The proclamation rippled across all of creation:
"Only one shall remain.
The others… shall be forgotten."
Reality itself shuddered. Galaxies spiraled backward. Stars reversed their burn. Time split sideways.
The Memoryless War had begun.
A war not just for victory—but for existence in memory.
Anu clenched his fist, eyes burning with chaos.
"You would erase me?
You would undo my wars, my dominions, my ascension?"
Cal, still standing firm, growled in reply:
"You sought the crown to escape order.
Now meet the price of being remembered."
Moac spun her staff, invoking the First Flame of Stars.
Sul closed her eyes, summoning the Last Soul Path—a tapestry of every soul ever born.
Then Vatae raised his hand.
Time paused.
---
The Lawless Realm
They now stood in the Realm Between Realms—where no law applied, where no memory anchored, where no fate was written.
This was the battlefield of pure essence.
Only what was true to their core could manifest.
Anu appeared taller—his body forged from entropy itself, wrapped in cloaks of beginningless karma and endless samsara.
Cal stood armored in living light, his blade now the Sword of Nine Laws, its colors singing hymns of order.
Moac's form was that of a living nebula, galaxies orbiting her skin.
Sul hovered as a goddess of soullight, every heartbeat across existence pulsing from her veins.
And between them all, floating, emotionless:
The Will of the Unchosen—faceless, crowned in paradox, reality-weaver.
---
The First Clash
Cal attacked first, striking Anu with a swing that reversed space, inverted time, and stabbed through all incarnations of Anu's being.
But Anu laughed, grabbed the blade, and devoured its timeline.
"I've warred with the ancient devils, Cal.
Your sword bleeds hope. I bleed truth."
Sul screamed and unleashed Echo of All Souls, a blast made from the regrets and joys of every living being.
Anu was shaken—but not broken.
Moac whispered a hymn that turned existence on itself—burning Anu's karma with pure celestial entropy.
Still, Anu stood.
"This is not enough. You are champions.
But I am the catalyst.
I am the end and the mistake."