On the edge of the Abyss of Nothingness, the surging core magma and violent dark-purple energy currents illuminated Nolan's floating figure like a demon god of the abyss.
Between his hands, the energy radiating ultimate annihilation, like a miniature black hole, had condensed into form. Its suction force even began to distort the surrounding light, and even sound was swallowed, leaving only an absolute, soul-freezing silence.
"Return to... Nothingness!"
Nolan's smooth, cold metallic voice was like a pronouncement of the universe's end.
Trigg knelt on one knee at the edge of the abyss, his silver-gray heavy armor covered in scorch marks and annihilation etchings, his crimson cape tattered, and silver-gray blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.
His violent silver eyes stared fixedly at the continuously collapsing core of destruction, a mix of solemnity and disbelief on his face.
He could clearly feel that the power contained within it was enough to completely erase the crust of Vitrum Prime, along with all of them, from the universe!
Any defense in front of it would probably be like thin paper!
"He's crazy! Truly crazy!"
Nolan wasn't this insane when he was contending with him for the Regent's throne before, was he?
Trigg roared, his voice hoarse with anger and a hint of imperceptible urgency.
The Conqueror's pride made him unwilling to retreat, but reason was screaming a warning.
His massive body's muscles bulged, energy flowing wildly through the gaps in his heavy armor, seemingly searching for that slim chance to break the spell with brute force.
Further away, Mark struggled to prop himself up from the magma-scorched alloy fragments.
His left arm was unnaturally twisted, the intense pain almost consuming his consciousness, and his right arm was completely ruined, the arm bone exposed, blood mixed with dark-purple annihilation energy continuously dripping, making sizzling sounds on the scorching ground.
His golden-red pupils were dim like a flickering candle in the wind, yet they were locked onto the all-consuming dark core in Nolan's hands.
The cold touch of death had never been so clear.
Eve and Rudy were still deep in the well...
Allen had only a sliver of life left in the medical pod...
Earth's crisis had not yet been resolved... He couldn't...
He absolutely couldn't fall here!
Buzz—!!!
The energy suction suddenly intensified, and the alloy fragments at the edge of the abyss silently floated up, being pulled towards the dark core, turning into the most primitive particle dust upon contact!
Even the surging magma began to twist and stretch, forming hot streams flowing towards the core!
The countdown to destruction had reached its final moments!
Just at this critical juncture!
A blurred figure, with an unyielding determination, suddenly burst forth from the ruins behind Trigg's side!
It was Mark!
His remaining left arm's muscles were tensed to their limit, veins protruding like coiled dragons, and his skin cracked and bled from overexertion!
He ignored the excruciating pain of his body on the verge of collapse, ignored the terrifying suction force, and even ignored death itself!
In his eyes, there was only the core of destruction about to erupt, and... the obsession to carve out a sliver of hope for his teammates and the world behind him!
"Quick!"
Mark's voice was hoarse and broken, like sandpaper rubbing, yet it carried an undeniable resolve that pierced the soul!
"Help me... tear it open!!!"
He offered no explanation, nor did he need one!
At the precipice of destruction, words were pale; only action, only the burning flame of life, mattered!
Mark's figure transformed into a stream of light, charging unhesitatingly towards the all-consuming dark core!
He went straight for the energy connection point between Nolan's hands, which maintained its stable form!
That was the only possible weak point his super-perception had caught amidst the intense pain and energy currents!
He wanted to use his broken body, with his remaining strength, to shake this countdown to the end!
Trigg's violent silver eyes suddenly narrowed!
He saw Mark's resolute figure charging towards the core of destruction, saw the fire of will bursting forth from that broken body, exceeding all limits!
He also heard the undeniable fighting spirit contained within that roar!
A young man, a stranger, yet flowing with Viltrum blood... how could he possess such courage?!
No hesitation!
The Conqueror's pride and battlefield instincts instantly overwhelmed all doubts!
"Roar—!!!"
Trigg let out a roar that shattered the magma, his massive body, like a spring compressed to its limit, suddenly shot up from his kneeling posture!
The already fragile edge of the abyss beneath his feet instantly collapsed!
He abandoned all defensive stances, pouring all his strength, his will to conquer, and the ferocity of the Viltrum bloodline into his right fist, covered in heavy armor!
In front of his fist, the air was compressed to the extreme, forming a solid, shimmering silver-gray impact cone!
With the brutal will to crush space and conquer all things, he struck later but arrived first, following Mark's figure, fiercely slamming into the energy connection point between Nolan's hands!
"Ants... delusional!"
Nolan's cold voice showed a hint of being utterly enraged for the first time.
His purple-flamed single eye burst forth with unprecedented light, his hands maintaining the core's posture unchanged, but the dark-purple energy network covering his body instantly glowed to its maximum!
A more powerful force field, with absolute repulsion and annihilation properties, suddenly erupted outwards from him!
Attempting to completely push away and annihilate these two overconfident challengers!
Mark bore the brunt, the violent repulsive force field like billions of steel needles piercing his body, his tattered battle suit instantly turning to dust!
His already severely injured body was like being struck by an invisible heavy hammer, blood mixed with fragments of internal organs spurting from his mouth!
But his charging momentum did not diminish in the slightest!
The flames in his golden-red pupils burned to their maximum, his remaining left arm, its high-frequency vibrating energy compressed to an unprecedented degree, even causing the arm bone to emit groans of unbearable strain!
He ignored the erosion of the annihilation force field, ignored the disintegration of his body, his eyes fixed only on that connection point!
"Give me... open—!!!"
Mark's roar and Trigg's void-shattering punch resounded simultaneously!
Boom!!!!!!
Two destructive impacts, almost at the same instant, slammed fiercely into the energy connection point between Nolan's hands, which maintained the energy's stability and was composed of countless dark-purple energy threads!
Time seemed to freeze at this moment!
An indescribable, terrifying energy storm suddenly erupted!
It was not an explosion, but a clash and annihilation of energy torrents, like the birth of the universe!
Mark's left arm, upon contact with the energy connection point, its covering of high-frequency vibrating energy shattered inch by inch like fragile glass!
Immediately after, his flesh and bones, under the dual erosion of the violent energy clash and Nolan's annihilation force field, rapidly carbonized, peeled away, and pulverized like snow thrown into a furnace!
Excruciating pain instantly consumed all his senses, but his final concentrated will, like a nail, fiercely wedged into that connection point!
Trigg's punch, condensed with his life's power, followed closely, like a battering ram, striking fiercely at the same spot where Mark's will had embedded!
Crack—!!!!!!!!
A crisp sound, as if the very foundation of the universe had snapped!
Between Nolan's hands, the indestructible energy connection point, composed of countless dark-purple energy threads, finally developed a crack under the tiny flaw created by Mark at the cost of his arm, and Trigg's subsequent world-shattering brute force impact!
Though it was only a tiny crack!
But for maintaining absolute energy stability, it was fatal!
The originally stably collapsing dark-purple core, radiating ultimate annihilation, suddenly trembled violently, its internal, planet-destroying annihilation energy instantly spiraled out of control!
Innumerable fine dark-purple energy arcs appeared on the core's surface, wildly shooting outwards, tearing space, the terrifying suction suddenly vanished, replaced by a destructive, imminent, and complete expansion!
"No—!"
Nolan's smooth, cold metallic voice showed a noticeable fluctuation for the first time, filled with incredulous fury.
The light in his purple-flamed single eye flickered wildly, attempting to forcibly stabilize the out-of-control core!
But it was too late!
The out-of-control annihilation energy, like a primeval beast escaping its cage, instantly backfired, Nolan's dark-purple energy network covering his entire body flickered wildly, like an overloaded circuit, flashing on and off erratically!
His hands, maintaining the core, were fiercely shaken open by the violent energy backlash, and his entire body was like being struck by an invisible giant hammer, suddenly flying backward, slamming heavily into the hard alloy cliff on the other side of the abyss, blasting out a huge crater!
Dark-purple energy surged out like blood from his mouth, nose, and the cracks in his body!
And that out-of-control core, losing Nolan's maintenance, like a punctured balloon, instantly began to expand violently!
Destructive dark-purple light filled the entire Abyss of Nothingness!
Destruction was about to descend indiscriminately!
"Retreat—!!!" Trigg roared, his massive figure instantly retreating rapidly!
He scooped up Mark, who had fallen into semi-consciousness from the excruciating pain of his severed arm and the energy backlash, like carrying a broken doll, and shot wildly backward at beyond-limit speed, away from the core's expansion!
Just as Trigg carried Mark out of the core's expansion range!
Boom!!!!!!
The out-of-control core completely erupted!
Dark-purple light swallowed everything!
There was no sound, only pure energy annihilation and spatial disintegration, a destructive domain even larger and deeper than before instantly expanded, completely engulfing the entire abyss, along with large sections of the battlefield ruins on both sides!
When the blinding dark-purple light slowly dissipated.
What appeared before their eyes was an even larger and deeper void, with a diameter far exceeding the previous one.
Its edges were smooth as a mirror, and at the bottom, more violent dark-purple energy currents and core magma surged, like a scar on the universe.
All traces of the previous battlefield, along with countless warriors who couldn't escape in time, had completely vanished without a trace.
Only some molten alloy remnants at the edge of the abyss proved that something had once existed here.
On the other side of the abyss, Trigg landed heavily, carefully placing the unconscious Mark, whose breath was as faint as a wisp of smoke, on a relatively flat, unmelted alloy plate.
His heavy armor was covered with new annihilation etchings, the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth were more pronounced, and his breathing was heavy.
He looked down at Mark's completely vanished left arm wound, and the exposed arm bone of his right arm. In his violent pupils, for the first time, a complex, almost respectful emotion appeared.
"Kid... ruthless! Ballsy!"
Trigg commented in a low voice, his tone less violent, more a hoarse acknowledgment.
He looked up, his gaze like a sharp blade, piercing fiercely towards the opposite side of the abyss.
On the alloy cliff opposite, Nolan's figure slowly struggled out of the huge crater he had created by crashing into it.
The dark-purple energy network on his body was extremely dim, and at the punch mark left by Trigg on his chest, the cracks in the dark-purple biomass tissue had widened, like shattered glass, continuously oozing viscous dark-purple energy.
The flame in his purple-flamed single eye was almost extinguished, leaving only two faint but even colder and more insane ghostly lights.
His other eye, covered by a gray film, seemed to be severely impacted by the backlash, its pupil somewhat unfocused.
He was breathing heavily, each breath accompanied by fluctuations of energy disorder, clearly indicating that the backlash from the core's loss of control had caused him immense damage.
"You... two..." Nolan's voice was no longer smooth and cold, but hoarse and noisy due to obvious energy disorder, like damaged metal rubbing together.
"...Un...forgivable!"
He tried to gather strength, but the dark-purple energy fluctuations around his body were extremely unstable, making it clear that he would be unable to unleash such a destructive attack in a short period of time.
Trigg straightened his massive body, his silver-gray heavy armor reflecting a cold, hard glint under the dark-purple light emanating from the abyss.
He stretched his limbs, emitting a grating metallic sound, his violent silver eyes rekindling with fighting spirit, locking onto the weakened Nolan.
"Worm-infested waste! Your doomsday has arrived!"
Trigg's voice was like rolling thunder, filled with the wildness of impending victory.
"Hand over the Star Core fragments obediently, and I might consider giving you a quick death!"
Mark, in his coma, seemed stimulated by the sound, his brows furrowing in pain, letting out an unconscious groan, but still not waking up.
His broken body was like a shattered porcelain doll, maintaining its last sliver of life solely through the tenacious vitality of his extraordinary physique.
However, just as Trigg was preparing to charge again, and Nolan was forcibly gathering his remaining strength.
An indescribable whisper, filled with endless hunger and madness, like billions of cold tentacles, simultaneously and without warning drilled into the depths of Trigg's, Nolan's, and even the comatose Mark's minds!
This whisper was not a sound, but acted directly on the spiritual plane!
It was filled with distorted geometric shapes, incomprehensible cold logic, and the purest desire to devour all life and order!
It was the mental contamination of the Great Old Ones!
"Ignorant... flesh..."
"Order... shackles..."
"Merge... into nothingness... eternal..."
This sudden, soul-deep, mad whisper caused Trigg, who was about to launch an attack, to suddenly freeze!
His violent pupils instantly contracted, and for the first time, an extremely rare, life-instinct-driven terror appeared on his face!
Like the fiercest beast caught by an invisible leash around its neck, his massive body trembled slightly, as if he was using all his willpower to resist the madness that threatened to tear his sanity apart!
And the severely injured Nolan reacted even more violently!
His almost extinguished purple-flamed single eye suddenly burst forth with a blinding light, like a final flicker, and the dark-purple energy network covering his entire body flickered wildly, seemingly cheering!
But then, an extremely pained and distorted expression appeared on his face, his normal eye, covered by a gray film, its pupil violently contracted, and in his unfocused gaze, Nolan's will seemed to be struggling madly!
He clutched his head, letting out an inhuman roar, his body convulsing violently in the air!
"Shut up... shut up! Get out... of my... mind!"
Nolan roared, his voice filled with chaos and pain.
At the bottom of the abyss, in the surging dark-purple energy currents, an unnameable entity, formed by pure dark, twisted geometric lines and wildly spinning dark-purple star points.
That was the projection of the Old One's Shadow, which seemed to become even more solid.
Its invisible gaze, like cold probes, firmly locked onto the three powerful life forms on both sides of the abyss.
The Old One's whisper, like invisible poisonous vines, wrapped around the last survivors of the battlefield.
Above the steel ruins of Vitrum Prime, the ultimate struggle between will and madness unfolded in the embers of annihilation.