Cosmic Ruler - Chapter 554

Chapter 554: Outer Gods VI

Aiden fell.

Not physically.

His body was still, standing upright at the heart of the ruined sanctum. But his spirit—his soul—drifted somewhere between waking and dreaming, haunted by the echo of the Emissary’s voice.

“Just… surrender your humanity.”

He gritted his teeth.

Never.

Around him, the sky bled starlight. The scars of the last battle were still fresh—rents in space, splintered laws, fragments of collapsed universes drifting in and out of sight like dust motes.

His world was no longer whole.

Nor was he.

He staggered.

The effort to stand was like lifting a collapsed mountain. His internal energies were slow to stir, weighed down by something thick and ancient.

Corruption?

No. Not yet.

But it was close.

Aiden drew in a breath—slow, cold, steady.

He summoned his Martial Spirits.

The Golden Sword appeared first, flickering weakly, its once-pristine blade dulled.

The Death Dragon followed, its body coiled in silence, energy leaking like a slow, deliberate heartbeat.

And then the Destiny Thread—still shining, but with fewer strands than before.

One of his threads had burned out in that clash.

He had rewritten fate to survive… and fate had demanded a price.

Footsteps.

Aiden turned, muscles tensing.

It wasn’t an enemy.

It was Nexus.

He walked carefully across the shattered platform, his face pale, his robes stained by cosmic blood and melted mana.

“You’re awake,” Nexus said quietly.

Aiden nodded once. “Barely.”

There was a long pause.

Neither of them knew what to say.

Not at first.

“They’re regrouping,” Nexus said at last. “The Outer Gods. I’ve seen the signs.”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “So soon?”

“They’ve changed tactics. No longer brute force. They’re sowing whispers now. Corruption. Cults.”

Aiden exhaled through his nose.

“They offered me something,” he muttered.

Nexus stiffened. “What?”

“Power. Knowledge. A place among them.”

Silence.

Then Nexus’s voice, low and cautious: “And you said?”

“I told them to rot.”

A flicker of relief passed across Nexus’s face—but it was short-lived.

“That’s why they’ll come harder.”

In the distance, thunder cracked.

Not from the sky.

From the fabric of reality itself.

Aiden turned his head. His Spirit Sense flared. In the far eastern quadrant of the realm, something vast was shifting.

Like a city being pulled through the void.

Or a god’s dream pressing against the waking world.

“What is that?” Aiden whispered.

Nexus didn’t answer right away.

Then:

“A gate.”

“To where?”

“Where they come from.”

Aiden clenched his fists.

“We can’t let it open.”

“We won’t.”

But even as Nexus said it, his tone betrayed doubt.

They both knew the truth.

They were strong.

But they were alone.

The Immortal Realms were in ruin. The cosmic defenses had shattered. The beings who once stood alongside them—Eternal Saints, Reality Shapers, the Immortal Flame Court—were either missing or consumed.

Aiden’s mind raced.

He needed allies.

He needed strength.

And above all… he needed time.

“I’ll go there,” Aiden said.

Nexus looked alarmed. “It’s not safe.”

“Nowhere is.”

Aiden looked up at the sky, where eyes still blinked open across the starscape.

“If I wait, they’ll come to me. If I move first, I choose the battlefield.”

He met Nexus’s gaze.

“Besides… I want to know what they’re planning.”

Nexus nodded, reluctantly.

“But be careful,” he said. “They’ll test your mind. Not just your body.”

Aiden gave a rare smirk.

“Good. Let them try.”

As he prepared to leave, the winds howled through the broken realm.

He stepped toward the tear in space Nexus had identified—the weak point where the barrier between realities was thinnest.

With a wave of his hand, his cloak of starlit fire wrapped around his form.

The Dragon roared inside him.

The Golden Sword hummed.

And the Destiny Thread trembled.

For beyond that tear lay a path to the unknowable.

To the gods beyond gods.

To secrets no being was meant to hear.

Aiden stepped forward.

And vanished.

The void welcomed him like a whisper.

No wind. No light. No time.

Aiden’s first breath after stepping through the gate was heavy—like inhaling centuries of silence. His feet touched something solid, but it shifted beneath him, as if even the ground refused to remain real for too long.

Above him, the sky was a swirling canvas of forgotten colors. Crimson halos bled into emerald shadows. Constellations moved of their own will, weaving impossible patterns in the dark.

This wasn’t a realm.

It was a thought.

A dream. A memory.

Or perhaps…

A forgotten regret of a god that had never lived.

Aiden summoned a flame to his palm.

The light burned blue.

But the shadows around him didn’t retreat. Instead, they grew sharper, bolder. As if mocking the fire.

The Golden Sword stirred behind him. Not fully summoned, just a faint echo of its presence in his spiritual sea. He could feel its unease.

Even the Death Dragon, with its unshakable pride, shifted in silence.

They were inside something older than existence. A dimension that predated laws. Here, Martial Spirits weren’t kings. They were visitors.

And some visitors didn’t leave.

He walked forward.

Each step echoed not in space—but through his own mind.

Memories flickered.

Shelly’s laugh.

Serina’s fire-dancing eyes.

Mia’s quiet words.

Nexus shouting his name as the gate tore open.

For a moment, it felt like he was slipping. Not in body, but in identity.

Was this what the Outer Gods did?

Unravel who you are, strand by strand?

He bit his tongue until he tasted blood.

The pain grounded him.

He was Aiden. Lord of Pride. Bearer of the Reaper Scythe. Slayer of the Heaven Inspector. A boy who once stood alone in a broken world… and rose to face the heavens.

That was truth.

And nothing here would take it from him.

The path widened.

Or… perhaps the space bent to his will.

There was no up, no down.

Only direction.

And then… he saw it.

A throne.

Not carved of stone or bone—but of voidlight. A thing that shimmered with the memories of extinguished stars. It floated in midair, suspended by chains of silence.

And on it sat a being.

Faceless.

No eyes. No mouth. No features.

But Aiden felt it smiling.

The thing didn’t speak. Not with words.

Its presence alone was enough to twist the edges of thought.

But Aiden was no longer mortal.

He stood tall.