The fourteen beams tore toward us in perfect synchronization, converging from all directions with lethal precision. They were not crude blasts of energy; each carried compressed Essence for maximum explosion.
I did not move from my position.
The green Essence that had gathered inside the dome responded instantly to my will. What had risen like a tide now compressed inward, folding around me in a thin, translucent layer. It did not appear thick or imposing.
As the beams closed in, I released a temporal ripple.
It spread outward from me in a controlled pulse, not wide enough to engulf the entire field, but sufficient to distort the immediate flow of time within the dome. The incoming beams slowed as they entered the ripple’s radius, their violent charge reduced to deliberate, almost suspended motion.
In that stretched instant, they appeared less like destructive lances and more like glowing ribbons suspended mid-flight.
They struck the thin green shield.
The impact did not explode outward.
Instead, the beams pressed against the surface and began to unravel. Their condensed structures thinned under the pressure of both the shield and the temporal drag. Like strands of fabric being pulled apart thread by thread, the beams lost cohesion. Their brightness dimmed gradually as they were absorbed and dispersed into harmless residue.
One by one, all fourteen attacks dissolved into nothing.
The ripple faded.
The shield remained intact.
The green Essence continued to spiral around me, steady and obedient, as if the planet itself had chosen a side.
There was no hesitation from Hollow Star.
A second volley ignited.
The mounted machines recharged almost instantly, their cores flaring brighter than before as another wave of beams tore toward the center of the dome. This time the attack was not isolated.
The figures floating above moved in unison.
The three Eternals extended their hands and unleashed dense streams of deathmist, thick and compressed, their beams darker and heavier than the mechanical ones.
The old Naga stepped forward slightly and swept his arm outward, releasing a spatial wave that distorted the air in front of him, launching a spatial blade. The insectoid opened its mandibles and a focused sound attack rippled outward.
Two more condensed Essence beams from separate aerial constructs joined the assault, converging straight toward me from above.
It was coordinated annihilation.
I exhaled slowly.
The temporal ripple would not suffice this time.
The green Essence spiraling around me responded as I layered space into it. The thin shield expanded slightly. As the first wave of beams entered its radius, I fused space and devour into the barrier itself.
The mechanical beams struck first.
Instead of slowing alone, they were pulled inward as if dragged by unseen currents. Their cores destabilized as devour stripped cohesion from within, thinning them rapidly before they ever reached the surface of my body.
The deathmist beams followed.
Those I did not allow to touch the shield directly. I folded space in front of them, redirecting their path just enough that they curved outward, grazing along the dome’s inner surface instead of penetrating toward me. Where deathmist met the concentrated green Essence, it sizzled and dissipated.
The spatial wave from the Naga arrived next.
I countered with my own.
A compressed sphere of fused space and time formed in front of my palm and I pushed it outward. The two distortions collided mid-field. For a fraction of a second, the air between us seemed to freeze, rippling violently as competing spatial structures clashed. His wave fractured first, its edges unraveling as my temporal modulation disrupted it.
The insectoid’s sound attack reached me almost simultaneously.
Instead of resisting it directly, I inverted polarity within the shield. The incoming vibration bent inward and redirected around me, the frequencies twisting into each other until they canceled out in chaotic interference.
The final two Essence beams descended from above.
The green spiral around me surged upward in a vertical arc, meeting them head-on. The beams pierced into the mass briefly before being swallowed and dispersed through the larger flow, their energy redistributed harmlessly into the surrounding field.
When the combined assault ended, the air inside the dome shimmered with residual distortion.
I remained standing in the same place.
Above the dome, the old Naga’s expression shifted from composed calculation to visible disbelief as the second coordinated assault failed to leave even a mark.
I tilted my head slightly.
"It’s my chance," I said quietly, spreading my hand wide.
The green Essence outside the dome, which had been spiraling in controlled waves, reacted instantly to my command. What had appeared calm now compressed violently, drawing inward into fourteen dense, rotating spears.
Without warning, the spears vanished. They did not travel in straight lines.
They teleported.
In the next instant, each spear reappeared directly in front of the mounted machines that had fired upon me.
BOOM!
The detonations were immediate and devastating. Metal twisted and tore apart under the explosive release of planetary Essence. The machines disintegrated in bursts of green light, and the surrounding structures collapsed under the shockwave.
The old Naga’s eyes sharpened.
I lifted my hand upward.
The Essence still flooding the area responded again. It gathered above the dome, condensing into a massive palm of compressed green energy that hovered ominously overhead. The structure of the palm was layered and stable, each finger defined, the entire mass pulsing with contained force.
Then it descended.
The old Naga reacted instantly. His sword was already in his hand as he swung in a single decisive arc. A black spatial blade erupted from the slash, slicing forward. The beam carved through the descending palm, tearing a clean line through its center.
For a fraction of a second, the palm split.
But the Essence did not disperse.
It flowed.
The severed halves liquefied and immediately rushed back together, the compressed mass reforming as if the cut had never existed. The green energy reconverged, folding inward to restore its shape, and the palm continued its descent without losing momentum.
It struck the grey dome with crushing force.
Cracks spidered across the deathmist barrier in widening patterns. The structure groaned under the weight of planetary Essence pressing down upon it. The shield flickered violently as its layered formations attempted to stabilize, but the foundation beneath it had already been compromised.
The cracks deepened.
With a final surge of pressure, the dome fractured completely.
The grey barrier shattered into fragments of dissipating deathmist and vanished, leaving nothing between me and the figures hovering above.
I smiled as the shattered remnants of the dome dissolved into the air, and then my body lifted from the ground. I rose slowly at first, green Essence spiraling beneath my feet, until I hovered at eye level with the assembled leaders.
"You see," I said evenly, "I only need one of you alive for a civilized conversation. And I have decided it will be you, old man."
My gaze remained fixed on the elderly Naga.
Then I vanished.
Time bent around me as I activated Chronostep. The world slowed into stretched motion. Sound dulled. Movements elongated. The three Eternals hovering closest to the old Naga began turning toward where I had been, their reactions sharp but far too late within the compressed flow.
All three were in the high 470s. To them, I had disappeared. To me, they were moving through syrup.
My right fist shot forward.
It connected with the first Eternal’s head. There was no dramatic struggle. The force carried through cleanly. His skull exploded.
My left palm moved without pause, striking the chest of the second Eternal. I layered devour into the contact point. The moment my palm touched him, his torso imploded inward, his body unraveling from the center outward.
The third Eternal completed his turn just as I spread both hands wide and brought them down in a single decisive motion. My palms struck either side of his head. The impact crushed his skull between them, the shockwave tearing through his body completely.
Time resumed its natural pace.
Their fragmented remains rained downward in fading motes of deathmist.
A series of System notifications flashed briefly in my vision as my levels increased.