The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

The humming sound continued to spread, growing louder and heavier with every passing second until the very fabric of space around Planet Caelmir began to distort.

It was as if whatever was happening to the planet was beyond the laws of this universe.

The sky darkened with clouds.

But even more terrifying was the endless sea of black runes that had begun to materialize above the atmosphere, each hundreds of kilometers wide and rotating in silence, as though an ancient force had awakened from an eternal slumber.

Whatever Asmodeus was up to wasn’t something simple, and it had started to manifest all over the planet. However, even more shocking was that the heavens weren’t stirring up trouble at all.

It was as if they hadn’t sensed anything wrong, or rather, they were scared of whatever Asmodeus was doing.

”Impossible...” Orion whispered, his calm expression finally changing. He could tell something very dark and dangerous was coming, and that alone was enough to keep him on edge.

He had already tried to approach or contact Asmodeus, but the connection was blocked, and a barrier had already covered the entire Royal garden.

Even after regaining the memories of his Paragon incarnations, this was the first time Klaus had witnessed something like this. This is beyond even what he knew was possible, and that alone said enough of what kind of horror Asmodeus had become.

’He had become an Eldritch undead shaman at this point,’

His eyes remained fixed on the happenings, doing his best to make sense of them.

The five Peak Celestial undead had already retreated thousands of kilometres away, their expressions filled with reverence as they watched the ceremony continue.

They knew better than anyone what their lord was attempting. They had lived with Asmodeus for thousands of years and knew he always had a reason for everything he did.

He created them from nothing but mere beasts and human body parts. Later, he created artificial souls for them, allowing all five to live independently of him.

However, instead of betraying him, they ventured into the most dangerous place in the multiverse—the Primordial Chaos at the behest of Asmodeus.

They stayed there for many eras, growing stronger and looking for a way to complete the mission their master, Asmodeus, had given them.

Of course, not even they fully understood what was happening, but they knew it would end with their master creating something extremely powerful, perhaps something that would make or break this universe.

Only Asmodeus knew exactly what monster he was trying to create.

The green flames surrounding the altar suddenly transformed.

Instead of ordinary fire, they became countless streams of emerald souls, each one screaming silently as they circled the remains of the Corrupted General.

The metallic bones slowly floated into the air.

The skull. The rib cage. The spine. The arms. The legs.

Every single piece was separated before beginning to rotate around the altar as though they were being handled by invisible strings, fashioned by a soul blacksmith.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

As though an invisible blacksmith were forging a supreme artefact, metallic sounds echoed across the heavens.

Each strike caused another wave of Necrotic Energy to erupt outward. Soon, the entire planet started to shake, and even the warriors stationed outside the planet were affected. Only a few managed to retreat fast enough, but they couldn’t approach the planet again.

At least for as long as the black necrotic energy remained surrounding the planet.

BOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, the ground beneath the altar sank several kilometres before stabilising again.

Asmodeus continued chanting.

Soon, his otherwise normal voice became layered.

It sounded as though millions of ancient necromancers were speaking through him simultaneously.

There was only one language, but it came from millions of voices.

The terrifying chant spread across the planet before escaping into the surrounding space. Luckily, the planets around Caelmir weren’t that populated, so there was no cause for alarm just yet.

”Begin...”

Asmodeus finally spoke a word everyone could understand.

And at the sound of his voice, the emerald flames instantly condensed.

The bones exploded into billions of tiny particles before rapidly reassembling themselves.

However, instead of reconstructing the original body, they began changing.

The skull elongated, and horns curled backwards like those of an ancient devil. They became more twisted and even more evil-looking.

The metallic bones became darker, gradually turning into an unknown black metal that seemed capable of swallowing even light itself.

Crack... Crack... Crack...

Fine fractures suddenly appeared across Asmodeus’s Undead Staff, each crack causing him to become even paler.

The five undead widened their eyes when they saw the sight.

”My Lord...”

One of them subconsciously stepped forward.

”Stay back.”

Asmodeus’s calm voice stopped him immediately.

”This is merely the price that must be paid for what I am creating.”

The undead Celestial clenched his fist, but he stepped back, knowing he had to let his master handle whatever he was doing.

The cracks continued spreading across the staff, and soon they covered its entire surface.

The skull at its tip suddenly opened its mouth, and a deafening scream escaped.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The scream pierced through the dimensions, causing thousands of spatial cracks to spread immediately across the royal gardens.

At the same moment...

Far beyond Planet Caelmir...

Far beyond the universe itself...

Within the endless darkness of the Universe Ocean...

An enormous crimson eye slowly opened, causing the chaotic space around it to tremble.

It possessed neither pupils nor irises.

Only endless blood-red light.

The eye silently gazed toward Klaus’s universe, its gaze travelling directly toward Planet Caelmir.

It remained there for several seconds, perhaps trying to see who dared perform a ritual that had never taken place during the three reincarnation cycles the Primus Universe had gone through.

Then, when it could see Asmodeus simply because Klaus’s presence was shielding him, it growled.

For the very first time in countless epochs...

A voice echoed throughout the Universe Ocean.

”...Someone... is trying to imitate... the Bridge of Origins...”

The crimson eye turned bloodshot, a potent hostile intent oozing out from it. For a moment, the hostility in the air reached its peak, and waves of killing intent began to spread.

The eye blinked a few times before turning toward the east of its current location. Several million light-years away, a man clad in white armour and holding a large spear stood atop the corpses of universe-ending beasts, also looking toward the Primus Universe.

Sensing the gaze that had locked onto him, he turned slightly and smiled.

”It appears we are a bit late, Dormamu.”

”It appears so. However, who says we cannot change anything?” The eye blinked and added, ”I sense a scheme that runs much deeper, one that is about to rock the Primus Universe. We have to use that opening to send one of our enforcers to test the waters.

If the Paragon is there, then he must be killed before he finishes cultivating the Nine Reincarnations Divine Body Art. Everything we have worked so hard to achieve depends on how quickly we can take down the Paragon before he completes the cycle.”

The white-armoured man nodded.

”But still, aren’t we a bit late? They now have an Undead Sovereign and will soon have a Universe Guardian. I feel like something is terribly wrong.”

”A universe strong enough to house a Paragon is always difficult to read. However, we will make sure that, no matter what, we will be the ones who win this time around. We cannot lose,” Dormamu said, blinking again.

”Then I will go meet with the Void Kings and discuss our proposal with them,” the white-armoured man said. ”Just make sure those bastards from the reincarnation cycles don’t catch wind of what we have planned.”