★264
ACAMAR POV
The Supreme Star, Acamar, sat within the Garden, his omniscients stretching effortlessly across the entire Pond. Nothing escaped him, not even the faintest shift.
'I can't believe a war that has lingered for billions of years will end in less than one.'
He began, as the Supreme Star, he'd expected than wasn't happening.
'The Dark Star armies never arrived, yet five of the Dark Nebulas are already gone. This isn't coincidence… it's a plan. And the most troubling part is that he still hasn't made his move.'
The thought lingered, heavier than the rest. The only Dark Star capable of opposing him had remained silent this entire time.
An army should've marched in long ago, long before one of their powerhouse was defeated. But no, there was nothing.
As if answering that unease, something changed.
A presence, or rather an absence, slipped into the Star Realm. It did not arrive with force or spectacle, yet its existence was undeniable as it descended into the Divine Land, directly within the Garden itself.
It wasn't a grand arrival, nor did he carry an overwhelming aura that crushed everything around him. There was no spectacle to his presence, yet Acamar, in his omniscience, recognised it for what it was.
"My words still stand. Disturbance of Yuánlì within the Divine Land is prohibited."
The kid-like Supreme Star spoke with a voice that sounded almost childlike, yet carried undeniable authority. He remained seated, unmoving, even as that presence of absence stood behind him.
After waiting for a reply that never came, I stood up and faced him in a single fluid motion.
"Can't talk?"
I asked, watching him closely.
"Or has all that void stripped you of the ability to comprehend and respond?"
Even then, Algol said nothing. He remained where he stood, his gaze fixed on the ground, as if my words had never reached him.
He has changed significantly from the last time I saw him. His tattoos spread all around his body. I never thought or asked why Algol has tattoos. Based on the analysis, I'd say it's responding to his form as he evolved.
Despite his abnormal state, he emitted not a faint aura. Neither did those two glyphs by his sides.
[[IMAGE]]
[[IMAGE]]
"If you aren't going to come at me, I'll make the first move."
This was war. He didn't come here to talk, to stand there. I have to take him out before anything bad happens.
I slowly raised my hand and released an azure beam of light, one that should have erased him instantly, yet something was off. It reached him without obstruction, but the moment it did, it was neutralised, fading out as though it had never held any power at all.
'Nihiliths?'
I blinked in surprise as his arm shot forward, stretching out to grab my head with precise speed. I shifted to the right, letting it pass just beside me.
In that same instant, the God-Class weapon, Severer, formed in my palm and I struck without delay. It made contact, yet nothing followed. The weapon failed, breaking apart as it faded out of existence.
Before I could react, a single punch landed and sent me flying off the Divine Land.
'Severer can sever Ethereal Filaments. Yet it met its end so quickly.'
I anchored myself mid-air, halting my momentum as I steadied my stance.
My gaze locked onto him as I began measuring his strength, searching for any trace, any pattern I could grasp. If I could understand it, even slightly, then victory would be within reach.
'All my attacks are built on my essence and Yuánlì. The only reason he is still standing has to be Nihiliths. He does not embody it, yet because of its nature, anything rooted in Yuánlì becomes meaningless against him.
That alone tells me this is not his true strength. Nihiliths is only a part of it. I could go all out and win, but that would tear the Divine Land apart, and I cannot allow that. His presence alone rejects teleportation, so forcing him out is not an option either.'
"In that case…"
Golden sparks flared around my fingers as I prepared to shift my approach.
He lifted his head in sudden recognition, but it was already too late. I shot past him mid-air, a blur of incandescent force, my fingers tearing through the Nihilith field in a single, savage strike aimed to rip his head from his body. But as I landed, my arm was already gone.
I turned sharply, only to see his fist descending, ready to crush me where I stood. The Divine Gate manifested between us, its majestic presence warping the space around it, but his strike tore through it anyway, breaking what was meant to be the most indestructible defensive Art ever conceived. Reality itself seemed to scream under the impact.
His hand passed through the shattered barrier and caught my haori instead, gripping only the empty space I had vacated a breath earlier.
I appeared midair, golden light swirling around my destroyed arm, but it was no use. There's nothing to regenerate.
'He is the first to hit that stage.'
His Grace's voice resounded in my head, and I switched to Etherium to assess the situation, and the result became clear as day.
'And here I thought I didn't need stages and ascension to reach that height.'
I spoke to myself, yet the Supreme Godreplied.
'Algol has made contact with IT. There's nothing to climb from within. Now is your best chance to defeat him while he's embodying Nihilglyphs.'
Something stirred within me at His words.
'From Void Singularity to Nihilglyphs, and now, he's attempting to push further. Transcendence so limitless Ascendrons have been long irrelevant. Damned void creatures, I hate them.'
I placed my hand on my waist and looked at him.
"I can use that."
I said, a faint smile forming as the golden light on my fingers burned more intensely.
'Antares keeps pushing higher, yet he is still insignificant compared to us. And among the ranks of the Twin Stars, I will always stand above them.'
The golden light intensified, shifting in tone and purity until it turned silver in response, as if answering the change within me.
It all happened in an instant. The two glyphs by his sides reacted to my presence, their eye-like figures blinking. They weren't mere gestures, they're signals for something catastrophic.
The tattooed eye on his chest slowly shut, without any otherworldly force to gather it opened up instantly. In that blink, the chaotic force beyond Existence lets loose. A force not meant to enter Existence, but erase what it meant to exist as well as the Forces behind its creation.
But I was also ready. Prioritising the safety of the Divine Land, I raised my Silver Light stained palm, bringing forth a transparent silver cylindrical dome, enclosing Algol and the Nihilglyphs' collapsing Existence within its bounds.
The void struck it, a soundless impact that rippled through every Ontologions & Ontospheres. Yet it could not connect. Its chaos slid across the transparent silver surface, unable even to grasp, let alone fracture it.
Mid-swing, I snapped my fingers, the Silver Light nullifying the Fragment of Anti-Being, before I called off the barrier. Algol hesitated, disbelief breaking through his composure. I met his gaze with a faint, detached smile.
Then he moved, his fist wreathed in Nihilglyphs energy, reality buckling around its charge. But the Silver Light responded before Neosis could form. It splintered into razor-thin threads, slicing through the air as I slipped past him in one fluid instant.
When stillness returned, I was already seated upon the otherworldly flowers of the Garden, their luminescent petals swaying in silence, unaffected by what just transpired.
"Looks like the war is ending."
I said to myself, picking up the wild signature that just in Kalidor. I didn't bother to look back. The remnants of Algol were fading behind me, completely irrelevant, forgotten before they were even gone.
Now that the Transparent Particle has joined the play, even the Anti-Being beyond Yuánlì won't save him. The range of his erasure is so vast my omniscient mind can't even comprehend what will happen to him next.
"Hmm."
I sigh, the Mystical Energy dispersing from my fingers.
"I wonder what will happen after the war."
I closed my eyes.
The Star War might be the reason everything had reached this point. But what comes after it? Harmony across the Star Realm as usual, or another otherworldly threat rising in its place? Perhaps something worse.
'Perhaps we lose and the Star Realm gets destroyed."
A quiet chuckle escaped me.
"I can't wait for the inevitable."
For a brief moment, I let my thoughts drift, almost like a final indulgence in peace, as if this could be the last time I had the luxury to do so.
Apparently, just like Antares, Acamar understood that inevitability is a force even supreme god-like beings cannot afford to ignore, despite their overwhelming power.
Instead of thinking in terms of "I can't change this event or control it," they operate under something closer to: "The outcome already exists before any attempt to act."
That approach aligns more with pre-determinism, where even the decision to change something is already included within the outcome itself.
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To be continued...