Breaking Will of Eternity

-----Chapter 6: The Universe's Decree-----

The Heavenly Garden

Aurelius stood at the edge of the grand pavilion, his eyes locked onto the horizon that no longer obeyed them. The air had shifted—not in a way mortals could perceive, but to a god, it was unmistakable. It was thinner, lighter, as though something fundamental had been stripped away from existence itself.

He reached out with his divine senses, attempting to grasp the threads of fate that had long connected the Lower Realm to their will.

And for the first time in all of eternity—

Nothing answered.

A sharp breath left him, an unnatural thing for a being that no longer required air to exist. The realization hit with the weight of mountains.

Their dominion was gone.

"Impossible…" Celestine's voice trembled, her hands clutching at her chest as if she could physically pull back the power that had been taken. Her golden glow flickered unsteadily. "This cannot be happening."

The other gods stirred, uncertainty rippling through them. A few tested their divine abilities, attempting to call forth miracles upon the Lower Realm, only to be met with silence. Even Brahma, whose connection to creation itself had never faltered, furrowed his brow as the weight of the loss settled upon him.

"The mortals," Ra muttered, his radiant form dimming slightly. "They are beyond our reach."

Aurelius turned sharply, his expression colder than the void beyond the stars. "Not just beyond our reach—beyond our rule. The Lower Realm no longer bends to our authority."

The words sent a shudder through the gathered gods.

It was unthinkable.

For as long as existence had been shaped, the gods had stood as the guiding hands behind fate. They had dictated the rise and fall of empires, granted blessings to the worthy, and punished the wicked. The very concept of a world without their influence was—

Unacceptable.

Odin's single eye burned with ancient wisdom, but even he could not hide the unease in his voice. "There is only one force capable of such an act. It is not the Devil. It is not some unknown power."

The gods turned to him, awaiting the words they already feared.

"The Universe itself has decided."

Silence followed.

In the vastness of the Heavenly Garden, where celestial light had once danced in endless harmony, uncertainty reigned. The power they had wielded for eons had been stripped from them by a force they could not challenge.

The gods were no longer rulers.

They were merely watchers.

And for the first time in their immortal existence—

They did not know what came next.

The Purgatory

The obsidian towers of Purgatory trembled, their dark spires groaning under an unseen force. The rivers of brimstone, which had once burned with ceaseless infernal fire, were beginning to cool. The air, once thick with the suffering of the damned, had lost its oppressive weight.

The great halls, carved from the bones of the forsaken, were filled with unease.

Demon Lords, creatures who had known nothing but unchallenged dominance, now stood in tense silence. Something was wrong. Their connection to the Lower Realm was no longer absolute.

Balgrith clenched his fists, his molten veins pulsating with unstable energy. His form, which once radiated destruction, now flickered like a dying flame. "What trickery is this?" he bellowed, his voice sending cracks through the walls.

None answered.

Even Izerion, who had always spoken with smug certainty, remained silent, his silver eyes narrowed in deep thought. He tried to send his whispers beyond the boundaries of Purgatory, into the minds of mortals—

But they did not hear him.

Velmora's shifting form flickered unnaturally, her illusions breaking apart like glass. "This is no divine punishment," she murmured. "If it were the gods, they would never weaken themselves in the process."

A slow, deliberate chuckle echoed through the chamber.

The demons turned toward the throne.

The Devil sat there, his posture as relaxed as ever, but there was something new in his expression—something not even his most loyal subordinates had seen before.

Amusement laced with the smallest sliver of uncertainty.

"The game has changed," he murmured, tapping a single finger against the armrest of his throne. "And for the first time, we are not the ones making the moves."

Balgrith bared his fangs. "Then who is?"

The Devil's smile remained, but it did not reach his eyes.

"The Universe itself has spoken."

Another tremor ran through the halls of Purgatory. Some lesser demons collapsed to their knees, grasping at their chests as the weight of their own powerlessness sank in.

Their once-glorious dominion over the Lower Realm had been cut.

And worst of all?

The mortals would soon realize it.

The Lower Realm

For the first time in generations, the skies of the Lower Realm were clear.

Not just free of divine storms or demonic omens—free in a way that mortals did not fully understand. The ever-present weight that had pressed upon them, the silent chains of fate that had dictated their lives, had vanished.

In the ruins of a shattered kingdom, a woman knelt in the rubble of what had once been her home. Her child clung to her side, silent, their small hands trembling in her grasp.

The air was different.

She felt it in the way her breath came easier, in the way her thoughts were not clouded by the overwhelming presence of forces beyond her understanding.

For years, she had prayed to the gods for salvation. For years, she had feared the demons that lurked in the shadows.

And now?

Neither answered.

She exhaled shakily, staring up at the sky.

She did not know if this was a blessing or a curse.

But she knew one thing—

For the first time, the choices ahead were her own.

Elsewhere, in the wreckage of a battlefield, warriors stood amid broken weapons and the corpses of their fallen. They had spent their lives fighting battles that had never truly been theirs—battles orchestrated by gods and demons alike.

A young soldier, his face smeared with dirt and blood, ran a trembling hand through his hair. He turned to his captain, eyes wide.

"...What happens now?" he asked, his voice raw.

His captain did not answer immediately. The man, a veteran of countless wars, lifted his gaze to the horizon. He had spent decades fighting an enemy he could never defeat.

But now…

The battlefield was still. The war, for the first time, had no master.

A slow, exhale left his lips.

"We decide," he murmured at last.

The words were not shouted. They were not a grand declaration.

But they carried weight.

Across the Lower Realm, from the ruins of cities to the depths of forgotten forests, mortals felt the shift. They did not cry out in victory, nor did they celebrate blindly.

They simply stood.

And for the first time, they faced the future on their own terms.

---

High above, beyond the reach of gods and demons, the Universe remained silent.

It had acted. It had intervened.

But this was not the end.

Something had been set into motion.

And soon, something new would rise to claim the void that had been left behind.

For in a universe without masters, power would not remain unclaimed for long.