[The Mental Void]
Kai drifted in the dark expanse of his own consciousness. He recalled the scene.
Standing across from him was Nyra.
She wasn't just trembling; she was breaking. The ghostly projection of her avatar flickered, burdened by a terror too massive for her soul to carry.
"Kai," Nyra whispered, her voice cracking as she looked down at her translucent hands.
"The Goddess... she hasn't even unlocked her full potential yet. What we saw... she is just the tip of the iceberg. You can't beat her. She's going to kill you, and it will be my fault."
Tears made of digital light began to fall from her eyes.
Kai's cold, calculating demeanor melted. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and gently took both of her trembling hands in his.
They were cold, but he held them tight, anchoring her to him.
"Look at me, Nyar," Kai said, his voice softer than he had spoken in years.
She slowly raised her head, meeting his gaze.
"I didn't survive the Black Day just to let some ancient parasite steal my friend," Kai said, his eyes burning with a quiet, fierce warmth.
"Don't think about her power. Just do what you have to do from the inside to weaken her. I will handle the outside."
Nyra let out a shaky breath, squeezing his hands back.
"But she's an iceberg, Kai. She will freeze everything you throw at her."
Kai's thumb brushed the back of her hand. Then, he let go. The warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by the chilling, absolute confidence of the Architect.
"Then let her try," Kai whispered. "If she is the iceberg... I am the ocean that will swallow her whole."
Suddenly, the temperature in the void plummeted.
A voice, ancient and echoing with freezing malice, ripped through Kai's own flesh.
"The audacity... to challenge me in my own realm."
[Reality - The Dreamscape]
Kai's eyes snapped open, forced back into the battlefield of the Dreamscape. Every hair on his body stood on end as his survival instincts screamed.
He instantly manifested his weapon, a dazzling white blade of condensed energy forming in his grip.
"Give back my friend's body," Kai commanded, launching himself forward in a blinding strike.
Swish.
His blade hit nothing but empty air. She had disappeared.
Before Kai could turn, a terrifying weight settled on his shoulder. Nyx was already leaning against his back, her lips brushing his ear.
"Kneel, Kai," Nyx whispered, her voice dripping with absolute authority.
"I am your master. To defy my command is to forfeit your very existence to the Void."
She grabbed his neck, twisting her wrist with bone-crushing force.
Kai didn't panic.
Instead of pulling away, he spun his body with the momentum of her grip, swinging his blade violently backward to sever her arm.
The blade passed clean through her flesh. Nyx didn't bleed.
Her severed arm instantly dissolved into black mist, reforming seamlessly a second later. She hadn't taken a single scratch.
Physical attacks are useless, Kai realized. I need cover.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: ZERO KELVIN ]
Kai didn't target her. He targeted the environment. The temperature in a ten-meter radius instantly dropped to Absolute Zero.
The sudden death of molecular motion shattered the moisture in the air, creating a blinding, impenetrable mist of dense ice crystals.
Nyx stood in the freezing fog, unbothered.
Somewhere far beyond this battlefield, a faint echo tugged at her consciousness—but she ignored it.
She smirked. "Where are you hiding, little boy?"
Hidden behind a massive shattered rock, Kai gasped for air. His neck was bruised purple, his heart hammering against his ribs. He just needed five seconds to recover.
Suddenly, a streak of starlight pierced the mist.
Whoosh!
An arrow carved a trench into the rock, passing exactly half an inch from Kai's nose.
The sheer kinetic force of the projectile made the marrow in his bones tremble.
Nyx tilted her head, smiling faintly. The frozen mist parted around her as if unwilling to cling. Even gravity seemed to lean toward her.
[CONSTELLATION ACTIVATED: SAGITTARIUS]
Nyx floated above the ground.
In her hand was a massive bow forged from the light of dying stars. It had no string and no quiver, yet an arrow of pure cosmic energy rested perfectly on the frame.
"Playtime is over, boy," Nyx declared, drawing the bow back.
Kai gritted his teeth.
"Harpe."
The Admin weapon merged with his dazzling sword, transforming it into a sickle-blade meant to cut through dimensions.
Kai exploded from behind the rock, his blade becoming a blur as he deflected a relentless barrage of starlight arrows.
Sparks rained down like fireworks, but Kai was struggling. He was being pushed back, inch by inch.
Nyx didn't even break a sweat. She smirked, watching him fight for his life. "What a fool."
But then—Nyx froze.
The cosmic bow flickered.
A telepathic transmission had forcibly linked to her mind, echoing loudly enough for Kai to hear the static.
Kai immediately stopped attacking, leaning against his sword to catch his breath.
"My Queen..." a panicked voice crackled through the link.
Nyx's expression did not change, but the air pressure around her increased. "Explain," she commanded.
"We were ambushed while you slept..."
The starlight bow trembled in her grip. A single star in the constellation above her blinked out.
BOOM!
The sound of a massive explosion transferred through the telepathic link. A thin fracture split across the bow's radiant surface.
Nyx's fingers dug into the light as if she could strangle the message itself.
Nyx's arrogant smirk vanished, replaced by sheer, suffocating panic. "Iyad? Child, are you alright?!"
"Mother... I'm in the middle of a fight," her son, Iyad, gasped.
BOOM!
"I... I think I'm going to die, Mother."
"Stand your ground," she ordered. "You are my son. You do not fall."
"Mother… Ahh—!"
BOOM!
Tears instantly welled in the Goddess's eyes, her cosmic aura trembling with instability.
"Wait! Hold on, my son, I am coming to you—!"
"Mother... I have sent a distress signal to Tristan," Iyad's voice grew dangerously faint, drowned out by the sound of tearing flesh.
"I will protect our honor... till my last breath... Ahh—!"
"Iyad! Answer me, son! Iyad!" Nyx screamed into the void.
The constellation shattered. Not metaphorically—it shattered. Starlight rained down like broken glass.
Silence.
The connection was dead. The battlefield forgot how to breathe. Nyx stood paralyzed, the reality of her son's death crushing the breath from her lungs.
Slowly, the sound of clapping echoed across the rocks.
Kai stood up, brushing the dirt off his coat. He wasn't panting anymore.
"The Masked Man never disappoints," Kai muttered to himself.
A cold, chilling smile stretched across his face as he looked at the weeping Goddess.
I can't defeat her strength. But gods still have weaknesses.
Family.
"So," Kai asked, his voice dripping with venom. "How was your final goodbye?"
Nyx slowly raised her head. The tears froze on her cheeks—then turned black, replaced by a pitch-black abyss of hatred that threatened to consume the world.
"Be ready, boy," Nyx hissed, her voice distorting into a demonic frequency. "You are going to suffocate in a nightmare."