BOOM!
Black holes, supernovas and wormholes spawned spontaneously. The world really seemed to be coming to an end.
Demonic energy became Ryker's only way of facing off against Rowan's living weapon.
Since they had mutually decided to keep their Finality and Infinity to minimum use—only using it as defences for their bodies—they were forced to go back to their original laws.
Demonic Energy and Time.
Time seemed like a stronger law in the minds of most, but Rowan had known Ryker long enough to understand that even giving him just a spoon to battle a veteran soldier as a mere mortal, he was going to come out on top.
He had such twisted and scary improvisation skills that Rowan couldn't fathom how his mind worked—though that had changed just now. Rowan's knowledge became boundless with his transformation, and he knew a lot more than even he was letting on.
The two living weapons collided, an explosion separating them, only for them to connect with each other again.
A spin of the polearm caused the blade of the scythe to fly at Rowan's neck.
Rowan rotated his staff, catching the scythe by the joint and pushing upwards. Using his body as leverage, he pulled harder, making the weapon overshoot, then triggering an explosion from the staff, the scythe was sent to the side, leaving Ryker's chest wide open.
The staff fell immediately, but Ryker's scythe suddenly appeared in its path again, confusing Rowan for a moment.
Another explosion forced the weapons apart, with Ryker being on the losing side of the exchange. Or so Rowan thought.
[Demonization]!
Ryker activated a skill.
His Demon Energy surged out like a raging tsunami, slapping against the laws of the world and spreading cancerous growths within them.
They fell under his control, and immediately, the shockwaves that should have dispersed were sent back at Rowan, slapping against his face and whipping his head back.
That was it!
That shocking improvisation!
Ryker didn't stop there, he poisoned and corrupted more laws of the world with his Demon energy, forcing them under his will and using them against Rowan.
Shockwaves that should have dispersed, light particles that should have long died off, and the very vacuum of space were all working against him.
One series of attacks after another flowing into each other seamlessly. Rowan was forced to stop the explosion of supernovas and shift his battle style into something more unpredictable.
His body suddenly broke down, the cubes making him rearranging and changing.
Ryker's scythe missed, flying through the spot where Rowan's neck should have been. At the same time, Rowan's staff was already moving forward, a vortex of stars, black holes and compressed planets gathering at the tip from within the living weapon.
It was partly true when they said a universe was locked in the living weapon. The supernovas weren't being generated randomly after all.
Ryker faced the coming attack head on, his side wide open to it.
He hadn't taken into account such a maneuver, but he was expecting something anyway. He only hoped that his counter was enough.
"Hope?" The thought entered his mind, taking his attention away for a second.
Then, he refocused.
A Bone shield—layered with Primordial Titan Flesh and Demon Energy—materialized from seemingly nowhere, blocking the path of the staff to his exposed side.
Ryker flexed his muscles, retreating as fast as he could as the shield crumbled.
He knew the shield wasn't strong enough to block the attack, but he needed his energy for something else, else, he would have formed more.
The shield did slow the attack down, but it still didn't stop it from piercing into his side, tearing through his bone armor, Finality and flesh.
Ryker gritted his teeth. This was not how he wanted it to end, but it was the end he got. An end befitting of the God of death. Being imploded by a supernova from within.
Ryker's gaze landed on Rowan, and a cold shiver suddenly ran down Rowan's spine.
"C..heck...mate," Ryker uttered weakly, his body already beginning to glow from within, the supernova mere moments away from reaching its crescendo.
Rowan tilted his featureless face, wondering what made Ryker think he had won.
But there was nothing, his mind unable to cook up something.
"Why?"
Those were Rowan's last thoughts as the dense ball of demonic energy, revolving in the spot between his head and torso exploded, corrupting the countless time fractals his body was made up of, and turning him into a part of Ryker… Ryker who was mere moments away from exploding.
Then suddenly!
BOOOOOM!!
An explosion rocked the universe, spanning millions upon millions of kilometers.
A vast expanse of space was wiped out, stars blinked out, planets crumbled, and reality shuddered in terror.
The explosion was greater than any that had ever happened before.
Rowan had mobilized over a third of the suns and celestial bodies in his staff to make that final attack.
Who would have known that the moment Ryker had forced him to reshape his body, and his scythe passed the region where his reshaped neck should have been, he left a dense corrupting ball of Demon Energy, causing Rowan to get slowly corrupted—his thoughts to fragment—leading to his slow reaction to his bodies malfunction… and the rest was history.
Ryker smiled, or at least he tried to. He was nothing more than just a floating soul orb at the moment.
Looking in a direction where a golden light poised itself, unmoving, Ryker's soul spoke:
"Rememember…o,ur.. de..eal," He choked out the words, clouds of ash billowing around him.
His voice, unprotected by anything, scattered the already torn firmaments, relocated the nebulas and fragments of what remained of the celestial bodies, and shook existence, the laws responding to his slow demise.
The God of Death and Finality, and the God of Time and Infinity, dying, was not something a universe could live without.
They controlled concepts that weren't meant to… not exist.
But, just like every other universe out there, this universe possessed something that made it what it was.
Adaptability.
If there was no Time and Infinity, then so be it.
If there was no concept of Death and Finality, then so be it!
The rulers of those concepts had wounded the universe anyway, so it was more than ready to purge them from itself, accelerating their deaths… ironically.
It was quite funny. Infinity had no end, and Finality was the end, so, how was the universe going to end them?
The radiant golden light in the distance approached the dying gods, hovering before them silently.
"Do it!" Rowan's voice came, sharp, unable to be ignored.
He also was nothing more than a soul orb, and was slowly being grinded out of existence.
They had planned all this down to the finest details, as this wasn't the first time they had fought and destroyed the universe.
Each time they fought and lost to themselves, Rowan rewinded time to the beginning of it all, and they started their climb to the top all over again.
This time though, they wanted something different. They had rewinded time and started from the same place too many times, and they were getting bored of it.
The golden being before them separated into two, then each half shrouded the two Gods and began to glow resplendently.
"Time, unbind this stringent loop,"
"Break the rules the stars once knew,"
"Cast away the cycle's yoke,"
"And blaze a path to futures new!"