More laughter rang out and for a few moments, the deities felt the first taste of hope in what seemed like an endless nightmare. However, it lasted only a heartbeat. Because the prison trembled. Not from the Overseer. Not from instability. But from inside. Nocturnis' gaze snapped back to the cage. "What… was that?" The Overseer frowned. "What do you mean?" The prison trembled again. This time harder. A low, thrumming vibration rippled through the bars. A pressure that didn't belong to the prison. It belonged to Gustav. Nocturnis' eyes widened. "Impossible—" FWOOM. A burst of power flew outward, expanding from within the cage like a newborn star. The Overseer staggered backward. The deities gasped. Within the red sphere, Gustav's aura exploded like a supernova, evolving, twisting, sharpening into something more refined and infinitely more dangerous. His Outworldly aura surged. It swelled. Each second, it grew denser. More potent. More ancient. Like a primordial force awakening after millennia. The beams hitting him began to bend and break as his aura thickened, deflecting them like raindrops hitting the shell of a titan. His fingers curled. Then his palm flattened against one of the glowing red bars. The Overseer flinched. "No… no, no, no!" Originally, the prison's concept of gravity was nullified. The concept of movement was stripped away so any living being within it would be incapable of moving. The concept of active power within the cage was also completely suppressed. The Overseer had removed every law that allowed motion or resistance within the prison, making Gustav a victim of thousands of beams with no means of managing them. This was the full power of the prison... And yet Gustav's hand still moved. Slowly, he pressed against the bar. The red bar shook violently, vibrating under the pressure. "How—?" whispered one deity, trembling. Another stepped backward in terror. "T-This is… This is not possible!" The Overseer's voice cracked. "He cannot move! He shouldn't be able to move!" Gustav's fingers curled around the bar. He pulled. The bar didn't immediately give way — instead, it groaned with cosmic resistance. The bars of the prison were tied to the Overseer's very essence. To strain one was to tear at the Overseer's own soul. The Overseer screamed as a chunk of his essence burned away just from Gustav's grip. But Gustav did not stop. The bars bent. Slowly. Agonizingly. The Overseer retaliated immediately, hurling all his power into reinforcing the prison, pouring dozens of layers of temporal stabilizers and cosmic restraints around Gustav. But Gustav absorbed every ounce of pressure with his expanding aura. Even the constant galaxy-destroying beams hitting him did nothing to slow him down. The Overseer panicked. "POWER… I… NEED… MORE POWER!!" He spread his arms, unleashing a horrifying suction force. The deities flinched. "No!" one screamed. "Not that taboo—!" "Yes!" the Overseer shrieked. "ALL OF YOU WILL FEED ME!" A swirling vortex opened before his chest. The nearest deity was sucked in immediately, screaming as their divine body broke apart into particles of pure essence. Another deity tried to flee— But the Overseer's gravitational pull caught him mid-flight. He was yanked into the Overseer's chest, absorbed in an instant. Nocturnis snapped his head toward him. "You FOOL!" he roared. "The taboo ability is unstable. You cannot absorb that many deities at once! You will—" The Overseer grabbed him by the throat like a toy. Nocturnis struggled as his shadows burst out uncontrollably. "LET ME GO!" But he wasn't let go. He was pulled into the Overseer's chest like water being absorbed by a sponge. "No—NO—!" Nocturnis screamed as he was devoured. His voice cut off abruptly as the Overseer convulsed. His body expanded and twisted, growing more monstrous than before. More energy than one body could ever contain poured through him, causing his form to ripple like boiling chaos. His chest bulged outward. All of a sudden, grotesque, moaning heads began poking out of his torso. These were faces warped in agony and their eyes glowing with unstable divine light. These were the deities he had absorbed. The taboo had rendered them unable to properly merge. Their consciousnesses were screaming from inside him and their essence fighting to escape even as their power fed him. The Overseer screamed in pain, clutching his head, trying to maintain control. But he kept reinforcing the prison. Layer after layer. Concept after concept. Seal after seal. A thousand beam emitters formed within the cage, firing at Gustav simultaneously. Yet— Gustav continued prying the bars apart. One inch. Two inches. Four inches. His aura pushed outward like a living entity, swallowing the beams, devouring their destructive force, turning it into fuel for himself. The Overseer gasped with red eyes. "WHY… WON'T… YOU… STAY… TRAPPED?!" He poured more and more of his amassed power into the prison. And the heads sticking out of him groaned and shrieked — crying, howling, their divine essence bleeding from their eyes. The Overseer's body spasmed as cracks began forming across his surface. Still— The prison began to break. The red bars bent outward with a final, ear-splitting crack. Gustav's fingers tore through the conceptual restraints, ripping apart the manifestation of the Overseer's authority like pulling apart wet cloth. The prison shattered. The light collapsed. The beams ceased. And Gustav stepped out. He instantly appeared in front of the Overseer with his fist was already drawn back. The Overseer froze as his monstrous form trembled. Gustav whispered: "…your prison failed." And he struck. Gustav's fist met the Overseer's chest with the force of a dying universe desperately clawing at existence. BOOOOOOOOM! The Overseer's colossal form was blasted backward like a ragdoll thrown through the remains of reality itself. His massive body tore through nebula remnants and shattered star husks. His screams echoed through layers of torn spacetime. Gustav didn't give him a moment. Before the Overseer could stabilize, Gustav vanished—reappearing right above him, his foot already descending. KRRRRRRAAACK!!! His heel smashed the Overseer downwards, sending shockwaves rippling across the nearly-dead cosmos. What was left of stars—faint sparks of once-burning suns—were snuffed out instantly. Fragments of collapsed galaxies exploded outward in arcs of cosmic dust. The Overseer choked and tried to regain composure, but Gustav was already there again. His hand became a blade of raw Outworldly energy. SWOOOSH—SHIIINK!