1 The End and The Beginning

The meaning of life, what is it?

Countless times this has been questioned by everyone once in their life, and all of them have unique takes on what the answer is.

Some may say that they live for their family, friends, religion, work, or to search for a purpose. Some may try to elaborate their lives as special and unique, when they are only stale.

No matter how much they try to rationalize it, in the end, life is meaningless. Even If you tried your best to rise above your peers, become a god among men, you will never amount to anything in front of this cold and uncaring universe.

That's what Helel personally believed. A nihilist he'd been called. But for him, this is the truth in this world. And that is also his motivation because if everything is meaningless anyway, then what's stopping him from doing whatever he wants?

Helel… a name based on the angel of betrayal himself. A name feared among the nations, among the continents, and among the realms.

Due to his belief, he raised anarchy. Led the common people to rebel against their undeserving masters before pledging themselves to him. He ruled not in monarchy's way but through equality, where everyone had a voice. There were no leaders amongst them, and each plan they had was for the betterment of their brotherhood.

Millions of people, he led to raze kingdoms and empires to the ground. Every person deserving of their mercy, they let in into their ranks.

They were called monsters, labeled as bad people, but that's just it with these monarchy-based civilizations; they call them the villains because they knew they'd take the fall.

And so, along with his army, he brought doom to 10 countries. Nothing could stop them, and everything that got in their way was annihilated with ease.

Until they appeared. The gods.

He stood there alone, a man seemingly in his 20s, with long flowing dark hair, black eyes deep as the abyss, pale complexion, while wearing a long dark robe with sleeves bigger than the average. Behind him were the slaughtered form of men, women, and children, and in front of him were the 3 goddesses.

They appeared in silhouettes. On the right, was the goddess of death, Thanatos. She appeared in a vague appearance of a woman. On the left was Nyx, the goddess of darkness, who appeared in the shadow of a woman. And finally, in front of him, was Phane, the goddess of life and creation, appearing in the light as a woman.

Looking at the silence and death of everything around him, Helel sneered at the deities, "I didn't take the goddesses to be cowards that slaughters people when their strongest was gone."

With indifference, Phane said in a holy-like voice, "You have sinned gravely, my child, along with your people."

He laughed at that before glaring at the goddess, "Sinned? Tell me what my sin is, o goddess of life!"

Phane only said, "You have offended the gods."

Helel snorted, "I offended the gods, and now you take that as a reason to slaughter innocent people? Laughable, simply laughable. Then, since you gods have offended me, does that mean that all of you should die?"

Silence permeated for a moment, before Phane said, "Do not be selfish, my child."

Again, he sneered at them, "The hypocrisy of you worthless deities."

And then, he attacked.

They were taken aback but still, they managed to react to him.

As he went on to release the aura of a cultivator who has reached the Deity Realm, he thought, 'Three gods… even for me, that's too much. But if I'm going to die here, I might as well take one of them with me. Since Nyx is the weakest out of the three, I'll take her.'

With that, a beautiful, black long sword appeared in his right hand, a sword meant to kill divine beings, and he stroked.

Phane saw the sword being lunged at her before it changed direction, going straight to Nyx, catching her off guard.

She shouted, "Sister!"

But Nyx already blocked it with ease, and yet she failed to take account of the man's left hand, who had gathered enough divine energy that would either kill or severely injure her.

"Sister!" Phane had shouted, trying her best, along with Thanatos, to at least reach Helel to stop him.

However, it was too late. They were focused so much on his sword and left hand, that they didn't notice him open his mouth to shoot a terribly dark energy towards the head of their sister, Nyx.

And then, when it hit her, Nyx suddenly disappeared.

With that, he smirked at the two deities, before he felt them rip his body and soul apart.

But still he managed to say to them, out of sheer pettiness, "I win."

As the deities' howls of rage and sadness echoed throughout the realm of cultivators, Helel tried his best to stitch his soul together as he quickly sailed off to the afterlife.

Thanatos is goddess of death, so each of her attacks had damaged his soul to the point of it getting ripped apart. However, he is a cultivator who has reached the Deity Realm, if he didn't have a technique to repair his soul, then he would've long fallen in the hands of other cultivators.

This should take him about a decade or so to heal, so for the meantime, he had to fix the seal on Nyx.

He didn't just kill Nyx earlier, no, he sealed her within his mindscape. That dark beam earlier was a technique named "Gods Fall" because it's the only technique out there capable of actually killing a god but in truth, it's a seal. It imprisons a god within a person's mindscape, and as long as his will is stronger than her, he'd be able to seal her within his mindscape and when he dies, they both die.

But to use God's Fall, one has to use all of their life force. The age of gods would've long fallen if the church didn't ban the use of this technique. The world would've been a better place without those pests.

Anyway, what's done is done. Now he has to think of a way to at least reincarnate. He cannot reincarnate in his old world; the gods would find him immediately. No, he has to reincarnate into another world, barely touched upon by the gods so that he could quietly bide his time and when he's ready, the gods will die.

But first, to reincarnate, he has to go through the soul stream, which is managed by none other than Thanatos herself. He is currently staying in the void so that he could avoid them but this cannot continue since if he waits for too long, he'll die because of the erratic movements within the void. So he has to find a solution, and fast.

As he was deep in his thoughts, he suddenly heard a childish voice.

"You seem to be in quite the pickle, would you like my help?"

And there stood in front of him a boy no older than 10, wearing an attire that consists of a yellow jacket, a green shirt, a pair of yellow shorts, and a yellow hat. His eyes didn't have the same color because he has heterochromia. His right eye was green, and the other, yellow. Under his eyes were red star tattoos.

He narrowed his nonexistent eyes, since to others he might look like nothing but a dark orb, and warily said, "Who are you?"

The boy pointed at himself, and said, "Who? Me? Well, I'm what you mortals would call the creator, Yahweh, or even the one true god. But you can call me, Truth. Nice to meet you, Ethan Anderson."

He stiffened, as he said, "That name, how do you know it…?"

The boy only smiled, "I know everything, mister Ethan. Even the fact that, two centuries ago, you were but a teenager reborn into the world of cultivators to a fairly strong clan, which you burned down after you found out about the, ah, 'extracurricular' activities they've been doing in secret. You were so full of justice and energy back then but look at you now, a monster."

He said, "That's all in the past now. I am no longer Ethan Anderson, nor am I Alastair Corson. I am Helel. A monster you might call me, a villain they might say, but in the end, does that even matter?"

Truth laughed, clapping, "Good. Such an attitude even after death. You are truly great."

"Now, say, what do you mean when you said 'would you like my help?'"

Truth replied, "Well, it's as I said. Would you like my help so that you could secretly reincarnate into a world untouched by the gods or not?"

Helel knew something was up, so he asked, "What's the catch?"

Truth smiled, "Hmm, I do believe in something called 'equivalent exchange'. I give you something that you want, and you give me something that you deem equal to the something that you wanted, it's basically like that."

He shook his head, and said, "I don't care if it's equal, just tell me what you want and I'll do it as long as it's acceptable."

The boy smiled, "Interesting. Then in exchange for reincarnating you, you only have to do one thing; kill every god out there in this universe," then Truth extended his hand towards him, "So, do we have an agreement?"

It took him a moment to process that but when he did, he grinned… and took the boy's hand.

(October 10, Year 1120)

A blonde man in his early twenties panted as he kneeled over his two newborn children, in the middle of the forest. The twins each had a visible seal imprinted in their stomachs, before it slowly vanished.

Minato Namikaze had expected for the kyuubi to at least try to escape the seal, except he didn't anticipate for someone to actually try and release the tailed-beast. But he quickly dispatched the attacker with a rasengan on his back, and the unknown man disappeared into some strange space-time ninjutsu.

That was the easy part. The hard part was the kyuubi, who was still rampaging throughout the village, killing thousands of civilians, and hundreds of trained shinobis in his absence.

He used half of his chakra to quickly teleport the kyuubi away from the village, and took the twins from his unconscious wife's embrace. And then after some fight, he managed to seal the kyuubi into his newborn children, separating the beast into two, using the Yin and Yang Fuinjutsu, a powerful seal used by the Uzumaki Clan since its founding.

He just hoped Kushina would understand what he had to do.

And what he's about to do.

Once the civilians learn about the fact that the kyuubi was sealed into his wife, and that he had sealed the same beast into his children, they would definitely try their best to make his family's lives a living hell.

He didn't want that, no.

He looked at his son, who looked back at him.

He closed his eyes, and said, "Forgive me, it's for the greater good." And then he took his son in his right arm, and with his left, his daughter. After that, he disappeared.

He teleported into an undisturbed orphanage from the farthest part of the village, where he grew up.

There, he saw the old matron, sitting in her front yard.

"Minato-kun?" The matron asked, a bit shocked.

In a hurried voice, he said as he handed her his son, "I don't have time but I need you to take care of this child. I have sealed the kyuubi into him, and the only one I know who'll take good care of him is you, Maha-san."

Widening her eyes, she couldn't believe that the 100-feet tall monster that ravaged her village from afar was sealed into this child. This small and squishy child held that monster. But she could see the difference between a harmless child and a nine-tailed fox, so she knew what she had to do.

She nodded at the Hokage, saying, "Don't worry, he's in safe hands. And besides, I haven't had a child to care for for years now. But what's his name?"

He thought about it for a quick moment, before saying, "His name is Asahi Ren."

She nodded at that, taking note of the child's name. Then she noticed another bundle in his left arm, and asked, "Who is that child? Is it yours?"

His heart tightened.

"Yes, it's my daughter."

"But why did you bring her with you?"

"A man summoned the kyuubi into the village, and he tried to kidnap my daughter, presumably to also seal the beast into her but I managed to drive him away," he lied, "Anyway, I've got to go now."

And then he disappeared in a yellow flash.

She turned her eyes into the baby in her arms, who looked back at her. She smiled as she brought him inside her house.

She sighed as she went in. He didn't have to lie to her like that.

(Hours Later)

(In The Council Room)

The council room consisted of 2 tables, and 21 chairs.

Each table has 10 chairs, with the right for Shinobi Council and the left for the Civilian Council.

At the right table sat the Uchiha, Hyuga, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Nara, Inuzuka, and Aburame Clan Heads, along with the three elders of the shinobi council, Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Kagami, and Jiraiya of the Sannin.

After he became the Fourth Hokage, he decided to fire the three elders, Homura, Koharu, and Danzo. In fact, Danzo had been executed for treason against the Fire Lord when he tried to assassinate Minato one time. Homura and Koharu had died in mysterious ways but it was rumored that some of their old enemies had resurfaced, and killed the two.

However, that's simply not true. Why would he know that? Because he was the one that did it.

On the left side of the room was the civilian council, who lacked 3 members currently, presumably have been killed by the kyuubi attack. They're the ones that manage everything related to civilians, and right now, they are very, very pissed because thousands have just died, meaning the amount of Ryo in their pockets have lessened by a great amount.

Oh, how terrible.

He would just love to send them to Kumo for peace negotiations but he doubts Ay would like that.

"Hokage-sama, please tell us how the kyuubi got to the village!" The head of the merchant association angrily yelled.

"That's right, Hokage-sama, the amount of civilian casualties we have just received is a huge blow to our population. We need closure to what actually happened, Hokage-sama," a rather calmer one asked, who's the head of civilian rights.

He sighed, looking at the looks of expectation towards him from all the people in the room.

But fortunately, he had made up a lie for this exact situation a few hours ago.

"Ahem. This is a secret that has been heavily guarded by all the Hokage up until now. This secret cannot leave this room, if it does, you will be executed immediately for treason, got it?" The civilian council all looked at him with fear, suddenly filled with hesitations in their faces.

"Asahi Yume was a woman who lived in the village in secret. She wasn't recorded in any records, and she has been taken care of since she came to our village because she, in fact, held the kyuubi inside her."

And then, they exploded.

"WHAT!? WHY WASN'T I TOLD ABOUT THIS!!??"

"THEN WHY DIDN'T WE JUST KILL HER TO AVOID THIS TRAGEDY!!??"

The same thing happened with the other civilians but with a quick burst of KI, they all shut up.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Asahi Yume held the kyuubi inside of her since she was a child. You asked why we didn't kill her, and it's because if we did, then the kyuubi would get out. Essentially, she was its prison. But unfortunately, when she gave birth to a child, she died, and that's why this tragedy happened. I assure you that the man who had gotten her pregnant was killed for disobeying the law."

"As for the kyuubi? It was sealed into her son, who I had just dropped off into an orphanage. And no, you cannot know his name nor what orphanage I had just dropped him in. But even if you do know his name, you are not allowed to hurt him nor hinder anything that he does unless it's against the law. Once I hear that you've hurt the child, you will be personally executed by myself. Do you understand?"

It was a threat to everyone in the room, and they knew it. But what could they do? This man can kill them all in the blink of an eye. If they want to take action, then they'll have to do it secretly.

And they will.

(With "Asahi Ren")

He couldn't believe he'd be reincarnated into this world. He remembered it just like yesterday, when he would watch each episode of Naruto before he was run over by a truck and got reborn into a cultivation world.

But something was wrong. Shouldn't Minato be dead after sealing the kyuubi into Naruto? And wait, is he Naruto? No, that can't be right. He just saw his reflection earlier, and his hair is definitely red. But the other baby with him earlier had yellow hair, so she must be this world's version of Naruto.

And even though it meant nothing to him, Helel still felt a bit amused that the moment he was born, he was abandoned by his new father.

But anyway, it's time he stops dwelling about this kind of thing. He has a mission, and he will do anything to complete it. To kill the gods is definitely a very hard thing to do but… so what? He has done the impossible before, and he'll do it again.

For now, the only thing he'll need to do is to awaken his Arcana, and absorb the Arcane Energy from the planet to enter the Human Realm, Level 1.

He has done this before; it's definitely going to be easy.