“Let me go! I’ll kill you!” a certain blonde youth screamed as he struggled to free himself.

Metal chains tightly wrapped around his entire body. He seemed to be in a cocoon with only his head sticking out. The metal cocoon lurched back and forth as he tried to escape.

“What the bloody hell are these chains! I can’t break them!”

“Of course, they’re chains that I made,” the masked youth commented through a mouthful of popcorn before smacking the hero in the head. “And can you stop saying ‘bloody’? It’s getting annoying. What are you, a Brit from Earth?”

The masked youth sat cross-legged on top of the blond. He indifferently munched on his snacks, somehow ignoring the thrashing cocoon underneath him.

A black sphere floated a distance away in front of them. It was covered in many more cracks than before.

I am very thankful that you ended the battle before I was completely obliterated. But why did you decide to take action, though?

“I only said that I would let you guys finish your fight,” the masked youth explained, “and in my mind, to finish a fight is to see clearly who’d win and lose. And clearly, you were about to lose.”

Seriously? That’s your only reason?

The Demonic One asked in a frustrated voice. He didn’t want to accept that he of all people was so pathetically weak.

“Nah, I’m just kidding. I don’t know!” the youth laughed. “I just thought it’d be a shame to lose one of my first ‘inhabitants’ so quickly.”

Yeah, what do you mean by that? Wait, that’s not what I should be asking. Where even is this place? Who are you? Why’d you bring me and that blonde abomination here?

“Huh, now that I think about it, you seem pretty docile for a being called the ‘Demonic One,’” the youth said on a totally irrelevant topic. “Anyway, to answer your questions, I’d have to do some basic info dumping.”

During this whole conversation, the hero never stopped releasing a barrage of curses and screams. He flailed around in his cocoon like a snake with its head cut off.

“Release me from these chains, and I’ll give you both quick deaths!” he yelled while trying to shake off the masked youth.

“Okay, I think it’s retarded. Let me do something reeeaal quick, Mr. Black,” the masked youth apologized to the Demonic One as he got off from the noisy, struggling blond.

He picked the blond up and set him in an upright position. The masked youth went behind the blond, and after placing both hands on the sides of the blond’s head,

CRACK!

he turned it 180 degrees towards him.

What the hell! Why’d you do that!

The black sphere shuddered before distancing itself even further from the masked youth.

However, the masked youth didn’t respond and didn’t stop. He only broke the chains of the bond and stabbed his hands into his stomach. By sparing the gritty details, the following scene would best be described as a shower of blood and entrails.

The result was a person who seemed to have hidden a small bomb in his body and the bomb went off just recently.

“Yuck, if this were a cartoon, you’d only see a bunch of mosaics.”

But you were the one to carry this out! Why did you have to slaughter him?!

“Huh? I thought he was your enemy though?” the masked youth questioned.

Miraculously, there were no blood stains on him.

“This much is necessary if I want him to stay quiet for a bit. Plus, he wouldn’t die with just this. His regenerative capabilities are good enough. It’s just that you’d never damage him enough to see it.”

Ack!

It was a harsh, yet true statement.

“Anyway, info-dumping time! Mr. Blond would never be cool-headed enough to listen to some lovely info-dumping, so I could only stop his yapping.”

The Demonic One’s fear of the mysterious youth raised by a few levels. He realized how lucky he was to still be alive. He resolved to never earn the masked youth’s ire.

The masked youth, acting as if he didn’t just commit an act of carnage, gestured towards the white space around them.

“I already told Mr. Blond before, but this is called the ‘White Realm.’ It’s obvious why it’s called that. And, you guys are going to be the first ‘inhabitants’ of this realm.”

The sphere slowly returned to his previous location in front of the youth. The Demonic One realized it was futile to run away after seeing the masked youth’s overwhelming display of power, so he decided to listen instead. Also, for some reason, he felt he couldn't leave the White Realm without the masked youth's help, anyway.

“You two have achieved the relative maximum potential of your world, universe, dimension, whatever you want to call it. To put it simply, you and Mr. Blond are the strongest beings in your realm. You’re weaker than him, though, and if you didn’t come here, it would’ve remained that way for all of eternity.”

The Demonic One shivered at the masked youth’s offhand statement.

So it was inevitable that I would fall to his hands?!

“Yeah. You wouldn’t know based on how hot-headed the dude is, but Blondie is insanely strong. His sword can slice through space and time and blah blah blah. You know, those really grand descriptions of power. In that sense, although you’re much much weaker, you can pretty much do the same.”

Yes, I have a decent understanding of our capabilities. But please! No more saying that I’m weaker! It’s making me feel bad!

The masked youth shrugged.

“It’s just the truth, my dude. Anyway, you guys reached maximum potential, yeah? No matter how many years you would try to increase your power in the realm of the Supreme Gods, it wouldn’t raise substantially anymore. Well, the beings in this realm have their potential unlocked to become ‘infinite,’ meaning, you could grow ‘endlessly.’”

Impossible. That sounds absurd.

While the Demonic One was shocked at the masked youth’s words, he was also confused after hearing that his power wouldn’t increase no matter how much he tried.

Why can I not become stronger in my own realm?

“Potential that a realm offers is relative to the highest levels of comprehension that the beings that inhabit the realm have. For example, if gods think that creation and destruction are the strongest powers that they could comprehend, then their potential can only reach that extent.

This also applies to you and Blondie over there.”

I’ve never heard of such a thing...Then, what are you supposed to be?

The youth smirked before putting his hands on his waist and puffing out his chest.

“Hmph, I’d be a representation of infinity, I guess? Does it sound absurd to you? Don’t care though. I just wanna have fun!” the masked youth declared and giggled afterwards.

The Demonic One was skeptical of the being before him. A being that represents infinity? Nonsense. The concept of infinity is already elusive in itself.

“By the way, you could call me ‘Em.’ Emmy, Emre, Empty, whatever. And so, what’s your name, Mr. Black?”

The Demonic One hurriedly gave his answer.

My real name is Itim Nigreos.

“Ooohhh, fancy name. I’ll just call you ‘Tim’ though. Hm, seems like your full name has some meaning behind it in another language or something.”

Huh?

“Nothing. And do you know Blondie’s name?”

Charles, I believe? He said something along the lines of “I’ll bloody kill you, or my name isn’t Charles!” before he tried to kill me.

“Charles? Jeez, even the name sounds a bit…” Em mumbled before trailing off inaudibly.

“Okay, so Tim and Charles. Both of you are lucky to be here. You can grow in any way you want, endlessly!”

Charles didn’t respond as half his body was still meat paste. Fortunately, the other half recovered enough so that you could see it without mosaics.

As for Tim, he was still doubtful of the masked youth’s actions and the implications of living in the White Realm. It baffled him how a realm could offer such inconceivable power.

And if binding the hero and slaughtering him like a pig had intimidated Tim, then the question of Em’s true power and his bold, self-proclaimed title of “representative of infinity” made him feel insignificant.

Suddenly, Em turned around and kicked the blond in the stomach.

“Ugh!” Charles groaned the moment the masked youth’s foot made contact with his side.

Charles had miraculously regenerated his entire body into a pristine condition while they were talking, with the exception of his shredded golden armor. It was as if he was never disemboweled and censored in the first place.

Wait, this scene seems familiar…

“It’s just your imagination,” Em retorted before clapping his hands.

“Okay! It’s time to kick the progression of things up a notch! You two must train here! Go through whatever means to improve your power, whether it’d be fighting each other or eating food! You can create anything in this realm according to your power and ability!”

Then he paused abruptly while staring at the sphere and the still disorientated blond.

“You guys, will be the first ‘Guides’ as well,” he declared before saluting. “That is all! I am a very busy man, so I must go!”

Em disappeared, leaving only Tim who was dazed and Charles who groaned in pain.

The serenity didn’t last long, however, as Charles turned his eyes towards the black sphere. Although he was in a pitiful state before, he now looked like a ravenous beast.

That ‘infinite’ potential thing better be true. Otherwise, I’m going to die here!

Round two between the first inhabitants of the White Realm, a hero and a demon, had begun.