The spatial ring in the Abyssal Mistress’s hand flared violently.
A sharp pulse of light burst outward, piercing through the void like a signal flare.
Grey’s pupils shrank.
The instant he saw it, his instincts scread danger.
That light was not ordinary. It carried a pressure that did not belong to this battlefield, nor to this level of existence. Whatever she was activating, it was sothing he could not afford to let finish.
Grey did not hesitate.
Ti stopped.
The world froze in place as if reality itself had been seized by an invisible hand. The Abyssal Mistress remained suspended mid-motion, the light locked halfway through its eruption, space around it distorted but unmoving.
Grey exhaled slowly.
His consciousness sharpened as the Nexus Ruination Art began to circulate. Complex patterns flared across his mind interface, energy pathways burning as power was forcefully redirected into a single catastrophic point.
He knew the cost.
Once this art was unleashed, his reserves would be completely drained. His body would be left empty.
But that light gave him a feeling he could not ignore.
He had to end this now.
Just as Grey stepped forward.
The frozen world shook.
At first, it was subtle. A low tremor rippled through the halted space, like cracks forming beneath ice. Then the trembling intensified, spreading outward in violent waves.
Grey’s expression changed.
For a split second, an overwhelming presence erupted from the suspended light in the Abyssal Mistress’s hand. It was vast, cold, and suffocating, carrying an authority that did not belong to her.
"Hm?"
A terrifying voice bood directly inside Grey’s mind.
His head rang violently, consciousness montarily destabilized as pressure slamd against his soul. His vision blurred, and his ti-frozen domain wavered.
The next instant, the world around him vanished.
Grey found himself standing within a dark void.
A man stood before him.
He had short blond hair and deep blue eyes that seed to pierce straight through existence itself. He wore a pristine priest’s uniform, adorned with faint symbols that radiated divine restraint rather than holiness.
Those eyes locked onto Grey.
"Who are you, little brat?"
The man’s voice carried no anger, only indifference, as if Grey’s existence barely registered.
He raised his hand.
Space warped around his fingers as he reached forward, attempting to seize Grey directly, bypassing distance, ti, and law.
In that instant, Grey felt it clearly.
This was not a projection.
It was an intrusion.
The void shattered.
The frozen world trembled violently before collapsing outright. Ti cracked like glass and burst apart.
Ti resud.
Reality surged back into motion as if released from a stranglehold.
Grey staggered mid-air.
Sharp pain tore across his body.
He looked down and saw several deep cuts etched across his flesh, space-scarred wounds that had ford without him even realizing it. Blood seeped out briefly before his regeneration surged, rapidly knitting the injuries shut.
His expression darkened.
He had been injured.
Before he could react further, the Abyssal Mistress’s body was suddenly lifted into the air, her expression twisting in shock and relief at the sa ti.
A spatial crack tore open beside her.
Before Grey could reach her, the distortion swallowed her whole, sealing shut instantly afterward.
"No!"
Grey’s figure flickered.
In an instant, he crossed the distance, spatial perception flaring to its limit as countless spatial nodes unfolded in his awareness. He traced the remnants of the distortion, locking onto the exit point.
Then his heart sank.
His expression changed drastically.
The spatial node on the other end did not exist within this region.
It originated far away.
From the west.
"Tch."
Grey straightened slowly, eyes icy.
"She actually managed to escape."
Yet that was not what truly unsettled him.
His thoughts returned to the man in the priest’s uniform.
He looked no different from a ssenger of a god, yet Grey knew that description could not have been more misleading.
He was a High Order mber!
A High Order existence capable of ignoring both space and ti to directly launch an attack on him.
Just the thought alone sent a chill through Grey’s mind.
Still, the Abyssal Mistress had escaped.
That was the part that truly irritated him.
It had taken an imnse amount of power, careful positioning, and even external interference to inflict enough damage on her. Every step had been calculated, every move forced her deeper into disadvantage.
And yet, in the end, it had all gone to waste.
"How annoying."
Grey glanced around irritably, his spatial perception sweeping the surroundings once more, even though he already knew the result.
The Mistress must have landed safely on the other side.
And if his judgnt was correct, then that fourth-rank existence had now undoubtedly beco aware of him.
That realization made his brows twitch.
"This is just great."
Yet despite the frustration boiling within him, Grey knew there was nothing he could do about it.
The Law of Entropy was the key factor.
It was precisely that law which had destabilized his ti stop, forcing disorder into a domain that should have been absolute. If not for that interference, his frozen world would have remained intact.
If ti had held for even a mont longer, he could have eliminated her cleanly.
But reality did not allow such conveniences.
Less than two seconds had passed.
From the mont she was struck by his attack to the instant she activated the talisman, the interval had been terrifyingly short.
Even while reeling from the damage, she had reacted imdiately, relying on a contingency that had clearly been prepared long before this battle ever began.
That alone spoke volus.
This was not luck.
It was preparation.
Among all the enemies he had encountered so far, the Abyssal Mistress was one of the more competent ones.
She had made her arrangents in advance and had not hesitated for even a heartbeat before abandoning the battlefield the mont survival beca uncertain.
Grey exhaled slowly, the irritation within him settling into cold clarity.
Against beings tied to higher laws, especially those capable of introducing entropy into ti itself, brute force alone was no longer sufficient.
And now, a fourth-ranking High Order mber had seen him.
That was the real price of this encounter.
Grey’s gaze shifted.
His eyes locked onto a lone figure suspended in the air at a distance, silently observing everything that had just transpired.
The instant their gazes t, the man stiffened.
He flinched.
User Comments
0 comments from readers