The Grand Duke's Son Is A Heretic

Chapter 559 559: 559

The moment Kael crushed the stone, the world around him did not explode or collapse in any ordinary sense, and instead it shattered silently as if reality itself had been peeled away to reveal something far more overwhelming beneath it.

What replaced it was neither darkness nor light, but an endless expanse of existence where countless possibilities unfolded all at once.

They did not come one after another in a sequence that could be understood, and instead they flooded his mind simultaneously, forcing every possible outcome of his existence into his consciousness as though he was being made to witness everything he could ever become.

At first, it felt distant, like echoes of lives that did not belong to him.

However, that illusion did not last, because the visions quickly became vivid and tangible, and each one felt as real as the ground he once stood on.

He saw himself fighting again and again, and although every version of him was different in strength, in choice, and in circumstance, the ending never changed.

He lost.

In one possibility, he stood at the center of the battlefield with his power reaching its absolute peak, and for a brief moment, it seemed as though he had surpassed everything that stood against him, but in the very next instant, the gods descended upon him together, tearing through his defenses and stripping away everything he possessed until his body collapsed and his authority was taken from him as if it had never belonged to him.

In another possibility, he came close to grasping the crimson star, and his fingers were almost upon it, but just before he could claim it, a divine strike pierced straight through him, cutting off his existence so abruptly that there was no chance to resist, no chance to struggle, and everything simply ended.

Then the visions shifted.

He saw Nina.

Her flames burned brighter than ever before, and she stood in front of him despite the overwhelming pressure that caused her body to tremble, yet she did not step back. She turned her head slightly and looked at him, and even in that moment, she smiled as if nothing else mattered.

Then, without hesitation, she moved forward and placed herself between him and an incoming attack.

The explosion that followed consumed everything around her, and her flames scattered violently before her body collapsed.

Kael's vision trembled as something inside him cracked.

He tried to speak, but his voice felt distant even to himself.

"No…"

Yet the visions did not stop, and they did not slow.

Another possibility forced itself into his mind.

This time, it was Christina.

She stood calmly, and her concealment wrapped around him completely as divine attacks rained down without end, and she held them back again and again, her power stretching further than it ever should have.

However, even that had a limit.

A faint crack appeared, and then her power shattered, and in the next moment, she was gone as if she had never existed.

Before Kael could react, another possibility emerged.

Asana stood there, and her frost spread endlessly as she froze entire sections of space itself in order to shield him, and although the strain caused fractures to form across her body, she did not retreat. She remained standing, holding her ground with unwavering resolve.

Until she could no longer continue.

Kael's breathing became uneven, and his chest tightened as the weight of what he was seeing pressed down on him.

Still, it did not end.

More possibilities appeared, and some of them were even worse, because in those paths, Nina, Asana, and Christina were not even present.

Instead, Martina stood in their place, fighting desperately against overwhelming odds, and she fell.

Then Ariana appeared in another path, taking that same role, and she too was crushed.

Again.

And again.

Every path unfolded with different beginnings, different choices, and different struggles, yet all of them led to the same inevitable conclusion.

Kael lost everything.

The gods remained standing above.

His power was taken and his existence was reduced to nothing.

Then the visions changed once more, and this time, they extended beyond him.

He saw the world itself.

The gods reshaped it completely, dividing everything into rigid classes while turning faith into a structured system that bound every living being. Lives were no longer individual or free, because they became tools, resources that could be harvested and controlled.

And then the cycle began.

Humanity was no longer allowed to exist freely, because their belief was extracted, their lives were consumed, and their purpose was reduced to sustaining something far greater than them.

That cycle repeated endlessly.

Over and over again, without variation, without mercy, and without an end.

Kael stood there, unable to move, as he watched countless versions of failure and despair unfold before him, and no matter how much he tried to find a different outcome, there was none.

It did not stop.

It did not even slow.

Until a sound cut through everything.

It was not loud, yet it carried an authority that none of the countless possibilities could resist.

A single strike.

It tore across all possibilities at once, and the endless visions shattered instantly as though they had been nothing more than fragile illusions, while the fabric of that constructed reality split apart under the force of that strike.

A blinding flash followed, and everything turned white as silence swallowed all existence.

Then, slowly, something new took form.

A figure appeared.

He had white hair that was stained with red, as if it had been dyed in blood, and he sat atop a mountain of corpses while destruction spread endlessly beneath him. Despite the devastation surrounding him, his gaze remained fixed on the distant sky, calm and unwavering as if none of it held any weight to him.

Kael did not understand how, but he found himself standing before that figure, and the moment he did, he felt it.

That presence.

It was overwhelming, yet it was not chaotic or unstable, because it carried an absolute certainty that surpassed everything Kael had ever encountered.

The figure spoke without turning at first, his voice calm yet heavy with meaning.

"It must have been difficult for you," he said, and although the words were simple, they carried a depth that made them feel far heavier than they should have.

Kael stared at him for a moment, trying to understand what stood before him, and then he spoke.

"Should it not be us instead of you?" he asked, his tone steady despite the confusion within him.

The figure paused briefly, and then he slowly turned his head to look at Kael.

His crimson eyes flared faintly, and the pressure around him intensified as if reality itself acknowledged his existence.

"You are not me, and I am not you," he replied plainly, his voice devoid of arrogance yet filled with undeniable authority.

"You stand as the destroyer of a single dimension, while I stand as the destroyer of multiple universes, the end of chaos, and the one who brings peace through annihilation."

His gaze remained fixed on Kael as he continued.

"You have not reached this level, and you are far from it."

Kael remained silent for a brief moment as he absorbed those words, and then he asked the only question that mattered.

"Then how do I reach your level?"

The figure watched him quietly, and for the first time, a faint smile appeared on his face, as if he had been waiting for that exact question.

"Now that," he said calmly, "is the right question to ask."