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Chapter 25 – The Broken Counters
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The Ruined Civilization was not silent.
Its echoes cried.
Winds carried voices long dead. Towers half-buried in time jutted like broken ribs from the ground. Craters bled light. Trees had veins. Oceans swirled in reverse. And at the center of it all stood Aetheros, robes fluttering in the stillness.
Neo gasped as he looked around. He still hadn't processed everything. Riv clung to his sleeve, pale and speechless. Luna stirred beside them, still unconscious.
Aetheros stood with his hands behind his back, staring into the skyline. "Welcome," he murmured. "To what remains of everything."
The world felt broken. Like reality had once tried to heal but gave up.
"I brought you here because your world failed to protect you," Aetheros continued, not turning around. "So I will."
Neo managed a whisper. "Who... are you really?"
The man turned.
Eyes glowing silver. A shattered counter in his hand. An artifact of some ancient system—a number system, perhaps, or a power scale long obsolete. Its fragments ticked even in brokenness.
"I am Aetheros. I was once called a god... then a failure... then something worse."
The sky above them cracked slightly. Something was watching.
And then—it arrived.
Another tear in the sky. But unlike the god from before, this one didn't descend in silence. No, this one arrived like a parade of horror.
A thousand digital sigils preceded him. Cameras. Webcams. Drones. Scanners.
Beelzebub.
He floated downward with the arrogance of a forgotten emperor. On his chest: a strange German-style beret, molded into his armor, pulsing with crimson runes.
He held his own counter.
Unbroken.
Beelzebub's grin was mechanical. "Council feed is live. Hello, Aetheros. Still collecting children?"
Aetheros's fingers twitched.
Riv gasped, backing behind Neo. "He feels worse than the last one..."
Beelzebub chuckled. "Of course I do. I'm the favored version of Aetheros. The one that didn't break. The one the Council keeps in its roster."
Neo blinked. "What... Council?"
Beelzebub spun a webcam that hovered around him like a pet. "The Council of Constructs. Overseers of creation, rejection, iteration. Yap yap, failed gods, broken worlds. You're lucky, kid. You're live."
Aetheros stepped forward.
"You shouldn't be here."
Beelzebub cocked his head. "I'm always here. This dimension? It's a graveyard of forgotten systems. Failed mechanics. Abandoned lores." He tapped his beret. "And I keep the records. You... threw yours away."
Then—
Another presence stepped from the shadow. Human. Thin. Tired.
Judson.
His cloak dragged behind him like ash. His eyes were sunken, hollow. But he radiated something else entirely—truth. The kind that burned.
"I told you," he said to Aetheros, "you can't just take variables and expect the system not to notice."
Aetheros glared. "They are children. Not variables."
"They're code, like the rest of us," Beelzebub snapped.
Then came the last figure.
A woman. Laughing. Her face a mockery of beauty. Her voice an echo of collapsing stars.
"My Fraud," someone whispered.
The Failed Creation.
She twirled in the air, leaving ribbons of nothingness behind. "You all yap yap like the system still matters."
Beelzebub raised his hand.
"Enough."
The air shimmered. The cameras focused. The counters flared.
> Beelzebub's Counter: 99.9
> Aetheros's Counter: 4.3 (Broken)
Judson stepped back. "Don't fight him, Aetheros."
But Aetheros didn't listen.
He stepped forward, placing Luna behind him.
"I don't care what the Council says. I'll protect them."
Beelzebub laughed.
Then he moved.
Faster than any thought.
Aetheros blocked—but his broken counter screamed, fracturing further.
Riv screamed.
Neo ran forward—just to be thrown back by a wave of reverse-time energy.
The Failed Creation danced above them. "It's all so boring, really."
Judson snapped his fingers.
Reality bent.
But Beelzebub twisted the effect and sent it back. Judson staggered, nose bleeding.
> Aetheros struck.
He didn't use power—he used everything.
He became a memory.
A myth.
A song that once made gods weep.
Beelzebub caught it barehanded.
And shattered it.
Aetheros hit the ground. Coughing blood. Shaking.
Neo screamed. "STOP IT!"
Beelzebub turned.
"Still not broken yet, Variable?"
He raised a finger.
Pointed it at Neo.
The Counter began to burn.
But then—
Another crack.
A hand emerged.
Gloved.
Blue fire trailing behind it.
It struck Beelzebub clean across the face, sending the god spinning.
A voice spoke:
> "You don't touch what's mine."
Lucian.
He stood in full fury.
Cloaked in the smoke of the Tower.
His aura? Untethered.
His fists? Lit with destruction.
His presence? Enough to make the Failed Creation pause.
Beelzebub landed, laughing. "Oh. It's you."
Lucian didn't speak.
He just moved.
And the world screamed.
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(To be continued... Chapter 26 will begin the God vs. Variable War.)
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