Cosmic Ruler - Chapter 530

Chapter 530: Nihlus X
Aiden’s gaze swept across the ruins of the Abyss, his spirit tense. The landscape was wrong—a world that had been erased yet still lingered, caught between existence and oblivion.

Shadowed towers, half-formed and broken, loomed in the distance, while rivers of black energy pulsed beneath their feet, as if the Abyss itself was breathing.

And the air…

It was alive.

Whispers clawed at Aiden’s mind, unintelligible voices hissing in a language he didn’t understand. Yet he felt their meaning.

Regret.

Hatred.

Hunger.

“You feel it, don’t you?” Nexus murmured beside him.

Aiden clenched his fists. “What is this place really?”

Nexus exhaled, his usual smirk absent. For once, he looked serious.

“This is where the Architects bury their mistakes.”

Aiden’s blood ran cold. “You mean—?”

“The Abyss isn’t just a prison.” Nexus gestured toward the ruins. “It’s a graveyard. Of beings, of worlds, of concepts the Architects tried to erase.”

Aiden felt a sharp chill crawl up his spine.

So this was it.

The place where things too dangerous, too uncontrollable for the Architects to handle, were cast away.

“And yet,” Nexus continued, his voice edged with amusement, “nothing here ever truly dies.”

Aiden turned sharply. “What do you mean?”

“Look around you, kid.” Nexus spread his arms. “Everything here was meant to be erased, but it lingers. Because the Architects can’t fully destroy something without consequences.”

“Erase a concept, and the balance of reality shifts.”

“Erase a being, and something worse takes its place.”

His violet eyes gleamed. “The Abyss is proof that the Architects aren’t omnipotent.”

Aiden’s heartbeat quickened.

They weren’t omnipotent.

The Architects—beings that shaped fate, erased entire realities, and decided what should and shouldn’t exist—

They had limits.

That meant they could be fought.

That meant they could be defeated.

But before Aiden could fully process this revelation, the ground beneath them shifted.

A pulse of pure abyssal energy rippled outward.

The whispers in the air turned into screams.

—𝘏𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘙𝘙𝘙𝘙𝘙𝘙𝘙—!

Aiden spun around, sword drawn.

Something was coming.

Something that had been waiting.

Nexus grinned. “Ah. Looks like they noticed us.”

Aiden barely had time to react before the darkness moved.

A tide of shifting, screaming figures surged toward them—twisted remnants of beings that had once been powerful, now reduced to nothing more than echoes.

But Aiden could feel it.

Beneath the chaos, beneath the horror—

There was one will controlling it all.

Something ancient.

Something vast.

Something that hated the Architects even more than Aiden did.

And it was watching him.

Waiting.

Testing him.

“Welcome to the real war, kid.” Nexus said, rolling his shoulders. “Try not to die.”

—𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔—!

The battle for the Abyss had begun.

The wave of abyssal wraiths rushed forward, their forms flickering between twisted shapes—some humanoid, some monstrous, all radiating an aura of pure, unrestrained hatred.

Aiden stepped forward, raising his sword. The golden glow of his aura clashed violently against the dark storm surging toward him.

“Light against the Abyss, huh?” Aiden muttered. “Let’s see who wins.”

—𝘍𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘚𝘏—!

His sword ignited with blazing celestial energy, the power surging through him like a tidal wave. He swung—

—𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔—!

A radiant crescent of energy cleaved through the first wave of abyssal beings, tearing apart their shadowed forms. They screamed, dissipating into swirling darkness, only for more to take their place.

“You’re wasting time!” Nexus called out, casually dodging an attacking specter. He pivoted and tore it apart with a flick of his hand, his fingers crackling with a violet energy that Aiden had never seen before. “If you fight everything head-on, you’ll drown in this place.”

Aiden clicked his tongue. “Then what do you suggest?”

Nexus smirked. “Find the one pulling the strings.”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. He focused—not just on the enemies, but on the force behind them.

The Abyss wasn’t just attacking randomly.

There was a mind, a presence—something watching him, guiding the swarm. Testing him.

And he was going to find it.

Aiden closed his eyes for a brief moment. The battlefield around him became nothing but a blur of motion and energy. His other senses sharpened—

And then he felt it.

A singular pulse of power. Deep within the storm.

“There.” Aiden’s eyes snapped open. “I found you.”

Nexus raised an eyebrow. “Then stop playing and go say hello.”

Aiden didn’t hesitate.

“Myne.” He reached out through their bond. “Cover me.”

Instantly, dark tendrils erupted from the shadows at his feet. Myne’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Already on it.”

—𝘍𝘞𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘚𝘏—!

The shadows ripped through the battlefield, consuming the wraiths in a spiraling vortex of pure darkness. For a brief moment, the path was clear.

Aiden moved.

He shot forward, his body blurring with speed. The air around him cracked as he broke through the abyssal forces—

And then he saw it.

A massive throne, half-buried in the ruins.

And sitting upon it—

Was something ancient.

Something that should not exist.

Its form was ever-shifting, flickering between different realities, different possibilities—a being made of everything the Architects had tried to erase.

And as Aiden locked eyes with it—

It spoke.

“You are not one of them.”

Its voice was not sound. It was force, pressing into his very existence, demanding to be understood.

Aiden tightened his grip on his sword. “No. I’m not.”

The thing on the throne tilted its head.

“Then what are you, little flame?”

Aiden exhaled.

And then he answered.

“I’m the one who’s going to end the Architects.”

For the first time in eons—

The Abyss laughed.

—𝘙𝘜𝘔𝘉𝘓𝘌—!

The throne began to shake. The darkness around them twisted and roared.

“Then let us see,” the entity murmured, its countless eyes gleaming with amusement. “Whether your flame can truly withstand the dark.”

—𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔—!

The Abyss awakened.

The very air shook as the abyssal entity rose from its crumbling throne.

Aiden could barely process what he was seeing—a being without a fixed form, constantly shifting between monstrous and humanoid, divine and eldritch. It was not bound by logic, existing in a state of pure defiance against reality itself.

And it was amused by him.

“You seek to destroy the Architects,” the entity rumbled, its voice pressing into Aiden’s mind like a weight. “A bold claim, little flame.”