The light in Xu Yianzi's eyes extinguished... his body went limp... but before it could plummet to the earth below... something... awakened.
FWOOSH!
A nova of golden-blue light erupted from the center of his chest... from the very point where the most complex Solen rune had been carved with blood and tears an eternity ago... it was the light of genesis... and the light of apocalypse.
His soulless body froze in mid-air... before being drawn slowly, inexorably upwards... Exquisite rings of golden-blue runic magic materialized around him... overlapping in layers... spinning at discordant speeds... like a nascent galactic system being born from the corpse of a man.
The golden light from his chest... began to expand... slowly... yet with a terrible beauty... It washed over his once semi-biological, semi-mechanical form... melting everything into one... His pale skin... transmuted into purest gold... The mechanical arms that once looked formidable... now became the integrated limbs of a deity... and the black mask... dissolved away... revealing a face of serene emptiness... and eyes that now... blazed with the light of suns.
He opened those eyes again... and the universe itself screamed.
"At last..." his voice did not come from his lips... but thundered in the consciousness of every living being that still remained. "...I must use this form... it seems."
He raised his golden arm... observing it... as if for the first time... before slowly, deliberately, clenching his fist... KRRRAK!!! With that simple gesture... reality itself fractured around his hand... creating a pitch-black rift in spacetime that drank the light...
He looked down at the longsword still impaled in his chest... before plucking it out with his index and middle fingers as if it were a splinter... and with an infinitesimal pressure... the sacred sword once hailed as the strongest... disintegrated into silver dust... and vanished on a nonexistent wind.
"IMPOSSIBLE! WHAT IS THIS!?" the treacherous disciple shrieked, his mind shattering. "That sword, the 'Heaven-Sundering Moon'... it's a sacred treasure!" He whirled to face his own master... the Celestial Moon Sword God... "YOU TOLD ME THAT SWORD WAS THE STRONGEST IN THIS UNIVERSE!!!"
The Celestial Moon Sword God... who had once been as stoic as a mountain... now stood trembling in the void. "...It was... the most powerful thing... that I knew of..." he stammered, his own faith dissolving. 'How... how can this be... that sword was a celestial treasure, born with the universe itself... one of the nine most powerful artifacts... It's what allowed me to reach this point... but... it just... turned to dust... so easily?'
The other nine sect leaders... all turned deathly pale... because every one of them... possessed one of the celestial treasures... and that was the source of the power that kept them at the apex... but now... one of the nine... had been unmade with contemptuous ease... In all of their minds... only one word echoed... a primal scream... 'FLEE!!!''We have to escape! That's not a person anymore! That level of power... it is beyond comprehension!'
The Celestial Moon Sword God didn't know if he was trembling from fear... or from an excitement that bordered on madness. 'This power... this is it... the power I have craved for eons... the power I have cultivated for millions of years... yet never came close to even a fraction of it! At last... I have witnessed it!'
"MY LORDS! WE MUST FLEE! WE CANNOT FIGHT HIM!" one of the ten screamed...
Xu Yianzi, in his golden form... slowly turned his brilliant, sun-like eyes... to that person... ...Vwip! There was a flash of light... faster than thought... and the body of the person who had just spoken... was erased from existence, leaving not even ash behind...
The remaining nine... their eyes bulged... staring at the spot where their ally had once stood... now, there was only the cold, empty void... 'What!? What just happened!?' the old Poison Master sent a telepathic message, his thoughts laced with terror. 'I... I saw nothing!' the female Necromancer screamed back in his mind. 'In the blink of an eye... he... he was just... gone!'
Xu Yianzi himself seemed surprised by his own power for a split second... before his expression returned to one of serene indifference. 'This power... it's beyond the axioms of this universe... but that one... he didn't possess a celestial treasure... so then...' He cast his golden gaze... upon the remaining eight...
Those who were caught in that gaze... their knees buckled... they collapsed in the void! Every single one turned... gathered every iota of their life's energy... and prepared to flee... But then... Xu Yianzi simply... raised his hand... and snapped his fingers... Click...
And in that instant... the entire universe... stopped. The stars ceased their turning... the debris from the battle froze in mid-air... even light itself was caught in a timeless cage... Every life... every star... everything... was locked in stasis...
The nine masters were conscious... but they could not move... could not scream... even their thoughts... had become thick and slow, like insects trapped in amber... 'No! No! My body! My power! Why can't I feel it!?''What is this... this feeling... like being drowned in a bottomless ocean... I can't move... I can't breathe!'
Xu Yianzi... began to walk... slowly... through the silent void... towards the Celestial Moon Sword God. "You wanted this power... didn't you... Very well... I shall grant it to you... but I wonder... can you bear its weight."
'WHAT IS THIS... WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS IS THIS!?! A power of this magnitude! It shouldn't exist! Did he just stop the entire universe!? IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!?' The Sword God could only scream in the prison of his own mind... hope and terror warring within him to the point of insanity... All he could do was watch Xu Yianzi's golden finger... as it slowly reached out... to touch his forehead...
The moment that fingertip made contact... his entire world went dark... a pain beyond all imagination tore through every fiber of his soul... before his consciousness... was annihilated for all eternity...
The remaining eight... watched the scene with a terror that almost scoured their minds clean... the image of their strongest leader... slowly dissolving into motes of dust... and vanishing from the universe... 'Next... whose turn... mine... or another's...'
Xu Yianzi did not go in order... but turned in a random direction... and began to walk... slowly... His unhurried pace... was a psychological torture more cruel than any death... 'Just kill me! Please! Don't walk like this!!! Just erase us all at once, it would be a mercy!!!' one of them shrieked in his mind.
One by one... by one... until only the last remained... the female Necromancer... She had watched all her comrades be unmade... in her heart... there was no more fear... only a hollow, echoing void... Xu Yianzi stopped before her... and released her from the frozen time. "Do it... let's get this over with," she said... and closed her eyes.
A moment passed... nothing happened... She opened her eyes... and saw the eight celestial treasures... floating before Xu Yianzi. "What if I gave all of these to you... what do you think?" She scoffed. "Heh... that would be nice... but are you really going to let me go?"
Xu Yianzi laughed out loud... a sound utterly devoid of joy. "NO!!! IMPOSSIBLE!!!" At his voice... he clenched his fist... and all eight celestial treasures... shattered into dust! He drew a runic circle... enclosing the dust... a flash of light... and suddenly, nine wisps of spiritual flame... floated up from the pile!
"No! Impossible! How did you do that! They were gone!" the Necromancer screamed... Those were the souls of her nine comrades who had just died! "It wasn't difficult," Xu Yianzi replied, his voice flat. "...I just recreated them."
Ah... now... he was about to point his finger at her forehead... but she made her decision first! 'His power... he can recreate a soul that has already dissipated... If he kills me... my soul will be tortured for eternity! But if... if I destroy myself... he might not be able to recreate me!' She gathered her last ounce of strength... and destroyed her own power core! Hoping that suicide... would save her from having her soul tortured...
"Hah... how pointless," Xu Yianzi sighed... before raising his hand... and gathering "nothingness"... creating a tenth wisp of spiritual flame... her own soul... "Did you think... you could escape me like that... You only wasted another one of my split seconds." Her newly formed soul... its eyes widened with a terror too vast to comprehend... 'No... not even death... is an escape...'
He reached out and took her wisp of spiritual flame... before letting it float away... Then... he took the other nine souls... and let them float away after her... in different directions... The ten souls... all felt a glimmer of hope... 'He's letting us go! He just wanted to show his power! We... we're saved!' Each soul... was sent back on a path towards their sect... towards their home world... 'He's sending us home! He's sparing us!'
And in the very instant... that their souls... arrived at their home worlds... The light that had guided them... descended... towards the core of the planet... ...BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The entire planet... detonated from within... a small black hole was born at its core... and began to devour everything... The souls... could only scream in silent, eternal despair... watching their homes... their families... and their disciples... being sucked into the abyss... 'NO!!! PLEASE!!! DO ANYTHING TO ME! BUT DON'T DESTROY MY HOME!!!' But their screams... went unheard... All they could do was watch everything they loved... be crushed... before they themselves... were devoured... and annihilated... for the second... and final time...
Everything... returned to a peaceful silence... as if nothing had ever happened... leaving only the vast, empty space...