Daniel raised his hand once more.
The same attack.
The same erasure.
The same overwhelming force rooted in rules and concepts.
Yet this time—
When Knowledge Daniel's figure reassembled within the void, something changed.
For the first time, a disturbance appeared on his face—
A fluctuation outside of data.
A faint sense of disharmony began spreading through his existence.
"This isn't right."
Knowledge Daniel lowered his head and stared at his own palm.
His hand completed its reconstitution 0.03 seconds later than usual.
An error so small it could normally be ignored.
But here—
At the terminus where everything existed only as concepts,
Any deviation, no matter how minute, was fatal.
Daniel said nothing.
He simply attacked again.
Another erasure.
Another reconstruction.
This time—
Knowledge Daniel's left leg took half a second longer to fully form.
A barely perceptible delay.
But the foundation of his existence—
That eternal concept of immortality anchored in "cognition"—
Had developed a hairline crack.
"What did you do?!"
Knowledge Daniel's voice finally lost its calm.
For the first time, it carried the raw weight of rage.
"Your attacks—your cognition—why are they damaging my origin?!"
"This violates logic!"
"This is impossible!"
Daniel looked at him and finally stopped the action he had repeated billions of times.
"I already told you," he said evenly.
"Your cognition is wrong."
"What comes next—"
"You won't understand."
"Because this knowledge," he continued calmly,
"belongs entirely to the unknown—as far as you're concerned."
The moment his words ended, Daniel did not unleash another erasure.
Instead—
He extended his hand into the absolute void.
And gently clenched his fist.
Several entirely unfamiliar rule-lines came into existence out of nothingness itself.
They formed instantly.
Like a cage.
Knowledge Daniel was trapped within them before he could react.
"Creating rules? Here?!"
"Using what as a foundation?!"
Knowledge Daniel attempted to analyze them.
But for the first time—
His boundless database returned nothing.
No matching structures.
No reference models.
No underlying axioms.
The foundations of these rules did not correspond to anything he knew.
"Using me as the foundation."
Daniel's voice sounded again.
He took a single step forward—
And in that instant, the presence of his existence surpassed the very endpoint of nothingness.
He did not rewind time.
He did not manipulate causality.
He simply—
Stepped out of the River of Time itself.
BOOM!
Knowledge Daniel felt himself seized by an irresistible force.
Dragged violently through an indescribable barrier.
He could clearly perceive what was happening.
Daniel was carrying him—
Straight toward the end of the River of Time.
But Daniel did not stop there.
He continued forward—
Toward an even older direction.
A direction that should not exist.
"Stop—!"
"You insane bastard!"
"If you go any further, we'll both be lost in nothingness!"
Knowledge Daniel struggled desperately.
But Daniel's newly forged rules bound him completely.
In the next instant—
They pierced through a thick, incomprehensible veil.
And arrived within a brand-new universe.
"…What is this place?"
Knowledge Daniel was completely stunned.
The vast system of knowledge he took pride in—
Knowledge that encompassed innumerable worldlines and civilizations—
Collapsed here into meaningless noise.
The laws of this universe.
Its logic.
Its structure.
He could not understand them.
Could not analyze them.
To Knowledge Daniel—
This was like an ancient scholar staring at living, executing code.
His existence began to flicker violently.
Because the knowledge and cognition forming him could find no reality to anchor to here.
"Welcome," Daniel's voice echoed clearly through the chaos,
"to a place before the beginning."
"A place that existed before your 'knowledge' was born."
"Without the 'known'—"
"What do you have left?"
Knowledge Daniel could not answer.
For the first time—
He was truly afraid.
Because the laws here, the principles here, were all completely foreign to him.
"All right," Daniel said lightly,
"being able to come back here again…"
"…really does feel quite nice."
He turned his gaze toward a blue-white planet in the distance.
Earth.
A trace of nostalgia surfaced on his face.
But in the next moment—
When he looked back at Knowledge Daniel—
Only killing intent remained.
"Now," Daniel said coldly,
"you can die."
"No—!"
"What is this place?!"
"Why did I absorb you and yet never know this existed?!"
Knowledge Daniel let out his final roar.
At this moment, the God of Knowledge looked like a being of complete ignorance.
Daniel looked at the terror-stricken face before him and smiled faintly.
"This is a world that does not belong to you."
"And here—"
"Our authorities mean nothing."
Knowledge Daniel froze.
He felt the unfamiliar flow of rules around him.
The powers he once wielded effortlessly—
The ability to twist, rewrite, or create rules—
Were now like machines with their power cut off.
Silent.
Unresponsive.
He attempted to mobilize the overwhelming strength within his body.
That power surpassing Inner Gods—
Was sealed inside him like a beast trapped in an unbreakable cage.
It could circulate internally.
But it could not affect the outside world at all.
"Unfortunately for you," Daniel continued,
his tone carrying a subtle trace of amusement,
"I understand the rules here."
He said nothing more.
He discarded every ornate authority.
Every divine concept.
Every metaphysical advantage.
He gathered all the divine power within him—
Power that had shattered all boundaries—
And condensed it entirely into his right fist.
No rules.
No concepts.
No abstractions.
Only pure physical force.
His fist slammed squarely into Knowledge Daniel's chest.
BANG.
A dull, heavy sound echoed.
Knowledge Daniel did not move.
He lowered his head and looked at his chest.
There wasn't even a mark.
Not a scratch.
He was completely unharmed.
Knowledge Daniel raised his head.
Shock and confusion filled his face—
Then rapidly transformed into extreme mockery.
"So this is it?"
"The strongest Daniel—this is all you've got?"
"Without rules, you're nothing special."
"I thought bringing me here meant you had some incredible trump card."
"How ridiculous."
"You're really just… average."
His confidence returned.
The arrogance belonging to a God of Knowledge resurfaced.
In his view, since neither side could use rules, what mattered was existential substance—
And he did not believe he would lose to Daniel in that regard.
Daniel withdrew his fist.
He showed no reaction to the ridicule.
He simply smiled faintly.
Then he asked:
"Don't you feel… that you're moving faster?"
Knowledge Daniel paused.
He instinctively sensed his own state.
Indeed—
He was moving at extremely high speed.
And accelerating.
His brow furrowed slightly.
"So what?"
"For a being like me, what does speed even matter?"
Daniel looked at him.
The smile on his face turned cold.
The kind of cold that comes from seeing the end of someone's fate.
"It seems you still don't understand the rules of this world."
"Then let me explain."
Daniel's voice was calm.
"Here—"
"The faster you move…"
"…the greater your mass becomes."