In the yellow void, the zither that set events into play was about to strike the third strum. The mysteriousness surrounding the woman had increased by a notch.

The woman watched everything occurring across an entire section of the multiverse.

However, this time her eyes appeared strained, reddened, and were quickly becoming unfocused but still she looked on.

The obsession buried in the depths of her heart was forcing her to create another opportunity to kill Zeel even at the expense of her own life.

Once more, the woman spoke in a strained voice.

"Three Strums…

Three precious things lost…

What is the cost?

What is the cost?"

The woman snapped her head to the left as if peering through the infinite expanse of one Universe into another and then another.

"The third strum – The strum of The Soulmate's Demise," The woman said as her eyes flashed with the most blinding golden radiance yet.

Then as if her own strings had been cut, the woman slumped down and began breathing shallowly as if she would die at any moment.

"That should be enough," The woman murmured quietly before passing out.

The sweet smile of revenge on her face was soon turned into a frown of disappointment as if she realized something important.

∞∞

Floating within the ruins of a broken world was Gabriella.

Gabriella's body and soul were battered, beaten, bloody, and unrecognizable but still she clung to the two most important things in her heart – her life and Zeel's figurine.

In the background, one could see the bodies of hundreds of thousands of different species floating in the void of space, some of which even had wings that radiated Grace – angels.

All of the creatures were unmoving, clearly dead from the void of space or the earlier battle.

The battle had been so intense that even micro black holes could be seen twisting and ripping at the void of space.

Gabriella floated freely in the void, desperately trying to cling onto the floating debris nearby to steady her body and mind once more.

"Fuck!" Gabriella cursed, her voice making a small boom in the void of space.

Soon, Gabriella managed to cling onto a nearby asteroid and finally find some reprieve from the earlier battle against the monstrosity that was Aurora – The Apollonian.

Gabriella tried desperately to breathe properly but couldn't manage smooth breaths in her current state.

Breathing in space was usually effortless but now it had become very taxing since her lungs were all but destroyed.

Gabriella stared down at her battered body and noticed chunks of ice had clung to her.

The strange ice was halting her regeneration capabilities but Gabriella didn't particularly mind as long as she was alive and Zeel's figurine was safe.

"Have to warn her!" Gabriella whispered through gritted teeth and began slashing randomly at the void of space as if she was trying to cut something…

Trying and failing since no matter how much she tried, Gabriella could only manage thin lines of energy materializing in space for a fraction of a second.

"I am sorry babe… lend me your power," Gabriella said, clutching the Zeel figurine in her hands as it glowed briefly.

With another slashing gesture, the void in front of Gabriella was ripped open and her body was sucked inside like a rage of ocean currents threatening to overcome itself.

∞∞

Aurolana was indulged, swaying and dancing in her garden of Mindovarus.

Usually, she would be paying attention to all the wonders Zeel was witnessing but the soulmates weren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment.

The bad thing about being a soulmate was the fact that Aurolana always knew what Zeel felt even when he couldn't identify it himself.

Currently, Aurolana was feeling some anger directed at herself for putting into motion the events that forced Zeel to eliminate both Alice and Elizabeth in an Alternate Timeline.

Of course, Aurolana didn't particularly care that Zeel had to kill Alice and Elizabeth since they could be considered nuisances to both Zeel and her objectives.

Also, a small bit of jealousy in a relationship never hurt anyone, and Alice and Elizabeth were sleeping with her man after all.

Even if she didn't see it as cheating due to her species, Aurolana still felt that it was the 'thought' that truly counted in the end.

While she was in her thoughts musing over a next plan to get rid of Zeel's lovers, a small creature darted through the garden of Mind Flowers and hopped onto Aurolana's shoulders.

"What is it, little guy?" Aurolana asked in an angelic voice that caused all the flowers in the garden to sway in her direction briefly.

The strange weasel with antlers, Tempora, whispered a few inaudible squeaks into Aurolana's ears before rolling over on its stomach as Aurolana gave it a satisfying belly rub.

It was in this moment of serenity that the void tore open and spat out one heavily injured Gabriella into the garden.

Aurolana instantly felt a sinking feeling originating from both her instincts and her soul that demonstrated something unexpected had also happened on Zeel's end.

"Help," Gabriella stuttered through a coarse voice.

Aurora darted through the garden in a flash, reappearing next to Gabriella with every intention of helping her fallen comrade immediately.

Despite pretending otherwise, Aurolana was fond of almost all of Zeel's past lovers since they all survived by depending on each other during training on the nameless planet.

While she was not sure how many of Zeel's past lovers survived or even if they still loved him, Aurolana preferred knowing strong people compared to the weak people Zeel now associated with.

However, just before Aurolana was about to touch the fallen Gabriella, a reminder popped into her mind from the soul conversation she had with Zeel just moments before.

Zeel had aggressively reminded her to 'Don't be careful, be fucking paranoid!'

In a moment of paranoia provided by her soulmate link to Zeel, a multitude of angelic wings popped out from Aurolana's back and struck at the downed Gabriella with the intention to kill.

Apollonians' wings were extremely lethal and had the ability to cut body, mind, and soul depending on the size of the wings and the Divine-Grace they carried.

Luckily, there were no Apollonians currently alive that had larger or more radiant wings than Aurolana herself.

*Cling*

*Cling*

*Cling*

*Cling*

*Cling*

*Cling*

Aurolana expected to see Gabriella's minced-up body and then blame Zeel for his paranoia, but instead, she was stunned into silence by the noise she heard.

It was the sound of impact between two solid objects which should have been impossible since Apollonian's wings could phase through almost any defenses, even those of Gods.

Of course, they were exceptions amongst the Gods but none of which Gabriella knew or should have access to.

Focusing her vision, Aurolana immediately realized that her own multitude of wings were blocked by a similar multitude of wings that had erupted from the downed Gabriella's back.

Aurolana's wings were massive and purely white with faint glimmerings of blue caused by Zeel's cyber-lines running through them.

However, the wings that had blocked Aurolana's attack were just as massive as Aurolana's and just as radiant, but the wings were slightly pink with blue shimmering that caused the environment to chill.

Aurolana knew that hesitation would be death. Actually, she was already supposed to be dead since she hesitated for an instant when her attack was blocked.

Aurolana cursed her stupidity in her mind since she would not only be forfeiting her life but also Zeel's if her opponent had taken advantage of her momentary lapse in judgment.

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

Aurolana hesitated no more and struck thousands of times in an instant with her wings, but each strike was countered by Gabriella's wings.

There was a flash of frost from Gabriella and an equally intense flash of heat from Aurolana causing an explosion of steam that sent both women spiraling in opposite directions.

Aurolana was the first to regain her footing but she didn't attack and instead chose to create more distance between herself and her opponent.

Aurolana could manipulate the balance of all things so she was confident that she could win. After all, her balance gift was a counter to almost all abilities.

Still, the frost Aurolana had just blocked forced her to use her balance ability to create a bit of Hell Flames showing how lethal the cold was.

"Who are you?" Aurolana asked her now stabilized opponent since she could tell that the person she was fighting was definitely not Gabriella.

Gabriella was strong even by Universe Zero's standard, but Gabriella always used outside forces and her wit to win battles.

The person in front of Aurolana had the capability to take her on directly without falling behind for even a moment.

Gabriella smirked and then her face started liquefying like the melting of snow.

"You don't recognize my wings sister?" Aurora asked, finally revealing herself to the sister she had not seen in thousands of years.

"Aurora?!?" Aurolana asked as the surprise caused her to inflict damage upon her own soul out of guilt.