Chapter 2080: The Ambush (1) REALM OF DEATH. The force of End had departed from the Realm of Death, but the Beast still pondered on its words. The allure of that much power was entrancing, and in the moments that End was with the Beast, it had gained so much knowledge. Who could have known that there was a hidden concept for immortality, or that there were so many ways to grow stronger outside what the Temple of End understood? Death could pay any price for a fraction of that power and potential that it had seen, but the price was a bit too much. To become the embodiment of End would mean that it would fundamentally become something new, and it did not want to change. Death serves a purpose, and although it was sentient, it did not mean it wanted to go against itself; that would be like killing it. End may have shown it the path to power, but the price meant that Death had to kill itself. The Beast of Final Rest was powerful and complete, and every day that passes it grew stronger. When it began harvesting Deaths from shattered Existences of the past, the Beast had been amazed by how much Deaths there had been, and how much Existence had come and gone... it was so much that it was clearly unnatural. Although it was tempted by the offer of End, it set itself on this goal to grow as strong as it could until it could reach the first Death in Existence, and before it would kill it, the Beast would ask, what led to the creation of Death? How did the first Existence die? If it could know the answers to these questions, then the Beast felt that it would be in the best position to either accept the offer of End or refuse it. With the power it was offering, the Beast was assured of becoming the ultimate ruler of Existence, turning the entirety of Existence into its image, but if that offer would make that image something that it could not comprehend, then it would not accept. Using the technique that had been taught to it by Lumen, the Beast of Final Rest fashioned its Will into a dimensional drill that pierced through the veil of Existence, into the dimension of the Past. It did not know how Lumen was able to pierce through this unknown layer of Time, but it did not feel like Time, because it seemed to be a separate individual dimension. It was always surprising that the mysteries that surrounded Existence always seemed to be endless, and the more they knew, the more they understood that they did not know enough. In simple things like showing Death the road to an entirely new Dimension and giving the Beast the tool to harness that power that made everything seem almost unreal. Pushing all of these thoughts to the side, the Beast pushed its Will into the past, and the world around it vanished. The Beast had placed itself in the center of its realm and surrounded itself with powerful heroes and defenses from the past and the present. Even without lifting a finger, the defenses it had around him were so powerful that it would take a long time for anyone to destroy them before they could get to where it was dwelling. Although the Beast feared nothing, it still knew that it had to be cautious, especially in this transitional period where it was evolving into something new and different. However, the Beast could never be aware that all of its famed defenses and protectors were nothing as the Ancient Primordials slipped through it all. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦 The six had come silently, slipping through the fractal barriers like knives through flesh. Nyxara led them, her hybrid wings, veined with Asteroath’s corrupted light, folded tight to mask their glow. This was a technique that she had acquired recently as he experiment with the new fusion of her powers. Her hunger for the power of Death was so deep that she had revealed a portion of her hidden might in order for them to get close to Death. Her siblings had noticed the strange shroud that she had created; they noted it, but they stayed silent, and Nyxara could not tell what sort of thoughts went through their heads at the moment, and she did not much care. If she could acquire the Origin of Death, who knew what the result of the fusion would be inside of her, and maybe she would no longer need Eos and could easily slaughter the rest of her siblings without losing their essence. Still, Nyxara ensured that she did not use her true capabilities and called for the help of her siblings, and so, Xylos flanked her left, black feathers dripping ichor that silenced their passage. Eldrithor swirled on her right, his storm-wings damped to mere whispers of improbability. Xyris lagged behind, purple wings creaking as he compressed their approach into a frozen instant. Elgorath and Vorthas brought up the rear, golden frameworks and green tumors weaving illusions of emptiness to cloak their intent. In this manner, they passed countless regions of Death where previously they had to fight tooth and nail in order to get through a single region. All of the transformation they had been undergoing in the last hundred million years was being displayed because the control of their powers had grown to great heights, beyond what anyone would ever expect. It was in this manner that they slipped past all the Beast’s defenses, and even though there should have been instances where they could have been discovered, it was almost as if luck was shifting in their favor, and they were able to reach the lair of the Beast. They paused in sheer shock and amazement. They were now in the heart of the Realm of Death, where the billionfold Regions converged into a singularity of absolute void, the Beast of Final Rest hung suspended in its harvest trance. Seeing its form for the first time since that battle, the Ancient Primordials were frozen in indecision. It was no longer a Beast resembling a gigantic deer with antlers that seemed to reach across all dimensions... that perfect form was gone; now it was a colossal nebula of finality, with tendrils of pure cessation snaking through layers of extinct existences, drawing forth the faded essences of long-dead Deaths.