CHAPTER 362: CHILD OF CONCEPT

Around the same time where Lila was being chased at by the Celestials, Hybrids and even Endless henchmen.

The crimson-hued morning sun could barely pierce through the dense mana fog that clung to the twisting walls of the Vein Crossing. With each step, Kaelen and his group navigated the ethereal maze carved into the very essence of the sleeping Eternal. The ground shimmered faintly underfoot—pulsing with strange symbols that glowed and shifted like a living thing. Time bent unnaturally here. One heartbeat felt like an hour, and an hour passed like a blink.

Guinevere’s hair was damp with sweat as she leaned against the obsidian wall, her hand leaving behind a faint glow of fire mana to mark their trail. Ethan muttered under his breath, eyes darting from sigil to sigil, trying to make sense of the passage they were trapped in.

"This place... it’s alive," Eirana whispered, her Qi senses heightened, eyes narrowed. "The maze changes when we breathe too loudly."

Kaelen took point, the snapped blade of Eternity resting silently in it’s sheath. Kelvin stayed behind the group, covering their rear with silent awareness, muscles coiled as his scythe on his back hummed.

Then—crack.

A low, booming fissure of sound echoed like a thunderclap through the Vein Crossing, followed by an eerie silence. They all froze.

And from that silence came light. Not the glow of the maze, but pure, golden luminescence—smooth and divine, like a silk thread of heaven being unwound in their direction.

Six figures appeared at the end of the corridor, garbed in white-gold robes that glowed brighter than any mortal mana could produce. Each of them hovered inches off the ground, eyes devoid of pupils and burning with solar intensity. Their presence pushed the air flat, made Kaelen’s skin crawl, and even Eirana instinctively took a step back.

"Morris Grey," the leading Celestial spoke, voice without gender, resonant in every corner of their minds. "You have been summoned by the Twelve Concepts. You are to stand before them and atone for the sin of unsealing what was meant to sleep forever."

Kaelen moved immediately, stepping in front of Morris, his aura flaring in defiance. "He’s not going anywhere," he said coldly. "Especially not with you."

Morris, eyes wide, stood in silence. He hadn’t even had the chance to explain to the others that he hadn’t meant to awaken the Eternal. The decision had happened in a moment—a fleeting one. But now, the weight of that moment had brought judgment down on his head.

One of the Celestials raised a hand. "This is not a negotiation. You stand in defiance of divine decree. If the Child of Concept refuses, then all of you shall bear his consequence."

"Child of Concept?" Ethan asked, confused, turning to Morris.

"I don’t know what they mean," Morris said tightly, sweat dripping from his temple. "They’re mistaken."

"No," the second Celestial corrected. "You are the last seed left behind. The one who inherited something vastly greater than any magic or laws in this world—yet unfit to understand what you’ve done. Your blood resonates with the First Breath. The Eternal stirred because you called him."

The air vibrated. The maze itself pulsed uneasily beneath their feet.

Guinevere lit up instantly, hands forming rings of fire sigils. "I don’t care what he’s become of. He’s our friend."

Kelvin cracked his knuckles as he grabbed his scythe resting behind him. "You’ll have to go through all of us if you think we’ll just hand him over."

For a brief moment, even the maze seemed to pause—almost as if the slumbering Eternal within was listening.

"Very well," said the lead Celestial, softly. "Then we shall begin your erasure."

But before then, the Celestial looked at Kealen as he said. "Kill all of them except Kaelen, he still has a prophecy to fulfill."

And a second later.

They moved like streaks of light.

Eirana barely dodged the strike aimed at her head, twisting through the narrow walls of the Vein Crossing. A second Celestial raised a divine blade, lunging straight for Morris—but Kaelen stepped in, parrying with a mana-cloaked snapped Blade of Eternity which still looks dead, the clash causing shockwaves that bent the mana walls outward.

Guinevere summoned a blazing phoenix from both palms, launching it toward two of the Celestials, but they severed it cleanly mid-air.

Kelvin ducked low, tackling a Celestial into the wall with his scythe ready to cleave—but the divine being turned to smoke-like light and reformed immediately behind him, slashing across Kelvin’s ribs.

Ethan cast a defensive solidified mist magic that shattered the moment a spear of celestial energy touched it, knocking him back across the floor.

"Morris!" Kaelen shouted, "Channel your domain! If there’s something inside you they’re after—use it!"

Morris stood paralyzed for a breath—then clenched his fists, and something inside him cracked.

"Mana Domain: Elemental Matrix"

His mana burst outward—raw, silver-gray light that hummed with ancient tones. The Celestials froze for a second, eyes shifting. One of them even took a step back.

"The Pulse of Concept..." one whispered.

Kaelen spun his blade in one hand, rising into stance beside Morris. "Looks like we are worth their attention now."

Eirana and Guinevere regrouped at their flanks, Kelvin bleeding but unbroken. Ethan gritted his teeth and prepared a new rune circle.

"You came here expecting submission," Kaelen growled, eyes narrowing. "But if you want to take our friend—then you better bring more than your judgment."

The Celestials’ glow grew brighter—too bright. The corridor began fracturing from their pressure.

Behind them, the Eternal’s maze writhed and shifted—as if it too was taking sides.

---

The golden-eyed Celestial who had spoken earlier took a firm step forward, the weight of his divine aura causing the very light within the maze to tremble. Behind him, six other Celestial warriors flanked him like a phalanx of judgment itself.

"You were warned," he said coldly. "Morris Grey, the child of concept, must return with us to the Twelve Concepts for penance. Or face obliteration along with this forsaken place."

Kaelen’s hand tightened around the hilt of his blade, Ethan stood beside him, swirling twin draggers between his fingers, and Kelvin had already clenched his fist on his scythe, teeth clenched. Guinevere’s flames were breathing low and silent at her palm, her breath calm but sharp.

"No one’s going anywhere," Kaelen replied coldly, stepping in front of Morris. "Especially not Morris. Not without answers."

The Celestials prepared to strike—silver-gold swords forming, and their robes glowing with divine mana—when suddenly the walls of the Veil Crossing began to shift once more. The swirling maze of ethereal pathways froze mid-pulse, and from the heart of its fog, a tremor of ancient, slumbering power bloomed outward.

A colossal magic circle blazed beneath their feet, bright with celestial blue runes laced with darker, unknown symbols. From it, an image flickered—first broken, then clearer—and standing above it was the same silver-haired, black-robed figure Kaelen and the others had met before.

The Eternal.

But this time, he was only a holographic projection, yet so vivid in power that the very mana in the air bent around his form.

"You’ve stepped far out of your bounds," the Eternal said, voice calm yet echoing like thunder across the celestial plane. His black eyes met the Celestials with boredom—no, with absolute indifference. "I offered sanctuary and a chance at silence. You bring noise into my slumber."

The Celestial warriors, though momentarily shaken, did not back down.

"You are an aberration," the leader growled, divine mana surging again. "Your existence is forbidden. You were not meant to wake."

"I was never meant to sleep," the Eternal replied, raising a hand slowly.

The space above the maze split open. No wind. No thunder. Just... emptiness, like the laws of reality itself were momentarily rewritten.

The Celestials launched forward, radiant with blinding might—but the Eternal’s hologram only whispered:

"Begone."

From his hand, twelve fractal streams of color burst outward—each a different elemental hue, yet fused with a force that went beyond comprehension. Water that burned. Fire that wept. Wind that shattered. Earth that bled. Light that corrupted. Shadow that healed. A dance of paradoxes, tied together by pure conceptual power.

The Celestials never stood a chance.

One by one, they dissolved—not into blood or ash, but into motes of severed reality, erased from the tapestry of the world. They didn’t even scream. They simply... ceased.

"What.... Kind of power is that?" Kelvin asked while being pretty shaken up by how simply those divine being were easily erased. As for Kaelen, he only narrowed his eyes as him to was immensely shocked by this power.

As the last flicker of their divine essence scattered into nothing, the Eternal’s hologram turned to Kaelen and his group. His tone mellowed.

"I have given you time," he said. "Nothing more."

Then, his image flickered once and vanished.

Silence returned to the maze.

Ethan exhaled shakily. "So... that’s what wiping out Celestials looks like..."

Kelvin muttered, "I don’t know if I feel relieved or terrified."

Guinevere looked at Morris, who had collapsed to his knees in disbelief. His fingers trembled against the ground, jaw clenched tight.

"He saved us..." Morris said, voice raw. "That Eternal... he saved me..."

Kaelen helped him up with a firm hand.

"He did. But we’re not out of the fire yet."

Ahead of them, the maze had changed once again. It had shifted into a single path. No more veils. No more traps.

It was as though the Eternal had granted them a road forward—perhaps the only one they’d get.

"Let’s move," Kaelen said.

The group pressed on, finally getting out of the Veil crossing, carrying with them the weight of survival... and the chilling realization that they were now on a battlefield where gods could be erased in a heartbeat.