The crimson portal of shadow hummed, a tear in the fabric of space ready to deploy the King's most lethal weapon. Aris stood before it, his obsidian blade resting with unnatural stillness across his shoulders, radiating an aura of disciplined destruction.
"Are you not coming, Master?" Aris inquired, his voice a flat, empty sound of pure efficiency, addressing 666:Satan who hovered behind him.
Satan's blood-red eyes glowed with ancient malice. "And expend my energy on a mere execution? No, Aris. The chaos you seek to eliminate is an infection—you are the surgical steel. I have duties to manage the dimensional flow. Go. The King demands immediate retrieval of the anomaly. Do not leave any trace of your passing."
Aris gave a single, sharp, economical nod. "Efficiency is guaranteed." He stepped through the swirling crimson light without a second glance, and the portal collapsed behind him, leaving no residual energy, only absolute stillness.
The Necessary Divide
Back at the Clock Tower, Null felt the residual contamination of his Reality-Bending gambit throbbing in his chest. His senses were screaming, a cold, metallic panic that warned him of imminent, overwhelming danger. He knew the aura of someone was closing in rapidly.
"We move now," Null commanded, turning to his three bewildered teammates—Kai, Ashley, and Sophie—(sooji sleeping hard ngl)who were still grappling with the impossible sight of two dark lords vanishing in a dimensional tear. "Ashley, Sophie, I need you two to take the long way back to the hospital. Do not use your powers for travel. You are too vulnerable."
Ashley, pale but resolute, argued, "But what about you? And Kai? We can fight! We need to stick together."
"No," Null insisted, his golden cross-eyes blazing with cold authority. "I sense the next Prime Stone. It's shifting quickly, a chaotic signal. I have to secure it before they find a way back. You two are the primary defense for Sooji and Tyme. Fang is at the hospital—his shadow is our only defense there. You must anchor the position."
"I am coming with you."
Kai stepped forward, his expression set in unyielding defiance. "You're running on fumes, Null. You used your most dangerous power. That 'sense' isn't guidance; it's panic. I can be your eyes in the sky and keep us from collapsing. You're not going alone."
Null fought down the urge to snap a refusal. "Kai, this isn't a fight you can win. This is a conceptual war—"
"I saw what those things felt like," Kai cut him off, his voice firm. "And I saw what you did to stop them. If we split up, we are prey. If you are going to walk into a storm, you need someone who won't hesitate to pull you out. And besides," Kai added, managing a small, wry smile, "who's going to stop the Unwritten King from doing something incredibly stupid? Fang wouldn't care."
Meanwhile in the hospital
A large cough was heard from fang 'now I can tell someone is liking man'
Null conceded, defeated by Kai's logic and loyalty. "Fine. But you follow every command. Ashley, Sophie—go. Protect the others. This is the King's order."
With a nod to their King, Ashley and Sophie vanished into the city streets. Meanwhile, Fang, satisfied that the dangerous elements had been removed, remained blissfully aloof in the distance, focused on his own arcane endeavors.
Null and Kai took off, Null using his draining Shadow power for bursts of ground travel, while Kai flew reconnaissance above, navigating the chaotic pull of the next Prime Stone.
The Bridge of Nothingness
The chase led them to the derelict edges of the city—a condemned, skeletal suspension bridge spanning a murky, industrial river. The metallic structure was twisted by age and neglect, but the pull of the Prime Stone was strongest here, sickeningly powerful and yet erratic.
"It's here," Null whispered, landing on the crumbling concrete deck, the air thick with latent, unstable energy. "It's all over the place. Too chaotic."
Kai pointed a shaking finger skyward. "Look."
Floating impossibly high beneath the rusted metal cross-beams of the broken bridge tower was a figure. He was suspended in mid-air, a silent defiance of gravity. The space immediately surrounding him was visibly warped and shimmered, distorting his features so much that his face was a shifting, indistinct blur. He was laughing—a high-pitched, arrogant sound.
"Who is doing this!" Null screamed, a primal panic rising in his chest. He recognized the feeling: Space power, but totally untethered, totally random.
The figure stopped laughing, the shimmer of his face focusing slightly in curiosity. "You can sense me? Fascinating. No one ever senses the Space I command. Who are you, little shadow?"
Null knew he had to meet arrogance with spectacle. Focusing his Shadow control, he executed an inverted aerial maneuver, hanging upside down beneath a thick, rusted cable, his golden cross-eyes blazing up at the anomaly.
"I am Null. I am the Unwritten King," he announced, his voice echoing under the deck. "And I'm here to offer you a place in the war. The King of Stone is coming for your power."
The blurred figure laughed again, louder this time. "A King? Your reality looks rather shabby, little Null. I have my own domain. I see no reason to join a losing, pathetic resistance."
"The Code is broken! The Devil himself is the King's enforcer! You will be remade!" Null insisted, trying to sell the terror, but his words felt insufficient.
The Decimation of Will
Before Null could complete his plea, before the floating boy could even reply, a soundless, crushing decree fell upon the entire scene.
It was an Aura of absolute, overwhelming strength. It was the conceptual weight of unyielding physical law, delivered with the efficiency of Absolute Kinetic Control. The effect was immediate and devastating, like an invisible, gravitational hammer blow.
Null, already weakened, crashed hard onto the concrete deck, the pressure momentarily overriding his Shadow defense. He felt the sheer, impossible weight of the field attempting to zero out his own momentum and existence.
Kai, who had been mid-air, suffered catastrophic systems failure. His body went instantly limp, the Air Prime Stone falling silent as his consciousness failed under the overwhelming, external force. He dropped onto the deck, unconscious.
The floating figure was also hit. His shimmering blur of a face instantly collapsed, the erratic Space he wielded suppressed and humbled by the superior, orderly physical law. He fell, crashing onto the bridge deck, his limbs splayed and unable to move.
The boy was revealed: short, striking yellow hair tied back in a messy bun, fierce, red eyes wide in shock, and dressed in a crisp, all-black combat suit. His name was Vane.
"The power of Space... humbled," Null managed to gasp almost Laughing, struggling to lift his head, his golden eyes flicking rapidly.
He looked for the source. Every fragment of his consciousness, every fiber of his being, screamed a single, terrifying warning: Run. It was an old, cold terror—a fear he knew from a lifetime he couldn't recall.
He saw the source: a crimson shadow portal, still shimmering, closing instantly behind a figure who stood on the edge of the bridge—Aris.
Aris was utterly silent, his scarred eye fixed on Null. He radiated an oppressive, focused energy. Null knew this feeling; it was the proximity of absolute death.
Aris walked towards Null, the kinetic field around him increasing with every deliberate step. The concrete beneath his boots didn't crack; it simply ceased to exist under his imposed weight. He stepped over the prone body of Kai.
"I used too little aura," Aris stated, his voice flat with self-reproach. He glanced at Vane, the yellow-haired user, now completely unconscious. The residual kinetic pressure of his step finally knocked Vane out cold.
Aris walked the last few steps to Null, the aura retracting just enough to allow Null to breathe. "I sense an echo in your defiance," Aris murmured, his cold expression briefly touched by that strange shadow of recognition. "I feel the profound weight of a past struggle that touches my core. Have I seen you before, null?"
Null, pinned by the remaining pressure, refused the fatal connection. "No," he strained. "I don't know you."
Aris tilted his head, his single gray eye calculating. "You carry the raw power of a King, but the shame of a failure. Tell me, are you Null Asura?"
Null knew that name was the final piece of the lock. He had no choice. "Yes," he whispered.
Aris stopped, his aura retracting instantly, releasing Null entirely. "Good. You are the target." He gestured with his obsidian blade towards the river. "Teleport. It is a dishonor to the King to destroy such a worthy adversary while they are incapacitated."
The Ascent to the Moon
Null didn't hesitate. He summoned his residual Shadow power, tearing a portal behind him, intending to secure Vane and Kai and vanish.
But before the portal could fully form, Aris moved. He didn't run; he cancelled the distance. He appeared instantly, the obsidian blade crashing down towards Null's head.
CLANG!
Null instinctively crossed his forearms, the crimson Shadow condensing into a massive, jagged blade that barely blocked the strike. The kinetic force was so immense that Null was lifted violently off the bridge deck, the air beneath his feet screaming under the sudden pressure.
"You waste time, King," Aris stated, his voice now edged with faint annoyance.
Null pushed back, scrambling to regain his footing in the air. The power was too overwhelming. Aris suddenly focused his Kinetic Control into the very air particles around them, turning the atmosphere into a solid, invisible hammer that slammed into Null's body.
End of chapter 52.
See you again