Chapter 57: When the Void Reaches Back
The skies above Emberlight Sect dimmed—not from clouds, but from something deeper. Like the sun itself had been turned away, refusing to shine on what had come.
A hairline fracture shimmered high in the sky, widening in jagged silence. From it, a form stepped forward—if one could call it that.
It walked on space that crumbled beneath its feet. It bled time, every motion unraveling seconds. Its body shifted between frames of existence, limbs stuttering, overlapping, too fast and too slow.
A voice spoke from within it. Not with sound, but pressure. Meaning pressed into thought.
"I am that which sees the Spiral… and feeds."
Kai appeared on the high stone terrace of the Sect's zenith. Calm. Eyes narrowed. His cloak danced in the strange wind as the pressure settled across the world.
Without warning, the void-being struck.
⸻
The void-being blurred—Fracture Chains lashing out from impossible directions. Space cracked mid-air. Sect towers in the distance tilted, caught in the backlash.
Kai didn't flinch.
Veilstep.
He vanished and reappeared inches from the void-being's side, fist already chambered.
Reality Severance.
A pure arc of spiraling reality cleaved outward. The void-being reeled as its torso split—then restitched instantly from collapsing timelines.
It turned—and its Annihilation Lens opened.
Kai moved before it fired, using Veilstep: Second Layer.
He blitzed through ten afterimage positions in an instant, the beam following only phantoms. As it passed through space, the air behind it no longer existed.
From above, Kai crashed down with momentum.
Veilstep Combo.
In a flurry, he landed strike after strike—only to feel Null Bloom pulse from the void-being's core.
Essence flickered. His energy destabilized.
The void-being's hand shot forward—five-pronged, jointless, phasing through time—
Time Flense.
Kai grunted as his shoulder sparked with backlash. For a split second, he was weaker. Something he'd done yesterday… no longer happened.
Still, his footing held. He whispered:
"Balance Breaker."
Teleport. Shift. Strike. A blow that fractured the being's center mass and sent it tumbling through an entire mountainside.
But it didn't fall. It drifted—using Inversion Drift. Cause and effect inverted. It was now where it shouldn't have been: behind Kai.
Too late.
Its arm warped into a massive blade of condensed void law.
It struck.
Kai blurred—
Reality Shield.
The blade slammed into a spiraling dome of hardened space. The shockwave shattered clouds, cracked the peak below.
Kai didn't hesitate.
He leapt high, Essence flaring wildly.
Snap.
Universal Rupture.
The sky tore with the sound of a million screams muffled at once. A gaping hole expanded, centered on the void-being.
It froze. For the first time—it hesitated.
Kai dropped like a meteor.
The Universe Cries.
He slammed the void-being into the earth. From above, reality shards rained down—like shattered mirrors of the world. Each sliver pierced and destabilized.
When the rain stopped, only silence remained.
Kai stood, panting, body tense.
The void-being's form was broken. But its core still pulsed faintly—its voice like a whisper behind a veil of glass:
"You… are worthy. The Spiral will turn again."
Then, it vanished—fading into the fracture it had come from.
Kai looked up.
The sky had yet to mend.