Kyle barely acknowledged the stunned expressions around him and continued.
"Moreover, believe me when I say you all need to run. I don’t know how to explain it, but if you don’t leave this realm right now, you will all... perish. That man has grown stronger, yet he hasn’t shown himself—so he’s either asleep or going through some kind of breakthrough. You have to leave."
He paused for a moment.
"Something big is about to happen soon. Big enough to shake the very core of the Celestial Realm. Like... a bloody battle."
Cassian clicked his tongue at his words.
Tilting his head, he stared straight into Kyle’s eyes with a displeased expression.
"We need to leave? Why? I am not doing what you’re saying. Also, you never said you’d be leaving—you only want us to go."
He wasn’t willing to leave. If a battle was about to erupt, he wanted to be part of it—and if possible, take his revenge, even if it meant dying afterward. It didn’t matter.
Kyle blinked, one brow raised, but his next words made Cassian want to punch him.
"The reason I never said I’d leave is simple—this isn’t my real body. Even if it’s destroyed, my true body will know. That’s not the case for you guys. I’ve warned you; whether you stay or go is ultimately your own choice."
Cassian wanted to laugh and tell him he wasn’t afraid of death. He had lived long enough to stop fearing it. It was Kyle who should be worried—how old was he, really? Unlike him and countless others who had lived for centuries or even millennia, Kyle had barely seen a few decades.
But Ares spoke first.
"Okay, I’m leaving the way we came, with my people. Thanks for the warning. I still have a lot of responsibilities. When you’re out, tell me everything. I am not curious enough to watch the show only to die."
Standing up, he glanced at Zami, Gvette, and Silver, signaling them to follow as he prepared to leave, completely ignoring the stunned, speechless expressions Cassian and his three followers directed at him. No one could believe that he, the leader of a clan, would flee at the mere mention of a danger they weren’t even sure was real.
But as he turned, Ares remembered something crucial and spun back.
"Wait... we still haven’t found a way out of this chamber. How are we supposed to get out of here? The path we came from leads to the giant’s cavern, then the abyss—which we only managed to pass thanks to you..."
Cassian grunted, eyes glinting with mirth.
He knew Ares like the back of his hand—the foolish Clan Leader who was good at heart but always avoided danger, with a penchant for hiding his strength. He would pose as a weakling in front of newly ascended, young Celestials, only to reveal his true power at crucial moments to save them, then draw those newcomers who had come to trust, respect, and admire him—into his clan.
He knew all this because he had spent countless years as part of his clan, back when he wasn’t so broken—back when he first ascended to the Celestial Realm, still wide-eyed and full of eager anticipation.
If only... if only his first friend hadn’t been Nathaniel. Everything might have actually worked out just fine. Maybe he would still be a loyal member of Ares’ clan—training, growing stronger gradually, surrounded by friends and those he held dear. Those who had followed him with smiles when he told them he would follow Nathaniel—his dear friend who wanted to leave the clan, roam the realm, grow stronger, and become a Ruler—only to die in front of his eyes.
But there were no ’ifs’ in life.
What had already happened could not be undone or rewritten. The past was a fixed path, one that could now only be met with repayment, retribution, or redemption.
Every choice forward would have to carry the weight of what had already been lost.
Cassian shook off the memories that had pulled him too far into the past, making his eyes go vacant for a fleeting moment, and quickly forced himself to focus on Ares.
"That means you’re not going either. Stay here and watch the show. Don’t always be so passive, Clan Leader—sometimes, you need to try being part of something bigger."
At that moment, as Ares and Cassian both stared each other down—one with a scowl, the other with an amused gaze—an almost casual voice called out from behind them.
"Oh, that? I can create a portal. So, those who want to leave can go through it."
Everyone whipped their heads toward Kyle, half expecting a joke—but even if he wasn’t joking, no one who had spent time with him was surprised. Honestly, they were already quite numb after seeing what he could do.
Kyle could create an array in the Abyss, a place even the Rulers struggled to traverse—so was it really any surprise that he could forge an exit from an ancient realm where even their laws were completely useless?
Silver let out a dry chuckle and shook her head, her eyes—revealed through the veil—curving beautifully in amusement.
"Is there anything you can’t do?"
Ares leaned in toward her, his voice calm, but his gaze was sharp as he stared at her.
"Hey, he has a wife. Don’t stare at him with star-filled eyes—at least, not in front of me."
Silver pushed him back, and he clicked his tongue at Kyle with a solemn expression.
"She’s too old for you."
This finally earned him a smack, and he rubbed his shoulder in protest. At last, the tension in the air loosened at their casual banter. With that, Ares finally asked Kyle to create the portal they could leave through.
Kyle nodded and paused for a moment, carefully weaving the symbols in his mind before crafting a portal, much like the one he had used to teleport the golden crystal to his original body in the outside world.
But unfortunately, the moment the portal took shape, the darkness in the air surged forward and devoured it, leaving everyone ready to leave stunned and bewildered.
Ares had a bad premonition, yet he still wanted to believe it was a false alarm.
"Kyle, don’t play around..."
At that moment, a sinister, eerie smile bloomed within the shadows, stretching through the darkness and making the very air tremble with a cold, unnerving chill.
Kyle moved away from the darkness, conjuring a shield around himself.
His gaze narrowed as he studied the darkness and tried to create the portal again, only to fail. So, he concluded:
"This darkness... has awareness. It’s stopping me from creating an exit."
A soft sigh suddenly echoed from behind Ares, Kyle, and Cassian, who were studying the darkness with grim, tense expressions.
"Does that mean no one will be able to leave the Layer of three Ancients?"
Kyle’s blood ran cold at the eerily familiar, deceptively gentle voice. Cassian’s eyes dilated in alarm, and Ares froze in place.
Nathaniel chuckled at the reactions of the group sitting within the cloaking array, the other Rulers surrounding him smirking as he tapped the symbols holding the array.
An amused glint flickered in his narrowed gaze as he mused with a very gentle smile, locking his cyan eyes on Kyle and Cassian.
"Indeed, many Celestials don’t concern themselves with things like arrays after ascending. But that doesn’t mean we lack knowledge about those paths. So, did you really think you could remain undetected forever, hidden within this flimsy array?"
He paused for a moment, casting a deep glance at two of the Rulers, Lui and Bastian, who had been with him when he sentenced both Kyle and Cassian to the Hell’s Layer.
"Don’t these two faces seem familiar to you? Although one of them now has silver hair and green eyes... completely different. I’m certain it’s the same person."