Eric had the smile of an insane person as he maintained his gaze in the Pseudo-Hypernova's beast eyes. Its arms had already started to shake; it tried to get its left arm out of Eric's chest, but Eric caught it firmly, not letting the beast escape. Looking at him with the face of a winner.
If the beast could think, it would probably be thinking, "What a crazy person!"
The silence inside the Nine-Layered Abyss had always been absolute — a place so still that even breath felt like an intrusion. Not once, in all the violence that had torn through it tonight, had the wind ever truly stirred there.
It stirred now.
A low groan rippled through the dark, deep and wrong, like the layer itself had felt something tear inside it. Every shadow beast froze mid-motion — claws raised, jaws open, wings spread — all of them locked in place, eyes fixed on the single point where the singularity had vanished.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then everything did.
Gravity buckled inward all at once, a violent, silent collapse, and the darkness around that single point folded in on itself like paper crushed in a fist. The air screamed as it was torn from the space around it, rushing inward in a roar that hadn't existed a second before and now consumed everything.
Eric felt it before he understood it.
The pull hit his body like a wall — not pushing, pulling, or dragging him forward inch by inch, no matter how hard he fought it. Blood lifted off his torn chest in floating beads before being yanked sideways into the dark. Debris, corpses, fragments of dead shadow beasts, entire chunks of black water torn straight up out of the ocean — all of it streaming toward the same vanishing point, faster with every passing second.
The point at the center had no light. No color. No edge he could find.
It simply took.
And it was growing.
Black and purple sparks violently intensified around the singularity. Then, like a tsunami breaking through a dam, it erupted with insatiable hunger.
The tiny point of darkness swelled rapidly, transforming into a true black hole.
The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast roared in primal terror. It violently ripped its arm out of Eric's chest, desperate to escape the growing gravitational pull. But Eric, despite the horrific wound gushing blood, refused to let it go so easily.
Gravity Press! Repulsion Charge!
He unleashed everything he had left, dragging the massive Beast backward inch by inch toward the devouring maw. Its instincts screamed louder than its roars. Flesh tore from its body in long strips, and bones creaked and cracked under the crushing gravity. The Beast wailed in agony as parts of its corrupted form were violently peeled away.
With a final, desperate surge, it dissolved into a pool of black liquid and fled into the depths of the Nine-Layered Abyss.
Even at its current strength, Event Horizon was not yet a true Hypernova-level technique. It held the potential to reach that terrifying realm, but its current power was still within the upper limits of a peak Lysi Nova ability. Its true deadliness came from how unpredictably it could grow depending on the environment and how long it was allowed to feed.
And right now, it was feeding voraciously.
The black hole expanded with terrifying speed, generating a massive gravitational field. Shadow beasts wailed in panic as they were helplessly dragged toward it, their bodies compressing and disintegrating before being swallowed whole. No matter how much it consumed, the singularity only grew larger, more ravenous.
Holes began tearing open across the Nine-Layered Abyss as the domain itself started collapsing. The Will desperately tried to patch the damage with floods of black liquid and light, but the black hole devoured even those reinforcements.
Eric's breathing was ragged, blood pouring freely from the gaping wound in his right chest. His vision had turned a deep, hazy blue at the edges, and the corruption was spreading faster than ever across his body.
"Escape!" he shouted hoarsely toward the Angel Spirit, his voice strained but firm.
Eric's body slowly stopped going towards the black hole.
He was an Aura user of the Energy Pathway. This technique was also made by him, so he was immune to it temporarily, but it won't be long before he also starts to get affected by it.
Time was the crucial subject here.
...
Outside the battlefield, the will floated silently in the air, gazing down at the massive cubical domain of the Nine-Layered Abyss. Lightning flashed across the dark sky, momentarily illuminating its cold, ethereal figure.
"I can no longer sense them."
The connection had been severed. Even its Devil's Eyes had been abandoned earlier after the Angel Spirit used a counter-technique that harmed it through the link. Now, mere seconds after the Abyss had been deployed, all observation had gone dark.
"Concealment…" the Will muttered, its voice laced with irritation. This particular ability of the Hypernova Angel Spirit had been a persistent thorn in its side.
Just then, the Pseudo-Hypernova Beast emerged from a pool of black liquid behind it. The will didn't even glance back. Its focus remained on the domain—until a golden beam of light suddenly burst out from within the Abyss.
Its eyes widened in genuine shock for the first time in this entire battle.
The will turned its full attention toward the collapsing domain. Inside, black and purple sparks raged violently as the singularity rapidly expanded into a true black hole. It devoured everything in its path — the black liquid of the Abyss, the earth, trees, beasts, energy, and even space itself.
A rare look of amazement crossed the will's ancient face.
"This technique… is merely at the peak of Lysi Nova, yet it possesses the potential to reach Hypernova level given enough time and conditions. Impressive."
It was so comprehensive that even a Hypernova could comprehend and take inspiration from.
The black hole continued to grow at an alarming rate, its gravitational field becoming increasingly terrifying. Just before the entire battlefield could be consumed, the Will flicked its wrist and dropped three droplets of pitch-black blood onto the singularity, attempting to corrupt and destabilize it.
Instead, the black hole absorbed the corruption and grew even stronger.
Shock flashed across Will's face once again. It quickly redirected more corrupted blood into the domain, trying to overwhelm the singularity through brute force. The Abyss and the black hole clashed violently, cracks spreading across both.
For a moment, the two forces reached a stalemate.
Then the black hole began devouring the surrounding winds, gravity, and ambient energy, slowly gaining the upper hand. The Nine-Layered Abyss started to shatter.
From within the chaos, Eric emerged, his lower body still partially inside the raging singularity. Blood poured from the massive wound in his chest, yet he looked up at the Will with a faint, defiant smile.
Their gazes met across the collapsing battlefield.
"To think a junior could modify the technique mid-battle to devour corruption as well," the Will thought, admiration stirring in its ancient consciousness. "His understanding of the Energy Pathway is truly not shallow."
The Nine-Layered Abyss was a genuine Hypernova-level technique, but the Will had awakened from a long slumber. Many of its charms and relics had decayed, and its current Aura reserves were limited. It could not display the technique's full power.
On the other hand, Event Horizon was "only" a peak Lysi Nova technique — yet its performance was extraordinary. If Eric ever stepped into the Hypernova rank, who knew how terrifying this ability could become?
A trace of pity flickered in the will's eyes.
"But it is a shame… your end will still come here."
Eric took a note of the outside situation as he looked back at the black hole; the stronger it became, the more Eric could feel it affecting him, too. He had modified the technique just now to make it able to be more resistant to corruption. Eric hadn't known about the exact type of corruption the will was using, its workings, weaknesses, and how to counter it, but the more he fought, the more he understood. The Angel Spirit also gave him many insights, making the modification possible.
He found that many of the light pathway charms he had found were highly effective in countering this type of corruption.
He had also started to conceptualize another technique that would target the corruption and heal him from it.
But it had also compromised the time when it would start affecting Eric too. Eric's expression was dark as he entered the black hole before starting to use Natural Drew, Gravitational Reconstruction, and meditating to recover his Meditation Aura.
Slowly, his Aura reserves started to go up. He had no Aura stones left; he could only rely on Natural Drew to recover his Aura. His Meditation Aura also started to go up as he healed the gaping hole in his chest.
The black hole had absorbed a lot of natural Aura and energies to grow to such a size and was continuing to expand, giving Eric an ideal condition to recuperate.
The will hadn't stopped moving after a small setback; it immediately took the pseudo-Hypernova Beast and went to assault the Angel Spirit.
The Angel Spirit had been flying near the Black hole since the start, not going too far. Adrian looked back at the black hole, his eyes shining with admiration. Whenever he thought that Eric had nothing more to surprise him with, he was always proved wrong.
"I wonder when I will be able to reach his level."
The beast and the will surrounded him just then as a small fight immediately started; the will coordinated the beast and made it block the Angel spirit from leaving. The will make a few but effective moves, always targeting Adrian, making the Angel Spirit reach a passive state. It could only defend and take a beating; even without any shadow beasts, its wisdom was enough.
Just as the Angel Spirit was getting pressured, the black hole expanded again as it reached the clouds, absorbing the natural Aura, the clouds, and even the space around it.
Cracks formed in the air and darkness as Void Creatures started to appear as they rushed in and swarmed the Angel Spirit, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast, and the will. They were unaffected by the black hole.
"It seems that the luck of that young boy is quite strong." The will had been observing Adrian ever since he entered the layer; he had great talent and potential, but also a huge amount of innate luck.
Whenever something endangered his life, something coincidental would happen and save him. This situation just now was another scene like that. Adrian was a walker of the Apocalypse Pathway, having stronger luck than most walkers, but it shouldn't be this strong to affect two hypernova-level existences and an entire layer.
The void creatures travelled between the cracks in space and targeted the will and the beast, giving the Angel spirit a chance to escape, but it was quickly stopped by a horde of Void Creatures.
Just then, Eric shot out of the black hole. He used the gravitational field around the black hole, storing a huge amount of gravity in his body as he charged towards the horde of Void Creatures.
He had been fully healed except for the corruption on his body.
Repulsion charge!
Gravity Press!
Infinite Repulsion!
He used all kinds of techniques, while simultaneously using Natural Drew, he didn't need to put much focus on it and only used it for a few seconds, but due to the dense amount of energies and Natural Aura around him, the recovery was very fast.
The fighting soon reached above the clouds, the black light of the black moon illuminated the sky, but even its surface had started to form cracks due to
The black hole continued to expand and roar like a dragon. The will understand that if it were to be left unattended, then it would become a huge obstacle for it and the beast.
It gave its command as the pseudo-Hypernova Beast tore through the horde of Void Creatures and reached Eric's group. The Angel Spirit got in its way, but it quickly punched him apart.
Repulsion Charge!
Eric used Repulsion Charge but was stopped by a thick layer of black liquid.
Abyssal Baptism.
Eric looked at the will before charging downwards, but was stopped by a phantom ability, Void Creature.
Eric charged right before getting engulfed by a horde of Lysi Nova shadow beasts that had been formed by the will, slowing down its speed. He had been very hard to catch, but the will had learned Eric's attack patterns and the major weaknesses of Repulsion Charge, using the situation and its wisdom to stop its charge.
The Angel Spirit and Adrian had also started to be obstructed and continued getting assaulted.
The black hole continued expanding, and the lightning rumbled as if it were its last cry before being engulfed.
The will charge and summon a massive executioner's blade. It delayed for a second, allowing Eric to understand the situation. A small gap appeared in the horde of Shadow beasts as Eric gritted his teeth and charged to save Adrian and the Angel Spirit.
This was an open trap, but one where he had to let himself get taken away.
As Eric pushed them away, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast appeared and grabbed his neck, charging towards the black hole.
Eric had already started to get affected by the black hole. It wanted to get rid of it, but it wanted to get rid of Eric first, deciding to sacrifice the Pseudo-Hypernova Beast.
This might be the biggest honour of his life.
"Eric!" Adrian screamed, tears formed in his eyes again, but the Angel Spirit kept escaping, making him unable to see Eric anymore. In the last moment, Adrian noticed Eric's small smile.
Eric used all his strength but was unable to get the beast off his body. The beast was scared of dying, but seeing Eric struggle, it felt that its death was worth it.
They get pulled in by the black hole as the skin starts to peel off their body, making them feel immense pain, before their flesh starts to get torn apart, and their bones creak.
Just as Eric was about to die. The Imperator's cross activated!
All of the sixty percent of good deeds he had saved transformed into a white light before falling on Eric's body, stopping his injuries.
Eric's eyes blinked twice as he understood which blessing it was.
Blessing of Uniqueness.
This blessing allowed the uniqueness of the user's pathway to become stronger, allowing Eric to become immune to the black hole. He took his chance and used repulsion charge to escape while using Natural Drew to recover his Aura and heal.
The beast grabbed his leg, trying to pull him back in, causing corruption to spread on his left foot, but Eric looked behind coldly as a mouthful of blood came out of his mouth.
He kicked and made the beast get sucked into the black hole as he came out, making the will shocked.
Eric was quickly joined by the Angel Spirit and Adrian as they flew far away, the will took the shadow beasts and entered the black hole to rescue the pseudo-Hypernova level beast.
He quickly reached the singularity where the beast was about to die as it used a huge amount of Aura to activate a technique; the skeleton in the ancient temple's bone marrow was all used.
Rank 3 Darkness Pathway Sealing Aura Technique - Abyssal Seal!
A huge amount of white and black strings appeared outside the black hole and pierced the singularity.
Slowly, the black hole started to weaken, and the will's expression relaxed before the black hole struggled again.
The Will exhaled in relief as only the brown core singularity remained.
At that moment, far away in the central region, Eric smiled under the protection of the Angel Spirit.
His trap had worked.
He triggered the self-destruction of the formation within his Domain of Emotions. A mouthful of blood escaped his lips.
Click.
The pseudo-Hypernova Beast froze.
The singularity…
wasn't disappearing.
Tiny cracks spread across its surface.
Then another click echoed.
And another.
The Will's expression changed drastically as a sharp clicking sound rang out. Its eyes met Eric's across the distance, filled with a mix of admiration and cold disdain.
"So this was your real trap."
Eric smiled simply.
"You should have run."
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!
A cataclysmic explosion lit up the entire layer. The second stage of Event Horizon detonated with the force of a nuclear blast, devastating the southern region.
Eric stared at the brilliant light with a faint smile on his bloodied face.