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Her body began releasing light, pure, sourceless, limitless light.
It wan not flame, sunlight, nor heat, but something far deeper. It was a presence that did not belong to any known form of energy that could be measured or contained.
It was the first presence within the Existential Shell, a light that existed before energy, before existence and non-existence, before creation and destruction, before even the foundations of divinity.
"Lumen Ex Nihilo."
She spoke the name quietly, as the star on her forehead radiated with that same boundless light.
Kenos looked up, disbelief breaking through his composure.
"It can't be…"
"Surrender now?"
She said, a faint edge in her voice before it hardened.
"No. This is war. There's no room for mercy."
With her eyes still closed and her golden hair drifting weightlessly, Belenos stood wrapped in a blinding, colourless light that washed over everything around her.
She raised her hand, folding her last two fingers while the others remained upright, her gesture steady as the light continued to gather around her.
And from that brilliance, the purest light converged, shaping itself into a spear that shimmered with transcendence.
Amid the Khaos Vantablack, where even Existence was denied, Belenos stood as an unwavering Presence, an illumination beyond Anti-Existence itself.
She held the spear in front of her and she swung it once, releasing an arc of pure Light. Kenos raised his hands to counter but this was beyond his strength and it cut off his arm cleanly.
"Zero Entropy Field."
His body emitted a field where cause, effect, motion and E
Energy ceased to exist despite Khaos Vantablack's activation.
"You cannot activate such with your Ultimate in place."
Belenos noted calmly, looking down on him with closed eyes.
He grit his teeth and attacked again.
"Uname the World."
"Are you really alright? There's no reality here to reject, so why deploy an Anti-Reality Art?"
Belenos pointed it out calmly, and the remark only deepened Kenos's frustration.
"I guess I'm losing it… how about this?"
He spoke just as evenly, though something in his tone had shifted.
Belenos glanced to her left as an armed silhouette formed out of nothing and charged straight at him. It struck, followed through with a series of attacks, yet none of it mattered, every movement falling short as if it never truly connected.
She turned her head to the right, where another silhouette appeared, different from the first, sharper, more precise. This one landed a clean blow, the impact clear for a brief moment, before its form faltered and collapsed instantly.
The first silhouette, which had remained on standby, crumbled in the same way, unable to hold itself together any longer.
"I see… I see. You're close to your truest form, and because of that, you don't exist. Nothing can reach you, because to do so, they must first acknowledge your presence, and the moment they do, they begin to collapse into unreality themselves.
Observers lose their minds, forgetting who they are and what they were doing before they fall apart. Dangerous… but I am The Presence Above All."
"You're really getting on my nerves."
"O Supreme Mother of Gods, the First Ethereal Light, whose breath stirred the Sea of Stillness..."
"Hey, what are you..."
Kenos caught on immediately. Khaos Vantablack isn't dominant yet, so invoking a higher power might turn the table.
He moved at once, launching forward to stop her before she could finish.
"Source of Light, I call upon Thy Name in reverence and in righteousness.
Thou, who didst light the path when even thought was yet unborn, who didst carve the first breath into the formless dawn.
Thy glow is neither fire, nor light, nor soul, but the remembrance of the Presence before Existence knew itself.
By Thy Name, I rend the silence of Nothing asunder."
As she chanted, her body began to release a pure, colourless light, as though something beyond her was answering.
"I won't let you..."
Kenos pressed forward, void weaponry forming around him, blades and constructs of darkness gathering as he closed the distance.
"Let Thy glory pass through me, and let the world remember the Light that was before Light… descend."
She paused, opening her eyes, now completely white, and looked at him one last time.
"…Ethereal Radiance."
What followed was not light. It was what remained when both light and darkness were stripped away, a White Void that stood before all dualities.
It did not explode; it spread outwards instantly, leaving no distance to cross, painting the Outer Space whole in a blink.
Kenos halted mid-air, his movement breaking as though he had forgotten what he was doing. The void weaponry around him began to unravel, along with Khaos Vantablack itself.
This was not an attack meant to destroy the void, but to return everything to a state before existence had taken hold. Khaos Vantablack existed before existence, yet this force came even earlier than that, overriding it completely.
Kenos clenched his fist, but it began to crumble, fading from his grasp.
"What happens to me after this?"
He asked quietly.
"I'll be forgotten like always… won't I?"
Even as a Dark Star, he had never truly existed in the minds of the Stars, remembered only by the Omnis and his fellow Dark Nebula. He was there, yet never truly acknowledged.
"I could have ended you, but I didn't. I could have purified you, but I chose not to. The Anti-Being, Kenos, will be terminated… but I didn't erase the Absence."
His leg gave way as it crumbled, forcing him off balance.
"W… what did you do then? Turn me into some sainted god?"
Belenos held his gaze for a moment, then shook her head.
"It was integrated. Absence became part of Presence. Kenos exists, and you are known."
He went quiet, the weight of it settling in, before finally asking,
"Why? After everything we've done…"
"His Grace's order."
She cut him off, her voice firm.
"War may consume the Layers, but Absence needs Presence, and Presence needs Absence. No matter how brightly you shine, Belenos, always leave room for a shadow. That's what His Grace told me."
She turned away, her aura dispersing as the space around them began to settle.
"At last, you weren't just the void but Absence itself. And I wasn't the light but Presence itself."
"There was a Presence before Absence… I see. I never took what he said to heart, but I understand now."
The Supreme Star God had told him that once, though he had dismissed it at the time.
To him, void and darkness were absolute, things that would always come before light, yet standing here now, that belief no longer held.
"See you later… Void Emperor, no, The Absence."
"I'll be waiting, The Presence."
With that, Belenos waved and took off, leaving him behind in the White Void.
As she disappeared, Kenos slowly opened his eyes for the first time since he was made the embodiment of void. They were black yet beautiful. It reflected the White Void and the figure of Belenos departing.
"Voids...are beautiful..."
He murmured to himself.
"We've lost this phase… but I can't help wondering how the war is unfolding now."
His form continued to fade, breaking apart until nothing remained, leaving only the White Void behind.
To be continued...