CHAPTER 376: “I AM..... ETERNITY”

Kaelen barely had time to draw breath before the Core erupted around him.

The twelve colors he had seen in the portal Judgement opened now filled every inch of his existence — each twisting into jagged currents of magic that tore through the space like living storms. Crimson, cold sapphire, molten gold, endless black — they crashed over him all at once, their voices overlapping into a deafening roar that had no source yet filled his skull.

JUDGEMENT demanded that he measure every thought, every memory, in the span of a heartbeat.

WAR surged in with the taste of blood and the urge to cut down everything in reach.

PEACE smothered his will, whispering to lay down his arms and dissolve into stillness.

TIME unraveled his movements before he made them, each second stretching and collapsing in disorienting spasms.

DOMINION clawed at his spine, demanding he submit, that his very identity be offered as tribute.

And there were more — BALANCE tilting his emotions into a dizzying pendulum swing, LIFE burning him with raw vitality that felt like it would rip his body apart, DEATH sinking icy hooks into his soul, DREAMS scattering his thoughts into visions and illusions, ORIGIN dragging his mind back to the moment of his birth, and ORDER attempting to lock every muscle in rigid obedience to a law he could not understand.

The onslaught was not sequential — it was simultaneous. Every Concept battered him at once, their magics clawing, pressing, suffocating until Kaelen could no longer tell where his body ended and the Core began.

His hands shook violently as the Blade of Eternity’s broken hilt slipped from his grasp, spinning away into the maelstrom. His vision blurred. Voices — not his own — screamed in his mind, pulling him toward surrender.

For the first time since he entered the Ruptured Sky, Kaelen felt small.

Insignificant.

Breakable.

Something inside him began to tear. Not his flesh — deeper. The kind of tear you didn’t survive.

This is it... he thought dimly. This is where I vanish.

But then—

In the midst of the storm, there was a flicker. A single point of stillness in the chaos.

And somehow... he remembered.

Not a battle. Not a sword technique.

A warm, calloused hand ruffling his hair. The sound of laughter carried through a sunlit field. A voice — his father’s — telling him to keep his stance balanced, not just in swordplay, but in life. A gentler voice — his mother’s — reminding him that even the strongest blade must be sheathed, cared for, protected.

He clung to those voices, and the point of stillness grew.

Without warning, the maelstrom snapped away.

Kaelen stumbled forward into another different space entirely — one that felt real in a way the Core’s chaotic realm hadn’t nor the space he saw the Eternal of Judgement. Soft grass brushed against his legs. The sky was a deep blue scattered with drifting clouds. And standing just a few paces away... were two people he never believed he will see again in this lifetime.

His breath caught.

"...Mother? Father?"

His father stood as tall as Kaelen remembered, wearing that faint, knowing smile that had always made him feel seen. His mother’s eyes shone the way they did when she listened, really listened, like nothing in the world mattered more than what he had to say.

"Kaelen," his father said, his voice carrying the same strength and patience Kaelen had missed for years. "You’ve come far."

His mother stepped closer, her touch warm on his cheek. "And you’ve carried more than anyone should. But you’re still standing. That matters."

The tightness in Kaelen’s chest threatened to break him. His knees felt weak, but not from battle this time — from the sheer weight of seeing them again.

The storm outside — the Concepts, the Core, all of it — Although were just behind him, but seemed so far away now.

Yet deep down, he knew this peace was not the end. It was a breath, a pause before he had to step back into the maelstorm.

But despite that, for a long moment, Kaelen didn’t speak. His voice was trapped behind the swell of emotions in his chest. The warmth radiating from them felt so impossibly real — more real than the countless battles he had fought.

"I... I never got to say goodbye," he finally managed, his voice breaking.

His father’s gaze softened. "You were never meant to. Not because you failed... but because our goodbye was never supposed to be final."

His mother’s fingers brushed through his hair like she used to when he was just a boy, her smile as steady as the sun. "We were proud of you then. We are proud of you now."

The words hit him like nothing else could. All the weight he’d carried — the guilt, the loss, the endless struggle — began to shift, not vanish, but transform.

His father stepped closer, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Kaelen... do you remember what I told you? About the strongest sword not being the sharpest, but the one that endures?"

He nodded, unable to speak.

"That endurance," his father continued, "isn’t just strength. It’s will. It’s what you are."

"What do you mean?" Kaelen asked as he became curious. Seeing this, his father smiled lightly as he continued.

"Back when you were just a boy and we were running from our family, I stumbled upon an old book in an abandoned ruin that was named ’Path of Eternity’. And the contents in this book was not only about the story of an old God that vanished, but also a secret spiritual training guide for someone who wants to touch the power of Godhood."

"What?" Kaelen muttered in shock and surprise as he never expected his father to find such a treasure in the most unlikely of places.

At this moment though, his mother suddenly joined them, her voice gentle but unyielding. "It’s time you understood the truth."

"What truth?" Kaelen asked as he became confused this time. But his father was patient as he continued. "Seemingly impressed by this secret training guide, I decided to impact it on you. And although it didn’t give me much of what I wanted, it still turned you from a manaless boy to someone who could use a fraction of it"

"Wait, I was manaless!?" Kaelen asked hurriedly in shock and disbelief. "You have no idea, my boy" his mother replied before she chuckled along with his father.

But after a while, his father calmed down as he now looked proud while he continued. "But little did I know that what I did back then will actually bring you to this stage in life. And because of this, I am pretty certain now"

"Certain about what?" Kaelen asked while still being perplexed.

His parents first look at each other in affection before they spoke in unison, their voices resonating not just in his ears but deep in his very being:

"That you are Eternity."

The words unexpectedly hit him like a strike from the heavens. The grass, the sky, the warmth — it all suddenly began to dissolve into light. His parents’ forms shimmered, breaking apart into countless motes that swirled around him.

"Wait—! What do you mean that I am Eternity!!?" Kaelen reached for them, panic and desperation surging.

But his father only smiled. "We are not leaving you. We are becoming part of you again. And besides, it’s already showing that you are."

As they faded completely, something shifted inside him — not just resolve, but a deep, anchored truth. His heart beat with a rhythm that matched the pulse of the Ruptured Sky itself which prompted him to immediately fall into meditation.

Then—

The maelstrom returned in a blinding rush. The twelve Concept magics slammed into him again, but this time... they didn’t crush him. They circled him. Recognized him. The Core’s chaos no longer sought to devour, but to unite.

The shattered Blade of Eternity, lost in the void moments ago, shot back toward him, spinning with a force that shook the realm. Fragments of the blade floated in the air, each piece glowing with one of the twelve Concept colors.

They wove themselves together, mending the cracks, reforging not just steel but the soul that wielded it. And as the weapon took shape, Kaelen felt himself being reforged as well — bone, flesh, spirit all surging with a power that was not borrowed, but inherent.

When the last piece locked into place, the light of the blade and the light in Kaelen’s eyes were the same. He stood taller, the weight of the world no longer bending him but resting on him like an old, familiar mantle.

The Core pulsed once, almost in acknowledgment.

Kaelen opened his eyes, the reflection of all twelve Concept colors burning within them.

He was no longer merely Kaelen.

He was Eternity.

But just when Kaelen was feeling like he has finally achieved what he was aiming for, he heard a voice as solemn as time itself.

"I see that you have finally achieved it"

"What? Who is there!?" Kaelen asked in shock as he looked around him in search of where the voice came from. "I am over here" the voice spoke again which made Kaelen to figure out where the voice came from as he looked at his newly reforged Blade of Eternity.

"You can talk!?" Kaelen ask in disbelief as he moved closer to the blade as he tries to figure out how that was possible. But what the blade said next made Kaelen go stiff instantly.

"Do not belittle me little one because I am the being that started all and the being that can end all."

"I am..... Eternity"