★147
THIRD POV
"The Queen is secured. Retreat, Jagarette."
Spectre heard no response and teleported to the world, only to find her trapped in a rift, with Asteri standing, lost in thought.
Jagarette was frozen as well, though her expression shifted constantly—clearly trapped within her own mind.
"That's to be expected."
The rift, previously unbound, suddenly constricted, shrinking inward as if trying to crush the two within it.
Asteri sensed the interference and scanned his surroundings, his gaze landing on Spectre, with Towa floating unconscious beside him.
'W… why is he here? Where are Atlas, Scarlet, Eto, the demons?'
His expression shifted instantly, a flash of alarm and calculation crossing his features.
"Let go of her."
He spoke in a low, cold tone. With the Halo still active, he advanced straight toward Spectre, White in his hand.
Spectre made no move to evade. Jagarette, now free, teleported them both back to Star Island. Noticing this, Asteri slowed, holding back—meaningless rampage would cost him far too much.
'What's going on?"
"You fell for an illusion, Jagarette."
"My mind is my weakness, don't blame me."
She answered, now standing next to Spectre.
Asteri's gaze landed on them, and in a flash, he used the Aether Move to approach them simultaneously. White goes straight for Spectre and Void Eater launch at Jagarette.
That very instant, a strong grip rested on White stopping the momentum, and another firm grip held the fabric of Void Eater.
"New threats?'
He flinched as a voice rang out from behind.
"At least… we meet, Antares."
It was unfamiliar and far from welcoming.
He turned—and there, before him, stood a man clad in black. Silver hair framed his face, and his predatory eyes, equally silver, locked onto Asteri with unyielding intensity.
Behind him stood a shirtless man, his long, spiky hair wild, parts of his body covered in black draconic scales. Both his arms were missing—the price he had paid protecting Jagarette and Spectre.
Taking advantage of the distraction, the other Phantoms slipped away, positioning themselves behind the two new threats.
[[TRAITOR!]]
The Edict spoke for the first time since Antares's trip to Kalidor.
'He's here. The Traitor.'
Antares murmured.
"So this is what you've been doing? Ruling over lesser?"
The silver-haired guy asked.
People from Star Island gazed up, observing the scenery. 'I'm wondering what's happening up there.'
They can't join him. They'll only slow him down, so they did the wise thing and began heading for the area near the palace.
'The girl… she looks familiar. Jagarette. Yes, we met once in Parvak. And that long black-haired man too—it's unmistakably him. He was the one who attacked me first.
Now… the silver-haired one, still calm as ever. The only one who doesn't fit the previous list is the shirtless man.
Yet they're together, just like before. But… something's off. The signature's missing.'
"What I do is none of your business."
Asteri said, voice calm but sharp.
"Surely not. The Star War has been declared, and this is just a sub-plan. 0, 1, take him down.
At his command, Spectre—the first—finally stirred.
In one fluid motion, his trident sliced through the air, tearing space itself as it surged toward Asteri. Asteri raised White in defence, but the moment steel met divinity, the result was anything but minimal.
The sheer force launched him across the battlefield, the shock reverberating through every thread of his being.
White pulsed, vibrating violently and in the blink of an eye, snapped him back, reappearing at the exact spot he'd been knocked from, as if time and space refused to let him retreat.
'That...'
The impact was cataclysmic.
He was launched across the battlefield, the shockwave rupturing the air behind him. Pain splintered through his arms and chest as White trembled, absorbing only a fraction of the blow.
His breath caught; his thoughts were scattered like leaves in a storm.
"Rain."
Spectre raised his trident, summoning countless tridents raining down on him.
'.the island. Devour all!'
Responding to his panic, Void Eater ejected from Asteri's body like a living shadow, streaking through the air at blinding speed.
The entity tore through space, devouring the tridents mid-flight, erasing them from existence before they could strike.
But Asteri knew better. The Void Eater couldn't be everywhere at once. He shifted instantly, eyes scanning the field.
"World of reflection."
The space turns glass-like as liquid-based mirrors materialised across the battlefield.
They absorbed the incoming tridents effortlessly, using the weapons themselves as conduits, teleporting them through reflections, and redirecting their assault with deadly precision.
It was as if the tridents possessed a will of their own, weaving through chaos with conscious malice. Each time one was reflected, it avoided direct threats but ruthlessly hunted anything marked as Asterian.
With every flicker of steel and shimmer of mirrored light, the death toll surged.
A chill shot down Asteri's spine, and pure instinct took over. This time, it chose flight.
Space warped violently around him as he activated the escape, but it was too late. A hand pierced through warped reality like shattering glass, tearing away his cloak just as he vanished. He barely reached his destination in time.
But there was no pause. A black fireball was already upon him, so dark it absorbed light. He swung White in a desperate arc, aiming to sever the flame, but nothing happened.
The blade pulsed weakly in his grip, unresponsive. He could feel that he was nearing his limit.
"V..void fireball?"
The realisation struck him late.
At the last second, a white arc tore through the flames. He moved to counter—but it was too late. Shards of fire caught him, scorching flesh and armour alike, and he staggered under the impact
"Jag."
"My liege."
"You know what. Never mind, these two will get it done."
He dismissed his thought, trusting 0 and 1 will be more then enough.
Spectre left his trident suspended midair, a cruel gesture of indifference, as it began to multiply, each copy tearing through the sky, locking onto targets below with deadly precision.
Below, chaos erupted. Star Military raised shields of aura and steel, spellcasters erected wards to protect the citizens, but many were too slow.
Screams filled the air as the tridents pierced through armour, magic, and flesh alike. They weren't just weapons, they were hunting, moving with intent, weaving through obstacles as if guided by malice itself.
Some turned mid-flight, chasing survivors as though savouring the kill. Even those strong enough to withstand the first wave felt dread rise like bile.
"This is bad."
Asteri's aura surged and went straight to 90%.
He knew better than anyone that he couldn't fight these guys while protecting the island. Even with a higher percentage, he's holding back too much not to cause unintentional harm. Otherwise, a concentrated Enta's void should be enough.
Yin and Yang emerged from the star and surged toward Antares in desperation. But their momentum died the instant their eyes landed on him.
It wasn't the chaos of battle that made the duality dragons freeze. It was the man standing far beyond it, half-wrapped in shadows, silver eyes gleaming with a detached stillness.
He wasn't fighting, nor interfering. He was simply watching. Yet even that act was unbearable.
His gaze, cold and ancient, felt like it pierced not their bodies, but their very concepts as if the primal essences of Yin and Yang were being dissected under his scrutiny.
The moment those silver eyes shifted barely and lazily in their direction, something instinctive and terrible surged through their cores. Dread.
A fear they hadn't felt since the day of their creation. They have the power to rival Stars and choose Deities but never had their instincts scream 'submit' so loudly.
"The third generation Balance Dragons and... the human who became the Mother of Dragons."
He closed his eyes and slowly shook his head.
From behind him, Jagarette's corrosion surged forward like a living tide of hungry acid ready to engage.
"Focus on the battle ahead, Jag."
He dismissed them with a single glance, declaring that the battle before him held greater weight than the threat of mere dragons.
And just like that, the duality dragons froze sharply, their instincts screamed to flee, yet they couldn't move. All they could do was watch... as the silver-eyed man turned his gaze back to the war raging below.
"Damn it!"
Asteri roared, his body now surging at 95%.
Energy flooded through his veins like divine fire, reshaping him with every pulse. Even now, at the end of the road, Antares continued his quiet experiment, pushing Asteri further, sculpting him amidst the chaos.
"Pulsar!"
Two light blue orbs materialised above the Island. Perfect spheres of pure magical and Star energy that outshone the sun itself.
Their radiance bathed the continent in an otherworldly cerulean hue, casting long warped shadows and painting the clouds in streaks of shimmering blue.
As the pulsers hovered, they began to spin slowly, and with their motion, reality faltered. The air grew still, high-pitched sound collapsed into silence, and for a brief instant, gravity ceased. Loose debris floated upward.
The ground cracked and trembled as if trying to resist a force beyond its comprehension.
The space around the orbs bent like rippling glass, forming concentric distortions that pulsed outward with every rotation. Threads of inverted light trailed behind the spinning orbs.
Then, without warning, the pulsers launched forward, each aimed precisely at its designated target. As they moved, the air behind them collapsed inwards, creating implosive vacuums that dragged matter inward before releasing it in sharp pulses.
Their flight wasn't merely fast. It was as if they existed ahead of their trajectory, unfolding the path before them.
0 extended his palm calmly, and the orb disintegrated mid-flight. Not a trace of it's celestial energy remained. It was as if the orb had ignited in an invisible black flame, consumed by a force deeper than the attack. (Which it was.)
"Using such high-class Art will get us all killed."
Spectre responded differently.
There are no gestures or deflection, but something vibrated. The pulser simply ceased to be, rejected by the illusion he willed into place.
Where 0 is erased through entropy, Spectre is erased through belief. And just like that, the world-destroying force was effortlessly subdued.
In a single flash step, 0 was upon Asteri, his heavy, scaled palm crashing down toward Asteri's skull. Asteri's speed peaked, Echo took over, and he ducked barely avoiding the blow. Then came the sound of shattering glass.
'Huh?"
That was unsettling, so he leapt to another thread, seeking refuge as fragments of white crystal rained around him.
One shard sliced past his cheek, but he didn't need to look up. He already knew. The Halo of Rules was gone.
From deep within, he felt the self-imposed laws unravelling, like restraints slipping off his body.
"I… it was all a lie? How… how can Stars be beaten by these beings, with Mega Arts? I—I thought our Arts were everything… unstoppable, supreme. All this… all the weapons… it was all a lie?'
"You fucking liar!"
His voice cracked, raw with betrayal, fury, and despair all tangled together, trembling on the edge of collapse.
The Wyrm Lord made him doubt his Arts, Magos highlighted and made that clear. His Arts aren't enough, not even close to take down him down. And now, the Phantoms exposed the truth, that power ment nothing before inevitability.
Each confrontation was a reminder that Arts had its ceilings and he had already hit his. This was also Antares's way of further confirming that the Mega Arts are useless.
Reality came crashing down on him with a hard solid truth and he's beginning to lose it all. He flared like none other and reached 98%, filling in the missing void left by Halo of Rules. His vessel is now stronger than ever.
"Good, a little more and I'll defeat you at your earnest."
Spectre declared and snapped his fingers.
"Hmm, what should I cast now?"
He contemplated mid-battle, his hand on his chin.
With the White no longer in hand, Asteri lunged forward, unleashing Silver Dust. His fist, aimed straight at Spectre's head, was severed mid‑air by an unseen force. Yet he didn't falter. He knew what Spectre was capable of—he had seen Scarlet and Atlas face him before.
In a blink, a formless dark-grey aura blade materialised in his other hand. Without breaking his stride, he resumed the assault, driving it toward Spectre's skull.
His severed arm showed no sign of regenerating—but it was clear the limb was no longer part of reality itself.
'Even after the bonding… I still can't wield Energy with control? Just how weak am I?'
It's still a vessel, so naturally, he would be limited.
0 caught the formless blade with his hand. His technique spreading on contact, nullifying Asteri's aura sword until it became nonexistent. Taking advantage of the opening, Spectre attacked.
"Bisect."
'Anta, duck!'
Enta gave the command, and Asteri obeyed though hesitantly, costing him an arm from the counterattack.
He shaped Enta's void into a projectile and launched it at Spectre's face. The moment the void struck, the porcelain mask cracked, then burst, white shards scattering.
Spectre's head snapped back from the impact, and for the first time, a sound escaped him, a sharp, guttural hiss that warped the air around him. Dark ichor trickled from where his face should have been, seeping like smoke rather than blood.
He staggered, not far, just an inch, but enough for Asteri to see his efforts.
Enta's void had touched something real. Something he couldn't swap with his illusion. Spectre straightened, his body trembling in adjustment. From the gaping broken mask enough to reveal more than 80% of his face, a low voice echoed with cold amusement.
"So you can hurt me..."
A flicker of satisfaction passed through Asteri but it vanished just as quickly.
He had no time to breathe nor the time to process. His instincts screamed louder than the pain, this is a fight he'll lose.
He'll never win, not with a vessel or a True body but his pride won't give in. Without touching the ground, Asteri lunged again, midair, refusing to relent.
He needs to get one of them off the battlefield as soon as possible. With Spectre deliberately putting up a show, his next target was definitely going to be 0.
"Begone, transport!"
Asteri didn't need to get close to finish the job. Invoking the False Administrator, he rewrote the battlefield's laws just enough for Beyonder to bypass even the absolute immunity to forced displacement.
A forbidden override, reality itself bent, permissions twisted into lies.
0 convulsed, his form glitching like shattered reflections trying to hold shape. For a moment, he fought back, his extremely faint aura jagged, warping the air with resistance but the command had already taken root.
Then, with a shriek like time tearing, he was ripped from the spot. Dragged to the very end of Time and Space. He was gone, for now.
Having been to the End of Space and Time once, Asteri was able to make his way of sending people there without stacking time on a target. Given Beyonder's abilities and False Administrator's authority, it's possible.
Riding his momentum, Asteri used Aether Move, already behind Spectre who's still mourning for his old mask. A faint chuckle slipped through the cracks of Spectre's shattered mask.
Then came the sound and wetness. Blood burst forth, painting the air in crimson arcs. Asteri stood frozen, eyes wide. Severer didn't make it in time to defeat his enemy. Victory had slipped through his fingers like fading light.
To be continued...