Three days after he entered the chamber, he left with God-Slayer.

He was curiously unaware of the passing of time as he slowly made his way back to the entrance. He made sure to spend a significant amount of time at each vault, drinking the life's work of the Erduks. His walk to the exit, to the present, was like walking through history, seeing it brought to life before him. He saw great wars, and beautiful conceptions. Impossible breakthroughs and lonely mastery. He saw time in all its glory.

And it changed even one such as him.

When he left the vault, tilting his head up to face the rising sun, he was changed. It was subtle, nearly unnoticeable, but significant nonetheless. Before, his actions had been that of a child, pure raw passion, lacking understanding and guidance, now trailed hints of something deeper. Time had marked him with his own path, a winding road of passion and life, chaos and freedom. Time had shown him what the world had once been, free and true.

He would not settle for less.

From the top of the Mountain of Adam, he could see for miles, but he didn't let it distract him. He still had his goal. He focused on a seemingly invisible point in the far distance. The sun glinted off his hair, making it shine like spun gold. His azure eyes outshone the open sky as he put a hand on the hilt of his new blade.

Then he took a step.

It was a physical step, yes. But it was also a step along his path. It was a step into the glorious future. Space tore before him as the light of his passions roared free, sending a chaotic mix of red and gold light dancing across the snow covered peak.

The across then stunned faces of Nero and his high council.

Nero started at Kyoko, with confusion. Then he saw the blade. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

“Council, you are dismissed. We will finish this later.”

The council left without another word and Nero and Kyoko studied each other, each vivid against the plain white walls of the throne room.

Nero frowned. “You’re different.” A statement.

Kyoko controlled his rage for the time being. “Yes.”

“What is that?” Nero indicated God-Slayer.

Kyoko stayed silent.

Nero sighed. “Do you know how much disorder and chaos you caused? It's only been a week and the casualties are astronomical. Rebellions. Societal collapse. Was it worth it? The death of so many? To satisfy your petty revenge?” His crown began to shine. “I take no pleasure in this, but you must be put down like a rabid animal you are.”

“Sacrifices must be made. I would expect you, of all people, to understand that.”

“Sacrifices for what? Your revenge? You would sacrifice innocents for some petty vendetta.”

“For their own sake. They are chained. I must free them.”

“Who are you to say such things?”

“I am Passion. I am life. And order has no place within it. Not your order anyways.”

Kyoko took a step forward, trembling with the effort of restraining himself. “Too long have we shriveled, denied the chance to truly be, our true selves suppressed under the chains of law. The chains of order. You killed my family before they could truly live. Now I live for them.” A crimson aura burst to life around him, as he released the last restraints on the rage within. “NOW I BURN FOR THEM! AND I WILL BURN THIS EMPIRE TO THE GROUND”

Nero pointed, crown shining like the sun, and stuck with a decree he had prepared in case of Kyoko's return.

“Execute”

It rushed at Kyoko in a symphony of death, an inexorable command of nonexistence. There was no escaping such a thing.

So Kyoko, burning with passion and purpose, cleaved it in twain.

Then he struck back.

Wherever his blade passed, cracks were left in the fabric of reality. There was no blocking such a strike. And indeed, Nero rewrote his position in space to avoid it.

It was a familiar battle, one of the calm river against the raging flame. Normally, the river held the advantage, the flame helpless in the face of its might.

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But Kyoko burned, and he burned brighter. And brighter.

Nero's face was tight with effort as he struck back with laws, manipulating gravity and stealing energy to slow his opening, all while dodging every swing of Kyoko’s overbearing blade.

Kyoko grew faster, his strike more sublime as he sank deeper into his path, deeper into his passion. He was no longer merely a man. He was life, the ever growing, ever evolving, entity. He was passion, the fuel that drove men to impossible lengths. He was freedom, azure light the color of an open sky shining from his eyes.

His next strike stuck like the truth of rage itself, an intricate weaving of life and passion.

Its rage sunk into Nero’s mind, costing him the second he needed to doge that terrible blade. He made his decision in an instant. His aura of order disappeared from his empire as he summoned his full power to himself and blocked the blade of rage with a shield of clam.

Ripples of greater concepts sprung out from collison, and when they cleared, Nero stood tall, clocked in swirling streams of deep blue power, a counterpart of Kyoko’s crimson-golden cloak. Kyoko roared, and they met in a sound like the world breaking.

The throne room, even enforced by intricate weaving of law, couldn't take one blow, and they soared to the skies, trading blows, both physical and spiritual.

Nero, crown shining like a silver sun, matched Kyoko blow for blow, weaving order for his chaos and death for his life.

They raged through the skies like a cataclysm, leaving broken chucks of the universe behind him.

Finally, Nero had enough. “Enough. This ends now.”

He raised a hand and the destruction around them reversed in an instant, spatial tears closing up and destroyed structures rebuilding themselves. The deep blue aura around him ballooned and I could feel him struggling to keep himself from ascending on the spot.

Still, at this point. He was more god than man.

I felt him invoking the pure essence of his path, the full force of his will. This was a pinnacle strike, one meant to leave no trace of his opponent. The accumulation reached a peak and Nero raised a hand.

“Order is a command all things must obey. And you shall obey. Break.”

He brought down his hand.

There was no massive explosion. No immense destruction. To bending of natural laws. It was a command. An order. Directly to Kyoko.

Kyoko roared, but his blade was no help here, or at least he knew not how to use it in such situations. He fell apart piece by piece, parts of himself giving into the command and destroying themselves bit by bit. He plummeted from the sky, roaring like an enraged dragon.

Passion ignited to heights greater than ever before, turning to the sky crimson. But there was nothing to direct it against. In his desperation, he did the only thing he could.

He narrowed his focus. A single blow would decide this battle. And he knew exactly what it would be, even in his rapidly breaking mind. Nero was the hand of tyranny, benevolent as he may be. And nothing slew tyrants more than truth.

Kyoko would strike him with the truth of humanities origin, first seen in the river so long ago, and confirmed in the records of the Erduks. The truth of their chaos and life. Their passion and freedom. The world had been new, and all men were free to do as they wished. Free to die as they wished. And they had been better off for it.

Kyoko abandoned his mind, pouring the entirety of his souls and will into the single segment containing the blow. It was truth. And Nero would see that.

The second before Kyoko struck the ground, he swung God-Slayer, the full weight of himself behind it.

The sky was cut in half.

God-Slaying intent merged with a truth antithetical to Nero’s very existence. He summoned shields of pure order, enforcing them with his will, but what was order in the face of chaos? What was a tyrant in the face of truth? What was man in the face of infinity?

His shields shattered in the same moment. At the last second, he scattered his essence, but God-Slayer was forged to slay true gods, much less half ascended being.

The world froze.

Order shattered in a pulse that killed every person on the planet.

And chaos rushed forth to supplant it.

Then the crown of Nero, former Final Emperor and Apostle of Order fell from the sky.

Kyoko blacked out.

—----------------------------------

I watched, horrified as my greatest hope for not one ascendant, but a nation of them was slain in a single blow.

I roared out my fury in a frequency mortals could not sense. Maybe Kyoko would be able to if he was awake, if that cursed being had somehow survived. I wondered if I should strike down his unconscious for where it lay, but I restrained the impulse at the last moment.

All around me, the Final Empire burned. The loss of Nero’s calm and the introduction of Kyoko’s chaos was driving everyone mad.

I watched as it came apart at the seams, my creations slaying each other as the first failures had, oh so long ago.

The void cried out in rapture, and I could no longer ignore it.

I remember my fight with HER so long ago, how she had confronted me about my willingness to destroy humanity.

I had replied, “If they ever descended to the point where I was forced to destroy them, they wouldn't be humanity anymore!”

I looked down at the humans, no creatures below me, crying out with joy as they killed and raped. Destroying each other with pleasure.

Were they still worthy of the title “humanity”?

I no longer knew.

—---------------------------------

I woke to a city on fire, but that was not what concerned me.

Far above, I felt the watcher struggle. The void of rage and apathy that threatened to consume him.

It was winning.