It was strange, Klaus noticed.

He had acted immediately after his Lord ordered him to find those silver-haired beings from that destroyed world.

Not a special thing.

He was used to these types of tasks. Orien might be an arrogant bastard, but he was anything but a fool. Sometimes, during the process of destroying worlds, some inhabitants managed to escape. And as someone who hated loose ends, he always made sure to kill all of them by tracking them down.

It was not only to avoid the annoying vengeance-trope beings like him were always subjected to, but also to avoid the death-glare of his father and the displeasure of The Progenitor that could confine him to their main world for hundreds or even thousands of years.

He had lived through those times… and Orien would do everything to avoid that. It was torture.

So Klaus was proficient in this domain. And with that mastery came the knowledge that tracking people from residual remnants of worlds was not an easy endeavor.

And yet…

'Why is this so easy?' Klaus wondered, staring at the small green wooden branch pointing in one direction with eerie accuracy.

This was the first time his technique did not waver or get blocked by something.

No, this one was blocked, but so weakly it wasn't even enough to make him doubt.

Yet Klaus's danger sense was whispering to him. Only a whisper. But beings of their age and power would never ignore such a thing.

They had lived through too many things to ignore when the wind churned in a different direction.

Still, he had no choice but to go, only this time, he would need to be more prepared.

He sighed, brushing his short golden hair upward with his right hand. He exhaled softly, then took out a large green leaf covered in runic inscriptions and activated it with his mana.

The leaf glowed with radiant green light, then shot toward one direction at a speed faster than light.

After that, Klaus immediately departed, his body turning into a rustling of leaves as he sank deep into the fold of reality.

…

"Here?" Klaus spoke, his body reconstructing itself into his human-like form, his ears the only feature revealing his elven nature.

The space he was in was void of any worlds, or even any beings. There were only low-level void beasts drifting aimlessly and some fragmented stars.

Yet, his technique had led him here.

Either the beings he sought existed in another plane of reality, meaning a hidden realm or something along those lines, or his technique was defective.

The latter being quite impossible.

So the answer to his question was obvious.

Without hesitation, his eyes began to glow, then shifted into their cloverleaf shape. Instantly, the void around him began to part away and reveal—!

"I am here, buddy."

Klaus immediately froze as he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders in an unnervingly intimate manner.

It was a simple arm, yet he felt as though two worlds and entire stars had been stacked atop his shoulders.

He winced unconsciously. His bones creaked, then cracked with a ghastly sound that boomed through the void.

The pain jolted him from his dazed state. Instantly, he tried to use his body and create distance from the man radiating bottomless power beside him… only to find that he couldn't move.

Not only his body, even his soul was slowly freezing, his mind dragging into sluggishness… his entire being sinking toward a forced sleep.

Only his eyes could move. So, with his heart lodged in his throat and a fear greater than anything he had ever tasted, he shifted his gaze inside its socket, straining his eyeballs to the limit, only to see a face he both recognized and did not recognize at the same time.

Noah's face was dangerously close to his, a soft smile resting on his lips.

But Noah wasn't looking at him.

His white eyes were darting across the void, his smile deepening as if he were witnessing something amusing.

"Tell me, buddy," he said, knowing full well Klaus could not speak, "are you perhaps friends with a Celestial?"

His words made part of the void rattle like a restless sea, as if caught by surprise.

Klaus's mind was sluggish by then, but he remained aware enough to witness the nightmarish scene unfolding.

The void around them twisted completely, folding upon itself like heaps of piled clothes.

From the folded dark came a single tentacle tearing open the fabric of reality, then another, then another, until the entire void was veiled by billions of sleek-black tentacles tainted with silver at their edges, brushing and licking the nearby darkness.

The body of the beast followed next, revealing itself to the universe, a hideous creature that could only have been born from a doom-cursed corner of creation, with dozens of silver horns atop its head.

Its arrival made the nearby void beasts flee immediately, and the void itself spat out four other beings.

Noah looked at the four beings, recognizing three of them as Worldborn by their characteristic appearance. The last had golden hair and matching golden eyes.

An appearance Noah knew far too well.

Klaus watched the Celestial with shock in his half-lidded eyes, and Noah understood they had not come together.

He used his power to confirm, his eyes unraveling into threads, giving him clarity about everything in mere seconds.

He smiled downward at Klaus, while the monstrous creature behind him wrapped her countless tentacles around his body lovingly.

It was Noelle, after all.

Noah kissed one of the tentacles without a trace of disgust, making Noelle's monstrous face stretch into a smile, showing impossible rows of sharp teeth filling her mouth to the brim.

Noah's eyes were fixed on the Celestial.

It was a short man, barely above 5ft, so lithe one could see the golden veins wrapping his entire arms, and doubtlessly his whole body.

He was clad in a golden robe with the insignia of the sun emblazoned on his chest. His golden eyes were locked onto the fearsome form of Noelle, staring at her not with fear but with clear disdain.

"A void beast? No… but you smell like one," he spat, his voice like the explosion of thousands of stars.

Noelle didn't even bother acknowledging his words, continuing to caress Noah.

Noah, meanwhile, looked at the Celestial, then at the three Worldborn holding their weapons, before glancing back at Klaus, his arm still resting on the latter's shoulders.

He smiled.

And the entire void shifted, becoming nothing but silver threads. The threads lashed out at all of them, swallowing them completely before they even had time to understand what had happened, leaving only Noah and Noelle behind.

Silence settled in the void once more, a silence soon shattered by Noelle's unholy voice.

"What will you do with them, husband?" she asked, extending her black tongue to lick his face.

"Just bond with them and ask them some favors, you see," he chuckled.

"Ask or order?" Noelle retorted with calamitous laughter.

Noah smirked.

"What's the difference?"

…

Klaus, the three Worldborn and the Celestial found themselves in a completely new place. One where everything was made of moving threads.

The threads were of countless colors. Some white, others blue, others pink, and also black and red.

Without knowing anything about what was happening, the instincts of Klaus, the Celestial man, and the three other Worldborn all screamed at them to fear the black and red threads.

Their bodies were shaking. It was strange and bone-chilling to realize just how weak and helpless they were.

None of them had been able to do anything before being dragged to this place, and none of them could do anything now to escape it.

A feeling of anger and deep, seething frustration began to swell inside their hearts.

The Celestial's small body began to glow with an incandescent searing light, one hot enough to turn low-rank worlds into melted substance within seconds, and yet…

The threads remained unaffected by his power.

He froze. His Celestial instincts already sensing the uselessness of his efforts. He parted his lips, about to speak, only to be beaten by another voice.

Noah's voice.

"No need to bother yourself."

His words were accompanied by the churning of the sea of threads. They raised their heads and saw Noah's face plastered across the sky, formed from the same threads surrounding them.

"Who are you?" the Celestial man — Rue Octave — said. "Why did you capture me?"

Noah's thread-woven face grew curious.

"You don't know me?" His lips curved upward. "Then why are you here?"

"I am afraid, little boy, that it's none of your business," Rue growled. "You might have some interesting power, but be aware of who stands before you. I am Rue Octave of LightTorcheur, brother of Soleil Octave – the Bearer of Sun."

His golden eyes began to glow with a noble aura so thick, so heavy that even the Worldborn around him gave him a second glance.

"You would do yourself mercy by releasing me," he finished, glaring at Noah's face with defiance.

Yet Noah's smile didn't waver. Instead, it widened.

"One of noble background. Enough to impress these goddamn Worldborn, no less. How convenient." He laughed softly.

"With your current station, then surely you have many worlds under your authority, haven't you?"

Rue's face twisted with disdain. "I am Rue Octave of LightTorcheur, fool," he repeated. "I have hundreds of worlds under me."

Somewhere, far off in the distance, angry shrieks erupted, clearly from women.

But not only shrieks of anger. Noah noticed one exclamation of surprise and…fear?

Rue and the others were perplexed by it. But before they could process anything, Noah spoke again.

"Don't mind my wives. They don't like when someone insults me. You're lucky I'm a nice guy." He grinned.

"But tell me, little man, what do I have to do for you to give me all the worlds in your possession?"

His words baffled all of them.

Rue's face twisted into rage. "Do you wish death?" he snarled, twisting against the threads binding him, his face blazing with anger.

"Die? You mean you have to die?"

Noah's grin widened.

"Fine by me."

In a heartbeat, the space — Noah's own soul — erupted into an avalanche of threads, before all of them fused into one colossal yet impossibly thin red-black thread.

Rue instantly shuddered in heinous shock at the sight of it.

Because in that instant, he saw the deaths of all the millions of clones he had scattered across the universe for backup and the death of his main body nestled deep within the Celestial Main World.

"By Kilius's grace…"

Rue cursed in horror.

—End of Chapter 388—

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