The crimson slash did not fade after the initial collision. It pressed forward, grinding against the descending golden finger with violent friction. The two forces met in the sky like opposing tides, neither yielding immediately.
Crimson light surged upward in dense waves while golden radiance poured downward in thick layers, each trying to consume the other. The air trembled under the clash, and the surface of the finger rippled where the blade of energy bit into it.
Fractures spread across the golden construct, but the sky above responded. The tear widened further, releasing an even denser flood of golden light that wrapped around the finger like reinforcement. The pressure intensified, pushing against my slash, attempting to drown it through sheer volume.
I felt the strain clearly.
Nearly all of my Essence had already been committed to that strike. My channels were still burning from the sudden drain, and Prarambh hummed in my grip as though demanding more than I could safely provide.
Then, in the middle of that clash, a system window opened in front of me.
It flickered once, its text partially distorted as if resisting clarity.
[@#%# contract exist with the System]
[Nullify]
[Yes]
[No]
Even in the midst of the clash, I understood.
The golden projection was not merely an attack. It was enforcement. A contract clause embedded somewhere within the System’s governing framework had been triggered, and the finger was its execution.
My grip on Prarambh tightened. There was no hesitation.
"Yes," I said.
The moment the decision formed, the sword reacted.
The crimson line along its center flared deep crimson once more, but this time the surge did not drain my reserves further. Instead, something else shifted. The golden radiance surrounding the finger flickered violently, as if its outer layer had been stripped away.
The System’s presence around the construct began to unravel.
The dense golden coating that had reinforced the finger fragmented into loose strands of light that scattered into the sky. Without that binding layer, the projection lost cohesion. The crimson slash surged forward unhindered.
The blade of energy cut cleanly through the construct.
The massive finger split in two. Both halves separated along the line of impact. Gravity took hold. The severed segments began falling toward the sealed city below.
Before the fragments could descend far, I extended both hands outward and opened multiple devouring vortexes in the sky. Dark spirals formed across the air, wide and hungry. They pulled at the falling golden masses, tearing them apart into streams of raw energy.
The fragments disintegrated mid-descent, drawn into the vortexes in long ribbons of fading light.
The devoured energy was fed directly to the generator core. Essence surged back through my channels, restoring strength at an accelerated rate. The emptiness left by the earlier strike filled steadily, the burn within my core cooling as regeneration stabilized.
Above, the fractured sky sealed completely.
The golden presence vanished. No reinforcement followed after that and the place went quiet.
Prarambh dimmed gradually, the red hue along its center fading back into silver as the devouring vortexes collapsed one by one. The last remnants of golden energy were processed and absorbed.
I lowered the sword slowly and willed Prarambh back into the Dawn Core. The blade dissolved from my grasp in a quiet shimmer, returning to its place atop the rising steel island within.
Below me, the old Naga remained on his knees, staring upward as though he had just witnessed a dead man rise.
"How is this possible," he muttered, his voice hollow.
A faint smirk tugged at my lips. "Even I do not know. I simply slashed my sword, and then it was done."
His head shook violently. "No... no, no. This is not possible. We had a deal with the System. No..." His voice rose into a fractured scream. "No!"
I stepped forward and drove my leg straight into his face. The impact snapped his head back and hurled his body into the ground with crushing force. The earth cratered beneath him as dust and broken stone erupted outward.
Before he could even attempt to gather himself, I moved again. In the next instant I stood over him and sealed the space around his broken body. His body remained pinned within a fixed coordinate, unable to shift so much as a finger.
"I will come back," I said evenly. "You only need to wait here for a few minutes."
Without another word, I shot upward into the sky.
I ascended high above the sealed city and paused, hovering in open air. For a brief moment, I closed my eyes and let my perception expand inward.
Within the Dawn Core, the hidden central island pulsed faintly. The crimson chain Amun had embedded within me rested there, coiled around the core of my being. I called upon it silently.
The chain responded.
A ripple passed outward from my body, moving through the spatial fabric of the planet itself.
It did not take long. I felt it.
A pocket space where the world core resided.
I opened my eyes.
With a single step, I folded space and arrived before the concealed boundary. The air in front of me shimmered faintly, revealing a thin veil that separated the outer world from the hidden chamber within.
I extended my hand and pressed forward.
The veil parted.
Without hesitation, I stepped through.
Beyond the veil, the space shifted into a black pocket similar to the world cores I had encountered before. The atmosphere was dense and unmoving, saturated with deathmist that coiled through the air in thick strands. At the center of the space floated the hexagonal world core, rotating slowly along a vertical axis. Its surfaces were dark and metallic, each face etched with layered runes that pulsed faintly through the fog.
Deathmist flowed into it in steady currents, feeding its rotation.
I did not waste time observing.
I extended my hand and activated the Abyss Core. The deathmist responded instantly, torn from the space in violent streams as it was devoured and drawn into me. The black vapor shrank rapidly, stripped from the hexagonal core and consumed before it could regenerate. In its place, I released violet Essence.
The space changed.
The once dark core brightened as violet energy flooded into its channels. The rotation faltered briefly, then stabilized under my control. The runes etched along its surfaces shifted in color, transitioning from dull black to faint violet lines as my Essence replaced the deathmist within its structure.
Within moments, the world core no longer belonged to Hollow Star.
It answered to me.
Outside, I felt the effect immediately. A violet ripple spread outward from the core through the planet’s spatial framework. It passed through crust, ocean, atmosphere, and city alike.
Then the information began to flow. The connection opened fully, and the planet revealed itself.
Cities unfolded within my perception, one after another. I saw districts where different races moved side by side, appearing cooperative at first glance. But the deeper I looked, the clearer the truth became.
Anger rose steadily within me.