Chapter 402: 402. Finality (Part 9)

Salem watched from within Tyrian's body as Jaune Arc consumed everything around him. There was no distinction in the way Devour spread across the battlefield now.

Friend and enemy alike were reduced to sources of runic energy beneath the authority of his Supreme Rune, their power ripped from their bodies and absorbed into the conceptual structure of the young man who had decided that restraint was no longer an option.

Her Sleepless forces disappeared first, their bodies collapsing into dust as their accumulated runic power was devoured and converted into fuel.

The dream creatures that belonged to her main body suffered the same fate, enormous Grimm forms, dissolving into fragments of blackened energy before being swallowed by Jaune's domain.

Salem watched it all without blinking.

She did not care.

Not about the Sleepless or even about the Grimm.

Truthfully, Salem cared nothing for this entire world. If she had been given the choice, she would have wished for every being within it to perish, leaving behind a perfect barrenness where nothing lived, moved or spoke.

Where nothing remained except herself, sitting alone within an eternity of silence.

She deserved that much.

After everything she had endured, Salem believed she had earned the right to exist without another living thing around her.

Yet there was something about watching Jaune Arc consume everything he could reach in order to stop her that fascinated her despite herself.

She found herself wondering what could possibly drive a human being to continue moving after reaching the point where reason should have told him to stop. She was no human, despite occupying a vessel that was, and yet, for perhaps the first time in a very long time, she could understand a fragment of what Genesis had apparently seen within its creations.

They were fragile.

Limited.

Brief.

And yet they possessed an inexplicable capacity to continue reaching toward something even after everything around them had told them that they should not.

Jaune Arc was an excellent example of that contradiction. He had already lost twice to her and her vessel.

He had watched his strategies collapse and had exhausted his reserves twice over.

Tyrian would win.

Salem knew that and Jaune knew it too.

Irrespective of how much power he accumulated, how many Runes he acquired and how ingenious his combinations became, there was a fundamental disparity between them that could not simply be overcome through determination.

And yet he continued.

That alone was fascinating.

It was a marvel to see how far circumstance had pushed Jaune Arc, because he was not merely the product of his own effort.

He was the culmination of works that had begun long before he had ever existed. Nicholas was impressive, certainly.

Salem could admit that much.

Nicholas had possessed an extraordinary understanding of the system surrounding the Dream Realm, and his manipulation of time, memory, and Runes had allowed him to push himself far beyond what should have been possible.

But even Nicholas had merely been walking a path that Genesis had already laid before him.

The System.

The Nightmare System.

The structures governing awakening, Runes, Dream Realm power, Nightmare energy, and the eventual culmination of everything that had been set into motion.

How laughable it was, Salem thought, that so many beings had believed themselves to be acting independently when the foundation beneath them had already been constructed.

Genesis's cage, the mechanism through which Salem herself had been sealed away, was far more impressive than Nicholas. Nicholas had simply capitalized upon a framework that already existed. And the product of that framework was Jaune Arc.

The framework's culmination.

Salem's attention returned fully to the battle as Jaune came toward her again. Thousands of stolen runic abilities flowed through his body, each one being manipulated simultaneously by the impossible processing capacity of Devour and the conceptual authority of a body without weakness.

Jaune was synchronizing them.

Dozens of Rune abilities were being layered together, their concepts intersecting to form combinations that should have been impossible for a single human consciousness to control.

Fire became a lattice of crystalline structures before transforming into a spiraling mass of gravitational force. Lightning intertwined with spatial manipulation and emerged as a serpentine bolt that attempted to coil around Tyrian's body.

Wind and water merged into blades that changed their properties every few moments. Shadows folded around elemental attacks, giving them new trajectories. Meta Runes attempted to target Salem's mind, her spirit, her body, and the conceptual structure of her vessel.

Spatial attacks attempted to collapse the distance between them. Soul-reaping abilities reached for the essence inhabiting Tyrian. Rule-based Runes attempted to impose conditions upon the battlefield.

Pure destructive abilities were condensed into enormous beams of energy. All of it came toward her simultaneously, a vast blooming storm of color against the black sky of the Crimson Moon, every shade and expression of Runic power intertwining into something almost beautiful.

Useless.

Salem's vessel moved through the attacks with terrifying grace as Tyrian's body twisted between them.

Creation produced barriers where necessary, Destruction erased anything that could not be avoided, and Knowledge continuously informed her of where each attack would appear before Jaune had even completed the conceptual process required to create it.

Some attacks were directed toward her mind, attempting to bypass the physical structure of her vessel entirely, only for Knowledge and her domain to sweep them aside.

Others directly destroyed portions of Tyrian's body, tearing away flesh, bone, and conceptual structure, but Creation simply rebuilt everything that was lost.

Even when Jaune combined multiple abilities into attacks dense enough to rival the power of a single Supreme Rune, the hierarchy remained unchanged.

The stolen Runes were powerful, but they were still Runes of a lower order.

It did not matter how many different colors were woven together. It did not matter how densely Jaune compressed their power, supreme Runic energy belonged to a different hierarchy entirely.

A hundred weaker Runes did not become a Supreme Rune simply because they were combined. They could imitate its effects in places, overwhelm lesser defenses, and produce extraordinary combinations, but the fundamental difference remained.

Salem watched Jaune's attacks bloom around her vessel, then watched the monochromatic light of Destruction consume them.

Every color vanished into the same terrible absence.

It was almost poetic.

Jaune created a universe of possibilities, and Destruction reduced it to nothing. Yet there was something else Salem possessed that made the difference even more pronounced. The previous iteration of the timeline, the history of the future, had brought her memories of how her future historical self had fought.

She had seen the future version of herself and Jaune's future battles. She had witnessed the culmination of the information that had been gathered during the discarded timeline, and now she possessed the knowledge of how Jaune fought.

He was a remarkable fighter in his own right, unquestionably the strongest human to have ever existed by a tremendous margin. How could he not be, possessing a Supreme Rune and a body whose very conceptual foundation was defined by the absence of weakness?

To think that a human being had managed to create such a thing was remarkable.

There had been many plans, many circumstances, many people, and many forces that had contributed to Jaune Arc becoming what he was.

Genesis had laid the foundation and Nicholas had walked upon it.

The System had shaped him and his enemies had forced him to evolve. His friends had given him reasons to continue.

And somehow, all of those paths had converged into this single human being.

Salem could appreciate the absurdity of it even while she fought him.

The battle continued across the black heavens.

A spear of condensed spatial energy pierced through Tyrian's torso.

Jaune followed with dozens of synchronized attacks that combined physical force with elemental, spatial, spiritual, and metaphysical properties.

Tyrian's body was repeatedly blown apart, but Salem barely regarded the damage.

The vessel was imperfect, yes, but she had already stopped caring about its physical destruction. It was a broken vase stitched together from fragments of dust, held in existence by the conceptual authority of its Vessel state and the Creation Rune.

The physical body could be destroyed again and again without consequence because Creation would simply reconstruct it.

Jaune himself had already understood the truth of it in the previous iteration, and Salem suspected that if he were given enough time, perhaps a few more months of experience and experimentation, he might eventually learn how to directly devour concepts themselves.

But he was still a newly established Rank 3. His raw power was extraordinary, but his mastery over the Supreme Rune was barely scratching the surface of what it could become. In truth, if Jaune Arc were more skilled, Salem would have already lost.

That was what made him dangerous.

When Jaune inverted his power again, Salem watched the transformation occur with Knowledge's omniscience flowing through her.

She could suddenly see his entire composition yet again. His thoughts, the direction of his next attack before his body moved and even the runic abilities he was attempting to synchronize and the combinations he was considering.

She could observe the conceptual structure of his body, the body without weakness, and understand precisely why it was so extraordinary.

The absence of weakness was the authority surrounding his existence.

His very foundation had become a state in which every part of him contained the entirety of himself.

A single surviving fragment could reconstruct the whole, and more importantly, it meant that Jaune could theoretically contain power that would destroy an ordinary vessel.

His infinity of self allowed him to handle forces that would otherwise cause a body to explode from within.

Even Rank 4 power could theoretically be sustained within such a conceptual structure without immediately destroying him.

And that was precisely why Salem wanted it.

Her attention lingered on Jaune's body.

After witnessing the previous iteration of Inversion, Salem had reached a conclusion that had become impossible to ignore. Tyrian's body was worthless compared to Jaune Arc's.

It was like comparing mud to a diamond.

Her current vessel had been useful, but it was fundamentally flawed.

The price of using Tyrian as her vessel was regression. Her power was being constrained by the weakness of the vessel itself. Even with Creation repairing it, even with the Vessel Rune holding its conceptual structure together, there was a limit to how much of her true existence could be expressed through it.

Jaune was different.

Jaune's body could support her. Not merely contain her, but support her entire existence without the same regression. If Salem could seize that body, she could potentially surpass even her former prime.

The thought was intoxicating.

Perfection.

She could see it.

It was within reach.

But it would not be simple.

A body without weakness presented an unusual problem. If Salem attempted to seize Jaune's body through force, her own presence would become an imperfection within its conceptual structure. His body would recognize her as weakness and purge her.

She could not simply overpower him and take control. She needed complete control over every cell and fragment.

Every conceptual thread.

She would need Jaune himself to relinquish resistance, because even a single remaining fragment of opposition would be enough for his body to identify her as something foreign and eliminate her.

Which was why she could not simply kill him.

She needed to break him.

The battle continued.

Time passed.

Neither combatant spoke.

The surface of the Crimson Moon began to disappear beneath them as the sheer scale of their battle destroyed everything that remained. Mountains of moonstone were obliterated. Floating continental fragments were reduced to debris.

Entire regions vanished beneath the collision of Supreme Runic powers. The black heavens became filled with streaks of color, monochromatic Destruction, spatial distortions, shadow storms, elemental constructs, and countless fragments of stolen Rune energy.

The battle became more troublesome, but not more dangerous.

Jaune's inverted energy was amplified so dramatically that Destruction could no longer simply consume every attack. Raven's old principle had manifested within Jaune's own power, and the blooming colors of his attacks now possessed enough conceptual density to force Destruction to actually contest them rather than simply erase them.

Their domains clashed across hundreds of kilometers, Jaune's smaller domain being dragged into direct conflict with Tyrian's larger one. Ordinarily, the difference in scale would have mattered. But Jaune's amplified domain now possessed enough power to operate on the same conceptual scale, forcing Salem to acknowledge that for the first time in the battle, Jaune could directly contest her territory.

Still, Salem did not need to win immediately. She only needed time. Time for Knowledge to continue learning.

Every attack Jaune used became more familiar and every combination became easier to anticipate. Every trick he revealed became less effective.

It was a collapsing kingdom. Jaune could build higher walls, deeper foundations, and stranger structures, but the entire thing had already begun sinking beneath him. Eventually he would once again reach the point where there was nothing left for him to reveal.

And then he would be helpless.

Jaune came at her again.

Eventually, Jaune's attacks became more desperate and his Aura began falling as his stolen Runes began disappearing one after another as their energy was exhausted.

The battlefield became quiet and the entire surface of the moon was almost gone. Only the seal and her core area remained intact.

Everything else had been reduced to ruins. Jaune floated in the black sky, his body surrounded by only fragments of fading Aura.

Salem stood opposite him within Tyrian's body.

Neither moved or attacked.

Jaune's reserves were almost completely exhausted while Salem's remained full. She was still channeling the seemingly infinite reserves that sustained her existence through the sealed core.

Jaune's face was blank with despair. Yet his eyes still remained defiant. Salem noticed that distinction immediately.

Even now, after everything, he was still looking at her as though he refused to accept that inevitability had won.

Jaune's mouth opened.

"Why aren't you trying to kill me?"

Salem remained silent.

Jaune's voice carried through the empty battlefield.

"This entire fight... while I've been dominating and even destroying you, you weren't attacking seriously anymore. You stopped using Destruction against me and even kept trapping me. You kept forcing me into positions where I couldn't move. Don't you want Choice from me?"

Salem made Tyrian's body remain silent for several seconds, then she spoke through him.

"Tell me, Jaune Arc. What exactly are you fighting to create? A better world? A safe world for all of humanity? A world of peace? Tell me your desire."

"What?"

Tyrian's body stepped forwards with a strange casualness, walking across the air as though invisible stairs existed beneath his feet. He reached an empty point in the black sky and sat down upon a throne that did not exist, reclining against nothing as though it were the most comfortable seat imaginable.

"Some say discourse is the foundation for understanding," she said. "So amuse me."

Jaune's expression hardened.

"My power is inverted. You already know all about it, don't you? My thoughts and my goals. Knowledge is omniscient, isn't it?"

"To a degree... yes."

"Then why bother with this farce, Tyrian?"

Salem made Tyrian's body smile slightly.

"Because I am curious."

Jaune's eyes narrowed.

Salem continued, "You have spent everything you possessed attempting to stop me, and have exhausted your entire bag of tricks. Yet, you continue to stand here despite knowing what the outcome is."

Jaune's expression became bitter.

"You already know the answer."

"Perhaps. But I would like to hear you say it."

Jaune stared at her.

"My father... and countless others sacrificed their lives to get me to this stage. The stage where I can confront you, Tyrian. I shoulder the fate of humanity. The fate of my friends. The fate of my family. If I fail, you'll kill them all. Every last one. That's why I won't give up."

Salem tilted her head.

"Resolve is truly wonderful, Jaune Arc. Yet why do you even bother trying? You are at your wit's end and there is no hope. You are aware of this, yes?"

Jaune shook his head.

"No."

Salem's smile faded.

"You believe otherwise?"

"I don't need hope."

Jaune took a slow breath.

"Even if hope has fled, I still have my resolve to see this through to the end."

His domain began gathering around him again.

"Enough talk, Tyrian."

The black heavens trembled.

"If you want Choice, you'll have to pry it from the very marrow of my nonexistence before I give it to you."

Salem remained silent and then she considered the implication. If Jaune truly exhausted the entirety of his existence and if his body reached the point where even its conceptual foundation had been depleted, then her plan would fail.

She could not allow that. She needed him intact and his spirit broken, not erased. So Salem made Tyrian's body remain perfectly still.

Then she spoke.

"What if I were to tell you that there is a way to save all your friends and family?"

Jaune's expression shifted.

Salem continued, her voice calm.

"To ensure the future you wish to see comes to pass. The Dream Realm, the Grimm, none of it will ever affect humanity again. Nor will I ever attempt to kill humanity again."

Jaune stared at her. For a moment, genuine surprise crossed his face. Then a look of derision appeared.

"Mocking me now, are we? What? Trying to give me false hope?"

"This is no mockery."

Tyrian's body leaned forward slightly.

"This is... a proposition."

Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Give me your body, Jaune Arc."

Jaune looked at Tyrian. For several seconds, he said nothing. Then, slowly, the corner of his mouth lifted. There was amusement in his eyes.

Before Salem could understand why, Jaune's power inverted yet again.

The amplified authority surrounding him twisted back upon itself and the conceptual flow of Inversion collapsed as the original nature of his Supreme Rune returned. The all-devouring authority of his domain became available once more, spreading through the black heavens like something awakening from beneath the surface of reality.

And just as quickly, the power of Knowledge acting upon him disappeared.

His thoughts and his body became unreadable once again as the conceptual structure of his existence was once again hidden behind the absolute barrier of Devour's Nullification.

Salem's eyes narrowed and watched as Jaune laughed.

The laugh grew so violent that Jaune doubled over in midair, one hand clutching his stomach as the sound echoed through the ruined heavens of the Crimson Moon.

Salem stared at him through Tyrians body. She was not amused. For one brief moment, a possibility crossed her mind.

"Have I broken him?"

Perhaps the exhaustion had finally shattered something within him. Perhaps the strain of fighting her, losing twice, exhausting his reserves and reaching the absolute edge of his existence had finally caused his mind to collapse.

Was this her chance to take over?

But why was he laughing?

"What is the joke?"

Jaune slowly straightened himself. He wiped at the corners of his eyes, still grinning.

"Oh no. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't laughing at what you said."

His smile widened and he breathed out another quiet laugh.

"Rather... I finally realize how my father's second gift was meant to be used. I was wondering previously how to even use it considering that everything looked so hopeless."

Tyrian's eyes narrowed and Salem felt confusion. It was accompanied by something else. Something far more unpleasant. A feeling of wrongness.

Jaune Arc was planning something.

Something she could not see and something that Knowledge could no longer reach. Jaune's grin remained as he looked toward Tyrian.

"So that's why Inversion was the trump card."

His expression twisted into something between disbelief and amusement.

"Fuck me. I was thinking about this all wrong all along when the damned solution was so simple. Dad... you magnificent bastard."

Another laugh escaped him even as he shook his head.

"Hahaha."

Jaune covered his face with one hand, his shoulders shaking for several seconds before the laughter finally subsided and he sighed. The amusement remained in his eyes and he looked directly at Tyrian.

"Exhausted my bag of tricks huh? Was that what you said? Well... I suppose I'll see you in the next iteration, Salem."

He paused.

"Oh... though I suppose you aren't going to remember this last part."

The world dissolved as Jaune activated Choice.