When Jaune rose to his feet, the first thing he noticed was not the disappearance of Apathy's crushing influence nor the way the temporal prison surrounding his body had become meaningless.
Those changes were obvious enough that even a child could have recognized them.
No.
What truly captured his attention instead was something far more subtle, a strange sensation that seemed to originate from the newly formed rune resting within his soul. It then spread outward through every layer of his existence.
It was difficult to describe.
Throughout his life, every rune he possessed and used had come with its own unique sensation.
Null felt nothing like any of them.
Or perhaps more accurately, it felt like the absence of something that had always been there.
As Jaune stood beneath the crimson light of the broken moon, he became aware of a peculiar lightness surrounding his existence. It was not physical weightlessness. Gravity still existed and his feet still rested against the stone beneath him.
The air still brushed against his skin and the Dream Realm still stretched endlessly around him. Yet despite all of that, there was a faint sensation that those things no longer possessed authority over him.
It felt as though invisible chains had slipped away.
As though countless laws that had quietly governed his existence since the day he was born had suddenly lost their ability to reach him.
The sensation was fleeting, almost impossible to properly focus on, yet the more Jaune examined it the more certain he became that it was real.
For the first time in his life, he felt disconnected from something he had never even realized was there.
While Jaune stood quietly contemplating that strange feeling, his father suddenly burst into laughter.
Deep, genuine, uncontrollable laughter.
The sound echoed across the floating pyramid as Nicholas bent forward and covered part of his face with one hand. His shoulders shook and his body trembled. The laughter continued for several long seconds before eventually becoming so intense that tears formed in the corners of his eyes.
Jaune simply stared at his father quietly.
The reaction was so unexpected that he found himself momentarily speechless.
This was not the calculating mastermind who manipulated kingdoms from the shadows. This was not the terrifying wielder of Time who had casually dismantled every plan Jaune had spent months preparing.
This was simply a father laughing at something he found genuinely wonderful. Eventually the laughter subsided, Nicholas wiped tears from his eyes and slowly lowered his hand.
Yet even after the laughter faded, the look in his eyes remained.
Wonder.
Pure wonder.
And beneath it lay something else.
Madness.
The kind of madness that came from witnessing the impossible become reality. His voice carried genuine admiration.
"So you've done it. You actually created it."
Jaune narrowed his eyes.
"You know what I created?"
Nicholas immediately shook his head. The answer came without hesitation.
"No, In fact, I don't know even its name."
A grin spread across his face as his eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"What is it? Go on. Tell me."
He spread his hands dramatically.
"Negation? Void? Oblivion? What sort of absurd thing did you just create, Jaune?"
The reaction was genuine.
Jaune could tell.
Through Weakness he could sense the man's emotions clearly. Nicholas truly did not know, and that realization caused something to click within Jaune's mind.
His eyes widened ever so slightly.
Then his gaze shifted toward the rune hovering in his soul.
Null.
The rune remained active despite him doing absolutely nothing. It required no concentration, activation and deliberate effort.
It simply existed.
Unlike his other runes, which all possessed specific functions and capabilities, Null felt more like a state of being.
A declaration. A concept imposed upon his self. It did not make him stronger nor did it make him faster.
It did not allow him to manipulate the elements or bend space or control minds. During its creation he had stripped away every possible capability.
Every ounce of versatility and utility. Every ounce of complexity. He had discarded everything until only a single purpose remained.
The nullification of phenomena.
Nothing more and nothing less.
And suddenly Jaune understood why his father looked so happy.
His gaze snapped upward.
"Foresight..."
Nicholas raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?"
Jaune stared at him and spoke, "You saw it all..."
For the first time since this confrontation began, Nicholas looked genuinely proud. The expression was subtle and small, yet impossible to miss.
Pride.
Pride directed toward Jaune and pride at what he had achieved. Pride at what he had become.
"Indeed."
Nicholas folded his hands behind his back and slowly looked toward the broken moon hanging overhead.
"When I came into contact with Knowledge all those years ago, Foresight changed."
His gaze returned to Jaune.
"It became something far greater than simple future sight. Do you understand now?"
Jaune did. The answer arrived instantly.
Fate.
Not destiny in the mythical sense or some cosmic script governing every individual action but something larger and broader.
The future itself.
The inevitable future that ended with the Sleeper's return. The future that ended with the extinction of humanity. Knowledge had evolved Foresight into something far beyond merely seeing tomorrow.
It allowed Nicholas to perceive the larger flow of reality and to see the river rather than the droplets.
Every scheme, manipulation and conspiracy. Every sacrifice and every atrocity. All of it had been guided by the future he had witnessed.
"It was all for this..."
Nicholas remained silent and Jaune's voice grew colder.
"The years of manipulation..."
His eyes locked onto his father's.
"It was all so I could create this rune."
Again Nicholas said nothing. Yet the silence itself confirmed everything. Slowly, Jaune looked down at his own hands. At the sensation surrounding his body. At the strange freedom that still lingered around his existence.
And finally he understood.
Null was truly special.
Time, fate and destiny. Runes, concepts and laws. All of them became meaningless in its presence. A rune born with the theoretical hierarchy of [0].
A rune with a singular purpose.
Render them all NULL
A strange realization settled over him.
For the first time since Nicholas had gained Knowledge-enhanced Foresight, Jaune Arc no longer existed within the future.
He had become a blind spot and a void. A place where causality itself failed to function.
"You can't see me anymore...?"
Nicholas nodded immediately, without hesitation and denial. Then he calmly stepped forward until they stood face to face.
"Correct."
His voice carried neither frustration nor fear. Only satisfaction.
"When it comes to you, my runes no longer work."
To demonstrate the point, he casually snapped his fingers. Temporal energy surged outward.
Jaune felt it clearly.
The phenomenon of temporal energy. Then, absolutely nothing happened. The energy washed over him like a gentle breeze before disappearing into irrelevance.
Null.
The silence that followed lasted several long moments.
Finally Jaune spoke.
"My rune's name is Null."
Nicholas smiled.
"Wonderful."
Behind them, the colossal form of Apathy shifted awkwardly.
The enormous Grimm peered around the floating pyramid with visible confusion. The creature's soul-damaging influence still flooded the area. The pressure still existed. The conceptual lethargy still radiated outward into the Dream Realm.
Yet none of it touched Jaune.
Earlier before he had condensed his new rune, weakness had sensed creature's emotions.
Instinctive hatred and predation towards him. Yet strangely, none of that hatred was directed toward him anymore.
The Grimm looked at him the same way it looked at the sand beneath its feet.
As scenery. As something that simply existed. Not prey or an enemy. Not even a target. Slowly Jaune reached outward.
Gula flowed toward him. Or rather, attempted to. The stalker remained frozen in time. Still trapped within Nicholas's temporal effect.
Yet despite that, in accordance with Jaune's will filled with Null's runic energy, Gula's body still slowly drifted into Jaune's hand. Time still existed and the phenomenon surrounding it remained intact.
But Jaune was simply ignoring it. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Null was not canceling the effect itself.
Not yet, at least. But... it was allowing him to exist independently from it. A subtle distinction, but an important one.
Perhaps Comprehension would change that and perhaps Mastery would as well. For now, however, this was enough.
Turning his gaze toward Apathy, Jaune gripped the spear and hurled it forward. The weapon left his hand, then immediately stopped.
Hovering motionlessly in midair.
Frozen.
Held in place by Time.
Jaune nodded slowly. Another piece of understanding fell into place.
Then he moved.
One moment he stood atop the sands and the next, in front of floating pyramid and directly before the gigantic Grimm.
His hand closed around the frozen spear and he thrust. The weapon pierced through Apathy's skull and the Grimm exploded.
Cracks raced across its massive body before the creature collapsed into dissolving ash beneath the blood-red moon.
As the monster disintegrated, the oppressive pressure blanketing the region vanished entirely.
Silence returned.
Jaune landed atop the floating pyramid. And across from him stood Nicholas Arc, still on the sands. For several long moments neither moved.
Father and son simply stared at one another.
The silence between them lingered for several moments after the Grimm's death, neither man rushing to break it, yet the tension that filled the space was heavier than any words could have been.
Eventually Jaune exhaled slowly and tightened his grip around Gula's spear form before speaking.
"So what now, Dad?" His voice echoed softly across the wasteland.
"Your plans have all come to fruition. Everything you've done, every scheme, every manipulation, every secret you've kept from everyone. It all culminated in this end goal." His eyes narrowed.
"Now what? Are you finally going to talk?"
Nicholas regarded him for a moment before slowly shaking his head.
"No."
The answer had barely left his lips before he disappeared. Jaune's weakness sense detonated within his mind.
Every instinct screamed at him to move. Yet by the time the warning reached his conscious thoughts, Nicholas was already standing directly in front of him.
There was no acceleration, blur or motion for Jaune's eyes to track. One moment his father had been several dozen meters away and the next, his fist was already expanding to fill Jaune's vision.
The punch landed before Jaune could even raise his arms.
The impact exploded across his face like a siege weapon striking a fortress wall, sending a shockwave through the entire floating pyramid while his body launched backwards and smashed into the rear structure.
Oddly enough, he did not crash through the sandstone despite the absurd force behind the strike. The stone cracked and fractured around his body but held firm, causing Jaune's eyes to narrow immediately as he realized his father had intentionally controlled the outcome.
Even now Nicholas was dictating the battlefield, determining exactly how much force to use and exactly where Jaune would land.
Slowly pushing himself upright, Jaune spat blood from the corner of his mouth and looked down at the spear in his hand before releasing it.
Gula simply floated there in the air, still frozen under the compulsion of time.
Under normal circumstances relinquishing such a useful weapon would have been foolish, but these were no longer normal circumstances. Manipulating Gula effectively required thought and attention, and while Gula was capable of handling many transformations independently, Jaune still had to consciously coordinate with the Stalker during combat.
Unfortunately, Null only protected Jaune Arc himself. It did not extend to Gula and did not shield him from temporal effects. As long as that remained true, attempting to fight his father while simultaneously commanding Gula would only split his focus.
Against most opponents such a disadvantage would have been manageable, but against Nicholas Arc it was suicide.
His father smiled faintly as if he had already reached the same conclusion.
"Now that I can't see the future involving you," Nicholas said while rolling one shoulder casually, "I have to make sure you're ready to the very extreme. If you can beat me, everything else will fall into place."
The smile gradually disappeared. "But this time, I'm not going to hold back any longer."
Jaune wiped blood from his mouth and raised his fists.
Then the fight resumed.
.
.