Darkness consumed everything.

Rey fell through void that transcended normal concepts of space and distance—not physical descent but journey through layers of reality that existed beneath conventional perception.

His damaged body felt weightless, pain fading into background static as consciousness shifted into state that made normal awareness seem limited by comparison.

Then the vision began.

Reality reconstructed itself around Rey, replacing absolute darkness with battlefield that stretched beyond horizons.

The True Realm—not as it existed now, divided between Aether and Nether territories, but as unified reality before the Great Schism.

And the war.

Forces beyond Rey’s comprehension clashed across landscape that made mortal conflicts seem like children’s games. Angels and Devils fought not against each other but alongside one another, united against common enemy.

The Six Ancients.

Rey saw them—entities whose mere presence made reality bend in acknowledgment.

Lucia wreathed in elemental forces that commanded all natural phenomena simultaneously.

Ciel surrounded by geometric perfection that imposed absolute order on chaos. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Aegir whose consciousness touched every living thing across infinite distance.

Klaus radiating corruption that could transform existence itself.

Sif embodying void that negated everything it touched.

And K’haos—

No.

K’haos stood with the rebellion, not against it.

The Chaos Ancient fought alongside the coalition attempting to overthrow tyrannical divine authority.

Which meant the Aether version of history was wrong.

K’haos hadn’t led rebellion against his siblings—he’d joined one already in progress, lending his power to forces that sought to challenge the established cosmic order.

And at the rebellion’s head stood figure that made even the Ancients’ presence seem diminished by comparison.

Lucifer.

The Devil appeared exactly as Rey remembered Ater—black hair, features that suggested both beauty and terrible purpose, eyes carrying intelligence that transcended mortal comprehension. But the power radiating from him exceeded anything Ater had displayed in H’Trae by orders of magnitude that defied calculation.

This was Lucifer at his peak.

The greatest Archduke.

The entity who’d come closest to actually defeating the Six Ancients’ combined might.

Rey watched transfixed as the battle unfolded with speeds and scales his enhanced perception could barely process.

Lucifer wielded Ethereal Conception that made Rey’s newly awakened Forge of Creation seem like crude imitation—reality itself bending to accommodate powers that transcended normal Ancient Majik frameworks entirely.

Weapons materialized from nothing, each one carrying properties that shouldn’t exist.

Space folded around his opponents, trapping them in dimensions constructed specifically to counter their capabilities. Time flowed differently in his vicinity, allowing him to operate at speeds that made even Angel and Devil movements appear frozen.

And his Chaos Art—

Sequence #0 techniques executed with such mastery they might as well have been completely different Arts.

Anti-life principles weaponized in ways that made the Emperor of Death’s plague seem benign. Entropy accelerated to levels that aged targets through millennia in microseconds. Hollow Technique producing entities that existed as pure wrongness rather than corrupted versions of former life.

Lucifer fought all five Holy Ancients simultaneously—Lucia, Ciel, Aegir, Klaus, and Sif—while K’haos engaged their combined forces to prevent interference.

And for terrifying moments, it appeared he might actually win.

Then the betrayal came.

K’haos—whether through coercion, deception, or genuine change of allegiance—turned against Lucifer mid-combat.

The Chaos Ancient’s power, which had been shielding the rebellion’s leader from overwhelming assault, suddenly redirected to join the other five Ancients’ coordinated attack.

Six Authorities focused on single target.

Lucia’s elemental dominion.

Ciel’s absolute order.

Aegir’s consciousness control.

Klaus’s transformative corruption.

Sif’s negating void.

K’haos’s entropic chaos.

All channeled through their respective Ethereal Conceptions, amplified by divine blessing, operating at scales that could reshape reality itself.

Lucifer’s defenses shattered.

His Ethereal Conception fractured under assault it wasn’t designed to withstand.

His physical form began disintegrating as six different types of divine power tore through protections that had held against five.

But even dying, even betrayed and overwhelmed, Lucifer refused to yield.

"You think this ends anything?" his voice carried across the battlefield despite his dissolution. "You think eliminating me prevents what I’ve set in motion?"

He laughed—sound that made reality itself seem to crack.

"I’ve made arrangements. Positioned pieces across dimensions you cannot access. Prepared contingencies that will activate whether I survive or not."

"This war doesn’t end with my defeat. It merely... pauses."

The Ancients’ assault intensified, their combined power finally achieving what individually they could never accomplish.

Lucifer’s existence shattered.

His consciousness dispersed across reality layers.

His power divided into fragments that fell through dimensional barriers.

His physical form dissolved into corruption that seeped into spaces between worlds.

But his final words echoed through the vision with weight that transcended normal sound:

"The second coming... is inevitable."

Then the battlefield vanished, the vision dissolving as Rey’s consciousness returned to the void’s absolute darkness.

But the darkness wasn’t empty anymore.

Before Rey floated orb of swirling energy that defied description—part solid matter, part mystical essence, part conceptual wrongness that suggested it existed across multiple reality layers simultaneously.

This was the artifact.

Lucifer’s ultimate trump card.

The weapon he’d hidden before his final battle, positioned in what would become the Great Dungeon of Death, protected by Emperor and Generals created specifically to await the prophesied heir.

And Rey could feel it calling to him.

Not with words or mystical compulsion. Simply recognition—acknowledgment that they were meant to merge, that this convergence represented culmination of millennium-spanning preparations.

Rey reached toward the orb with hands that shouldn’t exist in this void-space, his consciousness extending toward power that seemed impossible to safely contain.

The orb responded.

It flowed toward him like living thing, accelerating as the distance closed, finally making contact with his chest where it simply... sank through.

Into his body.

Into his soul.

Into the fundamental essence of his existence.

Pain exploded through Rey with intensity that made the Ethereal Conception awakening seem trivial.

Every cell was reconstructed. Every Ether pathway was rebuilt from nothing. His soul itself restructed to accommodate power that transcended what mortal existence was designed to hold.

The artifact integrated itself into his being, not as separate equipment but as a fundamental component of his nature.

And with that integration came connection.

To the Great Dungeon of Death.

To millions of Hollow Creatures that had formed from plague corruption over a thousand years.

To the Emperor whose consciousness served as the nexus for the entire corrupted domain.

To six Generals—five dead but capable of resurrection, one still fighting desperately against Angel assault above.

All of it recognized Rey as master.

All of it acknowledged his authority.

All of it became an extension of his will in the same way his own limbs responded to conscious command.

But that wasn’t the artifact’s primary function.

Rey felt memories flooding into his consciousness—not his own, but Lucifer’s. Fragments of knowledge that the artifact had preserved, techniques and insights accumulated over existence that had spanned millennia before his defeat.

Advanced Chaos Art applications that exceeded anything the Prince of Darkness had taught him.

Ethereal Conception refinement methods that would allow him to develop his Forge of Creation beyond its current crude manifestation.

Combat strategies employed against Archangels and Archdukes, analyzed and preserved for future reference.

And perhaps most importantly—understanding of how the True Realm’s power structures actually functioned, stripped of propaganda and theological narrative to reveal naked truth about divine authorities and their vulnerabilities.

The integration completed.

Rey’s consciousness stabilized, pain fading as his restructured existence adapted to accommodate the artifact’s power.

He could feel his capabilities had transformed fundamentally. The Ether reserves that had been damaged beyond normal repair were now reconstructed stronger than before.

His Ethereal Conception, which should have taken decades to develop beyond initial awakening, had been forcibly advanced through Lucifer’s preserved insights.

And his raw power—

’Angel-tier,’ Rey realized with cold certainty. ’The artifact’s integration elevated me to levels that would normally require Church blessing and connection to the Ancients. I can’t match Archangels yet—their Ethereal Conceptions and centuries of experience still exceed what I’ve achieved.’

’But regular Angels? Devils? I won’t lose to them anymore.’

The void began dissolving around him, reality reconstructing as his consciousness returned to normal space.

Rey found himself back in the Emperor’s throne room, though how much time had passed remained unclear. His body felt restored—not just healed but enhanced beyond what it had been before the Angel’s assault.

The Emperor of Death stood before him, darkness swirling with what might have been satisfaction.

"The integration succeeded," it observed. "You’ve claimed the True Hollow’s inheritance and survived the transformation. Most who attempt such power absorption are destroyed by forces their existence cannot accommodate."

Rey examined himself, feeling power flowing through pathways that had been charred ruins mere minutes—or was it hours?—ago.

"How long was I in the void?"

"Twenty-seven minutes," the Emperor replied. "Slightly less than projected minimum but within acceptable parameters."

From above came sounds of intensified combat—explosions and mystical pressure suggesting Wrath was being overwhelmed despite desperate resistance.

"The Angels will breach this chamber within five minutes," the Emperor stated calmly. "Wrath cannot hold them longer. You must decide—flee through secondary passages while they’re occupied with me, or stand and test your newly acquired capabilities."

Rey felt the power flowing through him, sensed his connection to millions of Hollow Creatures throughout the dungeon, recognized that he now commanded forces that could challenge even coordinated Angel assault.

But he also understood that revealing these capabilities would invite scrutiny and retaliation operating at scales he wasn’t prepared to handle. The Church would escalate, deploying Archangels if necessary to eliminate threat of this magnitude.

Strategic retreat versus immediate confrontation.

The calculation formed with cold precision.

"I’m not ready to reveal this power publicly," Rey decided. "Not until I understand its full capabilities and develop counters for Archangel-tier opposition."

"Wise," the Emperor acknowledged. "The True Hollow’s arrangements extend beyond this moment. Premature revelation would compromise plans that require your survival more than immediate victory."

It gestured toward hidden passage that opened in the throne room’s wall.

"Flee. Survive. Grow stronger. And the return and claim your army..."

"No." Rey moved toward the passage, then paused.

"I have a different plan."