章 259: Chapter 258
[Third Person's PoV]
Cid leaned all the way back, narrowly dodging Antares' claws, which threatened to disintegrate him with a single cut. The sheer force of the swipe created a powerful gale that tore his hood off, sending his hair billowing wildly in the wind.
Flames flickered at the corners of Antares' mouth before he unleashed an unrelenting torrent of fire and destruction.
Cid wreathed his sword in black-purple flames, channeling the mana of death from his heart's mana reactor to amplify its power.
With a decisive slash, Cid unleashed his own flames of devastation. The resulting explosion burned hotter than a supernova. Though Cid remained unharmed, the attack managed to breach his immunity, causing him to break into a sweat—something that hadn't happened in a long time. And he wasn't the only one affected.
As Antares' inferno finally ceased, Cid reappeared beneath him. With one leg raised high, almost in an upward split, he delivered a devastating kick that sent the dragon hurtling backward.
Antares stabilized himself midair, his wings unfurling to halt his momentum. Growling in fury, he unleashed a wave of pure destruction, sealing off any chance of escape.
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION, ASHBORN!!!"
Planets crumbled all around them. To Cid, time had slowed to a near standstill. His dragon eyes flared with violet light as he analyzed the incoming devastation.
Raising his hand, he summoned a burst of shadow from his palm, sending it surging toward the destructive wave. His magical control was so precise that, in an instant, he manipulated his shadow not to clash with the destruction but to intertwine with it.
Then, with flawless mastery, Cid commanded his shadow to consume the power of destruction.
Antares stood frozen in awe as Cid absorbed the apocalyptic energy instead of letting it wash over him.
A violent shudder wracked Cid's body as he doubled over, clutching his stomach. Blood trickled from both corners of his mouth. Yet, despite the agony, he looked up at Antares with a strained grin—one eye shut in pain, the other gleaming with determination.
"Bet you weren't expecting that, you dragon bastard," Cid snarled. "Now it's time for my counterattack."
With a mere thought, he healed his internal wounds in seconds.
Their battle had escalated to such an extent that the very laws of the universe were bending and distorting at their whim.
BOOOOOOM!!! SHATTER! SHATTER! SHATTER!
In an instant, Cid collapsed the space between them, appearing before Antares in a blur. His palm twisted back and upside-down, poised for a devastating strike.
His eyes burned with an intense purple glow as he exhaled a heated breath. Then, with a ferocious shout, he drove his palm forward, twisting his wrist as he struck.
Antares' draconic torso caved inward, his massive body arching from the impact. Blood spewed from his mouth as he was sent hurtling backward, smashing through planets like glass. Their cores shattered, triggering catastrophic eruptions.
Even the stars weren't safe—Antares' body ripped through them like a bullet piercing a skull, entering and exiting without resistance.
When he finally regained control, he gazed upon the devastation left in their wake. His body trembled—not just from the damage, but from sheer fury.
"ASHBORN!!!" Antares roared, his rage boiling over. With a single mighty flap of his wings, he charged toward Cid, his aura of destruction growing ever more chaotic as he began to lose control.
And so, their battle raged on. Hours bled into days. Days stretched into weeks. Neither warrior yielding. Neither force relents. As the very concept of time was killed and destroyed in their aforemention assault against each other.
The cosmos trembled beneath their wrath.
Antares' maw widened, a vortex of destruction forming at its core. It was no mere fire—it was a force that predated time, an inferno that devoured reality itself. Black stars collapsed in its presence. Galaxies folded inwards, swallowed whole. The cosmos screamed in its final moments before Antares released his attack.
A blast of absolute nothingness.
The void itself cracked as the wave of devastation surged forward, a force so overwhelming that even Cid felt his body waver. His cloak and armor disintegrated upon contact with the sheer pressure of the attack.
But Cid did not retreat. He welcomed it.
A dark smirk played across his lips as he tightened his grip on his sword. Shadows coiled around his body, writhing like living creatures, eager to consume and destroy.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
Cid slashed forward, the raw power of his mana splitting Antares' attack in half. The explosion ripped apart what remained of the cosmos, creating an abyss of non-existence. But it did not reach him.
Antares' eyes widened. 'Impossible.'
Cid blurred forward, faster than the dragon could perceive. With a single step, he was already in front of Antares, his foot digging into the dragon's snout. He kicked off, sending the beast spiraling through the void, tearing through collapsed dimensions like shattered glass.
Antares flapped his wings violently, regaining control mid-flight. He reared back his massive arm and swung his claw down like a guillotine.
Cid raised his sword to block, but the impact was beyond anything he had ever endured.
CRAAAACK!!!
The shockwave ripped apart the very foundations of reality. Universes crumbled like sand beneath their feet. Entire timelines bled out.
Cid gritted his teeth as his body was driven downward, crashing through a dead star, obliterating it upon impact. The sheer force sent him plummeting through dimensions, his body shattering realms as he fell.
But before Antares could capitalize on his advantage—
Cid appeared behind him once more.
His speed had surpassed the concept of movement itself.
With an upward slash, Cid's sword tore through Antares' wing, severing it in a single stroke.
The dragon howled in agony, his blood pouring out like collapsing galaxies.
"Is that the best you've got, you overgrown lizard?" Cid taunted, his breath heavy but unwavering. "I expected more from 'destruction incarnate.'"
Antares' body trembled. Not with pain—but with fury.
"YOU WRETCHED CREATURE!!!"
His wings, though damaged, flapped once—just once.
But it was enough.
The force of that singular motion erased what little remained of their battlefield.
Cid barely had time to react before Antares' fist collided with his chest.
BOOOOM!!!
Cid's body was sent rocketing backward, smashing through fragmented time itself. He felt his ribs crack, his organs rupture—for the first time in centuries, he felt pain.
But that only made him grin wider.
Antares charged.
Cid countered.
Their blows met, shaking what remained of the cosmos.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Every collision erased another fundamental law of existence.
Matter no longer functioned.
Time ceased to flow.
The multiverse itself began to unravel.
Yet they fought on.
Claw against blade. Power against power.
They had long surpassed the limits of deities.
They were no longer warriors.
They were concepts of battle itself.
And then—Cid decided to end it.
With a flick of his wrist, his sword dissolved into pure energy. He no longer needed it. He no longer needed weapons.
He became the weapon.
Antares sensed it immediately. The change. The shift. The absolute presence of death.
And for the first time—he felt fear.
Cid raised his hand, his mana reactor surging to its limit. His entire body ignited with boundless energy, warping existence around him.
As the energy around Cid began to gather he closed his eyes and began to speak with a carefree smile on his lips, "If I don't want to be vaporized in a nuclear explosion, I simply have to become nuclear myself… and I've achieved it… I've become a bomb that can shatter reality itself"
A single phrase left his lips.
A phrase that shook the void.
A phrase that heralded the end.
"I Am Atomic."
The words themselves shattered the remnants of space-time.
And then—light.
An explosion beyond explosions.
The detonation was beyond nuclear, beyond celestial—it was the very definition of destruction.
The blast spread across what remained of existence, a luminous inferno that devoured everything in its wake.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
Antares roared in agony as he was consumed by the overwhelming force. His body disintegrated. His essence tore apart.
He tried to fight back.
He tried to exist.
But there was no escaping absolute erasure.
The very concept of Antares ceased.
And so did everything else.
Cid stood alone, the only thing remaining in the vast, empty void. His breathing was ragged, his body burned and torn, yet—he remained.
And with a smirk, he muttered,
"...That was fun."
And then—darkness.
章 260: Chapter 259
[Third Person's PoV]
As darkness consumed everything, expanding endlessly into the void, one being remained untouched. He was the darkness. The Shadow Monarch floated in the abyss, unscathed by the void's hunger.
Cid scratched the side of his head, sighing. "I may or may not have overdone it slightly," he muttered.
Closing his eyes, his senses stretched across the multiverse. Worlds lay shattered, the laws of reality twisted and broken. Universes bled into each other, planets from different dimensions colliding in catastrophic explosions.
"..."
"Yeah, I've really overdone it… Luckily, my girls are fighting with the Monarchs in a different dimension, but I can't say that no one was affected."
His gaze turned toward the world where he had spent the first fifteen years of his life—the place where his mother and father were supposed to be.
All that remained were floating remnants of rock and rubble drifting through space. His expression darkened with guilt.
"Ugh, I should have secured them along with the solar system…" Cid shook his head. "Well, I guess it's time to clean up after myself."
Without hesitation, he reached into his chest. His expression twisted in pain as his hand pierced through his skin, delving into the place where his heart beat.
With a sharp exhale, he withdrew it—his own heart. It pulsed furiously in his grasp, black as the abyss, radiating a deep purple aura.
By his chest, a new heart had already begun to regenerate, sealing the wound shut. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he wiped it away with a sigh.
'If I want to restore the laws of the universe and undo the damage, 'revive' isn't the right word—since they ceased to exist. I'll need to use the infinite energy my Black Heart provides, channeling it with the Aether it produces. With Aether's power, I should be able to reconstruct the laws that were shattered and set things right.'
Cid sighed again. "But there's another problem… Even though my Black Heart is outside my chest and a new one has grown, the Black Heart is still a part of my existence. If I go through with this, I'll suffer a backlash."
He shook his head. "But I'll manage… hopefully."
His dragon-like eyes flared, narrowing with resolve. The heart in his hands began to beat faster—pumping Aether in overwhelming waves, painting the void in its luminous purple essence.
The heart grew brighter, shifting into a pulsating violet light, like a newborn star in the abyss. Then, it started to dissolve.
Blood surged up Cid's throat, and he coughed violently, his entire lower jaw stained red. His brows furrowed, but his grip on his resolve remained firm.
As the heart dissolved, only a concentrated core of Aether remained—the very core that had once been integrated into his heart.
Closing his eyes, Cid raised three fingers on each hand—his thumb, index, and middle. He spread them apart, and the particles of Aether obeyed his will, swirling together to form a massive halo above him, the core floating at its center.
'Time is a circle. The past defines the present, the present shapes the future, and the future eventually becomes the past, repeating in an unending cycle…'
And so, Cid began with the reconstruction of Time.
Once Time was restored, the rest would be easier to repair.
His skin paled as he worked tirelessly to mend the universe. Laws restructured and reformed under his guidance, Aether weaving them back into place. Days passed without rest, his willpower alone driving the restoration forward.
Then—crack.
Cid saw fractures forming across the Aether core. He exhaled sharply.
He closed his eyes, making a decision. He would use what remained of the core's energy for one final miracle.
Drawing upon the last of its power, Cid commanded the new Law of Time to reverse the multiverse's destruction.
Planets that had been on the verge of collapse began to pull away from each other. Their broken remains drifted back into place, cracks sealing as if time itself rewound.
Shattered worlds reassembled piece by piece, their fragments drawn together like puzzle pieces. For an instant, they burned in a blaze of explosive energy—then the detonations reversed, withdrawing inward until the planets stood whole once more.
Cid watched as the Aether core shattered—splintering into shimmering purple light before disintegrating entirely.
His heart skipped a beat.
Pain surged through him. He clutched his chest, hunching forward, his breath ragged. His vision blurred, and exhaustion weighed down his limbs.
Still, he managed to straighten up, though his eyes rolled back slightly.
"I think…" he whispered hoarsely, "I'll just take a quick nap… I deserve it."
And with that, his body went limp, falling backward into the void.
His clothes had long since burned away, leaving him bare, his hair drifting as if he were submerged in deep water. His arms hung loosely at his sides, his body completely still.
Yet, despite the blood smeared across his face, there was a peaceful smile on his lips.
He looked like a man who had finished a hard day's work… and was finally getting the rest he deserved.
---
Elsewhere…
Igris, locked in battle with Tarnak.
Beru, clashing with Yogumunt.
Bellion, dueling against Legia.
They all froze.
Their movements came to a sudden halt.
They weren't the only ones.
Tusk. Tank. Iron. Kaiser. Every one of Cid's shadows had stopped, their expressions grim.
An ominous BOOOOOOM!
Mana erupted across the battlefield—a surge so immense, so vicious, that it suffocated the air with a bloodlust unlike any other.
A rage that didn't belong to any single being.
No.
It was shared.
It spread through them all like wildfire.
Their Monarch had been injured.
Their eyes burned with hatred.
None would be forgiven.
They would all pay.
And they would make sure of it.
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