The transition from the obsidian tunnels to the entrance of the Star-Core was marked by a sudden, sickening lack of gravity. As Fang Yuan and Eron began the complex weaving of the First Sequence, the heavy, chitinous footsteps of Inquisitor Vultar echoed like thunder. The High Inquisitor didn't just walk; his very presence "smelled" the inconsistencies in reality.
"Go," Fang Yuan commanded, his voice a cold vibration in the dark. He didn't look back at Zane. "Buy us the time required. Do not let the insect cross the threshold."
Zane, the Void-Sentinel of shadows, didn't nod. He simply dissolved into a cloud of jagged, violet-black mist.
Inquisitor Vultar rounded the corner, his twelve amber eyes flickering with predatory hunger. His antennae twitched violently. "I smell... nothingness. A hole in the tapestry of the Abyss!" He raised a staff made of calcified demon-bone, pulsing with a Rank 2 Sovereign Frequency. "Reveal yourself, traitor!"
Zane materialized not in front of Vultar, but within his shadow.
"VOID ART: SINGULARITY LASH!"
From the ground beneath the Inquisitor, dozens of serrated shadow-tendrils erupted, vibrating at a frequency that bypassed Vultar's physical armor. Vultar shrieked, a high-pitched sonic blast that shattered the nearby obsidian pillars. He swung his staff, releasing a wave of "Absolute Detection" mana designed to pin down any cloaked entity.
But Zane was no longer a simple shadow-user. Having consumed the essence of the Rock-Demons and being refined by Fang Yuan's corrupted threads, he existed in a state of Quantum-Phase. The detection wave passed through him as if he were a ghost.
"Impossible!" Vultar hissed, his amber eyes spinning. "Your mana... it has no logic! It has no origin!"
Zane didn't reply. He closed the distance in a blur of indigo light. His claws, infused with the Molecular Unraveling property, struck Vultar's bone-staff. The staff didn't break; it simply ceased to exist where Zane touched it, turning into a fine, grey mist of non-existence.
"The Master weaves... you are merely the scrap," Zane's voice, a hollow echo of Fang Yuan's own, resonated in the tunnel.
Back at the Star-Core, Fang Yuan felt the feedback from the battle. Zane was holding, but Vultar was a High Inquisitor for a reason. The demon began to secrete a thick, golden ichor that started to "coat" the Space-Time around them, effectively "painting" the Void so it could be touched and crushed.
"Hurry, Old Man," Fang Yuan whispered to Eron, his hands moving in a blur as he extracted the first shimmering fragment of Kaelen's Heroic soul. "The insect is getting creative."