The Umbral Primavus Abyss had begun.
Ash became one with the void—his form dissolving into the fabric of space, his body disappearing until only a single, enormous eye lingered in the darkness: a blood-red drop divided into two shades, void-black rimmed with white flame and pure white edged with golden fire, holding a calm yet chilling gaze.
The void sank into pure unmaking—silent, starving, devouring blood, mana, essence, and light without end.
Each strike carried pockets of darkness echoing battles across infinite timelines, paradox-veils twisting Vyrn's soul into endless decay. The pull was so strong that Vyrn found himself yearning for his own abyss, unable to resist.
With the Archradiant bloodline merged, holy light bent into shadow—radiant voids blazed like dark suns in the endless black, erasing with purifying judgment, consuming all impurity while feeding the nothingness.
Light turned into a quiet, almost holy erasure, stripping away resistance with an air of finality.
Vyrn fought with all he had—saber sweeping in wide, frantic arcs, the hollow edict sending out waves of nothingness to hold back the unraveling.
The Law of Absorption reached greedily for the glowing voids, trying to pull their pure light into his own emptiness.
Panic tightened his thin features, hollow eyes widening as the abyss ate his strikes mid-swing—saber edges fraying, his essence leaking in wisps from cracks along his pale skin.
The abyss devoured without pause—blows reverberated across timelines, growing fiercer, paradox-veils twisting his soul toward the void, dragging him in despite the Law of Endurance fortifying his body, while the Law of Decay gnawed at the veils in a frantic struggle.
He roared—his voice fracturing for the first time, its hollow timbre shattering into raw desperation as radiant judgment seared his decay mid-formation, transforming rot into fuel for the dark suns blooming around him.
Vyrn's form fractured, hollow essence drifting away like black mist, eyes fading as endless decay whispered his own title in betrayal.
"Join… join the true… void…"
He tried to run, the Law of Space collapsing in frantic bursts, his body blurring—yet mirrored timelines pulled him back with unyielding gravity, the massive eye's stare locked and unblinking.
The craving took hold—his title turning against him, hollow whispers rising into screams...
"join… join…"
With one final strike, pure void surged through the great eye's gaze, radiant dark suns bursting in cleansing silence.
Vyrn broke apart—essence erased in a hushed implosion, soul warped into endless ruin, body fading into drifting shreds of glowing shadow.
The abyss receded slowly, darkness folding back into Ash as he reformed, breathing steady, twelve wings tucking in with a soft rustle and a sharp, satisfied smile.
"I can see why those two were hiding from this guy..." he mused, thinking of Fay and Sia with a faint chuckle. "If they'd run into him, they'd have been done for."
[At least you've done them another favor… now they owe you double!] Elysia laughed lightly.
"Yeah, right… anyway, can you tell me exactly what I gained from this guy?"
Elysia's presence pulsed warmly, golden light sweeping through him as she analyzed.
[Master, the harvest was exceptional. Vyrn was no ordinary Peak Stellar Sovereign—he stood at the brink of conceptual existence, his "Hollow" title a shard of true nothingness.
The primary prize: Fragment of Hollow Void—a fusion of hollowness and void. Its effects include effortless shifts between void and hollow states (undetectable, unmakeable), passive erosion of nearby Laws and essences, and a step closer to conceptual existence—your very presence now subtly wears away reality.]
Ash nodded, the fragment settling into his inner cosmos like a black pearl—silent, waiting.
"Keep it there for now. We'll nurture it later."
With that, he vanished, continuing his journey.
----
While Ash made his way to the realm, chaos was already brewing behind the scenes.
Far from the Venia Galaxy, a gathering of Arch Eternal Clans was taking place. For clarity, these were clans that stood well above the usual galactic games.
To reach such a status, a clan had to control entire universes—hence why only two were known in the Venia Galaxy. Their power was so overwhelming that getting involved in their affairs was unthinkable.
But what if two Arch Eternal Clans went to war?
With allies ranging from other Arch Eternal Clans to pawns who believed they were true rulers, the scale would be unimaginable. Such a clash would inevitably bring casualties—far more than anyone could conceive.
The neutral meeting ground for this gathering was the Helix Galaxy, a sanctuary realm untouched by conflict, forged eons ago by ancient neutrals as a bastion for diplomacy among the cosmos' most powerful.
Stretching across trillions of light-years yet nestled within a stable pocket dimension, Helix was a breathtaking feat of cosmic balance—spiraling arms of shimmering nebulae weaving between vast floating continents, each a flawless world of crystal forests, glowing seas, and skies forever brushed with soft pastel auroras.
No wars had scarred this place; peace was upheld by self-repairing guardian stars that dissolved hostility before it could take shape.
The air thrummed with gentle currents of mana, sweet with the scent of starflowers, while gravity remained light enough for giants to meet without breaking the fabric of reality.
At its heart drifted the Conclave Nexus—an enormous obsidian platform at the galaxy's center, encircled by living void-crystal thrones that reshaped themselves to their guests, every word etched into them in unshakable truth.
Here, the five Arch Eternal Clans convened—each ruling at least two universes, their mere presence making the Nexus quiver as glowing runes worked to keep the balance.
Only a handful from each clan had come, a careful display of restraint in the face of rising tension.
Presiding over it all were the Narakava Asuras...