Chapter 569: For The Future

The declaration landed with weight that pressed down on the entire dreamscape.

Then–

"FOOLISH MORTAL!"

The Hooded One’s voice exploded across the rooftop, carrying rage that made the air crack.

"STOP THIS AT ONCE AND I SHALL LET YOU ESCAPE WITH YOUR LIFE! I SHALL ALLOW YOU TO FLEE WITH YOUR LIFE INTACT!"

All the floating forms spread their hands, darkness beginning to gather once more despite the pressure pressing against them.

"THE BACKLASH FROM USING ANOTHER LAW’S PRINCIPLES IN A DREAMSCAPE BATTLE WILL DESTROY YOU!"

The central figure’s shrouded form trembled, power building.

"DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE–"

Tap Tap Tap

The Sage started walking forward, his boots crunching against fractured stone with steady rhythm.

The axe remained on his shoulder, lightning continuing to arc across the blade’s surface.

"As someone who has played this game his entire existence..."

His voice came out level and controlled despite the power radiating from his frame.

"I understand perfectly well the consequences of every choice I make."

Another step, deliberate and measured.

"The price that must be paid, the sacrifice that becomes necessary, the endings that wait at the conclusion of paths we choose to walk."

His hand tightened fractionally on the axe handle, knuckles going whiter.

"And today is the day I chose to sacrifice... myself."

The last word fell with quiet finality, carrying conviction that refused to bend.

He took another step, then another, his pace never quickening or slowing.

Just steady forward movement toward the central figure floating above.

"AS THE DAMN PLAYER OF YOUR RACE, HOW CAN YOU JUST SACRIFICE YOURSELF?!"

The Hooded One’s voice carried something between fury and disbelief.

"YOU– THE GRAND SAGE! THE ONE WHO GUIDED HUMANITY THROUGH DARKNESS FOR DECADES!"

The shrouded forms began spreading wider, creating distance.

"HOW CAN YOU THROW AWAY EVERYTHING YOU’VE BUILT?! EVERYTHING YOU REPRESENT?! EVERYTHING YOU–"

"Because humanity already has a far better player than me."

The Sage’s interruption came absolute and final, cutting through the building tirade.

He stopped walking, his boots settling against stone.

Then his head turned, his lightning-blazed gaze finding Damian’s frozen form through the chaos.

His voice became quieter but somehow carried more weight than anything he’d said before.

"And the moment he claimed his seat at my side of the table..."

A pause that felt like the universe holding its breath.

"We already won."

His hand rose from the axe, fingers extending toward Damian’s still form.

"For the future was always meant to be his."

Silence crashed down around them, suffocating and complete.

And somewhere in that terrible quiet, something shifted.

The old woman’s eyes blazed with sudden understanding, with desperate hope that refused to die.

Her voice erupted across the rooftop, carrying fanatical conviction.

"FOR THE FUTURE THAT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE HIS!"

Her hands slammed against stone, her entire body radiating power being torn from her very soul.

"FATE SEALERS! SACRIFICE YOUR LIVES AND COMPLETE THE SEAL!"

The remaining seers responded instantly, their voices overlapping in a chorus that shook reality.

"FOR THE FUTURE!"

"FOR OUR WORLDS!"

"FOR HUMANITY’S HOPE!"

Light exploded from their forms, brilliant and terrible, flowing upward toward the star still forming above.

The Hooded one’s voice cut across the chaos, carrying rage that made reality itself crack.

"HIS FUTURE?!"

The shrouded form straightened, that void finding Damian’s frozen form.

"YOU SPEAK OF HIS FUTURE AS IF IT’S GUARANTEED, AS IF THE OUTCOME HAS ALREADY BEEN DECIDED?!"

The hundreds of scattered avatars began moving, drifting back toward the center, gathering around the central void.

"FINE THEN! IF ALL OF YOU CAN SACRIFICE YOUR WORTHLESS LIVES FOR A MERE CHILD’S UNCERTAIN TOMORROW..."

Darkness began building around every hovering figure, power condensing with terrible purpose.

"THEN I SHALL SACRIFICE EVERY AVATAR I POSSESS ACROSS EVERY ERA TO KILL YOUR PRECIOUS HOPE BEFORE IT CAN TAKE ROOT!"

The avatars started glowing, their shrouded forms blazing with darkness that consumed light itself.

"FATE–"

And in an instant, all the hundreds of figures exploded simultaneously.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The sounds overlapped, becoming one massive detonation that shook the dreamscape to its foundations.

The avatars didn’t scatter or disperse, they merged.

All that power, all that accumulated essence from countless eras, compressed and twisted into a single mass of absolute darkness.

And it began moving, flowing across the sky like liquid shadow, targeting the one point the central void had identified.

Damian’s kneeling form.

"–SACRIFICE!"

The final word rang across the dreamscape with terrible finality.

****

Damian’s mind couldn’t keep up with the speed at which everything was happening.

One moment, he’d seen the Hooded One devouring Fate principles from the seers around him.

The next, darkness was about to engulf him completely, moving so fast his perception couldn’t track the transition.

’W-what?’

The thought formed incomplete, his consciousness unable to process the speed at which Demigods reacted.

’How did it get–’

"Grandnephew..."

The Sage’s voice cut through his scattered thoughts, calm and carrying something complex.

"Watch carefully..."

Purple light flashed across Damian’s vision, brilliant and sudden.

The Sage materialized directly in front of him, standing between Damian and the descending darkness.

His transformed state blazed with lightning, the axe lifted from his shoulder.

"Today I will show you–"

He gripped the black handle with both hands now, positioning the blade downward.

"–the true brilliance of Big Brother’s art."

Then he lowered the axe completely, the blade pointing toward the fractured stone beneath his feet.

His voice rose, carrying across the dreamscape with authority that made existence itself pause.

"HEAVEN SPLITTER!"

CRACK

Reality fractured around the weapon, space bending under pressure that refused to be contained.

The Sage’s muscles coiled, power flooding through his frame as he prepared for the strike.

Then he moved, slashing the axe upward toward the descending darkness.

His final words rang across the rooftop, overlapping with the sound of the blade cutting through air itself.

"ALL SEVERS AS ONE!"

BOOOOOOOOM

Light exploded outward from the point of contact, brilliant and absolute, swallowing everything in radiance that refused to allow darkness any purchase.

The sound crashed across the dreamscape with force that made reality itself scream.

And somewhere between the light and darkness, between the blade that had ended Gods and the sacrifice meant to end humanity’s last hope...

The future hung suspended, waiting to see which force would prove stronger.