Time was a luxury even my Infinity Realm could barely afford. Within the Accelerator Chamber, my final preparations were a whirlwind of focused energy and cosmic theory. The prototype law, my answer to the Herald's space-time mastery, solidified from a concept into a tangible weapon bound to my very soul.
[RESEARCH COMPLETE: VOIDPHASE EDGELAW]
Stability: 100% (Combat Ready)
Effect: Disrupts cosmic constructs, phases through void attacks.
Integration Status: Ready for soul-binding.
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The new law settled within me, a sharp, cutting edge of reality that felt fundamentally different from the raw elemental forces of my Pyro-Cryo seed. It was a scalpel designed to dissect the universe itself. Beside me, Yue Lian stood, her azure aura now stable and shimmering with newfound confidence.
"His power attacks reality directly," she stated, her voice calm and analytical. "Illusions may not deceive his senses, but they can deceive the battlefield. I will create openings by warping his perception of space, making him misjudge your position and speed."
"Good," I nodded, my mind already weaving her abilities into my strategy. "Your Phantom Mirage Array will be the feint. While he's occupied with your phantoms, I'll close the distance. This Voidphase Edgelaw is my key, but it has a limited duration and a cooldown. The openings you create must be precise." I decided then to not just wield the new law, but to fuse it. At the moment of contact, I would integrate it with my Pyro-Cryo core, creating a temporary state of power that could, hopefully, match a Tier-5 Authority.
It was an audacious gamble. My current capabilities were a patchwork of stolen and fused powers, a chaotic but potent mix. The Herald, however, was a pure-blooded Tier-5 entity, a master of a single, advanced cosmic law. This duel would not be won by brute force, but by the perfect execution of a strategy that bordered on suicidal.
"Let's go," I said, my voice leaving no room for argument. With a shared glance, we exited the Infinity Realm, the two hours granted by the Herald already ticking away. We raced towards the Shattered Peak, two insignificant specks against a world poised to witness the judgment of a god.
The Shattered Peak was a place where reality had come undone. The mountain itself had been torn apart by the apocalypse, its massive fragments now floating in the sky, held aloft by churning gravitational anomalies. The air hummed with power, and the sky was a mesmerizing, terrifying spectacle of multiple spatial rifts bleeding their light across the void-touched landscape like celestial auroras.
At the very apex of this broken monument stood the Herald's arena: a perfectly circular platform of what looked like crystallized, solidified space-time. It shimmered with an internal light, a stage fit for a cosmic execution. In its center stood the Emissary of the Starfallen, motionless. The very air, light, and gravity warped around its silent form, bending to its passive authority.
[COMBAT ZONE ANALYSIS]
Environmental Hazards: Gravity Fluctuations, Spatial Distortions.
Terrain Advantage: Neutral (Herald's Domain).
Recommended Strategy: Close-range Voidphase engagement.
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My gaze swept the area. On the other floating peaks, dozens of figures had gathered. Evolved humans in salvaged armor, mutant beast lords with cunning eyes, even the flickering forms of ethereal beings I couldn't yet classify. They were the audience. This duel was not a private affair; it was a proclamation. For them, it was to witness the extermination of an upstart. For me, it was to announce my ascension.
As we landed on the crystalline platform, the Herald's voice echoed in the minds of all present, a cold, telepathic broadcast that carried the weight of cosmic law. "The anomaly Luo Feng. You have violated the natural order, consuming essences not meant for your kind and forging laws that defy the sacred calculus of the universe. You are a cancer upon reality. As the Herald of the Starfallen, I am here to restore balance through your utter annihilation."
The declaration was followed by immediate action. The Herald raised its arms, and the dozens of rifts in the sky flared. A "Cosmic Judgment Array" activated. From every rift, lances of pure void energy, blacker than space and crackling with gravitational force, rained down upon the platform. Simultaneously, the Herald's power surged, attempting to pin me in place, to make me a stationary target for its celestial execution.
But it was targeting the wrong Luo Feng.
"Now!" I commanded. Yue Lian acted instantly. Her "Phantom Mirage Array" bloomed. A dozen perfect copies of me exploded into existence across the platform, each one radiating my aura, each one moving with my exact mannerisms. The void lances, guided by the Herald's senses, scattered, striking the phantoms which dissolved into harmless azure light.
While the Herald was momentarily processing the illusion, I made my move.
[VOIDPHASE EDGELAW: ACTIVATED]
Phase Duration: 3.7 seconds.
Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Cosmic Disruption: Active.
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My body shimmered, becoming momentarily translucent. One of the Herald's gravity pulses washed over me, but instead of crushing me, it passed harmlessly through my phased form. I was untouchable, a ghost in the machine of its reality. I closed the distance in an instant and unleashed a full-power "Steam-Frost Annihilation" directly at the Herald's back.
The blast of hybrid energy slammed into one of its rift-energy wings. The Herald staggered, a screech of static and rage echoing in my mind as the wing shredded, dissolving into cosmic dust. First blood was mine. I had proven it: even a god could bleed.
The Herald's silent, impassive demeanor shattered. It turned, its faceless helm radiating an aura of pure, unadulterated fury. It had underestimated me. It would not make that mistake again. It spread its arms wide, its remaining wing flaring, and invoked its true domain. "Stellar Collapse Domain!"
The world ended. The crystalline platform, the floating peaks, the very sky—it all began to dissolve. A point of absolute darkness, a miniature black hole, formed above the Herald, pulling everything into its inescapable maw. The laws of physics were being unwritten. My Pyro-Cryo aura was being shredded, my energy siphoned away into the singularity. This was the true power of a Tier-5 Authority.
There was no strategy against this. No defense. Only evolution. My mind screamed at the Omni-Soul Codex, pushing it beyond every known limit. Fuse it all!
[EMERGENCY OMNI-FUSION: TRI-LAW SYNTHESIS]
Components: Pyro-Cryo (10%) + Voidphase Edgelaw (100%) + Stolen Cosmic Fragments (from scan).
New Creation: REALITY NULLIFICATION LAW
Mastery: 0% → 8% (Instant).
Warning: Extreme strain on Tier-0 vessel. Soul-level damage imminent.
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My body became a nexus of universal contradiction. Fire, ice, and the void churned within me, not mixing, but being annihilated and reborn as something new, something that had no right to exist. My aura shifted from iridescent steam to a roiling, prismatic void-fire that actively bent and consumed the light and space around it. The pull of the Herald's black hole lessened, not because I was resisting it, but because my new law refused to acknowledge its existence.
"My turn," I snarled, my voice now a chorus of overlapping, distorted echoes. I thrust my hand forward, not firing a projectile, but projecting a state of being. "Reality Nullification Sphere."
A small, twenty-meter zone of absolute stability erupted around us. Inside this sphere, the Herald's Stellar Collapse Domain ceased to exist. The miniature black hole vanished. The shredding of reality stopped. Within my sphere, my law was absolute. The Herald's eyes, two points of light within its helm, widened in what could only be disbelief as its ultimate technique was simply… turned off.
Inside the null-zone, we were equals. I charged, my fists wreathed in null-fire. It met me with its Xeno-Adaptive Carapace, its movements impossibly fast. We traded blows that would have shattered continents, each impact a silent explosion of warring laws. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. At a pivotal moment, as the Herald prepared to unleash a point-blank void blast, Yue Lian acted. A perfect illusion of a collapsing mountain appeared behind the Herald. For a fraction of a second, its attention wavered.
It was the only opening I needed. I poured every ounce of my new, unstable law into my hand and thrust it forward, piercing the Herald's chest. The Reality Nullification energy did not burn or freeze; it unmade. The Herald's carapace, its physical form, its very soul-concept dissolved around my arm.
It looked down at the hole in its existence, and its final words echoed not with rage, but with a chilling tone of revelation. "You are not an anomaly… you are a fulcrum. The Convergence of Worlds… is now inevitable..." Then, it dissolved into nothingness, its cosmic authority extinguished forever.
The moment the Herald died, the rewards flooded my system, and the price came due.
[TIER 5 ENTITY ELIMINATED]
Rewards: Cosmic Rift Weaving Lawseed (Advanced Space-Time: 15%).
Bonus: Herald's Xeno-Adaptive Carapace Integration.
Evolution Unlock: Spatial Manipulation Domain.
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The power was immense, a torrent of cosmic understanding that threatened to shatter my consciousness. But my body, my pathetic Tier-0 vessel, finally gave out. The strain of wielding the Reality Nullification Law was too much. My vision went black as every cell screamed in agony. My last conscious act was to trigger an emergency retreat. I collapsed into Yue Lian's arms as the Infinity Realm swallowed us whole.
As I fell into unconsciousness, the Codex reported the consequences of my victory. My Realm, fed by the raw cosmic energy of the duel, underwent a cataclysmic evolution.
[INFINITY REALM LEVEL UP]
New Level: Continental Seed.
Features Unlocked: Dimensional Gateway, Law Research Laboratory.
Time Dilation Maximum: 5,000x.
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My victory had not gone unnoticed. Yue Lian, having witnessed a battle of gods at point-blank range, felt her own laws evolve in response, the raw space-time energies unlocking a new path for her illusions. More ominously, the Herald's final moments were not silent. A final, desperate message had been broadcast, not to the planet, but to the cosmos. Luo Feng… classified… Multiversal Threat. The countdown had begun.
I spent what felt like an eternity in the deepest parts of the Infinity Realm, floating in a restorative chrysalis of mana and law. Subjectively, months passed under the new 5,000x time dilation. I wasn't just healing; I was rebuilding myself from the ground up, integrating the Herald's carapace, mastering my new Reality Nullification Law, and solidifying my grasp on the Spatial Manipulation Domain.
The news of my victory had spread like wildfire across the shattered surface of the Earth. I was no longer an unknown. I was the monster who had killed a god. Faction leaders, from human warlords to mutant empresses, began to seek an audience, or plot my demise. The Codex pinged with notifications of high-potential females, powerful queens and matriarchs in their own right, drawn by the cosmic shockwave of my power.
But all of that was background noise. When I finally emerged from my long recovery, standing beside Queen Yue Lian in the newly expanded heart of my Continental Realm, I was no longer a Tier-0 pretender. I was a pseudo-Tier 5 entity, a being of impossible law. And the universe had taken notice.
A blaring, crimson alert filled my vision, a threat level I had not seen before.
[MULTIVERSAL CONVERGENCE ALERT]
Incoming Entities: 7 Tier 6+ Cosmic Factions.
Time Until Arrival: 72 hours.
Threat Classification: Existential.
Primary Target: Luo Feng.
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I looked at the alert, at the list of incoming factions whose names alone radiated immense power. Then I looked at my hands, which now hummed with the power to unmake reality.
"Seven cosmic factions are coming here to seek my death?" I murmured, a slow, predatory smile spreading across my face. "Let them come. They are late. The Herald was a warning. I am the judgment. The universe will learn why even gods should fear the name Luo Feng."