The Banisher Series had two obvious tells: the sinking feeling it impressed upon its target, and the way Tycha pointed at said target with one of its many fingers. Both could allow a skilled opponent to evade the attack before the user began the sequence to use either Railing or Removal; this was why Skullius hid Tycha using darkness. It was moreso good practice for him – for when he used it in the future – than it was a handicap he imposed in order to catch Boron off guard. He couldn't care less about being tactical with the Deity.
In any case, Boron felt the offensive intent and was prompted to react right away. Death was coming his way, and he gathered – in less than an instant – that he had a nigh inconsequential window to evade.
The attack Skullius had chosen to use against him was Railing. Each individual shot required seven units of Focused Null Life Ota as fuel from Tycha, and once triggered, it flourished in a layered sequence.
<The range is absurd!> was the last thing Boron thought before the attack came.
And indeed, the range of the Banisher Series was supremely great. Railing, in fact, had a more modest range when compared to Removal – a world's worth of a range!
The cold and cutting look in Skullius' eyes as he gazed upon Boron while causing the Labyrinth of the Yoke – split into four hundred miniature boxes within the fourth-dimensional space – to shift behind him, away from the range of Railing, galvanized Boron's will.
But was it too late?
…!!!
For a fraction of an infinitesimally miniscule morsel of time, a serene pressure saturated the targeted range of Railing, including Boron… and then everything within that space was frozen stiff, restricted from even the slightest of movements. Not so much as a twitch was allowed. Everything within the fourth-dimensional space was dark, hard to parse, so there was no way to truly observe the effect besides appraising how it affected Boron. The Deity's frame might have been a painting on an obscure, dark canvas. His face was a mask of horror and desperation.
He was caught in this first sequence of Railing. The attack's ultimate goal was to ravage everything within its range using an unblockable locomotive force composed of distilled Null Life energy moving at infinite speed!
In essence, the Focused Null Life Ota used as fuel was condensed further normal and given insurmountable motion. The number of beings who could survive this attack head-on in all of Reality (including the Null Verse) could be counted on two human hands – no more. As soon as the first sequence was triggered and all targets within the target range were frozen, most beings in the Reality would only know death – true extinction.
'Will this be the end of you then?' Skullius thought, gazing at Boron. The second sequence swiftly followed the thought.
Space within the fourth dimension was different from what it was within three dimensions. It was indestructible, and it didn't take kindly to light. And thus, the visual nature of Railing was obscured by the surrounding darkness.
If there was a string of words to define it, it would be: an erect, nigh colourless distortion that resembled a flood of rain.
It fired from Skullius' figure, grand, too grand to even deduce that it came from a single individual. The surrounding fourth-dimensional space rumbled as it bore through whatever was ahead – obscurity, darkness, uncertainty, and of course, Boron himself. The Deity vanished like smoke before the full immensity of Railing even reached his figure. He was erased.
The Labyrinth shook vehemently, its foundations and definition crumbling. Many of the immortal beings stowed within it were crushed by the pressure of Railing and slaughtered despite Fulgardt's influence, which had kept them alive for 4,000 years.
It should have been queer for them. They could not sense the fourth-dimensional space, but its effects reached them, thundering through their flesh, bones, souls, and Direction. It was also unknown to them how long the devastation even lasted, because concepts did not mesh in the same way they did within three dimensions.
To Skullius, however, Railing lasted for precisely seven nanoseconds within this higher dimension. Only after seven nanoseconds did the distortion barreling ahead of him finally falter.
Nothing of his opponent remained, and if he hadn't bothered to move the Labyrinth, as well as the overarching space around its odd placement – the whole of Aigas – out of the way, that too would have been obliterated. Such was within his capacity as a fourth-dimensional being, after all.
'Oh,' Skullius thought, smiling and he leisurely looked above him, many hundreds of thousands of kilometers (or the equivalent) within fourth dimensional space away. 'You might actually be prodigious.'
There, far, far away, what looked like a ghost could be seen – an ashen-faced ghost.
It was Boron. His likeness remained the same except for the fact that he looked less tangible, like an illusion.
He had survived the Railing!
'He must have utilized the window before the first sequence of Railing to save himself,' surmised Skullius, 'But even then, it would have taken a scarce kind of miracle to get out of the range of Railing, especially within this space.'
Indeed, it was hard to maneuver and use regular aspects of the Common Reality Leagues leisurely within this space. Only powers of the highest tier were tolerated by fourth-dimensional space.
Skullius smiled. 'That's it, isn't it?'
He gauged his theory against Boron's horror-stricken face and the uniquely complex traces of power hanging over his body right then. It wasn't any odd usage of Zu'sse, an average Parlous Nature, or a common Andori that allowed him to survive Railing. It was…
'You acquired a Cosmic Tier Andori!'
Skullius was so amused that he rushed towards Boron in an instant. The Deity noted his approach and gritted his teeth. He hadn't survived that absurd attack without cost. In fact, he'd lost so much that a part of him wondered if it might have been better that he perish – as he should have.
<Forced to such debilitating odds by this…!> seethed the Deity. <By an anomaly!>
He could hardly think straight for rage, but he gathered his wits and awakened his Zu'sse once more.
<This is a fate I thought I'd only meet against a Primeval Deity.>
But alas, he was being looked down upon by a creature he'd almost squeezed to death hours ago!
