Aiden’s plan had worked perfectly.
While using Zero Effect to relieve himself of the Curse of Death earlier, a realization and idea had dawned on him: he could apply that sa Zero Effect directly to Jorus himself.
Any supernatural phenonon in this world was caused by so form of magic, and that included Jorus’s healing factor. The regeneration was a magical effect that took hold whether passively or voluntarily whenever he sustained damage.
And if Aiden could apply Zero Effect directly onto Jorus’s body, then for about four or five seconds, Jorus’s healing factor would be rendered completely ineffective.
So when Aiden used Ti Stop to halt ti around them, he had also used his Destruction Authority skill:Zero Effect, in tandem on Jorus’s body specifically targeting that regenerative ability.
As soon as Aiden severed both hands, he didn’t hesitate. He drove Excalibur forward with all his strength, straight through Jorus’s heart.
The blade pierced cleanly through flesh and bone erged from the god’s back in a spray of dark blood.
And then the five seconds expired. Ti resud its flow.
Jorus scread a sound so agonizing it felt like it echoed across the entire Mirror World. His eyes went wide with shock and pain as he stared down at the blade protruding from his chest.
His healing factor imdiately tried to kick in.
Myria beside him had her eyes widened in absolute shock as she processed what had just happened. She too had been affected by Ti Stop and hadn’t realized anything until it was already done.
Jorus gritted his teeth against the excruciating pain as he locked eyes with Aiden, floating before him while holding Excalibur buried deep within his chest cavity.
And right in that position, Ti stopped again.
Aiden reapplied Zero Effect onto Jorus’s healing factor once more, resetting its suppression for another few seconds while everything else around them froze mid-motion again.
The slow blobs of flesh that had started trying to remake new skin over the severed wrists imdiately ceased their progress.
Jorus’s heart, which had barely begun knitting itself back together around Excalibur’s blade, stopped healing entirely as well, leaving it impaled.
——
With ti stopped again, Aiden intended to only worsen Jorus’s situation.
First, Aiden activated his Space Authority skill: Phasing, then pushed his left free arm forward into Jorus’s torso.
It passed through the god’s body harmlessly, and Aiden didn’t let his arm phase out from behind. His entire forearm remained inside Jorus’s chest cavity, existing within the god’s physical form without damaging it.
And then he stopped using the Phasing skill.
The mont he deactivated it, his solid, physical arm instantly occupied space that Jorus’s flesh already filled.
Reality had to reconcile the contradiction, and it did so in the only way possible: by forcibly displacing everything around Aiden’s limb.
A hole tore open in Jorus’s body from the inside out, carved by Aiden’s suddenly solid arm now embedded within him.
In that sa instant, before ti could resu, a small black orb materialized in Aiden’s palm. It ford within Jorus’s chest cavity, positioned practically against his heart.
A black hole.
Aiden was using different Authority skills almost in tandem with each other now.
Ti resud its flow, and Jorus’s eyes widened with a shock he’d never thought he would ever be able to experience in his entire existence as an Archon God.
What in the hell was that thing inside of his body, rupturing all of his innards from within?!
He tried to scream, but the sound ca out strangled and broken as the black hole began pulling at everything around it.
Fesh, bone, blood, all of it being drawn inexorably toward the black mass now sitting inside his chest.
Aiden yanked Excalibur free from Jorus’s heart with brutal force, and in the sa motion, he drove his foot forward into Jorus’s midsection, kicking the largely disoriented god downward toward the ground below.
Jorus plumted as he clutched desperately at his chest where the black hole continued tearing him apart from the inside out.
And throughout it all, Aiden maintained his use of Zero Effect on the Archon God’s body, suppressing his healing factor completely so that nothing could regenerate or stop what was happening.
"What have you done to Jorus?!" Myria thundered from where she hovered nearby.
A massive mirror ford instantly before her, as she released a concentrated blast toward Aiden.
But before it could reach him—
A large gigantic palm of earth stretched itself between Aiden and the incoming attack, taking the full brunt of the explosion across its surface.
This was Thera’s golem.
It had just regained its freedom from the Burial of Skulls that had been dragging it downward monts before.
The sea of skeletal remains had dissolved the instant Jorus lost consciousness, releasing the massive construct back into full mobility.
Thera imdiately floated out from the golem’s core, although the golem technique itself was not undone.
The massive stone monster still remained as it was, towering over the battlefield.
She moved directly toward Myria, positioning herself between her sister and Aiden.
"Jorus has been defeated," Thera said. "Leave this place, or you’ll be next."
Thera didn’t know exactly what was happening to Jorus as he squird intermittently on the ground far below them, but she could feel him slowly passing away.
And so could Myria. Archons always knew when one of their own was dying or had died already. It was an innate sense they shared.
Myria looked between Thera and Aiden who remained focused entirely on recasting his Zero Effect every four seconds to continuously annul Jorus’s regenerative abilities so that the black hole inside him would keep tearing away at everything from within without interruption.
Her expression twisted with fury and frustration, but beneath it all was sothing else, fear. She had watched Aiden dismantle one of the most powerful Archons in Eden.
And she knew with absolute certainty, that if she stayed here and fought, she would share his fate.
Without another word, Myria gritted her teeth and disappeared into one of her mirrors, and with that, she was gone.
Thera floated closer toward Aiden and looked down at Jorus with sadness clear in her eyes but also understanding.
She didn’t stop Aiden.
Jorus’s body eventually gave out. He had stopped trying to fight against the blackhole.
His limbs went limp. His eyes stared blankly as his divine energy finally flickered and began fading away.
Then the black hole inside him pulled all of his innards inward, collapsing everything into its center in one final violent implosion that left nothing behind.
Aiden made the black hole expand further from within, and it sucked all of what remained of Jorus into itself.
Then Aiden allowed the black hole to fade away as he released control over it and let it collapse back into nothingness.
He turned toward Thera and said with a faint smile on his face:
"And there’s only one thing we say when death cos knocking; Not today."
A blue portal ford beside him in midair, leading back to the real Eden outside this Mirror World.
Aiden floated through it without another word or backward glance.
Thera sighed heavily, then followed right after him through the portal before it closed.
The mont they passed through, cracks started appearing in the skies of the Mirror World above them, spreading outward like fractures across glass.
Aiden and Thera erged back onto the battlefield of the real Eden.
And right before them was a terrific sight.
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