Cosmic Ruler - Chapter 529

Chapter 529: Nihlus IX
Aiden’s breath was steady, but his mind was anything but. He stood in the middle of the Nowhere, a space that defied all logic, all reason.

Planets formed and collapsed in the distance.

Stars blinked in and out of existence.

Time itself felt irrelevant.

And yet—Nexus stood there as if this was home.

Aiden narrowed his eyes.

“You keep acting like this is all just a game to you.”

Nexus chuckled.

“A game? No, Aiden. This is far more entertaining than a game.”

His eyes glowed faintly in the ever-shifting void.

“This is war.”

Aiden crossed his arms. “Then start talking. From the beginning.”

Nexus sighed, stretching lazily before cracking his neck.

“Alright, listen up, kid.

You want to know why the Architects fear me? Why they remember me?

Fine.

He took a step forward.

The air shuddered around him.

“Because I did something they thought was impossible.”

Aiden felt it.

The very space around them warped at his words.

Nexus wasn’t just telling him.

He was showing him.

The First Rebellion—Nexus vs. The Architects

The Nowhere rippled, and suddenly—

Aiden was somewhere else.

No longer standing in the void.

He was in a city of light.

Skyscrapers of pure crystal stretched into infinity.

Bridges wove through the sky, connecting floating islands of concepts.

Reality here was not built with matter but with ideas.

This was no ordinary place.

“Welcome to the Origin Nexus,” Nexus said with a smirk. “The very heart of the Architects’ domain.”

Aiden’s breath hitched.

This was their home.

And in the center of it—

A single figure stood against them.

Nexus.

A younger Nexus.

No smirk. No playfulness.

Just a man standing against an entire reality.

“The Architects control everything, Aiden.”

“Every timeline, every world, every possible existence.”

“They decide what is ‘real’ and what is ‘forgotten.'”

Aiden watched as the scene unfolded.

The Architects—vast, unknowable entities—descended from the sky like gods.

They spoke in absolutes.

“You are an error.

You do not belong.

You will be erased.”

And Nexus?

He simply laughed.

“Try me.”

—𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔—!

The sky fractured.

Nexus moved.

Faster than light. Faster than thought.

He struck with a force that should not exist.

And for the first time in eternity—

The Architects felt fear.

The First Break in Reality

The battle that followed was unlike anything Aiden had ever seen.

Nexus was not stronger than the Architects.

He was not faster.

But he was something they couldn’t understand.

Something they had never accounted for.

He was free.

And in a universe where everything followed a pattern, a rule, a law—

Freedom was the greatest weapon of all.

Aiden watched in awe as Nexus shattered the very foundation of the Architects’ control.

He broke laws of existence that should have been unbreakable.

He defied concepts that had ruled the multiverse since the beginning of time.

And in doing so—

He forced the Architects to do something they had never done before.

They retreated.

“You didn’t destroy them.”

Aiden’s voice was quiet.

“No.” Nexus shook his head. “I couldn’t.”

His smirk faded, replaced by something far more serious.

“But I broke them.”

He turned, facing Aiden with an expression sharper than a blade.

“And now, kid?”

The Nowhere rippled again.

They were back in the void.

“They’re trying to fix what I started.”

The Implications—Aiden’s Role

Aiden exhaled.

His thoughts were racing.

The Architects weren’t just watching him.

They weren’t just reacting to his strength.

They were reacting to what Nexus had done in the past.

And now, because Aiden had gone too far—

Because he had touched something beyond what should be possible—

They were trying to erase him too.

“So that’s why they came after me.”

Nexus nodded.

“Yeah. Because you’re walking the same path I did.”

He turned, looking at Aiden with a glint in his eyes.

“And that means you have two choices.”

Aiden felt his pulse slow.

He already knew what Nexus was about to say.

“You either step back…”

A heavy silence fell between them.

“Or you break their reality like I did.”

Silence stretched between Aiden and Nexus.

The weight of the choice before him settled in his chest like an immovable stone.

Step back.

Or shatter reality itself.

Aiden clenched his fists. His mind replayed everything—his battles, his struggles, the people he fought for. Myne, Rick, Dren. Shelly and Serina. His very existence had been shaped by defiance.

“You already know my answer.”

Nexus smirked, but there was something in his eyes—something knowing.

“Yeah. I figured.”

Aiden exhaled sharply, looking up at the endless shifting void around them.

“So what now?”

Nexus tilted his head, his violet eyes gleaming with amusement.

“Now? Now we start getting serious.”

And with those words—

The Nowhere shattered.

Beyond the Rift—Into the Abyss

Aiden’s vision blurred as reality ripped apart around him.

It wasn’t like teleportation. It wasn’t like the fractures of space he had felt before. This was something deeper.

Something fundamental.

—𝘞𝘏𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘚𝘏—!

He landed on solid ground—or what passed for it.

The air was thick, suffocating, filled with a presence that pressed down on his very soul.

He glanced around.

They stood in a landscape of crumbling thrones and shattered obelisks.

Aiden’s breath caught. He recognized this place.

This was a realm older than time itself.

A realm that should not exist.

“Nexus…” He turned toward the other man, his voice barely above a whisper. “Where the hell are we?”

Nexus smiled.

“We’re in the Abyss.”

Aiden froze.

The Abyss.

The very concept of it was enough to unsettle even the strongest beings.

It was a place beyond life, beyond death. A prison, a graveyard, a battlefield.

The place where the Architects cast aside their mistakes.

“I brought you here for a reason, kid.” Nexus said, his voice calm. “If you’re really going to fight them, you need to understand what you’re up against.”

He turned, motioning toward the endless dark expanse before them.

“And there’s no better place to learn than in the ruins of their failures.”

Aiden took a slow, steady breath.

This wasn’t just about fighting the Architects anymore.

This was about understanding their weaknesses.

Their limits.

Because if Nexus was right—if the Architects weren’t invincible—

Then that meant one thing.

They could be defeated.

And Aiden would be the one to do it.