Staring at the small black sphere in his hand, Tyce waited for a moment before slowly lifting it, faint red light flickering within his eyes.
Without realizing it, a thrill of anticipation welled up inside him.
He was eager—eager to see what kind of enemy he would face this time. After all, his previous battle with Zane had been suffocatingly one-sided.
That man's power was far beyond what he could handle. But now, under these new conditions… perhaps he could finally experience a true, exhilarating fight.
Born a soldier, Tyce's thirst for combat had never faded. And Zane—no, the Fire Picker—was the perfect opponent.
As he raised the black sphere, it began to tremble faintly, like a machine being switched on.
In the blink of an eye, it expanded rapidly, engulfing Tyce and spreading outward, swallowing the surrounding terrain in seconds.
As the artificial hollow grew, Tyce's form inside began to change.
Ether energy gathered around him, thick and heavy, condensing into glittering crystals on his body, the ground, and even in the air itself.
A monstrous, alien-like head emerged as if molded from clay, swelling larger until his full face appeared. His body expanded, layered with strange markings, armored plates, and pulsating Ether crystals.
Moments later, the transformation was complete—his very life essence altered. Standing tall once more, Tyce fixed his gaze ahead.
The space before him was no longer empty.
A figure stood there quietly.
Human-sized, yet somehow out of place—unreal, eerie.
Its form lacked color entirely, composed only of black, white, and gray. Its eyes were lifeless and hollow, staring silently at Tyce.
Even without color or expression, that face radiated a chilling pressure that made the air feel heavy.
"So that's... him…"
Tyce murmured under his breath. The figure before him was the result of his painstaking effort—the reason he'd sacrificed his final two artificial hollows.
A projection of the Fire Picker.
The silhouette cloaked in monochrome, the emotionless figure... was Zane.
"To open the final gate... this is the only way. A real, unrestrained fight—I've been waiting for this."
Tyce settled into a battle stance. The greatest obstacle to his plan was the world's natural rejection—its instinctive resistance against what he sought to summon.
To counter that rejection, the best method was simple: use himself—the anchor of the summoning—and overcome the will of the world's creation through force.
In a way, this was a clash not just of power, but of will. His own intent against that of the Fire Picker.
That was why he'd gone to such lengths—using the properties of artificial hollows combined with his research—to create the being before him.
If he could defeat this projection, he could prove his resolve and push his plan forward.
As for fighting the real Fire Picker directly? The reason he didn't was simple.
He couldn't win.
Their clash inside the mobile hollow had already made that clear.
If there had been even the slightest chance of victory, that previous "engagement" would not have ended as it did.
That battle had been meant primarily to draw the attention of the Origin—but if he could have achieved more, he would have.
He simply wasn't capable.
This projection, on the other hand, was a simulation—significantly weakened by both design and limitation. Projections could never perfectly replicate reality, after all.
And beyond that, the hollow's own constraints restricted the projection's power output to the equivalent of a single artificial hollow's energy capacity.
In other words, he was facing a Fire Picker running only on the energy of one artificial hollow.
That, Tyce could handle.
"Why isn't he moving yet? Did something go wrong with the projection…? That shouldn't be possible."
Frowning, Tyce watched the motionless figure. He expected it to attack first—to transform into the Fire Picker form before the real fight began.
A battle between human and Ethereal forms wouldn't serve his purpose.
But the projection didn't move. It stood silently, hair drifting faintly in the still air, eyes fixed on him like a statue.
The silence pressed against Tyce's nerves.
"Does he expect me to strike first?"
"But why hasn't he taken the Fire Picker form? In human shape… this doesn't make sense."
A Fire Picker's human form shouldn't be that strong—especially not a projection weakened this much.
But a standoff like this was meaningless. Since the projection refused to act, Tyce began gathering his own energy.
Regardless of how it started, he would strike first—and end it quickly.
Yet just as he prepared to unleash his attack, the projection moved.
In a single, fluid motion, it lifted one hand and pointed at him.
The next instant, a violent surge of suction and repulsion hit him at once—front and back, dragging and pushing his massive Ethereal body straight toward the projection.
As the distance between them shrank to mere inches, the projection silently raised its other arm—
Pulled back—then drove its fist forward.
BOOM!
The punch landed squarely in Tyce's chest.
A shockwave exploded outward from the impact point. Zane's projection stood unmoving, only the hem of his coat rippling slightly—while Tyce's enormous body was blasted backward like a cannonball.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
He crashed through multiple high-rises, debris scattering like dust, before finally plummeting into the ground with tremendous force.
A crater burst open where he landed. Tyce's massive, crystal-covered form lay half-buried, surrounded by fragments of shattered Ether crystal—remnants of the energy barriers he'd tried to form mid-flight to soften the impact.
Staggering to his feet, he lifted his head.
High above, the projection of Zane stood upon a building's edge, motionless.
His eyes were still dull, his long hair swaying faintly in the white light of the hollow.
The projection was indeed only a fraction of Zane's true power.
But that fraction wasn't just a "small portion" of what he normally showed.
It was a sliver of Zane's absolute peak—his all-out, no-reserve, life-or-death power.
Even that fragment far exceeded the limits of any artificial hollow. It was, by definition, the maximum strength this simulation could replicate.
Which meant that even in his human form, Zane's power was terrifying.
And if not for the hollow's total energy constraints… even this fraction alone—
Tyce's jaw tightened as he met the projection's empty gaze.
He understood now. His goal had changed.
It was no longer about defeating the projection.
It was about enduring—lasting until the hollow's energy ran dry, until the projection faded.
Because if he could survive that long…
Wasn't that, in its own way, another kind of victory?