Clang.
The sound of battle echoes through the battlefield as the boy throws his dagger toward Onyx mid-air.
Well… to call it a battle is a bit of an exaggeration.
After all, a battle implies two opponents of similar or equal strength.
And this boy is nowhere near Onyx's equal.
Onyx flicks the dagger away.
The boy flickers toward Onyx — technically below him — grabs his dagger and attempts to sever Onyx's neck.
It is futile. With his Veil active, Onyx can sense everything happening around him.
Even a spirit with no physical form could not pass by undetected.
Another merit of his Veil is that Onyx can automatically predict where his opponent will appear.
The moment the boy flickers, Onyx knows exactly where he will be. So when the boy materializes in front of him, Onyx thrusts his sword forward.
But the boy, as if he already knew this, moves into a defensive position and tries to block with his shortsword.
Foolish boy. Blocking will not change his fate.
Even if the boy blocks, Onyx's thrust is enhanced with his Veil.
There is no way he can survive.
And it seems the boy knows it too, because what happens next is not a block but a deflection.
Onyx only realizes this when he hears the screeching of their blades colliding and sees sparks flying.
The boy's movement is so fast that even Onyx barely catches it.
Onyx takes control of the momentum and severs the connection between their blades.
Then he quickly throws a kick at the boy's solar plexus.
The boy is sent flying into the air and into the empty space.
Not letting the opportunity pass, Onyx steps forward once more. A golden line races through the empty space.
Onyx slides his leg back. The fractured space begins to close. The void tears itself shut — and the boy is still inside it.
A victory for Onyx, right?
No.
The boy suddenly flickers a few meters in front of Onyx.
A moment before it closed, he must have used that flickering ability of his to escape.
That is the most logical conclusion.
Immediately after, the boy sticks out his hand and from his fingertips, a series of mana-based elemental attacks are thrown at Onyx.
Fire. Water. Wind. Ice.
Hundreds of each blast shoot through the air, but every single one of them unravels and disappears.
The boy's eyes widen.
Onyx can't help but chuckle internally. His opponent can't figure out why his attacks aren't working. Why shouldn't he?
The boy lowers himself. He then swipes the shortsword on the ground.
A loud crackle sound fills the air.
He does it again. And again. And again.
The boy's gone mad.
This goes on for some time. The only reason Onyx hasn't attacked yet is because he is intrigued by what the boy is doing.
Eventually, sparks begin to form with each swipe. They get bigger with each pass until─
Crack.
A flame forms at the point where the boy has been swiping. The boy puts the shortsword into the flame and spreads it out, creating a wall of fire in front of him.
Onyx doesn't know what the boy is planning, but whatever it is, it's a waste of time.
His Veil absorbs all types of energy. That includes natural energy such as heat.
The flame lights up the surrounding area. Then it starts to flicker, dim, and a moment later it's gone.
"This confirms it."
The boy mumbles something under his breath and slowly gets back up.
For a moment, neither of them moves.
Then the boy thrusts forward with his dagger. Onyx swings his blade in return.
But a moment before Onyx's swing lands, the boy jumps and lands on Onyx's blade.
The boy's shortsword turns red before a flame erupts, sheathing it in fire.
The flame begins to die as the boy jumps up, kicking Onyx's blade downward.
He then attempts to strike Onyx, but inches away from his face, the flame goes out.
The boy's eyes drop to his blade for a second — only a second.
In that second, Onyx lifts his knee and strikes the boy's chin.
The strike sends the boy flying into the air. Onyx uses his wings and leaps upward, appearing just above him.
He kicks the boy in his solar plexus once more and a shockwave erupts from the sky.
The boy crashes down to the ground.
BOOM.
On impact, the ground crumbles. But it is nothing compared to what happens next.
Onyx sheathes his sword in his Veil and, with a flap of his wings, thrusts his blade toward the ground at blinding speed.
There is nowhere for the boy to run. Even if he uses that flickering ability of his, at this speed, he will not make it out in time.
There is no room for a counter. Blocking would just be wasting energy.
Die.
Onyx thrusts his blade through the boy's chest.
A huge pillar of light erupts from the ground.
The dark sky is filled with a light so bright it would put the sun — if this world had one — to shame.
The light shoots through the clouds and pierces the heavens.
For a moment, the entire battlefield — no, the whole world — is bathed in pure gold.
Then the light begins to fade.
Onyx stands over the boy's body, his blade still buried in his chest. Smoke rises from the point of impact.
The ground around them is shattered and glowing with residual energy.
The boy lies motionless.
Onyx pulls his sword free. Blood drips from the blade.
The boy does not move.
This time, it seems, even he has reached his limit.
The boy is dead.
Onyx turns away. What does he need to stay here for? His opponent is dead.
At least, that's what it looks like.
No, this battle isn't over yet.
This boy is very cunning. Their whole fight up to this point has had Onyx on edge.
The boy isn't as powerful as him, yet he has managed to survive this long through his wits alone.
The boy might still be alive.
It's a one-in-a-million chance, yes, but a chance is a chance. And it's a chance Onyx can't take.
The moment the thought enters his head, he turns back to look at the corpse.
It's still there, draped in blood.
Then it flickers blue.
The corpse, and even the blood, begins to turn into hundreds of thousands of blue fragments before completely vanishing.
───
"That was too close for comfort," I mumble to myself.
Thankfully, I'm able to use Astra's own skills while we're fused.
I sent a body double down there instead of myself and quickly used Glitch to take me above the atmosphere.
Seems Onyx's Veil is limited to the world itself because the moment I got up here, I noticed that the entire planet was shrouded in darkness. But outside of that, the planets and stars were still shining as brightly as ever.
Anyway, since then I've enhanced my vision with mana and have been watching the battle from up here on Fang.
Looks like the body double just lost. Mercilessly too.
Even without using mana I could see the pillar of light erupt from the ground.
The pillar even shot past me, continuing up to the stars.
I look back down.
Alright. Took a while but I think I've got his Veil figured out.
His Veil absorbs any type of energy. That includes natural energy like heat and wind.
I needed to confirm that, so I let the body double create a flame by striking the ground with the shortsword.
When the flame disappeared, it didn't die out the way it should. It flickered for a moment, then vanished.
That confirmed the natural energy part.
Then came mystic energy like mana.
Before creating the flame, I had the body double blast him with elemental attacks. None of them reached him, but it gave me an idea.
I used fire magic to heat my hand.
It wasn't natural energy, but it was heat energy nonetheless. So shouldn't it have been absorbed immediately?
Wrong.
The heat never left. It just kept building.
So I attacked him with the dagger using the hand that was still heating up.
The heat conducted through the blade — that's why it turned red and then erupted into flame.
What surprised me was what happened after. It was only once the heat left the blade that it was absorbed.
That confirmed one thing.
His Veil can only absorb energy that has left the body.
While it's a breakthrough, I still need a way to use it.
"Physical attacks are the only thing that can actually affect him."
I let out a deep sigh.
One minute and three seconds.
The only reason I'm still going is because I believe I can turn this around.
Think, Abel. Is there anything left to use?
I run through everything.
Physical attacks work. But in a pure physical fight, I'm not winning. That's just reality.
Mana is off the table. Natural energy gets absorbed the moment it leaves the body.
Qi does too.
But the key word is leaves.
While it's still inside me, the Veil can't touch it.
So what if I don't let it leave?
Of course.
All I have to do is channel Qi through my body and release it at the exact moment of contact.
I noticed a two second window before the Qi is absorbed by his Veil.
By the time the Veil absorbs it, the Qi will have already done its job.
"And I know exactly how to do it."
I step off Fang and descend back into the dark world.
───
Onyx looks up as the boy descends from the dark sky.
He is alive.
Onyx had been certain. The corpse, the blood, the pillar of light — all of it had pointed to one conclusion. And yet here the boy is, stepping back onto the battlefield like nothing happened, both blades in hand.
A body double.
The realization settles in his chest like a cold stone.
He was deceived. Not outmaneuvered in combat — deceived. Made to believe the fight was over when it wasn't. Made to lower his guard by a child who never even came down to fight him directly.
For the first time in this trial, something inside him snaps.
He waits for the boy to land.
The moment his foot touches the ground, Onyx moves.
He swings his sword at the boy's neck but the boy jumps.
He lets go of the dagger and shortsword. They glow white before dissolving into particles.
He rotates mid-air and kicks Onyx's chest.
A normal kick. Nothing special. It might pack a punch but nothing Onyx can't handle.
So it's a complete shock when a massive gale of wind erupts from the boy's leg.
It's powerful enough to push Onyx back several meters, but the attack doesn't stop.
The boy flickers in front of Onyx and punches his chest.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The punches are relentless. Each one spreads cracks across his chest plate, and they only grow larger with every strike.
Boom.
Onyx's foot slips back.
How?
Where is the wind coming from? How is it staying?
His Veil absorbs energy. That includes wind. So how is the boy using it to hit him?
Then Onyx notices — there's no wind following the boy between strikes. It only appears at the moment of impact.
That's when it hits him.
The boy generates the wind at the exact moment of contact. Had he been generating it beforehand, the Veil would have consumed it before it reached him.
After each strike the wind disappears, but by then it has already done its job.
Genius.
Not talented, not a prodigy, not even gifted — a genius.
To analyze and counter his Veil in such a short time is nothing short of genius.
But it infuriates him.
His Veil is the product of a lifetime of hardship. Yet the boy dismantled it in an instant.
Finally, the boy kicks his chest one last time. A gale erupts from his foot.
The armor surrounding his chest shatters completely, pieces scattering like broken glass.
Then the ground begins to flicker.
Blue fragments replace it. Millions of them. Then the sky. Then the mountains. The corpses around them. Everything.
Then it stops.
The dark sky is now filled with tiny dots of light.
The ground, the mountains, the corpses — gone.
What is below him now is space. Not darkness, not a void. Just space, with the planet hanging behind him.
They are above the atmosphere.
Onyx looks at the boy.
The golden light of his Veil is gone. He can feel its absence the way you feel a missing tooth with your tongue. His Veil is still active on the planet's surface but up here, outside the world it's rooted in, the connection is severed.
He is cut off.
The boy raises his hand.
"Three."
Down on the planet, a glowing halo the size of a continent forms on its surface.
"Two."
Threads stretch outward from the halo. Red, white, blue, gray. They reach across the planet, connecting to tiny multicolored particles suspended in the atmosphere, pulling them inward.
"One."
A second halo materializes above them, far larger than the first. The threads from below stretch upward, connecting to it. Between the two halos, the planet's entire Qi network is now linked — every ambient particle synchronized, all of it aimed at a single point.
Onyx watches it all unfold.
He doesn't fully understand what's happening.
But he knows one thing.
He cannot stop it.
Threads erupt from the boy's fingertips. Multicolored, like the rest. Then mana runs through them and they turn purple — including the ones connected to both halos.
Onyx turns to the boy.
Then he asks the one question he feels he would regret not asking.
"Who are you."
The boy is quiet for a moment.
Then he smiles.
"Remember this name."
He looks directly at Onyx.
"The name of one of your very gods."
"I am Abel. Abel MorningStar."
Abel MorningStar.
The name Abel means nothing to Onyx. It's the last part that's caught his attention.
MorningStar, the surname of his lord Lucifer MorningStar. But how can a ─
Actually, what is this boy? There's some human blood in him, but there's also something else.
Something familiar, but Onyx just can't put his finger on it.
But that doesn't matter. The real question is how can a mere boy know about the existence of his lord Lucifer, or even the gods for that matter.
They have never appeared in front of anyone before, never.
So where did the boy learn this name, and much less have the audacity to brand himself with that surname?
Abel MorningStar, I'll remember you.
Abel pulls the threads.
Every particle connected to the network ignites simultaneously. The threads blaze brighter than any star. From space, what happens to the planet below doesn't look like an explosion.
It looks like a beam.