CHAPTER 102: AN ABSOLUTE MEASURE

Seduction sat on her throne of black crystal in the grand hall of the floating palace. She was bored.

The quiet hum of the city’s formations was a constant, unchanging sound. Below her in the main hall, Sera was playing.

The child was amusing for a time. She ran around the vast hall, her small form shifting and changing.

One moment she was a tiny, grey version of an Ashen Vindicator, marching with stiff, serious steps.

The next, she was a small, glittering Crystal Ant, skittering across the floor. She had consumed the biomass of the creatures her father had killed, and now she was practising their forms.

It was a cute display of her growing power. But even cuteness became boring after a while.

Seduction’s thoughts drifted away from the playing child, looking out through the massive crystal windows at the mortal world below.

She wondered what her husband was doing. Had he finished his hunt yet? Had he killed the little blood demon?

She was not worried about him. Rhys was strong, far stronger than anyone in this primitive province. She was just impatient.

She wanted him to finish his little game of empire-building so they could move on to more interesting things.

Her mind turned to the new power he had developed. The Void-Tainted Shadow. A smile touched her lips.

He had taken two opposing concepts, Shadow and Void, and had woven them together into something new.

He had found a way to use a conceptual power without announcing it to the entire universe. By hiding the absolute law of the Void within the simple property of a shadow, he was cheating Chaos.

He was making his reality-altering power look like a simple trick of the light.

"What a smart husband," she murmured to herself, a genuine flicker of admiration in her pink, heart-shaped eyes.

"Using a conceptual element and cheating Chaos with the same move. Unless he used it on a large scale, like for a genocide or something that changes the whole principles of a region, Chaos will never notice at all."

He was not just a brute with infinite power. He had a cunning mind. He was learning the rules of the universe, and he was learning how to bend them. It was a delightful quality.

It was in that moment of quiet admiration that she heard his voice. It was not a sound that travelled through the air.

It was a thought, a command, that echoed directly in the core of her being, a right granted by the contract they shared.

"Seduction," he muttered, his voice so quiet it was almost a thought. "Take Sera away."

The lazy boredom on Seduction’s face vanished instantly. The air in the grand hall grew cold. She stood up from her throne, her entire body rigid.

She felt the absolute, unyielding authority in his voice. This was not a request. It was an order from her sovereign, an order that came with a feeling of deep, chilling finality.

He was preparing to do something that he might not come back from.

"What are you—" she began to ask, her own voice a panicked whisper that was lost in the vastness of the hall.

"I said take her away!"

His mental voice was a thunderclap this time. It was filled with a power that left no room for argument. It was a command that she, bound by their contract, could not refuse.

’He used the contract for this....’

She looked down at Sera. The child had stopped playing and was looking up at her, a confused expression on her small face.

Seduction felt a surge of frustration. She was a Celestial being. She did not take orders. But the contract was absolute.

And more than that, a deep, instinctual part of her, a part that she hated to admit existed, was screaming in alarm. Her husband was about to do something terrible.

She made her decision. With a movement as fast as a striking snake, she flew down from her throne and scooped the surprised child into her arms.

"Papa?" Sera asked, her voice full of confusion.

Seduction did not answer. A swirling portal of pink and black energy opened in front of her, a tear leading back to the safety of the Ashen Dimension. She stepped towards it, her movements swift and efficient.

Sera began to struggle, sensing that something was terribly wrong. "Let me go! Papa needs me!" she cried, her small fists beating against Seduction’s back. "Let me go, you coquettish bitch!"

Seduction gritted her teeth, ignoring the child’s insults and struggles. She stepped through the portal without a backward glance. It closed behind her, leaving the grand hall of the palace empty.

Back on the cliff, Rhys felt the connection to his dimension shift. Seduction had obeyed. Sera was safe. That was all that mattered.

The last tie holding him to caution was now severed. He was alone, facing his enemy, with nothing left to lose.

Kaelen watched him, a confused look on his face. He did not understand the sudden change in his cousin’s demeanour. He did not understand the heavy, oppressive silence that was falling over the world.

Rhys looked at Kaelen. His eyes were completely empty now, devoid of all light and emotion. They were not the eyes of a human being.

They were the eyes of the void itself.

A sound began to fill the air. It was a low, tearing sound, like the fabric of reality itself was being ripped apart at the seams.

The sky above them, which had been a pale grey, began to darken, the light draining away as if being sucked into a black hole.

The wind stopped. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below ceased. Time itself seemed to slow, then freeze.

Anya Sterling, who had been watching from a distance, felt a terror so profound that it stole the breath from her lungs. This was not cultivation. This was not a skill. This was the end of the world.

Kaelen tried to rush to Rhys, but his body was repelled every time he tried. He then turned around and reached for Anya, shaking her shoulder to shake her from her reverie.

"What’s he going to do? Wake up... OPEN YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, COCK SLEEVE!"

"Don’t do this... please don’t do this..." Anya seemed to lose her mind as the only words that came from her mouth slowly turned into a mourning cry.

Her bloodshot eyes glared at Kaelen as she cursed.

"It’s because of you... because of you... die... die..."

’Slang.’

Anya’s head rolled on the ground. Kaelen widened his eyes and looked down at his chest. A dagger had just moved past it, taking her head from her neck.

"You... killed her."

"No... I liberated her," Rhys mumbled in an emotionless voice.

The world went completely dark. Everything was gone. The cliff, the ocean, Kaelen, Anya’s body—all of it was swallowed by an absolute, silent blackness.

In the centre of that infinite nothingness, an ancient, emotionless voice echoed. It was not a voice of words, but of pure concept.

"One has challenged the authority... now prove yourself to be truly worthy."

[You are a maniac...]

Yes. Rhys was a maniac. The only person in the world to willingly call upon Chaos to kill his opponent.