More years passed.
By now, the world had recovered in
full.
Except for the couple of Beast Kings
that had been sacrificed for the Mage
Kings, the world had fully recovered.
While the war was technically still
ongoing, no one had truly fought in
it, and people didn't even think about
it.
There hadn't been any battles in
thousands of years.
The war didn't even feel like it
existed.
Except for the Abominations, the
world had become peaceful again.
However, the existence of the
Abominations had already become a
normality for all the people.
While Abomination Lords had
stopped appearing, Ancestral
Abominations and weaker still kept
appearing, but they had been
appearing for such a long time that
not even Mage Lords remembered a
time before them.
And if not even the Mage Lords had
witnessed a world without Ancestral
Abominations, how would the weaker
people feel?
It had always been like this.
Naturally, the appearance of the
Abominations gave the world a
certain feeling of doomsday, but the
Empress of Death represented hope.
She had already managed to get rid of
Abomination Lords.
At some point, she could also get rid
of Ancestral Abominations!
They were sure!
After tens of thousands of years of
terrifying war, the world was finally
in an age of hope and peace.
Yet, while the general public looked
at the development of the world with
bright eyes, the Mage Kings and
Mage Emperors felt very different.
The closer they got to the Ultimate
Tournament, the more worried they
got.
All of them had already seen
Abaddon's power before, and they all
knew that he could fight them.
He wouldn't even need to become a
Mage Emperor.
Of course, if two Emperors attacked
him, he probably wouldn't win.
But what after he became a Mage
Emperor?
Then, they would all need to fight
him simultaneously.
It was really dangerous.
In secret, many of the Emperors had
already come to talk to Gregorio in
private.
"Hey, now that all of this is over, do
you really want to go through with
the Ultimate Tournament?" they
asked. "After all, you wanted this
tournament for your warrior, right?"
One had to remember that the
tournament only existed because
Gregorio had threatened everyone
with releasing the Archivist.
If Gregorio stopped threatening them
with the Archivist, they could just not
hold the tournament.
Yet, Gregorio shot all of them down.
"You wanted this," Gregorio answered
with annoyance. "Originally, I helped
Shang because I wanted him to kill
Abaddon. While I can't negotiate with
Abaddon, I was able to negotiate with
Shang."
"I wanted Shang to kill Abaddon, give
him a couple of Kings and Emperors
so that he can become a God, and
make him deal with the
Abominations."
"But because of you, he kept
destroying himself more and more
until he became something that I
don't even recognize anymore. How
am I supposed to stop someone like
that from destroying the world?"
"But then, he died."
"And now, you're stuck with
Abaddon?
"So, no, I won't stop threatening you
with the Archivist."
"If the tournament doesn't happen, I
will release the Archivist."
"You dug your grave. Now, you have
to lie in it."
Obviously, the Mage Emperors
weren't the biggest fans of Gregorio's
answer.
Most of them just argued more.
Some of them reacted with
aggression and called Gregorio a sore
loser.
And one of them, Linastra
Boomwitch, even agreed with
Gregorio to a certain extent.
Linastra Boomwitch said that she had
been on the sidelines for too long
and that she should have supported
him.
But Gregorio just said that it was
already too late.
The damage was already done.
The fate of the world was set.
He told her that the world would end
in about 5,000 years after the
Ultimate Tournament.
Of course, Linastra didn't fully believe
that.
After all, the final battle between the
Emperors and Abaddon hadn't
happened yet.
There was a real chance that they
could win.
Gregorio didn't answer.
When Linastra left, Gregorio just
looked towards the northwest.
He saw Shang, or more precisely,
what Shang had become.
The more time passed, the less
human Shang became.
By now, his body didn't even look
human.
Shang was no longer human.
In fact, Shang wasn't even an
Abomination.
Shang had become his own being.
The most fitting word Gregorio could
come up with was Nightmare.
Shang had become a Nightmare.
An enemy to all life and existence.
The end of the world.
Shang had become the apocalypse.
Gregorio knew that the world was
already over.
More years passed, and the Ultimate
Tournament was already on the
horizon.
A couple of old Mage Kings died, and
new ones were crowned, but none of
that mattered anymore.
The Mage Emperors were fully
focused on the Ultimate Tournament,
and they came up with many
strategies.
They wanted to include Gregorio in
their meetings, but Gregorio
dechned.
He was done with them.
Eventually, only a thousand years
were left.
Shang was now 50,000 years old, and
he had been in the Sword King Realm
for 21,000 years.
For 21,000 years, he had worked on
nothing but his power, and his results
were terrifying.
Shang's power kept escalating to the
point that he wouldn't even need any
Abominations to destroy the world.
He wouldn't even need to reach the
Ninth Realm.
He could just tear Aterium's reality
slowly apart.
When Gregorio saw Shang, he felt
only one thing.
Acceptance.
The world didn't know, but the end
was already certain.
There would be no excitement.
There would be no last epic battle.
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