'-Heliopolis.'
As Aten whispered the name of his True Form, he unleashed a state where his godhood, the divine body and divine Aura became one true form. An explosion of pressure and radiance incinerated the sky, flaring with an intensity no mortal had ever witnessed before, painting the heavens of Heliopolis entirely gold.
Yet, as if unfazed, Jay's figure vanished from Aten's sight of pure golden light without a moment's delay. The supreme god's eyes flickered as he lost track of Jay's position. One thing Aten realized while Jay in this state of Absolute Nonexistence was-
'...He can completely hide his presence even while inside my realm,' Aten thought. 'This power… is it Absolute Erasure, or something else entirely?'
Aten had never seen such power. Even the Divine Sun, once hailed as one of the strongest innate divine attributes, seemed insignificant compared to whatever Jay wielded.
'Now that I cannot see a future where he exists, I should be...'
Before Aten could finish the thought, a blast that bypassed the very concept of resistance in the air struck from behind, erasing everything in its path into nonexistence. However, no matter how fast Jay's attack was, nothing surpassed the speed of light.
SHING
Aten, now one with his own power the Divine Sun, vanished at the precise moment before the attack could unmake his whole existence.
But Jay did not stop.
CLIC-
Jay casually moved Habakiri as its blade enveloped in the black flame.
"Cleave."
SHIIING
FWUOOOM
Even an attack that bypassed space and distance failed to catch light. Aten simply turned into light itself and evaded it as if he was teleporting freely across the battlefield.
Though, Jay remained unfazed. He already knew that fighting one of the strongest gods in existence would not be easy. Aten was an entity even Alichino could not influence, which meant he stood far above both Sirzechs and Ajuka, who required their own techniques just to cancel and override Alichino's power of desire.
While Aten simply unaffected by it.
Jay then surged upward, launching himself hundreds of meters into the sky like a streak of black tearing through the heavens.
Aten did not even flinched as he calmly raised his hand, his cold gaze fixed on the incoming attack.
"Ennead Khepesh."
SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING SHIN-
Hundreds of gigantic, golden, translucent blades and slashes of the Divine Sun, each as large as a building, blasted toward Jay violently like a gust of winds. Yet, as if unfazed, he simply pushed forward. Every time the superheated divine energy touched the Absolute Nonexistence enveloping his body, it vanished instantly, as if a harmless toy knife had struck an impenetrable defense.
Jay did not slow down as he surged straight toward Aten.
And just a few meters away from reaching him, suddenly-
SHU-
Aten's eyes widened as Jay suddenly vanished. Before he could even process it, a black figure was already at his side, floating in the air. Jay stood in a relaxed posture, a pure black silhouette, his left finger pointed at Aten's head.
But before Aten could react, Jay whispered, his finger condensed with Absolute Nonexistence.
"Severance."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++!!!
A concentrated blast, completely silent in its existence, shot forward at incredible speed and instantly annihilate the head of the Supreme God Aten into void. Jay's eyes reflecting the headless body of the Supreme God as he prepared for another attack.
'Is it finished...' Jay thought. He knew Aten had been using the golden sun on his forehead to anchor his existence after some observations. Now that his head was gone-
60 seconds.
'He should not have survived that attack,' Jay thought. He did not have much time left.
And as he prepared to finish Aten with a follow-up strike of Nonexistence, suddenly-
FRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUW
Hundreds of blinding lights erupted across the sky. And before Jay could completely destroy Aten's body, the golden Sun construct behind him moved. The Eye, formed from pure Divine Aura, magically moved and stared directly at Jay.
"Don't tell me-"
Jay muttered, cut off mid-sentence as the sun construct and the Eye instantly teleported into one of the countless lights filling the sky. He scanned his surroundings, searching for Aten within the sea of radiance, a brilliance so intense that even Avesta could not penetrate it.
'Tsk... Did the catalyst change again? How does he keep getting away with this?' Jay thought.
And almost immediately, hundreds of sun spheres formed around him from the sky, as if preparing to obliterate him completely.
Jay knew he could not afford to wait any longer.
He had to end this fight now.
As hundreds of Sun Spheres blasted toward him, dozens of streaks of light shaped like Aten's silhouette also rushed in from all directions, the Supreme God attempting to completely evade him and play the waiting game.
Jay did not move. He allowed every attack to collide with him directly.
And-
SHUUUUU-
The blasts, the silhouettes, the entirety of their assault everything turned into Absolute Nonexistence in an instance.
But it served a purpose for Aten.
45 seconds.
After spending a few moments trying to locate Aten, Jay's eyes flared as his body vanished.
Meanwhile, hundreds of meters away, Aten tried to buy time, searching for a way to think, recover, and of course bypass Jay's Absolute Nonexistence. Suddenly, he felt a tremendous force tearing through the countless lights scattered across the sky, bulldozing straight toward him.
"Tsk." Aten clicked his tongue as his body flickered, attempting to phase out of Jay's path and disappear.
But the young human raised his hand as a burst of black flame erupted instantly around Aten, isolating his movement in the sky. As the Supreme God attempted to teleport, an ancient Egyptian magic circle formed beneath his feet, slowly enveloping him in a golden portal.
Yet Jay simply lifted his hand as Avesta igniting in pure black.
KRIIII-KLINK
"What...? Are you kidding me..."
Aten's eyes widened as his spatial magic cracked and shattered into pieces. As he struggled to find another way to survive the incoming attack, the black flames steadily closed the space between them.
'Even a world-destroying attack would be useless if he is completely immune to it. This form… this absolute defense… it surpasses even my Eye of Ra, my omniscience.'
The original power he had attained upon ascending to godhood, the embodiment of Absolute Defense itself as it allowed him to perceive and experience past, present, and future simultaneously. Making him almost invincible in battle.
The one power that was truly his. His entire divinity.
Also the curse-
'But this thing... It's almost like True Invincibility.'
Aten then placed his hand on his chest. And instantly, the Solar construct and the Eye behind him vanished, causing Jay's brows to furrow.
But he didn't wait for an explanation, and with a single swing of his hand-
"Severance."
++++++++!!
Jay whispered, and Aten's body, or what Jay now considered nothing more than a discarded vessel, was erased into Nonexistence, unmade entirely from the past, present or future. Anything.
Yet after letting his enemy escape once again, Jay did not seem angered. He simply looked around, searching for Aten's true presence as the black flames that had tried to engulf the god slowly faded from the horizon.
'So that's the catalyst. The Sun and Eye construct behind him… And as long as I destroy that, he will not be able to restore himself or transfer his entire existence… which means I can kill him,' Jay thought.
'But making the catalyst physical like that… is it a drawback of turning his body into pure Divine Aura, or a limitation of his True Divine Form in general?... No. I doubt he ever expected anything could destroy it...'
Not just anyone possessed a power that can literally turn anything into Nonexistence.
30 seconds.
The last 30 seconds. Jay felt his spirit draining rapidly. Even now, he could feel it in his chest. He had already used everything he had to offer. But now that his target was clear-
Jay launched himself toward the golden constructs, where Aten's body began to reform instantly from the radiance of the Divine Sun.
Seeing Jay approaching, Aten created three clones of himself, each formed from pure Divine Aura.
But-
Jay dove from the sky without hesitation as the three figures rushed toward him.
He simply whispered.
"Severance."
+++!! +++!! +++!!
Three streaks flashed from his hand, passing through them in an instant and turning them into nothingness.
Jay pressed forward toward Aten, Habakiri trailing black flames behind it, forming a streak like a black shooting star ready to cleave him in two.
"Ennea-"
Aten was cut off.
Jay's figure vanished and reappeared directly in front of him, catching him completely off guard. And with a slight movement of his hand, their eyes met for a brief moment in the sky, both radiating pure aura.
'Spatial magic again!?' Aten cursed inwardly, unable to comprehend how Jay could use such techniques while wielding absolute erasure. And why aren't their concept nullify each other entirely.
But his thoughts never fully formed as Jay swung his heaven-severing blade forward, a crescent of black like a falling moon carving through the air as he whispered,
"Absolute Nonexistence-"
Aten's body flared with golden light, and he vanished at the speed of light, reappearing hundreds of meters away in an instant.
But Jay's gaze never left him as he completed the strike.
'It's pointless...'
And he swung.
SHIIIIING
"-World Slasher."
Aten stood still, ready to dodge as ripples in space began to form across his body. But instead-
CRACK
A ripple in the space cracked behind him.
"No..." Denial crept into the god's voice as he muttered.
And just like that-
++++
The void-like ripple of the Heaven-Severing slash, carrying Absolute Nonexistence within it, engulfed the golden construct behind Aten and erased it completely, turning it into Nonexistence in an instant.
Aten's eyes widened as realization set in.
Jay had never aimed for him.
The target was his divine essence, the Sun and Eye construct of his True Divine Form. The manifestation of his Divine Eyes, something that should have been impossible to destroy.
'Not even Shiva's All-Destruction, nor I as its owner, should be able to destroy a divine essence… That is why a god cannot truly die. As long as their Divine Essence is revered, believed in, and preserved, they will eventually be reborn through the process of divinity. That is how it should be…' Aten thought.
'But...'
And now, he was losing it.
His omniscience. His ability to shift his existence.
Simply gone.
And the only thing sustained his life right now is Heliopolis.
Like a blind man, Aten moved. He could no longer afford to take even a single hit from Jay's Absolute power.
But Jay gave him no time to think as he was already there, beside the Supreme God that lost his divinity.
15 seconds.
"Severance."
+++
A void tore through the air, stretching hundreds of meters as it split reality itself. Aten barely dodged it. He could not afford to be hit now. All he had left was his Divine Sun and the Golden Throne. He could no longer freely shift his existence, even if he could still reconstruct a physical form using the Divine Sun and the Divine Energy, Heliopolis provided.
"Ugh!" Aten grunted. Uncertainty flooded his heart, like a man who had suddenly lost his sight and did not know where to turn.
His heart began to race, something he had never felt before. Everything had always unfolded exactly as he foresaw.
But now, in this battle-
Jay sent another slash forward.
SHIIIING
Aten dodged.
10 seconds.
Jay appeared behind him again. And with a casual motion, he swung Habakiri, aiming to cleave Aten in two.
SHIIING
Aten easily dodged the incoming attack to the side.
But it was exactly as Jay intended.
And with a swift motion of his left hand, Jay extended his arm and pointed his finger directly at Aten.
Aten widened his eyes as he screamed in his mind.
'I can't dodge!'
His body tried to shift and ignite to escape, but his thoughts were cut off by a cold whisper echoing through the sky.
"Severance!"
++++++++
Aten's hand was instantly unmade as the attack completely blast it off into void. He had shifted his body just in time to avoid complete destruction, but he clenched his teeth as he felt the permanent loss of his right arm.
5 seconds.
Jay did not stop. He moved again, pointing toward Aten as the supreme god desperately tried to create distance between them. In that fleeting moment, Aten glanced toward the ground-
"Severance!"
++++
4 seconds.
The blast of pure Absolute Nonexistence struck nothing but empty air as Aten had already vanished from the sky in a golden flash.
But-
Far from the sky.
A golden figure appeared on the ground below. Aten stood there, staring upward, his expression conflicted. His mind raced with countless thoughts, thinking that he had buying himself some time, until suddenly-
His eyes widened.
A ripple in space caught him completely off guard.
'Teleportation… but how is he able to-'
Aten stopped mid-thought as he looked at his permanently severed right hand after being struck by Jay's power, something he would be able to sense easily.
3 seconds.
And there, reflected in his golden eyes, was Jay.
He had already appeared on the sandy dunes. The sand around him turned into void, black nothingness spreading with each step as he advanced, raising his black blade to cleave Aten in two.
But Aten won't let him completely annihilated just like that as he moved back, trying to evade-
SHIIING
2 seconds.
A trace of Absolute Nonexistence tore through his divine aura, shredding it apart. Aten narrowly avoided the slash, but before he could regain his footing-
Jay raised his hand again, pointing his finger like a pistol as a concentrated void of Absolute Nonexistence gathered at its tip.
Seeing this, Aten, driven by desperation, raised his remaining hand. A Sun Sphere formed within his palm, blazing with divine radiance.
And as silence engulfed the battlefield-
1 second.
Light and darkness collided, consuming one another.
"Ennead!"
"Severance!"
SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNG
++++
But light was faster.
0 seconds.
Jay coughed blood before his attack could land as he completely drained his capacity of Absolute Nonexistence. He had poured everything into that final Severance, but before it could leave his finger, all of his Absolute Nonexistence dissipated instantly. And in a flash of golden light, his body faltered from exhaustion-
SPLURTTTTTTT
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A blinding explosion of light engulfed the entire battlefield.
And for a moment, nothing moved as the dust slowly settled. It was a clash between two godlike powers, between two absolute defenses, yet also a battle of resolve.
As the haze cleared, Jay could be seen standing as his blood splattering onto the ground. A gaping wound had nearly consumed half his body. His left arm, along with much of his chest and abdomen, had been obliterated by the Divine Sun. Yet he remained standing and his right hand still gripping Habakiri.
In the distance, Aten was no better. He had suffered similar damage, now completely limbless, both of his arms erased from existence. Even so, his divine body sustained him. There was no mortal blood within him. Divinity functioned through Divine Aura, and although Jay had destroyed his divine essence, Aten's status as the chief god of Ancient Egypt allowed him to persist, as his life sustained by the Divine Aura of Heliopolis.
But Aten simply stared at the young man, the strongest being he had ever encountered.
His expression was conflicted.
'Even with all that power… he is still human. Body and soul,' Aten thought.
In a world where many became monsters in pursuit of power, this human, despite wielding monstrous power unlike anything he had ever seen, still clung to the most fragile part of himself.
Aten did not move to finish him. He only stood there, watching as neither of them spoke.
For Jay, it felt like the end.
The bleeding was too severe for his mortal body. The burning pain alone felt enough to kill him, even if the blood loss did not.
He could no longer nullify the Divine Sun's anti-regeneration. His spirit of Absolute Nonexistence was completely drained after sustaining Ayin for over a minute.
Now, he simply stood there, waiting for an impending death as regret filling his heart.
It was not regret over his unfulfilled creed, nor over dying in a foreign land against one of the strongest gods.
In this final moment, what weighed on him most was something else entirely.
A regret that-
He could not be with her.
"Lavi…" Jay muttered as Habakiri slowly slipped from his grasp and fell onto the sand.
He should have proposed to her
Maybe… just maybe,
He could have abandoned everything and built a family, just like she said.
As Jay closed his eyes, accepting his death full with regret, he suddenly felt two presences.
And immediately, a familiar scent reached him. A ripple in space formed, and within his fading consciousness, a familiar face came into view.
"Illya-kun! No! Stay with me, I will heal you!"
A voice he knew, filled with sorrow.
Jay lowered his gaze, his dark hazel eyes meeting the owner of that voice. Lavinia was there, the Ice Princess desperately trying to heal his body. But as expected, it was futile. Wounds inflicted by the Divine Sun could not be healed unless Jay used Absolute Nonexistence to nullify the divine law governing them.
"No! Why? Why can't it be healed? Damn it!" Lavinia cried, tears streaming down her face.
Jay gave a faint smile and wrapped his remaining hand around her, pulling her into an embrace.
"It's okay, Lavi. These wounds can't be healed by anything. I'm just glad you're here before i…" he said softly.
"No… no, I won't let you die!" she said, cutting him off as her mind racing for a solution.
Jay felt his consciousness slipping away.
Then suddenly-
"That book! Give me that book, Illya-kun! Solomon said it can rewind time. Then it should be able to rewind your body too!" Lavinia said urgently.
Jay fell silence for moment.
And understanding what she meant, Jay then reached slowly into a spatial ripple and pulled out a book. It was blue, with an otherworldly cover, radiating a strange spiritual energy.
"You… this?," Jay said faintly, his body starting to give out beneath him.
Lavinia nodded, tears dripping down her cheeks, yet her eyes were filled with determination as they met Jay's faint gaze, which could close at any moment.
"Let's go to the Temple of Time…"
"-The Ars Paulina."