Villain Retirement

"This has never happened before."

"Quite curious, no?"

Somewhere outside the multiverse, outside the Domain of the Gods, just outside anything really, the Primordials were currently gathered in a gray empty space — no, it wasn't gray at all. It was a color that has yet to exist, or perhaps does, but one could really not explain its mystical hue.

And the primordials did not exist in the Gray Space at all; they were there, but at the same time, they were not. Not even a wisp of them was in the Gray Space, and yet they were there; able to talk and converse with each other, instinctively knowing who was saying what even though their voice also does not exist.

But for the others who would witness them, they would only truly know who is saying what if it is said to them by perhaps even a higher power than the Primordials…

…Me.

"You made the instrument yourself, Machina. What say you in your defense?" Celestial, the Mother of all the First Gods and all biological life, sounded a bit sarcastic as she addressed Machina, whom she actually considered inferior. As without biological life, Machina's role would not be important at all.

"I made the instrument, yes. But it is by the hands of your creation that this curious event transpired," Machina, of course, actually also disliked Celestial as it thought of biological life as something meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Whatever life could do, machines could do even better. They know they hate each other, but do not really believe that they are capable of hate as they think they were not made to be that way — but of course, a higher power knows that they are fully capable of being petty if they want.

Especially since they have already broken one of their rules — not to mingle themselves with their creation directly. But how could they not, when a Primordial that does not exist, Curiosity, is currently guiding them?

And right now, Curiosity brought them something very, very nice.

The ruined punching machine that Esme destroyed, brought to the Gray Space by Ruin himself. They have been observing and staring at it ever since they were able to.

"I think I know what this means," Ruin joined in on the conversation, not even caring that he was getting in between the two Primordials that was older than him by seconds, "I know that we know that it could not exist, but now that we know that it can exist, perhaps we can no longer deny its existence — traversing to the past is possible."

"Traversing to the past has always been possible," Elementia also joined in as his non-existent body started circling the broken machine, "Reset the universe, guide the events that would happen indirectly, and you will soon travel to the past by being in the future."

"You are the coolest and sometimes most boring out of all of us, Elementia," Ruin scoffed, "But it does not matter what we say, the proof is in front of us. But what do you say, Oldest?"

"That we do not actually know anything," Navi worded out.

"For you to say that, the one who has witnessed all and will witness all is… quite unfathomably scary, Navi," Death chimed in; but all of her attention was on the machine that had mysteriously been cemented by time, "How old is this, Ruin? You could tell the time of things destroyed."

"You could too," Ruin quickly responded. Although he had already admitted to himself and the other Primordials that he was quite jealous of Death, he still held much respect for her. Perhaps too much.

"But I am asking you, Youngest."

"I am no longer the Youngest."

"You still are," Celestial scoffed, "We still do not know what sort of entity Riley Ross is."

"We do know what he is," Machina also scoffed, "A Primordial of the next Creation, here to erase us into nothing. And speaking of Nothing, have you spoken to your Father?"

"Never," the tone of Ruin's voice held a sort of sadness in it.

"That is nothing to be sad about, Youngest," Death's voice was almost a hum as she comforted Ruin, "Nothing is a Preprimordial, it exists in a place we could never reach. But please, do answer my question; How old is the machine now, Youngest?"

"I…" Ruin purposely paused his words so that the other Primordials would focus solely on him for a couple of seconds,

"...I do not know."

"!!!"

And focus they did.

One Primordial not knowing something was already something that should never happen. But now, there were two — the Youngest and the Oldest, and if they have to be truly honest to themselves, every one of them knew nothing of what was going on.

"Aerith'Ross," Navi was the first to speak after the sudden silence, "I do know of her, but she was of no importance until now."

"There's that too," Celestial once again scoffed, "Aerith, Riley Ross — have you seriously not made a connection until it was revealed to us? One of the Higher Gods just below us is literally called Aerith'Ross."

"Because everything below us holds the same value, Celestial — How many do you think have existed with the very same name?" Navi was not really trying to explain to them.

"Just tell us you forgot, Oldest," Elementia let out a small chuckle, "It is alright."

"I can not forget things, Elementia," Navi did not really take offense at Elementia's words, "But perhaps you have a point — but it is not that I forgot her existence, it is probably that she did not exist before until she was mentioned."

"Okay, now I am just confused," Ruin looked at everyone else, "What is your take on this, Death?"

"I don't know," Death worded out, "I also can not detect her presence, the same with this machine — the same with Riley Ross and Paige Pearson."

"Oh, so we are in trouble, no?" Ruin winced.

"Yes," Navi agreed, "For now…

…shall we summon Aerith'Ross?

And while the Primordials were currently having a very… mundane problem, the situation in Grandarena City has become worse… or perhaps better depending on which side you are on. Once again, everyone was quiet at the sight of another god practically eating another god's head — and in one bite too.

Of course, the god did spit the head out, but it was already crushed and mangled; like a steamed fertilized duck egg that was spit out on some street in the Philippines because it was too hot…

…but the duckling was actually still alive and squirming, as expected of a god. His eyes were even starting to move; very slowly staring toward the yellow raging monstrosity of a god. But that was all he could really do, glare. And after a few seconds, the mangled head just decided to move away, squirming away like slime as he returned to the rest of his body…

…making sure to get as far away as possible from the raging god.

It wasn't only him, everyone else was now completely avoiding the yellow-raging god as he seemed to have gotten even angrier than before; each of his steps, caused a thunder strong enough to blow away anything that was unfortunate enough to be anywhere within a mile radius of him… which was practically the entire 50th floor including the audience.

It had already been made clear that the raging yellow god was the most imposing and physically strongest out of all of them — but they did not think that it was to the point that what all the other gods could really do was to just try and dodge him… or be lucky enough to have someone else take the hit for them.

It did not help that the raging god also seemed to be laughing at them even though he was already clearly mad to the point of abandoning any sort of reason, if he had any in the first place, that is.

As for the reason why the raging god was getting angrier and angrier by the second, well, he was just relaxing inside the god's belly… while making sure to prick and pinch his insides to make the god as uncomfortable as he could possibly be….

…and the laugh that everyone was hearing was actually coming from him.

Even though he was already covered and maybe even drowning in whatever else was inside the god's belly, he was still laughing like a maniac; his lips reaching from ear to ear as he could no longer control the smile forcing its way out of him.

Esme may already be on the upper floors, but Rilley was able to find, although not necessarily stronger, a more fun way to advance to the next floors in the raging yellow god. He did not even need to see what was happening outside, his vivid imagination for violence filled out everything he needed to know, and perhaps it was even better, that is why he could not stop himself from laughing.

But alas, his fun was suddenly cut short as he suddenly found himself outside the yellow raging god's belly — it would seem that the raging god's anger reached the point where his strength was already too much for the other gods; just one slam of his fists, everyone was eliminated… everyone.

And now, Riley had a very special problem on his hands, quite literally…

…as his only opponent was the raging yellow god.

And by the looks he was giving him, he was angry… very angry. Riley could even feel the raging god's breath even from afar. But perhaps the tower would just automatically send them to the next level since there were only two of them?

The short answer to that…

…is no.

"...Perhaps we can talk?"

"Grah!"

"I shall take that as a no, then."