He was falling.
The water below him was endless, dark, hungry—rushed up to meet him. But it felt distant. Wrong. Like he was watching someone else fall, someone else die, someone else's life end in the cold embrace of the Sembergo Ocean.
Time itself seemed to stop.
No. Not just stop.
Unravel.
The concept of momentum ceased to exist. He hung there, suspended between sky and sea, between victory and death, between everything he'd been and everything he'd never get to be.
Then—
A voice.
"So pathetic, Dad!"
It cut through the void. Through the silence. Through the acceptance of death that had settled in his chest.
A shock followed by something he hadn't felt in years.
He smiled.
And just as his body was about to touch the water—inches away, close enough to feel its cold breath—something stopped him.
Not something.
Someone.
He was floating now. Not falling. Floating. Suspended inches above the surface like the water itself refused to take him in.
Namaska slowly opened his eyes.
The sky was wrong.
Not the gray of storm clouds. Not the black of night. Something else. Something that hurt to look at, colors that shouldn't exist bleeding into each other, light bending in ways light shouldn't bend.
And in the center of that wrongness—
A figure.
Human-shaped. Dark. Absolute. Hovering against the impossible sky like it owned the place.
It was black. Not shadow because shadow needs light to exist. This was something deeper. Something that predated light itself. A hole in the world shaped like a person.
Namaska's voice came out rough. Broken. But warm.
"So you finally came."
The figure descended. Slow. Deliberate. Like it had all the time in existence and didn't care how much it used.
When it spoke, the words were distortion. Reality creaking. Sound that shouldn't exist.
"Pathetic, Dad. Do you really almost get killed by this weak thing?"
Genuine disappointment. Like a child finding out their parent failed at something simple.
Namaska's smile widened.
"Weak thing? Huh. Pretty much what I assumed you'd call it."
He paused.
"Void."
The figure's form rippled. Annoyance.
"Don't call me by that pathetic name of yours."
A chuckle. Low. Warm.
"Call it pathetic. But it's yours."
"That's not mine, you just gave it to me like I'm some kind of slave"
The Mundene Creature growled.
It had been watching. Waiting. Perhaps recovering from the wound Namaska had given it. Perhaps simply curious about the new player in its game.
Now it decided to remind them it existed.
"How dare you make noise in my presence, You pathetic little creature?"
Void didn't even look at it.
Just spoke. Casual. Bored.
"What are you? A Duman? An idiot? Or a lowly creature who will get destroyed like everyone else?"
The creature roared.
Waved its arms.
Thousands of horns—the same projectiles that had shredded Namaska's fleet—shot toward Void at impossible speed.
Void didn't move an inch.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't even blinked.
"Is that all?"
Arrogance. Pure and absolute.
"What an amusing thing to even think physical objects could harm me."
He waved one hand.
Just a gesture. Casual. Almost dismissive.
And the Mundene Creature—
Cuts in half.
Both heads. The body. The tentacles. Everything.
It split clean through.
Yellow blood erupted like waterfalls. The creature's scream—cut off mid-roar as its body separated, as its consciousness ended, like a god died in an instant.
This time, it didn't regenerate.
This time, it was just... dead.
Void looked at the corpse.
"Weak."
Silence.
The kind that follows impossibility. The kind that happens when reality itself needs a moment to process what it just witnessed.
Then—
"Are you guys done yet?"
A familiar voice. A voice of boredom.
From the ship.
Namaska's head snapped toward it.
Marcus stood on the deck of what remained of the flagship. Standing. Alive. Smiling.
But his eyes—
Glowing blue.
Wrong.
"Marcus?"
The name came out as a whisper. A question. A desperate hope.
"You're alive?"
Marcus tilted his head. That familiar gesture. That unfamiliar light in his eyes.
"Oh my. So, Void—you really came, huh?"
Void turned. Studied the figure on the ship.
"And who are you?"
"Just a person who was waiting for you to come— in front of me."
Marcus smiled.
It was wrong.
The shape was right. The expression was right. But something underneath—something in the way his lips curved, in the light behind his eyes—was not Marcus at all.
"Marcus." Namaska's voice harder now. "Is that really you?"
"Why do you ask, Captain?"
Teasing. Familiar. Wrong.
"Oh my, You're not attacking?" Marcus mocked, turning back to Void. "I thought you were going to kill me for opening my damn mouth in front of you."
Void's form darkened.
"Don't you dare call me by that name again."
"Come on, Void." Marcus's smile widened. "Isn't that your name? Void? Or are you just a scaredy cat, Void?"
Void's hand moved.
A wave of pure annihilation—the same force that had just killed a god—shot toward Marcus.
"Ahhhhh. You're being ragebaited," he whispered to himself
The attack hit him.
And did nothing.
Marcus stood there. Smiling. Unscathed.
The silence stretched.
A moment ago, Void's power had ended a creature that had taken an entire fleet to wound. Now, against this... thing wearing Marcus's face... it did nothing.
Marcus laughed.
"Oh my. Is that what you got? Mr. Weakling?"
Void's form rippled. The first sign of genuine agitation.
"I don't know who you are. But I'll say you're not a weakling like those who perished by me like ants."
"Oh my." Marcus's eyes sparkled. "How wonderful of you to consider me your worthy opponent."
"Could you two shut up?"
Namaska's voice. Tired. Broken. Desperate.
"We just fought a battle against that leviathan. "
"I don't know who you are, Marcus. Nor am I going to ask why you're mocking him like your life depends on it. Just stop. At least for now."
"Dad!"
Void's voice cracked with something like frustration.
He grabbed Namaska and threw him—gently, by his standards—onto the ship deck.
"Stay there, Dad!"
Void turned back to Marcus.
"Previous ship got destroyed by your power, right?."
Marcus closed his eyes.
"Void," he whispered. "You're so weak."
When his eyes opened, they weren't blue anymore.
Bright yellow. Like a sun in the afternoon sky. Like looking into a star.
Then—he vanished.
Reappeared behind Void.
Grabbed it.
Threw it into the endless ocean.
The force of the throw was absurd.
Impossible.
It didn't just move Void—it removed the water in its path. Miles of ocean simply ceased to exist where the throw passed through, water vaporizing, space itself seeming to bend.
If anything had been in that path, it would have been destroyed completely.
Marcus didn't wait.
He flew after him. Caught him before he could recover his falling. Started punching.
Each punch created shockwaves that split the ocean. That removed water for miles in every direction. That made the sea itself unstable.
"Oh my," Marcus smirked, still punching. "Your durability is kinda cute."
Void tried to block. Tried to move. Couldn't.
Marcus was too fast.
"But that doesn't mean I'm gonna cheat on my babe "
Still punching.
Marcus grabbed Void again and threw it in the distance.
And the same as previous time it removed the water in its path. Miles of ocean simply ceased to exist where the throw passed through.
And Marcus reached it again. Like their distance has no meanings to him or he just transcended the concept of speed.
He grabbed it and started punching.
But this time it was way more power than previous time.
"Ahhha ahahahahaha"
A laugh of pure madness.
"Void , Void, Void , Why I'm so excited"
He keeps punching while opening his mouth like crazy.
The punches were so loud that it looked like each punch changing the fundamental concepts of Void's existence.
"ENOUGH"
Void's voice. Quiet. Focused.
"Infinite Shift—"
Void activated something ancient. Something beyond. Something otherworldly.
____
_