Chapter 299: Collapsing Heaven
We floated just ten feet apart, lightning still crackling faintly around us.
Arkas crossed his arms, his trident still humming at his side.
"You were gone for just a little while," Arkas said, tilting his head with a deadpan expression.
"And now you’re going wild, huh? Attacking your own Commander like some rogue with wings. Master rank, lightning bursts, exploding into the sky like an overconfident firework... Is this how you say hello now?"
I grinned.
"Commander, you’re the one who said it during our first meeting, remember? If we had the strength, we could aim for any position. Even the Emperor’s Guard."
His eyebrow twitched. "So what, you trying for my position now?"
I shrugged, spinning my staff lazily. "Nothing wrong with trying."
Arkas narrowed his eyes and stretched his neck like he was prepping for a real warm-up.
"Alright then," he said, a smirk spreading across his face. "Let’s see how strong you are... at level 173."
I twirled my staff once, lightning sparking off my fingertips.
"Careful, Commander," I said, mock-serious. "Wouldn’t want to accidentally replace you mid-air."
He snorted. "You wish."
And then he moved.
In an instant, the lightning on his body surged and concentrated right at the center of his chest. My Psynapse fractures lit up, working overtime to track his movement.
The lightning buzzed sharply and then a bolt fired straight at me like a spear.
I reacted immediately.
"[Spatial Shield]," I commanded.
The space in front of me rippled and folded inward, compressing until a translucent shield shimmered into place.
The lightning bolt slammed into it with a sharp crack , holding for a heartbeat then shattered through. I brought my staff around in time, deflecting the bolt with a jarring twist. It spun off behind me and crashed into the ground with a flash of sparks and smoke.
I prepared to counter, but Arkas didn’t give me the chance.
His hand blurred, faster than even my fractured perception liked and his trident suddenly appeared right in front of my chest, lightning dancing along its edges.
With no time to dodge or block fully, I tapped into my core’s hidden defense.
"[Sovereign Absorption]," I muttered.
A swirling violet vortex formed on my chest just as the trident struck. The moment it hit, the vortex pulled the lightning and part of the kinetic force straight into the core, absorbing it like a battery.
But the attack was too strong to hold completely. With a burst of light, the vortex cracked and exploded outward as the trident struck my staff.
Even so, the impact was dulled. I skidded backward through the air, my wings stabilizing me after a few feet.
Arkas’ eyes narrowed slightly, his first flicker of surprise.
I ignored it and immediately shifted my internal Essence.
A hundred units of stored Essence flowed from my core into my Strength stat. My muscles swelled subtly, my arms buzzing as the energy settled. The core could now breathe easier and start regenerating.
I raised my staff and pointed it at him.
"[Sanctum of Judgment]."
My channels burned hot as the skill activated. The space around Arkas shimmered and locked. All around me, radiant particles of light gathered in the air, swirling slowly before crystallizing into hundreds of gleaming arrows.
"Go."
At my command, they launched.
The arrows tore through the sky, each one screaming toward Arkas like divine judgment.
But he didn’t flinch.
The space around him crackled with voltage as his own lightning pulsed outward. Arrows of lightning formed around him—faster than mine—and met my barrage mid-air.
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
The sky exploded with collisions of light and lightning. For a moment, it was impossible to see anything past the chaos.
Then I smiled.
"Revert."
My domain responded instantly. Runes embedded in the air above us pulsed to life, forming a massive spinning circle filled with runic gears. It turned once and everything shifted.
The Essence Arkas was controlling faltered.
His lightning arrows quivered, flickered, then dissolved, first into raw lightning, then into pure Essence, like a film being unwound.
With nothing to block them, my light arrows surged through.
They struck him across his arms and torso in rapid succession, pushing him back through the air in a streak of golden light.
"Explode," I whispered.
The Essence within each arrow trembled.....then detonated.
A blinding bloom of light erupted around Arkas as every arrow burst at once. My domain flared, amplifying the blast. Lightning, light, and raw Essence surged and spun violently in the air like a storm gone mad.
For a few seconds, the sky became chaos incarnate—flashing, roaring, pulsing.
Then, the brilliance dimmed.
Arkas stepped out of the light.
There wasn’t a single mark on him.
No blood. No burn. Not even a scuff on his cloak. Just... a strange shimmer in his eyes, like he was excited for the first time in ages.
"Not bad, kid," he said, brushing imaginary dust off his shoulder. "Not bad at all. You’ve again exceeded every single expectation I had."
He burst out laughing. A full, booming laugh that echoed through the sky.
"Hahahahaha! This is going to be so good."
That eerie glint in his eye hadn’t faded. If anything, it burned brighter now.
Then he straightened, and the laughter cut off as suddenly as it began.
His voice dropped low, calm, and dangerous.
"Allow me to show you something then," he said.
"Let’s see if you can handle this."
Arkas lifted his trident.
Its prongs shimmered with restrained lightning as he pointed the weapon directly at me, a calm look in his eyes. And then he whispered, almost like a prayer spoken to the world itself.
"Collapsing Heaven."
The moment the words left his lips, something shifted.
For the first time since I’d awakened it, my domain trembled.
The air buzzed, and the runes engraved in it flickered, faltered, then completely dispersed, vanishing as if their very structure had been denied by a higher authority.
Then came the sound.
Not thunder. Not wind.
Vibration.
The air itself began to hum, violently. My skin crawled, my channels recoiled. Lightning swam through the vibrating air, twisting and slithering like electric serpents around me. It felt like I was suspended in a pool, not of water, but of unstable, vibrating power.
Then it happened.
The vibrating air began to fold in on itself. The lightning compressed with it, funneling, tightening, crushing.
And at the exact center of that chaos, a dot formed.
A tiny, white-hot, vibrating point in space.
I barely had time to react before it exploded.
Not outward like a fireball. It snapped inward, and the shockwave expanded like the wrath of a forgotten god.
My eyes widened in pure shock.
"[Sovereign Absorption]!"
The vortex erupted in front of my chest as I forced the core to eat the incoming force. It worked—partially. Power surged through my core, the core heating up to crazy levels. The vortex began to crack.
Then it shattered.
My wings dispersed in the same instant, scattered by the force like feathers in a storm. And my body bent midair, spine arched, limbs trailing, helpless.
Like an arrow loosed from a bow, I crashed downward, screaming through the sky in a trail of smoke and sparks, until I slammed into the ground with a thunderous impact that carved a crater beneath me.
BOOM!!!
Everything went silent.