Part one hundred eighty nine — Final Horizon

　The next collision erased the landscape entirely.

　Kai met Vorath's Void-blade with his own edge, twisted clear of Skorne's rising frost pillar, then countered Vorath with a fist that sent him tearing through several dimensional layers at once.

　Skorne struck back, frost spreading across Kai's arm the instant they made contact.

"Countermeasure deployed," Null-Subconsciousness reported.

　The ice shattered loose.

　Kai's return strike sent Skorne crashing into the ground hard enough to freeze the earth for a hundred meters around the impact.

　Skorne rose, smiling.

　Then he unleashed Absolute Frost properly for the first time.

　It was no longer localized.

　The air froze. Light itself seized solid. Even space began to crystallize as an expanding wave of absolute cold swept across the Infinity Dimension.

"Recommended action: evade," Null-Subconsciousness advised.

　Kai ran.

　The frost matched his pace exactly.

　He accelerated.

　It kept pace regardless.

　"Run," Skorne said, almost delighted.

　Kai vanished.

　He reappeared directly in front of Skorne, his fist connecting before the Frost Dragon could even track his movement.

　Vorath answered simultaneously.

　An infinite Void swallowed the space around them, distance and direction ceasing to have any meaning at all.

　Kai looked down at his blade.

Null. Can I name this weapon?

"If you're the one giving it a name," Null-Subconsciousness replied, "yes."

　Kai tightened his grip.

　"Armageddon."

　The blade shuddered.

　A vast authority awakened within it.

　Destruction.

　Severance.

　Void.

　Entropy.

　Extinction.

　It wasn't sharper, exactly.

　It had simply become capable of cutting things ordinary edges had no business touching at all.

　Kai stepped into Vorath's infinite Void and swung.

Shing.

　The Void split cleanly in two.

　"What did you do?" Vorath asked, disbelief breaking through his expression.

　"I cut it," Kai replied.

　Skorne's Absolute Frost followed.

　The entire Infinity Dimension began seizing solid around them.

　Kai swung again.

　The frost didn't melt.

　It severed.

　Two impossible halves fell away from one another, cleanly divided.

　"...Impossible," Skorne breathed.

　Kai closed the distance in an instant.

　Armageddon touched briefly against Skorne's chest.

　A black mark bloomed across his body.

　An Extinction Mark.

　Skorne's regeneration immediately reached for the wound.

　And found nothing.

　The wound simply refused to close.

　"Regeneration won't work here," Kai said, pulling the blade back.

　Skorne roared.

　He unleashed everything he had left.

　Vorath matched him instantly.

　Void and Frost converged on Kai from opposite directions. One side of his body froze solid while the other dissolved into nothingness. His core strained beneath the combined pressure until Null-Subconsciousness screamed through the overload and rebuilt him whole again.

　"Not enough," Kai said.

　He raised Armageddon once more.

　The three of them clashed again.

　And again.

　And again.

　Each exchange erased what little remained of the dimension around them.

　Kai's body was destroyed and regenerated in an endless cycle. Vorath's Void was severed cleanly apart. Skorne's Frost was cut down before it could fully form.

　The battle had long since stopped being about mere strength.

　It had become a question of whose existence would still be standing after everything else had been unmade.

　Finally, the three stood apart.

　All of them were exhausted.

　All of them were wounded beyond anything either dragon had ever imagined surviving.

　Kai looked toward the two dragons.

　"You're strong," he said. "But this ends now."

　Vorath gathered the entirety of his Void into himself.

　Skorne gathered every remaining trace of his Frost.

　The two forces merged.

　Void.

　Frost.

　Pure destruction.

　All of it converged into a single overwhelming mass aimed directly at Kai.

　Kai closed his eyes.

"All calculations complete," Null-Subconsciousness said. "Probability of successful termination: 99.999999 percent."

　Kai opened his eyes.

　"Armageddon."

　The blade caught a light that made no sound at all.

　"Final Horizon."

　He swung once.

　Horizontal.

　Unhurried.

　No explosion followed.

　No beam.

　No sound at all.

Shiiing.

　The slash crossed the entire battlefield in a single, silent line.

　It cut through Void.

　Through Frost.

　Through space.

　Through dimension itself.

　Through their bodies.

　Their souls.

　Their cores.

　Their very authorities as beings.

　Straight through to the roots of what made them exist at all.

　Two Extinction Marks bloomed simultaneously.

　Vorath looked down at himself.

　"...So this is defeat."

　"You..." Skorne said, his body already coming apart at the edges. "You really are a monster."

　Both dragons vanished entirely.

　Nothing remained.

　The battlefield settled into total, absolute silence.

　Kai stood alone, Armageddon still in his hand.

　Then everything stopped.

　Not slowed.

　Not frozen by any spell he recognized.

Stopped.

　Nyxara.

　Nero.

　Vados.

　Enzo.

　Mirella.

　Ashley.

　Even Kai himself.

　None of them could move.

　The entire Infinity Dimension held perfectly, terribly still.

　No wind.

　No energy.

　No sound.

　Nothing.

　Kai couldn't even move his eyes.

What?

　The thought formed in his mind, but he couldn't speak the word aloud.

　Null-Subconsciousness offered nothing.

　For the first time since its own creation, it had no answer to give him.

　Footsteps echoed through the frozen stillness.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

　A figure emerged from nowhere.

　Kai's breath caught the instant their eyes met.

No.

　The stranger was him.

　But not him.

　Something vast and absolute surrounded the figure. Creation itself seemed to bend quietly around his presence, while the frozen universe around them looked to him like nothing more than an unfinished sketch.

　"I finally found you," the stranger said.

　Kai couldn't move.

　He couldn't speak.

　For the first time since becoming anything resembling a Demon Lord, he felt something he had almost entirely forgotten how to feel.

　Fear.

　The stranger smiled.

　"I am you," he said. "From another timeline."

　The frozen world trembled at his words.

　"I am the one who became—"

　His eyes opened fully.

　Something vast spread outward from him.

　Absolute.

　Infinite.

　Unmistakable.

　The very laws of creation seemed to bow before his existence.

　"—the God of Creation."