I stared at the Eternal, my eyes locked onto his body.
He had not moved even a step.
That punch had never been meant to kill him. It had been a test. A way to understand whether his physical existence followed the same rules as mine, or if he was nothing more than a law-bound projection.
Now I had my answer.
His body was real. Solid. Present.
But his Law of Sealing was powerful enough to halt a strike reinforced by my own Essence and will. Powerful enough to stop me inches away from contact without visible strain.
That alone told me everything I needed to know.
A small smile formed on his face, as if he had just solved an interesting puzzle.
"You appear stronger than you should be," he said calmly. "And that Essence... it does not represent anything I know."
His gaze sharpened, black eyes reflecting the violet glow bleeding faintly from my arm.
"Did you alter it yourself?" he continued. "Is it a mutation? A talent? Or something born outside the system you follow?"
I ignored the question.
Instead, I met his gaze and spoke in return.
"What is your name?"
There was no hesitation. No pause to posture or threaten.
"My name is Upita," he replied instantly.
I nodded once. "My name is Billion."
For a brief moment, neither of us moved. The sealed space around him hummed softly, the Essence-starved void between us trembling under the pressure of two authorities pressing against each other without touching.
Then I asked the question that mattered.
"Tell me, Upita," I said evenly. "Why do you Eternals attack our universe? Why do you capture the souls of our people? Why do you do this?"
His expression did not change.
He simply listened.
When he answered, his voice was calm, almost clinical.
"Because in our struggle to reach where we want to be," he said, "your universe exists in the way."
I felt my fingers curl slightly, but I did not interrupt.
"You are a step," Upita continued. "A hurdle. Something that must be crossed."
His black eyes stayed fixed on mine.
"To reach our goal, if we must capture your people, we will do so. If we must erase your civilizations, we will do that as well. If we must destroy your universe entirely, then that too is acceptable."
There was no hatred in his words.
"No emotion," he finished. "Nothing personal."
I stared at him for a long moment.
Then I nodded.
"Okay," I said quietly.
I lifted my head slightly, violet Essence stirring once more within my body, no longer restrained.
"Then it’s nothing personal from your side," I continued. "I understand that."
My gaze hardened.
"But from my side?"
A faint pressure rolled outward.
"It’s very personal."
The silence between us cracked.
That brief exchange was more than enough time.
Right to Insight had already locked onto every sealing rune around Upita. The patterns were complex, layered, and elegant in a cold way, but they were not perfect. Nothing ever was. As the analysis completed, their weaknesses unfolded clearly in my mind, precise points where the flow of law intersected just a little too rigidly.
I raised my hand slowly, fingers spread as if I were about to play an invisible instrument in the void.
Then I tapped four fingers in sequence.
The Law of Resonance answered immediately.
Four invisible ripples spread outward from my hand, silent and perfectly tuned. They did not strike the sealing anchors blindly. Each wave curved, adjusted, and slipped into place, hitting the runes exactly where their internal harmony was weakest.
A sharp crack echoed through the void.
The sound of something precise breaking.
The sealed space around Upita fractured like glass under pressure, lines spreading rapidly before collapsing inward. In the next instant, the isolation shattered completely, and the Eternal was forced back into open space.
He had no brows to furrow, no pupils to widen, but the stillness of his posture broke just enough for me to know.
He was surprised.
I did not give him time to recover.
I took a single step forward and flashed, space folding instantly as I appeared right in front of him. My palm shot forward without hesitation. The Law of Polarity surged, and I pushed the Law of Reflection to its limit.
An invisible sphere formed in front of my hand, dense and absolute, its surface bending reality inward.
It struck his chest.
BOOM.
The impact detonated through the void, and Upita’s body was hurled backward like a meteor, tearing through empty space and crashing toward the second layer below. Shockwaves rippled outward, distorting light, law, and Essence alike.
I did not watch him fall.
Instead, I activated the Abyss Core within my Dawn Core.
[Abyss Core]: A stabilized black-hole construct within the Dawn Core. Devours law fragments, refines them, and converts them into new law volcanoes or strengthens existing ones.
The broken sealing fragments that still drifted around me were pulled instantly toward my body, collapsing inward as if caught by a black hole. Law fragments, residue, and shattered runes vanished into me one after another, refined and absorbed as they were dragged straight into the Dawn Core.
The void around me stabilized.
The Essence-starved space began to breathe again.
I lowered my hand slowly, my gaze never leaving the Eternal’s position below.
"I am not such an easy hurdle to cross," I said calmly.
Then I burst forward.
Space folded beneath my step as I descended toward the second layer, the broken structures and rolling deathmist rushing up to meet me. I chose this place deliberately. The second layer was thick with corruption, saturated with deathmist, and crawling with forces trying to push upward from the core. If this fight was going to happen, it would happen here, where his army would be forced to hesitate and where I could choke their advance completely.
Saleos was already present, hovering near the edge of the layer, his aura blazing as he held back part of the rushing Eternal forces. I spared him a brief glance and then turned my full attention forward.
Before engaging again, I checked my status once.
[Level: 399]
I exhaled softly.
A jump of fifty levels from the chaos so far. The number itself was impressive, but I could feel it clearly now, the invisible wall just ahead of me. The next threshold. 400. That gap needed more.
Something decisive.
I arrived above the second layer and slowed, hovering as my eyes locked onto the debris below. The rubble shifted, molten stone sliding aside as the Eternal rose from it, his ash-gray body unharmed, his black glass-like eyes already fixed on me.
The deathmist around him parted unnaturally, obeying laws that did not belong to this universe.
I felt no fear.
Only focus.
He straightened fully, floating upward to meet me, his presence pressing down on the battlefield like a weight meant to remind everything else of its place.
I smiled faintly.
"Yes. You would do nicely."
If something was going to push me across that gap, it would be an Eternal who believed himself untouchable.