In fact, the Nox understood that they were going to lose.
Perhaps those lower-level Nox without extremely developed intelligence still held thoughts of bravado, but all those at the head of the army who took over after the Demigods left were well aware of their current situation.
When Hephaestus was blocked off and escape became an impossible ask, they decided to let go of any will for survival they had and do the utmost damage to the enemy before they died.
If they were going to be killed regardless, wasn't it better to bring more people down with them instead of dying alone?
With this in mind, the Nox made two main moves while they were being slaughtered by the universe's forces.
Firstly, they used arrays they set up beforehand to destroy each and every world left in Hephaestus. Secondly, they turned their own bodies into explosives, so that every time one of them died, they would take at least 10 enemy troops with them.
For the people at the peak of the universe like Rose and the rest, this was an easy battle, but for the lower ranks, it was an absolute death zone.
Bloody and guts filled the starry sky no matter where one looked. The screams of Nox and humans could no longer be differentiated through the ringing in their ears, and if one took even a single moment to look at anything but the enemy in front of them, they'd die.
It was spine-chilling.
Or maybe that feeling came from elsewhere?
When Ruyue appeared on the greater battlefields, she was able to save most of the soldiers suffering from tragic fates against the Nox. The explosions caused by the enemy deaths were also quelled by her, which definitely helped with reducing the death toll.
However, the environment wasn't safe. Hephaestus was already ruined, but it was now a land of death without any habitable areas. Some of the impact even leaked into the Infernal Realm and caused natural disasters on the most periphery worlds, though it wasn't to the extent of destroying them.
The war raged on and on and on.
Regardless of whether they were feeling weary, joyous, or sorrowful, the forces of Grand Heavens Boundary fought to their last breath, doing everything in their power.
Because as the enemy's numbers decreased, they saw the end.
These were the last of them. When they finished these Nox off, the Nox would never return to the universe.
And that, to these people who had been forced to constantly endure the assaults of the invading race, was the most effective motivator in all of existence.
At this point, the universe could be considered a combination of only three Sectors.
The Human Domain that was still being protected like an impregnable fortress by Damien's mechanisms, the Infernal Realm which was half destroyed but still more than able to heal from its current state, and the Divine Realm, the main hub of the universe's activity.
As long as those three realms were preserved, as long as hope remained, Grand Heavens Boundary could return.
That was what they thought.
But, unfortunately, there was one factor they failed to consider.
***
'It's dying.'
Nobody really wondered where Alexander was during such an important battle. He had practically cemented himself as someone who would only appear in the absolute worst-case scenario, so rather, people were praying dearly that he didn't show up no matter what.
But, if one did try to see what he was doing while everyone else was fighting for the universe's survival, one would find him in a familiar location.
Death Emperor Star.
The world was practically abandoned at the moment. Besides the weakest of the students, who were sent to Luxurion for protection, the remainder went to the battlefield to contribute to the universe.
Therefore, whether it was Hidden Death Valley or the Death Emperor Star the academy resided on, they were empty of life.
So why was Alexander here…?
Naturally, it was to fulfill the fate of his main body.
Damien's path was set for a very long time. Even before he was born, Dante had filled the universe with lucky encounters that he would eventually discover. Those were meant to be the basis of his growth, so he could ascend to the Divine Realm as smoothly as possible.
But when was it?
Damien became a person who couldn't be controlled by something like that. Rather than paying attention to things like legacies and secret realms, he focused all his attention on practical situations and grew stronger and faster than anyone could ever predict.
It was great for him, and it made Dante proud, but it did leave many legacies rotting away in various corners of the universe.
Alexander was currently claiming them all and taking them into the Sanctuary.
He started in the Sea God's Realm, the place known as Aquazyl where he met Tephit and the others and participated in the Prominence War.
He'd promised to bring them to the Sanctuary at a later date, and he kept that promise now. However, instead of just taking a few clans, he took the entire realm into the Sanctuary and gave it its own space to exist, a far better future for them.
He then went on to explore every other inheritance left on Death Emperor Star.
There were so many that it was impossible to believe they were all created by Dante. They each worshipped a different entity on the same level as the Sea God, and each of those beings had different specialties that Damien would've been able to master if he visited them earlier.
Now that he had Existence under his control, they were inconsequential, but he couldn't help but marvel at their numerity.
It made him wonder.
How did Dante do it?
These mythical figures had existed at very different times in history, ranging from hundreds of millions of years ago to very recently ten thousand years in the past. There were even traces that some of those gods were active just centuries before Damien's birth.
Yet, they were all alter egos of Dante?
He couldn't make sense of it, and his father became an even more mystical figure than ever before in his mind.
The desire to uncover the secrets his father was hiding sprouted in his heart, and as he spent months in an altered time flow to claim each and every legacy without missing anything, he realized something more concerning than anything he was trying to do.
'The universe is dying.'
The truth he'd learned from the Second Primal Sovereign all those years ago.
He thought they'd avoided this tragic fate already. He thought that, with the Nox being eradicated like this, the universe would be able to return to its peak if it was just nurtured properly and given time.
'But I was wrong.'
In fact, he already understood how flimsy that hope was. He was viewing the past, present, and future from the Void even at this very moment.
He wanted to hold it for as long as possible, but it seemed there was no other path for the universe.
'It's good that I've finished this.'
He had just now finished sweeping up everything Death Emperor Star had to offer, and with the war set to rage on for a few more days, he had to begin without delay.
He looked out into the wider universe that he called home for so long with a forlorn smile.
'Let's wrap things up for real this time.'
