Chapter 245: The frost and the web

The submission of Kharon the Unyielding had sent a tremor through the underlying fabric of the Null Expanse.

Inside the central tactical hub of the floating white-marble citadel, Elena stood surrounded by glowing holographic projections of the remaining unmapped sectors. Her golden eyes flickered as data streams surged across her screens, mapping out the immediate reactions of the surrounding divinities.

"The domino effect has begun," Elena reported, her voice carrying a crisp, analytical calm as she looked toward Vince. "The remaining four Void-Gods realized their individual realms are no longer isolated. Two of them have immediately shifted into absolute defensive postures."

Vince leaned back against the high silver-wood throne in the citadel’s primary hall, one hand resting lazily on the armrest while his other stroked the soft hair of Lyrielle, who was seated beside him. Barnaby hovered just above his shoulder, radiating a warm, golden aura from her fully bloomed lotus core, while Vetra leaned against a marble pillar, casually running a whetstone along the edge of her heavy broadsword.

"Identify the two defensive sectors," Vince commanded softly.

"To the north lies the Frigid Void, ruled by Vaelen of the Frozen Abyss," Elena said, waving her hand to expand a projection of a jagged, crystal-blue star domain where ambient temperatures plunged into absolute zero. "To the east lies the Veiled Labyrinth, commanded by the arachnid primordial Sycorax of the Silent Web. Sycorax has woven a high-frequency illusion domain across three entire sub-sectors to obfuscate her true location, while Vaelen has encased his domain core within three thousand layers of impenetrable cosmic ice."

Vetra paused her sharpening, her amber eyes flashing with eager heat. "A turtle in ice and a spider hiding in dark corners. Sounds like we split up and clear them simultaneously."

"There is no need to split our force," Vince replied smoothly, rising from his throne. His dark coat settled effortlessly over his broad shoulders as he extended his hand. "We crush the web first, then melt the ice. Elena, map the illusion nodes."

"Already done," Elena replied with a confident, radiant smile, transferring the spatial coordinates directly to Vince’s spirit. "I’ve isolated the true anchor of Sycorax’s web behind the fourth illusions-mirror."

Vince stepped off the dais, his dark amethyst eyes burning with absolute, unbothered certainty.

"Let’s clean the corners."

Ten thousand miles to the east, the Veiled Labyrinth was a nightmare of distorted spatial geometry.

Countless strands of glowing, silver void-silk stretched across thousands of floating obsidian asteroids, creating an endless, shifting maze designed to trap the minds of anyone who breached its perimeter. Thousands of phantasms—ghostly projections of ancient warriors and false cosmic leviathans—swarmed through the mist, shrieking with maddening, psychic pressure.

At the center of this web sat Sycorax.

She was a massive, elegant, yet terrifying hybrid entity—part alabaster-skinned queen, part towering, eight-legged spider forged from translucent cosmic glass. Her eight crimson eyes glowed with ancient, manipulative intelligence as she watched the spatial wall at the edge of her domain.

"He erased Kharon in minutes..." Sycorax hissed, her voice a layered, echoing whisper that resonated through the silk threads. "But raw strength cannot pierce a maze of ten thousand illusions. Step into my web, mortal monarch... and lose your mind forever."

Before her hiss could fully fade, the sky above her labyrinth did not just crack—it simply ceased to project illusions.

Vince walked out of the void, stepping onto the empty air above the central web. Beside him, Lyrielle drew her bow of polished elder-wood, her delicate ears twitching as her eyes locked onto Sycorax with absolute clarity.

"Illusion domains rely on weak spiritual anchors," Lyrielle said smoothly, her posture perfect as she drew her string back. "Vince’s domain makes false reality impossible."

Vince didn’t even raise his hand. He simply exerted his Inward Absolute Domain: Truth.

PING—!

In an instant, the thousands of shifting spatial mazes, false phantasms, and psychic illusions vanished like smoke in a gale. The ten thousand miles of complex silk collapsed into a single, fragile thread anchored directly to Sycorax’s chest.

Sycorax gasped, her eight crimson eyes widening in sheer, paralyzing horror as her domain was stripped bare in a microsecond. "My... my web... erased?!"

"Lyrielle," Vince murmured softly, resting a hand on her waist. "Take her core."

"Yes, My King," Lyrielle replied proudly.

Channeling the golden domain light anchored deep within her soul, Lyrielle released a single, blinding arrow. The arrow streaked through the air, transforming into a soaring, golden phoenix of pure elven light that tore through Sycorax’s remaining silk barriers and struck the spider queen directly in her central chestplate.

BOOOOOOM—!

Sycorax let out a high-pitched, agonizing shriek as her translucent glass body fractured into millions of glowing crystals. Her ancient spiritual authority dissolved into light, leaving only a brilliant, violet-tinted Labyrinth Core hovering in the quiet void.

Vince reached out, catching the violet core with a flick of his wrist and tossing it to Elena.

"One minute, twelve seconds," Elena reported with an amused smirk. "Next target: Vaelen’s Frozen Abyss."

Without pausing, Vince folded the space beneath their feet once more.

The warm, silent void of the Labyrinth vanished, replaced instantly by the howling, oppressive chill of the Frigid Void.

The temperature here was so low that even ambient mana froze into jagged, floating blue crystals. Before them sat a colossal sphere of ice thirty thousand miles wide—the Glacial Fortress of Vaelen. Inside the impenetrable core of the ice sphere, the Primordial Void-God Vaelen—a giant armored titan made of living blue cosmic frost—stared out with ancient, arrogant confidence.

"Mortal!" Vaelen’s voice boomed from deep within the ice, reverberating like cracking glaciers. "You may have unwritten the web, but my Glacial Fortress is forged from absolute zero! Not even the fire of a dragon-kin can melt three thousand layers of primordial—"

"Vetra," Vince interrupted calmly, ignoring the booming voice entirely. "Break his ice."

"Gladly!" Vetra roared, her blood pumping with fierce excitement.

The dragon-kin princess leapt forward into the frozen void. The silver scales along her arms, chest, and face flared with a dark, terrifying crimson heat—not standard elemental fire, but high-density dragon-kin soul-flame refined through Vince’s domain. She raised her massive broadsword with both hands, her muscles surging as the blade ignited into a pillar of blinding, sun-like crimson light.

"Dragon-Domain: Sol-Breaker!"

Vetra brought her blade down in a devastating, vertical cleave against the thirty-thousand-mile ice sphere.

BOOM—! SHATTER—!

The "impenetrable" cosmic ice didn’t just crack—the extreme heat of Vetra’s soul-flame caused the entire thirty-thousand-mile fortress to instantly flash-boil and evaporate into harmless white steam.

The giant titan Vaelen was left hovering naked in the empty void, his jaw slack, his icy armor completely melted, and his giant blue eyes filled with absolute, stuttering disbelief.

Before he could even process the destruction of his fortress, Vince materialized directly in front of his face.

Vince raised a single finger, tapping the frozen Void-God right on his forehead.

"Rank Severance."

CRACK—!

Vaelen’s massive titan body shattered into fine frost dust, leaving behind a brilliant, deep-blue Frigid Core that hummed with pure, compressed cosmic stasis.

Barnaby floated forward with a purr, her golden eyes glowing as her hand closed around the frozen core, absorbing its residual heat into her lotus to maintain its perfect, 100% harmony. She turned back to Vince, her pale cheeks flushed with sultry satisfaction as she leaned against his side.

"That’s three Void-Gods down, My Lord," Barnaby whispered against his neck, her lips brushing his skin. "The remaining two are panicking."

Vince caught her by the hip, pulling her flush against his side while looking out toward the far western edge of the expanse, where the signatures of the final two Void-Gods were rapidly merging into a single, desperate energy cluster.

A dark, victorious smirk touched Vince’s lips.

"Let them gather," Vince said smoothly. "It makes the harvest faster."