Kaeya hovered above the fractured ground, both arms extended as twin Annihilation Mana Cannons formed behind her like blazing halos. Energy condensed into their cores, humming with destructive intent.

Without hesitation, she fired.

Twin beams of compressed annihilation mana roared forward, tearing through the air toward the two plump siblings—the puppeteers controlling the fallen Ex Hero Party. The ground beneath the beams disintegrated into molten trenches.

But just before the blast could engulf the siblings—

Hiro and the others lunged in unison.

Though their eyes were dull and unfocused, their bodies moved with deadly precision. Blades clashed against mana constructs. Shields formed from condensed aura deflected part of the blast. One of them redirected the beam skyward at the cost of being thrown backward.

Kaeya gritted her teeth.

"They’re still protecting them..."

The controlled ex heroes pressed their attack, forcing her to redirect power toward defense. Explosions echoed across the battlefield as mana collided with steel and spellcraft.

Then—

A deep rumble shook the air.

Not from her cannons.

From behind her.

Everyone froze.

The towering black castle behind them began to crack. Massive fissures ran down its walls like spreading lightning. Towers tilted unnaturally. Dark energy leaked from its seams.

"No..." one of the plump siblings whispered, their round face turning pale. "Impossible..."

Chunks of the fortress broke away, crashing into the ground below.

"The castle only crumbles if something happened to the Demon King," the other sibling muttered, voice trembling.

Kaeya’s eyes widened.

She had heard that.

"He did it?" she breathed under her breath.

Far within that collapsing structure, Spatial fissures appeared.

A thunderous crack split the sky as the central spire shattered completely.

Silence followed.

Kaeya slowly turned back toward the plump siblings. The annihilation cannons rotated with her, their barrels glowing brighter.

"The Demon King is dead," she said coldly. "Do you still want to fight?"

The siblings stared at the collapsing castle, horror dawning on their faces.

If the one who killed the Demon King stepped out next...

They would be nothing more than targets.

"Dammit... we didn’t sign up for this!" one of them shrieked.

Without another word, both siblings turned and fled, scrambling away in panic, abandoning their controlled pawns without hesitation.

The moment they retreated beyond a certain distance—

Hiro and the rest of the Ex Hero Party stiffened.

Their weapons slipped from their hands.

One by one, as if strings had been cut—

They collapsed to the ground.

Unconscious.

Kaeya lowered slightly, scanning the area carefully.

The battlefield was suddenly quiet except for the distant rumble of the castle which is still collapsing.

"Looks like it’s over..." she muttered, exhaling deeply.

The annihilation cannons dimmed but did not fully disperse.

She landed beside the fallen heroes, studying their expressions. Their breathing was steady. No visible corruption remained— but she wasn’t naive enough to assume safety.

"Yeah... to be safe, let me tie these guys," she said to herself, walking toward them cautiously.

She wasn’t sure if the demon’s mind control had fully vanished— or if it was merely dormant.

Behind her—

Zzzzz.

A faint static noise crackled.

The mana cannons flickered for a split second, their surfaces distorting like glitched light.

Kaeya immediately turned around.

Everything looked normal.

The cannons stabilized.

The air was still.

She frowned slightly, then shook her head.

"Probably mana fluctuation from the castle collapsing..."

Dismissing it for now, she approached Hiro and began binding his hands.

Behind her, the sky glitched silently.

---

Inside the collapsing castle, Tyler stood amidst falling debris and twisting roots. The once-grand throne hall was now nothing more than fractured stone and dying vines. Pillars snapped one after another, crashing into the floor with thunderous force.

But something was wrong.

The rubble didn’t just fall.

It flickered.

Chunks of stone glitched midair, fragmenting into pixel-like shards before reappearing for a split second and dissolving again. The cracks in the walls shimmered unnaturally, as if reality itself were buffering.

Tyler narrowed his eyes.

"Looks like it’s time to leave..."

He turned toward the exit—

And froze.

Floating a few meters away was a cube.

Metallic.

Rotating slowly.

At its center glowed a red square eye, with a smaller square pupil resembling a camera lens adjusting focus.

"Decateron?" Tyler called out calmly.

The cube stopped rotating.

"You never follow the rules, do you?" Decateron’s mechanical voice echoed, emotionless yet faintly distorted.

Tyler crossed his arms. "Why are you here?"

A brief pause.

"I am... not entirely certain how to phrase this," Decateron replied. "But you have completed your mission."

Tyler blinked.

"Wait. Didn’t you say my mission was to occupy the whole world as king? I even asked the Princess outside to assist me."

"True," Decateron answered. "However, you have already collected sufficient fragments."

Tyler frowned but he couldn’t sense them. "Fragments?"

"To be precise," Decateron continued, its red eye dimming slightly, "you have defeated the individual who had gathered enough Orion Fragments."

Tyler’s expression shifted.

The cube rotated itself like a multilayered rubix cube.

"We did not anticipate that someone other than us could detect the fragments’ presence. He located them independently. That level of resonance... suggests he could have become a formidable Chaos Wielder."

For a brief second, something almost like regret tinged Decateron’s synthetic tone.

"If only we had discovered him earlier."

"Chaos Wielder?" Tyler repeated.

"Of course," Decateron said plainly. "You are one as well."

Its red eye tilted downward, glancing at the copper pot hanging at Tyler’s waist.

Tyler instinctively touched it.

Decateron resumed, "Due to him gathering enough Orion Fragments, the objective has been fulfilled. As per this castle rule, you defeated him so those fragments are around you... the threshold was reached."

Tyler’s brows furrowed. "So I don’t need to conquer the world anymore?"

"No."

The cube’s voice became colder.

"This world has already served its purpose."

—

Outside.

Kaeya tightened the final knot around Hiro’s wrists.

Then the air distorted.

The sky flickered.

The ground beneath her feet pixelated briefly before stabilizing.

She turned sharply.

The horizon glitched like a broken screen.

In the distant Westmere Woods, Chloe, Kristina, and every member of the tribe suddenly froze mid-motion. A bird hung motionless in the sky. Leaves stopped falling halfway to the ground.

Serena and Dia were the only ones still moving.

Serena frowned and stepped toward Chloe.

"Chloe?"

She reached out—

Her hand passed through Chloe’s arm as if touching a hologram. Chloe’s body flickered like unstable data.

Serena’s pupils trembled.

"Dia... what is happening?"

All across the world, cities halted.

Farmers froze mid-harvest.

Children stopped mid-laughter.

Waves stopped crashing against shores.

Time didn’t stop.

Reality did.

—

Back inside the castle, the glitches intensified. The forest Tyler created dissolved leaf by leaf into particles of light. The walls fragmented into digital noise.

Tyler looked at Decateron sharply.

"What is happening?"

The cube hovered closer.

"It is over."

The red square eye glowed brighter.

"This world is not real."

Tyler’s heart skipped.

"So we are shutting it down."