The pieces moved slowly, each glowing with faint divine essence.
Steve moved his final pawn with calm precision.
"Checkmate."
Yomon blinked, surprised, then leaned back, stroking his white beard.
"You've improved."
Steve smirked. "Maybe. Or maybe I just understand inevitability better now."
Yomon's eyes narrowed, turning toward the distant echoes of the Vast Expansion. "You saw what happened, didn't you? Jin defeated Nyreth."
Steve's smile didn't fade. "That's not the surprising part."
"Then what is?" Yomon asked.
Steve's eyes darkened, filled with something deeper. "The fact that the ending was never supposed to be this way."
Yomon sat up. "What are you saying?"
Steve stood, turning away. "Let me show you…"
[Flashback – Before the Final Battle]
Jin stood in the Citadel of Resolve, his robe gleaming faintly in the starlight. The sky above trembled with divine energies, and portals began opening to the sacred battlefield beyond the Lower Expansion.
He looked at the endless sky and raised his hand. He mada a constilation of Zhel-vorah —carved in honor, a quiet monument to sacrifice.
"Your death won't be in vain," Jin whispered. "I'll end this father."
As he stepped toward the glowing portal, something unnatural happened.
The portal closed.
"—What?"
Jin spun, only to be met by three figures emerging from the folds of space. Ethereal, incomprehensible, and ancient.
Yggdrasil. Nihilith. Xir'vanta.
Cosmic arbiters of the Spiral Tree, the very foundation of Vast Expansion's Life.
"You cannot go to the Vast Expansion," Nihilith said.
Jin's aura flared. "Why?"
Yggdrasil's eyes glowed with the spiral of galaxies. "Because if you go… you will destroy the structure of the world."
"That's absurd," Jin growled. "I would never—"
"You already have," Xir'vanta interrupted. "You destroyed the Five Thrones."
Jin flinched. He remembered the moment when the five thrones vanished. He remained silent for a moment, later he spoke.
"But their essence still exists!" he argued. "Their cosmologies are intact!"
Nihilith shook her head. "That's not the point. Intent matters. You act from vengeance. The Spiral Tree will crack.under your will."
Jin clenched his fists. "I didn't ask for any of this. Nyreth turned my life into ash. He killed everyone I loved. He deserves to die. If I let him live… then I'm a coward. Then all of this—means nothing."
He took a step forward.
"If I don't go, Nyreth will destroy the Third-Generation Origin and conquer all 200 Sacred Planets. Is that what you want?"
Xir'vanta's voice was eerily calm. "That's a reasonable concern. Atleast he will not destroy the structure."
Jin recoiled. "Reasonable? Are you insane?"
Nihilith tilted her head. "Then show us proof. Is the Third-Generation Origin even real?"
Jin's fury rose. "Everyone knows it's real! I don't need to prove what's already known!"
Yggdrasil's eyes narrowed. "And if I say it's fake?"
Jin opened his mouth to speak—
But then, another voice rang through the air. Sharp. Brutal. Familiar.
"Stop wasting your breath. Just kill them."
Jin froze.
A figure leaned against the ether, half-shadow, half-light his face was covered by cloak.
"They won't listen until you beat them. Some dogs only learn when you grab their tail and make them feel it. Release too soon, and they'll bite again. You want obedience—you break defiance."
Jin's breath caught in his chest.
The air grew heavier. The Spiral Tree shimmered above them.
Yggdrasil, Nihilith, and Xir'vanta glared at him.
Jin's heart pounded. He knew the truth. This wasn't about balance anymore.
It was about fear.
They feared what he might become.
He looked down at his hand—trembling not with uncertainty, but with restraint.
He had always chosen reason.
But now…
Yomon stared at Steve in disbelief. "So you interfered… and made sure Jin could reach Nyreth?"
Steve smiled faintly. "Yes. Because I believed in the boy. Not in the Spiral."
"And if you hadn't?"
Steve's gaze turned grim. "Then the world would've ended before the battle even began."
Yomon was silent for a long time, the pieces on the chessboard still glowing from their last move.
Then he looked at Steve.
"Will Jin not take his revenge?"
Steve didn't answer immediately. He observed Yomon for a moment.
Then he spoke—softly, almost like mourning.
"Yes. He will."
Yomon leaned forward.
Steve continued.
"He'll kill Nyreth. He'll ascend the Sacred Tomb. But that's not where the story ends."
The stars had shifted. Civilizations had risen and fallen. The name Jin Luneblood was no longer spoken in reverence—but in fear.
After his victory, Jin discovered a cruel truth: his family, his friends—even Zhel-Vorah and Aurelia, Aurelion,Selira, Kaelis, Orion, Solmiras, Erebus, Nyx—had all attained Supreme Liberation, the final peace beyond everything.
Except Eleanor.
Her soul was missing.
Unreachable.
Forgotten by the world.
Jin searched across realms, Vast Expansion, over cycles of time. He shattered timelines and descended into forbidden realms—hoping to bring her back.
But even after a million years, he failed.
He stood alone before the Stone of Eclipsed Remnants, his knees on the cold, dead floor, his hands trembling.
"I've done everything… I've given everything… Where are you… Eleanor?"
His voice broke into silence.
Then—an old man appeared.
Cloaked in rags, eyes like mirrors of forgotten ages.
"I know where she is," the man said.
Jin's breath caught. "Where?"
The old man leaned closer. "Her soul… is trapped in the Lower Expansion."
Desperation flared within Jin once more.
Against reason. Against warnings. Against the Spiral.
He tore into the Lower Expansion, searching through its foundations—ripping through the layers of reality itself.
And in doing so—
He broke the structure.
One by one, heroes rose to stop him—beings of legend, gods reborn, paragons of balance.
But all fell.
And at the end of this trail of destruction, when the last boundary fell—
He saw her.
Not Eleanor.
The old man.
Her voice was cruel. Cold. Familiar.
He stood with a smirk, he now kneeling beside him—his body rejuvenated, crackling with stolen power.
"Thank you, Jin," he said. "You were always easy to manipulate."
Yomon stood abruptly. "That old man… who was he?"
Steve's eyes narrowed. "He was Eleanor's former servant. Obsessed with her divine essence. He believed her soul lingered in the Lower Expansion, and that with enough divine resonance, he could claim her power and regain his youth."
Yomon's expression darkened. "And Jin?"
Steve looked away.
"He broke everything… for love."