The Prince’s consciousness carried weight, suggesting this represented the True Realm’s deepest secret.
’Ethereal Conception is the pinnacle of Ancient Majik—a unique power birthed when an individual achieves perfect mastery over one or multiple Arts and the Techniques within them. It represents original capability that transcends normal Technique fraworks.’
’Each Ethereal Conception is absolutely unique—once manifested by one individual, it can never be replicated or copied by another. It becos that person’s ultimate trump card, their signature capability that defines their combat effectiveness at the highest levels.’
’Only Archangels, Archdukes, and Ancients can manifest Ethereal Conceptions. Normal Angels, Devils, and mortal practitioners lack the necessary mastery and power to birth such capabilities.’
Rey felt his mind racing through implications. ’So the power hierarchy is:
’Mortals use Arts through Techniques organized by Sequences.
’Angels and Devils possess enhanced mastery and immortality but still operate within normal Ancient Majik fraworks.
’Archangels and Archdukes develop Ethereal Conceptions—unique powers that transcend normal limitations.
’And the Ancients possess both Authorities granting absolute dominion over their Arts AND Ethereal Conceptions representing their ultimate capabilities.’
’Precisely,’ the Prince confird. ’Which explains why the Ancients are effectively untouchable. They don’t just have more power—they operate at qualitatively superior levels that make direct confrontation suicidal for anyone below their status.’
Rey was silent for a long mont, processing the scale of what he faced.
’And Lucifer challenged this system?’
The Prince’s consciousness carried sothing approaching awe.
’Lucifer was the greatest of all Archdukes—the Devil who served K’haos with capabilities that exceeded even other Archdukes by significant margins. His power approached the Ancients themselves, his mastery over Chaos Authority rivaling K’haos in specific applications, his Ethereal Conception unique even among elite celestials.’
’He was, by all accounts, the strongest being in the True Realm below the Six Ancients themselves. He was even the one who invented the Hollow Technique, possessing such unmatched mastery in it that it was terrifying. Unmatched among Angels and Devils, respected and feared by both Aether and Nether authorities.’
’What was his Ethereal Conception?’ Rey asked.
’Unknown to ,’ the Prince admitted. ’That knowledge was suppressed after his fall. But it must have been extraordinary to make even the Ancients themselves take notice and coordinate response.’
The Prince continued with evident gravity.
’Lucifer observed the True Realm’s power structure and recognized its fundantal injustice. The Ancients ruled through divine authority rather than earned rit, their Authorities granting them power that could never be challenged through normal advancent. Angels and Devils served as eternal subordinates, their immortality purchased through permanent submission to divine will.’
’So he rebelled,’ Rey raised a brow. ’Attempted to overthrow the Ancients and establish a new order based on different principles?’
’He gathered followers among both Angels and Devils who shared his vision. Built a coalition that transcended the Aether-Nether divide, united by the belief that the Ancients’ absolute authority represented tyranny rather than legitimate governance.’
’For a ti, his rebellion threatened the fundantal structure of reality. His forces challenged both Aether and Nether simultaneously, his personal power allowing him to face multiple Ancients in direct combat.’
The Prince’s voice carried profound sorrow.
’But ultimately, he failed. The Six Ancients coordinated their full combined power—all their Authorities, all their Ethereal Conceptions, all their divine capabilities focused on a single target. Even Lucifer’s extraordinary strength couldn’t withstand assault operating at those scales.’
’He was defeated, cast down from the True Realm, his existence shattered into uncountable fragnts scattered across dinsional layers. Not killed—entities at his level cannot be truly destroyed—but broken so thoroughly that reconstitution would require power exceeding what defeated him.’
Rey felt a cold understanding settling over him. ’And before his defeat, he made arrangents. Contingency plans that would activate if his rebellion failed.’
’Yes,’ the Prince confird. ’One such arrangent existed in the Labyrinth of Darkness. He created —the Prince of Darkness—as a tool to await specific conditions. He prophesied his second coming through the help of a Nephilim who would satisfy precise requirents.’
’A Nephilim with dual Art affinities, including Chaos mastery. Soone ruthless enough to sacrifice everything for their objectives. Soone carrying grievances against divine authority that would make them willing agents of rebellion.’
’Soone like ,’ Rey concluded.
’Soone exactly like you, Master. Your arrival, your capabilities, your motivations—all of it matches what Lucifer prophesied millennia ago. Which suggests his planning extended far beyond what even I understand, that his arrangents transcend the True Realm’s current reality.’
Rey sat in stunned contemplation, pieces falling into place with implications that made his previous manipulations seem trivial by comparison.
Lucifer.
The Ancient Chaos God.
The millennium-spanning prophecy.
The arrangents that were made before the ultimate defeat.
And suddenly, another na surfaced in Rey’s mory with sharp clarity.
Ater—his familiar from H’Trae.
That mysterious entity possessed capabilities that defied normal understanding. Back then, he had provided Rey with cryptic guidance about forces beyond mortal comprehension.
Ater had told him things—fragnts of truth about origins, about being forced to descend from higher realms, about powers and authorities that transcended what H’Trae’s System could accommodate.
Rey had dismissed those comnts as cryptic mysticism, interesting but not imdiately relevant to his survival concerns.
But now, with full context about the True Realm and Lucifer’s rebellion—
’The description matches,’ Rey realized with growing certainty. ’Was it just a coincidence that all of this occurred? I was reincarnated after the Archdukes ruined my world, and I just so happened to be a Nephilim with two souls? I fulfilled all the conditions necessary for Lucifer’s arrangents as well. Ater possessed knowledge about the True Realm, about divine authorities, about power structures that existed beyond normal reality.’
’Ater specifically sought out, bonded with despite having no apparent reason to ally with soone weaker than him at the ti. He also provided exactly the capabilities I needed to survive H’Trae’s conflicts, positioned for advancent that would eventually lead to this mont.’
The connections were too precise to be coincidental.
Ater wasn’t just a Familiar who happened to ally with Rey.
Ater was part of Lucifer’s arrangents—possibly a fragnt of Lucifer himself, scattered across dinsions when his existence shattered, operating with partial awareness and limited power but still working toward the sa ultimate objectives.
Or perhaps Ater WAS Lucifer—the core consciousness that survived defeat, adopting a new identity while orchestrating revival through carefully positioned agents across multiple realities.
Rey’s hands trembled slightly—a rare physical manifestation of emotional response he typically suppressed completely.
Because if Ater was Lucifer, or connected to Lucifer’s arrangents, then—
Ater might still be alive.
Sowhere in the True Realm or scattered across dinsional layers, existing in fragnted form or hidden identity, working toward goals that extended beyond Rey’s current comprehension.
And Rey owed him everything.
Ater had saved him when despair threatened to consu him completely, and he had granted power sufficient to protect what mattered and pursue revenge when loss demanded it.
He gave Rey the greatest opportunity to reincarnate and have his revenge.
If there was even a possibility that Ater survived in so form—
’I will find him,’ Rey vowed with absolute conviction. ’Whatever it takes. However long it requires. I will discover the truth about Ater’s connection to Lucifer, locate wherever his consciousness exists, and repay the debt I owe.’
’Not because so prophecy demands it. Not because Lucifer’s arrangents require it. But because Ater was my friend.’
At this point, Rey felt a tiny spark of hope in his heart.
A hint of warmth.
’It appears I may not be completely alone in this world, after all...’
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