Chapter 824

【 NEO’S PROPHECY 】

After observing the previous universes, Evé had already realized that the names recorded on the stone monuments were determined by the dominant civilization’s own understanding of their reality.

And from what she had seen, the dominant race of this universe was none other than humanity.

Which made the name “Dimensional Realm” particularly intriguing.

If this universe was called a Dimension…

Did that not imply the existence of universes that were not composed of worlds?

However, after reading the records carved upon the monument, Evé’s eyelids twitched violently.

The humans of the Dimensional Realm had not evolved from the worlds themselves.

Rather, according to the inscriptions written into the monument, a meteorite had fallen from the heavens and crashed into their realm, bringing the seed of humanity along with it.

They…

Had genuinely come from the “outside” so to speak.

Within a mere ten thousand years, humanity established a brilliant civilization throughout the Dimensional Realm, spreading its presence across the entire realm.

Besides humanity, their realm was also inhabited by dragons and Titans who had escaped from the previous universe once again, along with a small number of elemental lifeforms.

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This realm already bore a striking resemblance to the current Seigües Universe.

The only difference was that the humans here possessed no extraordinary powers.

They…

Could not wield mana.

Instead, they followed a path similar to that of Earth’s technological civilization. However, traces of mana utilization still existed, albeit only through external means rather than innate manipulation.

As the historical records progressed, a familiar name gradually entered Evé’s sight.

“…Neo?”

Looking at the name engraved upon the stone monument, Evé was momentarily stunned.

Neo…

According to the monument, he was the child born from the union between a human and an elemental lifeform that had taken human form.

At the same time, he was also the very first offspring ever born between humanity and another race.

Thus, Neo became the first human capable of wielding mana, a genius blessed with limitless potential, ushering in the dawn of magic and extraordinary powers.

From that moment onward, humanity officially entered an age wherein individuals could wield extraordinary power through their own abilities…

The history that followed was both magnificent and sorrowful.

As magical power gradually spread throughout human civilization, one portion of humanity pursued personal strength through magic and cultivation, while another continued advancing along the path of magitech.

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As the first human to possess supernatural power, Neo gradually rose to become humanity’s first Mythical being, as well as its supreme leader.

He was not a God of Faith.

Instead, he ascended as an Ancient God, directly wielding the Divine Laws themselves.

Human civilization continued to flourish.

The Titans and dragons, having recovered from the devastation of the previous cycle, also steadily regained their former strength.

This time, however, every major race exercised remarkable restraint.

Large-scale wars and conflicts never erupted.

It was obvious that the surviving civilizations already knew the truth of the world and everything they did was in preparation for the final struggle.

The civilization of the Dimensional Realm prospered peacefully for nearly two hundred million years, creating an unimaginably brilliant culture.

Although the strength of individual experts never surpassed those of the previous universes, the integration of magical powers and technology elevated the human civilization’s overall power to an even greater level.

Some of their magitech weapons were even capable of rivaling Mythical beings.

Nonetheless…

—They still failed.

As expected, the “Insectoid Swarm” reappeared once again.

This time, however, they had acquired abilities similar to those of the elemental lifeforms, granting them the power to influence both the worlds and the races dwelling within them.

Yet unlike the elementals, their influence manifested as corruption and assimilation.

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Chaotic and evil power spread alongside their arrival, sweeping across countless worlds.

One prosperous realm after another was transformed into lands of darkness.

Gray clouds shrouded the skies.

Lightning raged endlessly.

Black miasma filled entire worlds…

The magitech civilization humanity had painstakingly built proved utterly powerless before them.

For humanity had no means of resisting the corruption brought about by the Insectoid Swarm.

In an instant, they descended into madness and depravity, becoming assimilated into the chaotic Insectoid Swarm themselves.

It was almost entirely a one-sided war.

Although every race had prepared as thoroughly as possible this time around, the repeated cosmic cycles had clearly steadily weakened them.

Their collective strength was now far inferior to that of the earliest universes.

While the universe itself had become ever larger.

Yet the pinnacle of power among its inhabitants had grown increasingly weaker.

Faced with the grotesque Insectoid Swarm, humanity gave them a terrifying new name…

“Demons.”

Meanwhile, the worlds that had fallen into corruption came to be known throughout the universe as…

“The Abyss.”

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However, it was not the Demons who ultimately destroyed the Dimensional Realm.

It was Neo.

According to the monument’s records, humanity’s leader, Neo, disappeared at the most critical moment of the war.

He remained missing for an entire century.

For one hundred years, there was not the slightest trace of him.

Then, a century later, when nearly the entire Dimensional Realm had fallen and the end of all things was at hand…

He returned.

The moment he reappeared, Neo unleashed power unlike anything ever witnessed before.

With that overwhelming might, he destroyed the entire Dimensional Realm.

The Demons.

The Abyss.

The entire dimension.

Every existing thing…

All vanished into nothingness in an instant.

The final inscription upon the stone monument read:

【 The Dimensional Realm endured for 280 million years. A total of 337,000 Laws of Origin were born. Of these, none were successfully collected for our Lord. 】

Slowly withdrawing her gaze from the monument, turmoil surged within Evé’s heart.

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No Laws of Origin were collected!

It was obvious.

Although this universe had been destroyed…

The mysterious existence behind everything had failed this time as well.

Thinking of the name engraved upon the monument, Evé turned toward Urinos beside her and asked,

“This guy named Neo… is he His Majesty Neo, the King of the Gods?”

Urinos slowly nodded.

“That’s right.”

“So, he had already ascended to Greater Divine Power by this point?”

Evé asked again.

“Most likely. Only a being of Greater Divine Power, one that has transcended the Laws governing the cosmos itself, could effortlessly destroy an entire universe…”

“And after destroying everything… did he travel to the next universe? Or perhaps… to the Seigües Universe where we now reside?”

“That is likely the case.”

“So… you, the Titans, and even the humans in the current universe are actually survivors whom he brought over from the previous one?”

“…That is most likely true.”

“Then what about the Ancient Gods?”

“The Ancient Gods… were Mythical beings naturally born within this cycle’s Seigües Universe itself. Every one of them was born already possessing Mythical power, far surpassing those of the previous two universes.”

“My speculation is that this is connected to the Laws of Origin that disappeared after His Majesty Neo’s ‘disappearance’ in the previous universe.”

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“The Ancient Gods were very likely lifeforms born from those laws that were never ‘collected.’”

“In other words, the Mythical beings in the current Seigües Universe should have been the strongest in all recorded history.”

“…Should have been?”

“You already know the answer.”

After speaking with Urinos for a while, Evé fell silent.

“I see. The Ancient Gods have withered away.”

A moment later, she asked once more,

“Then… what about the World Tree?”

Urinos looked at Evé before answering meaningfully,

“The World Tree was also brought to the Seigües Universe by Neo.”

“However… unlike me, and the Titans, the World Tree genuinely came from beyond the cosmos.”

“Strictly speaking, neither the World Tree nor humanity belongs to this universe at all.”

As she spoke, Urinos looked beyond the stone monument.

There still stood another temple, identical to the Pantheon.

However, compared to the previous ones, this temple appeared much newer.

Looking at it, Evé already had a vague idea of what lay within it.

She stepped forward.

Urinos said nothing, quietly accompanying her before raising the violet sphere of light in her hand to open the temple’s massive doors.

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The gates slowly swung open.

Inside, there were no shattered worlds.

Only endless darkness.

Standing alone within that boundless void was a brand-new stone monument.

Upon it were engraved the same mysterious inscriptions, words that could be understood even without knowing the language itself.

They recorded the entire history of the Seigües Universe, from its very birth until the conclusion of the recent War between Gods and Demons…

This…

Was the stone monument belonging to the current cosmic cycle itself.

After reading the ancient inscription, Evé finally understood the origin of the name “Seigües.”

“Seigües” was a word preserved from the language spoken by the humans of the previous universe, a language that had long since vanished among the inhabitants of the Seigües Universe.

As a result, no living being in the present could truly understand its meaning.

To them, it was nothing more than a transliterated name.

Yet in the previous universe, the word carried two meanings:

—Transcendence.

And…

“Beginning.”

It was a name personally chosen by Neo, the King of the Gods.

༺⟐༻

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After they finished reading the stone monument, Evé and Urinos left the final temple.

As they slowly walked back, Urinos continued revealing everything she knew.

“Actually, the Seigües Universe has been trapped in an endless cosmic cycle and this is already the seventh cycle.”

“Those universes you just witnessed were not separate universes.”

“They were simply the previous reiterations of the Seigües Universe.”

“Destruction.”

“Rebirth.”

“Destruction once more.”

“Then rebirth again.”

“The cycle just repeats endlessly.”

“And I believe you’ve already guessed the purpose behind all of this.”

“It is precisely to collect the Laws of Origin for that mysterious ‘Lord’ mentioned in that ancient language.”

“As for that mysterious ‘Lord,’ when His Majesty Neo entrusted me with this ‘Key,’ he once spoke of Him.”

“In truth, ‘He’ is the true creator of this sealed universe—the slumbering Creator.”

“At the beginning, the living beings of this universe simply lived in ignorance.”

“But gradually over time, they would uncover the real truth.”

“Rose in resistance.”

“And ultimately failed in the end.”

“Then the universe would reset and the cycle would repeat, again and again.”

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“And so it has continued until today.”

“The worlds are destroyed time and time again.”

“The Creator harvests the Laws time and time again.”

“And those responsible for always destroying the universe…”

“Are the Abyssal Demons.”

“The so-called “Will of the Abyss” is very likely nothing more than the Creator’s will that governs this endless cycle.”

“The Abyssal Demons were not originally as they are now.”

“They continuously evolved throughout each cycle.”

“In the current universe, they developed yet another new power.”

“The wisdom of humanity.”

“In the past, they acted purely on instinct.”

“But now, they possess the characteristics of intelligent life.”

“This time, the Demons are even stronger.”

“When the Abyss first emerged, the Titan fighting alongside us dragons were driven to extinction almost immediately.”

“The countless realms also suffered catastrophic losses.”

“If we dragons and the other Ancient Gods had not later joined forces to eliminate the Abyss’s Mythical beings, this universe would have already been destroyed long ago.”

“But even then, we only managed to inflict heavy losses upon the Abyss.”

“After all these years, the number of worlds falling into the Abyss has not decreased.”

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“On the contrary…”

“It has continued to increase.”

“Meanwhile, the Ancient Gods have gradually faded away.”

“Moreover, we dragons have likewise become fewer with each passing age.”

“Now, the primary force restraining the Abyss primarily consists of the Gods of Faith led by those gods in the Heavenly Realm.”

“However, you’ve probably already noticed that the Gods of Faith are weakening as well.”

“The number of Gods of Faith a thousand years ago cannot even be compared with what remains today.”

“The Abyssal Demons of this age may appear less overwhelming than before.”

“But in reality, they are like a frog slowly being boiled alive.”

“They are steadily eroding the strength of the Seigües Universe, little by little.”

After listening to Urinos, Evé fell into deep thought.

Urinos was right.

Take the recent War between the Gods and Demons as an example.

Although it appeared that the righteous gods had achieved a decisive victory, the Abyss had suffered no truly devastating losses and had merely expended a number of demons and Abyssal Myths.

And Abyssal Myths were far easier to create than righteous gods.

Only because Evé herself had severely wounded several Abyssal Myths, secured victory, and even exploited the Demon Lords’ power to siphon strength from the Abyss had the outcome changed.

Without Evé…

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The entire Realm of Seigües would likely have already fallen.

Seen in that light…

Evé herself almost seemed like an anomaly.

“Your Grace Evé.”

Urinos’ voice interrupted her thoughts.

The Ancestral Dragon looked toward her with a profound gaze.

“There are several words I once heard from His Majesty Neo.”

“Or perhaps…”

“They should be called a prophecy.”

“A prophecy?”

Evé asked curiously.

Urinos drew a deep breath before gazing into the distance.

“I still remember that day.”

“He sat upon the throne within the Pantheon.”

“His gaze was deep… and filled with pain.”

“I asked him what had happened.”

“He told me that he had been wrong.”

“Wrong from the very beginning.”

“He had made an incorrect choice.”

“And that choice inevitably led to a future that could only end in failure.”

“I asked him what he meant.”

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“But he merely smiled bitterly and gave no further explanation.”

“Instead, he left me with a single passage.”

“He told me to remember it forever.”

“He said the key to breaking the world’s shackles lay hidden within these words:”

“Our universe is trapped within a closed system that endlessly loops upon itself. Therefore, any being born within this system can never truly break free from the cycle of fate. Only an external force can truly change the world.”

“That external force may hasten the universe’s destruction… but it may also bring about genuine change.”

As she spoke, Urinos looked deeply into Evé’s eyes.

“From that perspective…”

“The World Tree, which had never once appeared upon any written records within the stone monument, is one of such external force.”

“The humans who descended from beyond the cosmos are another.”

“And even His Majesty Neo himself…”

“Was also an external force.”

“Yet on the very next day he told me this, His Majesty Neo vanished once more.”

“He left behind only the key leading to the Cradle of Origin.”

“No one knows where he went.”

“Some Ancient Gods believed he departed from this universe.”

“Others believed he entered eternal slumber.”

“But one thing is certain.”

“There can only ever be one being of Greater Divine Power within the entire universe.”

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“And now…”

“That position stands vacant.”

“His Majesty Neo may truly have left.”

“Or…”

“He may have fallen.”

With those words, Urinos once again turned to Evé, her eyes deep and unfathomable.

“Your Grace Evé…”

“Will you become the savior of the Seigües Universe…”

“Or the herald of its final apocalypse?”

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