The sky was gray and overcast.
When Mike opened his eyes, he found himself in this strange space.
"Why does this feel like Inception?"
He raised his hand and pinched himself, muttering in amazent, "This dream feels so real!"
Regardless, Mike's plan had worked. At least, it had a successful start.
Once again, he found himself standing in an open field. It didn't take much effort for Mike to locate the sa child he had t before. The kid was still crouched on the ground, back turned to him.
Mike approached and squatted down, striking up a conversation as if they were old friends.
"Hey, buddy, we et again!"
The child, surprised to hear Mike's voice, turned and exclaid, "Wow, sir, you actually ca back?"
To Mike's surprise, not only did the kid rember him, but he also seed to have a good impression of him.
Mike nodded in satisfaction. "What a polite little guy."
As for whether this child would grow up to be Ares or Morpheus, Mike still wasn't sure. Even squatting, Mike was taller than the kid, so he simply sat down on the ground and asked, "You said I actually ca back. Does that an others have been here before?"
The child nodded. "Yeah, they all ca only once, but you're the only one who ca back."
Mike didn't press further about who "they" were, and the child didn't elaborate. Perhaps Ares had used his abilities to glimpse this kid's childhood?
Mike's presence here was thanks to a combination of Ares' talent and the effects of Illusory Reality.
He continued the conversation. "So, little guy, what have you been up to lately?"
The child replied earnestly, "I heard the demon race is coming, so I've been eating a lot and sleeping well to make sure I have enough energy to fight them!"
Mike couldn't help but laugh.
But behind his laughter was a trace of doubt he didn't voice. Sothing about this situation felt... off.
This kid claid to be an orphan, with no parents. By all logic, Mike should have guessed he was Ares as a child. But sothing didn't add up.
While the kid could be temperantal at tis, he lacked Ares' cold arrogance. That kind of pride should've been ingrained in Ares from a young age.
If not Ares, then who?
It couldn't be Morpheus-there were no demons in his childhood.
Mike realized a grim truth: by process of elimination, he had ruled out every Supre Being he could think of.
Huh.
Things were getting interesting.
The child's voice interrupted Mike's thoughts. "Sir, why did you co back?"
At that mont, the heavy clouds in the sky seed to press lower, dimming the light even further.
Mike knew his ti here was running out.
Whatever guesses he had about the child's identity, it didn't matter for now. The kid wasn't a threat, nor was he in any imdiate danger. Mike decided to focus on the task at hand.
He casually said, "Rember the ga we played last ti? How about we play it again?"
"You're not here to fight? Sure! Let's play with sticks!"
The last bit of wariness in the child's eyes disappeared. He was about to ask Mike which pile of sticks they'd play with when, suddenly, a massive, intricate structure made of over 100,000 sticks appeared before him.
The child: ...
Mike, ever the gentleman, extended a hand and made a polite gesture. "Kids first!"
The child stared at the impossibly complex pile of sticks, lost in thought.
Clearly, if Mike couldn't solve this puzzle, the kid wouldn't be able to either.
But Mike waited patiently. Two heads were better than one, after all.
"I've got it!"
To Mike's surprise, the child figured it out in just a minute.
Mike gave him a thumbs-up. "Cool!"
Still, he couldn't help but feel a little unnerved. The kid's intelligence and problem-solving skills were terrifying. Even Ares wouldn't have been able to crack this sword prison so quickly.
Mike watched eagerly, curious to see how the child would tackle the seemingly impossible puzzle.
Under Mike's gaze, the child raised his hand-and slapped the entire pile of sticks, scattering them everywhere.
The child's expression was a mix of excitent and smugness as he turned to Mike and proudly declared, "See? I solved it!"
He had chosen the simplest, most brute-force thod to break the puzzle.
Mike stared at the child in silence. His gaze shifted slightly upward, to the sky behind the kid. The once-gray clouds were now pitch black, oppressive and suffocating. If one looked closely, faint wisps of black mist could be seen seeping from the child's back.
Mike finally understood who this kid was.
In fact, he should've realized it much earlier.
With the Eye of Truth awakened four tis and his combat power at its current peak, there were very few beings whose identities Mike couldn't discern. The list was limited to Supre
Beings.
By process of elimination, Mike had been trying to figure out if this child was Ares or
Morpheus as a child.
But he had been wrong.
Mike had forgotten one crucial detail: Supre Beings weren't limited to humans.
There was one more.
Soone Mike would never have guessed.
A na surfaced in Mike's mind.
"Supre Demon God."
The child, still grinning innocently, pointed at the scattered sticks and asked, "Sir, do you
want to play with again?"
Looking at the seemingly harmless, weak, and innocent child version of the Supre Demon
God, Mike was at a loss for words.
Now that he knew the child's identity, another realization hit him.
Previously, Ares had created the sword prison to trap Mike as a test. If Mike could escape, it would prove he was capable of surviving whatever battles lay ahead.
Ares' plan had been flawless. Nothing should've gone wrong.
But even Ares hadn't accounted for Thor's first instinct upon being trapped: to exploit a
loophole.
Mike had used Void Exile to try and escape the sword prison, triggering its Illusory Reality
effect.
So far, so good.
But once inside the dream, Mike had encountered this child.
From the start, Mike had sensed the kid wasn't ordinary.
But he never expected the child to be the Supre Demon God.
This changed everything.
After eting the Supre Demon God, an oblivious Mike returned to the sword prison and
began working on breaking it.
And he used the thod the child had taught him.
In other words, the mont Mike successfully broke the sword prison, it would likely spell his
doom.
At the last second, the lingering effects of the Supre Abyssal's [Dream Co True]
activated...
Mike had ntally solved the sword prison, but out of respect for Ares, he assud it couldn't
be that simple.
Thanks to Dream Co True, his assumption beca reality.
As a result, Mike found himself trapped in a sword prison reinforced with over 100,000 layers
of sword energy, its difficulty multiplied a hundredfold.
Mike never could've imagined things would escalate to this point.
But there was one silver lining: the enhanced sword prison ensured Mike wouldn't die.
If he couldn't break it, not even the Supre Demon God could touch him.
anwhile, outside the sword prison, Ares stood with Maxen, who still couldn't make sense
of the situation.
This was supposed to be Ares' sword prison. Why had the Supre Demon God gotten
involved?
And most importantly... was Thor okay?
Ares explained the situation in a few brief sentences.
Maxen, still confused, felt a taphorical question mark hovering over his head.
He knew the truth was far more complicated than Ares made it sound.
Anything involving the Supre Demon God was never simple. Gripping his flail tightly, Maxen cautiously asked, "Godfather, what do we do now?"
"Wait."
Ares glanced at him and chuckled. "Relax. As long as I'm here, you won't die."
Hearing this, Maxen loosened his grip and turned his attention to Thor. "I'll be fine, but what
about Thor? Is he going to be okay?"
"He'll be fine," Ares replied, shaking his head. He added, "This place is special. Thor won't be
hard."
The two stood silently in front of the sword prison, watching and waiting.
Ares, notably, was unard.
It was almost laughable: the world's greatest swordsman without a sword.
His sword servants couldn't enter the river of ti, and he hadn't had ti to retrieve his old
Broken Sword.
But it didn't matter.
With or without a sword, Ares could cut down any foe.
Just standing there, he was like an insurmountable mountain.
"Whew-"
A man in blue arrived at the edge of the battlefield, stepping out of the river of ti.
Maxen's eyes lit up as he approached. "Cedric! What are you doing here?"
Unlike Maxen, Cedric had co on his own, without needing a white horse to guide him.
In other words, Cedric also had the ability to traverse the river of ti.
Ignoring Maxen, Cedric walked forward and stood beside Ares, gazing at the sword prison.
"You're late," Ares remarked.
Cedric shrugged. "I changed clothes. Took a little extra ti."
He had dressed up for the upcoming battle, choosing an outfit he thought looked particularly
dashing.
"Now that you're here, wait with us."
Ares sat down and gave an order. "Take Thor's golden tree, make a chessboard out of its
stump, and carve so chess pieces. I want to play a ga."
Maxen: ...
"Got it!"
While they waited, back in the Supre Abyssal, the trio climbing the mountain was still
struggling. Shadow Nine, having recovered so strength after using his abilities, turned to the other two and snapped, "Calderon, you useless old fool! Are you trying to drag down?" Calderon plopped down in the snow and rolled his eyes. "Kiss my ass! I'm not as bad as you
think!"
After shouting, Calderon pointed at their unlucky companion. "You need to get rid of him. As long as he's here, neither of us is getting anywhere!"
Afterskin looked helpless.
To be fair, the trio's current predicant was largely due to Afterskin's bad luck.
His mission was complete, and sticking with the group wasn't helping anyone.
The three quickly reached a consensus:
"Here's the deal. We leave you here."
"We'll co back for you when we're done." Afterskin, fully aware of his situation, asked, "What's the other option?"
Shadow Nine thought for a mont before offering a second plan. "This is the Supre Abyssal. Because of the two Supre Wars, there are ti distortions here. You could enter the river of ti and try to find a white horse..."
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