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Up ahead was someone sitting all high and mighty on his throne, looking down at me.
Badum.
'That familiar heartbeat.'
Right after recognising what it was, the Edict of Zenith spoke.
[[YOU.]]
Entares smiled, hurling Erebus's horns with deadly precision. They missed their mark by mere inches, intentionally before shattering upon contact with the indestructible throne.
"They fought well."
He said quietly, his tone devoid of emotion. His armour and flesh gave up due to the Energy stored.{¹}
The final boss didn't respond, he kept staring down at me with those celestial silvery eyes.
"Who are you to dare look down at me, beast? I'm Entares, the Evil Side of The Root. Wherever I set foot, doom is inevitable."
I declared.
"If you had any sense of what that is, you'd run away the moment you saw me."
With Energy running rampant within me, I closed the distance, my fist heavily cloaked with Silver Dust as I threw a punch. He spread his palm summoning his void which isn't like anything I've ever seen.
(Heh, just kidding.)
'I'm Void, whatever bears that name is an imperfect copy of me.'
But Energy would yield to none, least of all his Black Void.
With a mere thought, I rewrote the very particles around us, shattering the void as though it were fragile glass. My fist drove forward, obliterating his arm and the throne behind him in a single, crushing impact, yet he slipped away at the last second, barely escaping the force of it.
He staggered back, spacing out for a moment, his eyes widening as the reality of what had just happened settled in.
"Surprised?"
I asked, already pulling back, my body shifting into motion as I prepared to strike again.
In response, he unleashed his Black Void, the darkness surging outward and twisting into jagged weapons and writhing tentacles that coiled around him in a desperate defence, bracing for the next attack.
'I can temper with their state to my liking but that'll be one-sided. I'll destroy him with raw strength.'
With Energy still crackling through the air, I invoked Aether Move, flashing before him in an instant. My hand clamped around his face with brutal force, and I drove him into the ground. The impact carved out a crater vast enough to be called a new floor.
Without loosening my grip, I dragged him across the unknown realm, his body tearing through the terrain and leaving a trail of ruin in our wake.
'This isn't a realm. It's a space.'
I concluded travelling an unknown distance for a short span of time. I grew bored and threw him up into air.
With no time to waste, the two Energy-based orbs appeared clinging to him; they merged instantly, releasing a Kilonova. An explosion less bright than a Supernova yet 100' more destructive.
(Opposite in real life.)
A Kilonova is an Energy-based explosion. Since Qìnéng can't be created or destroyed, the attack won't destroy him but wear out the Etheric Filament severing the foundation link holding them.
(Energy can't be created/destroyed in the real sense. But with the Dual Fragments, it's possible.)
The Phantoms only survived the Supernova because the Energy only separated them from the whole. And that was my first time using it so it won't work as I expected. But now, I'm 100% the Kiilonova I've just released will obliterate him.
The Kilonova's light faded, leaving behind the Dragon Vessel barely standing, his body chipped, burned, and torn apart, a ruin of what it once was.
"Heheheh, you damn bastard. How did you get this strong in a short amount of time?"
He asked, wounds sticking slowly.
'He survived? That's... unexpected but I can get to experiment on him. The problem is... I don't have time to use Qìnéng.'
A jolt shot through me, and I turned toward the void, my gaze piercing through it, reaching all the way to Antares' hidden space.
'Looks like Antares is about to awaken. He's long surpassed the Qìnéng Stage without giving much practice. I guess it's my turn to awaken.'
I turned towards the Dragon Vessel whose aura was radiating more powerfully than before.
"I'm also awakening. Just fifty more to reach my true potential."
As he said that, his size shrank and he got a little younger, his regeneration now faster.
'I need explanations, Antares. I thought Energy Is capable of absolute erasure. Destroying all forms of Existence.'
Entares has been a spectator eversince he awakened in this Shell. The norms in the other Shells doesn't match here. It's different, weirdly different for a newborn to have such lowlife breaking Existential sequence so easily.
'You seem to forget the Energy itself was frozen in the Suspended World.'
Antares voice cut through in Mind.
"You've stated the facts but it didn't work due to various reasons. First, you wield Energy from a weak vessel. Second, the being Entares isn't one to use Energy. Your speciality is Void. Their two alone means you can't wield it properly like I do."
"That's true, but..."
"Energy is flawed, that's why I skipped it."
Antares intervened Entares's multitasking state, causing Dragon Vessel to land a hit.
Still, Entares paid no attention to the real world. He was caught off guard by Antares's statement.
'Something not even the Secondary Fragments can control willing is considered a flaw to him. Did the Mad Scientist leak something.'
Apparently, the Mad Scientist knows too much for a 'hidden personality'. Entares can't afford them corrupting Antares's mind.
"A higher state of void or Nihilglyphs can survive its destruction."
Antares replied.
"I need something absolute which is still a mystery, but I'm stuck with Ether for now. It is flawless for the time being, and it's getting the job done. Just use your Void to destroy him already."
He dismissed.
Anta's late torture didn't get through. No one is experiencing the pain I'm going through. My inner entity residing in this vessel is being threatened by Ether. This vessel is extremely weak.
(This is both Asteri and Entares complaining.)
'You bastard I can't let go of the force I'm contacting just yet.'
'Then deliver him to the extraction site and let it go.'
'You no good, Good God.'
I sighed, frustrated. I can't command Energy as Anta said so everything I do won't work as it should. I'll rip this bastard and destroy his being.
I surged forward, ordering Nihilius to fall back as the multicoloured Energy within me expanded, unrestrained and violent.
I brought my strike down, and he raised his arms to block, crossing them in a desperate attempt to withstand the blow. The moment my attack connected, the pressure tore through him, and his arm was destroyed instantly upon contact..
'He's more durable and stronger than ever. If it wasn't Energy, I doubt anything can penetrate his skin.'
With his arms gone, I drove an uppercut towards him. He twisted aside in time to evade it physically, yet Energy did not obey such limits, and the strike landed all the same, crashing into him without ever making contact.
Sensing the brief opening, he unfurled his wings and shot upward, a portal forming before him in a desperate bid to escape.
The entrance began to solidify, hardening as if to secure his passage, then shattered shut in an instant. He turned, eyes wide and burning with terror, just as my fist tore through his chest, bursting out of his back and obliterating the sealed gateway behind him in one brutal motion.
I wrenched my arm free, the force ripping through him as I tore both of his hands from their sockets and cast them aside.
His body dropped, and I followed without hesitation, my boots crashing down onto his legs with crushing force. Even under that torment, he made no sound, his face devoid of any trace of pain.
"You devoured your feelings and emotions. That is good."
I said, looking down at him.
"I am not like you, emotional and weak."
He replied, his voice steady despite the ruin of his body.
I brought my foot down onto his abdomen, the force cleaving it open and tearing through what remained of his body until only his head and shoulders were left.
"Any last words?"
I asked, my voice calm as I looked down at him.
"This is not the end."
He declared, a faint smirk forming just before my foot came down and crushed his head completely.
The moment it was done, something in me faltered. My limbs went numb without warning, and I collapsed to the ground, the strength draining from my body all at once. It struck me then that he had not been trying to finish me off, not at the end. And based on my condition, I'm glad he didn't.
My arms and legs gave way entirely, unable to withstand the force I had forced through them. I lay flat against the ground, motionless, as the Energy burned through me from within, coursing across every inch of my body like an uncontrollable fire.
"I can't move anymore. That destruction will have to...'
'Wait?'
He asked, dragging me to the depths of his Mind.
To be continued...