Chapter 506: Chapter 506 - Awake
Above the sky, a black cube floated in silence. It did not shine. It did not move. Yet everything around it screamed.
The technique was called Absolute Defense... But what it defended against was not an enemy.
It was containment.
Creation and Destruction.
Primordial forces that should never exist in the same space.
The sky had already been torn apart once, now it rebuilt itself... In the wrong way.
Clouds gathered again, thick and suffocating, turning pitch black as lightning erupted endlessly within them.
Thunder did not roar.
It crawled.
The space surrounding the cube no longer resembled Earth.
It was closer to a boundary between realities.
And far beyond the immediate distortion... They began to arrive.
Not by movement.
But by awareness.
The first gaze came from the void itself.
Tiamat opened her eyes.
Her presence coiled through reality like a memory of creation undone.
Her gaze fixed on the cube.
"...That construct..." she murmured, her voice layered, ancient, vast. "...Who shapes the Void with such precision?"
There was no greed in her voice.
Only recognition.
---
From beneath the deepest seas... Cipactli stirred.
It did not speak.
It observed.
And in that observation... It desired.
---
In a realm where light had long been rejected, a realm reopened when the gods began their descent to Earth... Izanami watched in silence.
Decay itself seemed to pause.
For the first time in ages... Something existed that even she could not immediately claim.
---
Darkness deepened elsewhere.
Whiro did not approach.
He remained hidden.
But his attention was there.
And that alone was enough to rot the edges of reality.
---
Far beyond them... Chaos stirred.
Apep coiled through unseen dimensions, its endless body tightening.
And from the silent abyss... Nun shifted ever so slightly.
Creation’s origin...
Acknowledging something that should not return.
Then... Stillness.
A presence stepped into awareness.
Not through space.
But through inevitability.
Shiva opened his eyes.
No aura erupted.
No storm followed.
But in that single moment.
Destruction itself... paused.
"...Interesting," he said quietly.
Not impressed.
Not threatened.
But attentive.
And beyond all of them... Further than gods.
Further than structure.
The ones without thrones.
Without names.
Without belonging.
The Outer Gods watched.
Some with amusement.
Some with hunger.
Some with something far more dangerous curiosity.
Because within that cube... Something impossible was happening.
---
Inside the cube, Taufik stood motionless. For once... he wasn’t completely in control.
A faint, unfamiliar smile rested on his lips.
Not confidence.
Not arrogance.
Something closer to tension.
Before him, the katana trembled violently.
Loo’tong was no longer just absorbing power.
It was struggling to contain it.
Behind Taufik, only one pair of wings remained. Light and shadow flickered unevenly, no longer stable, no longer perfectly balanced.
And the moment they fully collapsed into the blade... There would be no turning back.
*Crack!*
A sharp crack echoed.
Taufik’s gaze shifted.
The black cube surrounding him, his Absolute Defense was fracturing.
Thin lines spread across its surface like a spiderweb, distorting space with every pulse of energy leaking through.
This wasn’t an attack.
This was an overflow.
"...This is dangerous," Taufik muttered.
But the smile on his face didn’t fade. If anything, it sharpened.
His clothes had already been torn apart by the pressure.
Not wind.
Not force.
But the collision of two absolutes that refused to coexist.
Creation and Destruction.
Even now, they were grinding against each other inside the blade, rejecting unity.
*Crack!*
Another crack.
Louder this time.
Taufik exhaled slowly.
"Yeah... I figured it wouldn’t be this simple," His voice was calm. But his eyes... Focused completely.
For the first time since this began, he could feel it clearly.
Not from the outside.
But from within himself.
If his control slipped... Even slightly, the balance would collapse.
And when that happened, it wouldn’t be an explosion.
It would be erasure.
"...But I can’t stop here, not when I’m already come this far"
His voice dropped.
Firm.
Certain.
His gaze locked onto the blade.
"Just a little more," he said quietly. "Hold it together for a little bit more, Loo’tong"
The final pair of wings behind him trembled.
As if even they understood that this step should not exist.
Taufik raised his hand slowly.
"...We’re finishing this"
*Swoosh!*
The final pair of wings behind Taufik moved... Then stopped.
"...?"
They didn’t dissolve.
They didn’t advance.
They hovered in place, light and shadow flickering violently, as if something unseen was holding them back.
Taufik’s eyes narrowed.
"...What happened?"
For the first time since this began, Creation and Destruction hesitated.
Not from weakness.
But rejection.
The katana before him still trembled violently.
Loo’tong let out a sound, not quite a voice... Not yet.
A distorted vibration scraped across existence itself, jagged and unstable.
It wasn’t just the blade.
The forces already absorbed within it were reacting.
Resisting.
Rejecting what was coming next.
Taufik’s faint smile thinned.
"...Heh. This is getting interesting," A pause. "...This is the part where things break"
*Crack!*
A sharp fracture spread across the black cube again.
Wider.
Deeper.
Space itself warped around the crack, bending unnaturally as pressure leaked through.
The wings flickered again.
Still unmoving.
Still resisting.
Taufik exhaled slowly.
Then stepped forward.
"...We didn’t come this far to stop now"
He raised his hand.
The moment he did... Something responded.
"If you won’t move..." His voice lowered. "...then I’ll force you"
"MOVE!!"
The word didn’t travel through air.
It overrode reality.
His Word Magic, an embodiment of his Will, activated for the first time in a long time.
The instant his will touched the wings... Reality screamed.
The final pair shattered.
Not cleanly.
Not willingly.
They were torn apart, ripped forward by force, collapsing into violent streams of blinding light and devouring darkness.
Dragged.
Compressed.
And...
*BANG!!*
They slammed into the blade.
A shockwave erupted.
Stronger.
Denser.
Far beyond the previous ones.
The black cube absorbed most of it.
But not all.
The impact hit Taufik directly.
He stood at the center.
At the collision point.
*Slice*
Thin cuts appeared across his body.
Then more.
Then dozens.
Blood spilled freely, drawn out not by blades, but by pressure alone.
Still... He didn’t move.
His teeth clenched.
Every muscle in his body tensed as he forced control over the chaos inside the blade.
Creation and Destruction clashed violently within Loo’tong, grinding against each other like collapsing stars.
*Crack!*
Another fracture.
The cube began to break.
Not gradually.
But irreversibly.
Fragments of space peeled away from its surface.
The structure holding everything together was failing.
For a single instant... A gap opened.
The shockwave leaked out.
Outside
The sky split.
Storms erupted.
Lightning devoured the clouds as the pressure spilled into the world.
Inside... It only got worse.
"!!!"
Loo’tong screamed.
This time, there was no mistaking it. But beneath the scream, there was something else.
A voice.
Broken.
Fragmented.
Glitching.
"Ma-... Mas-... Mas... te#(+$..."
Taufik froze.
His eyes widened slightly.
That voice... Wasn’t coming from the blade.
It was coming from within him.
*CRACK!*
The cube shattered, completely shattered.
And then, for a single instant, everything went silent.
Then... The shockwave broke free.
No longer contained by anything apart from Taufik’s Will, the pressure surged outward, tearing through the space where the cube once existed.
Reality bent as the force expanded, no longer restrained, no longer controlled.
Taufik’s eyes widened slightly.
He felt it immediately.
The first shockwave had already shaken the entire world.
This one... Was the final release.
"...This is bad"
This wasn’t just another disturbance.
If it reached the outside world fully, ut wouldn’t stop at chaos.
It would rewrite it.
A disaster greater than the Three Calamities combined would descend.
Not destruction.
Not collapse.
But something far worse... Deletion.
Taufik gritted his teeth.
Stopping now was not an option. Never.
If he interrupted the process halfway, the unstable fusion between Creation, Destruction, and Loo’tong would collapse inward.
And when that happened, the result wouldn’t spread outward.
It would erase everything at the center.
Starting with him.
"...Shit-"
[Master]
The voice came again.
Faint, but clearer.
Stable.
Taufik froze for a fraction of a second.
"...System?"
His eyes sharpened.
"...You’re awake?!"
[Yes, Master]
Relief flickered across his expression, but only for an instant.
"Good. Then-"
[Master, I recommend activating your False World]
Taufik paused.
[The shockwave will still manifest,] the System continued calmly, [but its effect will be redirected]
[A False World will not completely isolate reality]
[However...] A brief pause. [The damage will be contained within a controlled layer of existence]
Taufik’s gaze hardened.
"...Meaning the real world won’t take the full hit"
[Correct]
The pressure around him continued to rise.
The shockwave was still expanding, seconds away from fully breaking into the entire world.
Taufik exhaled slowly.
"...Heh"
A faint grin returned to his face.
"Just woke up and already giving orders, huh?"
His grip tightened.
"Fine," His eyes burned with focus. "Then let’s do it your way"
....
...
..
.
#A/N: And here the new Chapter, Hehe~ sorry, and from the six infinity stones, I just want one... the power stone (:v)
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