Chapter 65—Shadow Severance.
Chapter 65—Shadow Severance.
The raw, unadulterated air of Sector 0 reeked of ancient corruption, ozone, and crashed obsidian. The atmosphere vibrated with a low, bone-rattling resonance as the colossal Abyssal Vanguard fully emerged from the deep fissures of the crater floor.
It was a nightmare given form—a massive, writhing mass of pitch-black antimatter and hardened chitin, stretching easily over three hundred meters into the bruised sky.
Dozens of glowing, blood-red eyes opened along its central mass, locking their horrific, predatory gaze onto the four figures standing atop the isolated obsidian pillar.
From its core, eight giant, razor-tipped tentacles thrashed violently, each one thick enough to crush an imperial battleship.
"That... that thing is a Tier-SS Calamity Spawn." Ignis stammered, his broadsword trembling slightly in his grip as the monster’s passive aura slammed against his armor.
"Its regeneration matrix is bound directly to the Void Rupture! Normal physical or elemental attacks won’t even leave a scratch!"
---
[SYSTEM WARNING]
TARGET ENTITY: Abyssal Vanguard (Core Form)
THREAT LEVEL: Tier-SS SPECIAL ABILITY: Infinite Void Regeneration (100% active)
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 4.2%
---
Ren quickly tapped away at his holographic console, cold sweat dripping down his nose.
"He’s right, Kaelen! The spatial scans show its core is shielded by three layers of hyper-dense void mana! Even if Lyra hits it with a high-tier holy spell, the monster will regenerate its entire body in less than two seconds!"
"Regeneration is merely an illusion created by inefficient energy recycling," Kaelen stated coldly. His dark violet eyes remained completely unbothered as he held Lyra close to his side.
"It relies on spatial anchors to pull continuous energy from the rift."
ROAR!
The Abyssal Vanguard issued a screeching roar that shattered the surrounding rock—blinding golden radiance as she raised her hands. A massive, translucent shield of divine holy fire expanded outward, intercepting the crashing tentacles.
BOOM!
The impact shook the entire canyon. Golden sparks and purple dark matter exploded outward like fireworks. Lyra gritted her teeth, her boots sliding backward two inches on the stone as she held the immense weight of the Tier-SS monster.
"I can hold its direct strikes, Kaelen," Lyra panted, her blue eyes blazing with determination, "but its tentacles are continuously shifting through spatial pockets!" I can’t pin it down!"
While Lyra held the front line, a dark silhouette darted across the edge of the collapsing pillar.
Tsubaki was a blur of motion. His dark shinobi cloak fluttered like broken shadows in the toxic wind. In his right hand, he held his single, exquisite blade—a black-alloy katana with a crescent moon guard, its edge gleaming with a subtle, icy sheen.
He leapt off the pillar, vaulting high into the sky above the thrashing monster. His sharp eyes scanned the giant beast, calculating its movement, its speed, and its flow of energy.
Swish! Swish!
Tsubaki executed three lightning-fast aerial slashes with his katana, sending arcs of compressed shadow energy directly at the beast’s central tentacle.
CRACK!
The dark blades sliced deep into the creature’s thick hide, severing a fifty-meter section of the tentacle. But before the severed limb could even hit the ground, dark purple void tendrils burst from the wound, knitting the flesh back together instantly. In less than a second, the tentacle was fully restored and swinging directly toward Tsubaki’s head!
Tsubaki twisted his body mid-air, using a shadow-step to flash fifty feet away onto a floating rock fragment. His chest heaved slightly as he looked at his katana.
’Standard physical slashes and basic shadow magic are useless,’ Tsubaki thought, his jaw tightening beneath his mask. ’Its body is connected to the ground shadows, constantly fed by the Void Rupture. As long as its anchor remains intact, my blade cannot kill it. I need to serve something deeper than flesh...’
Suddenly, the Abyssal Vanguard shifted its focus. Recognizing the threat of Ren’s technical equipment and Ignis’s defensive positioning, two immense tentacles lunged from the shadows beneath the crater, aiming to impale Ren and Ignis from their blind spot!
"Ren! Ignis! Behind you!" Lyra cried out, but her hands were locked in maintaining the forward barrier against four other incoming limbs.
"Damn it!" Ignis swung his flaming broadsword, but the sheer momentum of the abyssal tentacle shattered his flame aura instantly, throwing him backward against the rock.
Ren closed his eyes, shielding his data drive with his body. "Kaelen!"
Kaelen didn’t move to intercept. Instead, his dark eyes remained fixed on Tsubaki. "Tsubaki. Stop watching the flesh. Look at the distortion beneath it."
Kaelen’s low velvet voice pierced through the roaring chaos like a quiet bell. Tsubaki’s eyes widened.
The distortion beneath it.
Tsubaki channeled his perception to its absolute limit, activating his vision. The physical world faded into shades of gray, leaving only energy flows. He saw it—a massive, twisted black shadow projected on the dark obsidian floor beneath the monster.
The shadow wasn’t just a reflection of light; it was the monster’s spatial anchor, connecting its soul to the crater’s core!
’The shadow IS its foundation!’ Tsubaki realized. ’If I cut the body, it heals. But if I cut the anchor...!’
As the two massive tentacles descended toward Ren and Ignis, Tsubaki dropped into a deep, low iaijutsu stance on his floating rock. He placed his left thumb against the guard of his katana, driving his internal mana matrix into overdrive.
He didn’t draw upon holy light, nor did he use raw physical strength. Instead, he allowed the intense, ambient Void Mana radiating from Kaelen to resonate with his own shadow affinity. The edge of his katana began to hum with a terrifying, pitch-black spatial frequency.
---
[CRITICAL EVENT DETECTED!]
Unit ’Tsubaki’ is experiencing spatial-shadow alignment!
Resonance Source: Sovereign Kaelen (Void Origin)
Skill Awakening in Progress...
---
The air around Tsubaki went dead silent. The wind stopped. The sound of the monster’s roaring was muffled as if trapped under water.
"Katana Secret Art..." Tsubaki whispered, his voice cold, flat, and absolute.
He unsheathed his blade in a single, blinding flash of movement.
"Shadow Severance: Absolute Pin!"
SHING!
A single line of pure, condensed black light erupted from the tip of his katana, tracing across the air like a razor-sharp thread. It did not hit the giant tentacles hanging over Ren and Ignis. It did not hit the monster’s eyes or flesh.
The line of dark light slammed directly into the giant shadow cast by the Abyssal Vanguard on the crater floor below!
CRACK! BANG!
The moment Tsubaki’s slash cut through the shadow on the ground, massive, spectral black spikes—forged from pure spatial shadow—erupted from the bedrock! Thousands of dark chains burst out of the earth, wrapping around the monster’s shadow and pinning it flush against the obsidian stone.
The effect was instantaneous and absolute.
ROAR?!
The Abyssal Vanguard let out a muffled, horrified shriek. The massive tentacles froze mid-air, inches away from crushing Ren. The creature’s crimson eyes bulged in utter panic as its entire three-hundred-meter body locked up like a statue. Its purple regeneration flames vanished instantly!
---
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION!]
Unit ’Tsubaki’ has successfully awakened [Shadow Severance: Absolute Pin] (Rank: S)!
Effect: Target’s spatial anchor severed! Status Applied: TOTAL PARALYSIS (10 Seconds)
Regeneration Matrix: DISABLED!
---
"I... I can’t move..." Ignis gasped, looking up in sheer awe at the frozen titan. "He paralyzed a Tier-SS Calamity Spawn... by cutting its shadow?."
Tsubaki landed lightly on the stone beside Ren, his breathing heavy, his right hand still firmly gripping the hilt of his smoking katana. The black edge was dripping with condensed void-shadow energy. He looked up at Kaelen and gave a single, tight nod.
"The anchor is pinned, Lord Kaelen," Tsubaki reported smoothly. "You have ten seconds."
"Excellently done, Tsubaki," Kaelen purred softly.
In a fraction of a second, Kaelen moved.
He didn’t rush forward or jump. He simply stepped off the edge of the pillar into open air. His dark coat billowed behind him as his boots touched the void-tainted atmosphere as if walking down a flight of invisible stairs.
He reached down to his hip and slowly unsheathed the Void Blade.
The moment the dark steel left its sheath, the entire atmosphere of Sector 0 buckled. The purple clouds above parted in a wide circle, suppressed by an overwhelming, absolute pressure that made the paralyzed Abyssal Vanguard shudder in primal terror.
Kaelen hovered directly above the beast’s giant central eye. His dark violet eyes glowed with terrifying, god-like authority.
"You dared to reach for what is mine," Kaelen whispered, his voice echoing in the ears of everyone present like a death sentence.
He raised his Void Blade above his head. The dark steel absorbed all ambient light, forming a colossal blade of pure spatial erasure that stretched five hundred meters into the sky.
"Void Domain Art: Total Erasure."
Kaelen brought his blade down with effortless, casual grace.
There was no explosion. There was no loud crash.
A single wave of pure, dark purple energy washed over the entire three-hundred-meter body of the Abyssal Vanguard. Where the wave touched, matter simply ceased to exist. Flesh, bones, antimatter, eyes, and spatial anchors were unmade on an atomic level, dissolving into nothingness in less than a second.
SWOOSH.
When the light faded, the colossal Tier-SS monster was gone. Not a single drop of blood or ash remained. The giant fissure in the crater floor was left empty, cleanly severed down to the deep bedrock.
---
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION!]
TARGET ELIMINATED: Abyssal Vanguard (Tier SS)
EXP DISTRIBUTED: 15,000,000 Points
PARTY STATUS: VICTORIOUS
SECTOR 0 PENETRATION: 15% COMPLETE!
---
Kaelen landed gracefully on the edge of the newly formed crater, sheathing his Void Blade with a soft click.
Lyra glided down beside him, her holy light softening as she looked at him with unhidden adoration and awe. "Clean as always, my lord."
Tsubaki stepped up behind them, sheathing his katana, his cold eyes scanning the deep expanse of the crater ahead. "Lord Kaelen, the path to the Core Basin is open."
Kaelen turned his gaze toward the dark, churning vortex at the center of Sector 0, a faint, dangerous smile playing upon his lips.
"Then let us show this world," Kaelen murmured smoothly, "who truly rules the Void."