My perception spread outward, covering the entire Eternal-controlled asteroid platform in one sweep. The structure of the tower unfolded before me layer by layer, its core exposed clearly. I saw the flow of energy within it, the frantic adjustments being made as the damage propagated inward.
I also saw my summons at work.
Knight moved like a living absence, tearing through phantoms with ruthless efficiency. What had once been coordinated units were now fragments, unraveling faster than they could regroup. The abominations had already stopped mattering. They were casualties by default now, crushed, burned, or erased in passing rather than fought deliberately.
The Feran army had stalled.
The Eternal forces that had been pressing them moments ago were breaking formation, abandoning the front entirely as they rushed back toward their base. Defense had replaced offense. Survival had replaced control.
I identified the active portals embedded across the platform, spatial anchors humming as they prepared emergency reinforcement cycles.
I didn’t allow it.
A spatial ripple spread from me. The portals collapsed in on themselves without explosion, space folding shut as if they had never existed.
Then the notification arrived.
The System’s tone was familiar now.
A Merit Point quest.
Eliminate phantoms and abominations.
Close the rift.
Capture the Eternal.
I let out a quiet chuckle.
"Fine," I murmured. "This time, I’ll capture him."
I glanced toward the shattered tower and the panicked movements within.
"And I’ll gift him to you."
The tower behind me shuddered, fractured stone and twisted metal peeling away as the Eternal burst free. He crossed the distance in an instant and came to a halt before me, silver runes still flickering across his frame.
He looked exactly like Ash had. Even his power level was around same.
The same tall, precise build. The same ash-gray skin. The same expressionless face framed by that unsettling stillness unique to their kind. Even the black, glass-like eyes mirrored what I remembered.
I let out a low hum.
As I studied him, I felt my Executor’s Halo stir, a sharp pressure building at the edges of my awareness, eager to assert itself. Authority strained against restraint, reality itself leaning forward in anticipation. I kept it contained. This wasn’t the moment.
The Eternal didn’t have that luxury.
His aura churned violently, unstable and aggressive, silver energy bleeding outward as his composure fractured. I could feel it clearly now, the singular fixation driving him.
He wanted me dead.
The Eternal moved first.
Space snapped as he vanished, reappearing to my left with a blade already formed in his hand. As my senses brushed against it, I realised it was a construct of compressed Destruction wrapped around a sword-shaped core. It wasn’t metal. It was absence sharpened into an edge. He swung without warning, the arc tearing through the void toward my neck.
I tapped into my newly acquired law of sealing.
The space in front of me rippled as runes formed and locked instantly, the swing slamming into an invisible wall and dispersing in a violent spray of silver fragments. The backlash twisted the Eternal’s posture for a fraction of a second.
That was enough.
Below us, Ragnar crashed through another cluster of abominations, pulverizing bodies into blackened ruin. Their corrupted blood spilled across the asteroid surface in thick streams, steaming faintly as it hit fractured stone.
I reached for it.
The blood responded.
It tore itself free from the ground in long, snapping strands, rising like inverted rain. Dozens of crimson-black ribbons surged upward, weaving together midair, hardening under my will into barbed lances.
I commanded.
They came at the Eternal from behind, from below, from angles that didn’t respect his line of sight. He reacted instantly, Destruction flaring as he twisted, slicing through three lances in a single rotation. The severed blood didn’t fall.
It turned.
The fragments reassembled mid-flight, thickening, coiling around his limbs like living restraints. The blood wasn’t clean. It carried corruption, resistance, hunger. It fought him even as he tried to erase it.
His aura surged.
The blade in his hand brightened as he combined Destruction with his weapon law, the edge screaming as it cut outward in a wide burst. Blood evaporated under the strike, reduced to ash and vapor.
I sealed again. This time his weapon.
Runes flared around his sword and latched onto it, instantly dimming it by containing the Destruction law within it.
The outward force collapsed into itself, the destructive wave folding back and detonating harmlessly behind him. His eyes flicked to me for the first time with something close to irritation.
He tried to teleport.
The attempt failed.
The space around him had already been sealed, layered and reinforced before he even decided to move. He slammed into the boundary like a trapped projectile, Destruction and deathmist flaring uselessly against absolute denial.
I advanced.
More blood rose from below, thicker now, heavier, wrapping around my arm and forming a jagged gauntlet. I didn’t shape it delicately. I compressed it until it was dense enough to crack under Destruction rather than dissolve.
I struck.
The blow wasn’t fast.
It hit his chest with the weight of accumulated slaughter, blood exploding outward on impact, splattering across his frame and anchoring itself there. He staggered back, silver aura flickering.
I raised my other hand.
Seals layered over his body, one after another. Then the blood surged and began surrounding him into a cocoon.
The Eternal roared, deathmist surging wildly as he fought against containment.
I stepped closer, unhurried.
"There’s no need to struggle," I said quietly. "I’m not even trying hard yet."
The cocoon closed around him completely, dense enough that even his aura vanished from perception.
Runes ignited across its surface.
Sealing arrays interlocked one after another, space fixed. Every attempt at Destruction inside was smothered before it could form.
The cocoon pulsed once.
Then went still.
I let my hand fall back to my side and turned away, already losing interest.
The Eternal was contained.
That was all that mattered.
I let my attention drift across the battlefield one last time and felt it clearly, this level of conflict no longer demanded effort. Grade-four rifts had become blunt obstacles. Phantoms fell in one or two exchanges at most, while the abominations didn’t even warrant direct engagement anymore, their bodies collapsing under the sheer pressure of my summons’ presence.
I reached out to Aurora.
’Are you sensing anything watching us?’
A brief pause. Then her reply came back, steady.
’No. Not this time.’
I checked with the others as well. The answer was the same across the board.
So that thread went cold again. I was hoping to locate who was spying on us.
I noted Steve and North in passing. Both of their auras had thickened, levels climbing rapidly in the aftermath of their breakthrough. This place had served its purpose.
"All right," I said, voice carrying cleanly. "Pack it up. The Ferans have already contacted their headquarters."
One by one, my summons disengaged, pulling back from the shattered platform. The Feran forces were already in full retreat, formations breaking as they scrambled to extract whatever they could.
I raised my hand.
Essence responded.
The void itself seemed to stretch, green currents flowing in from far behind the two opposing bases, converging toward me in long, spiraling streams. My generator core answered in kind, violet Essence surging outward, dense and controlled. The two forces met in front of my palm, compressing tighter and tighter until they formed a sphere no larger than my head.
The colors strained against each other, green and violet grinding together until they fused into a deep, unstable brown that glowed from within.
Steve appeared beside me, eyes fixed on it. "That’s going to—"
I nodded once. "Yes. Go."
The sphere shot forward and struck the base of the tower.
It didn’t explode immediately.
It sank.
The brown glow bled into the structure, spreading through the tower and into the asteroid beneath it like molten veins. Cracks raced outward, the entire mass lighting up from within.
Then I spoke softly.
"Explode."
The sphere expanded.
BOOM!
The tower vanished first, erased completely. The asteroid followed, breaking apart in a silent, violent cascade, shattering into thousands of glowing fragments that scattered into the void, still burning brown from the inside as they drifted apart.
And I heard multiple notifications as my levels began climbing.