Chapter 398: 398. Finality (Part 5)

'Good. He's finally properly injured.'

Jaune watched Tyrian's ruined body hanging among the streams of crimson runic energy floating in the sky.

The remaining portions of his body had already begun to reconstruct themselves through Creation.

Ethereal matter poured out from the wounds like translucent liquid, flowing into the empty spaces and rapidly acquiring the shape of muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels, and skin.

The sight should have been reassuring.

For the first time since their battle had begun, Jaune had managed to inflict significant damage that Tyrian could not simply ignore, and more importantly, Devour had finally been given enough contact with Tyrian's body to properly conceptualize its state.

It now understood what made the vessel function.

The theories that both Jaune and his father had formed previously had been correct.

Tyrian's body was in a bad state.

Not damaged in the ordinary sense, but fundamentally compromised. The vessel standing before him was not a perfected Rank 3 body waiting to be epitomized into the form of a Rank 4.

What it was, however, was a ruined foundation being held together by sheer conceptual force. If Jaune imagined it as pottery, then Tyrian's original body was a vase that had been shattered into hundreds of pieces and glued back together by Creation. The pieces were technically connected and capable of holding their shape, but the original integrity of the object was gone. The cracks were everywhere.

The structure was wrong, and beneath all of it was the reason.

Salem had discarded Tyrian's entire original foundation of two Supreme Runes in order to make room for herself.

Tyrian's original power had been sacrificed to accommodate Salem's mind, her power, and her authorities. The only portion of his former foundation that remained was the conceptual state of his Vessel Rune, and even that was no longer truly separate from the rest of him.

It had been merged into his conceptual existence, transformed from part of a Rune he possessed into a property of what Tyrian now was.

There simply wasn't room for anything else.

Salem had needed a vessel capable of containing her existence, and the existing structure of Tyrian's body had not been sufficient. The barrier surrounding her core had been too powerful. She needed the full power of a Rank 4 entity in order to break it completely, and there was no other method available that would allow her to escape.

So she had made a choice of her own.

She had sacrificed the foundation of the vessel's original existence and rebuilt it around herself, using Tyrian as the shell through which she could incarnate her mind, her power, and her authorities.

The result would likely be one of the weakest Rank 4 gods in all of existence if compared to beings who had naturally developed into that state, but that distinction hardly mattered to Salem.

She did not need perfection.

She simply needed an opening.

Enough power to break the barrier before she was sealed again, and this was her best chance. Whether she would actually have enough time to recover her peak Rank capabilities before that happened was unknown, but the alternative was imprisonment.

Tyrian's ruined foundation was therefore not an accident, but the price of freedom.

However, Tyrian did not appear particularly concerned about the price.

Jaune had once even idly thought that perhaps he might have been able to make use of that ruination to perhaps cause Tyrian to rebel against Salem's influence. Yet, that was clearly impossible. Tyrian and Salem were one and the same now.

The distinction between them was so little that calling them anything but a singular entity was simply a fool's errand.

Tyrian's remaining eye focused on Jaune as Creation finished rebuilding the missing portions of his body. Ethereal matter crystallized into flesh. Bones emerged from nothing. Within a few milliseconds, he appeared almost whole again.

Almost.

Jaune's attack had mattered.

It had forced Tyrian's foundation even lower.

The structural integrity of the vessel had plummeted even lower when Devour passed through it, and although Creation was already restoring it to a relatively stable baseline, the process was not instantaneous at the conceptual level.

The body could be repaired and the foundation could be reinforced, but the damage had exposed something that Jaune could now see.

Tyrian could recover.

Perhaps not to the same level that Jaune could do so with his weakness shed state, but Tyrian could recover, all the same.

"Interesting," Tyrian murmured.

Then he moved.

There was no warning.

His body instantaneously shot backward through space, creating a series of spatial corridors and slingshotted himself through them. Space appeared ahead of him, folded around his body, then collapsed behind him, accelerating his movement as Tyrian used Creation to manufacture a sequence of increasingly favorable trajectories.

His body became a blur of chromatic light and flesh as he disappeared toward the distant fragments of the moon.

Jaune immediately pursued by devouring the space between them.

Distance collapsed and the broken landscape stretched inward as though pulled into a singularity, and Jaune's body accelerated through the disappearing kilometers.

Tyrian anticipated him and creation erupted along the path. Matter appeared in absurd quantities.

Entire walls of gigantic crystalline material.

Billions upon billions of tons of matter materialized in front of Jaune, and the surrounding space to slow Jaune down.

Jaune tore through as much as he could, but then, everything exploded into a brilliant flash.

The matter Tyrian had created began destroying itself before Jaune could finish absorbing it. Every instance of matter became a bomb of destruction and every wall became a collapsing reservoir of pure runic energy. Every construct annihilated itself at the precise moment Devour attempted to fully consume it, leaving behind only the residue of the energy that Jaune had failed to absorb completely.

Jaune clenched his teeth.

The force of the explosion of energy couldn't damage him, and the the residue was utilized by him.

However, it was barely enough.

It lined his existing reserves with another temporary layer of energy, a thin supplement that could keep him moving but was nowhere near what he needed.

Tyrian continued accelerating, then, abruptly, he stopped slingshotting through space. Jaune sensed the change as Tyrian's body suddenly vanished.

The space around the two combatants, then suddenly decided to simply disappear. Jaune's forward movement halted as the reality beneath his feet ceased to exist.

A void opened where nothing.

Jaune's body hung within the empty absence as Tyrian appeared nearby, his form likewise suspended within the void.

For a moment, neither moved. Jaune's domain stretched around him, but there was nothing to devour.

That was the problem. If there was nothing through which Jaune could propel himself or devour, then he would simply be stuck in emptiness.

Tyrian had created a place where Jaune's greatest advantage had become useless.

Jaune stared at him.

'Surely his plan isn't to try to keep me stuck in voided space where I can't devour move.'

It couldn't be.

Could it?

Reality constantly tried to heal itself and space began flowing inward from the surrounding world, attempting to fill the absence created by Destruction. But every time it appeared, Tyrian destroyed it.

Jaune could still escape.

He still possessed a small amount of devoured Creation energy and matter within his reserves, enough to propel himself toward a portion of reality outside the void. He could force himself into matter and recover from there.

But he didn't.

He was curious about what Tyrian was planning.

'Surely this is unsustainable.'

Tyrian had to be spending a lot of Aura to maintain this. The destruction of incoming space was not free.

Eventually he would run out.

Unless...

Jaune's expression became solemn.

'Unless he's already started absorbing Salem's reserves.'

The possibility changed everything.

If Tyrian could sustain the void through Salem's energy, then Jaune could theoretically be trapped here indefinitely.

His entire method of fighting depended on existence.

That was the strange irony of Devour.

Jaune could consume almost anything, but he still needed something to consume.

If Tyrian erased everything around him and prevented reality from returning, Jaune's options became drastically limited. His body could survive, but survival was not victory. A body without weakness did not matter if there was nothing available to use as a weapon.

Jaune's eyes narrowed and he felt the pressure of Tyrian's domain.

Then, something happened.

Their domains touched.

Jaune's entire expression changed.

For the briefest instant, Tyrian's domain and Jaune's domain occupied the same conceptual location.

They clashed.

The pressure was immediate.

Jaune felt Tyrian's domain push against his own, the greater size and density of Tyrian's territory attempting to overwhelm him.

Fortunately, the two domains rebounded and both combatants paused in their thoughts. Both Jaune and Tyrian stared at each other for a moment.

Something impossible had just occurred.

Jaune's domain was not supposed to be occupying the same conceptual reality as Tyrian's.

Devour had inherited the hierarchy of the Meta Rune that had been incorporated into its creation. Null did not simply nullify things. Its highest expression was the ability to ignore the rules governing interactions, and Jaune's domain had naturally adopted that principle. His domain existed parallel to the ordinary conceptual line of reality and could occupy the same location as other domains without actually being in the same conceptual space as them.

Jaune and another Rank 3 could therefore stand in the same place while their domains existed alongside one another without clashing. Jaune could choose to bring his domain out of that parallel state when he wanted to force a clash, but it did not happen automatically.

That had been one of the reasons Jaune had been able to fight Tyrian at all.

Tyrian's domain was larger—much larger, in fact. Doubling the size of Jaune's own. If the two domains had simply clashed directly from the beginning, Jaune would have been at a severe disadvantage.

But Tyrian had not been able to clash against his directly.

At least, not until now.

Jaune's thoughts raced.

'How?'

Tyrian smiled.

"So that's how it works."

The words did not travel through air as there was no such thing in a void of space. The sound was transmitted directly to Jaune through Tyrian's domain.

Jaune's eyes narrowed and their domains clashed again.

Only for an instant.

The pressure slammed into Jaune's existence and his entire domain trembled beneath the contact before the two authorities separated again.

Tyrian's expression changed.

For perhaps the first time, he looked genuinely impressed.

"Your Rune's capabilities are truly incredible."

The words entered Jaune's mind through the domain.

"With the power of a singular Supreme Rune, you are able to contest against the combined might of three Supreme Runes."

Tyrian's gaze remained fixed upon him.

"Truly, if only the power of Runes were taken into account, your Rune might possibly be the strongest in all of existence."

Jaune did not answer. Choice was conspicuously absent from Tyrian's assessment.

Comparatively speaking, he was right.

Choice possessed an extraordinary ability, but its main authority was specific. It allowed Jaune to return through the River of Time and change his choices. It could not directly increase the destructive output of Devour such as create matter, grant omniscience or annihilate entire regions of existence.

Choice was not weak—simply specialized.

Tyrian continued.

"Constantly shifting parallel coordinates. Not exactly a waste of time clashing domains with you, but more of a problem of attrition."

At first, Jaune didn't fully understand what Tyrian meant, then the pieces began fitting together. His domain could nullifying every law of existence around him. However that cost aura. Aura which Jaune simply did not have enough, to waste.

So instead, Devour had instinctively found the cheaper solution.

Loophole exploitation.

The structure of reality contained countless relationships and inconsistencies that could be manipulated. Rather than brute-forcing every law into a state of submission, Devour simply positioned Jaune's domain where those laws did not directly apply.

Parallel and adjacent.

Untouchable.

It was like placing two lines beside each other in a geometric system where their paths could never intersect.

That was why Tyrian couldn't simply force his domain into Jaune's. But now, Knowledge had understood the loophole.

Tyrian wasn't overpowering Null, but was chasing Jaune through the structure of reality.

Every time Jaune's domain shifted into another parallel coordinate, Tyrian's Knowledge found the corresponding relationship and Creation provided the means to force his own domain toward it.

He was not breaking the rule but finding the hole in the rule.

Jaune's eyes widened slightly.

'If I directly null the laws through my domain, I can force the rule ignoration phenomenon to become absolute.'

That would then prevent Tyrian's domain from touching his.

But it would cost Aura. A lot of it. He could do it, of course, and would gain an advantage in the actual domain clash battle. But if he did, his reserves would begin dropping much faster.

If he didn't, Tyrian could continue forcing clashes through the loopholes.

Tyrian's domain was bigger.

The implications were unpleasant.

Jaune could either protect himself and lose the war of attrition... or preserve his Aura and allow Tyrian to keep forcing domain clashes that would gradually overwhelm him.

He had reached an impasse.

'Damn it. Tyrian has found a second way to weaponize attrition against me.'

The thought came with genuine frustration.

'What do I do here?'

Tyrian suddenly answered the question with his actions before Jaune's mind could. In an instant, he stopped destroying the surrounding space and creation formed a small pocket of reality.

Matter, light and space unfolded.

Tyrian stepped through it and escaped the void, leaving reality to pour back in without anything in it's path. Jaune followed immediately, expecting another attack.

Instead, Tyrian changed direction.

Jaune followed, slightly confused at what Tyrian was planning.

Then he understood. His eyes shifted toward the distant battlefield and towards the places where the other awakened remained scattered across the Crimson Moon.

The Rank 3s and the thousands upon thousands of awakened watching their battle. Toward everyone who had been caught within this nightmare.

Tyrian was no longer trying to trap Jaune, but was leaving him behind.

Jaune's expression hardened.

'He's targeting the other awakened.'