Arius fell to his knees for a moment, his eyes widening at the horror of what he saw through the system interface. The number that appeared before him was nightmarish: 120 Septillion! And this was merely an overflow of the raw energy he had allowed Arius to sense.
The Overseer smiled with a cold, mechanical movement: "Oh... did you finally feel it? But I regret to tell you that this is just the outer shell of my power. You are trying to fight the ocean with a spoon, Arius."
Arius didn't wait; he detonated his energy and launched himself like a crimson arrow toward the Overseer's stone face. But before his fist could connect, a giant hammer appeared from nowhere, as if the void itself had manifested to block him. The hammer struck Arius's chest, shattering his ribs and throwing him vast distances to crash into the ruins of his fortress.
Zaikors tried to intervene, darting forward at lightning speed to land a treacherous strike on the Overseer's back, but what happened was beyond imagination; Zaikors' strike did not touch the Overseer, but bounced off a spatial rift to hit Zaikors himself in the chest, leaving him drenched in his own hemorrhaging energy.
The Overseer raised his hand, and Arius's body lifted into the air against his will, as if invisible threads were controlling him. The Overseer pulled him close to his distorted face and whispered with a voice dripping with malice: "Soon... I will use this body of yours as a vessel... as a bridge for me to cross over to 'there'."
Arius opened his eyes with difficulty, blood streaming over his eyelids, and whispered in a hoarse voice: "My body? What... what do you want from me, you monster?"
The Overseer laughed: "You truly understand nothing of your own value... It seems ' ' did not lie when he said you would be a fun toy." Then, with a sudden motion, the Overseer began to shatter Arius; he threw him like a doll into the air, only to vanish and reappear behind him to strike, manipulating his body mass as if reshaping him with pain.
Arius gathered a spark of his willpower and activated Instant Transmission to vanish from the Overseer's grasp, reappearing directly behind him and unleashing a concentrated "Neosphere" ball with all his remaining strength. But at the moment of impact, space bent before the strike, causing it to emerge from behind Arius's own back and pierce his shoulder! A massive explosion threw Arius toward the ground, creating a deep crater.
Arius looked in despair at the system screen; his energy was decreasing insanely! His army in the valley was being crushed and rebuilt thousands of times per second, directly draining the "Rhaizo the Ruler" from his veins.
The Overseer advanced with heavy steps that shook the valley and said, looking at the broken Arius: "You fool... everything was planned from the moment you thought of entering this world. Your entry was the bond of your end! In this dimension, I hold 'Absolute Authority'. Every atom, every thought, every movement... moves according to my will... and you, soon, will join my collection as the most precious doll I own."
Arius braced himself on his arms, looked toward Yuna lying in the distance, then toward the Overseer, and screamed bitterly: "Absolute... authority? No one... holds authority over my soul!"
Arius braced himself on the ruins of his body and soul, rising with a terrifying slowness, his eyes blazing with a desperate flicker. He began to charge a massive "Naisphere" energy between his palms, energy that hissed and tore the air around him. The Overseer smiled maliciously, waiting for the conventional attack, but in a split second, Arius used "Transmission" to appear directly in front of the Overseer, and instead of firing the blast, he grabbed him with terrifying force and activated [Void Field] to envelop the Overseer's body entirely, neutralizing his spatial abilities for a crucial moment.
Arius launched the blast at point-blank range! A horrific cosmic explosion shook the foundations of the separate dimension, and Arius staggered back, panting madly, until he collapsed to the ground exhausted; that move had drained every remaining atom of his focus.
The smoke slowly cleared, and the Overseer emerged, dusting off his stone body; only minor scratches appeared on him. He said in a voice as cold as the grave: "You surprised me a little with that maneuver... but unfortunately, my body is not mere matter to be affected by your mortal energy."
The Overseer drew a huge stone sword from the void and, in the blink of an eye, waved it in the air. Arius felt nothing but the coldness of the blade passing through his flesh, then a scream tore through the silence of the valley; his hand had flown into the air! The Overseer did not grant him a reprieve, swinging again to sever his foot, leaving Arius on the ground almost like a corpse, swimming in his blood and the energy leaking away like a river.
Zaikors tried to dash forward madly to save his master, but the Overseer pointed his sword blade toward him from afar, and an energy beam erupted that vaporized Zaikors' body entirely, forcibly returning him as scattered energy into Arius's body.
Arius reached a state of exhaustion unprecedented in his life. The Overseer advanced with terrifying calm, and with a wave of his hand, black spots appeared in the air, turning into a swarm of energy bees. The Overseer ordered them to pounce on what remained of Arius's army in the valley, and those tiny creatures began to paralyze the 500 billion soldiers, turning them into lifeless statues.
Then, with another lift of his finger, the ground beneath Arius split, and black stone thorns emerged, piercing his body through his shoulders and thighs, pinning him to the ground like a slaughtered sacrifice.
Arius looked with glazed eyes toward the system counter... the number was collapsing at an indescribable speed: 100 Trillion... 20 Trillion... 50 Billion...
He was unable even to scream, watching the world around him darken, and his mother Yuna screaming his name from afar as she saw her son being torn apart before her eyes. The Overseer stood over his head, his stone shadow covering Arius's pale face, and said: "Now... we begin the transfer process. Your body will become mine, and your story will end here for my story to begin in the Ten Realms."
Arius spat blood from his mouth, his voice coming out like a death rattle from between his shattered ribs: "Damn it... is this my end? I was nothing but a big fool... If I were stronger, if I had the power, would this stone have been able to break me? Mom... I'm sorry... I let you see your son defeated like an insect..."
Arius went still for a moment, then raised his blood-heavy eyes toward the Overseer's stone face and asked in a hoarse voice filled with contempt and pain: "Tell me... who are you? And what have I done to you to deserve such pure hatred?"
The Overseer stopped moving suddenly, his malicious smile erased and replaced by a terrifying rigidity. He leaned toward Arius's thorn-pinned face and said in a tone overflowing with bitterness that had aged through eternity: "Who am I? A good question from someone on the verge of death... but the more important answer is: 'Why am I?'"
The Overseer closed his stone eyes as if summoning an ancient hell: "I was just a normal person, Arius... living a simple routine, working, eating, and returning home to hug my wife and children. I was happy in my ignorance... until that cursed day. I was returning from work when the sky split and two identical giant entities appeared, fighting with a ferocity no human mind could comprehend. They were destroying universes as if they were paper leaves!"
The Overseer clenched his hand tightly until the stone crumbled beneath his feet: "I ran madly toward my home; I just wanted to check on my family... but the shockwave of their fight crushed everything. And when I arrived, I didn't find my house... I found rubble, and amidst the ruins, the corpses of my wife and children. And while I was crying blood and trying to pull out their lifeless bodies, you appeared!"
Arius's eyes widened in shock as he listened, but the Overseer continued with a stifled shout: "You were standing nearby, looking at me with cold-bloodedness, with features that knew no mercy, and you said to me with all contempt: 'Leave these disgusting corpses and leave if possible'... My ears couldn't believe it! When I dared to challenge you, you bound me with energy chains and placed upon me this curse that turned my body into living rock, then banished me to this forgotten dimension! You said to me as you threw me into this prison: 'Beings like you are just a waste of time before me'... And since that day, I have been rotting here, waiting for the moment to lure you in to make you taste from the same cup!"
The shock of the news was harder on Arius than the thorns piercing his body. He mumbled in astonishment: "Me? I didn't do that... I don't remember... Impossible!"
The Overseer laughed bitterly: "Of course you don't remember, the transcendental beings above nature don't remember the insects they crush under their feet! But I remembered you and I will not forget... And now, it is time to switch roles."
Arius screamed with all the strength he had, blood flowing from his mouth: "Liar! I have never seen you in my life! How can you claim all that when I don't even know who you are?!"
The Overseer looked at him with cold eyes and said with a terrifying hiss: "Yes, you don't remember... and that is better, for forgetting is the blessing of criminals. But what is most important now is that I will take my right from you; either by killing you and getting out of here, or by enslaving your body to be my means of crossing... just as you were the cause of my staying and rotting here!"
And at the moment the Overseer stepped forward to finish Arius, Yuna ran madly and stood with her weak body in front of her son, screaming in the face of the stone statue: "I will not let you get near my son, you monster!"
The Overseer stopped and looked at her with contempt: "Step aside, mortal... the real monster stands behind you; it is he who crushed my family with cold-bloodedness." Yuna replied in a firm tone while spreading her arms to protect Arius: "No! Look at what you have done... you are the real monster now!"
The Overseer growled in anger: "Very well, as you wish... have a death worthy of your courage!" He raised his huge stone sword to bring it down upon both of them, and suddenly... BOOM!
The Overseer received a massive energy shock that pushed him back meters, making him bury his sword in the ground to steady himself. He looked up to see three shadows standing on one of the towering pillars of the valley.
Arlin said as she adjusted her gloves with a sharp look: "The fool has done it again... he has gotten himself into an unending hell!" Arlin launched like an arrow from the top of the pillar, charged with her ruler energy, to collide with the Overseer in a resounding explosion.
Raimus followed her, not hesitating for a moment; he summoned his own "Rhaizo the Ruler," an majestic orange aura erupted from his body, and he transformed into his full ruler state, pouncing on the Overseer to support Arlin in a stunning coordinated attack.
As for Wang, he landed with calm and dignity in front of Arius and Yuna. He asked with concern: "Are you two okay?" Yuna replied, trembling: "I'm fine... but Arius... look at him, he's tearing apart!"
Arius's limbs (his severed hand and foot) began to regenerate slowly thanks to his own abilities, but his body was trembling from nervous shock and energy depletion. Wang knelt before him and began activating the sacred healing skill, saying seriously: "Arius, I will repair your body and close your wounds, but my current ability cannot restore your lost energy... I will only treat the injuries, the rest depends on your will."
As Wang's warm green energy flowed, Arius began to feel refreshed gradually, and his breathing returned to normal, even though his "Rhaizo" reserves were still at critical levels. While Wang was pumping healing energy into Arius's body, the sky above them was igniting with an unprecedented clash. Arlin, with her royal dignity and ruling power, was matching the Overseer move for move, and indeed, she began to outperform him thanks to her burning anger.
The Overseer smiled as he wiped the stone dust from his face: "Great! You are the first to compete with me like this in centuries... the last one who faced me was crushed in seconds, and you have seen his condition," and he pointed mockingly toward the broken Arius.
Arlin's face darkened, and her eyes sparkled with deadly coldness: "You scoundrel... do you know how long I have been looking for you? I knew it was you who dared and showed me my painful past previously, right?" The Overseer laughed maliciously: "So you remembered seeing your poor grandmother?"
Arlin screamed: "I will make you regret using your dirty abilities to mess with my memory!" She launched like a crimson lightning bolt, and with one strike charged with "Rhaizo the Ruler," she shattered the Overseer's arm and half his stone body completely, sending the rubble flying everywhere.
Raimus shouted in amazement: "Good! You succeeded in piercing his defense!"
But the horror began when the Overseer stopped screaming suddenly, and burst into laughter. And in a sickening sight, the stones began to gather and fuse, and his entire body returned as if nothing had happened! He did not stop there, but summoned treacherous thorns from the void that tried to pierce Arlin, who avoided them skillfully to see the giant sword rushing toward her back; she turned in the blink of an eye and shattered it with her bare fist while growling: "Don't provoke me, you scoundrel!"
Arlin flew high and gathered a massive crimson "Rhaizo" energy that formed a huge sphere which shook the foundations of the valley, then threw it with all its weight at the Overseer. BOOOOOM! A horrific explosion wiped out the surrounding terrain and turned the Overseer into a mass of crumbs and dirt.
Raimus held his breath as he tried to see through the smoke, but the shock was deadly; the grains of dirt returned to take form, and the Overseer rose again, whole and healthy!
The Overseer said in a voice filled with arrogance: "You fools! No matter how hard you hit me, I will regenerate... I have been granted 'Absolute Immortality' in this place! No matter how much you outperform me technically, I will return as I was. Thanks to that great person who granted me this gift... As for now, get ready, because this garden of mine will be a mass grave for all of you!" Then he began to laugh madly, shaking the pillars of the valley.
On the other side, the scene was tragic; 100,000 energy soldiers were completely vaporized under the weight of the Infinite Annihilation Army. There remained on the battlefield from Arius's legion only the big three: Gillion, Rainos, and Dark. They stood back-to-back, panting amidst a sea of enemies that were increasing without pause, trying to protect what remained of their master's army's dignity.
Arius, who had begun to feel his limbs and pulse returning, opened his eyes to see his companions being drained and his army vanishing. He looked at Wang and said in a faint but sharp voice: "Wang... I don't care about restoring my energy now... just give me enough to stand... This scoundrel is talking about a person who gave him what helps him; it seems he is not alone in that."
Arius braced himself on his wounds and rose with extreme difficulty, while Wang tried to stop him: "We haven't finished healing yet, your body hasn't stabilized!" But Arius didn't listen; his eyes were fixed on his mother, who returned his look with an overflow of longing, running toward him and hugging him tightly while sobbing.
Arius hugged her tightly, tears burning his eyelids: "Mom... I'm sorry because I left you, I was a big fool." Yuna wiped his tears while gasping: "Don't say that, my little one, I knew I would see you again no matter how tough the circumstances were."
Wang watched this moving scene with a short smile, before turning toward the battlefield; Raimus and Arlin were tearing the Overseer's body repeatedly, but he returned each time more brutal and faster. Behind them, the disaster was greater, as the Overseer's army was increasing terrifically while the 100,000 soldiers of Arius who remained were being crushed uselessly before the waves of darkness.
Arius asked Wang quickly: "How did you get in here?" Wang replied: "We asked for the help of my father and the Ruler of the Realms, Karma, and thanks to their power, we were able to travel and pierce this dimension."
Arius nodded firmly: "So that's it... I will go to support them." He tried to activate the High-Sphere mode, but his body shuddered violently; his energy was too low to handle that transformation. Wang shouted: "Your energy is too low!" Arius screamed: "But my will still stands!"
A glowing golden aura exploded around Arius, announcing his transformation into Cypher mode, raising his power to the limits of 95 sextillion. He launched like a golden beam, and at the moment the Overseer was about to crush Raimus, Arius delivered a powerful kick that moved the stone sword away.
The Overseer looked in amazement: "So you returned from death again?" Arius replied with contempt: "Don't worry, I will stay alive to see your end!"
Arius rushed with all his anger, but the Overseer activated the Absolute Gravity skill again, causing Arius and Raimus to fall under massive pressure, while Arlin held out and delivered an energy shot that hindered the Overseer's movement. Arius took advantage of the gap and destroyed the Overseer's leg, then jumped toward his face and buried a golden energy dagger in his only eye.
The Overseer let out a scream that shook the valley, and began shooting random thorns in every direction like a madman. Arius and Raimus's bodies were torn, and Arlin was injured, while Wang fell after receiving a stab while protecting Yuna with his body. Those cursed thorns began absorbing everyone's energy and transferring it to the Overseer, who rose with a larger body and greater power.
And in a moment of spatial treachery, the Overseer pierced the air with his hand to appear directly inside Arlin's chest, and began pressing on her heart to shatter it, then threw her to the ground as an almost dead corpse. At the same time, the dark army, whose number reached 99 quadrillion soldiers, pounced on Rainos, Dark, and Gillion, so they were restrained and dragged toward the fortress.
Arius fell, drowned in his blood after receiving ten deep stabs. And in a distant place, there was a completely masked person watching the scene with a malicious smile appearing from behind his mask.
The Overseer stood over Arius, raising his sword coldly, saying: "Join my family and tell them I love them... you little rat!"
Arius realized that this was the end, he closed his eyes, surrendering to death... but suddenly, he heard the sound of fast running. He opened his eyes to be shocked by the sight; Yuna had thrown herself over him and received the blow instead of him. The sword pierced her chest completely, and she fell over Arius while gasping her final breaths for her soul.
Time stopped in Arius's eyes. His mind froze, and everything around him went silent except for the sound of his mother's blood drops falling on his face. It was a shock that paralyzed his entire being, and turned the world around him into a color of absolute black.
The Overseer slowly pulled his stone blade from Yuna's chest, and blood flowed abundantly to stain the sand of the valley with the color of death. Yuna fell, and remains of a tender smile were etched on her lips despite the pain, she looked at Arius one last time, in which she whispered with a voice dripping with weakness and love: "Run... my son..."
That word... that tone! It pierced Arius's memory like a lightning bolt that tore his soul. The echo of his first mother's voice, "Helen," resonated in his mind, as she breathed her last in the past in the same way, and with the same word: "Run, my son."
Yuna closed her eyes, and passed away while protecting a piece of her heart. At that moment, Arius's eyes widened terrifically; it was not just a shock, but a complete break of reality inside his mind. He sees his second mother dying in the same cursed scenario, and for the same reason: protecting him from his helplessness.
The Overseer laughed coldly while licking the blood from his sword: "Although I didn't want to kill this poor woman, she chose to be a hurdle in my path. And now... any last words, boy? Before I send you to her?"
Arlin tried to rise madly, but she fell while clutching her chest; a grip of fire was closing tight on her heart from the inside, preventing her even from breathing. As for Raimus, he gathered the remaining dignity of the "Celestin race" and rushed toward the Overseer, but the Overseer did not move, he was content with one look that paralyzed Raimus in his place, and began absorbing his orange ruling energy until his body withered and returned to his normal state and fell as a lifeless corpse.
Even Wang, the wise and skilled fighter, knelt on his knees helplessly; for the difference in power had become like the difference between heaven and earth. The shadow army surrounded the broken team, and they began to restrain their bodies with black energy threads that gnawed at their flesh and tried to devour their souls while they were alive.
The Overseer was certain that victory had been decided. He raised his giant sword high, and his distorted face spoke with forced madness: "Finally! I will achieve my revenge that I have waited eons for... and I will get out of this cursed, disgusting place to burn everything you love!"
Amidst this noise, this madness, and this absolute despair... Arius was still kneeling in his place. He did not scream, he did not cry, and he did not move. He was only staring at Yuna's corpse lying before him with cold looks... cold to the point that the air around him began to freeze, looks that no human description could grasp; as if something had snapped inside Arius, something deeper than the soul, and older than time.