Before the lingering trace of Adrian’s chilling smile could fade, the misty sky outside took on an eerie purple hue. Nihira knew this would be no ordinary fight. She stepped slowly into the courtyard of the house. Behind her stood Ariyan, whose chest wound was no longer burning today; instead, it throbbed with a deep, hollow emptiness. The household staff began preparations to cast a barrier. Adrian, too, sent all commoners outside the shield so that no one could interfere with their battle. He now had to defeat history's most powerful family, a feat possible only by destroying Nihira.
Within the barrier, the space was limited—barely the size of a city—yet an entire universe could be forged inside it. The shield would hold until one’s strength hit zero. Ariyan attempted to establish a connection between the barrier and Lucid-Ethel. He eventually succeeded in forming a telepathic link with Niha. They were overjoyed to connect, but there was no time for sentiment. Ariyan successfully bridged the connection between the barrier and Lucid-Ethel; now, all energy within the shield would flow into Lucid-Ethel. Everyone stood ready to witness the greatest battle in history: was God becoming man, or was man becoming God? It was the strongest in history versus the weakest.
As Adrian waved his hand to clear the commoners beyond the mist, the entire area became as silent and lifeless as a desert. Nihira noticed that Adrian’s pupils were no longer still; under the influence of the ‘Newtonian Optic,’ gravitational forces flowed within them like liquid. Adrian smiled faintly and said, "Nihira, this world is so monotonous. Friction, momentum, gravity—everything bound by rules. Today, I shall break those rules." No sooner had he finished speaking than Adrian fixed his gaze on Nihira. Instantly, the air density around her multiplied. Nihira felt her body weight increase tenfold, her feet sinking into the earth. This was Adrian’s Newtonian Optic—he could make the value of gravitational acceleration infinite at will.
Everyone offered Nihira their encouragement. Ariyan told her, “We are waiting for you. Come back alive.” Nihira looked at Raiyan, but he said nothing. Finally, Nihira stepped into the barrier. Upon entering, her senses sharpened. In this artificial universe severed from the outside world, every molecule of air seemed to obey Adrian. She saw Adrian standing suspended in the void, an ancient gravitational wave emitting from the Newtonian Optic in his eyes.
Without warning, Adrian lowered his right hand. Suddenly, the sky above Nihira seemed to tear apart. The air pressure became so intense that surrounding skyscrapers collapsed like houses of cards. a ten-story building was uprooted and hurled toward her. Nihira tore through the falling structure, destroying it as she emerged. Adrian then clenched both fists. Immediately, three more high-rise buildings were ripped from their foundations and floated in the air. He threw them at Nihira as if they were mere toys. As the massive structures crashed upon her, a cataclysmic sound echoed within the barrier.
From the outside, Ariyan and the others watched with bated breath. As the smoke cleared, Nihira was seen lying in pieces. Every part of her body, except for her head, had vanished. However, her body began to reconstruct from those remains. Nihira said to Adrian, “I thought I wouldn't use the power of reconstruction, but you are stronger than before.” Adrian remarked, “Why did your clothes return? It means the secret of these old clothes is that they were made for you and will always stay with you.”
Nihira smiled and pulled a special family weapon from her shadow: an old, smooth, and beautiful Samurian Katana. This blade could strike any concept. Combined with her eyes, Nihira could now perceive the 3-4 core existences of anything, even composite existences. Consequently, she could kill a part of something forever without taking its entire life. Adrian appeared before Nihira at infinite speed, every strike carrying momentum beyond infinity. He slammed her from a football field to the city's clock tower. Her bones were shattering, but after every hit, her body began to adapt to the power.
Nihira leaped toward Adrian. He tried to use 'Repulsive Force' to stop her, but Nihira pierced through that energy and delivered a devastating blow to Adrian’s shoulder, sending him flying several meters away. Adrian then launched his ultimate attack. The sky within the barrier turned blood-red. He pointed his index finger toward the sky, creating a singularity. A black-hole-like point formed at the center of the city. Buildings, cars, roads—everything began to be sucked into that point. Nihira’s body began to crack again, her skin tearing away toward the singularity.
As every cell of Nihira’s body was being torn apart by the cosmic attraction, a demonic smile of satisfaction played on Adrian’s face. Within the event horizon of that black hole, time and space stood still. Nihira first turned to dust and then vanished into the point of infinite density. Inside the barrier, there was no longer a city or a sky—only absolute darkness and the blood-red singularity burning at the center. Outside, Ariyan screamed, but no sound could escape the barrier. Raiyan stood as still as stone, an odd uncertainty in his eyes. Adrian whispered, "The last light of history's strongest family has been extinguished. Where there is no existence, what can reconstruction build from?"
But moments later, a strange pulse was felt within the shield. Birth from nothingness is scientifically impossible, but Nihira’s existence was no ordinary biological entity. Adrian noticed that the point where Nihira had vanished was not emitting light; instead, the singularity itself began to tremble. Suddenly, a soundless explosion occurred. No blood, no flesh—billions of red thread-like veins emerged from the void. These coils of thread intertwined to recreate the familiar silhouette. Nihira returned. She wore the same old clothes and held the Samurian Katana. But this time, her eyes were no longer black; they were as clear as crystal, reflecting the birth and death of the universe. She hadn't just reconstructed; she had brought back her soul and body from the existence of her concepts.
Nihira said calmly, "Adrian, you can destroy mass, but my concept or existence does not depend on mass. I will remain as long as my memory lives in this universe." She stepped forward, each footfall silent. Looking into Adrian’s eyes, she said, "You wanted to break the rules, didn't you? Today I will show you how terrifying anarchy can be when all rules are erased." Adrian realized that to hurt Nihira, he had to attack her concepts. But Nihira’s existence was held by many hands—Ariyan’s hand, her parents’, and those of her entire lineage. Thus, striking her existence was nearly impossible.
When Nihira gripped her katana, the reality within the barrier began to shatter like glass. She was no longer moving at normal speed; she was beyond time. Before Adrian could even blink, she appeared before him. Every step seemed to cross distances equivalent to entire eras. Adrian realized that ordinary physics could no longer contain her. He used the full power of his 'Protean Optic.' In an instant, he expanded a tiny point into an infinite universe, containing countless dimensions and galaxies. His core existence now lay hidden within this vastness like a needle in a haystack.
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Their war began. Within this universe, Adrian’s power was beyond infinity, and the universe itself protected his existence. But Nihira did not stop. She hurled the power of darkness at Adrian. A different situation was unfolding. Usually, mass becomes infinite when approaching the speed of light, but the concept of mass no longer applied to them. How were they seeing at such speeds? Before light could even reach their eyes, they were clashing because they were no longer seeing images—they were seeing information. Due to their speed, they should have traveled to the past, but the past had already been replaced by the present. No one could go back or forward because time is linear.
Adrian was shocked at how Nihira could survive such speeds. But Nihira had adapted to this long ago. No matter how powerful the strike, it could not harm her. On the other hand, Adrian could do whatever he wished with the physics of this realm. They could manifest their full power because, in the real world, the earth would force their infinite power into a finite three-dimensional state. Within Adrian’s artificial universe, no stars remained fixed. In the collision of their infinite speeds, galaxies were torn to shreds. In this battle of information and existence, the laws of physics were merely puppets in Adrian’s hands.
Adrian burst into laughter. "Nihira! I am God here! You speak of the speed of information? I can stop the flow of information in this universe forever!" He extended his hand, and everything from Nihira’s clothes to her katana began to stall. Not the flow of time, but 'Stagnation of Existence' began to take effect. But Nihira turned her crystal pupils. From her shadow emerged a primitive darkness, denser than any artificial light Adrian could create. Nihira said softly, "Those who dream of being God forget that before light, there was only darkness."
As Adrian stood in space, Nihira did not let him rest. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him toward Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. They entered the intense pressure and storm clouds of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Adrian tried to use Jupiter's gravity to crush Nihira, but she activated 'The Erebus Optic.' The pitch-black darkness emitting from her body began to swallow even Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Nihira slammed Adrian into Jupiter’s deep core and said, "You were proud of this planet's mass? Watch how darkness devours even mass."
Slowly, Nihira’s darkness wrapped not just around Jupiter, but around Adrian’s entire artificial universe. The stars went out. This was no ordinary darkness; it was the 'Destruction of Concepts.' The entire artificial world began to shrink like a massive sphere of shadows. Outside, Ariyan saw the barrier walls trembling. Nihira said in her cold voice, "When the universe is incomplete, darkness gives it completion." Then, she swung her katana at the core existence of the burning universe within the darkness. The universe shattered, and they returned to the real world.
Back in reality, the infinite void vanished, and the city reconstructed itself—an effect of the barrier. Adrian sat on his knees, panting; Nihira stood steadfast before him, holding the blood-stained yet gleaming katana. Raiyan muttered in wonder, "What were they doing inside that small football-sized circle all this time?" That circle had been the entire universe.
Nihira swung her katana in a diagonal slash, cutting through the air. No sound followed, but a concrete wall behind Adrian was perfectly bifurcated. This was no ordinary sword strike—it was a Dimensional Slash. Her katana was a Conceptual Artifact; through it, she could directly cut the fabric of reality. Adrian stood up with a laugh, blood now dripping from his eyes. He roared, "You need a Conceptual Artifact to use Conceptual Magic. My Sovereign Glare gives me the power to control Conceptual Magic itself!"
Raiyan explained to Ariyan, "See this magical fight? It’s of three types. First, eye power or Optical Axioms. Second, ordinary magic like creating barriers or blood magic—which I use. And third and most terrifying is Conceptual Magic. It requires a control artifact. For Nihira, it’s that katana, and for Adrian, it’s those cursed eyes. All this requires control over Ether energy, which ordinary humans can learn through practice, unlike Optical Axioms which are innate."
Ariyan asked, "So Nihira's Conceptual Magic is Dimensional Slash, and Adrian's is Fake Cosmic Body Manifestation?" Raiyan agreed. Ariyan then told Raiyan about Niha and the Pillars of Creation. Raiyan was shocked. "Niha is the True Valerius. She is the constant of all archetypes. Ouroboros is the constant of duality, and Archos is the constant of transcendence. All constants existed before creation, but Archos is a temporary constant, so he appeared after creation. As for Niha, her constant was distributed among her kin before creation, but after they died and long after the world was made, Niha was born as the living entity of all constants from a dead mother's womb to fulfill her duty."
Ariyan questioned Raiyan about the barrier. Raiyan explained, "Every barrier is made with certain rules. For instance, the rule of this barrier is to fix everything inside automatically so the city isn't destroyed." Ariyan began to feel sad for Niha. Amidst their conversation, the battlefield inside the barrier heated up again. Adrian realized that ordinary physics or artificial universes wouldn't stop Nihira. He turned his eyes blood-red and used Infinite Attraction.
Instantly, every atom in Nihira’s body was pulled toward Adrian with immense force. Adrian had turned his own body into a point of infinite density, with an attraction stronger than a black hole. But Nihira didn't budge. She drove her katana into the ground and stood still. She had already adapted to Adrian’s gravitational force. Her existence no longer followed the laws of mass. Adrian then removed the Strong Nuclear Force from Nihira so her atoms would become unstable, but it had no effect. Adrian did not give up. He extended his palm and used Infinite Repulsion.
The attraction force instantly turned into a repulsion force. A massive shockwave hit Nihira, equivalent to a supernova explosion. But she sliced through the air with her katana, dividing the force in two. The shock hit the barrier walls, shaking the entire city; even Lucid-Ethel and the other Pillars felt it. Yet Nihira remained unscratched.
Adrian then played his trump card. He decided to erase Infinite Mass. He tried to set Nihira’s mass to zero to erase her from the universe. But Nihira laughed. She said slowly, "Adrian, I told you, my existence doesn't depend on mass. How can you erase what isn't there?" Adrian realized that fighting Nihira with these finite powers was impossible. He closed his bloodied eyes and entered deep meditation. The wind stopped, and the sounds within the barrier died out. He formed his Internal Architecture: Domain of the Fallen King.
Suddenly, the scenery within the barrier changed. Red ash began to fall from the sky. Thousands of iron chains and broken thrones rose from the ground. This was the physical manifestation of Adrian’s inner ideology. Here, he was not just a ruler; he was the only truth. Inside this Internal Architecture, all of Nihira’s powers ceased to work. Nihira looked around. She understood that Adrian had brought his inner world into reality. She unsheathed her katana. A mysterious smile appeared on her lips. She said calmly, "If you can bring your dark world to reality, why can't I bring mine?" She drove her katana into the ground. The darkness around her intensified, taking the shape of a massive structure. "Internal Architecture: Eternal Silence of the Abyss!" Nihira’s architecture clashed with Adrian’s world. On one side, Adrian’s world of chaos and revenge; on the other, Nihira’s world of silence and endless darkness. In the collision of these two massive ideologies, a new world began to be born within the barrier.
