There is a Reason

"Ruler? I do not even know what you are talking about." Ushein pulled Solara out and had Rellen heal her.

Vuinggg~

["Pitiful ignorance, who do you think willed for all of you to receive those powerful weapons?"] The mysterious entity spoke once more.

Even if the language is unrecognizable for their ears, somehow, the Heroes understood inside their mind.

"Are you saying that someone caused the weapons to go to our hands?" Rellen asked with a confused face while healing Solara.

["That is half correct. Since the moment you were born, all of you were destined to have these weapons come into you."] The mysterious entity explained.

"Then what is your goal?" Ushein asked this time.

["I have tasked this Minotaur to absorb your powers to create a similar weapon with the mana of nothingness."]

"Mana of nothingness?" Ushein's face turned even more confused.

["That is correct. I have granted this Minotaur a small fragment of my unique mana that turns nothingness into something he wills. Everything is supposed to have a counterpart, and who do you think brought everything into existence?"] The mysterious entity asked a question this time.

"The one you called our Ruler." Lurian approached the entity and answered.

["Precisely. While your Ruler creates something, everything must also start and end with nothingness, that is me, I am the very concept of nothingness, the Void. However, since I cannot create anything with my entirety of power, I have asked this Minotaur to do things for me."] The mysterious entity unhurriedly explained.

"…" No one among the Heroes could answer.

["Now that you have foiled my plans, I will naturally step in and end all of you now!"] The mysterious entity spoke in an angry tone.

Void Mana Expansion: Call of the Hollowed Souls!

A devastating ripple of energy constantly assaulted the atmosphere, even the ground cracked visibly.

Meanwhile, the Heroes could only kneel and hold their ground.

Seeing that the Heroes cannot stand anymore, the mysterious entity approached the unconscious Minotaur.

Shururururuk!

Warne's body slowly melted and turned into a pool of blood, perishing into the end of his time.

Due to Warne's disappearance, the limiters inside the monsters hiding inside the other continents in Terra were removed, causing them to go berserk.

This is how the Ancient War started; the Noctuas took advantage of the chaos and joined the berserk monsters in ransacking cities.

Meanwhile, the colossal monsters hiding from under the Mitapolis climbed out of the ground and boldly marched, and flattened even the largest mountains.

These colossal monsters are hundreds of meters tall, if they go out to the other continents in Terra, nothing will remain.

Seeing this playback, Veil realized the missing details of how the Ancient War could deal a massive damage to the lives in Terra.

It is not exactly the Dark Clowns that caused these developments, they were the only ones who instigated the Noctuas to attack the other cities, which they originally not even planning to do.

Now that the whole world is under attack, majority of cities fell, while other Adventurer teams launched a counterattack against the continent of Noctua, causing it to ultimately be destroyed and disappear forever.

This massive scale of a war is just because of the mysterious entity absorbing back what Warne was lent.

The Heroes then slowly recovered when the mysterious entity disappeared, they all immediately scattered into their own continents, killing the colossal monsters that are trampling everything.

The developments pushed the Heroes to make a new land for the monsters where they could live away from the humans and other Terran races.

They pooled in their knowledge of creating using their mana types.

This later grew into a different scale altogether, just a flying continent transferred into a separate realm, what later known as the Middle Realm.

However, due to this creation, the abilities of the Heroes were doubted at; instead of purging every single monster, they chose to banish the monsters away from the world.

This prompted some the Heroes to disappear, never joining any quests ever again.

They all chose their own Legendary weapons to disappear through time, even themselves not knowing where the weapons would end up.

All except Solara who decided to stay in the world, roaming different lands without a goal in mind.

[…]

All in all, the playback is now completed; however, Veil still could not connect the remaining dots.

"Now what? Should I find the Legendary weapons? Should I also disappear?" Veil asked Mavis.

"You are not completely wrong. Going back in time itself will not correct all the events that happened within Terra and this linear continuity."

"However, if you are to remove the Legendary weapons in the equation, the mysterious entity will not show themselves to try and make one for the Void mana." Mavis explained.

"And who is that mysterious entity? A direct counterpart to you? You are the Ruler." Veil asked another question.

"That is right, I was known as the Ruler, or referred to as the Ruler because of the system that I built."

"The mysterious entity is the true origin of everything; out of nothingness, the system was brought into existence: the ability to create anything and everything."

"The mysterious entity is basically the first owner of the system, the will of the system and even the mechanical voice you encountered."

"He is called Shiva, he is neither an enemy nor an ally, but I believe that removing all the Legendary weapons will cause Shiva not to create the Minotaur to try and create a Void Legendary weapon." Mavis explained in complete detail.

"You believe? I see that even you yourself are still not sure of how to fix your so-called reflections and my reflections." Veil felt disappointed.

"Then propose a better solution, if you could provide me one, I would gladly let you do it instead of jumping through time and rewriting what was supposed to happen." Mavis smiled and let Veil think.

"Mhm, sure. The only way to fix everything is to destroy it in the first place to make a new one: one that would not cause the Dark Clowns to exist."

"If I could destroy nothingness itself, we could create the new something." Veil stood up and observed Mavis' expression.

"And how would you achieve that?" Mavis smiled as if she already sees Veil not succeeding with her plans.

"I will start with you; I must first take ownership of that system of yours and cause Shiva to appear before me." Veil unsheathed her sword, assuming a fighting position.

"Very well, this shall also serve as a test if you could even succeed in even standing before Shiva." Mavis summoned a silvery-white longsword enveloped with silver flames.

This longsword is Mavis' Legendary grade weapon born from celestial mana itself, this kind of weapon is unusable for any other being, only Mavis could exclusively make use of this longsword.

It is called the Stellesia, the only celestial mana type weapon in existence.

Veil and Umbralia versus Mavis and Stellesia, whoever wins will be granted the ownership of the system.

Swing! Clang!

The two started a fierce battle, swinging and thrusting their swords with rapid momentum, never once stopping to breathe.

One side would parry and immediately send a counterattack, the exchange between the two remained in a deadlock.

This is not a battle of magic skills and mana usages; this is a pure battle of swordsmanship in its truest sense.

No one could even speak between the two; they are just smiling throughout the battle, enjoying it on the highest level.

Even if Veil falls here, she did everything she could, so finding out that she will fail before she could even personally meet Shiva will not give her regrets anymore.

Thrust! Swipe! Cling cling cling!

No floors cracking, no wind ever blowing, only two women giving their all to break the other's defense in a different space.

A midnight black blade versus a dreamy snow white blade, clashing fiercely and never dulling their edges.

These two weapons are undoubtedly the strongest weapons in existence, being at the apex of every other weapon due to the endless power brimming and pulsating within.

Swipe swipe swipe! Slash slash!

Their battle will never end at this rate, no one is willing to give in and let the other push through their defense.

Both women are now panting heavily, entering a temporary truce of waiting each other catch their breaths.

Veil wiped the sweat off her forehead and removed her cloak, revealing her beautiful black armor, while Mavis torn her robe apart, revealing glorious silver battle armor.

The two women are just like night and day, a total contrast with each other despite having similar faces.

Just when the two is about to enter another fierce exchange, two invisible hands flicked the two away, sending them crashing away in the same direction.

"Shiva?!" The two simultaneously reacted, Veil recognizing the invisible hands from the playback of the images during the Ancient War.

["Give me your weapon and I will spare you."] Shiva pointed to Veil's sword.

"Heh, I refuse!" Veil pulled the Umbralia stabbed on the ground and dashed towards Shiva.

["Pitiful ignorance. Scram!"] Shiva flicked in the air and sent invisible ripples travelling even faster than Lurian's Hellwaker lightning bullets.

Void Skill: Phantom Bullets!

Shoo shoo shoo!!!

Veil pushed her senses to the maximum and perceived the sensations in the air, deflecting the invisible bullets.

Meanwhile, Mavis fell into a deep thought, if she could finish off Shiva instead of being frightened, they could fix everything.

Veil brandished her longsword against Shiva, sending thrusts after thrusts to stab Shiva; however, the latter did not even struggle to dodge.

All attacks never found their marks; Veil is visibly exhausting everything she has just to hit Shiva.

"I will help you!" Mavis now completed her thoughts, deciding to help Veil end Shiva, despite its impossibility.