Only two pairs remained.
The air itself seemed to freeze as the announcement resounded across the [Creators’ Domain], sharp and definitive like the final ring of a war bell.
[Only two pairs remain. The “Main Round” is now officially over.]
It was over.
The chaos. The endless bloodshed.
The game that had cost so many lives had reached its conclusion, at least for this part.
Now, only four individuals remained standing among a mountain of corpses and forgotten names.
Kaelios dropped to his knees, breath ragged and uneven.
His body trembled, not from fear, but from the staggering weight of what they had accomplished.
“We did it,” he muttered through clenched teeth, voice thick with disbelief, “We actually fucking did it.”
Alex stood beside him in silence, his hands coated in dried blood, his blade still humming faintly from the last battle.
He should’ve felt victorious.
He should’ve been proud, even relieved.
After all, he had just killed the [God of Darkness].
But he didn’t feel victorious.
Not yet.
Because there was still one pair left.
The worst pair, the cruelest, the most feared.
The [God of Death], Nocteron, and his [Chosen One], Lich.
Alex didn’t need anyone to tell him how dangerous they were.
He could feel it in his bones, like a cold whisper crawling through his spine.
Ding!
A cascade of light flickered in front of them as new panels shimmered into view.
They bore the mark of the Creators, each one glowing with a familiar brilliance.
[Seems like this round didn’t last long at all, but regardless, we have our two winning pairs. That means the “Final Fight” will start soon.]
Then came a new screen, larger than the others, hovering above them like a celestial vision.
The Creators appeared on it, sitting in their towering thrones, watching with those same eternal expressions of detachment and amusement.
[Let us show what happened in this trial quickly.]
One of them lazily snapped their fingers, and the air shimmered again as a new panel took over the space.
Footage played like a compressed memory, showing each major moment of carnage.
[Nocteron and Lich killed Elyssara and Eren.]
[Dretheon and Revenhart fell to the God of Darkness, Veyrion, and his Chosen One, Nocturne .]
[And finally…]
The panel lit up as Alex and Kaelios reappeared on screen, the image showing the towering form of the [God of Darkness] being sliced apart by divine golden light.
His massive frame disintegrated, a scream echoing through the skies as his essence vanished.
[Kaelios and FateBreaker, or Alex Rogue if you want to call him by his real name, surprisingly managed to defeat Veyrion and Nocturne.]
The replay ended, and the panels vanished all at once, leaving only the central one where the Creators remained.
[We expected the “God of Darkness” and “God of Death” to be the final pairs to battle, but it seems we were wrong.]
[This means only these two pairs remain now:]
[-Destiny Pair: Kaelios and Alex Rogue/FateBreaker]
[-Death Pair: Nocteron and Lich]
And across Earth, across Universal Descent, and even across the 24 other linked worlds, the reaction was the same.
Shock. The news spread like fire across every realm.
Broadcasts were non-stop, and replays of the battles were dissected frame by frame.
Commentators speculated. Fans screamed.
People rewound every second just to catch a glimpse of what Alex or Kaelios did.
Some even turned into fanatics.
And yet, despite all the hype, despite the excitement…
There was still a strange, collective unease.
Because the pair that should have never made it this far, did.
Alex and Kaelios were never meant to win.
They were ranked dead last at the beginning.
Considered reckless, dangerous, unpredictable.
The pair most likely to break the world if left unchecked.
And now they were in the finals.
Even the Creators had not foreseen it.
In fact, one of them, who had never spoken a word since the beginning of the [Chosen Games], finally broke their silence.
The one with grey eyes, the one who always watched but never commented.
[It seems like the one filled with hatred wants to win no matter what. I have a bad feeling about this.]
The others stared at him in shock.
[Oh wow.]
[This guy can actually speak? I haven’t heard him in… gods, I don’t even remember how long.]
[Must be something serious. Heh. Nervous for the Final Fight?]
[I’m still betting on the God of Death.]
Their voices were casual, carefree, like gamblers watching a final roll of the dice.
Even though the outcome would affect billions of lives, they still spoke as though none of it mattered.
[Ahem,] came the voice of Vexum, the masked Creator, as he clapped his hands softly, [It looks like the end is near. We shall allow a five-minute grace period, and then the Final Round will begin.]
A single snap of his fingers followed, and just like that, all remaining participants were teleported.
Blue particles shimmered around Alex and Kaelios as they vanished from the battlefield, then slowly rematerialized inside their chamber.
It wasn’t the same as before.
The twin beds marked with their initials were gone, replaced with cracked tiles and faint claw marks on the walls.
Even the walls themselves seemed… wrong. Warped.
Like the entire space had begun to decay under the pressure of what was to come.
But none of that compared to the massive obsidian door that had appeared in front of them.
Its surface pulsed faintly with golden veins, and just above it was a floating, glowing timer:
[4:55 minutes before the “Final Fight”]
Alex approached the door without a word.
His steps were slow, careful.
He placed a hand on the handle, but it didn’t budge.
Of course it wouldn’t. Not until the timer ran out. So they waited.
Both of them stood in silence, staring at the clock as it ticked down.
The chamber was quiet, almost too quiet.
The kind of silence that suffocated.
Trying to plan anything at this point felt pointless.
The battles had already tested every strategy they had.
There were no tricks left. No hidden cards.
“You ready, human?” Kaelios asked, voice low as he kept his eyes on the door.
[2:48 minutes before the “Final Fight”]
Alex let out a breath and offered a dry smirk.
“Can’t say I am. But we don’t have a choice, do we? It’s the end. Either we die… or they do.”
Kaelios chuckled softly.
“The [God of Death] is going to win. I can feel it. Even the Creators think so.”
Alex didn’t argue. He felt the same dread crawling in his gut.
The Death Pair had been monsters from the beginning.
Untouchable. Unstoppable.
“But even so,” he muttered, voice sharp now, “we keep going. We don’t stop. We don’t give up. Losing isn’t an option.”
“Hm.”
The seconds continued ticking by.
[30 seconds before the “Final Fight”]
They both stood still.
Not meditating. Not preparing. Just… breathing.
Waiting for fate.
[5 seconds before the “Final Fight”]
The tension in the room could’ve shattered glass.
Even the Creators, in their vast thrones, leaned forward slightly, as if unable to resist the suspense.
Even they didn’t know how this would go. That was the terrifying part.
Somewhere else, Nocteron and Lich stood in their own chamber, gazing at their timer with arrogant smiles.
With countless souls under their control, and power that dwarfed even the strongest gods, they knew one thing:
They would not lose.
[3 seconds…]
On every world connected to the [Chosen Games], the final countdown had begun.
[2…]
Nobody expected Kaelios and Alex to survive.
[1.]
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[The “Final Fight” shall now begin.]
[Only one pair will survive. Only one will be crowned as the true “Chosen.”]
[Good luck.]
The great door before Alex and Kaelios groaned, ancient metal scraping against stone as it slowly opened.
Light poured through, blinding and golden, illuminating their silhouettes.
Alex glanced at Kaelios, and Kaelios nodded.
Neither spoke another word.
They didn’t need to. They stepped through the doorway together.