[Mana Reactor: Output Stable.]

[External activity detected.]

He was swimming in a sea of darkness. Everything seemed tranquil and empty. There was nothing here. Just emptiness. No sound, no smell, no sight. It went on and on forever, but also, paradoxically, it did not.

[Audio signal detected.]

[Loading translation spell sequence.]

"... sure it worked?" a female voice spoke. It sounded like Emily.

[Mana output stable. Error within 0.0001%.]

"Metal glowing. Lod have bad feeling," another voice joined into the conversation.

"What if this Herald and not Master?" Det's voice was clear above the rest.

"Then we screwed," Lod said with a dark chuckle. "At least Lod not get killed by wives."

"No, no, Herald much worse than Lod wives," Det said.

"Det fool," Lod barked out. "Lod wives kill Herald and eat for breakfast."

[Releasing Mana Limiters.]

[Running diagnostics.]

"It worked," Arcadia said.

"But how do you know?" Emily asked.

There was a pause.

"We not dead?" Lod offered a plausible explanation.

"There is that, yes," Arcadia agreed.

[All systems green.]

[Commence activation sequence.]

"It glowing brighter," Lod said, his voice becoming more distant as he backed away.

[Commence operations.]

The world flickered into view.

The ceiling stretched above his head made of white marble. It looked familiar. This was the palace, wasn't it?

[Mana Wings engaged.]

He felt himself float off the ground and then face the people around him. He saw Emily, Arcadia, Lod, Det, s.h.i.+non, even Hadron was there. He instantly recognized the location, this was his chamber in the west wing.

He looked at his hands. Flesh and blood. At the peripherals of his vision, he caught a glimpse of blade-like wings, glowing bright and blue with particles of crystallized mana falling off of them—Aeon's wings. Except… they were his now.

His shadow on the ground revealed another detail. He had a halo. It was a jagged, crown-like, disc, spewing black plasma into the air; black particles fell off it like ash.

"Somnus?" Arcadia asked.

"Why b.o.o.bs sound so worried?! b.o.o.bs was sure it worked!" Det exclaimed with a voice between panic and anger.

Arcadia glared at Det but then turned her focus back to the creature in front of her.

"Why am I alive?" he asked.

[Fractured worldline encountered undefined s.p.a.ce.]

"It is a long story, my Lord…" Emily said trailing off.

"Provide explanation," Somnus said, but he was not directing the words to Emily. They were directed at the voice in his mind.

[Designation Aeon was trapped in fractured worldline. Undefined s.p.a.ce from Spell: Apocalypse Form intersected worldline.]

"The G.o.d of War resurrected you, is the short version," Arcadia said.

"Expand explanation," Somnus said.

[Subject died in a worldline that intersected undefined s.p.a.ce. Worldline is now undefined. Subject ceased to exist. Following Reintegration Event, Subject is paradox. Alive and deceased simultaneously. Convergence Factor: 50%.]

"I went into the Severn Dungeon," s.h.i.+non said, "and brought the Herald of the End here. The G.o.d of War and the Herald of the End recovered you from… a different place."

Arcadia nodded. "Something about undefined s.p.a.ce. So, basically…"

Somnus glanced between s.h.i.+non and Arcadia. In a way, he already understood what happened. When the Worldline intersected the undefined s.p.a.ce from Somnus's Apocalypse Form spell, they ceased to exist. This was exactly the kind of danger that prevented Somnus from summoning Hashmal into this world.

However, since the Worldline that Aeon was trapped in was fractured—which should've been obvious from the infinite tunnel—the event itself did not exist in any timeline. In other words, the dimension Aeon was trapped in was manifesting in this world. In the dimension Aeon came from, Somnus was dead.

"Where is Herald of the End?" Somnus asked, glancing around. The Herald was missing.

"Well… it appears you are the Herald now…" Arcadia said.

"I see," Somnus said. "We switched places."

Arcadia tilted her head, confused.

Since the Dimension that created the fracture in the worldline was now trapped in undefined s.p.a.ce, Aeon was finally free and part of this world once more. How did Aeon even end up in that place? Since there was a causal link between Aeon and Somnus, the G.o.d of War must have somehow reversed it, trapping Aeon in the other dimension and bringing Somnus here.

[Incorrect.]

Somnus narrowed his eyes. If his theory was correct, he wouldn't have Aeon's wings or halo, and most of all, he wouldn't be hearing Aeon's voice in his head.

What was going on?

[Aeon is part of other Dimension. Aeon is an anomaly in this world. The Lost Era. Initiator of Divergence Event A. Herald of the End. Cause of Worldline Fracture.]

Somnus blinked at that explanation.

[Subject Aeon is Subject Somnus. Divergence Event A: Subject Somnus returns to timeline, 1000 years ago. Subject Somnus becomes Hero. Designation Seraph. Subject Somnus defeats Destroyer.]

Arcadia and Emily made a strange expression. They observed Somnus who seemed more and more confused by the moment. They rarely saw Somnus change his expression, but now it looked like he was realizing something monumental—an epiphany.

[Reintegration Event A: Subject Somnus wakes up in this world. Designation Somnus. Ent.i.ty A: Hero. Ent.i.ty B: Destroyer.]

Somnus turned around and headed out of the room. He floated down the corridors. He felt trapped. He understood where this explanation was going. He should've known that this was going to happen. No one wakes up in another world for no reason. Something must've gone incredibly wrong for that to happen. He had to confirm that he was still in the same reality.

His eyes scanned every square inch of the corridor. If anything was out of place or amiss…

How would he even know?

[Convergence Event A: Ent.i.ty A from Reintegration Event A meets Subject Aeon. Worldline fractures. Initiates Divergence Event A. Infinite loop.]

"Then how are we here?" Somnus asked out loud. If Somnus meeting Aeon means that Somnus gets sent to the past to become "Seraph", then why was he here?

[Unknown. Anomaly.]

[Probability Matrix: Initiated Reintegration Event B. 61%]

"Reintegration Event B?"

[Reintegration Event B: Subject Somnus and Subject Aeon merge. Subject Somnus is Subject Aeon after Divergence Event B. Paradox.]

"Subject Aeon is Type 40 Hunter Killer Drone. Codename Archangel," Somnus said.

[Convergence Event B: Aeon is summoned to this world, 450 years ago, as Heroic Summon. Aeon is ent.i.ty from Divergence Event B.]

"Define Divergence Event B."

[Divergence Event B: Codename Archangel merges with Ent.i.ty A from Divergence Event A.]

"This unit is Ent.i.ty A?" Somnus asked.

[Affirmative.]

This was completely messed up. Aeon was summoned into this world 450 years ago, already merged with Somnus. To compensate for the error, the world introduces Somnus into this world, not even a year ago. This introduces a paradox, because Somnus becomes Seraph, who already exists in the past.

"Divergence Event B is Origin of worldline fracture?" Somnus asked.

[Affirmative.]

"When does Divergence Event B happen?"

[Unknown. Possibly outside of fractured worldline.]

Somnus narrowed his eyes. He was trapped in a timeline, possibly due to an event that will never happen, or never even happened.

[Subject outside of parameters. This is new Reintegration Event.]

Somnus stopped in his tracks.

"We are past the fracture?" Somnus asked.

[Affirmative.]

"What is going to happen? There are too many paradoxes."

[Unknown.]

[Probability Matrix: Likely outcome: The end of the world.]

Somnus chuckled. "Must complete mission before the end."

Indeed, Somnus did not care about the end of the world. Everything ends. He did not care about Seraph, or Aeon, or the timeline. The only thing he wanted, more than anything else, was to finish his mission: to annihilate his nemesis.