Hearing the indifferent, slightly amused voice—filled with mocking disdain—from the person he had believed had shattered his existence before his eyes, Nathaniel’s earlier shocked face slowly morphed into something very terrifying, his dilated cyan pupils quivering with cold, seething anger.
Kyle’s words had already driven him to madness, his body trembling with fury.
He couldn’t stop questioning himself, frantically—why? Why? Just why?
Clearly, he could tell that both he and Kyle, just like Azazeal, had reached the End and stood at the pinnacle of Celestial rank with equal status, yet those glowing green eyes still looked down on him as if he were just a clown. They carried a natural arrogance, as if he were far below him. The thought alone made him want to tear Kyle’s amused face and drag him through hell until he begged.
Undeniably, Kyle had died before his very eyes—vanished, leaving nothing behind.
Nathaniel had even considered reversing time to satisfy his twisted desire to punish him for dying without his permission and to kill him once his soul had lost its brilliance.
Yet, the person he had believed dead was right before him, mocking him, seated atop a throne like a being observing him from a higher plane—untouchable and indifferent.
When was the last time any Celestial had looked down on him, a powerful ruler who had ruled the Celestials like a god for so many years? Mocked him to his very face—and yet survived to see another moment?
Before Nathaniel could lunge to strangle Kyle and crush him like an ant, throwing all caution to the wind, Azazeal’s loud, chilling laughter—like a deadly, icy chorus—echoed beside him, once again reminding him that his mortal enemy floated right before him.
Azazeal’s shoulders shook as he fought hard to hold back his laughter, but Kyle’s words were like a floodgate breaking—he couldn’t contain himself. The darkness around him crackled as his laugh spilled out, dark and red veins snaking from his eyes to etch eerie cracks across his face.
Fixing his glowing, sharp gaze on Kyle, he spoke in a voice laced with sinister mirth.
"This... all of this—"
He gestured to the exquisite hell around him, the destruction, the swirling darkness.
"—is just a little skirmish to you?"
Nathaniel felt the power surging around Azazeal and instinctively took a step back.
Yet Kyle merely shrugged as he met those familiar obsidian eyes, as if his point had already been made unmistakably clear.
If he claimed their battle wasn’t worth watching, then it simply wasn’t.
Azazeal laughed again, a storm of dark shadows twisting around his tall figure.
His voice rang out, cold and commanding, carrying a chill that sank into the bones.
"Well, I admit, like you said, I wasn’t serious... just playing around a little."
He agreed with every arrogant word Kyle had said, so composed it almost seemed as if he were merely talking with a friend.
Then he opened his arms wide, as if embracing the darkness around him.
"But now that you have pointed out that even the one I’m toying with isn’t using his full strength, how could I still... not grant you the honor of being entertained?"
Kyle burst into a chuckle.
Nathaniel, in stark contrast, felt his face twist further with anger, watching the two Celestial converse casually amidst a battle where only one side would live. He was so angry he felt as if he might cough up blood.
His loud voice tore through the air as he pointed first toward Azazeal, then at Kyle.
"You—You two! I get it now! You are in this together! After all, from the start, you knew each other! How dare you scheme against me! How dare you! Do you think I can’t kill two peak Celestials? Hahaha, dream on! It won’t be me who suffers today—it’ll be you!"
As he watched the two figures, his earlier doubt that Kyle was in league with Azazeal—and would ambush him during his battle with Azazeal—solidified into certainty. His imagination ran wild. Even though the two held clear animosity for each other in their eyes, like enemies, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were secretly in cahoots.
Hearing him, Kyle simply let out a faint, mocking sneer, leaning back in his seat with one hand supporting his chin, as if savoring the spectacle about to unfold.
Just as Nathaniel’s words died on his lips, the air around him began to quake violently.
The collapsing ground beneath seemed to sink further, scattering into nothingness in the darkness, greedily swallowing the land of the Layer of Ancients, as if sensing the immense power being quietly unleashed.
The entire realm teetered on the edge of oblivion, yet none present seemed fazed.
Only the restless tapping of Kyle’s index finger on the armrest of the ice throne he sat upon, and the calm that radiated from the air around him, revealed the immense effort he was exerting to keep the chaos and destruction from spilling beyond the ancient realm and into the outside world.
Amidst the violent trembling, Nathaniel charged toward Azazeal, a familiar seven headed snake symbol emerging between his collarbones. His crazed eyes, specked with red, burned with determination. But in that very moment, the corners of his eyes caught something—multiple pairs of dark eyes, with vertical purple slits eerily similar to the obsidian eyes before him, staring at him through the surrounding darkness.
Immediately, he came to a halt.
His heart pounded as he counted the pairs of chilling eyes with mounting dread. One... two... three... four... five... six pairs of eyes!
They all gathered around Azazeal’s form, his figure no longer looking entirely human but fused with the surrounding shadows.
The darkness seemed alive, bending and twisting as the owners of those beast-like eyes stepped forth from its depths. Each of their movements radiated a godlike power, causing the very air to tremble with fear.
Nathaniel staggered back mid-air, nearly losing his balance in horror, as he pointed at the numerous identical faces in front of him, his voice breaking as he screamed.
"Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!"
Including the six who had just appeared, seven Azazeals now hovered before him, eyes fixed on him like predators sizing up their prey, each one exuding a monstrous, terrifying presence and the aura of a peak Celestial who had reached the End.
Nathaniel’s mind buzzed with disbelief.
Obviously, he knew about fake bodies.
But... but how could these mere copies reach the End alongside the original body?
How could they all radiate the same aura of a Celestial who had truly reached the End?!
This was simply impossible! Only the main body could reach the pinnacle of strength!
The rest, no matter how powerful, should have been far inferior to the original body!
Yet the reality before him sent chills down his spine. It was as if every body hovering before him was real—not a single one fake.
The most terrifying part was that he could sense only a single presence from them, as if the others didn’t exist. That was why he couldn’t detect the remaining six bodies!
Seeing the scene, even Kyle’s indifferent expression cracked, his finger tapping the armrest trembled as a powerful pressure enveloped him, and every figure of Azazeal issued the same icy warning, their voices merging into a single, bone-chilling echo.
"Don’t you dare interfere."
"Or I will destroy the universe you cherish most first—and watch as you crumble."