As Vyrinox approached the monolith, and he was mere inches from claiming it, a sudden, crushing pressure descended upon him. It was as if the universe itself had decided to test his worth.
Vastoth, deep in his trance of comprehension, was jolted awake by this. His closed eyes snapped open, scanning the scene until they landed on Vyrinox standing behind him.
For a fleeting moment, confusion flickered across Vastoth's face. "How? How did he get here?" his expression asked what his lips could not. The disbelief was palpable.
The monolith's spatial laws were merciless, bending reality to a degree only a master of space could endure.
Even for him, he had to claw his way here through sheer comprehension and force of will. And yet… Vyrinox now stood within the sacred perimeter, uninvited and inexplicable.
But relief stirred within Vastoth's chest as he sensed the intolerable and crushing pressure bearing down solely on Vyrinox.
With each passing second, the pressure increased, grinding down on Vyrinox as if it were the hand of the Void itself.
His teeth clenched. His muscles trembled. One knee struck the ground, then the other, as if the weight of space itself were forcing him to submit. His arms shook violently as he struggled to stay upright.
"I cannot lose this opportunity. Not again!" The desperate, defiant voice echoed inside his mind, a cry of fury.
Vastoth stood above him with cold amusement and a smirk on his lips.
Watching Vyrinox brought low and crawling beneath the monolith's crushing presence was almost comical.
Yet, beneath the amusement, a flicker of disdain glimmered in his eyes, alongside the faintest trace of relief.
"This isn't the way to claim the monolith," Vastoth mused, his gaze sharp. "Not through deception."
Below, Vyrinox caught the look.The ridicule. The dismissal. And worse, pity.
Rage surged through him, fierce and blinding, and his willpower hardened into unbreakable iron.
"Pity—me? Me, Vyrinox? How dare he! HOW DARE HE!" he roared, his voice thundering across the distorted peaks.
"Divine Shift!"
At his command, patterns of Deception Law erupted around him. Glowing runes blazed like embers in a starless void. The very fabric of space trembled.
And then—like a mirror struck by a divine hammer—Crack! Reality fractured.
Countless glowing shards of space floated in the surrounding, each one showing fragments of how the space was before a second ago.
Between the shards was a deep, endless darkness that seemed to swallow all light. Around the edges of the rift, faint purple energy flickered like static.
The entire scene felt still and surreal, as if the universe itself had paused in shock.
Vastoth who already instinctively stepped back, narrowed his eyes as the shards of reality scattered around him.
"That was close thankfully I was fast enough or I would have been exiled to the void abyss," he muttered under his breath as he looked at the dark abyss void between the shard.
His gaze then flickered toward the monolith, only to freeze in disbelief.
The monolith shattered, broken into countless pieces.
"What have you done?!" Vastoth's roar was like thunder, shaking the very laws of the shattered space.
His anger surged as he charged toward Vyrinox, his aura blazing with unrestrained power his eyes now red with anger.
But Vyrinox was ready. He swiftly pulled several shards of the monolith into his hand then he instantly shouted, "Shift."
In an instant, his position swapped with the clone he had stationed at the mountain's base. Vastoth's fist crashed into the clone, reducing it to black purée.
At the mountain's base, Vyrinox stumbled, panting heavily. Sweat dripped down his face as he clutched the shards, their energy pulsating in his grip.
"That was close… too close," he muttered, his mind in shambles with the realization that Vastoth could have killed him instantly in that moment.
Vyrinox's relief was short-lived. The shards of the monolith radiated energy so powerful it was impossible to conceal.
He attempted to store them in his pocket dimension, but they resisted, their nature too powerful to be confined.
"This will attract others," he muttered, his voice laced with frustration. "I need to figure this out quickly."
Before he could act, the space around him distorted violently. Vastoth appeared above him, his presence like a storm descending. "You dare!" Vastoth bellowed, his voice crackling with fury.
Instinctively, Vyrinox cried, "Shift!" His body swapped places with a distant clone just as Vastoth's fist came crashing down, annihilating a clone in an explosion of energy.
"How?" Vastoth growled, his frustration mounting. "Is he faster than space itself?" he angrily roared.
The primordial's roar echoed across the land, shaking mountains and forests alike.
Vyrinox, now hundredths of light-years away, leaned against a jagged rock, his body trembling from exhaustion.
"That made me waste one of my trump cards," he muttered bitterly as his gaze fell to the shards hovering before him as he said smiling, "But it was worth it."
His bitterness and desperation turned to surprise as the shards began to react.
Drawn to one another, they fused seamlessly into a single whole.
The laws emanating from the reconstructed monolith were clearer now, more vibrant and tangible than before.
For a moment, Vyrinox stared in awe. "So… it's even better this way," he whispered, his mind racing with possibilities.
But the danger was far from over. He knew Vastoth wouldn't rest until he reclaimed what he believed was his.
At the same time Vastoth, still seething with anger, reappeared atop the mountain in an instant, his mastery over space making the previous arduous journey trivial.
His eyes scanned the peak, expecting nothing but emptiness after Vyrinox's clash. Instead, what he saw left him momentarily stunned.
Suspended in midair, were the rest of the fragments of the shattered monolith they hovered like scattered stars.
Each fragment radiated its own unique spatial law, their energy humming in the air like a disjointed symphony.
He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing as he studied the phenomenon.
"These fragments…" he muttered, reaching out to the nearest one. As his fingers brushed against it, a fragmentary law aspect flowed into his mind, a piece of the vast puzzle he had been so close to completing.
He frowned. "I can only grasp one aspect from each of them."
His gaze moved to the other fragments, each glowing faintly, each holding its own space aspect then a realization dawned on him: "To understand the whole complete law easily, I need all of the fragments."
Without hesitation, he extended his hand and began to gather the fragments. They moved toward him, converging in a slow, deliberate motion.
As they came together, the scattered pieces merged seamlessly, forming a structure three-quarters the size of the original monolith.
The newly formed monolith pulsed with power, its presence commanding yet incomplete. Vastoth placed his hand against its surface, his brows furrowing as he tried to sense the final aspect of the spatial law.
But it was no use. The last pieces of the puzzle remained elusive, locked away in the missing fragments.
His jaw tightened. "VYRINOX!!" he growled under his breath, the name dripping with venom.
Until the last shards were recovered, this monolith would remain incomplete. His fingers curled into a fist against the monolith's surface.
He could feel the weight of time pressing down on him. To fully comprehend the spatial laws now, he would need to either comprehend it over long periods of time, although the incomplete monolith could aid him but he had mastery over the space aspects that monolith had and also time was not on his side.
The Divine Realm was vast, and rivals were many. Anything could happen during this delay the faster he becomes stronger the better he can deal with the challenges he may face.
He stepped back from the monolith, his anger simmering beneath the surface, "I can't afford to wait. This must be whole again… and soon."
Vastoth stood atop the shattered peak, his eyes locked on the distant horizon where Vyrinox had vanished to. The air around him was heavy, crackling with the remnants of their clash.
His fists clenched tightly at his sides, the faint hum of space laws vibrating from the incomplete monolith behind him.
For the first time in eons, Vastoth tasted failure.
His gaze dropped to the faint imprint of Vyrinox's presence left on the mountain.
A bitter chuckle escaped his lips, tinged with frustration. "I thought I understood him," he muttered, his voice low but edged with self-reproach. "I thought he was just a schemer, someone too weak to grasp the true essence of laws."
He shook his head, his expression darkening. The realization gnawed at him. "I underestimated him. I thought I was untouchable, that my mastery over space made me untouchable. And yet, here I am, empty-handed."
The memory of Vyrinox's deception replayed in his mind,how the clone had been a distraction, how Vyrinox had shattered the monolith and stolen its shards right under his nose.
The audacity, the precision, and, most of all, the sheer cunning of it all. Vastoth had dismissed him, thought him a lesser rival. And that arrogance had cost him dearly.
He let out a frustrated growl, his aura flaring momentarily before he forced himself to calm down. "Never again," he vowed, his voice steady and resolute. "Never again will I let pride blind me. I will never underestimate anyone, no matter how insignificant they may seem."
His eyes burned with determination as he straightened his posture. "He may have outsmarted me this time, but next time…" He paused, his jaw tightening. "Next time, I'll be ready. And I'll show him what happens when you challenge Vastoth, Lord of space."
The wind picked up, swirling around him as if acknowledging his words. Vastoth picked all the the monolith and put on his pocket dimension.
His resolve was set, this was not defeat, but a lesson. A painful, humbling lesson that he would carry with him.
As he descended the mountain, the fragments of his pride slowly pieced themselves together, reforged into a sharper, stronger will.