Date (Real World): Wednesday, March 1, 2025. 4:15 AM.
Location: Japanese Airspace and a Ruined Tokyo.
Null's forced dimensional jump from Mars placed him high above the Earth's atmosphere. He was a streak of black-and-gold, falling through the troposphere. The friction of re-entry was immediate and devastating. The immense heat began to scorch the exposed skin of his face and hands.
The Asura mind was now in control. Instinct took over. Null channeled the deepest reaches of the Shadow Code, enveloping his body in a pitch-black sheath. This was not armor; it was a hungry, conceptual darkness that instantly devoured the thermal energy, turning the destructive heat into pure, stabilizing power for the Void King Code.
He tore through the clouds, finally looking down at his destination: Japan.
His country. His home.
It was destroyed. Not merely damaged, but conceptually pulverized. Craters the size of small cities scarred the landscape. Smoke choked the sky, and where skyscrapers once stood, only melted slag remained. The King of Stone had not waited. The war had raged in his short absence.
The sight broke through the fatigue. Null roared, summoning his massive, crystalline Dark Shadow Wings once more, tearing his remaining clothes. He pointed his trajectory straight down, breaking the sound barrier again and again, hitting impossible speeds.
BOOM.
Null slammed into the ground in what was once sunless, sending a shockwave of Void Energy and debris across the mile-wide crater. He got up instantly, discarding the burning remnants of the Nexus Suit. His body was ripped and lean, a fighter's frame covered in the scars of a thousand childhood fights.
He immediately reached out with his conceptual sense, searching for the unique frequencies of his friends. Nothing. The city was silent.
Where are they?
"Umbros!" Null snarled, the name a command.
The ancient, primordial voice of the God of Darkness and Death answered, laced with a tired annoyance that transcended dimensions. "We haven't talked in a while, host, and that is how you start our conversation? I am insulted."
"Where are they?" Null demanded, ignoring the celestial petulance.
Umbros sighed—a sound like the vacuum of space collapsing. "They are fine. It seems the Dark Dragon, Fang, had the foresight to deposit them back into the Wonder World upon your jump, rendering them safe for the moment. They are anchored there."
The relief was a brief, necessary reprieve. "Now," Umbros continued, "how about we go look for holy water? I sense a potent, consecrated vessel from a church nearby. It seems your city was a faithful city, even in the Code."
Null flew toward the location indicated by Umbros—a small, partially standing stone church on the edge of the crater. Inside, amidst the rubble, was a hidden alcove. He reached in and pulled out a small, glass bottle, sealed with a silver cross and bearing the label: Holy Water.
Null looked at the bottle, then at the gaping portal he had just used to escape Mars.
"Sorry, Umbros," Null replied, the Asura's chilling focus settling over him. "But I must first finish Satan. I can't let him out to hunt my friends while they are recovering."
Umbros chuckled, the sound dry and cold. "Fine. Then do you want me to wake up Asura, the God of Light and Life? A combined God-Slayer strike should do the trick."
Null looked at the small bottle of water, then down at his scarred, taut body. The rage of the past, the discipline of his father, and the cold calculations of the Void King merged into one terrifying purpose.
"No. That won't be necessary. You can go back to sleep, or watch."
He ripped the last shreds of his shirt away, leaving his upper body bare. He twisted the cross-shaped stopper and poured the clear, glowing liquid over his hands, watching as it sizzled on his Shadow-soaked skin. He then meticulously wrapped the now Holy Water-drenched cloth around his right fist, tying it tight.
"This should be enough, right?" Null said, a grim smile crossing his lips. "Let's fight with lies."
He slammed his hands together, forcing a dimensional breach. The portal to the Wonder World tore open, violently unstable, but anchored to his will.
Before the tear was complete, a shape of white and red fury leapt out of the conceptual instability. Satan 666 was back.
The Duel of Flesh and Faith
Satan landed, his face contorted in absolute fury. He was covered in scorch marks from the Wonder World's dimensional pressure, his white hair standing on end.
"You trapped me, you cowardly rat!" Satan roared, but before he could finish the sentence, Null was on him.
This was not a Code fight. This was Soren Asura's martial art against the Kinetic God of Scales.
Satan lunged, aiming a Kinetic energy strike. Null didn't use Shadow Code; he used pure Muay Thai defense, absorbing the blow with his armored elbow and redirecting the force. He followed with a blindingly fast Taekwondo spin kick to Satan's midsection, a move powered by the Void King's strength.
CRUNCH.
The scales held, but the impact sent a deep, agonizing vibration through Satan's core.
Satan recovered instantly, his red eyes blazing. He met Null with a series of ferocious conceptual strikes. Null evaded, using Judo to let Satan's own momentum carry him. Null seized Satan's arm and tried to flip him, but Satan was too heavy, his body anchored by the Concept of Unbreakable Motion.
"Your tricks are pathetic!" Satan snarled, punching Null directly in the jaw. The force was bone-shattering.
GUSH.
Blood sprayed from Null's mouth. His lower lip split, but he didn't even register the pain. He returned the favor, driving his Holy Water-wrapped fist into Satan's scaled temple.
The Holy Water, concentrated and conceptually pure, reacted with the dark Kinetic Code protecting Satan.
SHHHHHH!
The sound was like acid on flesh. The scale instantly cracked, not from force, but from conceptual corruption. Satan screamed—a sound of genuine, physical pain.
"What is this filth?!" Satan staggered back, touching the burning wound.
Null followed the opening. He didn't give Satan a chance to recover. He moved with a devastating combination of kicks and punches, each strike now aimed at the hairline fissures created by the Holy Water.
He grabbed Satan's arm and twisted. With a primal yell, Null used a conceptualized Judo throw, ignoring the weight, and slamming the God of Scales into the asphalt.
K-R-A-A-C-K!
Satan's arm snapped under the combined weight of gravity and Null's pure, amplified strength. A piece of the obsidian scale covering his forearm ripped away, exposing the sickening, bone-like white material beneath.
Satan roared, kicking up with his good leg and sending Null flying backward.
"You will pay for that!" Satan screamed, gripping his broken arm. "You think water can defeat me? I am eternal!"
Null, his own chest heaving, his face a mask of blood and sweat, stood up, the grey cross in his eyes cold and unwavering. He had done damage. Serious damage.
The Sanctuary Dialogue (Fang POV)
Location: The Wonder World.
Time: Undefined (Seconds after Null's return).
In the infinite, structured void of the Wonder World, the five remaining heroes stood at attention. Fang, in his massive Dark Dragon form, was anchored above them, his body glowing with ambient Conceptual Energy. He had opened a small, one-way viewing window—a conceptual monitor showing the brutal, blood-soaked fight on Mars and now the clash in ruined Tokyo.
Kai, his white hair stark against his handsome, furious face and his red eyes blazing, was pounding his fist against an invisible barrier.
"Master Fang! You have to let us out!" Kai's voice was strained, thick with panic. "He's fighting a conceptual God! Look at him! He's using his fists! He can't win! He's going to be obliterated!"
Ashley and Sooji stood close together, horrified by the gore, while Tyler stared at the temporal instability of the fight, his jaw clenched.
Fang's voice, calm and deep, filled the void, a conceptual anchor against Kai's rising terror.
"You measure his power, Kai, but you misjudge his value. You see a man fighting a God. I see the Apex Predator initiating the hunt."
Kai turned, desperation etched on his features. "What are you talking about? He's broken his arm! He's just Null! We have to help him finish the fight—together!"
Fang lowered his massive head, his Conceptual Shadow falling over the group like a mantle of night.
"Listen closely, young one. Your desire to help is noble, but your perception is flawed. You all are anchored here because you are the future. Null is the present calamity required to open the path."
Fang gestured toward the conceptual monitor, where Null was relentlessly hammering his Holy Fist into Satan's cracked shoulder.
"When Null awakened the full mind of Soren Asura, he unlocked his true, terrifying potential. The power you see now—the raw, physical dominance, the endless rage, the conceptual resilience, the speed that breaks light in a vacuum—is only twenty-five percent of his total capacity."
Kai gasped. "Twenty-five percent?"
"The Void King Code is divided into four conceptual quadrants," Fang explained patiently. "One: Shadow (Darkness), which is active. Two: Kinetic (Rage), which is active through the Asura's memories. Three: Void (Absence/Space), which is active through the Prime Stone. These three are fighting this battle."
Fang paused, letting the final conceptual truth sink in.
"The fourth quadrant—the final seventy-five percent—is the God of Light and Life, the conceptual twin to Umbros. Asura. He is the true power, locked away by choice and fear, because his awakening would shatter the dimension. Null is fighting Satan with only a quarter of his power and succeeding."
Fang locked eyes with Kai's desperate red gaze. "You do not go out there because if you did, Null would have to unleash the other seventy-five percent just to protect you. And if he unleashes the final Asura, the war will end, but the dimensional price would be too high."
"Null is buying us time to stabilize our own Codes and strategize our first true move. He is a distraction—the greatest, most terrifying distraction in history. We stay here, we stabilize, and we prepare to enter the war when he calls us. Do you understand, Kai?"
Kai looked at the image of Null, bleeding, screaming, and brutally breaking the conceptual God with his fists, and finally understood the monstrous reality of his leader.
"I understand, Master Fang," Kai whispered, his fury replaced by cold, strategic resolve. "We wait for the signal."
End of chapter 67
Break tomorrow