In a distant realm beyond time, where the threads of reality frayed into rivers of light and thought of beings imcomparably strong, stood an empire called Zir Altrun, ruled by a being known among the higher planes as Seviroth of the Fallen Doom.

He was tall, regal, and incomprehensibly ancient. His skin shimmered like black glass filled with starlight. Constellations flickered beneath the surface of his flesh, and every breath he took rewrote the colors of existence around him. His eyes were twin horizons — one calm, one collapsing — each containing universes that drowned and rebuilt themselves endlessly.

Within his grand palace, he sat, watching a mortal planet, doing the activities of the Unbound Order Organization — Septas, headed by six others like him.

Septas had seven sub-organizations, one of which was Cradle.

The seven of them provided blessings and contracts, building the foundation of their next empires and reducing boredom to zero with various activities.

"Hmm?" Seviroth's eyes flickered in surprise.

"What is this resistance?"

Just now, he was completing the pact he had made with an ant from his organization.

But a resistance unbefitting of that lower world was stopping him from fulfilling that pact.

"Humph."

…

[ Cause found. Zurdon had made a pact with a 4th realm being to take the lives of two people of his choice in exchange for that being's demands. ]

[ Zurdon fulfilled the demands, so that being is taking the lives of Ron and Syl, as designated by Zurdon. ]

Ainen looked at Zurdon, fury burning in his eyes. "You bastard!!"

"CANCEL THE PACT RIGHT NOW!"

Zurdon laughed manically, but his eyeballs always watched Ainen. "That's it!! That's it! That's it! That's it!"

Ainen's mind was in spirals. 'CAN'T WE DO ANYTHING?!'

Ron and Syl were feeling something inside already. They were unsettled and were blanking out every few seconds before waking up.

Both of them were scared.

Everyone was trying to use defensive magic spells and other skills, but nothing worked.

'Make them sleep!' Ainen didn't want to let them experience this terrifying thing anymore.

The girls made Ron and Syl sleep and were asking what was happening to them.

Ainen clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palm.

"Tell me what I need to do to stop this!" Ainen asked Zurdon, his eyes bloodshot. "But stop this first!"

Zurdon jerked to a stop and stared at Ainen with a blank expression.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

And then he burst out laughing. "No!"

"Never!"

"What's the fun in that? You moron!"

Ainen's body was trembling due to pure wrath and helplessness.

[ Master, we might succeed in keeping them here. The being isn't exerting any more power than the threshold I can handle. ]

Ainen's eyes trembled. 'Really?!'

[ But the system is not upgraded fully, so if that person is exerting more power…]

'But there's a chance, right? Right?!'

Zurdon paused upon seeing that shift in Ainen's expression.

'No way! How can that being fail?!'

But suddenly, Ainen felt a terror like never before as his Equalizer Zone, for the first time since its creation, was breached.

[ Cradle's Boss is here. ]

Right next to him, an eerie darkness took form, faintly glowing, and floating without being affected by Ainen's zone.

In fact, it looked as if it was existing in a parallel space, not even touching Ainen's Equalizer Zone, yet being able to make its power fill Ainen with such pressure.

Soon, that darkness was filled with dim colors and took the form of a humanoid sitting on a throne.

He was looking straight at Ainen.

Ainen was asking the system questions, but he wasn't getting any answers.

It was like the system vanished. He couldn't access his system interfaces as well.

Ainen realized. The system was hiding.

"LORD SEVIROTH!" Zurdon shouted with excitement. "To think I would see you again!"

Seviroth shifted his gaze from Ainen to Zurdon.

"Ant. You did well fulfilling the pact on your end. You filled it more than required, but it seems your foe is extraordinary."

Zurdon's gaze trembled. He looked at Ainen and then at Seviroth. "A-Are you unable to kill his siblings?"

"Hahahaha…" Seviroth started laughing.

Ainen was looking at Seviroth, and he didn't know what to say.

He felt like he had no say in swaying this boss of Cradle with his words.

His instincts of the arcane told him m was helpless against this being.

'Do something, system! You are limitless, right?!'

'Break my siblings of this grasp!'

"Am I unable to fulfill my pact? Is that your question, ant?" Seviroth grinned at Zurdon.

"YES!" Zurdon screamed. "I WANT TO SEE HIM IN DESPAIR. DROWN HIM IN THE SEA OF HELPLESSNESS!"

"Then give me your life. You gave me more than enough, but your enemy has the protection of a 3rd realm being." Seviroth looked at Ainen, his gaze amused. "To exert more power and fulfill the pact, I need your life that is marked by my rune as well."

Ainen's eyes widened, and he turned to Zurdon. "STOP!"

Ainen's mana wrapped around Zurdon, transforming into the strongest healing power he could muster.

"TAKE IT!" Zurdon laughed manically while looking at Ainen. "TAKE MY LIFE, LORD SEVIROTH!"

Seviroth snapped his finger.

All of Ainen's power dispersed like vanishing smoke, and Zurdon's last manically laughter face closed in towards Ainen.

"NO!"

The moment Ainen uttered, Zurdon was blasted into black smoke.

His soul appeared, blackened and marked by exotic patterns that streamed over it.

Zurdon looked around and laughed. "I can see his face before dying completely?"

"Thank you so much, Lord Seviroth."

"It's nothing." Lord Seviroth chuckled and looked at Ainen.

"Don't…" Ainen's lips trembled.

"Whatever you have is sure persistent." Seviroth was amused. "It is stubbornly stopping me from killing those two puny lives."

"So be it. This plane shall die bearing witness to my pact."

Seviroth's eyes flickered.

In the next moment, Ainen saw Ron and Syl vanishing from the Limitless Kitchen.

"No…" Ainen's eyes blanked.

"I SEE IT!" Zurdon's eyes brightened! "THAT'S IT! HAHAHAHAH!"

"I WIN!"

"YOU LOSE!"

Seviroth's eyes turned boring. "Time to leave."

Both Seviroth and Zurdon vanished. One temporary, one completely.

CRACK!

Something started cracking. Not earth, not sky.

But the very foundation of this universe.

[ WARNING! WARNING! ]

Ainen froze. Something wrapped him from the system as he couldn't move or do anything.

[ Emergency Evacuation Protocol Activated. ]

[ The Universe has entered Absolute Zero within a fraction of a second. All lights are frozen, and all matter is motionless. All antimatter is stirred. ]

[ Within three known seconds, the universe will cease to exist. ]

[ Evacuation Initiated. ]

Ainen vanished.

The universe died without sound.

No explosion, no flame — only silence, so pure that even the thought of sound ceased to exist.

From the edges of reality to the smallest atom in the core of its heart, everything froze.

The stars were the first to dim. Like candles caught in a black wind, their light folded inwards, collapsing into themselves until they became still motes of glass suspended in an unmoving void. Galaxies halted mid-spin — arms of radiant dust locked in eternal motionlessness. The concept of "movement" bled out of the cosmos.

Planets turned to frozen shadows, their orbits crystallizing mid-curve. Moons hung like silver coins in solid ink. Oceans, winds, fire — all were erased into the same glacial stillness. Even light forgot to move.

Then came the soundless collapse.

But within this empty void, two beings appeared.

"How dare they wantonly end a universe like this?!"

A man with spiky yellow hair glowing due to interaction with the void spoke angrily, his hair flickering more as he spoke.

"We have to report this, but I want to know the reason this ended."

"There's no way to know anymore."

"There is. You write the report, I'll find the reason."

…

Ainen opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

He was sleeping on an unknown bed in a small room with a window.

Getting up, he rubbed his temples. "What's going on?"

[ We successfully escaped the destruction of the universe caused by the overexertion of power from that being called Seviroth. ]

Ainen paused. His eyes trembled before he quickly sent his conciousness inside Star Gazing Restaurant. 'Ron, Syl!'

'WHERE ARE THEY?!'

Saffa and others were sleeping, their eyes looking like they had cried before sleeping. They knew Ron and Syl were gone.

"No…" Ainen fell onto his knees, tears spilling from his eyes uncontrollably. He couldn't find Ron or Syl anywhere.

"NOOOOO!"

Ainen screamed on top of his lunge, bawling. "NO! WHYDID THEY HAVE TO DIE?!"

An old dwarf in plain clothes arrived at the room's door and watched Ainen crying, not entering inside.

He sighed and left.

Half an hour later, he returned with a food plate.

Ainen was sitting on the bed, watching the beautiful forest out of the window as he remembered Ron and Syl playing amidst the woods.

He could almost see them playing.

Like they were here. And every time he thought of that, his dry eyes dropped tears again as he realized he would never see them again.

They were gone.

Because of him.

"Eat this."

Ainen turned to the dwarf and wiped his face. "Sorry for greeting you after waking up."

The old dwarf rolled his eyes and put the food plate in front of him. "Look at your pitiful face with all the crying."

The dwarf patted Ainen's back. "I don't know who you lost, but I am familiar with that pain I see in your eyes."

"Stay here however long you want to. Only I live here at this riverbank in the forest in this humble hut. You won't be disturbed."

The dwarf turned around and left. "It takes time to overcome that grief, but you'll make peace with it eventually."

"And then, you'll do what you must do."

"That's life."

Ainen looked at the food, his eyes tearing u again, but he started eating.

'System.'

[ Yes, Master. ]

'I want to get strong. Strong enough to crush that Seviroth and everything he holds.'

[ You can. ]

'I want to bring back Ron and Syl. Tell me it is possible.'

[ I…can not be certain about that. ]

Ainen froze. 'AREN'T YOU LIMITLESS?!'

[ I am not. I am the one who brings out the potential of the limitless in an individual. I am not certain about bringing back Ron and Syl because they were taken by a 4th realm being, and according to this Pentaverse's laws, souls gone cannot return. ]

[ But…]

"But what?" Ainen's eyes were a duality of despair of hope. He wanted hope. Hope to turn wrong into right. To bring back Ron and Syl.

[ You have to become stronger than the strongest limit possible of this Pentaverse. You have to destroy the Pentaverse's very foundation, grasp it in your palm, reverse its time, and bring back Ron and Syl. ]

[ So I am not certain because it is up to you to break that limit. ]

Ainen finally continued eating.

"Good."

His eyes were shifting visibly, turning from downcast and muddled to clear and sharp.

The system responded.

[ Main Quest formed. ]

Destroy Seviroth, Cradle, and everything connected to them.

Break the limit of Pentaverse and become strong enough to bring back Ron and Syl.

——————— Fin ———————

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