Banished to the Abyss After Defying the Author-Chapter 13: The Cost of Refusal

Noah drifted in the Real Sky.

There was no up or down here—only depth. A pressure that reminded even gods that existence was not built for comfort.

"So you opened this place," Noah murmured. "You know mortals aren’t meant to breathe here."

He folded space with a thought and returned.

The Sofail World snapped back into view.

Noah lifted one hand.

The Real Sky sealed behind him like a wound closing. The false sky returned—blue, endless, obedient. Time resumed its fractured crawl.

Nostradus stood alone beneath it.

His posture was rigid. Controlled. Barely.

"Nostradus," Noah said calmly. "Why are you endangering every mortal life in this world?"

Nostradus laughed.

A sharp, humorless sound.

"Oh?" he said. "Now the King of Kings worries about mortals?"

Noah did not react.

"If you want to fight," Noah continued, "we take this elsewhere. If the Sofail World collapses, Altantriasa dies with it."

That did it.

Nostradus’ smile twisted. "You speak her name now? You protect goddesses now?" His eyes burned. "When I begged you before, you didn’t care."

Noah’s gaze hardened. "Watch your words."

Steel formed in his hand—not summoned, not created. A weapon pulled from decision itself.

Nostradus scoffed. "Still hiding behind weapons instead of answers."

Noah moved first.

Reality softened.

Dimensions bent like clay beneath his grip. He pulled them inward, stacking infinite layers into a closed lattice—a cage of overlapping existences.

Nostradus’ eyes widened.

"You can’t leave," Noah said. "Reject one layer, another replaces it."

Nostradus smiled.

"You forget," he said softly, "I hold your authority too."

He raised his hand.

The cage screamed.

Rejection surged outward—not against a wall, but against consequence. Layers shattered faster than they could replace themselves.

The Sofail World began to peel.

"Nostradus," Noah said, voice cold, "are you really willing to tear apart the Book of Worlds?"

The last dimension broke.

Everything went black.

Not void.

Blank.

Altantriasa appeared.

She looked around—confused, disoriented—then at the absence where her world had been.

"My... world?" Her voice trembled. "What did you do?"

Noah stepped toward her.

She shoved him back.

"Don’t touch me," she said, tears falling freely now. "Those people had nothing to do with this."

Noah’s patience snapped. "Enough. Your crying is—"

Nostradus appeared between them.

"I won’t let you harm her," he said. "She is my lover’s sister."

Altantriasa laughed through tears. "Sister?" She shoved him away. "You destroyed my world."

Everything happened at once.

Noah swung.

Not at her.

At Nostradus.

Altantriasa stepped—

The blade passed through her.

Clean. Absolute.

She split in two and vanished—no scream, no resistance. Just erasure.

Silence fell.

Nostradus stared.

Something inside him broke.

The memory of another goddess—another death—overlapped violently.

"Noah," he whispered.

Then he screamed.

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

He seized the sword.

Blood poured from his hand as the weapon cut him continuously—his authority rejecting it even as he forced contact.

Noah raised his hand.

A spear formed from nothing—black, heavy, humming with incompatible truths. His eyes bled under the strain.

The spear flew.

Nostradus dodged.

Too late.

His torso imploded as the spear curved back into Noah’s hand.

"This spear," Noah said quietly, "doesn’t care about outcomes."

Narrative threads flared around Nostradus.

Noah reached—

Nostradus healed instantly and slammed Noah backward.

Noah reappeared behind him and struck again.

This time, Nostradus raised a spear of time.

Noah froze.

"That was Zelforna’s," he said.

Nostradus smiled. "She was my lover."

He lifted the spear.

"I seal you in the Eternity Void."

Noah vanished.

The Abyssal World flared as he erected layered barriers around it.

The time spear struck—

—and was rejected.

It snapped back into Nostradus’ grasp.

"You’re hiding," Nostradus snarled.

Noah’s voice echoed calmly. "Strategic retreat. A mortal taught me that."

Then Noah remembered.

Victoria. Her last Words and her last presence.

His expression hardened.

He stepped back out.

The spear struck him.

Past, present, and future Noah collapsed into each other selves destroying selves across infinite timelines. But resurrecting again.

Then,

Golden light erupted.

Noah stood whole.

Mortatis pressed from beyond the world—blocked, furious.

"Nostradus!" Mortatis roared from outside existence. "Use the Sealing Cube!"

The Sofail World rebuilt itself around them.

Nostradus held the cube now.

Noah felt Zelforna’s essence resonating inside him, protective and help in stabilizing.

Nostradus hesitated.

Noah did not move.

For the first time in the war, both gods stood still.

The cube hummed.

And Noah realized—

This was not about power anymore.

It was about choice.

The Sofail World finished rebuilding itself.

The false sky settled. The fractures closed. Time resumed its hesitant flow, as if unsure whether it was still welcome.

Noah stood at the center of it.

Then something separated from him.

Light peeled away from his silhouette—silver, slow, careful—and condensed into form.

Zelforna stepped out of Noah’s shadow.

Nostradus froze.

"...Zelforna?" His voice broke despite himself. "How—?"

She crossed the distance between them without hesitation and lifted her hand, cupping his face the way she always had. Not with authority. With familiarity.

"My love," she said softly. "He listened this time."

Nostradus’ breath caught.

"The King of Kings... finally understood what emotions cost." Her thumb brushed the blood at the corner of his mouth. "So please. Forgive him enough to give back what he lost."

Nostradus stepped back, shaken.

"Give his authority back?" he demanded, turning sharply toward Noah. "Do you even understand what you’re asking?"

Noah did not meet his gaze immediately.

"In the past," Noah said quietly, "I killed the first Goddess of Time because she stopped time across the Abyssal World. I believed it was optimal."

He looked up.

"I was wrong about how I did it."

Zelforna nodded once, her eyes never leaving Nostradus.

"If he regains his authority now," she said, "Altantriasa can still be reached."

Outside the sealed layers, Mortatis roared—furious, restrained, powerless to intervene.

Nostradus closed his eyes.

For a long moment, he said nothing.

Then he exhaled.

"I don’t forgive you," he said to Noah. "Not for her. Not for everything."

He opened his eyes again.

"But Altantriasa... she was my sister too."

He stepped forward.

"Save her," he said, voice heavy. "King of Kings."

Nostradus placed his hand against Noah’s chest.

Something shifted.

A fragment—cold, vast, familiar—returned home.

Noah inhaled sharply as authority flowed back into him, not violently, but rightfully. The world steadied, as if relieved.

"...It feels," Noah murmured, "...complete."

He looked at Nostradus, then raised his hand.

From the void behind him, two weapons rose.

The Black Sword.

The Bloody Spear.

They crossed in the air, forming an X, spinning slowly as space distorted between them. A portal tore open—deep, ancient, heavy with finality.

Beyond it lay a realm that was neither life nor afterlife.

The place where beings slain by those weapons still lingered.

Noah’s voice lowered.

"This gate leads to the existence of the dead," he said. "Those ended by the Sword or the Spear do not vanish completely."

He stepped toward the portal.

"We will find Altantriasa there."

The wind from the opening howled softly, like something breathing for the first time in ages.

And for the first time since his fall—

Noah did not walk alone.