The veil between realms quivered.
As Gideon's final breath faded into the corrupted winds, Oscar stood still eyes lifted, gaze unblinking. He wasn't looking at the battlefield. He wasn't watching the retreating remnants of the Holy Kingdom.
He was staring beyond.
Into something no mortal, no god, should see.
Selene approached, blood-soaked and victorious. "They've scattered," she said. "The Seraphim… are no more."
Oscar didn't respond.
"Master?"
Then she felt it too.
The world… slowed.
Not like a spell. Not like a temporal disruption.
Time itself was unsure whether it should keep moving forward.
Oscar exhaled, and the air crackled with paradox.
"I saw it," he whispered.
Selene's eyes narrowed. "Saw what?"
He turned to her, and for a moment just a moment there was fear in his voice.
"The one who watches."
The Eye Between Worlds
Deep in the nothingness beyond creation, the Watcher reeled.
It had watched tyrants ascend and fall. It had seen voidlords tear reality asunder, and gods tear each other apart. It did not intervene.
Until now.
Oscar was not just abyss.
He was becoming something more.
Something that didn't belong in the balance of light or dark, order or chaos.
A singularity.
A mistake.
A threat.
The Watcher blinked again and the ripple crossed existence.
A Divine Council Fractures
High above, in the Sacred Citadel of Dawn, gods gathered. Not avatars. Not messengers.
The true pantheon.
The God of Flame. The Weaver of Fates. The Silent One.
And Him.
Solarius, the First Light.
His radiant form dimmed with unease.
"The Watcher has blinked," he said, voice echoing across divine minds.
The others stirred in disbelief.
"That hasn't happened since the Collapse," murmured the Weaver.
"The abyss has always existed. Why now?" asked the God of Flame.
Solarius raised a hand, conjuring an image.
Oscar.
His eyes. His aura. His evolution.
"He is no longer a mortal touched by the abyss. He is becoming the abyss itself and beyond."
The Silent One finally spoke.
"We must unmake him."
The Decision of the Damned
Back on the corrupted earth, Oscar stood surrounded by his generals.
Darius.
Selene.
Aldric.
Even the abyssal beasts kneeled, sensing the shift.
Oscar turned slowly.
"They'll come for me now."
Aldric's grip tightened on his greatsword. "Let them."
"No," Oscar said, his voice layered with strange resonance almost two voices in one. "We are beyond just conquering kingdoms now. We must prepare to defy existence itself."
Selene smirked. "I always wanted to kill a god."
Oscar nodded. "Then prepare. The divine will strike."
A massive sigil formed in the sky. A sun of holy fire.
The first god had already arrived.
Solarius Descends
The sky tore open.
No thunder. No warning. Just light so pure, so absolute, it silenced the corrupted land beneath it.
A second sun blazed in the heavens, and from its heart descended a figure cloaked in flame and glory. Wings of pure solar fire stretched wide, each feather a burning galaxy. His armor shimmered with molten runes, and his presence alone scorched the sky.
Solarius, First of the Divine.
The God of Light.
The blade in his right hand wasn't forged it was light. Raw, sentient, and older than time. In his left, a shield that had deflected primordial darkness in ages past.
Below, the abyss stirred in agitation.
Oscar stepped forward, his abyssal aura flaring, black tendrils writhing around him like serpents ready to strike.
"God," Oscar greeted, voice like a whisper wrapped in thunder.
"Mortal no longer," Solarius said, voice calm and absolute. "You have become an infection. I will cauterize you."
The land between them cracked as the weight of their presence collided.
Selene, standing behind Oscar, narrowed her eyes. "He's suppressing us… just by existing."
Darius grunted. "This isn't like the Seraphim. This is something else."
Oscar raised a hand and the abyss surged forward, slamming into the holy light but it dissolved, shrieking into nothingness.
Solarius hadn't even moved.
"I see now," Oscar murmured. "Why even the abyss fears you."
Solarius began his descent.
The First Strike
Without warning, Solarius appeared in front of Oscar no movement, just presence.
His sword cleaved through space, and reality shattered like glass.
Oscar raised his arm to block, shadows hardening into armor but the blade struck true. Black ichor spilled into the air as Oscar was hurled backward, crashing into the Abyssal Citadel, reducing part of it to rubble.
The abyss screamed.
Selene darted forward, daggers glowing with corrupted energy.
Darius charged beside her, greatsword raised high.
Aldric followed, eyes burning with abyssal fire.
They didn't reach him.
A pulse of light burst from Solarius, and all three were thrown back crippled, broken.
He hadn't even lifted his sword again.
The Core Awakens
Oscar rose from the ruins, breath ragged, body cracked but his eyes…
They burned.
Not with fire. Not with light.
With understanding.
The abyss within him writhed not in fear, but hunger. This wasn't death. This was a test.
Solarius pointed his sword at Oscar.
"You cannot kill a god."
Oscar smiled, teeth bloodied. "Then I'll become one."
His core pulsed once then twice.
And then the Second Core ignited.
Black and silver light burst from his chest, sending a shockwave that flattened the land for miles.
The God of Light narrowed his eyes for the first time in eons.
Oscar stepped forward again this time, leaving burning footprints in both light and shadow.
A Spark in the Dark – The Second Core Awakens
The world held its breath.
Two powers ancient and infinite stood on opposite ends of existence. One bathed in unforgiving light, the other cloaked in consuming shadow. But now, something stirred in between… something new.
Oscar's body floated above the ruined ground, suspended between heaven and hell.
The Second Core blazed within him.
It wasn't pure abyss.
It wasn't divine.
It was something else.
A balance.
A paradox.
A rebellion against both fate and creation.
The Forgotten Flame
Selene, her body bloodied but alive, gazed up through half-lidded eyes. "That energy… It's not the abyss. It's not corruption. What are you doing, Oscar?"
Darius gritted his teeth, struggling to his feet. "He's burning. Like both night and day at once."
Aldric clutched his blade, stunned. "That's not something you evolve into… that's something you become."
The blackened sky above swirled with constellations that didn't belong to this realm. A rift in reality had opened and from it, whispers echoed.
Not just the abyss whispering this time.
Not the gods.
Something older.
Oscar's voice cut through the silence.
"I've seen both ends. The holy and the damned. I've drowned in darkness and touched the sun."
His feet touched the ground again.
"I choose neither."
Solarius Attacks
Solarius surged forward like a comet, his blade screaming through the air. It struck Oscar directly in the chest.
But it didn't pierce.
The blade older than stars stopped, trapped within a web of interwoven light and dark energies.
Solarius's eyes widened. Just slightly.
Impossible.
Oscar looked up, meeting the god's gaze. "You're bound by the laws of the old world. But I'm rewriting them."
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
And the light bled.
The god reeled, stumbling back for the first time in eternity. His flames flickered.
Oscar exhaled, steam rising from his skin. "This power… I'll burn the chains of both gods and devils. I'll forge my own throne in the ashes."
The earth trembled.
The skies cracked.
And the abyss, sensing the rise of something new, withdrew in reverence.
The First Fracture
Miles away, in the sacred halls of the Celestial Pantheon, dozens of gods turned their gazes toward the mortal realm. Panic flickered in their eternal eyes.
"He broke the Blade of Solarius…"
"That core… it shouldn't exist."
"He's becoming something we cannot define."
One god stepped forward hooded, faceless.
"He has become the First Fracture. The one who breaks the balance."