The sky of the dead star, once nothing but eternal silence and dim starlight, had now become a canvas for two utterly different forms of “destruction” to paint upon.
Having deflected the white repulsion singularity with a single blow, Mercy gave no pause.
Dark-golden energy exploded beneath her feet, cracking the rock into a spiderweb of fissures as her form shot forward like lightning tearing through the dark, charging straight at Zephyro.
She knew well that fighting Zephyro, a being adept at controlling vast fields of destruction, at a distance was suicide.
Only by closing in, relying on the extreme strength and speed of her [Martial Artist] form, was there any chance of victory.
“Foolish obstinacy.” Zephyro’s eyes showed no ripple as Mercy hurtled toward him.
He did not move.
His arm simply traced a gentle arc.
Instantly, the space along Mercy’s path rippled with layers of pure white, like the surface of a pond struck by a stone.
Every ripple that spread caused all properties in that region—color, energy, material structure—to rapidly fade and disintegrate, reduced to the most primal, lifeless “white.” This was not an attack.
It was the assimilation of a domain, the process of returning existence itself to “nothing.” “The same trick, and you think I’ll fall for it twice?!” Mercy cried out.
Her charge did not slow, but the dark-golden energy around her abruptly changed form.
No longer wild shockwaves, it became countless dense, high-speed destruction vortices, like millions of miniature chain saws coating her body and fists.
SCREEE—!
As she plunged into that “returning-to-nothing” field, a dense chorus of grating annihilation sounds erupted.
The dark-golden destruction vortices and the pure white void-force ground against each other in fierce mutual erosion.
Mercy was like a dark-golden meteor swimming upstream, forcibly tearing a brief passage through the pure white domain.
Countless white light fragments and dark-golden energy shards sprayed from her sides like a strange kind of fireworks.
“Oh?” Zephyro seemed to register a faint flicker of surprise that Mercy could so precisely use destruction energy for “point-to-point” counteraction.
“Your control over power has improved somewhat since last time.
A pity…
it remains futile.” He raised his intact hand, fingers slightly spread, and lightly closed them toward Mercy, who had already broken through the field and was closing in.
HUMM—!
Mercy instantly felt the space around her tighten.
An invisible repulsive force, as if from the universe itself, pressed down on her, trying to crush her completely, expel her from this space, and even expel her from the concept of “existence.” This was a far more terrifying “existential negation” than mere gravity.
“OPEN…
FOR ME!” Mercy roared.
Her bright golden pupils burned with unyielding fire.
Both fists struck out, not at Zephyro, but at the invisible repulsive field on either side of her body.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Dark-golden fist force exploded like twin supernovas.
The violent destruction energy, in the crudest way possible, blasted two massive gaps in the invisible repulsive field.
The recoil sent her energy surging (an energy-simulated sensation), but she used it to break free.
Her momentum grew even fiercer as her star-shattering fist drove toward Zephyro’s face.
“Approaching…
the art of destruction.” Facing this punch, close enough to bore through a planet’s core, Zephyro let out something almost like a murmur of praise.
He did not dodge.
The pale ring formed from his severed arm components, which had been hovering behind him, suddenly expanded and positioned itself before him.
The center of the ring was not hollow.
It held an absolute “pure white darkness,” a darkness so complete that even light could not escape it.
Mercy’s fist, with no flourish, drove into that “pure white darkness.” No sound.
No explosion.
Mercy felt her fist force, along with the vast destruction energy attached to it, vanish like a clay ox into the sea.
It was instantly devoured, decomposed into the most basic energy particles, and then…
returned to nothing.
Even the kinetic force of her fist’s advance was completely absorbed.
“What?!” Mercy was shocked.
She tried to pull back, but her fist seemed locked in that “pure white darkness.” An even greater power, aimed at “returning to nothing,” was eroding backward along her arm.
The flowing molten-gold shimmer on her arm began to dim and fade rapidly.
“Destruction is stripping away.
It is returning,” Zephyro’s voice remained flat, as if stating a cosmic truth.
“Stripping all attachments, returning to the primordial ‘nothing.’ Your power is no exception.” “Return this!” Mercy, both alarmed and enraged, struck out with her left fist without hesitation.
But her target was her own trapped right shoulder joint.
CRACK!
(An energy-simulated shattering sound.) She had used her own power to forcibly “destroy” the trapped portion of her energy-formed arm.
A decisive self-amputation, without hesitation.
The severed arm vanished instantly within the “pure white darkness,” while Mercy used the recoil from her left punch and the momentary loosening from her self-mutilation to rapidly retreat, putting distance between herself and Zephyro once more.
Energy surged at the severed stump, and under [Ultra Regeneration], it began to regrow.
But the speed was noticeably slower than before.
Clearly, Zephyro’s “returning-to-nothing” force carried some property that inhibited regeneration.
“Decisive,” Zephyro commented.
The pale ring slowly shrank back to its original size.
“Destroying a part of yourself in order to survive.
The act itself contains a twisted trace of destructive beauty.
But how many times can you destroy yourself?” Mercy panted (an energy-simulated response), looking at Zephyro.
A fierce grin spread across her face.
“Enough times to smash that twisted philosophy of yours to pieces!” “Empty words.” Zephyro shook his head slightly, as if feeling a trace of regret at Mercy’s “stubborn blindness” (or perhaps it was just an illusion).
He brought his hands together before his chest, and the pale ring flew between them, spinning at extreme speed.
“Behold.
This is…
the Light of Absolute Silence.” As he spoke, a point of absolute white light began to coalesce at the center of the spinning ring.
It was not the violence of the earlier repulsion singularity.
It was a deeper, more absolute “silence.” The light was not blinding.
Instead, it carried an allure, a temptation to sink into it, to sleep.
But Mercy’s soul screamed in warning.
Where this light reached, not only matter and energy would perish, but even “movement,” “concept,” and the sense of “time” could be completely frozen, returning to utter dead silence.
“Another wide-area wipe attack!” Mercy cursed inwardly.
Why did this guy have to turn everything into an art project?
Her mind raced.
Tanking it was out of the question.
The earlier repulsion singularity had only grazed her, and her arm had gone numb.
This one looked even worse.
Dodge?
Once this light burst, its range would likely be enormous.
This dead star probably wouldn’t survive it.
“System!
Daria!
Is there anything that can temporarily enhance spatial stability or interfere with that thing?!” Mercy called out urgently in her mind.
[Searching host’s system storage…] Daria’s voice responded quickly.
[Based on current situation analysis…
recommending: [One-Time Spatial Fold Generator].
Effect: Creates a brief spatial fold in a designated area, deflecting and delaying energy and conceptual attacks.
Note: From a free shop refresh.
You complained at the time that the name was a mouthful and it was useless.] “That’s the one!” Mercy’s eyes lit up.
With a thought, a small object resembling a twisted metal sea urchin appeared in her hand.
She didn’t bother figuring out how to use it properly.
She simply poured destruction energy into it crudely and hurled it toward the space in front of Zephyro.
HUMM!
The “metal sea urchin” activated instantly, bursting into an invisible spatial fluctuation.
The space before Zephyro suddenly became like crumpled silk, light and perception warping strangely.
At that exact moment, the “Light of Absolute Silence” in Zephyro’s hands reached its peak, transforming into a soft yet unstoppable white wave that spread silently outward.
The wave struck the folded space.
Like water meeting a reef, the pure white wave visibly slowed and underwent slight deflection and scattering.
Though the spatial fold lasted less than two seconds before collapsing completely, it had bought Mercy precious breathing room.
“Now!” A fierce light flashed in Mercy’s eyes.
She did not use the moment to retreat.
Instead, she charged forward again.
But this time, her target was not Zephyro himself.
It was the massive cliff beneath his feet.
She poured all her strength, along with her fury at Zephyro’s philosophy and her longing for the train, for her brother and sister, into her legs.
Then she stomped down on the earth with all her might.
RUMBLE—!!!
A destruction shockwave spread fanwise forward from Mercy’s point of impact.
It did not strike upward at Zephyro.
It struck downward, destroying the ground he stood upon.
The entire cliff, along with the vast rock strata beneath it, disintegrated under Mercy’s wrathful blow, turning into billions of stone fragments that plummeted into the bottomless abyss below like a collapsing sandcastle.
Zephyro, hovering in the air, would not fall simply because the ground collapsed.
But his casting of the “Light of Absolute Silence” seemed to require a degree of focus and stability.
The instant destruction of the ground beneath him and the violent disturbance of energy clearly caused a faint interference.
The spreading white wave flickered with an extremely brief instability.
And that flicker was exactly what Mercy wanted.
Like a clinging bone-rot, she rode the collapsing boulders upward against the flow.
Her dark-golden fist lit up again, but this time, what gathered at her knuckles was not pure destructive force.
It was highly compressed, rotating destruction energy, forming a miniature “breach point” drill aimed at energy structures.
“Your ‘silence’ is too loud!
BREAK!” One punch, driving straight at the pale ring, which had revealed a faint energy node due to the momentary interference.
For the first time, Zephyro’s pure white eyes clearly reflected the rapidly expanding dark-golden fist, carrying a completely different will of destruction.