Villain Retirement

Chapter 1180: Chapter 1180: Breaking Nothingness Itself

"How many times do I have to kill you before you stay dead, Riley Ross?"

"You have not actually killed me even once yet, Your Highness," Riley replied calmly. "I have just become... rather sturdy."

A blinding streak of light shot endlessly from one end of the universe to the other—but to the untrained eye, Queen Vania’s figure appeared perfectly still.

At least, it looked like that.

Riley was no longer stopping time. It made no difference to the queen of the evaniels, who could move so fast that she left behind a stable afterimage—even while zipping back and forth across the galaxies. She could even speak to him without delay, her words slipping seamlessly into the frozen expanse of space.

As for Riley... there was no visible form left of him.

Only a floating, quivering lump of blood suspended in the void—a mouth still attached, speaking through the chaos. It twitched violently every time Queen Vania passed through, her fists colliding with what little matter remained.

She struck him over and over, each pass hitting at speeds bordering on the speed of van. In fact—each impact strong enough to tear and rearrange the very fabric of Fate’s universe. Reality itself rippled, folded, and corrected around them as the blows landed.

Riley remembered what Diana had once told him: that the evaniels were nearly wiped out by the themarians.

But now, watching Queen Vania in action, he was certain—if she had existed back then, it would’ve been the themarians facing extinction.

Every one of her blows was more powerful than Esme Prime’s mightiest punch. And given that an evaniel’s durability scaled with their speed, Queen Vania wasn’t just the fastest being in the universe—

She might also be the most indestructible.

She was the unstoppable force and the immovable object, all in one.

And still—she moved. Relentlessly.

Until, finally, she didn’t.

The light trails remained, a glowing loop around the entire universe—but Queen Vania herself had stopped. She hovered in silence, watching as Riley’s broken body slowly reformed, cell by cell.

"Why are you still playing?" she whispered. "Are you really not going to take this seriously? Is this just more theatrics?"

"Well..."

Riley’s lips twitched, and before he could finish the sentence, his body snapped back into place—fully regenerated, even his clothes returning flawlessly.

"...I was hoping you would rather enjoy this, Your Highness. You wanted me dead, after all—I wanted to give you the satisfaction of grating me to a pulp. And despite how I act, I am serious about fighting you. But I also do not want to kill you. You, not including Mr. Van, are the last of your kind. Evaniels are unique to our universe—like me."

"Then why not finish it?" Queen Vania’s voice cracked, her eyes narrowing. "Why show mercy now?"

"I am not showing mercy, Queen Vania," Riley sighed. "I am showing interest. What would be the point of destroying you? What if—millions or billions of years from now—your kind evolves again? Perhaps one day, someone faster than Van, faster than Death, will be born. Someone who can finally end me."

"Trust me," Queen Vania shook her head, lightning sparking in her eyes, "speed isn’t what’ll defeat you."

"Oh?" Riley raised an eyebrow.

"It’s perseverance," she said coldly. "I can fight you forever, Riley Ross."

"But then you would be trapped in this dimension forever, Queen Vania."

"If that’s the price I must pay to finally end you..." Queen Vania closed her eyes—and when she opened them again, a blinding light burst forth. "...Then so be it."

Riley stretched his arm to the side to welcome her, but before he could fully extend it, his vision shifted—countless times in the span of a millisecond. In an instant, he saw entire planets flash before him.

Planets that Queen Vania was slamming him through.

In any other fight, this might have been futile, as Riley would not be hurt by this at all..

But not now.

Because as Queen Vania had already pointed out, Riley’s role as the Hero of Camrose had returned. That meant every bit of destruction—every life lost or displaced by their battle—was being judged by the system Fate had built.

And every time she shattered a world, it was Riley who suffered.

Not from her punches, but from Fate itself. His soul tearing at the seams, bleeding under divine weight.

But still—

"This is not enough, Your Highness," Riley sighed, even as blood dripped from his eyes and ears. "If Fate truly wanted me gone, she should not have evacuated her children. If they had died with their planets, then the damage would have been greater. I might have met with Nothing again. He has not spoken to me in ages, that one."

Queen Vania didn’t answer. Instead, she let him go and spun—her leg cutting through the black of space, turning it white with a single kick.

Her foot struck Riley’s chin—so hard that his consciousness vanished for a millisecond.

To anyone else, that would be a blink. For Queen Vania, that was a lifetime.

She grabbed him by the foot before his body could drift, spun once more, and flung him through the void—dragging his form across the cosmos, his flesh being torn apart by friction that shouldn’t even exist in empty space.

But Queen Vania was fast enough to make nothing burn.

She twisted reality by merely moving.

And then, she let him go.

She launched Riley toward the edge of Fate’s expanding universe... and then she ran ahead of him, to punch him in the back of the head.

The outer edge of reality tore like paper. With that one strike, the expansion of the universe... stopped.

But she wasn’t finished.

She grabbed him again—by the ankle—and hurled him in the opposite direction. And again. And again. Back and forth, ripping the edges of reality with every hit.

And then, finally... the quarter of that millisecond had passed.

Queen Vania continued her assault.

But she was no longer reducing him to pulp like earlier—Riley’s body remained whole. Bruised, bloodied, bones cracked—but not broken.

And then, in a flash, the light returned to his eyes... and he caught her punch.

Queen Vania could twist reality just by moving.

But Riley? Riley could warp it with a breath

In the instant her fist met his palm, and the entire universe collapsed around them, Queen Vania finally understood what Riley Ross was.

She had always known, of course.

But now... she felt it.

No one could stop Riley Ross.

Not anymore.

Everything that had ever existed, or would ever exist—every force, every god, every law—had failed to contain him when they had the chance.

They weren’t stuck with Riley Ross.

He was stuck with them. And the only reason any of them still existed... was because he allowed it. He tolerated them.

That truth flashed through Queen Vania in a single moment. And then she pulled her fist back—only to throw her arms around him, locking him in place.

Before he could respond, her body began to vibrate violently, reaching a frequency so high it erased the very concept of nothingness around them.

Everything turned white.

Reality unraveled. Matter, time, and space—gone. Multiverses forcefully tried to be born, but they were quickly drowned away. The rippling white washed over all that was and wasn’t.

And then... she stopped.

Because once there was truly nothing left to destroy in Fate’s dimension—

They were thrown back. Back into their own universe.

And when Queen Vania opened her eyes again, Riley was still there.

Standing there with a smile on his face, as if nothing had happened at all.

"Just..." Queen Vania whispered, broken and trembling,

"...End me."

"Now, why would I do that?" The smile on Riley’s face turned wider, his eyes reflecting the colorful expanse of the Grand Triangle,

"We are just starting, Your Highness."