On a beautiful spring day, Nicolas, as usual, was watching a horror movie.

A year had passed, and during that year, quite a few things had happened.

C.A.C.D announced a global recruitment campaign. Anyone with experience in fields the organization needed would be paid handsomely.

As for Lukas' group, they had just developed a gene that could help ordinary people fight equally against low-level Demons. This was thanks to Lukas asking Nicolas to hunt a few low-tier Demons for research.

Nicolas had also "consumed" countless high-level Demons and dozens of Demon Kings, raising his combat strength by several qualitative levels—not just multiplicatively.

Nolan was currently training the special squad he founded half a year ago.

The Vandas triplets were on a secret mission.

Nicolas:
Horror movies these days are all trash, just repeating the same old tropes.
Honestly, I’d rather watch Skibidi than this crap. [joke]

While Nicolas was feeling bored with nothing to do, a familiar voice suddenly echoed.

It was Agene’s voice.

Agene:
Long time no see, Nicolas.
You've matured quite a bit, huh?

Nicolas:
Ah! Agene! You've been gone for a whole year. Why suddenly show up now?
Were you busy? I tried calling you a few times, but you never responded.

Agene:
Ah well… just had to take care of some personal matters.
(Agene went to check in on Eric.)

Nicolas understood from that response that asking further would be pointless.

Agene:
Oh right, I’ve got some news for you.

Nicolas:
What kind of news?

Agene:
Those freaks from the Place of Nothingness are about to move again. Every few eras (one era is 129,000 years), they go around destroying billions of Universes. I don’t know why they do it.
I originally wasn’t going to care—after all, the number of Universes in a single Multiverse is uncountable.
So even if they destroy billions or quadrillions of Universes, it’s not really my problem.
But… your Universe is one of their targets, so I came to inform you.
I won’t step in though—this is your opportunity to grow.

Nicolas:
“Freaks”? What are they that they can destroy billions of Universes?

Agene:
They have no name, no definition, no physical form.
They have no will, no thoughts, no emotions—acting purely on instinct or someone’s orders (I don’t know whose).
They are Nothingness.

Nicolas:
Nothingness?
Sounds abstract as hell.

Agene:
Exactly. True to their name, the Nothingness doesn’t exist.
They are more than void—literally “nothingness.”

Nicolas:
So what now?
Will the Blessing you gave me be enough?

Agene:
If it was you from a year ago, you’d be completely helpless.
But you now? You’ve changed.
You can stop this disaster.

Nicolas:
Then I’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll just chill.

Agene:
Up to you. I’m just here to inform you—how you handle it is your business.

With that, Agene seemed to vanish again. The room fell silent.

Nicolas:
Huh… Should I inform the organizations about this?
Nah, with their capabilities, they wouldn't be of much help anyway.
Guess I’ll just handle this mess on my own.

Nicolas was now incredibly powerful. His Devourer’s Blessing had advanced as well.

Now he could "consume" core aspects like logic, laws, and information... etc.
And he could also become void of those aspects himself, which made him confident he was now unbeatable in his own Multiverse.

In other Multiverses? That remained to be seen.

His Regeneration Blessing had also advanced greatly.

Before, as long as there were traces of him in history, he could return from oblivion.
But now, as long as someone remembered him—even if he had never existed—he could still return.

Sounds weak?
Not really—because the Regeneration Blessing was starting to link with Agene himself.

If the entire Multiverse were destroyed and no one remembered Nicolas?

It wouldn’t matter.
Agene, an Elder God and the Source of All Concepts, would still remember.

That’s practically a bug—because Elder Gods only exist in the Metapherse, the 5D Supra-Reality.

Nicolas' raw speed was now faster than any creature in his Universe.

Even interstellar travelers couldn’t match him.

In just a few seconds, he could catch up with the nearest person among them.
And that "nearest" person was several trillion trillion galaxies away—each one much larger than the Andromeda Galaxy.

End of Chapter 9

Side Note:
I had a fever so I couldn’t post a new chapter yesterday—sincere apologies.
And because of the high fever, I could only write this much.