Duality of Shadows-Chapter 1026: Echoes of the Duality of Shadows – The End.

The whale appeared once again in the middle of the underworld. There was no aura coming from him, no light, no fluctuations. But regardless of the cultivator—even the queen couldn’t sense or see him if he didn’t want to be found.

Right now, they had become one with the whole in absolute perfection. They weren’t just a fragment of the Omega that had reassembled; now, they felt completely connected to everything and could shape reality with a single thought.

The queen, even at full strength, would always be just a complete fragment of the Omega. But they were beyond everything.

But… that was just how they felt. Using this power fully and flawlessly was a whole different story. If they tried something too grand without skill and study, they felt like they could bring about the complete destruction of the world.

Everything had happened too fast, and they had just broken through. It was like they had just stepped into the elementary level of a new realm, still inexperienced cultivators. Meanwhile, the queen was like a cultivator at the peak of the lower realm—highly proficient in her forces, armed with the most powerful treasures, resources, and techniques for battle.

*RUMBLE!*

At that moment, a golden aura burst into the underworld like a dam breaking. For the first time, the queen felt pure terror—an overwhelming, solid, and inescapable sense of death.

Alm and Bruno noticed she was making a desperate move. She had lost her connection to the people in the universes but had activated something in the central universe where she was.

They thought about it mentally… and in the very next second, they appeared inside that universe.

Their focus locked onto a massive planet where an enormous golden castle stood. There, they sensed a chilling Yin of death and fragments of the power that had originated from the previous Heaven’s Will.

’In the end, they all got what they deserved.’ Bruno said emotionlessly.

All the former missionaries who had helped the queen were dead. Nothing remained of them—not even their souls.

Alm and Bruno knew that before, they weren’t being mind-controlled by the queen. She had simply kept them under a form of control that would activate in emergencies, like she had done with the Tarrasque in the past.

This gave them complete free will to think and act. They could have refused to lay waste to countless universes, and the queen would have simply killed them. If she had tried to place a full slavery mark on them, they would have had the time and ability to self-destruct first.

They chose to live—something Alm and Bruno would consider valid. But in exchange, their karma had been paid in full.

*Wooosh!*

A wave of astral winds roared, making time and space suddenly collapse. The entire planet began to shatter. That whole universe was plunging into absolute chaos, about to—

The whale waved his hand. Everything calmed down with his mere will.

The laws stabilized effortlessly, as they weren’t being controlled—just reacting in a chain.

A winged female figure appeared, her wide eyes locked onto the whale. She was already wearing her crown and gripping her spear. Floating around her, the Diagram of Life Energies was almost fully ethereal, completely under her command.

"You…" she muttered dryly, clenching her fists.

"This is the end. Let’s finish this once and for all. There’s no point in letting you keep killing and killing without a care."

The whale’s voice was devoid of emotion. This was their golden opportunity. They still didn’t have complete control over their power, which allowed the queen to still put up a fight against them. But at the same time, she had lost nearly all her slaves after her last move.

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She could still rely on the people of this universe, and maybe she had some other distant universe that wasn’t part of the formation. But in the grand scheme… she was already at the edge of the cliff.

"You think you’ve won?! I’ve heard those exact same words so many times before. Every single one of those people was completely destroyed by me!" she roared, shaking off her moment of hesitation.

She waved her hand, and a sea of immortal heroes emerged from all directions. The whale did the same, and soon, his entire army poured out of his internal universe.

The queen had also created thousands of new immortal heroes over the past thirty million years. She probably always had a method to create immortal heroes easily, but the costs were enormous, and these heroes wouldn’t be as strong as the others.

Given the current situation, she had done everything she could to strengthen herself. All her heroes were at the ninth level of the True God Realm. She had forcibly evolved them all, but their power was less than half of what it should have been.

The queen knew the whale’s army was extremely well-trained. Hastily creating soldiers could be considered nothing more than an irrelevant numbers game because, in real battles, they would die as easily as insects. But… these were heroes.

Every single hero had been nurtured—body and soul—with the power of the Celestial Ruler’s Crown. They had practically become one with the queen’s fundamental power. Even though they were weak in raw strength, this connection to her compensated for that weakness when fighting by her side.

**FOR THE QUEEN!!**

Almost three hundred thousand immortal heroes roared in sync, and the world turned golden.

"Pathetic." Ruri scoffed dryly. She waved her hand, and all her pets and personal army emerged.

Adding her private army to the others, the whale’s forces totaled a hundred thousand warriors. Each one exuded a sharp, terrifying aura. They were the elite among the elite of all cultivators who had ever existed—immortals, deities, and mutant primordial beasts.

Their cultivation ranged from the seventh to eighth level of the True God Realm. The overwhelming majority were hybrids of two or more races, something cultivators everywhere would consider impure, unstable, and below average.

Almost all of them had been born as ordinary people, trained with the whale’s direct or indirect help. But now... they were the protagonists of the greatest battle ever, and the tales and legends of this war would last forever.

The queen wasted no time and waved her hand. All the immortal heroes formed a five-pointed star formation around her. Instantly, their bodies glowed like golden suns.

Alm and Bruno felt the queen gaining a new power. It was another way of using her crown’s strength. Instead of sacrificing her servants, she was using them as the cores of cultivators. But they were immortal, and they were heroes. Each of them could subtly alter reality through the crown’s power, providing the queen with an overwhelming force beyond Qi and Laws.

"Finish them." The whale spoke without emotion.

The queen scoffed dryly. Destroying her formation wouldn’t be easy, not even for her at full power: "Let’s see who comes out on top. Prepare!"

Suddenly, everyone behind the whale tightened their grips on their weapons as their world distorted.

Alm and Bruno used the Celestial Miracle and instantly moved their entire army. They had been ready for this. In one second, each general was with their forces at a different point in the enemy formation.

"KILL!" They all roared and attacked without hesitation.

**BOOOM!!!**

The queen trembled, utterly in disbelief. The formation collapsed immediately. It happened too fast, and her eyes instinctively darted to one place.

She saw four figures staring at her coldly. Almin, Lyra, Meru, and Ruri had used their primordial chaos items to destroy everything. But the queen knew that, of course, and had designed the formation so that those four shouldn’t have been able to...

Then, she saw something unbelievable. Among the whale’s army, almost half of them radiated a unique aura alongside their cultivation power... the power of a Divine Inquisitor.

They wielded the Will of the Heavens within their micro-universes. As they attacked the heroes, they disrupted the formation, making it unstable. After that, those four only had to strike.

Ever since they saved the Nine-Star Tree, Alm and Bruno had poured everything from their Anima cultivation into its teachings.

In their internal universe and all the universes they had awakened, there was an abundance of pure chaos law. With that, they created an army of cultivators who also possessed the same power as Divine Inquisitors.

They had never fought the queen before, and she hadn’t expected this... but even with that power, even if the queen herself had used her Divine Inquisitors for something similar in the past, they wouldn’t have had this level of strength.

The whale’s army’s control and mastery over the Will of the Heavens within them were like night and day compared to the Divine Inquisitors she had created.

They had the Chaos Tree in the internal universe to study. The queen’s slaves could never compare. Alm and Bruno had effortlessly brought terrifyingly unique cultivators to life.

**BOOM! BOOM!**

The heroes started dying like ants. Even though they had three times the numbers, the whale’s army tore through them like starving lions, slaughtering the helpless creatures with ease.

The queen moved to intervene...

**CLANG!**

She struck forward with everything she had, and the sharp, metallic impact rang like thunder. The whale countered with Liumi, and the queen could only block in desperation.

"How does it feel? Was it worth doing everything you could to fuck over everyone? You thought everything was always in your hands, that you’d be supreme forever?"

"FUCK YOU!" The queen roared in pure rage at the provocation.

All three of her items condensed their full power for her. But the whale simply waved his hand, and the world trembled.

A cosmic mirage suddenly appeared within that universe. The manifestation of the Chaos Tree emerged, its roots and branches piercing through reality.

The whale attacked again. The queen had no choice but to beat her wings and throw everything she had...

**BOOM!**

With a deafening explosion, a golden figure was sent flying, spitting blood. She took the worst of it, even after using everything she had. Clearly, she couldn’t handle him, but somehow, his power was still unstable and didn’t completely destroy her.

She could still fight. She thought quickly as she stabilized herself. She just needed a chance to escape. In the past, she had been in similar situations, and even the whale had managed to escape from her once under much worse circumstances.

*Come on!*

She roared and played her biggest card immediately. Her plan was to open a passage, using 100% of her power to flee and hide. She had to act while she still had strength, or escaping would be impossible later.

The whale clearly felt her using a power that wasn’t hers... it was raw energy stolen from the ex-missionaries she had killed. Quickly, she pulled out her other three primordial chaos items.

One of them was called the *Evil God Bell*. Its sonic power could perfectly separate Yin from Yang in the world. It was the force responsible for keeping the underworld—a purely Yin world—separate from Yang, which could only exist in universes.

The second was the *Scepter of Celestial Judgment*. This item was responsible for creating tribulations, punishments, and celestial annihilations. The laws provided the energy and intent, and the scepter generated the power. The miracle the whale had received was just a weakened version without this item’s full power.

The last was the infamous Pearl of Chaotic Imagination.

Alm and Bruno felt the queen using everything she had brutally stolen from the ex-missionaries, subtly connecting to the part of Heaven’s Will within the items. Then, she used the power of her eyes to copy the laws within them as much as possible.

That alone wasn’t enough. She sacrificed everything she had within herself to gain even more power. After mastering the items, she already had their full potential, so this sacrifice wasn’t necessary. Doing this with her other three was a desperate move, letting her forcefully control two-thirds of each one’s power.

But it would only last a moment. Once her strength ran out, she wouldn’t be able to maintain control over them anymore, and the items could easily escape and disappear. Considering she had to sacrifice all the ex-missionaries, it was obvious she would never use this under normal circumstances.

That gave Alm and Bruno certainty... this was the perfect moment.

The queen still had other cards to play, but she had chosen to use her most powerful and guaranteed option. That was a foolish move; she didn’t believe her enemy could have secretly set something up against her. She would have sensed even the slightest fluctuation.

She still saw herself as superior, confident that whatever she did would be more effective. But now, she wouldn’t have another chance to use anything.

’Liumi, Vorion, Fides, all in. Ruri, Meru, Almin, Lyra, get ready.’ The whale’s voice echoed quickly in everyone’s minds.

The queen felt the power of the three items flowing into her. In two of them, she managed to absorb two-thirds of their strength. But the pearl... she only felt Heaven’s Will moving under her control. Its law remained weak and powerless.

She gripped the Void Spear tightly and gathered everything she had for one devastating strike. This weapon was meant to pierce the void, burning everything she had to amplify its power—her speed would be unmatched.

Everything happened in a blink. As soon as she stabilized her body, she pulled out the items and controlled them immediately. Then, she made her move, attacking in the opposite direction of the whale.

She had six primordial chaos items and the absolute maximum speed of the spear, surpassing even the laws of space-time. Using everything at once, not even ten cultivators at her level could stop her if they were caught off guard.

’I’ll still keep those other cards to recover. I’ll turn this around.’ She thought as she unleashed all her power.

Until...

Something inside her moved against her will.

Then, a voice dripping with sarcasm echoed in her mind.

’My promised enemy... we never got to fight or even meet, but this will be the best welcome... and farewell gift.’

The will created by Alm and Bruno in the past burned everything she had left and vanished. Immediately, Ruri activated her hidden mental power.

The queen felt her soul and power freeze.

Her heart stopped. Her eyes widened.

It was as if her very being had been torn from reality. Her energy stopped flowing—only what was already accumulated in her meridians remained. In desperation, she tried to activate everything she had...

Inside her meridians, a black flame ignited. Suddenly, her existence was consumed by a sinister black fire, made from her own karma.

Meru floated in the distance, watching her. His eyes shone like reflective mirrors. The power of the Reincarnation Mirror made all the queen’s karma attack her instantly and ferociously.

The queen reacted fast. Her eyes pulsed with full force. She had lost everything, but the power of her eyes came from her bloodline, etched into her very being...

"Refine!"

Two voices echoed in perfect sync.

A massive cauldron opened its lid, and from within, an anomalous force capable of purifying and refining everything was unleashed.

Already weakened, the queen felt the bloodline runes in her blood reversing inside her own body, refusing to activate.

**Slash!**

In the next second, an ethereal blade sliced through time and space.

The queen’s sculpted body was instantly cut. Blood poured out, forming a massive wound that nearly split her in half. She saw a small woman in front of her, wielding a curved blade completely imbued with the power of the Blade of Devotion.

The entire sequence of events lasted three seconds.

Then, the queen felt her power returning to her body... but strange earth runes were now surrounding her, making her energy sluggish, like thick mud. The Behemoth’s new law had proven useful in the end.

She sensed a presence appear behind her, along with an aura forewarning absolute death.

She spun around abruptly...

And there he was—the whale, just a few meters away. Around him, his three weapons floated, radiating a supreme light. The full power of the three Paragon weapons was being used to contain their strongest force.

Alm and Bruno no longer needed to extract the Origin-Law from their allies in the array. With their new cultivation, they could channel it through the connection they had with their followers. All of their devotees, scattered across millions of universes, had granted them a portion of this energy.

Because of that, they needed three seconds to prepare. Those four had been necessary to keep her distracted and prevent her from using anything else. Now, he would strike—not once, but with all three weapons simultaneously, unleashing the full might of each blow.

The queen knew that attack. He had created it when fighting the remnant of her will in a random universe.

Their eyes met…

"It’s over," the whale said emotionlessly.

The world held its breath.

**Eclipsing Divinity!**

The world fell into absolute silence. All colors vanished, replaced by a bluish-white void.

…

…

…

Minutes passed.

The world returned, as if taking a breath once more. Everyone looked up at the sky.

The whale stood still, holding a trembling wisp of energy in his hand. That wisp glowed faintly, radiating extreme weakness, as if it were on the verge of death.

"The Omega is persistent, but this ends here," he said softly, then closed his hand.

**Crack!**

The sound was like shattering glass, but it reverberated through the world’s laws, allowing every living being to hear it—stunned.

That wisp of energy broke apart, splitting into two distinct essences.

Earlier, Alm and Bruno had observed the heavenly laws at work, watching how they formed souls from wisps. With their newfound power, they realized it was a simple task.

Without hesitation, they separated the queen’s Birth-Law and, with a smooth motion, took it into their internal universe. It was now nothing more than pure, condensed energy—ownerless.

Only the Origin-Law remained, containing the queen’s consciousness.

The whale looked at it and scoffed, invading it and erasing all memories within, permanently. Now, she would never remember who she had been. Her memories would only exist within the Akashic Records, inaccessible to all.

Then, he split and fragmented it.

Ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million...

Normally, a wisp forms only about a dozen souls. But the whale kept going, breaking it down to the smallest possible fraction. When it reached that point, he moved the laws and perfectly created tiny new souls.

"I still don’t fully understand Omega’s intentions, but if he divided himself to create everything that exists, there must be a purpose in it. One thing is certain: one day, all will return to the origin. On that day, you’ll regain everything you’ve done and lived. Until then… you’ll live as an ant, crushed and killed with nothing to gain or lose. Well, if Omega also divided himself to create ants, there must be a lesson in that… it’s up to you to figure it out."

The whale spoke slowly, but by then, those millions of tiny fragments were no longer capable of understanding his words.

Her fate was sealed, with no chance of return. After all, ants don’t cultivate. She would live it out literally—the same way she had always treated others.

And worse… her sinister karma would still chase those fragments. Karma must always be paid. Since she couldn’t do anything about it, it would be repaid slowly… though how exactly that would happen was hard to imagine.

With a wave of his hand, those fragments scattered like grains of sand carried away by the wind.

The whale sighed, gesturing as he stored all nine primordial chaos items. Then, he turned to his allies.

After the queen lost her power, the heroes also lost their connection to heroic energy.

At that moment, to prevent any further problems, Lian unleashed the full power of the Tree of Chaos. It was like a bloody devastation. He alone slaughtered over 70% of the heroes in a single move. The remaining 30% had already been wiped out by the army in battle.

"This is the end."

The whale spoke emotionlessly, but deep down, he wasn’t as indifferent as he appeared.

His voice echoed through the heavenly laws like a sacred reverberation. Every living being felt an unprecedented weight lifting from their bodies—instinctively, they all realized that the world had changed forever.

***

A few years had passed, but at that moment, absolutely every image, statue, and anything related to the whale vanished from almost every universe.

The believers were terrified—statues simply turned to dust without anyone doing anything. They prayed to the heavens. But one day, a voice echoed in all their minds:

"You are forbidden from making statues or spreading who I am. But I assure you, I’m still watching everything. If you want my protection, live and plant good seeds—that way, you’ll have my support."

"From now on, everyone must seek personal fulfillment, finding happiness within themselves first. Remember: whenever you place your happiness in something outside of you, no matter what it is, you are doomed to chaos and pain."

It was simple and direct.

After delivering that message, many still tried to worship him, but eventually, time passed…

Millions of years later, since he no longer acted directly, there was no trace of his religion left. Only his final words remained, but only among a few scholars and avid readers.

But in a few places… more precisely, in the millions of universes Alm and Bruno converted in the end, there was still an ancient legend about a deity who had saved them. They even knew he had saved the whole world.

But it didn’t seem like just one—it seemed like two entities… that might have been the same… it was strange and confusing.

No one knew exactly how it all happened or who they really were. But the descriptions spoke of two opposing shadows, forever connected, like two halves of a whole.

They were nicknamed the Protector Duality of Shadows.

But after countless generations… even that name was forgotten by everyone… it only existed in old and obscure texts across a few universes.

***

After working hard for a long time, the whale helped restore the celestial laws of the universes more quickly and awakened all those who had yet to begin.

He used the power of the nine primordial chaos items to recreate everything as close as possible to how it was before. But some things could never return.

Now, each universe would forever have its own unique laws and rules. The upside was that the underworld never went back to how it was before, making it impossible to travel long distances through it.

Those far above average, by burning massive resources, could only move between nearby universes. But universe invasions became incredibly rare. Universes were now practically isolated from each other.

Alm and Bruno wandered through the underworld, distancing themselves from everything…

They found a place completely cut off from any universe. It was somewhere far beyond everything, impossible to find in the present times, even for a powerful immortal.

The whale took a deep breath and waved his hand, creating a small space. He stepped in and crossed his legs, sitting down.

Then, they looked around calmly.

The sight felt… familiar.

It resembled the view they had during the many years they wandered alone in their universe after killing everything that lived in it.

And so, the whale closed his eyes, returning to the origin of it all, to the dark and lifeless void.

Or not…

Now, inside his inner universe, he had a lot—an overwhelming amount—of company.

Besides, there was never a shortage of work. He was Heaven’s Will, after all. There were countless universes that needed him to shift things around from time to time. They would do it from afar, not physically.

It didn’t take long before Alm and Bruno were forced to use their power and create a solid body exactly like the whale’s to live there. After all, Ruri wanted to keep trying to have more children forever. As for them, they just wanted to see her happy every day.

As for their future… it remained like everyone else’s—just one possibility among infinite ones, changing with every moment and the slightest difference in attitude. In the end, maybe changing their attitude and striving to build for the future had been the greatest lesson of all…

But for now, their main journey had come to an end.

**THE END**

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Irrelevant note from Heaven’s Will (Author):

[If you made it this far, be proud—you are one of the five and only people who had the patience to read this book. It was a failure from start to finish, but I managed to complete it as I envisioned, and I hope I left something worthwhile for people to read; even if most think it’s bad. Anyway, thank you so much for reading. I gave it my all for nearly a year and a half of daily, uninterrupted work. I’ve added all the images of the characters I created to inspire me while writing. They’re in the Auxiliary Volume—I hope you like them. If you could leave a review saying what you liked and didn’t like about the book, I’d be really happy to read it.]