Chapter 239: Nowhere Left to Run

When the Abyss appeared a year ago, it threw the world into chaos.And even though a full year had passed since then, things had barely calmed down.

But unlike back then, the sheer scale of what people now had to face had climbed several levels higher, and that was because it wasn't just DemiGods of the Abyss making their appearance on the battlefield now, Abyss Gods had too.

That said, the number of people who would have had to die was drastically reduced because of the interference of beings that most people knew nothing about, but the rulers of the six kingdoms did.

But just as everyone was finally starting to calm down, something far more terrifying appeared. Or rather, it was still appearing. The Abyss Gods had already appeared and vanished without a trace, but this time, something far worse was coming. Its mere presence was already beginning to cause disturbances across the world.

The weaker beings already felt their senses growing duller, while those who had awakened or held higher ranks, though still managing to stay conscious, felt their survival instincts unraveling entirely, leaving behind nothing but an overwhelming sense of absolute death that felt as though it could arrive at any given moment.

This confused many and sparked panic everywhere. Even the beings standing at the very peak of this world didn't know exactly what it was, because the being that was appearing was someone only a handful of people still alive had ever had the chance to know, and nearly all of those people were connected to Evan.

In the Greymark Duchy, the situation was much calmer compared to the rest of the world, thanks to the presence of the Tree of Life, which not only healed but also passively protected everyone from the influence of the being that was arriving.

But even with that protection in place, people still felt an instinctive dread, and panic was beginning to take root here as well.

Seraphine, watching all of this unfold from high in the sky, wore a serious, worried expression as she stared in a particular direction.

There stood Evan, with three figures behind him.

She knew she couldn't help him against that being, and she knew Evan had reached a level where he could stand his ground against it, but as for actually defeating it?

Of that, she wasn't entirely certain, and it left her worried.

For the battle that was about to take place, she would be of little help. Her task now was to keep people alive and eliminate the remaining Hollows.

Even though nearly all the DemiGods and Abyss Gods had been eliminated, Paragons and every being below that rank were still roaming freely across this land, and dealing with them fell to her and everyone else.

She watched that distant figure for a few more seconds before finally turning away and getting started.

The battle that was coming was inevitable, and no matter how much she wished otherwise, there was little she could do about it.

The only thing she hoped for was that this time, everything would finally end once and for all, and more importantly, that he would come out of it alive and unharmed.

She had faith in him, enough to believe in him and everything he had prepared up until this very moment.

"Try to come back alive, because if you don't, I'll hunt down your soul and kill you myself this time," she said, her words quiet enough that no one else could hear them, yet they still reached Evan on the other side of the kingdom.

Evan smiled, understanding the goddess's worry and not holding it against her.

"Don't worry. I'm not planning to die," he said.

Then he turned and looked at the three figures behind him.

Three humanoid figures.

On the right stood an imposing humanoid being, at least two meters tall, wrapped in dark, ornate armor, his face completely hidden beneath a hood. From his back unfurled massive black wings, while faint blue flames and streaks of deep violet energy coursed across his armor, swirling restlessly around his body.

He was Shadow, Evan's first clone, now fully evolved into his final stage, the stage of the God of Death.

On the left stood an incarnation of fire, in human form, wrapped in layer upon layer of blackened, oxidized armor that failed to contain the flame's full brilliance shining beneath it.

He was Ash, whose appearance now was more demonic than ever, sharp, curved horns rising from his forehead, his face gone entirely, replaced by four vertical slits pulsing with deep red light. He no longer had wings, only a cloak of fire, and above his head floated a halo resembling a crown of sparks, an extension of his own ability, though far more unsettling in appearance now.

This was Ash's final form, the God of War and Fire.

And finally, at the center of the three stood Evan's third clone, wrapped in sharp, angular dark armor, his face split by a single glowing crack of light. Behind his head floated an imposing runic halo resembling a stellar astrolabe, while blue and emerald-green energy poured from his hands, warping space and time around him.

He was the God of Space and Time, a being born from the fusion of the two concepts Evan had mastered before the cycles ever began.

He was the most powerful of Evan's three clones, as this being represented the very power level Evan himself had reached back then. In other words, this being wasn't merely at the level of a God like the other two clones, this one was a Quasi-Supreme.

Evan had thought that once he integrated all the concept cores from his clones, they would disappear, since their purpose had been to contain the power his previous self couldn't hope to hold all at once. But now he could hold it all, and he had done exactly that, fusing them into a single, superior Concept Core that defined the kind of entity he now was,

a Supreme.

With the remaining divinity he had obtained from the Eternal Flame, he had met the requirements for ascension, and he wasted no time advancing.

His appearance didn't change, but in terms of power, he had reached a level none of his past selves, across any previous cycle, had ever achieved.

His gaze fell on the three of them, and he smiled.

"Gentlemen, you're free to unleash yourselves however you please. Just try not to destroy this world in the process," he said, as Bruce was already sending him system messages warning him not to cause unnecessary damage to the planet.

Not only had his clones remained, but so had their own wills. Though they didn't show it outwardly, Evan could already see that, unlike before, when their wills had still been heavily suppressed, they were now separate beings tied to him, since he was their origin, but with their own thoughts, their own desires, and their own strength.

He then turned his gaze upward, his sight cutting through every obstruction and reaching straight past the atmosphere. There, he saw an entity taking shape, drawing itself together from parts of the Abyss surrounding the planet.

The entity's eyes had already settled on him, and the intent behind them was unmistakable.

Evan didn't look away. His body began glowing faintly as he invoked the laws of space and time on a massive scale.

They detonated, not visibly, but in the background, as he isolated the planet from the Abyss itself, from himself, and from that entity.

It was a precaution he took, because a battle between two Supremes wasn't something this planet could ever hope to withstand.

He was no longer on the planet now, but in a separate dimension, and with him, the Abyss itself and its Supreme, isolated from the planet, and from the universe itself.

Evan could already see the rage behind the gaze of the entity still in the process of forming, and seeing it, he smiled.

"You didn't actually think I'd fight you on the planet, did you?" Evan said, raising his hand as sparks of golden light gathered, taking the shape of a long sword, its blade a glowing white, seeming to warp the space around itself.

"This is a fair battlefield. No one will interfere here, and even the will of the universe won't be able to intervene."

His smile widened slightly.

"And this time, there will be nowhere for you to run."