Chapter 322: The Real Threat Beyond This Universe

Within a grand hall in Ah’Me, Michael had his gaze fixed on a window of light that displayed events unfolding across the universe.

Footsteps echoed behind him. Michael didn’t turn around, but his expression hardened as he sensed who approached.

Uriel came to a stop several paces behind him. She had been summoned by him.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Michael’s voice broke the silence. “What have you done?”

“I did what was necessary,” she said calmly.

“Necessary?” Michael’s voice rose now, then he turned to face her directly.

“That is not your judgment to make,” he said. “Our roles are clear. We do not interfere unless—”

“Unless what?” Uriel interrupted, in a voice that carried frustration. “Unless the universe collapses? Unless everything Father created is destroyed? When does it become enough for you to act, Michael?”

——

Aiden hovered in the endless void of space and before him was Samael, still frozen mid-motion from the timestop he had imposed moments earlier.

The Longinus hovered at Aiden’s side now instead of Samael’s, and with one snap of his fingers, the effect of timestop ended.

Samael gasped as time resumed around him, with his body jerking forward as momentum returned to his limbs.

His wings sprout out instinctively to stabilize himself in zero gravity. And for a moment, he simply hovered there, breathing hard as his mind caught up to what had just happened.

“How is this possible?” He said in a genuinely surprised tone. He never expected that time-stop would ever be something to affect him once more.

Then his eyes focused on what was directly in front of him, Aiden, who gave off his familiar sensation.

Samael’s gaze moved downward toward his own hands, and confusion hit him even more while he examined them closely.

A good portion of the strength he’d gathered was gone.

“What…?” Samael muttered under his breath. Then his eyes widened as another realization struck him.

His weapon. The Longinus wasn’t floating beside him anymore.

He lifted his head up and saw the spear at Aiden’s side instead.

Samael stretched out one hand toward it, reaching across the space between them.

“Come!” he commanded.

But the spear didn’t move.

Samael tried again. “Come to me!” he shouted. But still nothing.

Aiden said or did nothing all these while except watch as realization hit Samael time and again.

Panic and a rising dread began creeping into Samael now.

“What have you done to me, Black Dragon?”

Samael demanded.

Aiden smiled and said “All that power, has been taken from you.”

Samael’s eyes widened further as those words sank in.

“In the brief contact I made with you when bringing you here, I took back most of the transcendence fragments you’d forcibly stolen from others.”

Samael stared at him in disbelief, and then Aiden gestured toward the Longinus floating beside him.

“The weapon,” Aiden began, “like every other relic, responds to its true owner. So the Longinus is merely doing just that, staying right at the side of its owner.”

“But I am its true owner!” Samael shouted back, with desperation creeping more into his voice. “Come to me, Longinus!”

Aiden sighed and shook his head. “Have you still not figured it out yet?” he asked.

Then Aiden’s energy surged outward at once.

White light exploded from his body in a violent eruption that filled the void around them with blinding radiance.

Samael staggered backward as his wings came together to brace him against the overwhelming force.

When they parted, what Samael saw wasn’t a being standing before him wasn’t just the black dragon anymore.

“Father?” Samael whispered, staring at Aiden with wide eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

“Far from it,” Aiden replied. “But I’m about to beat you in ways only a father would beat his child.”

Before Samael could react or respond, Aiden made the Longinus vanish into his Treasury of Artifacts, and in an instant, closed the distance between them with speed that defied comprehension.

His fist drove forward and connected with Samael’s face with catastrophic force.

The impact sent shockwaves rippling outward through space itself as Samael’s body was launched backward like a meteor shot from a cannon.

He hurtled through the void at impossible speed, as stars streaked past him in elongated lines of light.

Aiden pursued him relentlessly, appearing beside Samael again and again as he delivered blow after devastating blow.

Each punch landed with enough force to crack planets, and each one sent Samael blasting further and further away from where they’d started.

They passed Mars in seconds, then Jupiter, then Saturn, with each planet shrinking into insignificance behind them as Aiden drove Samael across the entire solar system with unrelenting fury.

And with every strike, something else happened.

Each time Aiden’s fist made contact with Samael’s body, a portion of transcendence was absorbed back into Aiden’s being.

Samael could feel it happening with each hit, the power draining out of him piece by piece. He tried to fight back, but nothing worked anymore.

His attacks felt weak and ineffective against Aiden’s overwhelming presence, and every attempt to defend himself was smashed aside like paper before a storm.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of punishment, Aiden stopped.

They hovered now in some distant corner of the galaxy, surrounded by unfamiliar stars and nebulae that painted the void in shades of purple and gold.

Samael floated limply before him, with his body battered beyond recognition. His wings were torn and ragged, barely able to keep him aloft anymore.

Strange looking blood, with golden and whitish tints, leaked from countless wounds covering his torso and face.

He looked thin now, as though all the vitality had been drained out of him along with his stolen power.

Aiden stared at him without pity or remorse.

“That, is for every pain and suffering you’ve caused the people of Earth.”

He paused before adding:

“And even then… it’s still not enough.”

Aiden stretched out one hand toward the broken form of the fallen angel.

An invisible force seized hold of Samael’s body and dragged him forward against his will until he floated directly before Aiden’s outstretched palm.

His fingers closed around Samael’s throat, gripping tightly as white light began pouring out of the fallen angel’s body once more.

This time, it took everything that remained. Every last trace of transcendence was ripped away forcibly as Samael’s form grew thinner and weaker with each passing second.

Aiden then channeled his power of Destruction through the body of the fallen angel.

Samael opened his mouth one last time as though to scream, but no sound came out as only disintegration of his body followed.

There was nothing left but particles drifting away into the void. Within moments, The Samael of this timeline was gone completely.

His power level never stood a chance.

Aiden exhaled slowly, feeling the surge of power coursing through him now. It was far greater than when he’d first absorbed the Holy Grail’s fragments.

“So far as I’m able to renew the boost of power these fragments give,” Aiden muttered to himself, “I’ll be able to maintain this state far longer than I anticipated.”

His gaze lifted then, looking out into the far distance beyond, out toward the edge of reality where another universe waited on the other side.

A frown crossed his face as realization settled over him once more. The real battle only begins now against the Samael of the original timeline.

That version, one who’d already killed him and absorbed the fragments of that world, would be far stronger.

Aiden raised one hand forward and a portal that would lead into the original timeline’s universe formed. Then, he flew through.

——

Michael expression remained grim as Raphael walked back into the hall and said, “she has been restrained”

Michael said nothing to that, and Raphael continued with another question, “What are we going to do about him?”

Michael was silent for several moments before responding.

“Sooner or later, that power that feels like Father’s will run out.”

There was a brief pause before he added,

“And then we remove that human.”

Raphael nodded and said nothing further.

Michael’s gaze remained fixed on the void of space when the next words came out with a scornful edge:

“Absolutely no one is permitted to become a new Creator.”

——-

A/N: This Volume will come to an end in the next Chapter or two. I want to thank every one of you for making it this far.

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