Chapter 41
Hallowed Be His Name
Bowing before YHVH, Yuito noticed the vast and lifeless expanse of white around him. "O Father who art in Heaven, what is Your holy command?", Yuito asked. "Dominant of Darkness, I have received reports that the False Sovereign is to overthrow My holy throne. It is your duty to stop him before the Ascension Project is rendered null and void.", YHVH boomed. "Consider it done, Holy Father.", Yuito said. "Incidentally, the gossip mongers spread viral fake news about my sacred exploits. It would be most prudent if you were to ignore them.", YHVH continued. "Indeed. Besides, Your holy 7 Crusades are a punishment upon the Multiverse for failing to worship You. Besides, there were those other planets that fell to Your holy sword; they also failed to recognise You as the one true deity. It was also such a shame that you were forced to enact seven Crusades too, each one becoming more destructive than the last.", Yuito said. "Indeed. I trust that the War of the Worlds shall be the final Crusade I wage; if the Multiverse still refuses My guidance then it shall see destruction, all life except me snuffed out for refusing to surrender to virtue and holiness.", YHVH said. "Consider it done, Father.", Yuito said.
Entering a room with a cobalt blue finish, Noire looked at two of the people there. One of them had short orange hair and grey eyes and was wearing a sleeveless yellow cardigan zipped up, a black shirt with a cobweb pattern, orange shorts and a scarf with brown and beige stripes alongside orange shoes. The other had short and spiky black hair and blue eyes and was wearing a black jacket, a black t-shirt, black shorts and black boots. Walking further in, Noire said to the orange-haired man, "Kota, how much contact did you have with Jack before he was placed here in the Nightmare Void?". "To be honest, Lady Black Heart, I didn't really have much contact. He was actually interacting more with Lady Framme now I think about it.", Kota replied. Turning her attention to the black-haired man, Noire then asked, "Noctis, do you know where the Ring of the Sovereign and the Ring of the Maiden are?". "Well, the last hold I had of a concrete location for them was at Jack and Framme's wedding. If I had to guess now, I'd say that Jack is now wearing the Ring of the Sovereign and Framme is wearing the Ring of the Maiden.", Noctis said. "You're joking.", Noire said. "No, I'm not. Jack has the Ring of the Sovereign and Framme has the Ring of the Maiden.", Noctis said. "But that would mean that Jack is the Sovereign and Framme is the Maiden and not Yuito and Naomi.", Kota said, shocked. "I'm surprised that Jack would even count as Sovereign material to begin with.", Noctis said. "How do you figure?", Noire asked. "Well, given that Lord Ragna and Lady Velvet are both descended from the Motes of Darkness, you'd expect Jack to not have such an equal disposition toward all four types of Dahnan astral energy. But lo and behold, he does. Not to mention being the second Dominant of Odin after King Barnabas Tharmr too.", Noctis said. "That said, I don't know how he also came into possession of the Phoenix Force. But I guess that our Lord works in mysterious ways.", Kota said. "Regardless, we need to stop Jack before he ruins the Ascension Project.", Noire said. "I believe that may be easier said than done- after all, he does possess the Renas Alma and Dein Nomos, not to mention crapping all over the Chronos Terminal and causing a quantum entanglement to form.", Kota said. "I guess we certainly have our work cut out for us.", Noire said.
Sipping a cup of tea, Taion said, "What do you mean, you can't undo the quantum entanglement in the Chronos Terminal? We need to undo it before it starts to grievously threaten the world our Lord is creating.". "I do not know he managed to do it, but it seems he possesses the power to manipulate the Red Strings like Yuito and me. At least, that's how I think he managed to do so.", Kasane said. "Regardless, we need to find a way to stop the entanglement before the Flood of Light and Sin Eaters are destroyed as well.", Noah said. "Incidentally, Brother Consul, how long do you think Jack's known of our true allegiance?", Ivy asked. "If I had to guess, it's likely he's known from the start. Intelligent little scamp.", Noah replied. "Still, we'll need all 7 Chaos Emeralds as well if we need to undo the quantum entanglement successfully. I believe Tails and Y have nearly finished recreating the green emerald too.", Arashi said.
Tails looked at the machine he and Y were using to regenerate the green emerald. He watched with a most peculiar eagerness as the red and black cyber energy coalesced, forming the classic and unmistakable shape of the Chaos Emeralds, albeit with a notable unstable phasing. "Do you think it's done yet?", X asked. "It'll be ready when it's ready, Madam Consul.", Tails said. "Incidentally, do you believe that the Emeralds will work?", Shania asked. "It'll have to.", Fox said. "Why do you think that?", Vert asked. "Because I don't know what we'll do if it doesn't.", Fox replied. "I just hope that we'll be able to help YHVH succeed with the Ascension Project. After all, that is the reason why we entered Cyber Space.", Eirika said. "And I just hope that young scamp finally sees reason and submits to our Lord.", Knuckles said. All of a sudden, the emerald in the machine suddenly stabilised, glowing a sinister green glow. Watching with an ecstatic glee on her face, Hanabi said, "Yes! The emerald has returned to us!". "I'm positively throbbing with excitement at the Ascension Project succeeding.", Alfred said, a similar look of glee on his face. "Still, we'll need to make sure they actually work and that they're the actual emeralds as well.", Ovan said. "Oh, come on. You know it's the real thing.", Rita said.
Approaching a black door, Na'el hesitated slightly. "Why do you hesitate so, poppet?", Glimmer asked. "Great Grand Aunt, I have a strange feeling that maybe we're the ones being evil here. I mean, we invade multiple worlds simply because YHVH feels not everyone in the Multiverse is not worshipping Him, we go along with 7 highly destructive multiversal wars with each one becoming much more destructive than the last, we seriously injure a young man who just happened to be targeted by YHVH simply for being different and we try to coerce him into taking a role he doesn't even want. With that in mind, I don't blame Jack for not wanting to become Our Sovereign.", Na'el said. "But we needed to do so because Jack was in direct opposition to our Lord; left to his own devices, he would have threatened our Lord's plans several times over and would have destroyed every world.", Glimmer said. "But do you really think that destroying several worlds and killing scores of innocent people would really be in Jack's nature? Not only that, but I believe that Grandad would be overjoyed to have a brother that we just had to turn into an enemy. And for what?!", Na'el replied. Before they could talk further, they then heard a loud boom. "What was that?", Na'el asked, jumpy. Smiling, Glimmer said, "The time for our invasion has come.".
Looking upon a veritable host of gathered fighters, Z smiled. "You are gathered here for one holy and glorious purpose. We shall invade the digital replica of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and we shall convince its sole defender to stop resisting. He shall surrender to all of us and finally see the folly of his actions- that he was wrong to defy the passage of fate. For only then shall he ascend, becoming Our Sovereign and only then shall he lead us and the Sovereign Empire to glory! For victory! For the Sovereign Empire! For the destruction of reality itself! We shall be victorious and he shall fall!", he exclaimed to a resounding cry of cheers.
Meanwhile, Matthew, Na'el, A, Glimmer and Nikol met with Shulk, Fiora, Reyn, Dunban, Sharla, Melia, Rex, Nia, Morag, Zeke, Noah, Mio, Eunie, Taion, Lanz and Sena. "So, are we all decided?", A asked. "We are. The time has come to snap Jack out of his delusions and this digital prison. And we will him, no matter the cost.", Zeke said. "And then, he will finally lead us to glorious victory against YHVH. For only then will he finally realise his purpose as Our Sovereign.", Noah said. "Alright then. Liberators of Aionios, move out!", Shulk said.
The story continues in the next chapter.