EXTRA CHAPTER - ???

ARTHURIUS ELKYRIA NEOS

TWO DECADES AGO

Here I stand, within the shadowy confines of the Demonic Cathedral, months after the blood-soaked war that ravaged its once-sacred halls. The atmosphere is thick with the lingering stench of death and decay, the stone walls still echoing with the cries of the fallen. It’s almost unbelievable that I, Arthurius Elkyria Neos, a prince cast aside and forgotten by the threads of countless past timelines, would emerge as the victor of this brutal conflict. Yet here I am, victorious.

I just fought against the formidable warriors Reina Fleuret, Richard Astherson, Serena Maizono, Xenon Wingate, and the enigmatic Z. Each one of them battled fiercely, their resolve unyielding as they sought to defend Exceria. But look at what their efforts brought them—defeat. They fought with every ounce of strength they had, but they lacked the power to counter my Archonlight. The truth is harsh: the one destined to defeat me has not yet been born. I've replayed this assassination across millions upon millions of timelines, trapped within this endless loop of time. But now, with the Orb of Exceria in my possession, the end is finally in sight. I can summon the Foreign God, a being far greater than even Necross.

The dragon knights, those who once stood as formidable adversaries, have fled. But I know they pose no real threat to me in the future. They won’t dare oppose me, not when I can hide and bide my time until the moment of my birth. When that time comes, Gazelle Lockwood will ascend to the mantle of the Ultimate Evil, taking the place I have carved out.

I turn my gaze toward the blood-streaked cross where Exceria is impaled. Her once-pale form, now marred with streaks of blood, sweat, saliva, and the remnants of her broken dignity, hangs lifeless. Her body is a grotesque tableau of suffering, having endured this 6,666,666th death across all the timelines. She no longer draws breath, and her agony has ceased. With her demise, I am free to summon the Foreign God, a being of unimaginable power that surpasses even Necross.

As I take a step forward, my eyes fall upon a twisted monstrosity—a disfigured dragon with a single wing, three grotesque arms, and five writhing tails. This abomination, the remnants of Serena Maizono and her comrade Z, is the product of my Dragon Splicer technology, a grim fusion of their once-noble forms. Though unstable, this creature holds promise. Once I resurrect Amphere Harrison—or Deo—and use his Eye of Deus to trigger a Vesryn Pulse transformation, I will recreate her Nexus Dragon Form. With the Dragon Queen at my command, I will bring the world to its knees when all is said and done.

I heard the soft, broken sounds of weeping echo through the desolate chamber. It was my future mother and father, Emperor-consort Cleru Neos and Empress Serenity Elkyria. They knelt before me, naked, their once-regal forms now stripped of dignity, like tragic figures in a twisted work of art. Despair hung heavy around them, their faces etched with hopelessness. I noticed a sword lying beside them, its blade gleaming coldly in the dim light. I picked it up and pointed it at them.

“I never told you to stop. Continue,” I commanded, my voice icy and unyielding. “Have sex. You will remain trapped here for eternity unless you conceive me as your child, the rulers of humanity.”

Cleru’s voice trembled as he cried out, “Are you really our son?”

Rage flared within me, and I struck him across the face with a sharp slap. “Yes, I am, you foolish son of a bitch! This is a fate you cannot escape. I am the King of Humanity, goddammit! Now, obey and fulfill your duty!”

Their expressions twisted with anguish, but they knew there was no escape. As long as my present self remained unconceived in the empress’s womb, the barrier that imprisoned them within the Demonic Cathedral would never dissolve. They were eternally bound to this fate unless they allowed my future self to be born.

I turned away from their misery and continued my march toward the altar at the heart of the cathedral. The towering Demonic Statue of Necross, a fearsome dragon with two massive horns, loomed before me. Its eyes, once dormant, began to gleam with a malevolent crimson light. I raised the Orb of Exceria high above my head, feeling its power surge through me, a crimson light pouring from it into the statue.

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“I hereby summon the Foreign God to unshackle me from this unending fate!” I cried out, my voice reverberating through the cathedral.

In an instant, a blinding bluish-white light filled the room, searing my vision for three agonizing seconds. When I finally managed to open my eyes, I found myself standing in the same desolate chamber. The room was unchanged, as if nothing had happened.

Suddenly, a rift tore open in the fabric of reality, swirling with dark energy and the echoes of distant realms. My heart leapt with anticipation as I watched it expand, my mind racing with the realization that my summoning had succeeded.

“Finally! I have summoned you!” I cried out, my voice filled with triumphant joy. The Foreign God, the one who would break the chains of this accursed time loop, had finally arrived.

But my elation quickly soured as a figure stepped through the rift, a face all too familiar to me. crimson eyes with black sclera stared back at me, framed by equally dark hair, and the figure was clad in a sage's robe adorned with a platinum sigil shaped like a dragon's face. My heart sank. I knew this man—he had haunted other timelines I had traversed. He was certainly foreign to this timeline, but he was not the one I had hoped for.

“Ulysses,” I muttered, my voice heavy with disappointment.

“Well, hello there, your majesty!” Ulysses greeted me with a casual wave, his tone annoyingly cheerful. “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”

Frustration surged through me. “Why are you here? You should go back to your alternate universe,” I growled, barely containing my irritation.

Ulysses simply grinned, his smile as bright and infuriating as ever. “Welp, I have to check on some of my experiments, and of course, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to see and chat with you before you’re conceived back into a baby.”

His amusement was palpable, and it stoked the flames of my anger. “You’re really grinding my gears, you know that?” I snarled, my teeth clenched. “What part of my endless timeloop do you find so entertaining?”

“Everything, really,” Ulysses replied, his grin stretching wide like that of a Cheshire cat, reveling in my frustration.

Irritated, I swiftly raised my sword, pressing the cold blade against Ulysses’ throat. The edge gleamed dangerously in the dim light, a hair's breadth from drawing blood.

“Whoa! Whoa there, your majesty!” Ulysses mocked, his voice laced with playful derision. “If there’s someone you should be threatening, it’s the reincarnation of Goddess Exceria. I have nothing to do with your endless time loop! Remember, I’m just an Arbiter.”

“Then stop irritating me,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. “Or I’ll have your precious Dragonoid Contractor slaughter you across a million timelines.” To emphasize my point, I brandished my Psychic Dominator, its metallic surface reflecting the tension between us.

Ulysses chuckled, unphased by my threat. “Hey, I’m not the one who tried to mimic the Curse of Time! If you hadn’t made that foolish contract with the Brightmore Witch, you wouldn’t be in this mess right now. I’m just here to observe, nothing more.”

With a frustrated sigh, I lowered my weapon, though my hand still trembled with anger. “So, what happened to my Foreign God? What happened to the one who was supposed to save me from this eternal loop?”

“There is no Foreign God,” Ulysses replied with a smirk, his tone almost condescending. “What you’ve summoned is nothing more than Necross in a perfectly ordinary human body. Essentially, you’ve called forth a cheap imitation, a bootleg version of the Outsider you so desperately wanted. Exceria has prepared this countermeasure for a very long time.”

“What!?” I cried, disbelief and anger twisting in my gut.

“And oh, by the way, there is no salvation for you,” Ulysses continued, his voice taking on a mockingly casual tone. “Summoning Necross in this timeline will grant you exactly what you wished for—an eternal nothingness. You’ll be erased from the memories of everyone. You will never have existed.” He wagged his index finger at me, as if scolding a child.

“What!?” I exclaimed, my voice tinged with disbelief and rising panic. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

Ulysses shrugged, his expression annoyingly indifferent. “I told you, Arthurius Elkyria Neos has no future. The timeline remains intact,” he replied with maddening calm.

I clenched my fists, seething with rage. “I fucking hate Dragon Sages like you,” I spat, my words dripping with venom.

Ulysses merely grinned, an infuriatingly smug smile that only fueled my anger further. With a casual wave of his hand, he turned and began to walk away, his steps unhurried and confident. He passed by the grotesque abomination of a dragon, its twisted form a testament to my own dark ambitions. He strode past my future parents, who remained locked in their grim, enforced union, their despair a distant echo in the cavernous space. Finally, he reached the pew at the far edge of the Demonic Cathedral.

There, Ulysses paused and activated his Eye of Deus. The instant his gaze shifted, a chill ran down my spine, icy tendrils of fear creeping through me. His eye glowed with an unnatural light, and I could feel its power, ancient and overwhelming, wash over me.

I stood frozen, helpless as I felt my body begin to betray me. My form started to crumble, disintegrating as the madness of my situation took hold. My mind fractured, descending into a chaotic spiral as I was forced to confront the inevitable—I was being reborn, once again, inside the conceived womb of the Empress, into a new version of myself, doomed to repeat this endless cycle of despair.

And through it all, Ulysses just watched, his expression impassive, as I unraveled before him.