I lifted my gaze from the runes and met his eyes directly. "You didn’t create a battlefield," I said evenly. "You created a filter. A place where existence itself is evaluated and rejected if it doesn’t meet your conditions."
"Yes," he replied without offense, his tone almost proud. "Crude annihilation is inefficient. Filtration, on the other hand, refines outcomes. And you..." His gaze lingered on me. "You slipped through."
The second Eternal stepped forward, deathmist rolling more heavily around him now, his voice carrying a sharper edge.
"A human aligning with deathmist without an external anchor," he said slowly. "Without a conversion core. Without a borrowed authority. Do you understand how statistically impossible that should be?"
The Feran Transcendent’s ears flattened slightly as he stared at me. "You’re saying he isn’t using an artifact? No relic? No implant?"
"No," the Eternal answered flatly. "He is the anomaly."
His attention returned to me fully.
"You will be taken," he continued. "Your body will be opened. Your channels mapped. Your origin traced down to its first deviation."
North’s blades shimmered into sharper focus within the dome.
Steve shifted his footing, electricity crawling up his spine like a living thing.
I remained still.
As I continued decoding the shield, one particular pattern made me pause. It was elegant. Ancient. Far older than anything I had purchased from the system, older even than the Eternal runic frameworks layered throughout the base.
The armed Eternal tilted his head, studying me more closely now, curiosity overtaking hostility.
"There is something familiar about him," he said slowly. "The way his essence cycles. The way deathmist responds."
The unarmed Eternal glanced sideways. "Familiar how?"
"The Legion of Primal Flame," the armed one replied after a moment. "Their members could wield both essence and deathmist without conflict."
That caused a noticeable pause.
"But they were Eternals," the unarmed one said, his tone cautious now. "He is not."
The armed Eternal raised his weapon above his head, the blade humming faintly.
"Are we absolutely certain of that?"
Then the armed Eternal moved.
One moment he stood still within the churning deathmist field, and the next his blade aligned perfectly with my dome, its edge humming as the surrounding corruption condensed unnaturally.
A beam of deathmist erupted from the sword, narrow at first, then widening as it crossed the distance. It wasn’t wild or explosive. It was precise, compressed, designed to pierce rather than overwhelm.
I reacted instantly.
Deathmist surged outward from my dome, folding over itself as I shaped it into a shield. The beam struck head-on, carving into the barrier and pushing it inward by several meters before grinding to a halt. The air screamed as the two corrupt forces collided, sparks of black lightning scattering outward and tearing shallow trenches into the dead ground beneath us.
The beam dissipated.
The armed Eternal scoffed, the sound carrying clearly even through the chaos. He adjusted his stance and swung again, this time horizontally.
The slash released a sweeping arc of deathmist, wide and razor-thin, slicing through the domain like a blade meant to cleave everything in its path.
I didn’t try to counter it directly.
Instead, I stacked shields.
One layer of deathmist formed, then another, then a third, each one slightly offset, each one tuned to absorb impact rather than resist it. The arc slammed into the first shield, shredded it, tore into the second, slowed against the third, and finally dispersed in a violent burst that sent shockwaves rippling across the ground.
Before the remnants had even faded, the unarmed Eternal stepped forward.
He drew his arm back, deathmist and black lightning coiling tightly around his fist, compressing until the air around it warped.
Then he punched.
A colossal fist of condensed deathmist thundered toward us, trailing arcs of dark lightning that lashed outward and scorched the planet’s surface as it traveled.
I narrowed my focus.
The dome pulsed once as I gathered deathmist inward, condensing it brutally. Then I thrust my own fist forward.
A massive deathmist construct erupted from the dome, shaped like a clenched hand, dense and solid, moving with terrifying speed. The two fists collided midair.
The impact was deafening.
A shockwave exploded outward, flattening terrain, cracking stone, and sending corrupted debris spiraling in every direction. The dome shook violently, strain rippling through my channels, but it held.
As the echoes faded, I realized something.
I wasn’t running out.
My deathmist reserves were barely dented. I could keep this up for hours if I had to.
Steve glanced at me, lightning crawling across his shoulders as he braced himself. "Why aren’t you using your domain?"
I exhaled slowly, keeping my eyes on the Eternals as their expressions shifted, curiosity giving way to calculation.
"Do you think I don’t want to?" I replied quietly. "I can’t access it."
Steve’s jaw tightened. "Blocked?"
"Suppressed," I said. "Something in this domain is interfering with my domain."
That finally drew a real reaction.
The armed Eternal’s posture changed, his stance lowering, blade angling slightly as his eyes sharpened.
The unarmed one straightened as well, the casual curiosity gone.
They moved in sync.
Deathmist surged around both of them as they began shaping something heavier, denser. This wasn’t a quick strike or a probing attack. This was a signature move.
The armed Eternal raised his sword fully, deathmist spiraling along its length as the surrounding domain bent toward the blade.
"Oblivion Sever," he intoned.
A beam formed, massive and blindingly dense, warping space as it stabilized.
At the same time, the unarmed Eternal stepped forward and raised his palm, deathmist and lightning condensing until the shape of a colossal hand formed above him.
"Null Judgment."
Steve swore under his breath. "Shit."
I took a deep breath.
And activated Node Two.
The world lurched.
Power flooded my body in a violent surge, stats spiking, channels widening under the strain. Strength, control, will—everything surged forward at once. The deathmist around me responded instantly, thickening, stabilizing, bending fully under my authority.
I pressed my will outward.
Two enormous deathmist palms formed in front of the dome, layered, reinforced, their surfaces rippling with contained force.
The beam struck first.
Then the palm.
The collision was catastrophic.
Light, darkness, and corruption collided in a blinding explosion that tore the ground apart, sent shockwaves racing across the dead planet, and shattered distant structures into dust.
The dome trembled, but did not break.
North glanced at me, her voice steady despite the chaos. "How much time do you need?"
I kept my focus locked, my will braced against the pressure.
"Thirty seconds," I said evenly.