Chapter Fifteen: Clash Again

Somewhere in the cosmos, Zero sat in the naked dark, space around him warping like heat over desert, bending light as if he were a black hole.

Calm settled cold as frost; then his voice came slow. “Just one last piece.”

His flesh rippled like a mirage. One breath he wore a human shell, the next a spider’s chitin, the next the sleek scales of a fish.

The shapes stilled like wind after storm; he settled back into a human face. A frown creased him, and his gaze tipped toward the void. “Someone’s peeking?”

He rose, and the shiver in space smoothed like a lake after rain. “Seems my old friend’s grown nostalgic.”

He vanished with a speed like lightning tearing cloud, rushing toward that sensing like a hawk to prey.

“Let’s see it, then—after so long, did you grow? If not, be the last life to fill my power. Eli!”

Not far from the Old Continent, out in black silence, thousands stood like stars frozen mid-breath, all eyes fixed on Zero’s oncoming blaze.

Birand sat at the center like a pillar in flood, Edward and Yulia to either side. “Friends, it all comes down to this.”

His words fell, and half his body faded like smoke, the other half stretching into another universe like a bridge of bone and light.

He shut his eyes, and a vast tide of power surged through him as through a causeway, drawn from another world like a moon-pulled sea.

Then, with a soul-deep shiver, it fused with Eli’s energy, threads knotting tight as sinew.

Eli stood at the front, twin swords in hand, eyes closed like night. He waited, quiet as snowfall. Eyes open wouldn’t help him anyway.

No armor clung to him—only a long black robe like a raven’s wing. His left eyepatch glowed faint violet in the ink of space.

Time dripped like water in caverns. Eli snapped his eyes open, set his stance like a drawn bow, and said, cold as steel, “He’s here.”

At his call, everyone traced runes like burning sigils. Their energies streamed like rivers, pooling in Eli’s hands.

Eli faced the path of Zero’s rush, drew in a breath, and ripped a bright arc through the air. The sword sang like crystal struck.

Power gathered thick as storm in the blade’s wake; from afar it looked like a forty-meter cleaver, and it fell like a guillotine.

Clang!

Metal screamed against metal, a bell peal rolling across the universe like thunder across plains.

“He’s stronger,” Eli said, voice flat as stone.

He was gone the next beat, a blink like a dove’s wing.

Within the ring of guards, Birand’s brow pinched like a line in sand.

Eli hadn’t tapped the other world’s strength, nor the pool they gave. He’d tucked it away like knives up sleeves. Yet he reached this height on his own?

Birand’s mouth eased into a smile like dawn. That guy’s growth is a storm, too. He stilled his mind, then focused, channeling both worlds’ power into Eli like twin rivers meeting.

Far off, two lights dueled like comets crossing. White chased blue, always a breath behind, only to collide and get hurled back like surf off rock.

The tempo held, eerie as a heartbeat out of time, until white swelled big as a cloudbank and wrapped blue like silk.

Blue turned with a snap like a trap, devouring white, then wrapping it tight like a cocoon.

Zero smiled at the man before him, teeth bright as frost. “You’ve grown. Or did you hoard power from the small fry?”

“What do you think?” Eli spun a flourish like a windmill, then smiled back, sharp as a blade.

“Doesn’t matter.” Zero’s tone dropped like a knife. “I won’t let you live in this world. Leaving you a thousand years ago was my worst mistake.”

His hands unraveled into long rootless claws like withered branches, and he pounced like a panther.

Eli’s swords flashed like twin meteors. He hacked off Zero’s arms, slipped aside like water, and drove a boot into Zero’s face like a hammer.

Zero’s body didn’t break, but the kick’s force flung him like a tossed spear.

“You bastard!” Zero wiped the shoe print like dust off a mirror, rage burning like oil. “Don’t run, you trash!”

Eli sent him skidding, then bolted toward a point in space like an arrow to its mark.

He looked there, and his chin dipped, a small nod like a falling leaf.

Abyss caught it, then nodded to the crowd, voice deep as caverns. “Begin.”

From afar, two different colored lights carved comet trails through the void, glowing like fire tails.

Ahead of Eli, circles bloomed in the dark like rings on water. He attacked Zero while threading those hoops like a dancer through gates.

Zero’s brow drew tight like a knot. “What’s this? A ring-of-fire act? Too bad. You’re dying anyway.”

Eli’s blasts hammered Zero’s face like hail, and Zero didn’t flinch; he only sped up like a predator closing distance.

Eli’s lips curved like a crescent. Chase me. Keep chasing.

After enough rings, Zero felt the wrongness like grit in gears. The power he drew from around him thinned like breath in high mountains.

He’d left the rings, yet the energy he could command kept leaking away like sand through fingers.

Below, everyone’s faces went pale as paper. Their energy was down to dregs like the bottom of a cup.

They’d first poured thirty percent of themselves into Eli like tithes, then, with Birand, tore space again and again, opening rifts like wounds to link the other world.

Too many tears; they were spent, lungs like bellows gone weak.

Zero was this universe’s will, a sovereign like sky over land. But crossing into the other universe and back tangled his strength like crossed lines, making control slip like rain off glass.

Edlyn sat cross-legged in the void like a monk on stone, teeth clenched. She watched Eli and Zero clash, eyes steady as stars.

Abyss had told her she was the final lock, the last safeguard, so she hoarded her power like embers under ash.

“Come on,” Edlyn whispered, a prayer like smoke.

Birand’s eyes opened like doors, and he smiled. “Let’s move to the next step. He’s good on his end.”

Clang, clang, clang!

Swords and blades poured their wielders’ wrath like wildfire into the vacuum, sparks ringing like anvils.

“What did you do?!” Zero roared, voice a thunderclap. His energy gnawed at Eli’s body like acid on bone.

“Heh. Guess, fool.” Eli’s laugh cut cold as ice. He slipped the net like a fish, swung away, and fled like wind.

The next breath, Zero appeared before him like a judge dropping a gavel. He couldn’t help invoking authority.

Eli understood, and at that speed he couldn’t stop; inertia shoved him into Zero like a river slamming a rock.

He whipped out both blades, gathered power like stormlight, and hurled his long swords at Zero like spears.

“In your dreams!” Zero snarled, and blinked—gone—then snapped into place at Eli’s side, fist smashing his left cheek like a falling star.

Momentum plus impact launched Eli like a comet.

“Die!” Zero appeared at the top of Eli’s arc and drove a kick into his back like a battering ram.

His foot passed through Eli like smoke through fingers.

Zero jerked, shock bright as lightning. “What?!”

“You think I wouldn’t guard against you? Use your brain, my friend.” Eli’s shadow bloomed behind him like a ghost, blade chopping for his head like an axe.

“Tch.” Zero whipped around, both hands up like shields.

The twin blades slid through him like water through reeds, then burst into bubbles and vanished like dew.

“What?!” Zero’s eyes widened, disbelief stark as noon sun.

Before the first Eli phantom he’d booted apart, Eli’s twin swords crossed like shears and bit for Zero’s waist.

Zero barely turned his head, reflexes taut like wire. Eli’s left eyepatch had been knocked loose by that earlier punch.

He saw the hollow eyes—empty as winter—wielding twin blades, trailing miles-long wakes of red and blue sword-qi like banners, chopping for his waist.

“Your eyes still not healed?” Zero’s calm returned like a tide, and he smiled, thin as a blade.

Steel flashed like lightning. Zero’s upper body parted from his lower like a felled tree.

Eli frowned, feeling along the earlier cut like fingers over grain, and he swung where he predicted Zero would be. His blade met emptiness like night.

He froze, posture held like a statue after the strike, brows knotted, searching the dark as if for echoes.

Zero sensed he was still blind and stilled himself completely, a hush like desert at midnight.

No breath, no heat, even his existence shaved down to pebble-small, a stone by the road.

For a moment, Eli couldn’t lock him at all; the target was dust on wind.

“You truly surprise me. How did you do that?” Zero’s voice drifted like mist beside him.

Eli smiled and turned his head, a tilt like a crescent. “Guess, fool.”

Zero ignored the barb, rubbing his chin like a scholar. “Those strange forces that saved you—are they born from your lost eyes?”

“In this whole space, spiritual sensing won’t reach beyond a meter,” he said, praise and threat braided like rope. “How did you pull it off?”

He stretched his hands, rejoining his halves like stitching torn cloth back together.

“Now let’s see if you can still find me,” Zero said, smile thin as wire.

Eli turned to face him, wearing a scornful grin like a crescent blade.

Zero smiled too, then vanished completely, a candle snuffed.

Eli turned again and still faced him, like a compass needle to north.

Zero’s brow lifted like a bird’s wing. “Huh?”

Eli shook his head, a small motion like snow off branch. “Brains are your handicap. I didn’t lose you. I was teasing you, fool.”

He swung both swords again, cleaving for Zero like lightning forks.

Zero slipped aside like a shadow, still riddled with doubt like holes in cloth. “How are you doing that?”