★161
"W...who's there?"
I asked the question that anyone in my position would have asked.
From within the abyss, two deeper shades of black emerged, darker than the surrounding void, if such a thing were possible. They fixed upon me, unblinking.
They're eyes, I suppose. Or something far worse pretending to have them..
"I.."
I opened my mouth to ask, but the figure was suddenly before me.
It wasn't another person, it was me. As though I were staring into a mirror carved out of the void itself. The only thing that set us apart was the eyes. His were bottomless pools of black, whereas mine glimmered faintly with gold.
I caught my breath, and a nervous chill rippled down my spine. The unrooted hairs on my arms stood on end, as if my body already knew what my mind refused to accept. Then his lips curled, slow and deliberate, into an evil grin that bled malice into the air around us.
I was left speechless.
"What, can't talk now?"
He asked.
I've never fought nor have I had an interest in war and battles. I was one who loved peace and hoped such concepts existed beyond this palace.
At that moment, another white flame sparkled inside me, and suddenly, I was brimming with confidence, my gaze locking onto the imposter posing the question.
"What are you?"
"Useless question. Can't you see? I am Antares."
It spread his arms, as if that alone proved it.
"I don't look like you—you look like me. Why do you look like me?"
I asked, calm and collected. No hint of fear, doubt, just me being me.
"Huh. I'm the real one. You're the imposter."
"I'm not buying it. We live in a world full of magic. Mimicry is a piece of cake."
"…Your brain is thinking otherwise. 'Where am I? Who's this person? Is Aya okay? Am I okay?'"
I flinched at the words spilling from my mind. That was an opening—and it's grin widened.
"Magic is capable of such tricks too."
I added, steady and controlled. I wouldn't let It claim me. It wasn't me.
"Enough chit-chat. I have something important to take care of."
His arm outstretched, and instinctively I raised mine to block but nothing happened. My defence dissolved into emptiness. When I opened my eyes, my vision fractured. I saw this abyss and the outside world at the same time.
Aya's face flickered into view, her eyes wide with concern. Yet here, the imposter stood only a breath away. I tried to move, to resist, but my limbs did not answer. It was as if I had never owned them at all.
He raised his hand, and my real body mirrored the motion.
"I'm in control now,"
It said, it's voice dripping like oil into my ears.
"Sit back."
"You.."
I tried to lunge at him, to strike, to claw my way back into myself but nothing happened. My body refused me, as if the very notion of movement had been stripped away.
"Too weak to resist?"
It asked, now sitting on his throne, it's grin stretching wider, crueller. The strength bled out of me, leaving nothing but helplessness. All I could do was watch.
"A..antares?"
Aya asked, probably noticing the change.
"Yo, First Ethereal Light."
It waved casually as if it were acquainted with Aya.
'Who's the First Ethereal Light? No. That doesn't matter right now. I have to find a way to reclaim myself.'
"What is it you're plotting, O Goddess of Light?"
The imposter asked, it's voice carring the tone of something I might become. He was like my nightmare giving form, yet his question left me momentarily dumbfounded.
Does he have loose crews or what? Or is it talking to someone I can't see?
"P...Goddess of Light? What are you talking about?"
Aya asked but he didn't pay any attention to what she was saying.
Without a word, black smoke erupted from my hand, writhing like a living shadow. It twisted and clawed at the air before solidifying into a blade, a weapon forged from pure void, its edges fracturing and reforming with every pulse.
"Quit playing dumb."
With a feral lunge, he drove the blade forward, its form shrieking against existence itself as it tore through the space.
But Aya stood untouched. Her presence radiated stillness, an authority that no chaos could stain.
With a single, serene gesture, she lifted two fingers and the formless weapon stopped dead, suspended as though the universe itself had obeyed her will. The void blade trembled violently in her grasp, but it could not move an inch further.
"You've awakened rather too soon, you Evil Child."
Aya spoke with unshaken calm, as though in full control as though this imposter's murderous intent meant nothing to her.
Then, without warning, a darkness flared on his other hand, faint streaks of lavender coursing through it. He hurled the seething mass straight at her face.
Her composure cracked for the first time as she staggered back, narrowly slipping out of harm's reach. The void's edge grazed the air where her skin had been a breath ago.
"Stop."
'Sit back and watch me fight.'
He replied, his grin was unwavering.
"I won't let you destroy The Beacon."
Aya caught the writhing darkness in her hand, crushing it until it guttered out like a dying flame.
For an instant, the void seared across her face, leaving charred marks that ruined her divine composure. But before the sight could even settle, the wounds were already knitting closed, more than eighty per cent restored in the blink of an eye. The damage wasn't that big of a deal.
"Nah, I can't have you stealing his freedom. He'll never be a puppet."
It fought back.
From where I stood, iridescent chains of light shimmered into existence, coiling tightly around me. Their glow pulsed with an otherworldly authority, seeking to bind. But the imposter wearing my body like his own exhaled a surge of black smoke.
The chains sank into the miasma, their brilliance smothered, until every last link was drawn into his form... devoured whole.
"Hehe, you'll need more than that"
He flicked his left hand, and in an instant, black holes tore open across the space around us.
Each one radiated crushing gravity, so dense that even light itself bent and vanished into their depths. Aya moved to strike but her attack warped, swallowed whole before it could reach him.
The pressure deepened, a merciless weight pressing down on everything. The ground cracked, sinking beneath the invisible force, while Aya's body strained, locked in place by gravity too immense to resist.
"What's this? Even your smallest vessel can't resist this tiny void attack? Pathetic."
He mocked, his voice sharp and cold.
Aya stood still before me, unnervingly calm, almost as if she weren't herself.
"Who knows?"
She replied, her tone clipped but carrying a subtle edge, hinting she wasn't entirely present—or perhaps was hiding more than she let on.
Suddenly, everything shifted, as if reality itself had reloaded, not rewound. It wasn't moving back in time, but more like a game resetting to its last saved data.
The imposter froze for a heartbeat, disbelief flashing in his eyes before twisting into a wide grin. He lunged forward to strike her down.
Aya countered, and without so much as a gesture, spectral chains speared through me. Yet strangely, I didn't feel defeated, I felt... closer, as if standing on equal ground.
"Too late."
His blade cut through every defence, unstoppable. In a blur, Aya's arms were severed, lost in the clash of his evasive strike.
I screamed and yelled but my voice wasn't going through.
"Aya, run!"
I didn't care if she was pretending or she was completely overtaken, I simply didn't want to see her fall.
"Tch, you're noisy."
He said, playfully blocking his ears before turning ahead to observe his madness.
"Can't heal?"
He asked.
"Ah, yes, your vessel can't."
He raised one hand, and a colossal sphere of dark fire took shape so black it resembled a false sun. A black star burning with annihilation. With a violent thrust, he hurled it at her.
Aya was prepared to evade, but before she could leap, the earth split open. A monstrous maw of darkness erupted beneath her, its jagged teeth tearing away her legs.
She crashed helplessly to the ground, and the fireball was already upon her. The impact detonated in a cataclysmic explosion that shook the very fabric of space.
"Go fetch."
With a cruel grin, he hurled the formless void blade into the raging inferno. Aya's screams tore through the roar of flames, raw and agonised.
"Heheh..."
He chuckled, stepping into the heart of the blaze. At his presence, the inferno bent, fanning outward as if in obedience.
"Are you part of Yuan Ling's puppets too?"
He asked.
"Seriously, that thing is in way over it's head."
He spoke of things of he knows of.
Aya lay broken, barely propped on her knees. His relentless assault had carved wounds beyond regeneration. Three limbs gone, her body was a tapestry of blood, gashes, and searing pain. She bled heavily, her strength leaking away with every crimson drop.
"Freedom will be the next journey and I'll be there when WE become ONE. No foolish Unwritten shall interfere. I'll mercilessly cut them down to reach the top. So, any last words, Ethereal Light?"
He asked, the formless sword readying itself to strike at his command. His evil grin never leaves his face.
"Y...you've lost."
Aya replied.
"Huh?"
Anyone would've been surprised because his victory was as clear as day.
"Hmm, I can't see that."
"You never will."
He took the sword and struck down but his hand stopped midair.
"Huh?"
A long white rod appeared out of nowhere striking his arm. Before he could react, my left arm was ripped off disappearing the moment it got separated.
"Trinity!"
She cast, summoning the last two rods.
'I...it's gone? Non-regenerative for someone like me?'
I can sense his disbelief from the other side.
He didn't move, he waited for the assault. The first rod manifested beneath him. He flipped backwards, opening portals all over him. The rod bypassed space entirely, vanishing only to reappear above him, poised to strike.
Instinctively, his aura flared, shielding him from the sudden assault. He halted midair, suspended in space, motionless, but ready.
'Trinity. So there's one more? I just need to...'
The third rod materialised just behind his head but by now, he had already adapted. He slipped aside, seizing it midair. The instant his hand closed around it, the rod activated, its auto-teleportation ejecting us from the scene.
My vision collapsed into black. For a heartbeat, there was nothing. For a moment, there was no sound or self. Just something older then silence itself.
Then came the plunge, I was hurtling through an unknown Void at impossible speed. Wherever I was exiled to, the distance was covered beyond calculative time because I was no longer there or running...
(Capital 'V' take note.)
"Rest and be purified by the Eternal..."
"Darkness?"
...I'm here.
Suddenly, I am behind her, the rod in hand.
He rammed the rod through her chest, the force lifting her body off the ground as blood gushed down its length. With his one remaining arm, he hurled her skyward. The smoky blade coalesced in a nonexistent grip, and with a brutal swing, he severed her neck.
Her head hit the scorched soil with a dull thud, rolling lifelessly as her body collapsed in a shower of blood. I stood paralysed, unable to move or even scream, forced to watch the nightmare unfold.
"You can't kick me to my natural habitat and expect me to get trapped."
He said, walking up to her severed head.
"Soon, I'll ascend the Ontic Layers and get rid of you permanently. For now, just wait."
He raised his sword, its edge glinting with malice. Aya's lips moved faintly.
"Huh? You say something?"
He sneered.
"You have the potential... yes. But you can only become one of two things. The Liberator... or The Obliterator."
He chuckled.
"Forcing me into a coin flip, huh? Well... congratulations that'll never happen."
"Activate."
Her final word resonated, and his body reacted on instinct, an unconscious defence. The blade pierced through her skull and a void surged into the wound, and her head erupted in a burst of dark energy.
'Activate what?'
He paused, waiting for her hidden attack.
'Nothing happened. I guess she lost after all.'
He snapped to attention as his senses flared, detecting the approaching army of Archangels.
Raising his palm, dark energy coiled around it like a living shadow.
"I can use a warm-up, but I…"
He faltered, eyes narrowing.
Something was off—something he hadn't anticipated.
"So that's how it is. Sealing me in his Mind? That's really bad considering what I've done. However, don't you think I can end it all in one go?"
He asked but there was no one to reply to.
His chaotic aura built up slowly as he waited. In a matter of seconds, the effect was set as the surroundings began to unravel.
They were onto him and it was his signal.
"Unleash.."
The stored void flickered, pulsing with deadly intent, its flames already reducing the Archangels to ash.
Yet, just a heartbeat before the annihilation could strike, someone appeared.
With the gentlest touch on my forehead, Ela struck. In an instant, his dark energy faltered and my consciousness was dragged into darkness alongside his, plunging us both into black.
...
..
.
To be continued...