Chapter 429 — Infinity versus the Furnace
The air no longer merely vibrated. It trembled outright, as if regretting existing in the same perimeter as these two monsters. Face to face: Azrael, the Geometer, and Eva, the Furnace. Two opposing visions of destruction, two radically different ways of reducing the world to ashes or to nothingness.
— "Believe me, Eva… you don't stand a chance," Azrael said in a monotone, almost bored tone.
Eva cracked her neck and fingers, her arms igniting instantly in a hiss of plasma.
— "Oh yeah? You'll see if my flames ask your permission before burning you. Don't worry… they've never asked before reducing someone to cinders."
Azrael gave a cold smile. Not a normal smile. The smile of someone who had already written the end of the fight.
— "Then… let's do this properly. Prepare to face the Geometer."
With a sharp gesture, Azrael pulled on the fabric of space.
Space itself folded like a mere sheet of paper. The distance between the two fighters collapsed to zero, sucked in by a superior will. Eva was hurled toward him. Before she could react, he unleashed a punch charged with mana that shattered reality. BOOM. The blow struck Eva square in the abdomen, followed by a second and a third devastating strike to the face. Each impact cracked the air like glass under pressure. Azrael seized her skull, slammed her to the ground, and dragged her with brutal violence. The ground no longer truly existed under the distortions, but he plowed her through the membranes of matter anyway.
With a sharp motion, he hurled her through several layers of space, like a projectile misplaced in a universe that hadn't asked for it. He reappeared instantly at her side, calm, a hand resting on her shoulder.
— "You don't stand a chance against the Weaver of Dreams… or the Sovereign of Dreams, if you prefer."
Eva lay on the ground for a moment, body battered, blood dripping from her lip. Then she rose. Slowly. She wore a bloody smile.
— "Impressive… But you forgot one detail. I'm Clara's teacher."
BOOM.
She transformed into a sphere of pure fire. Not normal fire. Something so intense it melted light itself. In a flash, she zigzagged, tearing the fabric of the world, leaving blazing trails behind her, before colliding with Azrael head-on.
Azrael simply raised his hand.
STOP.
Eva's attack crashed against an invisible void, smothered by nothingness.
— "Still don't get it?" he sighed. He materialized an ancient book in his hand. "Between you and me, there are infinite layers of space. Think of it as a book where each page is an infinite multiverse. And me… I can place myself wherever I want: behind a page, between two sheets, or even completely outside, always using the entire structure as defense. My defense is semi-passive."
Eva kept attacking from every angle, striking with solar rage. Nothing passed through.
— "Sorry," he added, "but my defense covers all sides. Either you do as Clara did, or you'll never reach me."
Silence fell. Then Eva exhaled:
— "I don't need to turn the pages."
A streak of fire. Instantaneous.
All layers of space were sliced clean, simultaneously. Azrael was cut in two. Eva landed behind him, wiping blood from her cheek.
— "Fire isn't made to read a book… It's made to burn it. You really thought the thickness of your tome would stop me just because the layers get harder to cross?"
Azrael's body dissipated. A dimensional reflection. A blade of pure spatial energy, forged in the void, pierced Eva's back instantly.
— "WATCH OUT!" Alaster shouted from afar.
He tried to rush forward, but Cyrus blocked his path, gaze like marble.
— "You're not moving. You stopped me from helping my brother earlier, so I'm returning the favor."
— "Seriously?" Alaster growled.
— "Seriously. When they're done fighting, I'll be happy to reduce you to nothing."
— "Keep talking," Cyrus replied flatly. "We'll see who's left standing."
Azrael, once again behind Eva, whispered in her ear:
— "Did you really think I'd make the same mistake twice? For the Geometer, space is just a tool. I don't fight with space… I *am* space. In other words, space is nothing but an extension of the Geometer's will."
Eva, despite the pain, gave Alaster a thumbs-up.
— "Don't worry… I've got this."
— "She's going to die joking…" Brakk muttered from afar.
— "Respect the art," Mira replied.
Azrael pointed at Eva.
— "We'll see… hahaha! Absolute Compression."
A sphere of total distortion appeared. A titanic explosion. Silence. A gaping wound was left in reality, a scar the universe refused to close.
— "Well… too easy. She was just another spark."
BOOM.
A flaming fist surged from the void, stopping two centimeters from Azrael's face.
— "Seriously?" he sighed.
— "Shut up," Eva replied.
Space twisted non-linearly.
— "Asymptote of Infinity." Azrael looked at the blocked fist. "You still don't understand. It's not a distance. It's a conceptual impossibility. A succession of layers of qualitative ontology. Each sheet of my Book is no longer a universe, it's a Logic that trivializes all lower dimensionality."
He stepped toward her, unshaken.
— "If you were a goddess capable of destroying infinities of multiverses, you'd still be just a drawing on the first page. Even with infinite speed, you could cross the distance of the first page, but you could never 'turn' it to reach the second."
He pointed at the void between them.
— "Here, there is nothing. A dense, absolute nothing. And that nothing blocks you. And this… is the weaker version Clara faced. Since then, I've been gradually increasing the density of the layers. What you see now is a far superior version."
— "Between us, the defense has become a conceptual impossibility."
In the distance, Brakk blinked.
— "Wait… did he just say he was on EASY mode against Clara?"
— "No… he just said he was on tutorial mode," Mira corrected.
— "…We're all going to die," Brakk concluded.
Eva's fist, blocked by this hierarchy of realities, seemed doomed.
— "It's over for you," Azrael declared.
Eva stayed still, then exhaled.
And answered:
— "You think so."
In an instant, Azrael was engulfed in a blaze that seemed to ignore the laws of his "Book." Shocked, he staggered back.
— "Oh…"
A streak of fire pierced his stomach violently. Then another. As he was hurled away, Eva rushed at him like a solar tornado, engulfing him in a barrage of devastating flames. Each strike burned something fundamental. Eva pressed on, slamming him to the ground in an apocalyptic crash. She landed, unshaken.
— "You talk too much."
Azrael rose. Slowly. Very slowly. Then he smiled, touched his face, and said:
— "Get ready… we're moving to the next level."
Brakk watched the scene, dismayed.
— "Okay… I've got a question. Why are they still talking?"
— "Because otherwise there'd be no story," Mira replied. "And also because they like hearing themselves talk."
Brakk sighed:
— "I'm going to die because of a cosmic math teacher and a philosophical pyromaniac…"
Bloodweaver: "Bad lobby."
Cyrus, without looking: "Bad universe."
Seth, with a faint smile: "No. Bad destiny."
Chapter 430 — The Sovereign of Oneirism
Azrael wiped a trail of blood from his lip, his smile widening, an unstable gleam flickering in his eyes.
— "Get ready… we're moving to the next level."
Eva held her guard, her flames crackling nervously.
— "You felt it, didn't you? All this time you've been hiding behind technical explanations, but deep down, you got burned."
— "Enough talk," Azrael cut in.
With a mere flick of his finger, an invisible slash tore through the air, cutting everything in its path. Eva leapt sideways, but several more blades descended on her, slicing the fabric of reality like paper.
*What is this technique? How is he doing this without even moving?* she thought, accelerating, transforming into a streak of pure fire to dodge the relentless cuts that followed at insane speed.
Azrael never took his eyes off her.
— "Let's see how you get out of this."
As Eva attempted yet another dodge, Azrael appeared instantly before her. Surprised, she had no time to raise her guard. BAM. A sharp punch struck her face, hurling her back violently. Without letting her breathe, he lunged, driving a knee into her stomach. With a wave of his hand, he conjured a series of compressed layers of space. He hurled her through them, forcing her body to traverse dimensional membranes at a velocity that should have disintegrated any physical being.
Eva groaned in pain, but in a last reflex, she grabbed Azrael's leg before he could retreat and flung him with all her strength against a distortion. Azrael stopped dead in the void. Both fighters rushed at each other again. A streak of fire ripped reality, colliding with a dark violet slash. Their fists clashed in a cacophony like the end of the world.
Eva barely dodged another invisible cut, but Azrael focused his mana into his palm and struck her point-blank in the chest. The shockwave blasted her backward. She spat blood, her vision blurred by pain.
*He's far more dangerous than I imagined… Even without his passive defense, he's giving me hell.*
Suddenly, a spectral arm surged from the void, slamming her into the ground with colossal force.
In the distance, Alaster clenched his teeth, his aura boiling with rage.
— "I can't just stand here doing nothing!"
— "Yet that's exactly what you will do," Cyrus intervened, his presence blocking all escape.
Azrael advanced slowly toward the crater where Eva lay, breath ragged, body battered. He wore that calm, almost demonic smile — the smile of someone no longer playing by the same rules as the rest of creation.
— "To think she believed she had me… just because, by some miracle, she managed to graze me. To think anyone has a chance against the Sovereign of Oneirism… what a lack of realism."
He knelt before her, condescending. While the spectral hand still pinned Eva to the ground, he gave her two mocking taps on the cheek.
— "So then, my dear… who did you think I was?"
Eva growled, trying to summon her last flames, her eyes burning with impotent rage. Azrael raised a finger, amused by her confusion.
— "Don't you wonder where the slashes came from?"
He paused, savoring the moment.
— "In truth, they came from nowhere. Thanks to my ability as Master of Mirage Realities, I have the power to make the true false and the false true. I simply took the back of my mind — a fiction, something false — and made it real. Those slashes were never launched, Eva. They were simply validated as reality the moment I decided."
With a casual wave of his hand, the very structure of the air behind him began to ripple. Atoms seemed to obey a silent command. In the blink of an eye, a majestic, dark throne materialized.
— "This throne doesn't exist," he murmured with a predatory smile. "But I just made it real."
Under Alaster's horrified gaze and the Sanctuary's heavy silence, Azrael sat comfortably upon his seat of lies made truth, observing Eva from above, like one watches an insect trapped.
Chapter 431 — The Weight of Nothingness
Clara rose after Mind's point-blank attack. Despite the impact, she bore only a few superficial scratches on her arms, but her gaze had turned into a glacial electric blue.
— "You tank pretty well, not bad," Mind admitted with a sly smile.
— "Get ready," Clara replied, her blue eyes intensifying. "I'm done playing."
Suddenly, a chilling sensation ran down her back. A blade had pierced her from behind. She spun around sharply, breath caught.
— "I wasn't inattentive…"
— "Yes, you were," Mind cut her off, already standing before her. "You're distracted by these tricks. What a disappointment."
He instantly materialized a scythe wrapped in a dark violet abyssal aura. With a sharp motion, he slashed the air. It wasn't just an attack: space itself groaned under the edge, leaving a gaping tear in the fabric of reality. A black scar hung suspended in the void. Clara dove aside, but even as she dodged, she felt a deep cut mark her chest.
*"Be careful!"* Vespera shouted in her mind. *"He's playing with your perception and senses. What you see is only a fragment of the truth!"*
— "Patch it, Ves. I'll handle the rest."
The wound closed under the glow of azure aura. Clara vanished in a blue streak, charging Mind. Their weapons clashed in a deafening crash that shook the sanctuary — azure sword against abyssal scythe.
Taking advantage of the opening, Nightmare lunged from behind.
— "It worked twice, not three times! Ves, your turn!"
Blue circles appeared in the sky.
— "Chains of Azure Judgment!" Vespera whispered.
Mana links burst forth, wrapping around Nightmare to immobilize him. But before he was fully bound, he hurled his mace:
— "100 million tons!"
The effect was terrifying. The mace was so heavy it instantly created a gravitational well. Space around the weapon bent, folding in on itself like fabric sucked into a black hole. Clara felt a colossal force pulling her toward the impact. The shock was so immense it vitrified reality, turning the air into crystals of void before they exploded.
Propelled by the blast, Clara didn't see Mind coming. His scythe had become a massive hammer, striking her square in the back and sending her crashing to the ground. Mind smiled, but his expression shifted when Clara appeared behind him to cut — only it was an illusion.
Mind reappeared behind her, his scythe reverting to a blade, ready to pierce her. But Vespera reacted:
— "Not this time!"
A circle instantly appeared behind Clara: *"Azure Ray!"*
The beam of energy was so devastating it carved a gaping hole in the fabric of reality. Mind was blasted back, his body smoking, coughing blood.
— "Powerful…" he admitted, as his flesh regenerated at supernatural speed.
Their blades clashed again in a detonation of blue and violet mana. They repelled each other, Mind bracing with his hand, but Clara was already on him. Suddenly, a gigantic hammer split the sky toward her. She raised her hand to block it… but the weapon passed through before vanishing.
— "Illusion," Mind sneered.
Instantly, his sword transformed into a heavy hammer that struck her in the stomach, sending her flying across the Sanctuary.
In the distance, Nightmare stretched out his hand. His mace flew back to him, shattering the azure chains. He gripped his weapon, hair disheveled. Activating his second power: gravity manipulation.
With a gesture, a massive field of attraction formed, pulling Clara toward him mid-flight.
— "Take this… 100 BILLION TONS!"
Clara barely had time to cross her arms, her mana erupting to cover her body in an armor of absolute defense just before the apocalyptic impact.
BOOM.
Chapter 432 — The Infarction of Worlds
The impact of 100 billion tons shook the very foundations of the Sanctuary. Nightmare's blast was so violent that the walls groaned, but Clara emerged from the smoke and rubble. Though her skin was scorched and streaked with glowing azure scratches, her gaze was fiercer than ever. She wiped a trickle of blood from her lip and pointed at Nightmare.
— "You're really starting to piss me off, giant," she spat. "I'll dismantle you first."
Mister Mind let out a dry, almost mechanical laugh — a chilling sneer that seemed to echo in the void.
— "The fight is already over, 'Anomaly.' You just don't know it yet."
With a slow, almost theatrical gesture, he lifted his mask. For the first time, his right eye was exposed: a pupil unlike anything human, a fractal lens where infinite lines of code seemed to scroll, an artificial and absolute gleam.
— "DON'T LOOK AT IT!" Vespera screamed in Clara's mind.
Too late. Eye contact was made. Mind unleashed a sensory and cognitive overload of apocalyptic magnitude. It wasn't a mere image, but a raw torrent of terabytes and exabytes of contradictory data: genealogies of dead gods, calculations of stellar trajectories, memories of vanished worlds, and billions of useless variables.
Reality around Clara seemed to *glitch*. The sky doubled, sounds became screaming colors. Her brain, saturated by this colossal stream that could erase entire worlds, began to fry. Dark blood poured from her eyes and ears. She froze, petrified, pupils dilated, her mind trapped in an infinite processing loop. She was nothing more than a statue of flesh shipwrecked in an ocean of data.
— "Mastering energy is one thing," Mind murmured as he adjusted his mask. "But no one survives absolute truth. Nothing resists my gaze; my targets end up erased from the fabric of existence. You're resilient… perhaps I should have made you download the entirety of the Akashic Records, just to see, hehehe."
Meanwhile, Alaster was nothing but a streak of white light, tearing through the Sanctuary floor to reach Eva. She was pinned to the ground by a giant spectral hand. Azrael, seated on his throne of mirages, watched her with sovereign contempt.
— "Why bother? You don't stand a chance against the Dreamweaver, little thing."
Alaster leapt, but his charge was stopped cold by Cyrus, whose mechanical arms crackled.
— "Where do you think you're going, insect?"
— "Get out of my way, Root!" Alaster roared. "You struck my wife, now you're going after my student… You think I'll just stand here? I don't have time to waste on a machine."
— "Try to get past me!" Cyrus shot back with a provocative smile. "If those two finish, I'll be glad to annihilate you."
— "Keep talking, we'll see who's left standing," Alaster growled.
Suddenly, the clash between Alaster's light and Cyrus's technology was interrupted. An unbearable atmospheric pressure fell upon the hall. An aura so black and dense it seemed to devour oxygen and smother the world engulfed the battlefield. A shiver of pure terror coursed through Alaster, Eva, and Elena.
The one who had slain the Angel of Death to take his place advanced slowly. Samael. The Venom of God.
He applauded with cruel irony, congratulating his sons in a cold voice. His face, frozen in eternal youth without a wrinkle since he had stolen Death's essence, expressed only divine coldness. He fixed his gaze on Elena, the vengeful spirit screaming her hatred.
— "Well done, my children. Rest. I'll handle the rest."
He turned to her:
— "Elena… I was merciful. I gave you a peaceful death despite the crime you committed against my blood. You alone are responsible for the infirmity of our first son. And yet, you return to haunt me? I should have erased your soul from the very first day."
Elena, driven by spectral rage, pointed a trembling finger at him.
— "If our son is like this, it's your fault! It's God's justice! You are cursed, Samael! Your heart is so dark that life withered in me by your mere presence! You are no father, you are a plague!"
Samael burst into mad, thunderous laughter that made the heavens tremble.
— "God? Justice? Look at me, Elena. Millennia pass and I do not age. I have never seen the shadow of punishment. If God wanted to punish me, He would have sent someone more competent than a dead woman and a lost girl."
He raised his hand, the Venom of God beginning to flow from his fingers, ready to erase Elena's spirit.
— "I'll start with you."
— "Father, don't do this," Seth suddenly intervened, his voice calm but firm.
Samael froze, turning a murderous gaze toward his son.
— "You, be silent. Don't think I haven't seen your little scheme. You rigged the probabilities and increased your mother's survival chances to save this woman. You lured Clara here to create a diversion. You betrayed your own blood for an obsolete sentiment. Don't worry… I'll deal with you after I've cleaned up these nuisances."