★257
THIRD POV
"Long time no see, Kenos."
"I was going to dispose of him before dealing with you, but I'm glad you came to me, Belenos."
"New sword?"
Belenos raised her hand slightly, showing him her severed pinky finger, the edge clean as though it had been taken without effort.
"It's a cheap piece. I highly doubt it'll take you down."
"You're right…"
She glanced at it, unimpressed, as the wound began to glow faintly. In the next moment, the flesh closed and her finger reformed, as if nothing had happened.
The Non-Form Severance removes this from all classes of system rendering conceptual defence useless. What's cut was never inflicted. But Belenos isn't a lowly opponent.
"I'm sure you're not here to talk."
"And neither did you intend to when we met in the Pond."
Belenos answered calmly. The silence fell between them growing heavily.
The tension thickened until her golden aura flared to life, radiating with divine intensity. She layered its power upon itself, each surge brighter than the last, before driving a devastating punch square into Kenos's jaw.
'As the Golden Boy used to say. The only way to deal with O-Class Dark stars is to end them as quickly as possible.'
Belenos raised his palm in response, and light spread instantly, swallowing that fragment of Nihil Space and shifting it elsewhere. In the next moment, they stood on another planet, an endless stretch of barren terrain drifting in the emptiness of Outer Space.
Belenos did not pause. She extended her Divine Will outward, forcing a tear through the surrounding void as light poured in, flooding the planet entirely, completely banishing shadows and night, removing the very possibility of absence.
In the Absolute Light Field, Kenos was the only spec of darkness, dnd despite being in a disadvantageous position, he approached Belenos, his aura strong enough to cast shadows on the ground.
"I'm not done yet. Icosagon Stars!"
At the heart of space, the planet hung suspended, alone in the vast expanse.
By her will, twenty colossal suns ignited at once, blazing into existence across the surrounding void and flooding everything with relentless light.
Though the planet itself was no larger than a Drop, each sun loomed vast and radiant, visible from every horizon. The searing heat was enough to burn Kenos's pale white skin. But that wasn't enough to stop him.
"Even nothingness can be burned. So burn, and return to nothingness."
At her command, there was no delay, no distance left to cross, as each sun unleashed a massive solar blast, each one powerful enough to wipe out seventy per cent of the Omni Domains combined, and now all twenty were focused on a single target.
That force converged on Kenos.
The blasts struck him at once, colliding with his frame and erupting into a colossal solar explosion that swallowed everything in its path.
Belenos hovered high above, her divine aura shifting and flowing around her at its own pace as she watched the outcome.
Through the raging orange flames, a speck of darkness began to grow, spreading as it consumed the blasts from within.
Kenos emerged from the chaos, his body scorched, his dark attire burned at the edges, yet his presence remained steady. In the next instant, he appeared beside Belenos and drove a punch into her, sending her crashing off the planet.
"Thanks for the lift."
Belenos steadied herself mid-flight, her momentum shifting as she surged forward again.
Without hesitation, she launched herself through the twenty blazing suns one after another, her form cutting through each burst of light as she pressed the attack.
In a realm where concepts themselves smouldered and Meta was endlessly consumed by heat, she crossed the unfathomable expanse in a single instant, drawing in the searing essence of each sun, harvesting their boundless solar fury into her being.
"You see, unlike the others, I've been prepared for this since the rebellion."
Belenos said, her voice sharp, layered with distortion as divine solar energy rippled around her.
"I would have preferred to face Mors and make her pay for what she did that day… but she's gone."
Kenos lowered his head slightly, the thought settling in more heavily than he expected. He had not imagined that someone like Adahara, a mere B-Class Star, would be the one to bring Mors down.
'So it's just me and Phoenix now. The Second is taking too long to awaken… I should check what's happening down there.'
Even with the odds turning against him, Kenos remained composed, his edge intact, his focus unbroken.
'Right after setting the score with Belenos.'
His gaze settled on Belenos, his eyes closed, yet nothing escaped his awareness.
After draining each sun of its core essence, her entire body ignited in roaring orange flames. She now carried the combined power of twenty suns along with her own, the heat distorting everything around her as she descended straight toward Kenos.
The Void Emperor remained where he stood, unmoved at the centre of the planet, watching her approach without flinching.
"Gates of Abyss."
He extended his palm, and a vast three-dimensional magic circle materialised before him. Its gears began to turn as a torrent of pure void energy gathered within.
A surge of colossal void energy erupted forth, so immense it engulfed an entire face of the planet, its darkness visible even from Outer Space, as it roared toward Belenos.
"Transcendent Sun-Body, activate!"
As if her blazing energy were not already overwhelming, it multiplied again and again, rising beyond all reason until it reached its ultimate peak.
Her very skin burned like molten light, her flames now fueled by the power of over 200billion+ suns. Yet despite her radiance, her form remained a speck against the colossal tide of void energy before her.
Belenos dove headlong into the raging nothingness. The void's annihilating force could not halt her advance, she did not turn intangible, nor evade it. Her sheer presence alone carved a path through the abyss itself as she pressed forward toward Kenos.
Kenos clenched his fist, summoning five additional Gates that flared open behind him. Streams of immense void energy poured from each one, merging into the first Gate and amplifying its destructive might. The planet beneath him began to crumble into under the sheer pressure of the unleashed power.
Yet Belenos did not falter. Her flames surged higher, multiplying to match her will as she dove ever deeper into the storm. Rather than being consumed by the void energy, her presence expanded, growing beyond its scope, forcing the abyss itself to part before her unstoppable advance.
She clenched her fist, gathering every fragment of power within her, and Kenos mirrored her motion. When their fists collided, the impact unleashed unbridled destruction, rupturing through the indestructible fabric of Outer Space itself and exposing a plane where existence held no meaning.
Belenos hovered in the aftermath, her body blazing with relentless flame, while Kenos stood before her, both untouched, both defying the annihilation they had just wrought.
"Thanks to your stubbornness, nothing currently exists here."
"Don't you think you have the advantage because it's the void?"
She asked.
"I don't know."
He replied, his voice indifferent.
"But your actions just triggered my Ultimate Art: Khaos Vantablack. In here, nothing matters. Energy, Creation, matter, concepts, meta, you name them. This is the ultimate end of everything including nothingness itself.
In short, I, the caster, am also being destroyed. However, my destruction is limitless. The more I fall, the closer I am to being my true self not true absence, not true void not true nothingness but something beyond them entirely. So yes, I do have the upper hand."
"Anti-Existence… nonexistence beyond nonexistence. I know where you stand."
Belenos spoke as the divine flames around her began to fade, the heat thinning as the light died down.
"So confident."
Her thoughts tightened as she studied him.
'Nothingness above nothingness… so he stands as the Meta Void? No, he dismissed that himself. Then what did he mean by Creation? Does that place him above my Goddess?'
She paused, weighing it carefully, trying to grasp his level. If he truly stood above the Goddess of Creation, then her Transcendent Sun-Body would mean nothing here. The last of the flames went out at that moment, the feirce divine glow vanishing.
'It may be possible… but I must move forward anyway.'
She rolled her neck, a faint crack breaking the stillness, as the star on her forehead began to glow, the light intensifying until fractures spread across it, releasing what had been sealed within.
"Can I win?"
The question left her lips quietly, meant for no one but herself.
A small breath followed, steadier this time.
"Of course not… that's what the old me would say."
'The Star God once told me Kenos is the paradox of anti-being. It's not a being, spirit nor an idea. It's the end of all definitions, the absolute absence. It's the truth beyond silence, the stillness before Existence and the unknowable beneath the unknowable. And lastly, it said, it's dangerous. Far comparable to the Twin Star Algol.'
If the creator points out that one of its creations is dangerous, then it's the real deal. But then, it also said no matter how far it goes, I, Belenos, will always be there at the light that came before it.'
She shook her head, and the ornaments melted away.
'This isn't a battle strength or will power. It's about existential status.'
Kenos is trying to return Existence to how it was before the creation of the Ontic Layers and the manifestation of the two Goddesses.
With Khaos Vantablack activated, it's only a matter moment before it seeps into Creation.
'Good thing I took us to the Outer Space.'
"Religions, mythologies, and philosophical systems believed and stated that light came after darkness. But these are still part of Creation, yes?"
She asked the question as if expecting an answer, yet she continued before any could come, answering it herself without hesitation.
"Long after this Shell was created, the Secondary Fragment immediately took control before its rival did. At that moment, the Shell was filled with the presence of an Ancient One, something we'll never know."
This was the truth of this shell, something only a handful knew, and Belenos was one of them.
"Long before the two Goddesses of Creation and Destruction were brought into being, do you know what the Supreme Mother said when she arrived at the Existential Shell?"
Belenos asked, her eyes closed, her tone steady.
"Beats me."
—Let there be Light—
To be continued...