Cosmic Ruler - Chapter 526

Chapter 526: Nihlus VI
He was calm.

Not weakened.

Not disoriented.

Not suffering from the collapse of the Rift.

As if he had expected this outcome all along.

Aiden instinctively raised his sword, his golden flames crackling around him.

“You’re not making another move.”

Ordis simply tilted his head.

“I did not intend to.”

Nihlus exhaled sharply, stepping beside Aiden. His void energy was still unstable, reacting to Ordis’s presence.

“Then explain why you let this happen.”

“Why did you let the Rift collapse, knowing you’d escape anyway?”

Ordis’s silver eyes finally narrowed, as if considering whether to answer.

And then—

He smiled.

“Because now… you have no choice but to listen.”

—𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.—

Aiden didn’t lower his sword.

But he didn’t strike either.

Because, for all the chaos Ordis had unleashed—

He was right.

They had no choice.

They needed answers.

And Ordis was about to give them.

—𝘞𝘏𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘚𝘏—

The last traces of the Rift’s collapse faded, leaving only the three of them standing amidst a barren, windswept landscape.

The air was eerily silent, as if reality itself was holding its breath.

Aiden’s golden flames flickered around his blade, still raised.

Nihlus’s void energy coiled around him, unstable but controlled.

And Ordis—

He stood there, unshaken, his silver eyes gleaming with something that wasn’t arrogance.

It was certainty.

“You wanted answers,” Ordis said, his voice carrying an unnatural weight.

“So listen well. Because what I tell you next will change everything.”

Aiden didn’t move.

Nihlus remained silent, though Aiden could tell his mind was racing.

Neither of them trusted Ordis.

But that didn’t mean he was wrong.

And so, the being of broken chains finally spoke.

“You believe the Rift was merely a prison.”

“That I was shackled to prevent some great catastrophe.”

Ordis’s silver gaze shifted, looking past them—

As if seeing something beyond the fabric of reality itself.

“You are wrong.”

Aiden’s grip on his sword tightened.

“Then tell us the truth.”

Ordis exhaled, the wind around them shuddering at his presence.

“The chains did not hold me because I was a threat.”

“They held me because I am the last remnant of what came before.”

Aiden’s breath caught in his throat.

Nihlus’s eyes narrowed.

“Before what?” Aiden demanded.

Ordis turned his gaze toward him, and for the first time—

There was something in his expression that Aiden couldn’t define.

A weight. A burden. A truth too vast to fully comprehend.

“Before this reality.”

Silence.

Aiden’s mind struggled to grasp the meaning.

Nihlus, however, understood first.

His voice was unusually calm.

“You’re saying…” he exhaled, “that you remember a world before this one.”

Ordis smiled faintly.

“No.

“I remember the world before many.”

A Truth Too Vast to Comprehend

The wind howled, though there was no storm.

Reality itself seemed to shudder at Ordis’s words, as if resisting the weight of what he was revealing.

Aiden’s instincts screamed at him.

There was something terribly wrong about this truth.

Something that should have never been spoken.

Ordis, however, continued.

“Existence is not linear. It is rewritten, reshaped, reforged—over and over again.”

“You call this reality the ultimate truth, but it is merely the latest attempt at perfection.”

“And I… I am the last fragment of what came before.”

—𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦—

The ground beneath them trembled.

Aiden’s breathing was sharp, his heart pounding as he tried to piece it together.

“You’re saying reality has… reset?”

Ordis nodded.

“Countless times.”

“And each time, those who controlled existence sought to refine it.”

“Until eventually…”

His silver eyes gleamed.

“They decided to erase the past entirely.”

Aiden felt the weight of those words crash into him.

The Rift… the chains…

They weren’t just meant to seal a threat.

They were meant to bury a truth.

A truth so dangerous that the very fabric of reality couldn’t allow it to be known.

Nihlus, ever the strategist, finally spoke.

“If that’s true… then who are ‘they’?”

Ordis’s expression darkened.

For the first time, his voice was not calm.

“The Architects.”

Aiden’s pulse spiked.

He had never heard that name before.

And yet—

Something deep within him recognized it.

Like an echo of something he had forgotten.

Or something that had been taken from him.

The Architects—The Masters of Reality

Ordis turned, looking toward the sky.

“The ones who forge each reality anew.”

“The ones who rewrite history, removing all traces of what came before.”

“The ones who decided that I… and everything I once knew… should be erased.”

His silver eyes burned.

“And now, they know I have awakened.”

—𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘒—!

The sky fractured.

Aiden’s entire body went rigid.

Nihlus whirled, his void energy snapping around him in response.

Something—someone—was coming.

And Aiden realized the terrifying truth.

The moment Ordis spoke their name—

The Architects had found them.

The sky fractured, not like glass, but like something far more fundamental—the laws of reality themselves were breaking.

Aiden staggered, his golden aura flaring instinctively in response.

Nihlus clenched his fists, void energy snapping violently around him, his breathing sharp and controlled.

Ordis, however, did not move.

His silver eyes remained calm, watching the unfolding catastrophe with an almost knowing expression.

“They were always watching.”

“Now, they have decided to act.”

—𝘍𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔—!

From the fractures in the sky, something descended.

Not a figure.

Not a presence.

Something far worse.

It was understanding.

It was observation.

It was judgment.

And it was falling directly toward them.

Aiden’s instincts screamed.

He had never felt anything like this before.

Not against the Abyssal Generals.

Not against Nexus’s warnings of the Divine Realm.

Not even when he had glimpsed the power of ancient beings sealed beyond time.

This was different.

This was something that should not exist—because it did not need to exist.

It was reality itself enforcing its will.

A column of pure, nameless energy slammed into the ground, obliterating everything in its radius.

But it wasn’t destruction.

It was erasure.

The very land beneath their feet ceased to exist, replaced with blank, unformed nothingness.

Nihlus immediately reacted, void energy rushing outward to stabilize himself.

Aiden moved to shield himself with his golden aura, but even his light struggled against whatever this was.

And then, from the dissipating light—

They emerged.