Nian Shi’s grunt echoed through the void as the dark spear pinned him to fractured spacetime. Silver blood—the essence of time itself—dripped onto the nothingness below. The humiliation burned deeper than any wound.
But then, something shifted.
The panic in Nian Shi’s eyes vanished, replaced by an ancient, glacial coldness. The air around him thickened, vibrating with suppressed power.
The word carried the weight of dead universes.
Nian Shi’s hand closed around the spear shaft. Black cracks spread from his grip as the weapon of Uncreation began to dissolve. Number Four’s impassive facade finally flickered—a hint of surprise in the void-like eyes.
With a sound like shattering crystal, the spear exploded into fragments of devoured light. Nian Shi stood free, his shoulder wound sealing instantly as local time reversed—not around Number Four, but within Nian Shi’s own body, bypassing the nullification field.
Yun Lintian’s eyes narrowed slightly. This was probably the first time for him to see Nian Shi get serious.
Nian Shi didn’t retreat. Instead, he took a step forward. The void itself seemed to solidify under his feet. "You believe Uncreation makes you immune to time?" His voice was dangerously soft. "You understand nothing."
He didn’t shout the names of divine laws. He simply willed them.
Space didn’t crack—it unfolded. Layers of reality peeled back like petals, each revealing a different temporal state: past, present, future, all collapsing toward Number Four. It wasn’t an attack against his body, but against his very existence across all timelines.
Number Four reacted instantly, the vortex around him swirling violently as it devoured the temporal onslaught. But this time, Nian Shi’s power was endless—a flood against a drain. The black hole strained, flickering under the pressure.
Nian Shi’s fingers twitched. The concept of "cause and effect" around Number Four began to unravel. Every movement the shadow made now had no prior cause; every attack existed without origin, becoming chaotic and disconnected.
A spear thrust would begin, then vanish before completion. A defensive stance would form, then dissolve without reason.
For the first time, Number Four was forced back, his movements becoming erratic as the laws that governed action itself were stripped away.
Yun Lintian watched, unmoving, but his mind raced. This was the true power of the God of Time—not mere manipulation, but authority over the fundamental frameworks of reality.
Yet Number Four adapted. The vortex stabilized, now devouring not just time, but the very concepts Nian Shi wielded. The shadow’s form solidified, and he retaliated.
Not with a named technique, but with Oblivion’s Embrace.
A sphere of absolute nothingness expanded from Number Four, erasing all laws within its radius. Time, causality, space—all ceased to exist within that domain.
The two forces collided.
The void screamed. Realities overlapped and annihilated each other. Star systems in distant galaxies winked out of existence from the backlash. The fabric of multiple timelines trembled on the verge of unraveling.
Nian Shi’s expression was carved from ice. He met Oblivion with Eternal Moment—freezing the sphere’s expansion at the Planck instant before it could fully manifest, trapping the erasure in a single, infinitely recurring moment.
The stalemate was absolute.
Number Four pressed forward, his spear rematerializing, now glowing with condensed void. Each thrust was simplicity itself—no flourish, no wasted motion—yet each carried the weight of total Uncreation.
Nian Shi deflected with palms that shimmered with layered timelines, each parry a precise manipulation of cause and effect to redirect force into nonexistent dimensions.
They were beyond speed, beyond power. This was a battle of foundational authority.
Yun Lintian observed it all. Nian Shi, once suppressed, was now fighting equally—his mastery over time and causality allowing him to counter the unnatural nullification of Uncreation. But Number Four was relentless, his power seemingly inexhaustible, his existence an affront to all natural laws.
The battle intensified. A glancing blow from Number Four’s spear erased a strand of Nian Shi’s hair from all timelines simultaneously.
Nian Shi’s counterattack aged the space around Number Four by aeons, attempting to decay even the void itself.
Still, neither gained a decisive advantage.
Yun Lintian’s hand rested on the God Slaying Sword. He saw it now—the flaw in both. Nian Shi fought with infinite versatility but was bound by the very laws he wielded. Number Four wielded absolute negation but lacked true creativity, bound to his purpose like a machine.
The God Slaying Sword hummed, eager to feast on both.
But Yun Lintian remained still.
Let them exhaust each other.
The true enemy was neither.
It was the one who had created this hound.
More importantly, Yun Lintian was certain that both of them still held back. Nian Shi hadn’t drawn out his Blade of Eternity yet and Number Four must have some other things in his sleeve.
The void trembled as Nian Shi and Number Four disengaged, putting distance between them. Silver blood still dripped from Nian Shi’s temple where a spear tip had grazed him, while Number Four’s black robes showed several tears where temporal energy had briefly penetrated his defenses.
Nian Shi’s silver eyes glowed with cold fury. "I didn’t expect Yin to raise a dog like you." His voice cut through the chaotic energy still rippling through space. "How many more of you has he bred?"
Number Four remained silent, but the void around him darkened further, absorbing what little light remained in this shattered region of spacetime.
Nian Shi’s lips curled in contempt as he continued, more to himself than to his opponent. "You must have been someone once. A Primordial God perhaps? One of the forgotten ones Yin seduced with his lies?" His eyes narrowed as he studied Number Four’s energy patterns. "No... you’re something older. Something that shouldn’t exist at all."
For the first time, Number Four’s head tilted slightly—almost imperceptibly—but enough to confirm Nian Shi’s speculation.
Then the attack came.
It was nothing like before. No spear, no obvious weapon. The very concept of "attack" manifested as pure Uncreation—a wave of absolute negation that erased reality as it advanced. Stars, space, time itself vanished in its wake, leaving only nothingness.
Nian Shi’s eyes widened fractionally. He didn’t hesitate.
The River of Time materialized around him, its waters glowing with the accumulated history of countless timelines.
For the first time in this battle, Nian Shi took out one of his trump cards...