The abyss was no longer silent.
It screamed.
Fractures ran through the void like veins of molten glass, Prismarine fire and divine light spilling into every crack. The echo of Vemy's strike still reverberated, a pulse that refused to fade. Behind him, the jagged Ring of Defiance spun in defiance of everything sacred, shards orbiting like feral stars.
And before him, for the first time since the beginning of this battle—
the Ring God bled light.
A fracture split through its perfect halo, hairline at first, then spiderwebbing outward with sparks of unraveling divinity. Its colossal frame hovered, serene no longer, its many rings folding inward as if retreating from the wound.
Akiar's storm aura lashed against the void, but even he was still. His lightning flickered faint, eyes locked on the impossible sight.
"…You did it," Akiar whispered, voice raw. "You actually—"
The god's voice rumbled over his words, deeper than thunder, heavier than mountains.
"Fragile. Imperfect. Yet… dangerous."
The abyss convulsed as the god's form shifted. Its countless halos imploded inward, collapsing into a single, raw spiral of black fire and pale radiance. The serene symmetry of divinity was gone—what replaced it was chaos incarnate, dripping fragments of half-light, half-shadow.
This was no longer the god of balance. This was the Abyssal Warden.
Vemy's breath came ragged, his body vibrating with Prismarine feedback. The Ring of Defiance thrummed louder with every heartbeat, shards spinning faster as if feeding off the god's shift. His hands trembled, not from fear—but from the overload of something beyond control.
[Abyssal Containment Weakening.]
[Prismarine Affinity: 84% → 91%]
The words burned across his mind like fire branded into flesh.
His knuckles tightened around his spear. "So that's it, huh? No more masks. No more calm. You're scared."
The god's fractured spiral tilted, voice trembling with a tone not heard before—something close to laughter, but jagged, alien.
"Scared? No.
Awakened."
Its spiral of halos spun, drawing the abyss inward like a black hole. The force ripped fragments of broken platforms into dust, devouring entire swaths of space. Even Akiar's storm faltered under the pull.
"Vemy!" Akiar shouted, lightning snapping around his form as he anchored himself to a shard of reality. "Your ring—it's destabilizing everything! If it breaks, you break with it!"
Vemy's wings of Prismarine fire unfurled wider, feathers of crystal bursting into the pull and disintegrating instantly. His jaw tightened, sweat bleeding into the blood already running down his face.
"I don't care," he growled. "If it costs me everything to shatter this thing's chains—then so be it."
The abyss shook harder. The Abyssal Warden raised its spiral overhead, energy condensing into a single, vast halo of compressed voidlight. Unlike before, it no longer shined with divine balance. This was annihilation.
[God Art: Absolute Null Halo.]
The words struck into existence without sound, as if the void itself wrote them. The halo swelled, devouring even its own light, its edges so sharp reality tore just looking at it.
Akiar's eyes widened. "That—if it drops that, everything in this abyss gets erased. You, me, even the throne's hold on this place!"
Vemy staggered, Prismarine shards bursting from his skin in jagged arcs. The Ring of Defiance wailed behind him, fractured flame trying to hold form as new cracks webbed across its orbit.
He should have been afraid.
He should have hesitated.
But instead—he laughed.
A harsh, breathless laugh, blood in his teeth, eyes blazing.
"Good. Then I'll drag it all down with me if I have to!"
The Prismarine within him pulsed violently. Not as fire. Not as a system. But as something alive—something answering.
[Prismarine Affinity: 91% → 100%.]
[System Lock Override.]
[Forbidden State Initiated: Prismarine Break.]
The Ring of Defiance shattered.
Not into pieces—into weapons.
Hundreds of crystalline shards spiraled outward, orbiting Vemy in chaotic formation. Wings of fractured fire split and multiplied, jagged arcs lashing the abyss like storms of glass. His body cracked under the strain, veins burning with light too fierce for mortal flesh.
Akiar shielded his eyes, lightning faltering in awe. "…He's… burning himself alive."
Vemy's aura ripped outward, colliding with the Absolute Null Halo before it even fell. His entire form blazed with the broken ring's essence, every shard screaming as though alive, vibrating in tune with his heartbeat.
The god spoke, its voice layered, distorted, eager.
"Yes. Show me. Show me the mortal who fractures infinity."
Vemy's spear lifted, his body nearly splitting under the force. Shards of Prismarine lined along the weapon's edge, transforming it into something beyond steel, beyond flame—
a jagged instrument of defiance itself.
His voice cracked with fury and fire.
"This isn't your cycle anymore. This isn't your system. This is mine!"
He dove, Prismarine shards trailing like meteors, wings dragging fire across the void.
The Absolute Null Halo dropped.
And storm, shard, and god collided.
The abyss detonated in silence. Light inverted. Space shattered. For a heartbeat, there was nothing—no god, no void, no flame.
Only the fracture of a world breaking open.