Seeing that terrible creature staring at them, Niara forced herself to stand up desperately. She was weak, starving, and exhausted, but they needed to get out of that place somehow so they could try again later.

Darian swallowed hard as he stared into those red eyes. But… he didn't move to attack, nor did he release an aggressive aura again.

Those eyes focused on Niara once more, and that strange feeling rose inside him again.

With a snort, he turned toward Darian, looking away from her.

'Missionary,' only Darian heard that in his mind; it was a calm, light voice, radiating extreme relief. 'Good job. I left a few hints on how to defeat me, but I thought your chances were close to zero. In the end, you gathered some really scary things and actually pulled it off...'

After a soft snort, the red light in his eyes began to fade. At the same time, everyone felt his aura and energy weakening, like a candle flickering in the wind, about to go out. But he forced himself to stay, even the corruption itself.

Darian understood. His power core had been purified in that last move; they hadn't failed. When he sensed that, Enfield activated his own forces and canceled the influence of the Celestial Shadow on himself.

But he didn't cut it off completely, keeping a bit of corruption active. He did that so the Celestial Shadow wouldn't be alerted right away. He was burning his own life in exchange, so he could give Darian time to recover and go on to the next fight.

'I don't have much time, and I should finally die once and for all. I don't know if this will help, but missionaries like knowledge, right? I'll give you everything I know about the past. And also…'

He paused and turned toward the inscription runes Darian had set up.

'Hmm… this should last one minute. I'll distort time inside here.'

His wings flapped, and a distorted, colorless energy spread in all directions. It lasted for a second, then everything stabilized like nothing had happened.

But now, Enfield looked completely drained and without any light. His whole body was covered in purple lines, looking like an ordinary Risen. He burned all the power in his body to do that, and then the corruption finally managed to contaminate his immortal body.

'With this, it should last four hours in here, in a little less than a minute out there. That's all the time you have.'

He turned to Darian, speaking now in a weak, low tone.

'Why were you looking at my partner differently?' Darian asked quickly.

'I'm not sure. I just feel… a strange familiarity when I look at her. Well, I've met infinite mortals in my life; they all die one day and eventually reincarnate. Possibly, she's someone I had some fondness for in the past. It's nothing important.'

After finishing, that figure waved, and a small white light came out of him, floating toward Darian. He accepted it, and it disappeared inside his body, flooding him with countless pieces of information and memories.

'I'll use everything I have left to seal myself completely for four hours. Otherwise, I'll disappear, and the Celestial Shadow will notice. Sorry, I can't be more helpful, but maybe you'll understand something from my memories.'

He finished by slowly lowering his body onto the ground. Then he closed his eyes and curled up, as if he were sleeping deeply.

Darian took a deep breath. In the end, the first stage worked… but he had hoped for some help from Enfield against the Divine Dragon, who was absurdly stronger.

From Enfield's actions, that seemed impossible, and that was why he burned everything he had to give them some time. Possibly, not even returning to the Array was an option now.

"We have 4 hours, everyone, recover as much as you can." Darian ordered out loud, then sat down and closed his eyes.

Everyone was way too nervous to relax, but they sat and started swallowing pills. Niara grabbed a stuffed spatial ring, sat beside Darian, and started eating fiercely.

Meanwhile, to Darian… his world seemed to rewind in time as he watched a long movie from a distant past.

***

A few million years ago, in this universe's past, everything was calm, and life unfolded normally without major problems. There were three Primordial Beasts who worked for peace and prosperity, without any major conflict between them.

Actually, this only happened that way because the Divine Dragon was incomparable to the other two. With such a massive power gap, the other two knew it was useless to act arrogantly. So they simply served the Divine Dragon, who wasn't a bad person.

Until… everything suddenly changed one day.

And the one to blame for all of it was the Divine Dragon.

Darian saw the scene from Enfield's perspective. He discovered, through changes in the universe's energies, that the Divine Dragon was trying something extremely risky. He rushed toward her and tried to negotiate.

"You must not do this! If the universe's Immortal Chaos Essence rejects you and is damaged, we'll all suffer for it."

A massive figure covered by a sea of pulsating runes snorted. Only her amber eyes could be seen, focusing on Enfield.

"Don't worry, I guarantee I'll manage to fuse with it. Only then will I get enough power."

Enfield widened his eyes. What the hell did she want more power for?

At the same time, a shadowy figure arrived beside Enfield. When he looked at the situation, his red eyes trembled in fear.

"You! This is way too risky! You think it's fair to try something out of pure greed that could harm all of us?!" The voice of that other Primordial Beast echoed full of fury.

"I won't fail," the Divine Dragon said coldly. "I promise you two that even if something goes wrong, I'll sacrifice myself to avoid damaging this universe."

"Who's gonna believe that? You're willing to die if you fail? Of course not, right?" he snapped back even more indignantly.

Enfield tried to argue calmly: "Please, listen. Even if you're this powerful and incredible, if something goes wrong, there's no guarantee you'll come out alive without damaging our entire home."

"That's right! I know you want day and night to go to that world; I'm the same. But we can't force it like this. Even if you have the power to travel there, there's no guarantee that Heaven's Will will accept your entrance." That shadowy figure roared seriously.

Enfield was stunned when he heard that. It was the first time he'd ever heard of something like that. Had these two discovered something he didn't know? When?

The pair of amber eyes narrowed as a furious light appeared.

"You two idiots. I already said I'll succeed, and I already said everything will be fine. I don't want to discuss it anymore. Get lost, or I'll throw you both out!"

Enfield and that shadowy figure felt a chill down their spines. The Divine Dragon had always been an indifferent figure, acting on impulse and refusing to think more than two seconds about anything. She was someone who was born with everything, so her philosophy was that everything could be solved with her power, doing only what she liked.

Normally, that wasn't a big problem, because she wasn't malicious and could fix any damage she caused. But… once she put something in her head, it was almost impossible to convince her otherwise, because she had never known what it meant to lose or completely fail at something.

But now… that impulsive nature of hers could bring a disaster she wouldn't be able to control.

"Damn it…" Enfield muttered, clenching his teeth right after.

Neither of the two Primordial Beasts backed off. They couldn't.

"We won't give in! We're the guardians of this universe, even if I die, I can't let you do whatever you want while risking everything!"

Those amber eyes focused on both of them, a bit surprised that the usually gentle and calm Enfield — who was always by her side, helping her think things through when she didn't want to — was also refusing to obey her.

"Very well… if you two want a beating, you'll get one."

After that, they obviously didn't stand a chance.

That day, the whole universe trembled as if it were the end of the world, with a blooming light in space that eclipsed any sun in any solar system.

But it lasted only a few minutes and a few moves. The two Primordial Beasts were completely crushed, unable to move even a single centimeter of their own bodies.

After that, Enfield's eyes, floating helplessly in the empty space, followed a colossal serpentine figure pierce through space and reach the core of the universe.

There, something tiny appeared, with a subtle glow, like a small radiant dot. The Divine Dragon opened her mouth and bit into it directly, swallowing it whole.

Then…

The entire universe began to break apart and fracture, with spatial fissures of cosmic sizes appearing in every direction.

Despair spread through all living beings. As for Enfield, he could only lament — she failed, just as expected.

Merging with the Immortal Chaos Essence wasn't something you could do just because you wanted to. The universe had a kind of collective consciousness, created from a little of every living form born within it.

Everyone in the universe was connected to the Immortal Chaos Essence from birth, so that collective consciousness had to approve anyone who wished to become its supreme ruler.

She failed…

Enfield saw her enormous body pulse and her scales crack. All her primordial power and life began to burn in desperation. She threw the Immortal Chaos Essence back out and then did everything possible to minimize the collateral damage.

In the end, the universe stabilized.

As for the damages… they really weren't as bad as expected. Despite acting so arrogantly, the Divine Dragon really was powerful. She managed to avoid causing major damage to the universe's core.

But…

Almost two-thirds of the galaxies and life-bearing planets in the universe were completely wiped out by her actions. Countless lives were lost, and entire races disappeared forever.

And, also, the Divine Dragon suffered deep wounds in her body, wounds that could take millions of years to recover even a little.

…

After that event, everything changed forever.

That shadowy Primordial Beast finally understood that he couldn't be subservient to anyone, and that power itself was the only thing he should pursue in his life. With that, he devoted himself entirely to strengthening his forces.

In just a few millennia… when Enfield had already managed to recover on his own more than half of the galaxies and extinct races of the universe, that was when corruption was finally born.

Then, the apocalypse began.

The Divine Dragon was still extremely weak and injured, making it the perfect opportunity for the reborn Celestial Shadow to eliminate her once and for all.

After that, everything played out just as Darian already knew. The remorseful Divine Dragon and Enfield joined forces in a desperate, suicidal move, hoping that in the future, the Spiritual Guardians would manage to restore the universe — or that Heaven's Will would send a missionary.

In the final battle, the two of them burned everything they had left in a combined, smart attack — obviously planned by Enfield. This way, they managed to leave the Celestial Shadow in a half-dead state.

But they were completely corrupted in return, and their souls and bodies were overtaken by him in the final moment.

***

Darian opened his eyes back in reality.

The first thing he did was let out a sigh.

Then he thought about the real reason behind all of this. 'She wanted to go to the world of Heaven's Will?' he muttered, remembering that book.

At the end of the war in which Heaven's Will won, he hid himself in a place nearly impossible for anyone — even immortals — to reach. Then he kept his small universe there, where he, his allies, and his family could live far away from everything.

The reason why the Divine Dragon wanted to go there and do all of this was a mystery, but… her arrogance let fury and hatred corrupt that other Primordial Beast.