Chapter 547: Where It All Began (XXV) [The Sweet Taste of Revenge IV]

The moment the name left his lips, reality itself screamed.

A colossal pillar of silver-black-white energy erupted from Aestrea’s body, shooting straight upward for thousands of light-years before curving downward like a divine judgment.

The attack was not a simple beam... it was a perfect fusion of creation and destruction, karma and chaos, moonlight and absolute darkness.

The blast descended upon Chronos like the wrath of the universe.

Chronos’s eyes widened in pure terror. All his arrogance vanished in an instant.

"NO—!!!"

He poured every ounce of his power into his defenses.

His Domain of Time expanded to its maximum, layering hundreds of temporal barriers, reversal fields, stasis loops, and accelerated healing zones around him.

He summoned thousands of time clones, each one sacrificing itself to absorb part of the incoming attack.

The scepter in his hands glowed blindingly as he tried to reverse the very concept of the technique itself.

But it was useless.

Aestrea’s attack... pierced through everything.

The silver pillar struck the outermost layer of Chronos’s defenses and simply erased it. There was no explosion, no resistance.

The temporal barriers dissolved into nothingness as if they had never existed.

The time clones were wiped out before they could even react, their bodies disintegrating into silver dust that scattered into the void.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

The beam continued downward without slowing.

Chronos screamed as it reached him.

The silver light engulfed his body completely.

His Form of Time shattered like glass.

The protective runes on his skin burned away in an instant.

His scepter cracked, then exploded into golden fragments. The clock-hands in his eyes spun wildly out of control before freezing completely.

Then the true devastation began.

The karmic aspect of the move judged every action Chronos had ever taken, every manipulation of time, every betrayal, every arrogant decision.

The chaos aspect devoured his very existence.

The moonlight aspect was purified and erased.

Chronos’s body started breaking apart from the inside.

His left arm disintegrated first, turning into silver particles that floated away.

Then his right leg.

Golden blood didn’t even have time to spray, and simply evaporated into glowing mist.

Deep cracks spread across his torso, revealing pulsing golden core energy that was rapidly being consumed.

"AAAAAAGHHHHHHHH—!!!"

His scream echoed across the cosmos, layered with thousands of dying timelines.

Aestrea remained completely still, both of his arms were still raised, maintaining the technique with absolute control.

His black and white aura continued feeding the pillar of silver light, pouring more and more power into that single move.

Chronos tried desperately to reverse time on himself, but the karmic judgment made every reversal collapse instantly.

He attempted to flee into a future timeline, but the chaos devoured the possibility before it could form.

Splurt!

His torso suddenly split open, revealing his so-called divine core, the heart of his authority, which became visible, pulsing weakly.

The silver light wrapped around it like a closing fist.

"Impossible... I am... Time... I cannot... die...!" Chronos gasped, his voice breaking apart.

At those words, Aestrea sneered.

"Just fucking die already."

The final surge came.

The silver pillar intensified to an unbearable brightness.

The Yin-Yang symbol behind Aestrea spun so fast it created a perfect sphere of balanced energy around him.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The blast reached its peak.

Chronos’s body was completely consumed. His divine core shattered into millions of golden fragments.

His head, the last part remaining, disintegrated last, the clock-eyes cracking and fading into nothingness.

Not a single drop of blood remained. Not even dust. The God of Time was erased so thoroughly that not even his concept could linger.

The silver pillar continued for several more seconds, carving a straight line of absolute destruction across thousands of light-years.

Galaxies were split, countless star systems vanished,

A scar was left in the fabric of the universe itself in the form of a perfect, straight void where nothing would ever grow again.

When the light finally faded, Aestrea lowered his swords.

The battlefield was silent.

Where Chronos had stood, there was nothing.

Not even a trace of his aura...

The God of Time had been completely and utterly one-shotted.

Aestrea exhaled slowly, his Chaotic Form beginning to recede.

His black hair gradually returned to its pristine white, his eyes shifting back to their normal state.

The Yin-Yang symbol behind him dissolved into motes of light.

He looked at the empty space where Chronos had been for a long moment.

"Finally... nine-hundred and ninety-nine reincarnations just for this..." he mumbled, closing his eyes softly.

A profound wave of relief washed over him, unlike anything he had ever felt before.

It was as if both his body and soul had been purified in an instant.

The heavy, burning chains that had wrapped around his heart for countless lifetimes, the unshakable obsession for revenge, finally shattered and dissolved into nothingness.

For the first time in his long, tormented existence, Aestrea felt truly free.

The weight that had driven him through suffering, death, and rebirth again and again simply... vanished.

His shoulders relaxed, his breathing steadied lightly as a quiet, but peaceful expression settled on his face as he floated silently in the void.

The endless cycle of hatred and vengeance that had defined him was over.

He had done it.

Chronos was gone.

His lips curled up into a faint yet happy smile.

But that peace was interrupted.

Clap... Clap... Clap...

Slow, elegant applause echoed through the empty space, coming from behind him. The sound was gentle, yet it strangely had... some kind of authority behind it.

Aestrea opened his eyes and turned around.

There she was.

The Creator Woman stood gracefully in the void, as if she had always been there.

Her form was still ethereal and gorgeous, with long flowing hair made of starlight and nebulae, eyes containing entire galaxies, and a gown woven from the fabric of reality itself.

She clapped her hands with delicate elegance, a radiant and genuinely pleased smile on her face.

"Congratulations, Aestrea," she congratulated him in a warm tone.

"You have finally realized your revenge. After nine hundred and ninety-nine reincarnations... you succeeded."

She took a slow step closer, still clapping softly.

"I must also offer my sincere congratulations for killing the most perfect god I had ever created. Chronos... he was my masterpiece. The pinnacle of my work in causality and order. And yet, you erased him so completely."

Her smile widened, her eyes sparkling with fascination and something almost affectionate.

"I watched every second of it. The way you endured, the way you grew, the way you finally surpassed even my expectations... It was truly beautiful. You have made me feel something I haven’t felt in a very, very long time."

She stopped clapping and tilted her head slightly, gazing at him with pure curiosity and pride.

"So... how does it feel, my champion? To finally be free of that burden?"

Aestrea remained silent for a moment, staring at the Creator Woman. Even after everything, her sudden appearance didn’t surprise him as much as it once would have.

The relief he felt earlier remained, but now it was mixed with caution.

He had finally killed Chronos.

And the one being responsible for giving him this long, painful journey was standing right in front of him.

The question was... he had killed her most perfect masterpiece. Normally, one would get mad because one’s masterpiece was destroyed, no?

The Creator Woman looked at his guarded expression and suddenly laughed.

She raised her hand and waved it vertically in a graceful, dismissive motion, as if brushing away his concerns.

"Don’t worry about it," she said, smiling warmly. "I won’t try to kill you or get mad because you killed him. If anything..."

Her eyes narrowed in a distinctly flirty way, the galaxies within them sparkling with deep interest.

"...I hoped you’d be able to kill him. After all, didn’t I say that the reason I chose my form as a woman was that I wanted someone to surpass me?"

She took a slow step closer.

Aestrea frowned and instinctively tried to step back, but he froze almost instantly.

Not a single muscle in his body would respond.

It was as if the entire universe had decided to hold him in place. No pressure, no pain... just absolute, effortless control.

’Just... HOW fucking strong is she?!’

He was already the strongest god besides her... and yet, he couldn’t do anything about it. Not even twitch a finger.

The Creator Woman approached until she was standing right in front of him.

She reached out with one delicate hand, gently touching the side of his neck with her index finger.

The contact was light, almost tender, yet it sent a shiver through his entire being. She slowly trailed her finger upward, caressing his neck in a smooth line until she reached his chin.

Then, with gentle but strong authority, she lifted his chin so he was forced to look directly into her eyes.

"Now... you’re already so close to my power," she murmured softly.

"Especially now that you’ve gained information about Arcadia. It seems that making Horae the guardian truly worked in my favor."

She licked her lips seductively, her sultry gaze never leaving his.

"I can’t wait until you gather all the trumpets and challenge me~"

Her eyes burned with excitement, anticipation, and a deep, almost hungry fascination.