The street disintegrated. Just by standing there, Thomas Andre's presence was heavy enough to crack the asphalt into a thousand spiderwebs. He didn't look like a Hunter; he looked like a force of nature dressed in a tailored suit.
"Seong Jin-Woo," Thomas spoke, his voice vibrating in Ren's very bones. "Step aside. This isn't your fight. The brat needs to learn that the Scavenger Guild doesn't bleed without taking a soul in return."
Jin-Woo's eyes flared with a lethal violet light. "He's with me, Thomas. If you want his soul, you'll have to go through mine first."
Ren stepped forward, his legs still shaky, but his gaze was fixed on the giant. "Jin-Woo, move. If you fight him, the United States and Korea will go to war. I'm a glitch in the system—let the system try to delete me."
Ren didn't wait. He triggered [Void Step].
In a blink, he was in front of Thomas. He swung a fist coated in a swirling, hungry vortex of purple-black energy. Thomas didn't even flinch. He activated [Reinforcement], his skin turning into a golden, indestructible alloy.
BOOM!
The shockwave shattered the remaining windows for three blocks. Ren's fist hit Thomas's chest, but it felt like hitting a mountain. Thomas didn't move an inch.
"Is that it?" Thomas sneered, grabbing Ren's throat with a hand the size of a shovel. "You eat mana? Try eating pure, raw strength!"
Thomas slammed Ren into the ground. The impact was so violent it created a crater. Ren coughed out more of that strange, dark blood, his ribs screaming in agony.
[Warning: Physical Integrity at 15%] [The Void is reacting to the Host's Despair...]
"Ren!" Jin-Woo shouted, his shadows—Igris and Beru—bursting from the ground to intervene.
"STAY BACK!" Ren roared, his voice sounding distorted, like two frequencies clashing.
Something changed. The air around Ren didn't just vibrate; it stopped existing. A dome of absolute blackness began to expand from the crater. Thomas Andre, for the first time in a decade, felt a shiver of genuine cold. He looked at his golden arm—the "indestructible" reinforcement was starting to flake away like ash.
"You think you're a mountain?" Ren whispered, rising from the crater. His eyes were no longer human; they were two infinite, bottomless pits of nothingness. "A mountain is just a pile of dust waiting to be forgotten."
[Skill Evolution: Void Domain (Incomplete)]
Ren didn't punch. He simply touched Thomas's shoulder. The golden armor vanished instantly, not broken, but erased. Thomas gasped, stumbling back as he felt a terrifying emptiness where his strength used to be.
"What... what are you?" Thomas breathed, his arrogance finally replaced by a flicker of primal fear.
Ren didn't answer. He was losing himself. The "human" Ren was screaming inside, but the "Void" was laughing. Just as Ren was about to unleash a killing blow, Jin-Woo appeared between them, grabbing Ren's arm.
"That's enough, Ren! Look at me!" Jin-Woo yelled, his own Monarch energy clashing against the Void to snap Ren out of the trance. "If you kill him now, there's no coming back. You'll become the very thing you're afraid of!"
Ren froze. The black dome flickered and vanished. He looked at Thomas, then at his own hands, which were now dripping with shadows.
"I... I almost enjoyed that," Ren whispered, his voice trembling with horror.
Thomas Andre stood there, his breathing heavy, staring at the boy who had just touched the edge of godhood. The 'Goliath' had been humbled, and for the first time, the world realized that the Shadow Monarch wasn't the most dangerous thing in Japan.