Myth Beyond Heaven

The woman, Number Three, nocked another void arrow. A cold smile played on her lips.

“Lord Yin sends his regards.”

Nian Shi’s mind raced. Number Three? Then Number Four was just one of many? How many of these things had Yin created?

He tried to summon the Blade of Eternity, but the void arrow in his chest disrupted his connection to time itself. The weapon flickered weakly in his hand before dissipating.

Number Three drew her bow. “Your time ends here, God of Time.”

Nian Shi did the only thing he could—he fractured reality around himself, creating a thousand temporal mirrors that scattered his essence across different timelines. It was a desperate, costly move that would take centuries to recover from.

But survival came first.

Number Three’s cold smile never wavered. “Futile.”

She released the second arrow. It didn’t follow any particular shard—instead, it multiplied, each duplicate arrow phasing through dimensions with impossible precision, hunting every fragment of Nian Shi’s scattered consciousness simultaneously.

Impossible! Nian Shi’s thoughts screamed across the timelines. Nothing can track temporal dispersion!

He tried to manipulate time around the arrows, to create paradoxes that would unravel them, but the void energy resisted all temporal manipulation. The arrows simply consumed the paradoxes and continued their pursuit.

Just as he focused on evading the arrows, a familiar void energy manifested behind him. A black spear—the Spear of Emptiness—materialized from nothingness and plunged into his primary essence’s chest.

Puff!

“Ugh!” Nian Shi gasped, his silver eyes widening in shock and rage. The spear hadn’t just pierced his physical form—it was unmaking his connection to time itself, severing his access to the River of Time.

From the void behind him, a cold, familiar voice spoke. “You cannot escape.”

Number Four emerged from the shadows, its form fully restored, the Mark of Uncreation burning brighter than ever.

Bang!

The void arrows chose that moment to strike. They pierced through Nian Shi’s remaining temporal shards simultaneously, freezing his essence across all timelines.

Nian Shi struggled, but the combined power of two Uncreation beings proved too much. The Spear of Emptiness in his chest devoured his temporal energy while the void arrows pinned his consciousness in place.

“This… cannot be…” Nian Shi choked out, silver blood now flowing like a river from his wounds. “I am time itself… I cannot be unmade…”

Number Three appeared before him, her void bow still drawn. “All things return to nothingness, God of Time. Even time itself must eventually end.”

Number Four twisted the spear, intensifying the unmaking. “Your arrogance blinded you. You never truly understood what you were facing.”

Nian Shi’s form began to dissolve, silver light bleeding into the void. His final moments were filled with bitter realization—he had underestimated Yin, underestimated the true nature of Uncreation, and now he would pay the ultimate price.

As his consciousness faded, he heard Number Three’s final words: “Tell the Creator we said hello.”

Then there was only silence.

The God of Time was no more.

***

**

*

In the realm beyond time and space, the true Nian Shi watched with growing alarm as his countless selves across timelines fell one by one to Yin’s hunting hounds. His silver brow furrowed deeply—this was completely unexpected.

For eons, he had believed himself the ultimate predator, the master of time who could never be truly threatened. Now, reality proved otherwise.

Below his observation platform, Tantai Lanling’s expression was grim. “These aren’t just servants wielding Uncreation power,” she reported, her voice tight with concern. “They are Uncreation given form—like fragments of Yin himself. Their very essence is void, making them immune to temporal manipulation.”

Nian Shi’s hands clenched. “I can see that.” His voice was cold, but a rare note of frustration colored his words. “Yin has been far more active from his prison than I anticipated.”

Tantai Lanling hesitated before speaking the uncomfortable truth. “As of now, no one can stop them. Not individually. Each of these ’hounds’ possesses power rivaling your strongest manifestations.”

Nian Shi’s eyes narrowed. She was right, and he knew it. The recent losses proved that. His usual strategy of having individual timeline versions handle threats was failing spectacularly against these unified, coordinated attackers.

After a moment of intense calculation, Nian Shi made his decision. “The plan must change. We can no longer wait for Yun Lintian to reach perfection.”

He raised his hands, and the River of Time manifested around him, its silver waters churning with new purpose. “I must intervene directly.”

With a gesture that shook the foundations of reality, Nian Shi sent a command across all timelines—a temporal edict that reached every version of himself simultaneously.

***

In Timeline 794, a Nian Shi version was desperately fending off Number Seven’s attacks. Silver blood stained his robes as he created temporal paradox after paradox, but the Uncreation being simply consumed them all.

Suddenly, the message arrived—a pulse of pure temporal energy that carried the prime Nian Shi’s command: Merge. Now.

Without hesitation, this Nian Shi abandoned his defense and tore open a temporal rift, fleeing toward the designated convergence point.

Number Seven pursued instantly, but the Nian Shi version had already coordinated with three other versions arriving simultaneously from different timelines. As they converged, their forms blurred together in a silver explosion of light.

When the light cleared, a strengthened Nian Shi stood where four had been—his power multiplied, his temporal authority enhanced. He turned to Number Seven with new confidence.

“Let’s try this again,” the merged Nian Shi said, and this time, when he manipulated time, it actually affected the Uncreation being.

***

In Timeline 322, another Nian Shi was losing ground to Number Ten. The void claws of the hunting hound tore through temporal barriers like they were paper.

The merge command arrived just as Number Ten prepared a final strike. This Nian Shi didn’t flee—instead, he reached across dimensions and pulled two other versions of himself into his timeline.

The three Nian Shi versions merged mid-battle, their combined power creating a temporal shockwave that actually forced Number Ten back.

“Interesting,” the merged Nian Shi observed, studying how the Uncreation being now hesitated. “So there is a threshold where even void cannot consume time completely.”

***

Across countless timelines, the same scene repeated. Nian Shi versions abandoned individual battles and converged, merging into stronger, more powerful entities capable of resisting the hunting hounds.

In some cases, the mergers were strategic—versions from complementary timelines combining their specialized knowledge of temporal manipulation.

In others, it was pure power accumulation—weaker versions merging to create beings that could stand against the void.

The situation was clearly positive after this move was deployed…