Chapter 31.1 – Epilogue: The Space Between End and Beginning!
Inside the dimly lit cavern beneath the ruins, ancient wires trembled and groaned as the final seal broke. Steam hissed. Arcane symbols etched on the metal hull flared with golden light. The dormant colossus—Kieth's Gundam—finally stirred.
Lady Lycana stood before it, her robes tattered, her hair streaked with ash and blood. Her voice trembled, not from fear, but awe.
"It's ready… Go. Help them."
A lone figure stepped into the chamber—face obscured by a hood, movements precise, calm. With practiced ease, they climbed into the cockpit of the RX-78-2, fingers tracing buttons and levers as if returning to an old friend. The seat hummed. The console flickered to life.
The moment they sat down, the Gundam's eyes glowed a brilliant blue, cutting through the dust and time like twin beacons. Somewhere, far away, thunder cracked—though no storm raged.
---
Above, on the battlefield—chaos reigned.
Fires swallowed cities. Broken flags fluttered over crushed buildings. The skies were painted with smoke and ash. Thousands screamed below as magic exploded overhead. Children clung to fallen rubble. Mothers shouted for sons who wouldn't answer.
And yet, among the ruins—heroes still fought.
Josh's blade clashed against Ted's twisted axe, sparks flying with each blow. Cane roared in fury, wrestling two chimera-beasts to the ground. Vismond darted between enemy lines, leaving only corpses in his wake. Chris stood at the frontlines, chanting faster than a mortal mind could track, hurling spells that tore holes in the clouds.
In the distance, Frank Abigneil's clone army marched under burning skies, while Jack the Ripper and Josef Mengele laughed through the blood and screams.
And above them, on a floating monolith carved from bone and obsidian, Azazel the Demon King of Cruelty hurled down curses with childlike delight.
"Come on!" he screamed into the storm. "Hit me more! Struggle! Cry! ENTERTAIN ME!"
On the far end of the scorched plains, another figure stood atop a black tower—the Demon Lord of Ruin. Hands raised, mouth chanting in a long-dead tongue. Before him, a massive tome—or perhaps tomb—levitated, its chains broken, its cover glowing.
A circle of runes ignited beneath his feet.
Red. Then white.
Time itself groaned.
And somewhere in the void—an eye opened.
---
Far beyond the mortal realm...
In a void untouched by time, a council of beings watched. They had no faces. Only whispers and thought. The Outer Gods, drifting between what was and what will never be.
They peered through ethereal screens, each one showing a soul tied to the future of all existence:
Kieth, still and unmoving in death—frozen in the folds of time.
Rolien, training at the academy, sword in hand, eyes burning with determination.
Deyviel, sitting quietly in the back of a van, gazing at the sky… but on the screen, something strange—
He wasn't just looking up.
He was looking at them.
One god murmured, "…Tch. Look at this one. Is he really looking at us? Or just spacing out?"
Another replied with a scoff, "There's no way. A mere mortal can't look through the space between the end of time and the start of creation."
But the third hesitated. Watching Deyviel.
"Strange… I sense something. A presence. A flicker of will…"
Back in the van, Deyviel's brow furrowed.
"…Weird," he muttered. "I sense something. Or… someone… watching."
The Outer Gods fell silent.
The eye remained open.
And somewhere, something impossible had begun.
And in that exact moment—
a chime echoed across realities.
> System Notification!
"Player life point hit zero!"
"The Player has died."
"Player met the requirements."
"Title unlocked: Hero of Heroes / Hero King."
The Outer Gods stilled.
No name was spoken.
No screen showed who.
Just silence...
...and the sense that something long buried had shifted.
End of Volume 2
To be continued in Volume 3…