The Throne Room, City of Gods.

Silence reigned in the heart of the empire, but within the mind of Emperor Cosmos, a storm of calculation was raging.

Sunny sat on his Throne, his chin resting on a gloved hand. His eyes were unfocused, staring into the distance as he mentally shuffled the deck of infinite possibilities.

The Skill-Resonance cooldown had reset, meaning he can now copy another talent.

"The choice..." Sunny murmured, his voice echoing slightly in the vast hall. "It is never easy."

He pulled up the mental notes of his available targets; Origin of Cards (SSS-Grade) or Resilience from Adam.

He could also copy the SSS-Grade talents of the newcomers, but currently those talents were unavailable, as Sunny needed to use his faith to make their particle of law gain its previous luster.

So that it can connect to their talents, and make them reach SSS-Grade.

Otherwise if Sunny copies their talents right now, he would only be copying SS-Grade talents.

"Merlin's talent would make me a versatile God," Sunny analyzed. "I could mass-produce Cards, and use any one of them anytime. It is tempting."

But then, a darker thought intruded. He thought of the itch on his neck. He thought of the spies, Kairos and Mongo still scurrying in his walls. He thought of the Demon Lords.

They were coming. It wasn't a matter of if, but when.

"Creation is a luxury of peacetime," Sunny whispered, his expression hardening behind his mask. "But war... war requires survival."

The Demon Lords wielded Conceptual Laws. If Sunny wanted to stand toe-to-toe with them, he didn't need to be able to do card tricks. He needed to be unbreakable.

"Resilience," Sunny decided. "I need a shield that can make me immune to their attacks"

He closed his eyes and activated his God's eye.

His consciousness detached from his physical form. It shot forward like a spear of light, piercing through the layers of space, bypassing the physical laws of the multiverse.

It traversed the void, locking onto the soul of Adam.

Sunny's will dived into Adam's core. He found the Talent Sphere for Resilience.

It pulsed with a stubborn, unyielding white light. It was the concept of "Standing Up After Being Hit."

"Mine" Sunny commanded.

HUMMM.

The resonance triggered. The concept was copied, evolved and transmitted back onto Sunny's soul.

Sunny quickly used his God's eye on himself, as if eager to know what kind of talent he has copied this time.

The Resilience talent could potentially make its user immune to every damage, the only thing that required from its user was to survive.

If something doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger, is the motto of this talent.

With this expectation in his mind, Sunny directly looked at the talent description.

[Talent Name : Divine Adaptability

Grade : SSS....

Sunny's eyes opened wide, as he looked at the description of this new talent.

"Doesn't this means... That i am unkillable now" Sunny whispered as he once again looked at his new talent.

Somewhere in the cosmic void.

Far away, in the graveyard of a dead multiverse, the Council of Demon Lords stood in the void.

Apart from Belial all the other lords were present, and they were currently looking at Deimos.

The atmosphere was heavy with frustration.

"Another one," Malakai whispered. His voice sounded like weeping. "Another God got away from us. Our demon Gods were constantly tracking her, but when we arrived... empty. She was gone. What is happening?"

Deimos stood at the middle, staring into the abyss. His aura was usually oppressive, but today, it flickered with annoyance.

"I don't think we can catch them like this," Deimos rumbled. "No matter what we do, they always slip up a few days before we arrive. It is impossible for twenty thousand Gods to have such perfect luck."

"It's like someone is helping them," Deimos concluded. "Someone is opening the door before we even knock."

Suddenly, Deimos froze.

He whipped his head around, his red eyes narrowing as he scanned the empty void. The shadows around him lashed out like frightened vipers.

"What happened, Deimos?" Malakai asked, sensing the spike in tension.

"I felt it," Deimos hissed, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. "A gaze. Cold, Distant and Arrogant."

He looked around, but there was nothing.

"Strange," Deimos muttered. "Who was it?"

"Just a gaze?" Phobos asked, shivering. "Maybe... maybe it is the Hidden Schemer? The one helping the Gods?"

Deimos chuckled, though the sound lacked humor. "If it is him... he has courage. To spy on me? I am the demon lord of discord. If I catch him.... He should pray that he dies before i get my hands on him. "

Deimos thought about the reason for this hidden entity to spy on him, but couldn't find anything... But then suddenly he had a realization.

"So," Deimos mused, his eyes widening with the realization. "This entity isn't just helping them escape. He is keeping tabs on us. He knows where we are. He knows who we are hunting."

"Genius," Deimos admitted grudgingly. "He uses our movements to predict the our destination, and helps that God before we can reach it."

The other Demon Lords nodded. It made sense.

But Maledictus, the demon lord of Curses, remained silent. She knew that what Deimos said was not entirely true.

"Deimos," she said softly. "I think you are giving him too little credit."

"What do you mean?"

"Speed" Maledictus reasoned. "Even if he knows where we are, saving a God

Before we can reach there requires speed that is faster than ours. Yet, these Gods disappear instantly. Me and Ichor... we missed targets by mere hours, and sometimes years."

"Then what?" Deimos demanded. "Is he omnipresent?"

"i don't know about this Hidden helping hand of Gods," Maledictus stood up, a cruel smile forming on her lips. "And we don't even need to think about him. We just needs to be at the Destination of these Gods."

"Their destination?" Phobos asked.

"Look at the map," Maledictus pointed at the air, as a map made up of curses manifested before the eyes of all the demon lords.

She drew lines connecting the direction that all the Gods: Cai Zhen, Beru, Thera, Chronos and many more had escaped to.

"When they run," Maledictus explained, her voice dropping to a whisper, "they don't run randomly"

"They run here."

Her finger landed on a specific point in the map, which looked like a giant circle of light.

"Every direction intersects at the same point. Every escape talisman, every portal, every desperate flight... it all leads to this place."

"The Multiverse of Gods," Deimos answered looking at Maledictus's finger.

"Bingo," Maledictus winked. "I didn't reveal it sooner because I needed to be sure. But now? I am hundred percent certain. The rats aren't scattering. They are nesting."

The Demon Lords stared at the map. The realization shifted the entire paradigm of the war. They weren't hunting stragglers anymore. They were looking at a fortress.

"Then we stop chasing," Deimos declared, his aura exploding outward. "We gather the army. And we burn that nest to the ground."

The Demon Capital: The Shadowed Room.

Lom sat in his private chambers, massaging his temples. The headache from Sunny's earlier attack was now completely healed but his head was now occupied by another worry.

He had a communication crystal floating in front of him. It was relaying the audio from the Demon Lords' meeting, a feat that would get him executed if discovered.

"Deimos is the Leader for a reason," Lom muttered, impressed. "He sensed my divination. Even when the other demon lords couldn't"

He listened as Maledictus revealed the pattern.

"The Multiverse of Gods..."

Lom sat back, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

"Connect the dots, Lom," he whispered to himself.

"The Demon Lords realize all the refugees are fleeing to one place."

"Kairos reported seeing three specific new Gods in the City, an Insect, a Cultivator and a Mage."

"Those three match the descriptions of the high-value targets that Maledictus and Ichor lost earlier."

Lom slammed his hand onto the table.

"It's him," Lom hissed. "It's Cosmos."

"Cosmos isn't just a tyrant ruling a lucky city. He is the lighthouse. He is the one guiding the Old Gods."

A chill ran down Lom's spine.

If Cosmos was gathering the Old Pantheon... and if he had the resources to hide them, feed them, and empower them...

"He is building an Avengers team," Lom realized. "He is building a Pantheon of SSS-Grade monsters from old Era to fight the Lords."

"Should I warn Deimos?"

Lom hesitated. Then, a slow, treacherous smile spread across his face.

"No."

"Let Deimos attack blindly. Let Cosmos reveal his hand. When the two tigers fight, the jackal eats the carcass."

Lom extinguished the crystal.

"But I need to be sure," he whispered. "I need to know just how strong this Cosmos truly is."

"And Belial would be the perfect guinea pig for this" he said as he remembered the last meeting he had with Belial.

"Let's see Cosmos, are you more capable than a demon lord or not"

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