– Stop!
– My, my body!
– No way. Is it really you?
Mom freezes in the air at the shout of the last remaining God.
Did I make Mom stop?
– Hah… I can’t believe Nyx is here too. All my plans are ruined.
He tossed his hair back with a rebellious tone.
– It was dangerous, very dangerous. If I hadn’t taken out insurance, I would have been obliterated just like this. This Brahman, you know.
I couldn’t imagine it at all.
Mom losing?
That strong Mom?
– Honestly, Deus, I hoped you would eliminate as many gods as possible. That way, I could absorb more divine essence. I didn’t expect you to kill them all. But thanks to you, I’ve managed to gain most of the divine essence in this universe.
The male god had appeared next to Papa in no time.
He absorbed the essence of all those gods?
Then you used Mom as a means to kill those gods?
– I appreciate that part, but… I thought I would die because of you!
The guy lifted Papa by the throat.
No…
Don’t touch Papa…
– Do you have any idea how much it hurt?! How dare you… dare to stand against this Brahman!
– No, please…
It was as if time stopped for everyone except him.
At this rate, Papa’s going to die.
Papa… Papa can’t go.
How… how is there no way out?
‘Finally… I’ve reached the end.’
In that moment, I heard a voice inside me.
‘Wh-who are you?!’
It was a strange voice that resonated deep inside me.
‘I am you. You are me. I am the failed version of you.’
The failed version of me?
A chaotic voice echoed inside.
What are you talking about?
Another world?
‘To be precise, I should say you from the previous timeline who failed.’
The previous timeline?
‘The current universe is one that has been reset once. I have come from the universe before that.’
A reset…
‘In a universe where Papa was murdered and lost his reason for existence.’
At that moment, a tidal wave of overwhelming information filled my head.
Her… the experiences of the future me who had reset, both past and future.
*
Kwah-jik
The core inside Papa’s chest shattered.
– Lu, Lukeee!
Mom howled.
Pashsuk
Papa turned to dust.
It was hard to believe that Papa existed just moments ago… he vanished without leaving anything behind.
– You’re such a nuisance. Because of you, I couldn’t finish off Deus properly.
Indra, the god who killed Papa, brushed his hands off.
So, in the previous timeline, it was Indra, not Brahman, who targeted Papa?
– Well, it doesn’t seem like you’re motivated for a fight anymore.
Mom collapsed to her knees, clearly unable to believe Papa’s death.
– If I had known this would happen, I should have killed this guy earlier. I lost too many subordinates because of him. One, two, three… only ten left, huh?
Unlike Brahman’s allies, who were all dead, ten of Indra’s subordinates survived.
With Nyx missing, it seemed Nyx didn’t interfere in the previous timeline.
In that situation, it seemed incredible that Mom and Papa fought against so many deities together.
– Well, whatever. The struggle for dominance in the universe ends here. Deus, I will kill you and take over this universe! Indra will!
A massive bow formed in his hands.
As he conjured up arrows of thunder to shoot, everything went dark.
When my vision returned, I was supporting Mom, who was crumpled on the ground.
With all the gods, including Indra, obliterated.
It seemed another version of me awakened some inner power and defeated Indra.
But everything was already too late.
– Di, Dias…
Mom looked completely stripped of the will to live.
Her face was etched with sorrow, despair, and regret from losing a loved one.
– Luke… Luke…
My vision faded to black once more.
Before I knew it, I had become the supreme god ruling not just the continent, but the entire universe.
Amidst that, Mom chose to perish, unable to bear her grief.
After countless attempts, Papa didn’t return.
And that despair from failure consumed her.
The universe became mine, but I could do nothing.
All things in the cosmos obeyed my will, yet the one most precious to me, Papa, could not return.
Only Papa was my everything, and only Papa gave me the reason to live in this world.
My dream of becoming a great god, surpassing Mom and gathering followers, was all to possess Papa, but without Papa…
I gradually stopped thinking.
Time passed, unfathomably vast.
As I became weary of everything, nearing the end of consciousness…
– Dias. Yes. Young God. What brings you to seek me?
I faced Nyx at the center of the universe.
– I want to bring back my loved one.
– What? You want to resurrect your father?
– Hm… Resurrecting a god who has perished is not entirely impossible. However, it’s been too long since their death. If their essence is completely scattered, it’s impossible.
– Hm? Time?
– That’s an interesting thought.
– Alright. I’ll help you.
– However, your price is steep. What will you give me in exchange for my cooperation?
The cooperation of a primordial god existing since the beginning.
The result completed through the collaboration of two absolute gods.
The time of the universe flipped upside down.
The universe returned to its primordial state.
And ‘I’ existed in the primordial universe, maintaining consciousness and divinity.
Papa too.
Mom too.
All together return to the primordial universe, before everything came into existence.
Again, I fell into a deep eternal slumber.
After an immense time passed and I awoke, it was the time when Papa’s past life, Lily, was born.
Papa was captured by the god Alburzoa, to be sacrificed.
‘I’ protected Papa’s soul.
Lily defeated Alburzoa alongside Papa.
And as a price for that, when Papa faced peril of extinction, ‘I’ sent Papa to another dimension.
Even though I had returned to the past, there were limits to my involvement.
And the place where Papa was sent was Mom’s dimension.
Papa met Mom.
And Papa sacrificed himself to protect Mom.
Papa, who was supposed to have perished.
Once again, through ‘me,’ Papa was sent to Earth instead of being obliterated.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A confusing cycle.
It was Papa who informed me of Earth’s existence.
But it was I who sent Papa to Earth.
No. The very cause of Papa and Mom meeting was ‘me.’
But the reason I was born was due to the meeting of Papa and Mom.
It’s impossible to explain the earlier universe and the universe that followed.
If it was the ‘me’ who reset that interfered with this universe, how was ‘my’ birth achieved?
Soon after, Papa returned to Mom’s dimension.
Papa and Mom faced ‘Chaos.’
And they emerged victorious.
With Nyx’s help, Mom was revived.
Mom triumphed over Nyx and received Papa back.
Yet, through all that, ‘I’ did not intervene.
The cause of my reset remained unresolved.
Before the reset, Nyx said.
Her essence, contained in her shards.
Those exposed to the shards would lead a life of misery.
Even if he overcomes that misfortune, other crises would follow, leading to his demise.
The symbol of destruction from the previous timeline, Indra.
‘I’ obliterated Indra the moment he gained divinity in this timeline.
But according to Nyx’s theory, a new crisis would emerge to replace Indra.
In this timeline, I was born.
And ‘I’ induced Nyx’s feelings.
Nyx, in this timeline, had no idea of ‘my’ existence. Yet, in the previous timeline, Nyx and I had made a deal.
That was to find a peer for her so she wouldn’t feel lonely anymore.
I didn’t particularly like it, but I knew that only Papa could be Nyx’s match.
Thus, to fulfill the contract, I couldn’t monopolize Papa.
I couldn’t shake off Mom either, so sharing wouldn’t be too bad.
‘I’ sealed myself and entered within.
To prevent the coming crisis for Papa.
And currently.
Kwah-jik
– Puhuh! Wh-what…!
I am. No, the ‘me’ moving my body is.
– H-how…
– This time, I’m different.
I crushed the newly emerged crisis, Brahman.
– This time, I am.
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