"I have no intention of harming you. But if I cannot convince myself to follow you....then neither should anyone else."
"I was hoping someone would say that," Gerald suddenly laughed.
A mischievous grin spread beneath the old man’s beard.
"I came prepared."
Without waiting for permission, he walked toward the far wall of the strategy chamber and casually pressed his palm against what appeared to be an ordinary stone pillar.
The entire chamber vibrated.
Runes hidden throughout the walls awakened one after another, filling the room with silver light before gathering toward the center.
Space itself began folding.
The enormous strategy table slowly dissolved into countless particles before an entirely different landscape appeared in its place.
An endless circular plain stretched before us beneath a pale silver sky.
Mountains surrounded the horizon on every side while countless barrier formations floated overhead like transparent suns.
I immediately recognized what I was looking at.
A pocket dimension.
Gerald turned toward everyone with obvious satisfaction.
"Evelyn asked me to prepare this before the meeting."
Several people looked at him.
"You prepared it recently?"
He shrugged.
"I get bored."
No one even attempted to question that answer.
The old man spread his arms proudly.
"The space has been reinforced with enough dimensional anchors and defensive formations to withstand clashes between peak Saints."
"Or at least....that was my original estimate."
Something about the way he said it made me glance toward him.
Gerald noticed.
He simply smiled.
"You’ll understand in a moment."
One by one, everyone stepped into the newly opened space. The transition felt almost nonexistent.
One moment I stood inside the council chamber.
The next, cool wind brushed across my face as endless silver grass swayed gently beneath an artificial sky. The leaders naturally spread outward, leaving an enormous open field between Shade and myself.
No one spoke. The atmosphere itself demanded silence.
Shade calmly walked toward the center before stopping nearly a hundred meters away from me.
"Lord Billion."
He offered a slight bow.
"Whenever you’re ready."
I nodded before walking forward myself. To the ordinary eye, it looked less like two Saints preparing for battle and more like two old friends meeting in the middle of an empty field.
Only the leaders watching from afar understood the truth.
This single exchange....would decide who commanded the greatest expedition the Prime Territory had ever assembled.
A faint breeze drifted across the plain.
Then...
Without warning...
The air behind Shade darkened instantly.
Shadows erupted from beneath Shade’s feet before rising silently toward the skies. They did not gather into a beast or a towering warrior. Instead, the darkness continuously folded inward upon itself, compressing layer after layer until the very sky appeared to bend beneath its weight.
High above the battlefield, an enormous black eclipse slowly came into existence.
It resembled neither a sun nor a moon. A perfect circle of absolute blackness hung motionless in the heavens, surrounded by countless fractured rings of shadow that revolved around it with agonizing slowness.
Every ring was incomplete, as though entire sections had been cut away from existence itself. Wherever those broken circles passed, the world beneath them subtly changed. The silver grass lost its color, Soul Force became sluggish, and even the surrounding laws weakened, as though reality itself had begun forgetting how to exist.
Yet the eclipse wasn’t what drew everyone’s attention.
It was what rested at its center.
Suspended within the absolute darkness floated an enormous obsidian coffin, large enough to rival a mountain. Its surface was perfectly smooth except for thousands upon thousands of ancient black chains wrapped tightly around it from every direction. The chains overlapped one another so densely that almost no part of the coffin remained visible, and each link carried strange symbols that seemed to devour the light falling upon them.
Nothing escaped that coffin.
Not light or sound.
Looking directly at it produced an instinctive discomfort, as though the mind refused to acknowledge what lay imprisoned within. It felt less like an object and more like a wound carved into existence itself.
The eclipse rotated lazily around the chained coffin, and every revolution caused another ripple of silence to spread across the battlefield.
Everything simply became... quieter.
Gerald’s usually playful expression vanished.
"...Remarkable."
His voice had unconsciously dropped to a whisper.
"He shaped his soul into oblivion itself."
Sue Astral’s clock-like eyes accelerated for only a brief moment before the ticking stopped altogether.
Her expression stiffened.
"I... can’t."
She stared at the enormous coffin suspended within the eclipse, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I can’t perceive anything beyond it."
Her gaze remained fixed upon the manifestation as understanding slowly dawned on her.
"The Eclipse of Oblivion..." she murmured. "A fitting name. It perfectly embodies the Noctari race and their authority to nullify. Everything that enters its influence is slowly stripped away until only oblivion remains."
My own eyes remained locked on Shade’s manifestation.
It was certainly unlike anything I had seen before. Most Saints shaped their projections into living embodiments of their identity—warriors, beasts, monarchs or guardians. Shade had done the opposite. His soul had rejected form itself and embraced annihilation. It was a remarkable manifestation...but not one beyond my ability to overcome.
The pressure accompanying its appearance intensified almost immediately.
The endless field of silver grass flattened against the ground as if an invisible mountain had descended upon it. Color gradually drained from the sky, leaving behind a dull, lifeless grey, while the laws governing the pocket realm became strangely sluggish. Even Soul Force flowing through the air lost its vitality, as though the Eclipse of Oblivion was quietly erasing reality one fragment at a time.
"A complete Domain Manifestation..."
Evelyn’s voice carried across the battlefield, unusually solemn.
"...He’s not holding back."
The moment those words left her lips, every gaze instinctively shifted toward me.
I remained exactly where I was.
Looking up at the eclipse hanging high above the battlefield, I couldn’t help admiring it for a brief moment. It wasn’t merely powerful. It carried the unmistakable dignity of a Saint who had spent countless millennia refining a single concept until it became inseparable from his existence. That eclipse wasn’t simply a manifestation of Shade’s strength.
It was Shade himself. His entire path condensed into a single terrifying phenomenon.
"It is impressive," I admitted sincerely.
Shade inclined his head with quiet composure.
"Thank you."
A faint smile crossed my face.
"But....I don’t believe I’ll be needing mine."
The words echoed through the silent battlefield.
Confusion immediately appeared across several faces.
Even Shade’s calm expression faltered.
"You don’t intend to summon your Soul manifestation?"
"I don’t think it’ll be necessary."
For the first time since entering the pocket realm, genuine surprise spread through the gathered leaders.
Not summon his projection?
Against one of the strongest Saints of the Noctari?
Against a complete Domain Manifestation?
Even Kaelra slowly raised an eyebrow.
"...Is the boy serious?"
Gerald casually dusted off his sleeves before taking several unhurried steps backward.
"I’d recommend everyone else do the same."
His words immediately drew attention.
The old man adjusted his robes before looking toward me with an expression that was equal parts amusement and helplessness.
"I’ve met this boy more times than anyone else in this roomand on more than one occasion I tried to gauge where his limits actually lie."
He let out a quiet sigh.
"I failed every single time."
A faint smile appeared beneath his beard.
"He’s the only living soul I’ve encountered since arriving in the Null Realm, yet somehow he remains the greatest mystery I’ve ever tried to understand. Every time I think I’ve finally reached the bottom of his strength, I discover I was only staring into the mouth of another abyss."
Aelion Sylvaris smiled softly.
"He survived a direct confrontation with Verilux while still alive."
The Elven leader folded his hands behind his back before taking a few measured steps away from the battlefield.
"I believe Lord Gerald’s advice is worth following."
One after another, the Astrals quietly retreated beside him. The Essari exchanged brief glances before doing the same.
Only Kaelra remained where she was, folding her arms with an excited grin spreading across her face.
"I’ll stay right here."
She rolled her shoulders.
"If the pressure alone knocks me down, then I don’t deserve to call myself a Dragon."
A faint chuckle escaped Evelyn.
The atmosphere gradually fell silent once again. The entire pocket realm seemed to hold its breath.
Until...
CLANG...