<...Then let’s do ’it’.>
The voice spoke again in a grim, resigned tone.
Bane froze, allowing a few attacks to tear him apart.
"N-No!"
Bane replied out loud, his eyes widening in genuine horror.
’I-I won’t! If I do that...’
’I will lose everything!’
’I... I will lose you!’
<It is better to lose power than to lose your life.>
The voice in his head turned cold.
It was no longer a partner advising a host; it was a parasite making a survival calculation.
<Goodbye, Prince.>
"Wa-"
RIIIIIP.
A sickening tearing sound echoed from Bane’s very soul.
"ARGHHHHH!"
Bane arched his back, his eyes rolling back into his head. Black blood sprayed from his pores as the demonic markings on his skin began to peel away. The obsidian horns on his forehead cracked and shattered.
Something was forcing its way out of him.
Even Amaniel was stunned by the sudden turn of events for a moment.
Wrrr...
A massive, amorphous shadow ripped itself free from Bane’s back, severing the spiritual connection with a violence that nearly shattered the Prince’s mind.
Bane collapsed into the snow, convulsing, his aura plummeting from the peak of power to the level of a commoner in seconds.
The shadow mass hovered above him, coalescing into a terrifying form. It wasn’t the small cat-like creature anymore. It was a monstrosity of writhing void tentacles and hundreds of violet eyes.
[Velmort, The Void Stalker (True Form)]
’What the hell is this?!’
Amaniel cursed inwardly as the system window flashed before his eyes.
Who would have guessed that small cat was actually a calamitous entity!
’Damn!’ He felt a chill run down his spine. The creature looked like a literal eldritch horror birthed from the deepest nightmares.
However, shock was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
His gaze snapped downward.
Bane, the once arrogant Prince, lay in the snow, convulsing like a broken puppet. His aura had disintegrated completely.
’Opportunity.’
Amaniel’s eyes turned cold.
He had to eliminate the variable before the timer hit zero and make a run for it.
He raised his hand, gathering a lethal amount of aura in his palm.
VROOOOM.
Just as he was about to release the move, the surrounding space trembled violently. Reality itself groaned under immense pressure.
Right above them, the sky tore open.
CRAAACK.
A massive, jagged black crack marred the heavens, leaking suffocating dark violet mist.
SWOOSH!
A terrifying suction force erupted from the rift. It latched onto the Void Stalker and Nemo with an irresistible gravitational pull.
"Grrr!"
Velmort screeched, driving its tentacles into the ground to anchor itself against the sucking void.
Nearby, the suction force lifted Nemo off the ground. The weakened Overlord flailed helplessly against the pull.
Amaniel frowned faintly before snapping his fingers.
[Glacial Dome]!
A thick hemisphere of ice encased Nemo, weighing him down against the gravity.
With that settled, Amaniel vanished.
Flash.
He reappeared right beside the convulsing Bane.
’Goodbye.’
Amaniel thrust his hand forward without hesitation, an ice spike extending from his palm aimed directly at Bane’s heart.
Swish.
However, he hit empty air.
Oily void tentacles had wrapped around Bane’s waist, yanking him out of harm’s way at the last microsecond.
Amaniel looked up.
Velmort, despite fighting the suction of the rift, was glaring at him with hundreds of violet eyes.
It wouldn’t let its host die so easily.
Screee!
Dozens of void tentacles shot down from the sky, aiming to skewer Amaniel.
[Spatial Reflection]!
Amaniel raised his palm calmly. The space in front of him warped, turning into a cosmic mirror intended to bounce the attacks back.
Phwt.
Amaniel’s pupils contracted, [Foresight] activating.
Swoosh!
The tentacles smashed right through the reflection, shattering the distorted space like glass. The sheer density of the void energy overwhelmed his technique instantly.
He abandoned the defense and kicked off the air, dodging backward.
Bam! Bam!
The tentacles pulverized the frozen ground where he had stood.
Simultaneously, the hundreds of violet eyes scattered across Velmort’s amorphous body blinked in unison.
They glowed with a sickening, chaotic light.
Zzzzt!
A psychic shockwave slammed directly into Amaniel’s consciousness.
"Urgh!"
Amaniel stumbled in mid-air.
It felt like a thousand rusted needles were being driven into his mind. His vision blurred, filled with flashing violet static.
Blood trickled from his nose, eyes, and ears.
"You want to play rough?"
He gritted his teeth, stabilizing his mind through sheer will. He forced the pain into the back of his mind and locked his gaze on the beast.
"Fine."
He then glanced at the timer.
[0:38]
’Now or never!’
He opened his arms wide, his white robes fluttering violently in the chaotic wind.
His eyes, the white vortexes, spun rapidly.
[Blizzard Monarch]!
HOOOOWL.
Violent winds screamed across the plains.
The next moment, a massive, towering cyclone of snow and razor-edged hail formed around him, obeying his absolute command.
"Tear it apart."
Amaniel muttered with a cold gaze.
HOOOOWL.
The storm lunged.
Millions of ice blades shredded the air, slamming into Velmort’s massive body with the force of a meat grinder.
Screee!
Velmort shrieked as the damage piled up. It lashed out wildly, its mental pressure bearing down on Amaniel.
Amaniel ignored the headache splitting his skull while continuously using Glacial Phasing and Blink to dodge the never-ending tentacles.
’Now!’
He quickly activated [Ethereal Frostform: Intangibility] and [Illusory Manifestation] simultaneously, making hundreds of copies of himself, intending to buy himself time.
The plan worked, and he clenched his fist, using his last strongest move to the fullest.
[Absolute Cryokinesis]!
The temperature instantly plummeted past the point of physics. The moisture in the air, the wind, and even the violet mist leaking from the rift froze instantly.
Crack-freeze.
Massive chains of absolute zero ice erupted from the storm, wrapping around Velmort’s tentacles and main body, halting its movement.
"Get in there alone!"
Amaniel pulled his hand down, intending to slam the monster into the rift.
However, Velmort was desperate.
Gurgle.
The monster dissolved half of its body into pure void energy, slipping out of the ice chains.
Then, it lunged.
Every remaining tentacle shot toward Amaniel and the frozen dome holding Nemo.
Snap.
The void tentacles wrapped around his waist and limbs before he could blink.
"SCREEEE!"
Velmort shrieked triumphantly. It stopped resisting the suction force.
WHOOSH.
The gravitational pull from the crack doubled.
With Velmort acting as the anchor, Amaniel and Nemo were yanked violently upward into the sky.
"Tch!"
Amaniel summoned a giant ice blade to sever the tentacles, but the void energy was too dense.
The world below shrank rapidly.
They were falling upward.
Into the violet abyss.
’[Glacial Phasing]!’
Amaniel roared inwardly, commanding his body to turn intangible to slip through the void bindings.
He waited for the familiar sensation of becoming mist. He waited for the ice to answer to his absolute authority.
Nothing happened.
The aura in his veins felt sluggish, heavy, as if it had turned into lead.
It wasn’t just a bind. It was a total suppression.
He was trapped in a Spatial Nullification Zone. The pure void energy radiating from the rift negated all laws of physics and magic from the surroundings.
’Interception Step! Blink!’
Didn’t work!
’System!’
’Help!’
Amaniel screamed in his mind, trying to trigger any fail-safe he had.
[ ... ]
Silence.
No blue screen appeared. No familiar robotic voice chimed in to save him.
For the first time since his arrival in this world, the interface that defined his existence went dead silent. Even if this was the first time he had genuinely and desperately asked for help.
’Urgh.’
Amaniel gritted his teeth, as timer approached single digits.
The gravitational pull became crushing.
The ground was miles away in just a second.
The vast, snowy plains looked like a mere sheet of white paper.
In the center of that paper, a tiny, broken black speck remained.
Amaniel focused his fading vision one last time.
...Bane.
The fallen Prince was kneeling in the crater, his face twisted in a mask of pure, unadulterated trauma. His bleeding eyes, devoid of their demonic light, burned with a hatred so intense it seemed to pierce the distance between them.
He had lost his beast. He had lost his power. He had lost his pride.
And he was watching the thief steal it all away.
Amaniel held that gaze. He etched the image of the defeated Prince into his mind.
Then, a cold, slimy whisper slithered directly into his brain, bypassing his mental defenses.
<You denied me this world. So I will drag you to my hell.>
ZWOOM.
The violet abyss opened its maw wide.
Amaniel didn’t close his eyes. He didn’t look away.
He stared straight into the encroaching darkness, his mind racing, calculating, and observing until the very last microsecond.
Then, the violet mist swallowed his vision, extinguishing the light of the stars.
Gravity inverted.
The sensation of weightlessness consumed him instantly. The howling wind of the north was cut off, replaced by the suffocating, chaotic silence of the void.
Snap.
The spatial wound slammed shut.
The sky healed instantly, leaving no scar, no crack, and no trace of the apocalyptic battle.
The absolute zero domain faded. The snow began to fall gently once more, covering the blood and the scars of the earth.
Silence returned to the frozen plains.
The only sound left was the hollow, broken scream of a boy who had lost everything to the winter.