The entity no longer held back.
It surged forward, unraveling the edges of reality with every step. The sky above the Shadow Realm collapsed into a spiral of black flame and static. Time fractured. Gravity twisted. The battlefield became a warzone of dimensions.
Minwoo hovered above it all, cloaked in living shadow, the Nexus Blade humming with power that bent the laws of existence. His eyes—still blazing violet—now held something deeper: the weight of a Realm, and the fury of its soul.
The entity responded with silence—and then violence.
It struck with tendrils of void, each one capable of erasing memory, soul, and form. Minwoo countered with a single slash, and the blade sang. The shadows surged, forming a barrier of dragons and spears, absorbing the void and reshaping it into weapons.
Shadow Fang fought below, synchronized through Minwoo's will. Kinro's flames now burned with spectral intensity, while Kuzuki's arm pulsed with unstable energy—his bond with Minwoo deepening beyond mortal limits.
But the entity adapted again.
It began corrupting the Realm's core, infecting the Primordial Seed with anti-shadow—pure negation. Minwoo felt it instantly. His connection to the Realm flickered. The Nexus Blade dimmed.
Minwoo descended, blade-first, into the heart of the corruption. The Realm screamed. The entity followed, its form now splitting into thousands of voidborn fragments—each one a miniature apocalypse.
Minwoo reached the Seed.
He plunged the Nexus Blade into it—not to destroy, but to fuse. The blade absorbed the corruption, twisted it, and forged something new: The Nexus Core, a fusion of shadow and void, creation and destruction.
He rose again.
The Nexus Blade transformed—its edge now rippling with paradox, capable of cutting through possibility itself. Minwoo struck.
The voidborn fragments collapsed. The entity howled.
Reality bent.
And then—silence.
Minwoo stood alone in the sky, the Shadow Realm stabilizing around him. The Nexus Core pulsed quietly in his hand.
Shadow Fang gathered below, battered but alive.
Minwoo looked at the horizon. "No. It's only begun."