Warfare Augmented Intelligent Frame Unit

Chapter 153 - Seraphoss

Chapter 153 - Seraphoss

When my eyes fluttered open, the world around me was drowned in an endless sea of white, a sterile, bleached wasteland that stretched beyond comprehension. Above, the dark vault of the cosmos loomed like an infinite ocean of stars, their cold shimmer casting a fragile contrast against the pallid ground. The horizon was a haunting boundary where the void and the alabaster plains embraced in eerie silence.

And then it struck me.
This place... I knew it. The realm where I first laid eyes upon the one who defied all creation—the Machine God, Mechanoss.

Tilting my gaze upward, I felt my breath hitch. There, suspended in the endless void, floated a colossal monstrosity, a skeletal titan of metal, stripped bare of life. Its twisted steel ribs jutted out like the bones of a dead god, and yet, even in stillness, it radiated an oppressive divinity. It was him. The Outer God himself.

But something was wrong.
The air felt hollow. Mechanoss, once a roaring storm of cold fury, now lay silent, like an abandoned throne. His hollow eyes, which once blazed with crimson wrath, were now empty sockets, staring at me without malice, without life. It was as if the Machine God... had perished.

"Zaft."

A voice—soft, melodic, and piercingly familiar, broke the stillness.

I spun around, and my heart froze. Standing there was a vision of beauty sculpted from moonlight itself, a woman with porcelain skin that glowed like fresh snow, her long wavy hair cascading in shades of deep ocean blue. Her emerald eyes shimmered with an otherworldly calm, framed by a face so delicate it could shatter the strongest will. Draped in a flowing gown of ivory and azure, and crowned with a crystalline diadem, she looked like a queen born of starlight.

"Dianca..." I breathed, my voice trembling. Instinct surged through me, I extended my left hand. Blue circuitry ignited across my arm like veins of lightning, and from the void, a weapon materialized with a hiss of raw energy, my Uranium Blade.

I tightened my grip, ready for battle. Every muscle coiled with tension. Yet... she didn't flinch. No stance. No threat. Only a gentle smile that carved serenity into the chaos of my mind.

"I knew it," she spoke softly, her words drifting like feathers. "You're the Apostle of the Machine God. The moment I saw you fight in the Licensure Examination Tournament... I knew it had to be you."

"If you already knew back then... then why didn't you kill me?" My voice cracked the silence, edged with suspicion and confusion.

Dianca closed her eyes, the weight of something unspoken pressing against her serene features. Slowly, almost regretfully, she shook her head. The silver strands of her hair shimmered under the distant glow of the stars.

"I didn't need to," she said, her tone calm yet steeped in finality. "All I required was to plant the seed of the Cosmic Tree. With that, this reality would have bent to my will. I never imagined you... of all people... would stand in my way."

Her words dripped like cold mercury, heavy and inescapable.

"Are you saying that—"

"Yes."

Her eyes opened, and the emerald blaze within them pierced me like twin blades. A smile—warm, almost tender, curved her lips, mocking the storm of betrayal rising inside me.

"I thought of you as a dear friend, Zaft." Her voice softened, carrying a melody of sincerity and cruelty intertwined. "The moments we shared with Myrrh, Fei, Neil, Remuel, and Cindy... those were real. I do treasure them." She paused, her lashes lowering like a curtain over a dangerous truth. Then, her tone hardened. "But the Cosmic Goddess must rise again, no matter what cost the stars demand."