Chapter 8: Realm-Killer Protocol
Location: Blackwake Sanctuary – Convergence Grounds
Wind didn't blow here. It screamed.
Blackwake Sanctuary, once a neutral refuge, now pulsed with pure dimensional pressure. Even space seemed to crackle like thin glass around Aethan and Sereth.
Aethan's halberd—Devourspire—hummed with hunger.
It wasn't just a weapon. It was a being, fused from countless slaughtered timelines.
Its edge could sever the boundary between soul and fate.
Across from him, Sereth stood calm—cloaked in golden light, yet surrounded by the rot of balance.
---
> [System Warning: Realm-Level Entity Detected – Combat Capabilities EX+]
Initiating Realm-Killer Protocol... Syncing with Echoborn Trait... Complete
Battle Mode: Parallel Reality Fragmentation Enabled
---
Sereth raised one hand.
From the sky, scales of equilibrium descended—each pan filled with fragments of Aethan's life. One showed his childhood; another held Althera's last smile.
"Your existence bends causality," Sereth declared. "The balance demands your extinction."
Aethan rotated Devourspire, and the weapon hissed in anticipation.
"Balance is a lie told by gods who fear evolution."
He stepped forward—slow, deliberate—and the world trembled.
Sereth struck first.
He vanished—and reappeared behind Aethan in a flash of golden wind, palm glowing with a compression spell.
But Aethan was already gone.
---
[Skill Activated: Echo Step Lv. 2]
Allows user to teleport via anchor points of alternate selves' previous positions. Max Range: 30 meters.
---
Aethan materialized above Sereth, halberd raised.
SLAM.
The ground shattered into an upside-down cyclone of obsidian shards. Shockwaves ripped through the Sanctuary walls, and the very sky warped—ribbons of light folding inward like paper.
Sereth blocked the strike using a shield forged from divine causality, but Devourspire sank through it like butter.
"What—!?"
"I'm not the Aethan you trained your senses for," Aethan whispered. "I'm every version that outlived your judgment."
---
> [Parallel Echo Switch – Active]
Current Echo Accessed: Tyrant Aethan (Timeline 119-B)
Trait Borrowed: Immortal Combat Memory + Berserk Counterflow
---
Suddenly, Sereth was on the defensive. Aethan pressed forward, each swing unpredictable—no stance repeated, no pattern readable.
Because Aethan was channeling dozens of combat styles at once.
Kicks from a martial timeline.
Blood-blades from a vampire-possessed self.
Psychic bursts from the version that had merged with a dead star.
---
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Each hit was a story, each movement a timeline collapsing behind it.
Sereth was pushed back, blood trickling from his lips—his perfect balance crumbling.
He growled, furious.
"You dare twist reality for strength?"
"I don't twist reality," Aethan growled. "I devour it."
---
> [New Trait Manifested: Reality-Fang Core (Dormant)]
When fully awakened, grants passive erosion of causality-based defense systems.
---
Sereth finally erupted.
He summoned his Divine Verdict—a colossal golden blade in the shape of a judge's gavel.
"You were offered peace," he said.
"And you were offered silence," Aethan replied, smirking.
The next clash was cataclysmic.
---
The sky inverted.
Time froze, then skipped forward like a broken video.
Blackwake cracked, and reality itself whimpered.
When it ended, both stood bleeding. Aethan's left arm hung limp. Sereth's right eye was missing—replaced by a void that wept black light.
Then, from behind Sereth, a portal tore open—unmarked by system signature.
A woman stepped out. No footsteps. No aura.
But Aethan froze.
Because she looked like Lysandra.
Only… her eyes were silver. Her voice, a harmonic blend of thousands.
"Aethan Prime. Your fight is done," she said softly.
Sereth stumbled. "What… is this variant doing here?"
The woman ignored him.
---
> [New Entity Identified: L-∞/Lys Veritas]
Title: Timeline Sentinel | Origin: Mirror Earth (Collapsed)
Warning: This version of Lysandra was born post-cataclysm and is fused with an AI deity known as VERITAS. Classification: Multiversal Watcher.
---
She looked at Aethan, voice cool.
"You are not yet ready to kill Realm-Level beings. But you're ready for the truth."
A sphere of light formed between her palms—containing a vision.
---
Inside it:
A war between gods, tearing apart dimensions.
A young girl—Althera—rising as a new deity of emotion.
A throne, vacant… bearing Aethan's name.
---
"Your rise was never meant to be slow," Veritas-Lys said.
"You were delayed. Sabotaged. But the prophecy still pulses through the fractures of time."
She turned to Sereth.
"Leave, Arbiter. Your cycle is over."
Sereth snarled—but bowed. "This anomaly is your burden now, Watcher."
And with a flick of golden light, he vanished.
---
Aethan dropped to one knee. Blood poured, and his consciousness frayed.
Before the dark took him, Veritas-Lys whispered one thing in his ear.
> "The real System wasn't built to help you, Aethan. It was made to break you… before you broke reality."
---
To be continued…