The snap of the jade was the sound of a universe shifting its axis. On Planet Azure, time itself seemed to snag on a jagged edge of reality.
The moment the jade shattered in Austin's palm, the world did not explode. It did something far more terrifying: it paused.
On the stage, Marcus von Valerius's hand was frozen mid-descent, the solar fire that had been roaring around his fist extinguished as if it had been submerged in a vacuum. The laws of physics, which Marcus had manipulated with his S-Rank power, were suddenly superseded by a higher authority. The "Radiant Solar Body" that had been the pride of the Valerius line turned cold, his skin graying as the local mana of the planet fled from the stage in a panicked tide.
Ricky's sneer remained etched on his face, but his knees began to buckle. It wasn't gravity that was crushing him; it was the weight of Existence. Beside him, Kavya Maran felt a sudden, primal urge to scream, but the air in her lungs had turned into lead.
Millions of light-years away, in the heart of the Primordial Palace, the sobbing stopped.
The Patriarch—a being who had witnessed the birth of the first stars and intended to see the death of the last—suddenly went rigid. His eyes, which usually held the misty grief of a doting grandfather, cleared instantly. In their depths, galaxies spun and died. He didn't look like a crying old man anymore; he looked like the inevitable end of all things.
"He broke it," the Patriarch whispered. The sound wasn't loud, yet it caused the entire Zenith Star System to tremble. Moons shifted in their orbits; suns flickered in terror. "My Heart's Core... my Little Ancestor... he finally called for us."
Austin's father, Aurelius, stood up so fast his throne—a chair carved from the core of a collapsed neutron star—disintegrated into subatomic dust. The silk handkerchief he had been using to dry his eyes burst into white flames.
"The three-year ultimatum is over!" Aurelius roared, his voice tearing through the dimensions. "The billion-year silence is void! Pack the fleet! No—forget the fleet! Open a Trans-Dimensional Gate! My son has been living in a 'studio apartment' for three years, and someone just had the audacity to touch him!"
"Aurelius," the Matriarch said, her voice a cold, terrifying calm that made even the Emperor of the Zenith family pause. She adjusted her silver sleeve, her eyes burning with a cold, violet light. "Don't just open a gate. Pull the entire Zenith Primordial Guard from the front lines of the Void War. I want every single being on that backwater rock to see what happens when you mistake a dragon for a worm."
Back on Planet Azure, the sky began to bleed.
The blue atmosphere was being forcibly peeled away, revealing a void so black it made the deep space look bright. From that void, a sound began to resonate—a rhythmic, deep-bass thrumming that made the mountains of Azure crumble into gravel and the oceans recede from the shores.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was the sound of a billion boots hitting the decks of starships. It was the march of the Absolute Realities.
"What... what is this?" Marcus von Valerius gasped. His S-Rank pride had evaporated, replaced by a cold, hollow void in his chest. He looked up, his "Radiant Solar Body" physique screaming in primal terror, sensing its true predator.
Above the No. 1 High School stadium, a crack appeared in the air. It wasn't a magical portal; it was a physical wound in the fabric of reality. Through that crack, the prow of a ship began to emerge. It was so vast that its front section alone blotted out the sun, plunging the entire continent into a cold, artificial night.
The ship was not made of metal; it was forged from "Void-Steel" and reinforced with the souls of conquered gods. On its prow stood a row of men in silver-and-purple armor. Each one of them possessed a presence that made Marcus look like a flickering candle in a hurricane. These were the Zenith Guards—each one an entity that could erase a star system with a sneeze.
Austin stood in the center of the stage, the wind from the dimensional tear whipping his cheap, scorched school hair. He didn't look like a "Rank Zero" failure anymore. He looked like the CEO of the Universe standing amidst a failing branch office. He turned his gaze toward the terrified Kavya, whose face had gone from greedy to a ghostly, translucent white. He looked at Ricky, who was now vibrating so hard his "Golden Lion" martial soul had manifested only to tuck its tail and whimper like a kicked puppy.
Finally, Austin looked at Marcus.
"You mentioned mercy, Marcus," Austin said, his voice amplified by the silence of a dying world. "I hope you saved some for yourself. Because my family... they aren't very good at accounting for survivors when their 'Heart's Core' is annoyed."
From the giant ship, a golden staircase of solid light descended. It didn't just touch the stage; it hit it with enough force to shatter the foundations of the city, yet the stage itself remained intact—held together by the sheer will of the newcomers.
A man stepped out of the light. He wore robes that seemed to be woven from captured nebulas, and his crown was a ring of black holes. His eyes were red—not from rage, but from three years of mourning his son's "poverty"—and they were locked onto Austin with a terrifying level of doting obsession.
"My son!" Aurelius Zenith roared.
He ignored the S-Rank Overlord, ignored the kneeling army of the planet, and ignored the laws of gravity as he sprinted toward Austin. In a blur of motion that bypassed time itself, he was in front of the boy, grabbing his shoulders with trembling hands.
"Are you hurt? Did you eat? Is this 'studio apartment' gone yet? Who touched you?!" Aurelius's aura flared, and the stadium floor turned to glass. He turned his head slightly, catching sight of Marcus and Ricky. "Was it these insects? Son, point them out. Give me the word, and I will erase the concept of their bloodline from the past, present, and future."
The Overlord Marcus fell to his knees. Not because he wanted to, but because the sheer presence of Austin's father was forcing his very cells to submit to their true master.
"The... The Zenith Crest..." Marcus whispered, his eyes bulging as he recognized the sigil of the roaring lion-dragon on Aurelius's chest. "Absolute... Realities..."
He looked at Austin, the "Commoner" he had just tried to enslave, and for the first time in his life, Marcus von Valerius understood the true meaning of "Rank Zero."
It didn't mean Austin had no power. It meant the planet's system wasn't even qualified to count it.