Chapter 219
As if possessing its own consciousness, or summoned back by its source, all of those lethal particles suddenly reversed direction at a speed that surpassed their initial movement.
They formed a tightening vortex, converging from every corner of the domain toward a single point.
The calm figure of Aldraya stood at the center of the storm he himself had created.
The scene resembled a universe collapsing back into its original singularity, a sight both beautiful and horrifying, for it carried the promise of destruction compressed into one focal point.
Faced with the concentrated force of annihilation he had unleashed himself, Aldraya showed no sign of panic or any complex defensive maneuver.
His action was simple, almost casual, bordering on dismissive.
He merely flicked his right palm in a gentle motion, like someone shooing away an annoying swarm of flies or chickens.
The gesture was not an energy-laden strike, but a command etched directly into reality.
The result was absolute.
All the destructive dust rushing toward him, along with the potential calamity they carried, vanished instantly.
They were erased not only from sight, but from every layer of existence, including the perception of beings whose existence cannot be defined by the dichotomy of being and non-being at the same time.
Even entities that simultaneously embody A and not-A, standing as the antithesis of both—and thus continuously transcending the framework of their own existence—still possessed no language, category, or rational framework to comprehend, let alone classify, the nature of the erasure Aldraya had just performed.
It was an act that lay beyond the scope of understanding of all creation.
At the moment Aldraya's right hand remained extended to the side at shoulder height, following the unexpected flicking motion, Ilux launched his attack.
He gave no pause.
From within himself, a bright yellow chain radiating authority and pure light was released.
The chain shot forward at the speed of light.
Each swing forced the past, present, and future to scream in unison—far too fast, far too extreme, far too terrifying to be described as mere action.
Not blindly, but with clear intelligence and purpose, it surged toward Aldraya.
Uniquely, the movement of the yellow chain was escorted and enhanced by volcanic obsidian elements.
Dark rocks pulsing with geothermal energy appeared not as obstacles, but as companions, encasing each link of the yellow chain as if granting mass, gravity, and physical destructive power to an otherwise conceptual assault.
"At least for a moment."
Aldraya met the obsidian-wrapped yellow chain not with evasion or erasure, but with a powerful physical block.
His still-extended right hand moved swiftly, catching—or more precisely, striking—the tip of the chain hurtling toward him.
With strength that seemed to disregard gravity and momentum, he slammed the chain downward, crashing it into the formless surface of the domain with a heavy impact.
The collision shook the surrounding area, and the slamming motion forced Aldraya into a half-crouched stance, a posture rarely seen from a being who usually floated or stood perfectly upright, signaling just how seriously he regarded this attack.
In that moment of intense focus, another development occurred.
Wu, the sword that had previously vanished or returned into Aldraya, manifested once more.
This time, however, Wu did not appear as a separate entity.
Instead, the cracked and wounded blade was absorbed, devoured by the writhing flesh that enveloped Aldraya's body.
This process was no ordinary consumption, but a horrific fusion.
The rotten, heavily distorted flesh began to pulse with a new rhythm, emitting a dim light and increasingly unstable energy, as if Wu provided the final fuel or ultimate catalyst for an even more unhinged and unpredictable energy transformation.
The aura around Aldraya roiled violently, heralding the birth of something truly new and threatening from within his suffering.
Ilux, endowed with the sharp perception granted by his new state, did not miss this opening.
He recognized the moment when Aldraya was focused on restraining the chain and his body was undergoing an unstable transformation as a golden opportunity.
With the speed of thought, he seized control of his still-connected yellow chain.
The chain, its tip still embedded in the ground, suddenly moved with serpentine agility.
It twisted and coiled, not to strike head-on, but to bind.
In an instant, it tightly wrapped around several parts of Aldraya's body that appeared vital to the transformation process.
It bound firmly around the abdomen where an energy core might be gathering, looped around the right shoulder and left arm to restrict movement, coiled around the right thigh, and locked onto the left heel.
To amplify its destructive and suppressive power, Ilux coated the binding chain with dense black flames that devoured light.
The dark fire went to work immediately, not burning in a conventional sense, but absorbing all light, energy, and perhaps even the transformation process itself in the areas it touched, attempting to dampen and extinguish the raging madness within his master's body.
"The verdict has been delivered."
It was impossible for Aldraya to accept the bindings so easily.
Even as his body underwent an unstable transformation, his dark will still surged violently.
The power of decay, characteristic of his distortion, began to spread from his flesh-covered skin, attacking the structure of the yellow chain and the black flames entwined with it.
The decay progressed slowly but relentlessly, eroding the chain's integrity at a molecular level, turning its noble yellow light into a sickly green stain, and causing the light-devouring black flames to dim as if starved of fuel.
This resistance showed that despite being bound, the core of Aldraya's power remained highly active and dangerous.
Seeing his bindings begin to degrade, Ilux did not panic.
Instead, he escalated the assault.
From within himself, he summoned remnants of more ancient and devastating energies.
No longer earth or fire, but long-extinct cosmic phenomena.
Remnants of pulsars—rapidly spinning neutron stars with lethal magnetic fields—were manifested as a dense rain of wildly rotating energy particles.
These deadly particles were hurled toward the bound Aldraya.
To guide and sanctify this cosmic assault, Ilux accompanied it with whispering golden winds.
Yet these whispers were no ordinary incantations, but echoes of revelation left behind by prophets of a golden age, imparting destiny and "truth" meant to be imposed upon the target.
At first, Aldraya was still able to withstand this new wave of attacks.
The decay on the chain continued, weakening Ilux's grip.
Against the rain of pulsar remnants accompanied by the revelations of the golden wind, he displayed a horrifying defense.
A mouth—or some hidden opening on his face—opened, and with unsettling force, he devoured the entire torrent of cosmic and spiritual energy.
For a moment, the energy seemed to vanish, absorbed into his darkness.
Soon after, however, he spewed it back out.
The expelled energy was no longer pure pulsar force or golden wind, but corrupted, transformed into waves of deep purple and black destruction that surged back with multiplied ferocity straight toward Ilux.
Facing a counterattack that was a distortion of his own power, Ilux made an unexpected move.
He did not evade or attempt to absorb it.
Instead, he slightly twisted his body and presented the back of his right hand forward, as though preparing to parry with an unconventional surface.
As the back of his hand, wrapped in conceptual yellow light, faced the corrupted energy wave directly, a sudden change occurred.
From the center of the back of his hand, a brilliant green light burst forth—intensely bright, vibrant, and overflowing with the power of growth.
To be continued…