Destin Saint’s fearless silhouette stood within the chaotic space; in front of him was a pitch-black void, and between them stood the satanic Immortal Nimrod.
Furthermore, unlike the limited light illuminating Destin Saint’s silhouette, Immortal Nimrod’s figure seemed to be in synchronization with the boundless emptiness behind him, making Destin Saint look somewhat small.
Nonetheless, Destin Saint’s demeanor didn’t crumble; in fact, he seemed to become profound and deep like an abyss, as if unraveling Immortal Nimrod’s schemes, the moment the latter stepped in front of him.
"Before ’we’ imposed the ’higher-order’, you turned a Zodiac Beast into your avatar and snuck into the Middle Plains..." Destin Saint finally spoke calmly, and his previous, rageful, skeptical tone seemed like an illusion.
But Immortal Nimrod didn’t seem to be surprised by Destin Saint seeing through his methods, and suddenly clapped in mockery.
"Hihihi...as expected of the biggest nuisance of Zodiac Plains." Immortal Nimrod sarcastically stated without any hint of surprise or fear, "But what do you expect, huh? Do you think, you hypocrites are the only ones who can break or bend the rules to your advantage?"
Destin Saint showed no reaction to Immortal Nimrod’s derision and impassively stated, "I guess this was my mistake to think you would simply give up on your crusade. But let me ask you something in return..."
His voice turned sharp and slightly threatening, "...how much you had sacrificed to make a measly avatar? If I’m not wrong, your main body must be having quite a lot of trouble now, huh? I wonder if I have everyone attack your den now, what will it be like..."
In response to Destin Saint’s taunt, Immortal Nimrod didn’t seem disgruntled at all, which didn’t go unnoticed by the former, raising a sense of foreboding.
"Hihihi, I’m moved beyond words that you’re so worried about me. But..." Immortal Nimrod’s tone turned eerie and menacing, "...what if someone in your little clique found out that you have not only helped me capture the Cursed One but also handed him over to me on a silver platter.
"Oh, and also, what will their reactions be when they realize that your most powerful ’slave’ has fallen into my hands? Especially after you wasted six of Constellation Arbiters last time and still failed to keep me away from Cursed One!
"Wouldn’t that leave you vulnerable and the countless beings you have suppressed in your wake, filled with thrill and peculiar thoughts?"
Destin Saint showed no excessive reaction to Immortal Nimrod’s provocation and impassively sneered, "Fallen into your hand? I think you are mistaken. Not only am I going to take away the Cursed One with me today, but very soon, I’ll be personally visiting you to show my sincerer ’gratitude’ for what happened today!"
"Did I just hear you say ’leave’? HIhihihihi..." Immortal Nimrod lampooned, and the void not too far away from him seemed to have churned as if something were crawling there, and chaotic space started to turn heavy as a peculiar pressure seeped into it.
As if sensing something, Destin Saint’s figure flickered as a mystical aura started to envelop his ethereal silhouette.
"You sensed it, don’t you?" Immortal Nimrod suddenly stopped laughing and coldly stated with disdain.
Before Destin Saint could reply, an eerie, oppressive presence had arrived behind the void, and the next moment, a glowing, dark-purple eye emerged within it.
The eye was devoid of emotion or time, as if mirroring the void itself, and its malevolence was palpable; even the space seemed to merge with the void the moment the eye revealed itself, and Immortal Nimrod’s figure began to emit a profound and terrifying might.
"Your true body is here?!" Destin Saint finally couldn’t maintain his composure as he seemed to be glaring at the ethereal eye that appeared to be the eye of a very void around it.
"Hihihihi..." Immortal Nimrod broke into mirthful laughter, and this time his voice didn’t just come from that ’avatar’ but from the entire void.
"I guess you liked my surprise. I’m delighted. Well, I guess, I never showed you what I’m truly capable of, leading you to this point...you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this...how long I’ve endured...how long..."
Immortal Nimrod’s voice was filled with vicissitudes like someone who had been waiting for ages for this chance, this exact moment, and now that he had reached this point, he no longer cared because it was the point where he would finally overcome everything and achieve his goal!
Right at that moment, for the first time since their clash began, Immortal Nimrod stopped speaking in riddles and menace, and moved!
A single twitch of the void eye behind him, a quiver of impossible darkness, and the entire chaotic space warped like wet parchment pressed beneath an unseen titan’s thumb.
A massive pressure descended, and this pressure was no longer within the limits of the Middle Plains...no longer within the field of broken rules...no longer within the battleground carved by restrictions and constraints.
This pressure belonged to the Progenitor Void, where laws dissolved before they could even take shape.
The ethereal shimmer that formed Destin Saint’s silhouette buckled...
’Fzzzt...’
His outline crackled, bent, and fractured into jagged curves as if the void itself was trying to erase the concept of his existence.
A cold, devilish chuckle slithered through reality, "Oh? What’s wrong, Destin Saint?"
Immortal Nimrod tilted his avatar’s hooded head, the purplish flames beneath it twisting into sadistic crescents.
"Don’t tell me the taste of defeat has broken your will already?"
Behind him, the void-eye blinked, and space ruptured like brittle glass.
Destin Saint’s form flickered once... twice...each tremor draining more light from his Möbius-lit silhouette.
Immortal Nimrod continued, voice smooth like polished bones, "If you crumble now, I would be... profoundly disappointed."
Space around him boiled and sank inward, forming a swirling maelstrom of devouring entropy. Runes, foreign, ancient, heretical, burst open around his avatar’s feet, slithering like serpents of unmaking.
Then Nimrod laughed, soft and cruel, "But disappointment will not stop me from enjoying the moment I erase you with this universe!"
The void-eye flared, and a violent pulse of annihilation surged out like a collapsing supernova.
"Now then...I will take what is mine. Your precious slave...and the Cursed One!" His voice deepened, dripping with spite, "If you dare, bring your real body to me."
The next moment, he struck as a torrent of void-law erupted like a tidal wave of dying galaxies.
It wasn’t a beam, nor does it resemble a strike, nor a spell. It was more a mandate of erasure, the pure, unfiltered will of the Void itself!
It devoured everything in its path; color vanished, sound vanished, and even meaning seemed to disappear.
The Fateless Celestial, now just a flickering remnant, was moments away from being wiped out completely.
The last threads binding Destin Saint’s consciousness vibrated violently, and his silhouette fractured into luminous shards, moments from shattering when all of a sudden...
’CRACK...’
Something broke, but it was not Destin Saint.
Not only did the collapsing light pause, just a hair’s breadth, but it paused!
Immortal Nimrod’s purplish flames twitched, and the void-law storm dimmed, as if something invisible had jammed itself into its heart.
Thereafter, from within the collapsing Möbius remnants, a calm, cold, cutting voice whispered through the void, "I see...!"