"!"
Alex's eyes widened as the blow descended. For the first time in a long while, he wasn't fast enough to counter.
The creature's movement had been too sudden, too quick. He didn't even notice it until the attack was already upon him.
Instinct took over. Alex threw his spear to the side and hastily crossed his arms, summoning a thick defensive ward around them.
BOOOOOOOOM!
It all happened so quickly that Alex barely registered the sequence of events. The creature's strike shattered his ward instantly, offering no resistance. The blow connected directly with his arms, obliterating them in an instant.
Alex let out a pained groan as the punch ripped through his chest, nearly tearing him in two.
But the devastation didn't stop there. The force of the attack hurled him across the stars with terrifying momentum.
The impact fractured spacetime itself. Wherever the shockwave carried him, destruction followed in its wake.
Planets were annihilated, countless lives were lost, and stars exploded into nothingness. The blow left reality warped and broken as Alex was flung through the chaos.
He finally came to a halt after colliding with yet another planet, adding it to the growing tally of destruction.
One blow had sent him across hundreds of light years through the galaxy in seconds! The laws holding the universe together were messed up.
Blood spewed from his mouth as he crashed, and his body began to heal immediately.
His regenerative ability worked at a speed visible to the naked eye, repairing the deadly injury. The upper portion of his armour was gone, leaving him bare-chested.
But Alex barely paid attention to that and his healing. His wide, shaky eyes betrayed his thoughts.
"M… myself," he stammered, his voice trembling. "I… almost died."
He could still feel it—the terrifying brush with oblivion. The blow had come so close to erasing his very existence.
His newfound perception of laws only made it clearer, and the realization shook him to his core.
The vicious grin and piercing eyes of the void creature made his body shudder in despair. Fear crept into his heart and Alex couldn't shake it off.
But as he glanced around, what he saw nearly stopped his heart.
"No…"
Before him lay a gigantic scar in the universe extending for who knew how many light years. Alex had no idea where he was but he knew one thing.
"T-this is my fault," Alex muttered, guilt evident in his tone. "If I had been…"
Unfortunately, the fight wasn't over as the void creature appeared within the ruined void a few million kilometres away from him. The void creature appeared calm as if taking a stroll through the park.
It gazed at Alex with an amusing grin that sent shivers down his spine. 'Can I beat this thing?' He questioned inwardly.
Alex only knew he had to survive and did the one thing he could at that moment. He let go…completely.
A sliver of void energy circulated his whole body as he set himself ablaze, merging mana with void energy to take on his Voidflare form.
Suddenly, the creature lost its grin as it rushed towards Alex, but this time, he was prepared. In his Voidflare state, he was unimaginably powerful and even he didn't know to what degree.
'If I can't defeat this thing, then this universe is done for.' Alex thought, watching the creature close in on him. 'The creature's demeanour changed the moment I took this form.'
Alex pushed down his fear as he stormed off to meet the creature. Everything in his surroundings looked frozen in time. It was just the two of them moving at speeds that ripped spacetime.
BOOOOOOM…!!!
Two titans clashed. Fists met claws in a galactic dance of destruction and the universe wept.
The shockwaves cracked the already devastated space as Alex was sent back a few light years while the void creature a few trillion kilometers.
Alex's hand was incinerated yet again, sending jolts of pain through his system but it regenerated just as fast.
The two fighters wasted no time as they charged at each other again, each blow sending them across the stars.
He was being pushed back, accruing damages that always felt like he was being erased from existence. But he always came back.
Alex came back faster, stronger and more agile in his response. Yet, he could not deal any damage besides the shockwaves sending the creature back.
'This is bad…' Alex felt his heart bleed as the resulting shockwaves destroyed everything in their path. 'I have to take this fight out of here.'
He dreaded one of the destroyed planets and lives lost might be from Earth and it frightened him greatly.
The void creature seemed entirely focused on Alex as it did everything to rip him apart, but Alex was like a cockroach who refused to die.
It didn't like it one bit as he was proving to be different from the ones it had dealt with before.
The creature became more ferocious and ruthless in its attacks. But Alex was slowly adapting to the high-speed clash.
His cores spun faster, drawing in the surrounding energies, and pushing his evolving body even further.
His blows became heavy, more devastating while he was being pushed back less and less. Wherever he passed, a swirling vortex of energy followed.
'Now!' Alex capitalized on an opening as he shifted behind the void creature when it tried an impaling strike.
Behind the creature, Alex grabbed it by the shoulder and disappeared.
He took the void creature with him to the far reaches of the empire's borders where the two continued to exchange galaxy-ending strikes.
And though he succeeded in taking the creature away, the destruction the two titans left in their wake was inconceivable.
In a galaxy of over 100,000 light-years across in diameter, a graveyard of chaotic energies, destroyed spacetime and ruined laws left a visible mark spanning hundreds of thousands of star systems.
The entire exchange since the void creature first struck had only lasted a little over a minute, yet many lives had been snuffed out without their knowledge.