(Meanwhile, The Onlookers's POV)

Ru Vassa did not move.

Her hands remained steady, fingers interlocked with the barrier lattice as divine energy flowed continuously from her core, maintaining the heart of the Chakravyuh even as chaos erupted within it, her expression composed for the universe while her mind reeled at what she had just witnessed.

'NO.'

The word struck once, sharp and absolute, as she bit her tongue and barely restrained her urge to shout her lungs out.

'MAURISS YOU FUCKING IDIOT, IF BOTH THE BROTHER'S DIED, THEN US GREAT CLANS WOULD HAVE BECOME THE NEW RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE!

WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING FOR ONCE?'

She wondered, as she tried and failed again and again to restrain her fury, as she knew in her heart that a chance as good would never appear again.

Similarly, Mu Shen who was also biting his tongue by her side, felt the same thoughts flash through his mind, as he too acknowledged what a great missed opportunity this was.

'What a shame…'

The thought surfaced quietly, without heat or outward anger, as his eyes remained trained on the center of the Chakravyuh where certainty had slipped through their grasp at the very last moment.

'What a fucking shame.'

He thought again, as to him, this was not a rage worthy moment, nor betrayal in the emotional sense, but confirmation, the final proof that Mauriss had always been an uncontrollable variable masquerading as an ally, a being who valued outcomes over allegiance and amusement over stability, and who had once again chosen unpredictability when order had been within reach.

'If both brothers had fallen there,' he reasoned calmly, already recalculating consequences even as divine essence continued to pour from him without interruption, 'we all would have benefited immensely from his death… including him.'

The conclusion formed cleanly in his mind as he traced the chain of outcomes that would have followed, how the Cult and the Universal Government would have collapsed inward without their pillars, how the Great Clans would have stepped forward not as conquerors, but as inevitabilities, filling the vacuum left behind and becoming rulers through absence rather than open war, while Mauriss and Helmuth got the opportunity to carve the rest of the universe into quiet, uncontested domains.

But instead, Mauriss had chosen to preserve the imbalance.

As if territory meant nothing to him.

As if control itself bored him.

As if the slow burn of chaos was preferable to ownership.

—

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Raymond stood frozen in place, hands trembling faintly as Mauriss's words replayed themselves inside his mind with increasing clarity, each repetition forcing him to confront thoughts he had never allowed himself to linger on before.

'Uncle… would have killed father too?'

The realization struck harder than fear.

Because for a brief, shameful moment, the idea did not feel entirely horrifying.

A future without Kaelith meant freedom from a presence that had dominated every aspect of his existence, a life where every decision of his was no longer weighed against his father's shadow, where expectation, judgment, and inherited destiny might finally loosen their grip from his neck.

Yet that same future terrified him just as deeply.

Because Kaelith, while a micro-manager, was also his greatest shield.

Without him, Raymond knew exactly what future awaited him, as at best he would be forced into slavery for the Great Clans or Mauriss.

While at the worst he would be killed mercilessly.

His father's survival protected him as much as it constrained him.

And so relief and dread tangled together inside his chest, inseparable and equally sharp, as he watched Kaelith still standing, still breathing, still defiant.

'I can't survive without my father yet….. not until I become a God myself,' Raymond realized, the thought leaving him hollow, as he realized just how dependent he was on his father, even at this advanced age.

—------

(Meanwhile, throughout the Universe, Commoners' POV)

Across countless worlds, the livestreams descended into stunned disbelief.

People stared at their screens in silence, mouths half-open, minds struggling to reconcile what they had just witnessed, as an execution transformed into infighting, and Gods who were meant to embody unity now stood divided in full view of the cosmos.

"Did… did Lord Mauriss just save the Cult Overlord Soron?"

"No, that doesn't make sense."

"Why would he stop it?"

Whispers rippled through viewing halls, city plazas, private homes, and military chambers alike, confusion layering over fear as viewers replayed the moment again and again, searching for logic where instinct insisted there was none.

At first, suspicion took root.

"Has Lord Mauriss defected to the dark side?"

"Did he sell his soul to the Cult?"

"Is this some kind of deception?"

But as his explanation spread, as analysts and scholars began piecing together the logic behind Mauriss's actions, the unease did not fade, it deepened, because understanding the reasoning did nothing to soothe them.

If anything, it made the moment feel worse.

For watching the Righteous Faction's three central pillars turn on one another, revealing that they were neither unified nor aligned, but instead driven by different priorities, different egos, and entirely different visions of victory, shattered the commoners' understanding of the universe they believed in.

For if the Gods they revered could not agree even in a moment where certainty had seemed within reach, then what did that say about the future they claimed to be protecting?

People shifted uneasily.

Some felt anger.

Some felt fear.

Some felt something closer to their ground reality shattering.

Because what they were watching was no longer a simple conflict between right and wrong, order and chaos, executioner and criminal.

It was an implosion.

A fracture made public.

And as the feeds continued to show the aftermath, the arguments, the tension, and the living Cult God who should have died but did not, a single thought spread quietly across the universe.

'What even is the real truth?'

'Does the universe really run how we assume it does?'

'Were we the fools all along?'

As the Commoners finally began to see the Gods for what they truly were.

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