The current chaos, the grand discord he had orchestrated, would fuel his rebirth, shortening the process from a hundred thousand years to a mere fraction of that. When he returned, he would be reborn, a new being, completely unbound by any promise, free to walk the worlds of the living as he pleased.
Sunny felt a mix of terror and a grudging, horrified admiration. "He played them all," he breathed. "The Gods, and even his own kind." Deimos was already the strongest among the demons; now he would return even stronger, while the other six lords remained leashed by the treaty. He wasn’t just aiming for victory; he was aiming for absolute, unrivaled power. An old saying from Endor came to mind: a being with a brain is far more dangerous than one with just strength.
The next few hundred years of the past played out in a blur of cold, grinding warfare. The Gods, now huddled in their shrunken multiverses, fought a defensive battle against the endless tide of demonic influence. Casualties were lower, but the pressure was constant.
Then, in the 786th year, Sunny felt a shift in the cosmos. In the heart of the demonic realm, a new, but at the same time an ancient, terrifying consciousness snapped into existence. Deimos was back. Weaker, perhaps, but now he was a predator without a leash.
The game of cosmic chess continued, but the rules had changed. Deimos had just sacrificed himself to bring himslef back as an all-powerful piece, and the Gods were still playing by the old rules, completely unaware that their opponent was no longer bound by the board.