Carius's body didn't fully exist in the same spatial plane as the battlefield. To bypass a Nullite's negation, one must not be within space, but beside it.
Carius had split the fabric of his presence, half a step outside normal space, existing in a state where the Nullite negation couldn't reach, because it had no space to suppress.
His form shimmered subtly, reality bending around him like water disturbed by an invisible force. Each movement left faint spatial echoes.
But regardless, Carius was still vulnerable against physical attacks.
And Karn was nothing but physical might.
Their clash continued, colossal and unrelenting.
Each blow between them sent shockwaves strong enough to crumble what was left of the ruined island beneath.
Yet Carius was nothing if not cunning.
He knew the Nullite's greatest strength was their ability to negate.
And while the ambient mana limited his space manipulation, it didn't eliminate it.
It just made him more creative.
His eyes flashed.
And then, four distinct spatial powers activated all at once.
Dimensional Explosion.
Dimensional Perception.
Dimensional Phasing.
Dimensional Duplication.
The battlefield changed.
Space ruptured, a dimensional burst erupting between Carius and Karn, momentarily destabilizing the terrain and forcing Karn back.
Carius's gaze sharpened, his eyes peering into alternate realities, calculating every one of Karn's next moves before they happened.
His body turned increasingly ethereal, phasing partially out of existence, allowing physical strikes to pass through harmlessly.
And then, five other Cariuses appeared.
Dimensional copies, each one shimmering with an unstable spatial aura, their gazes hollow and cold.
They moved.
The copies shot toward the other Apexes, engaging them in clashes of speed and lethality.
Meanwhile, the real Carius intensified his assault on Karn, every movement cold, calculated, surgical.
Karn found himself under relentless pressure, struck from multiple angles, pushed back, overwhelmed.
His teeth clenched.
His muscles rippled.
And then, he roared,
"DOMAIN!"
A cloak of brown energy erupted from his body, swallowing the entire battlefield in its suffocating presence.
A Nullite Domain.
The others remained outside it. Only Carius and Karn were within.
Inside, Karn's aura surged like a volcano. His hammer screamed through the air, each strike ripping apart space.
His attacks became brutal, untamed ferocity, raw power, monstrous might.
But Carius remained cold. Calculating. Detached.
Every swing, every strike, already seen before it was made.
Every roar, already predicted before it echoed.
Karn fought with rage.
Carius fought with reason.
And then outside, the cloak of brown light began to lower.
The other Apexes, still engaged in their battles with the copies, instinctively turned their heads toward the dissipating domain.
And what they saw stole their breath.
Karn stood still with blood trailing from his lips. His eyes were bloodshot.
Carius's sword was driven straight through his chest.
Karn trembled, his aura flickering weakly.
Carius leaned closer, eyes like knives.
"Your gaze is filthy." Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire
And then, he withdrew his blade and, in a clean motion, severed Karn's head.
Silence.
The Apexes froze.
The sergeants froze.
Even the Grandmasters around them widened their eyes for a brief moment.
Karn Voss of the Nullite.
One of the strongest among them.
A reincarnator.
A warrior of unmatched physical might
Was dead.
But Carius didn't blink.
He calmly reached down and, with a flick of his hand, stored Karn's corpse and severed head into his spatial storage.
Then, he slowly turned his gaze back toward the battlefield.
His eyes swept across the stunned faces of the Apexes and sergeants alike.
His voice was emotionless.
"You're next."
Their expressions shifted violently.
The real slaughter had only just begun.
…
High above, in the apocalyptic skies, the true horror ensued.
Colonel Xal'zereth hovered amidst the chaos like a god of judgment.
Still. Silent. Calculating.
His grotesque alien form remained motionless, and his countless black eyes observed everything.
Zorvans were creatures of observation.
Emotionless. Purposeful.
They did not feel pride, nor pity.
Only task. Only goal.
Life meant nothing to them, less than insects.
"Five minutes, thirty seconds," the Zorvan said, voice mechanical and devoid of emotion.
He was dissatisfied.
The Paragons he had brought, eight in total, were clashing with the Alliance's sixteen.
Yet progress was slow.
Two against one, the Alliance Paragons were holding, but barely.
Aside from Colonel Zenon, who raged in a death match against the traitorous Evolari elder, the others were faltering.
The Alliance Paragons were strong, veterans of countless battles. But they were aged. Their time was drawing to an end.
And against Paragons in their prime… age was a curse.
Even Zenon's eyes, blazing with fury, held a gleam of despair.
'It's inevitable…'
He could see it. Feel it. The shift in the tide.
The Alliance was losing.
And the Zorvan… hadn't even moved yet.
His own battle against the Evolari elder was a hurricane of ferocity.
Two Paragons at the pinnacle of the Evolari.
Their bodies shifted, adapted, evolved constantly, bone, muscle, energy, all reshaping endlessly, trying to overpower the other.
But Zenon knew, even if it was a stalemate, the moment the others fell, he would too.
'Where is he…?'
Zenon gritted his teeth.
He had felt Atticus's probe earlier. He had seen his scan. But now… nothing.
'Don't tell me… they got to him.'
The thought hit harder than any blow. He deadened it instantly.
Atticus Ravenstein was not a person that could be easily gotten.
He was a monster. He was an anomaly.
To kill him… they'd need to collapse the world.
'We need him… we need that boy.'
He had the history of doing the impossible constantly. Survived when no one should.
Defied fate again and again.
Zenon's fist clenched, trembling.
'We need that impossibility… now.'
But while the Alliance Paragon looked toward hope, the Zorvan looked toward efficiency.
And he was far from pleased.
"Inefficient," Xal'zereth muttered again, as if the word itself tasted bitter.
This was why he loathed primitive life.
More than five minutes had passed and still, no corpses. No results. No progress.
Too slow. Too wasteful.
His three-fingered hand rose. Orb-like digits met each other…
SNAP.
The air changed instantly.
A pulse radiated out from him, a soundless wave of force that swept across the battlefield like an invisible tsunami.
And then, mana stopped responding.
Every Alliance member, Paragon, Apex, sergeant, recruit, fighting below, felt it.
A sudden, eerie void.
Their eyes widened in horror.