Vyrn's gaunt face twisted in a rare flicker of surprise, white blood dribbling from his split lips as he spat it out in a fine mist that hung in the void like ghostly vapor. The hollow sockets of his eyes narrowed.
"You're much stronger than Ninth Calamity..." he rasped, voice flat but edged with the first hint of strain.
Ash smiled as his wounds healed to peak condition.
"Oh… right, your info is a bit outdated," Ash chuckled, voice light and mocking as he rolled his shoulders, twelve wings unfurling slightly to stretch the space around him.
He began to get more serious, the playful lilt sharpening into something predatory.
"Outdated?" Vyrn echoed, rising brow the only expression cracking his emotionless mask.
By now, he knew Ash had to be Stellar Sovereign—perhaps Peak—but he couldn't read him whatsoever. It was like a fateless void around Ash's presence, a blind spot even for his hollow senses.
"What are you?" He asked in genuine curiosity.
He had no understanding of Fate's laws or anything like them. His knowledge came straight from the void itself… yet Ash was one of the rare few who remained entirely unreadable.
'He's not some scion, right?'
Ash just smirked, the expression widening as Elysia's voice rang in his mind.
[Master, his Void race has been duplicated along with the power of his title. You won't receive the title itself, but that's fine—I've remade it and merged it into the race. Even though you've already grasped the Law of Void, this is on another level entirely.
Vyrn isn't a lightweight; he's much like you—while you are Desire, even as Primavus, he's walking the path toward becoming a conceptual existence. Right now, he's just void, but in the future? Who knows.]
'Void, huh?' Ash thought with a grin before he moved.
This time, he unleashed a multitude of Laws and one of his talents.
|Law of Void|
|Law of Gravity|
|Law of Death|
|Law of Void Bloom|
The void around them deepened instantly, Law of Void at 100 % expanding into an absolute nothingness that erased the distant stars' faint light, turning the battlefield into a black canvas where even Vyrn's hollow presence felt the edges fray.
Gravity twisted in heavy waves, dragging space inward like a dying star, its immense weight pressing on Vyrn's thin frame with the power of a thousand suns, sending his ragged robes fluttering and his faint shadowy hair plastering to his pale skull.
Death seeped into the pull of gravity, tainting it with a necrotic essence as the air thickened under the weight of decay. Vyrn's hollow aura began to wither at the edges, invisible tendrils of finality curling in to claw at him.
Then, Void Bloom erupted—black flowers unfolding from the heart of warped gravity, their petals pure emptiness unfurling in a silent, lethal elegance. Each bloom sent drifting spores of death toward Vyrn, like sinister pollen intent on hollowing out his very soul.
SHK!
Vyrn's hollow sockets widened just a touch, as he struck back with his own arsenal, saber sweeping in a broad arc laced with the Law of Hollow. The blade's edge of nothingness swallowed the blooming flowers before they could fully open, petals unraveling into drifting wisps of shadow that his Law drank in like a starving mist.
"Persistent," he rasped, the Law of Absorption flaring to draw the necrotic spores inward, converting their death essence into a hollow fuel that stained his veins with a green-black rot.
With the Law of Space, he warped the void itself, folding gravity waves back onto Ash in dense layers meant to crush him from every angle, while the Law of Shadow wrapped his form in drifting wisps, turning him into a phantom among the stars.
Ash laughed—bright and taunting—as the crushing folds closed in, the weight like entire worlds pressing down. His twelve wings strained with a low, fabric-like groan, but he held, Primordia flashing in his grasp to slice the pressure apart with a sharp SHK that rang through the emptiness.
"Persistent? Coming from the guy who just got his head split open like a ripe fruit?" he shot back, blood-red eyes gleaming with amusement as he adapted.
With the Law of Creation, he shaped temporary barriers of rose-pink essence, blooming from the remnants of flowers and transforming spores into protective petals that shielded him from Vyrn's pull.
Vyrn didn't react—his gaunt face was a mask of cold indifference as he advanced, saber flashing in a silent barrage infused with the Law of Silence at full power.
The strikes made no sound—no rush of air, no ring of metal—only the blurred edges of nothingness cutting toward Ash's defenses.
The thrusts carried the Law of Decay, corroding the rose-pink shields with a faint hiss, while the Law of Endurance fortified Vyrn's body against any backlash, his pale skin ashen but unyielding.
"Your words are.... hollow," he said flatly, his voice like wind over a grave, the Law of Strength behind each blow driving bone-shattering force. The saber's tip grazed Ash's shoulder in a silent tear, blood welling as the wound hollowed inward.
Ash gritted his teeth—the decay burned like cold acid, but twisting away with the Law of Time slowed its spread, giving his Nosferatu regeneration time to mend the edges.
He countered with the Law of Paradox, reversing Vyrn's thrust mid-air so it struck his own hilt, the nothingness edge biting into his weapon with a sharp crack.
The battle raged until the void itself began to warp and splinter like glass under cosmic strain.
Dead stars shattered in silent bursts, barren worlds crumbled into swirling dust, asteroid fields broke into glittering debris frozen in the wake of each clash. And in the unlit emptiness of space, where no light lingered, the two fighters remained locked.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more Ash began to dominate, and if not for Vyrn being such a formidable opponent, it would have ended long ago.
As Elysia had said, Vyrn was no pushover.
A big reason for this was his title, which constantly drained the environment around him, especially weakening his enemies' attacks by 30%—and there was no way to counter it. Normally, he would be the one gaining the advantage as a battle progressed, but Ash was different—he had far too many Laws.
Every time Vyrn thought he had him figured out, Ash would adapt and unleash an entirely new Law he'd yet to use in the fight.
The sheer idea of one man wielding so many fully mastered Laws was absurd—and in just an hour, Ash had used over a hundred of them.
Now the two stood 10,000 kilometers apart, yet with their power, it felt as if they were within arm's reach.
"It's about time I stop warming up," Ash said, cracking his neck.
"Tsk, I was thinking the same," Vyrn replied, his eyes fearless… for now.
|Umbral Primavus Abyss|
Ash activated his paragon-level talent—and not only that, one of his newer racial aspects began to emerge.
His body dissolved, melting into the very fabric of space itself—form blurring, then vanishing as he became the void incarnate. The darkness deepened to absolute unmaking, silent and hungry. he used a newer
Yet one could see it: one big eye peeking through the void—a dual-hued blood-drop orb, void-black with white flame and snow-white with golden fire, balanced and terrifying, staring unblinking.
Vyrn looked at this eye—and felt his very core shudder, hollow essence quivering as if facing its own reflection amplified infinitely.
"T-the hell?" In that moment of shock, his focus slipped, and the flowers of death struck. It wasn't a resounding explosion, but his essence began to drain away.
And with it, the Primavus Abyss… had begun.