The eerie voice that had rippled through existence did not echo; it devoured sound.
"Well, Destin Saint... I should thank you for your service."
The words slithered through the dark folds of space like a razor drawn across silk, and for a heartbeat, everything froze. Alexandra, the space, even the spinning Möbius strip, paused unnaturally, as though reality itself inhaled before...
CRUNCH...
Space folded like crumpled parchment, and a colossal claw shadow, an outline without form, descended around the Fateless Celestial and swallowed it whole.
There wasn’t any ripple, nor did the Fateless Celestial have time to struggle or react; not even its creator seemed to have expected it until it was too late, before the Fateless Celestial was gone!
On the other hand, Alexandra’s pitch-black eyes contorted violently as the impossible unfolded before her, and by the time she was able to react...
"W–Wha...?" Her voice cracked, drowned in her own breath.
She knows that the Fateless Celestial was an artifact that Destin Saint seemed to cherish a lot, and it had played the most crucial part in mobilizing the ’Cursed One’, yet it had been consumed like the weakest of trinkets.
Furthermore, she didn’t even get to blink before the void snapped back to normal as if mocking her slow mortal perception.
As everything started to sink, silence weighed down on her like the pressure of a collapsing star, not to mention Destin Saint’s presence had vanished as well.
After all, his voice or connection, everything he projected through the Fateless Celestial, which worked like a conduit, and the voice she heard was never really here, and now the conduit had been taken, Destin Saint was gone with it as well!
Nonetheless, it was still hard to believe after what she had witnessed, and she whispered...
"D–Destin Saint...?"
But the void did not answer, and a chill slithered down her spine that no flame could burn away. Her heart thrashed as she knew that she had just witnessed Destin Saint being kidnapped!
But even beyond that, a single thought coiled into her mind like a venomous serpent, ’That thing...that took him also had taken the Cursed One...which means the mask is gone as well!’
Alexandra felt like dying at that moment because everything she had planned turned into smoke, and the most damning part about all of this was that she was so close to getting the Universal Godly Artifact that would make her whole.
Yet, she couldn’t reveal it in front of Destin Saint, and now she couldn’t snatch it away from that hand.
"Wait a moment..." Suddenly, Alexandra staggered back, as a chilling thought surfaced in her mind, "Could...could that thing that had taken away the Fateless Celestial be Immortal..."
She quickly stopped speaking, but she had already confirmed it in her heart because she couldn’t think of another existence that could manhandle Fateless Celestial and caught the Destin Saint off guard like that.
Everything pointed towards that one entity that Destin Saint considered the most significant threat, and that same entity was after the Cursed One as well.
But what made her feel exposed and threatened was how that entity seemed to be watching everything and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, despite Destin Saint’s meticulous presence.
"Didn’t you say you have taken care of ’it’?!" Alexandra muttered with a hint of exasperation and dread as she looked at the space that had already returned to its pristine silence.
Although the predator was no longer here, she couldn’t help but feel exposed because it might still be here and watching her.
Furthermore, since it had helped Destin Saint, that entity would naturally consider her hostile, and if it returned to deal with her, forget about acquiring the Universal Godly Artifact; she might even lose her Universal Godly Scripture or become like the Cursed One!
’I need to get out of here!’
With deep resentment and fear, she fled without hesitation.
---
At this moment, far beyond Alexandra’s perception, in the immeasurable depths of space, the captured Fateless Celestial tumbled through torn layers of reality, dragged by the unseen claw towards the Universal Void, where law, time, and form dissolved like dust!
The void was something that couldn’t be taken lightly, and even Quasi-Myths can barely survive there, and only Zodiac Beasts reign supreme in this domain.
Right at that moment, just when the void seemed to open its maw, ready to crush and consume, an ethereal white-gold brilliance erupted from the Möbius strip.
Like a needle of infinity piercing through the night, a thread, thinner than an atom, flashed.
The Möbius-strip unraveled into a razor-fine line of paradox, so thin it should not exist, and so sharp it cut meaning itself.
It stabbed through the void’s shadowed hand, making the entity recoil, for the first time in untold eras.
The thread spun, twisted, and in an instant, reformed into a humanoid silhouette woven from looping paradox-lines.
It was a shape that could only be recognized, not perceived.
At that moment, Destin Saint stepped forth from the impossible.
His faceless features, typically giving a sense of calm with the arrogance of destiny, were now felt as icy, rigid, and vibrating with barely contained rage.
His voice cracked like frozen law, "Immortal Nimrod...! How could you be here!? And how long have you been watching!?"
In response to Destin Saint’s inquiry, the space suddenly warped, then collapsed, and, the next moment, rebuilt itself around an approaching presence.
The next moment, a figure walked out of the distortion, hooded in abyssal nothingness, except for purplish flames licking under his hood like celestial executioners. His killing intent was so oppressive that even the Void strained to hold it.
At that moment, he spoke; his voice was calm, mocking, belonging to a hunter who had never failed his prey.
"Still as slippery as ever, I see... Destin Saint. But I guess you want to receive your reward for all the most sincere work you’ve been doing for me. I must say I’m almost crying with laughter here! Hihihihihi...!"
Under his wanton laughter, the flames flared, and the void shuddered like a living being fearing its master, for the Immortal Nimrod had arrived!