The attack made the entire Crucible tremble, the black-glass stands groaning as though the earth itself feared what unfolded beneath the crimson mist.
Inside the sealed domain, time had already lost all meaning for Ash.....
Raven and the others in the luxury box watched the projection with expressions ranging from pity to cold amusement, the velvet seats and blood-crystal chandeliers reflecting nothing but the shifting fog below.
"Sheesh… he should've called it quits," Connor said, shaking his head slowly, short white hair catching the crimson light.
"Right… that Law of Shaun's is too tricky. Even I've found myself having trouble against him in spars," Seth added, shoulder-length white hair spilling across his red eyes.
Raven clenched her fist so tightly her nails drew blood from her palm, eyes never leaving the stage.
"Raven… why are you acting so attached to the fox?" Summer asked with a raised brow, long black hair shifting as she leaned closer.
Raven ignored her completely.
"If Ash dies… Shaun dies right behind him."
The room fell deathly silent at those words.
----
Back in the Domain.
Ash found himself being pummeled without mercy. From the first impact to now, centuries seemed to pass in his perception, yet only five real minutes had ticked by outside. Every movement felt like dragging his body through molten glass; the blood-sea dragged at his limbs, the seven moons pressed down with invisible weight, and Shaun's strikes landed with the inevitability of fate itself.
'It's like reality itself is fighting against me…' He thought as he barely raised his remaining arm in time to block another blow that sent him hurtling backward through the blood-ocean, crimson waves exploding outward in perfect circles.
His current condition was.... pathetic he had one arm gone, blood pouring from eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and nine of his ten tails severed.... drifting like dying banners and above all else... he wasn't regenerating.
Regeneration refused to answer; every drop of blood that left him was claimed by the domain and never returned.
"You had a nice run... while it lasted." Shaun said right before Ash felt all his movements freeze. Behind Shaun was a huge ball of pink-black blood.... Ash's blood. He smiled and then without wasting time he simply popped the ball with a flick of his finger.
THUD!
Ash fell down to the ground as the lights left his eyes instantly.
Shaun shook his head looking at the corpse of the ten tailed fox.
"Arrogant..."
He spoke as he moved to deactivate his law, but before he could Ash's body floated upward on its own, skin cracking, flesh flaking away into pale ash that swirled against the crimson sky. Shaun's brows arched as he had never seen anything like this before.
For a moment nothing remained... no body, no blood, only ash drifting in lazy spirals.
Then—
HUMMMMMM!!!!!
FWOOOOOMMM!!!!
The entire domain shuddered as though struck by an invisible fist.
The blood-sea boiled.
The seven moons cracked like eggshells.
A power ancient beyond comprehension, beautiful beyond mercy, erupted outward; the Crucible itself groaned as though the continent might burn and be reborn in a single breath.
Shaun dropped to his knees, skin already blistering, fangs melting in his mouth. Before him rose a humanoid silhouette of pure white flame.... ten tails blazing, long hair whipping in a wind that did not exist, eyes twin voids of white-pink fire.
And when the flames receded.
Ash stood whole and perfect, long white hair threaded with rose-pink flowing to his waist, ten snow-white tails with matching tips swaying behind him like living silk.
His expression held not a shred of emotion.
For the first time in a hundred years (Including time dilation), he had died (truly died) and undergone Nirvana rebirth.
"I-impossible" Shaun muttered as he felt himself melting.
Ash had lunged like an idiot on purpose, just to force Shaun to reveal his Calamity Law. He had wanted to taste what waited beyond SSS.
'Tsk, how foolish.' He thought before he activated Talent after Talent.
|Absolute Collapse (SSS)|
|Eternal Night Apotheosis (Mythic)|
|Genesis Overdrive (???)|
A black hole tore open at the domain's heart, devouring every drop of blood and every moon in a single, starving heartbeat.
Then it exploded outward.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!!
The blood-sea vanished.
The moons shattered into crimson dust.
The red-black sky became absolute, starless night... so complete that even Shaun's perfect vampire sight saw nothing.
From outside, the crimson mist solidified into a wall of living darkness that swallowed all sound, all light, all hope.
Inside, Shaun who was now freshly regenerated floated in an endless void, time frozen around him like amber.
His bloodline screamed.
His Laws wavered.
His connection to everything severed.
He looked up and saw it.
A ten-tailed fox of pure black, rose-pink tips glowing like dying embers. Two thousand five hundred feet tall. Eyes twin voids of absolute black. And at the center of its chest, a single eye and within that eye, another eye, and within that eye, another still....
"A-A-abomination!" Shaun roared, voice cracking.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
The fox's tail struck like the fall of an empire.
Shaun shot backward through the void, darkness twisting into chains of pure night that lashed around wrists, ankles, throat.
BOOOM!!
BOOOM!!
BOOOM!!!!
Each impact flung him into another waiting paw, another crushing blow, another eternity of darkness.
Then Ash ended it.
|Eternal Night Apotheosis – Final Stage|
Shaun's mind shattered into an inescapable dream prison. Time dilated a thousandfold; one second became a thousand years of being devoured by his own reflection.
Ash then deactivated Genesis Overdrive, shrinking back to a humanoid form.
He landed in front of the chained, broken champion.
SHK!!!!!
With a swipe of his sword that appeared mid motion... He beheaded the tenth champion of the Nocturne Clan.
[+100,000 EL.....]
[Adding physique multiplier....]
[+5,000,000 EL]
"Ah... I actually forgot about that." Ash muttered as he remembered that his physique gave a boost for life and death battles.
[A/N: Check Ch 2]
He then smiled as he checked his current rank.
[Peak SSS (Existence Level - 54 Million)]
"Well... it's time to make my own Calamity Law..." He said as he deactivated the domain and appeared on the stage alone in pristine condition.
It looked as if he hadn't even fought, and thanks to his ring, he clothes remained fresh.
The crowd was dead silent; they had seen nothing through the veil, only felt the world itself tremble.
He cracked his neck and spoke out loud towards the announcer.
"Yo, I'm done for the day... I'll return some other time." He said as he began walking towards the exit.
However, before he could even take two steps. Five figures appeared in front of him, each radiating a power that dwarfed anything he'd felt from anyone in this world.
'Who the fuck are these people?' He asked as he frowned.
Every vampire in the Crucible dropped to their knees in perfect unison, foreheads pressed to the glass until spoken to.
All except one small group descending from the VIP box.
Raven landed first, black and red dress fluttering like spilled blood, placing herself squarely between Ash and the five figures.
"Duke Alucard," she said, voice as polite as a drawn blade, "this is my guest."