Surprisingly, unlike last time, it took Rael a bit longer to manifest into his human form. Whether that was because he had spent too long as some kind of space monster, or because he had nearly forgotten how to do it.

Anyways, he was now back in humanoid form, hovering above the mountain where the Concept of Reality was supposedly resting in his chambers. Or at least, that was what all the beings here told him.

In reality, Ren wasn’t even here. Though he must have definitely felt Rael’s presence, as Rael didn’t hide it in the slightest. And it seemed like he was correct, as before he knew it, Ren manifested out of thin air, wearing a puzzled expression as he glanced Rael up and down.

“How’d you get here?” he asked.

Rael shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is what I have to tell you.”

Though Ren shook his head at his words. “I’m afraid I’m more interested in how you got here rather than what you have to tell me.”

Rael rolled his eyes and began explaining:

“Whatever method I used, I used the same method to wipe out the entire faction who opposed you. I don’t need a thanks, but I would appreciate an alliance between us. An alliance that hopefully remains unbroken.”

“…Hm?”

Ren paused for a moment, his mind turning blank. He was sure he had heard Rael say that he wiped out the faction going after them just now. But was that really what happened?

Closing his eyes, he decided to give the multiverse a quick scan. As someone who kept track of every death and every birth, he was greatly surprised to see close to 200,000,000 people missing. Especially since over 100,000,000 of those people were at least Grade 6, and at least 1,000 were Grade 10.

This revelation nearly made Ren spit out blood, realizing that if Rael managed to do something like this in a little over a month… Didn’t that mean he was technically as powerful as the Concepts?

Did that mean he needed to treat Rael as his equal now?

But he had no title or even some reputation… All he had to his name was some puny Divinity, which Ren had billions of times more of. He wasn’t someone he’d ever see as an equal.

Yet right as Ren was about to call Rael out, Rael decided to state his stance.

“To be frank with you, I don’t expect special treatment. All I ask of you is to keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last 20 eons. Act like me and my family don’t exist. And in the same manner, I will act like I don’t know what you people do either.”

Hearing that, Ren just stared at Rael for a brief moment, pondering over the possibility of an alliance.

“I’d need some reassurance.”

Rael raised a brow. “What kind of reassurance?”

“Reassurance in the form of an oath that you will never go against us,” Ren replied.

And of course, this was the exact reason why Gaia had fought in Rael’s stead to begin with.

Freedom.

He wanted freedom.

“Is this a deal breaker for you?” Rael asked.

And Ren sadly nodded. “A being who can not only access our realm freely, but also someone who can wipe out a chunk of the multiverse’s strongest in the span of a month is someone I can’t just ignore. I hope you understand.”

Yeah…

“So, before we fight, I have to ask. If you die, will the universe collapse?” Rael asked.

“Partially. Every Concept that dies will cause an imbalance in the universe. The universe will try to fill in that balance, so a new Concept will be born. Though, it will contain all of my memories, so whatever you do, it will still result in your demise,” Ren replied honestly.

It was sad. He really didn’t want to fight Ren, nor did he want to fight the others too. But then again, maybe that was why Rael was even born? Perhaps all he needed to do was kill every single Concept and then replace their existence with something clearer and maybe even automatic.

Definitely…

That must be it.

Rael and Ren took deep breaths and before long, both of them tensed up, prepared to enter their true forms and fight each other. But before they could do that, another presence emerged from the side, causing both of them to halt.

It was an unknown presence to Rael at first, until he remembered one of the books he had read. Inside one of those books, the memories of one of the slightly older Concepts came to mind.

The Concept of Death.

A skeletal figure that resembled some kind of lich. This was the same being Rael was staring at right now. According to what he had read, the Concept of Death was the most powerful, in the sense of one crucial factor: inevitability.

If the Concept of Death deemed one would die, then they would die. If it deemed something could live, then it would live. Unlike the Concept of Life, which focused on growth and birth, the Concept of Death was much more chaotic.

And not even shifting reality or stopping time would stop its inevitability.

So now that this kind of being stood beside Rael, he had no choice but to keep his cool, as he highly doubted he could kill a being of this caliber to begin with.

“Death…” Ren mumbled, narrowing his eyes. “I told you to stop entering my domain. What are you doing here?”

Death glanced at both Rael and Ren, then let out a faint hollow chuckle that rattled his bones, causing even creepier sounds to resound.

“There is no need to fight,” Death said. “Both you and Rael share the same mentality of overthinking situations and thinking of everyone as their enemies. It’s a bad habit, but it’s also a habit I’d like to not test at the moment due to the vision I saw.”

He turned to Rael in particular and added:

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