Limitless Heaven had several Cube Worlds within his Heaven Constellation Chessboard. Each Cube World are battlefield killer moves designed for confining and setting up environmental disadvantages for his foes. Among them, some Cube Worlds were uniquely refined and maintained to generate resources or were reserved for specific purposes.
One such special Cube World was the Shattered Starfield Cube World
The remnants of once-majestic celestial bodies drift aimlessly, creating a hauntingly beautiful and eerie landscape. A myriad of desolate star systems, encircled by shattered planets, moons, and asteroids, their surfaces scarred and fragmented, float silently in the void, casting elongated shadows against the backdrop of distant celestial objects.
The shattered fragments of these celestial bodies vary in size, some as small as pebbles, while others are large enough to be identified as broken deep space colonies. Jagged edges and twisted formations give them a sense of raw, untamed beauty, yet there is an undeniable sense of death and desolation that permeates the area.
Amidst the debris, pockets of cosmic dust and gas swirl lazily, caught in the gravitational dances of long-dead worlds. These nebulous clouds add an ethereal glow to the scene, casting eerie shadows and creating ever-changing patterns of light and shadow.
Occasionally, a distant star glimmers faintly, its light reflecting off the shattered surfaces of the celestial debris, However, the cracking of shifting debris and the distant echoes of ancient collisions are ominously defeaned, overshadowed by silence the moment the Great Archmage arrived into this Cube World.
The vacuum of space is not the best environment for a ‘naked’ human to exist. Mortal humans would shortly freeze to death if their boiling blood hadn't exploded their bodies from the inside out. However, for a rank 5 Epic whose blood contains energies akin to star matter, such hazards are inconsequential.
Being a Convert, a joint of man and machine, the blood that flowed within the Great Archmage’s body is naturally not ‘real’ blood, but blood-strain nanoms. These nanomachines comprise the majority of the flowing ‘liquid’, alongside other constituents such as energy-rich materials that can be used for various purposes.
Waving his hand, the Great Archmage tried to access his dimensional storage. To his dismay, the Shattered Starfield Cube World had a hidden effect of [Dimensional Anchor].
Dimensional Anchor, by definition, is a method that ‘stabilizes’ space, not allowing any spatial disruption upon an area. Its effect ranges from denying teleportation or denying the ability to utilize dimensional storage. Naturally, he possessed specialized artifacts that could partially bypass Dimensional Anchor, but for a refinement-path expert whose combat style primarily revolves around accumulating combat resources such as potions or artifacts, the inability to take them out is a severe handicap. In stellar warfare such as this, using a MEKA or an orbital fighter jet would be ideal, but things almost always proceed contrary to his plans.
It’s like a swordsman having their swords taken.
Nevertheless, the man known as the Great Archmage is the most resourceful person amongst the Braves.
Activating a rank 5 time-path body mod, [Hyper Clock Up], he freed himself from the timeflow of the 3rd dimension. Every action he took now occurred at an accelerated pace, akin to being inside a video running at 10x playback speed. Leveraging this accelerated timeflow, he swiftly fabricated a sublight thruster on his back with nanoms and hardlight substances from his local storage. Exhaling copious amounts of light and electricity in exchange for thrust force, his destination was none other than the closest broken asteroid.
Space debris obstructed his path, with only the useful pieces being salvaged while the rest were disregarded due to recycling inefficiencies. Approaching the broken asteroid the size of Singapore, he executed a backflip for a superhero landing. “Earth to earth, metal to metals. Yield to my will, break down, and dance! Rank 4 refinement-path killer move, [High Transmutation: Mass Driver]!”
BZZT! Electric sparks began to spread from the edge of his hands, the alien energy enveloped a large area around the landing zone before spreading to the whole asteroid. Then, the celestial body broke down into countless pieces, its mass floating amidst the electric sparks, swirling like debris caught in a tornado. His finger danced, systematically tracing the air, highlighting the outline of a tubular object.
Being in an accelerated time flow, the speed of his refinement process was significantly faster. The abundance of available ‘time’ allowed him ample leeway to correct errors and inefficiencies, enabling him to swiftly construct a rank 4 Mass Diver.
The raw material was a Singapore-sized asteroid, yet the completed facility spanned barely 100 meters in length. Nevertheless, he had sensed the arrival of his foe within this Cube World, therefore having no time to waste.
Embedding himself into the core of the facility, he enveloped himself in a hastily refined projectile shell.
Rank 5 Epics possessed bottomless energy compared to rank 4 Paragons, but even that was barely sufficient for movement at a stellar scale. Thus, he crafted his own electromagnetic catapult for propulsion. His target is the nearest star, coincidentally, is also a G-type star.
A few astronomical units away from said star, Distorted Shadow arrived in this cube world.
Among the class 'templates' available through his [Class Selector] killer move, there was a special 'class' that surpassed all others in terms of offensive power. This 'class' was so unique that throughout all of Holy Terra's history, there was only a single instance: the owner of this 'class,' none other than the 'Grimsong Specter.' Despite ‘stealing’ the identity of Grimsong Specter, in the external world, however, there was almost no difference in appearance.
Instead of being shrouded by a cloud of black pixels, he’s now a ghastly specter donning a hooded black robe of emptiness.
Upon witnessing the Great Archmage plunge himself into a star, Distorted Shadow knew that he had arrived too late.
His original plan had been to conclude the battle with a single decisive move. However, with the Great Archmage now submerged into the depths of the star, that option was no longer viable. Unless he could instantly destroy a star, locating the Great Archmage within its fiery depth would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
Quickly switching his plan, his sight instantly locked onto a small planet within the system, as it held a thriving civilization of intelligent race. The planet itself is barely half the size of Holy Terra, but the star’s radiation is too strong given the planet’s orbit is too close to its sun. “Rank 5 sound-path killer move, [Yang Pass Tune]!”
His ghastly specter turned into waves. It was as if Distorted Shadow had teleported from deep space into the orbit of the planet.
The inhabitants were a race of petite humanoids, characterized by hunched backs and dark skin—a natural adaptation to protect themselves from the intensity of the star’s radiation. Whatever their origins, they had evolved to thrive in this harsh environment. Yet, to him, they were like fruit ripe for the taking.
High in the atmosphere, Distorted Shadow clasped his hands before aiming towards the world down below, “Rank 5 sound-path killer move, [Song of Annihilation: Soul Requiem for Fallen Worlds]!”
The effects of his song reverberated through the planet. Soon, all sentient beings with souls on the planet fell lifeless, their souls harvested and consumed by Distorted Shadow. Radiation-resistant vegetation began to wither, acid lakes and metallic forests began to perish, and within minutes, the planet's magnetic field ceased to function. Starting from earthquakes to other natural disasters, the planet's demise escalated until it eventually cracked open like an egg.
Despite the planet's surface being a protective shield against the star's radiation, its underground world served as a natural reserve for life, housing a far greater abundance of lifeforms. Nevertheless, they too succumbed to Distorted Shadow's curse-song, their souls harvested for his needs.
Departing the dead, crumbling planet after extracting the equivalent of 14 billion souls, Distorted Shadow's spectral form swelled to unnatural proportions. He now stood hundreds of meters tall, unable to instantly 'digest' the recently harvested souls.
He activates [Yang Pass Tune] once more, traveling towards the orbit of the system’s star.
Originally a spherical, bright orange star, it had now been transformed into a chaotic scene. A colossal tornado, myriad times larger than the Eye of Jupiter, consumed a significant portion of the star's mass. The sea of star matter was being siphoned into the core of the tornado, as if a hole in reality had ejected that mass into another universe.
Distorted Shadow wouldn’t give the most precious resource, time, to the Great Archmage. He took on a deep inhaling motion despite his small size relative to the star.
“Rank 5 sound-path killer move, [Wave Force Artillery Strike]!”
The profound 'silence' caused by the attack in the vacuum of space was deafening. A vibrating white pillar-like wave was emitted from his mouth, resembling a laser cannon, aimed towards the core of the tornado. The boiling sea of star matter was swept away like sand in a flash flood. Both the tornado and the star matter were pushed and scattered into the distance. The immense power of the attack greatly affected the star's magnetic field, compromising the integrity of the celestial body. As a result, the star began to collapse.
At the center of the attack, the star matter tornado persisted, protected by a sphere that shielded some of the matter from dissipating completely under the Wave Force Artillery Strike. Despite a quarter of his spectral mass having already diminished, Distorted Shadow was unable to halt the Great Archmage's actions entirely. Instead, he escalated the consumption of souls to fuel the attack, causing space itself to crumble, evidenced by black spatial cracks appearing on the pale-white Wave Force Artillery Strike.
Despite being a rank 5 Epic, Distorted Shadow had unleashed an attack equivalent in offensive power to a rank 6 Sovereign’s, as indicated by the spatial cracks. Nonetheless, the spherical shield endured, protecting a significant portion of the star matter from scattering.
Realizing he couldn't sustain the attack despite having consumed half of his newly gained spectral mass, Distorted Shadow ceased his assault. The spatial cracks remained, the attack having inflicted permanent damage on the dimensional laws. It was evident that the 3rd dimension could not withstand such an assault.
“A wise move.” The Archmage's voice, despite being in the vacuum of space, could be heard clearly as if he was in conversation distance.
Swiping his hand, the perception-hindering forcefield and the star matter cleared from the sphere that blocked the star matter tornado.
The sphere was the Great Archmag’s energy shield, protecting whatever he refined under the shroud of star matter tornado. There are 14 gigantic shield generators supporting him, siphoning star matter as the source of energy. Although 13 of them have overheated and melted, if Distorted Shadow were to continue the Artillery Strike, he might be able to break open Great Archmage’s tortoiseshell, but at that point, the Shattered Starfield Cube World would also crumble, allowing the Great Archmage to simply take out his armaments and become a serious threat.
“Father.” Distorted Shadow began, “With that amount of body mods… have you strayed from the path of [Purity] into the path of [Supreme]? Is this what happened to my eldest sister, Shakuras, as well?”
Great Archmage chuckled, “I don’t even know who you are.” He pointed at Distorted Shadow, “Rank 5 light-path body mods, [Proton Collider]!”
His fingertips opened up, revealing a small lens-like surface. In an instant, an explosion enveloped Distorted Shadow, but a prismatic forcefield, mostly grayish purple hue, blocked it.
“As expected, that single attack is as powerful as most of my Mars-Pattern Arsenal on full power. Have you optimized and elevated Mars’ techs by a couple of levels ever since your departure?” Distorted Shadow attempted to sate his curiosity.
The Great Archmage has no intent to play along with his spiel. “You talked too much.” He retrieved an object from the star matter tornado: a waist-mounted railgun covered in lighting arcs and the sun's coronal mass. Pulling the trigger, he fired electromagnetic projectiles at a velocity reaching 20% of the speed of light according to the Dimensional Laws of Holy Terra.
Nevertheless, no matter how powerful the Great Archmage’s attack was, it was useless because Distorted Shadow shield is equivalent to a rank 6’s. Despite using a turret typically attached to large spaceships, the Great Archmage’s railguns cannot even put a dent in his passive defensive force field.
“Deadlock, is it?” The Great Archmage mused.
On one side, Distorted Shadow had consumed billions of souls, thus allowing him to temporarily gain the power of a rank 6 Sovereign.
On the other side, the Great Archmage refined all sorts of high-end artifacts from a star.
Yes, Distorted Shadow could use a far more concentrated attack by approaching the Great Archmage, but the eye of the storm behind him is shrouded with information-path stealth methods, not allowing Distorted Shadow to get a glimpse of what’s happening. Knowing the Great Archmage’s technological prowess has progressed beyond the scope of Mars’ tech, he couldn’t simply go in blind, as it was an obvious trap.
“What’s your game?” Distorted Shadow inquired. “[Divided We Stand] should make any attempt of ‘cloning’ you through any methods become a boomerang. Why are you still on the enemy’s side?”
The Great Archmage raised his eyebrows, surprised. His eyes suddenly gleam in prismatic light, evidence of an information-path killer move being activated. In combination with his shocked look, Distorted Shadow discerned that the Great Archmage’s killer move wasn’t for deduction nor investigation, but he was receiving information.
As Distorted Shadow is currently a spectral lifeform who is extremely sensitive to wave frequency, he could sense that the Great Archmage is receiving some kind of highly encrypted waves from an unknown source. ‘He must’ve locked his core memories in a secret location and used a high-dimensional frequency transmitter when the time is right… how typical of him.’
"[Divided We Stand], huh?" The Great Archmage's demeanor underwent a complete change. Distorted Shadow couldn't pinpoint exactly what was different, but he sensed that this 'Great Archmage' was now unhinged, as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. "So this is the timeline where Shakuras survived the experiment... Perfect, the pieces for dealing with Oppenheimer have been set into motion." He then glanced at Distorted Shadow.
“Rule and information… you are the last component Yellow requires. Escalating Battle-phase, come forth, Takemikazuchi Mk.4!” As the Great Archmage finished his words, a 14-meter tall MEKA appeared from behind the star tornado and engulfed it in its belly.
The pale MEKA quickly gained colors as the pilot entered the cockpit. The mix of lightning arcs and the coronal mass enveloping the MEKA was siphoned to its arms. “Rank 5 refinement-path killer move, [Stellar Nucleosynthesis]!”
Plasma-like coronal mass that consists of lighter elements becomes concentrated. The lightning arcs are the assistant, they help in ‘editing’ the atom of each particle by either removing or adding proton, electron, or neutron charges. Hydrogen becomes helium, and helium becomes lithium, and so on and so forth, continuing at a rapid pace. In less than a second, the number of protons inside each atom has reached more than a hundred. The coronal mass eventually becomes a metal that couldn’t be found in nature, such as adamantium.
Observing the piece of metal in the MEKA’s hand turning into a somewhat familiar golden broadsword with intricate golden runic words inscribed on it, Distorted Shadow knew his time had ended. “You’ve completely digested Takemikazuchi’s soul it seems…” However, his ‘eyes’, or whatever its equivalent for ghosts, were shining brightly in pride. He wouldn’t back down from his own demise.
“The sword of Terra piercing the heavens, shining brighter than the sun. This blade of destiny cuts through the lines of fate weaved by the Dragon God. Rank 5 sword-path killer move…” The MEKA raises its sword as coronal mass is rapidly converted into pure golden lightning arcs. The sun’s mass has been completely used up, there was no more star matter to support him from henceforth.
At the same time, Distorted Shadow began to activate an incredibly complicated killer move that converted the tormented souls boosting his cultivation base. With this, when he dispelled [Identity Theft: Grimsong Specter], the pseudo-rank 6 cultivation base remained while allowing him to use his main method. “Effect precedes cause. My will distort the law of causality, rank 5 rule-path killer move…”
“...[Excalibur]!” A surge of energy traveled through the MEKA as the Great Archmage swung the golden broadsword. The blade dissolved into motes of golden particles that swirl around him. The space itself seemed to writhe in pain, unable to bear the burden of Excalibur’s existence. Then, with a deafening crack that split the dark vacuum of space, the swirling energy coalesced into a blinding beam of light.
The golden blade-light hummed with a power that defied description. It wasn't just sharp; it was a torrent of pure energy, a concentrated beam of destruction capable of rending the very fabric of reality. The space in which the light traveled is shredded, ruptured, and broken.
There was no hope for defense, as even the impenetrable shield could not defend against an attack that wound the world itself.
However, that was Distorted Shadow’s intent in the first place, as he finished his incantation. “...[Damage Reflect]!”
At that very instance, a mirror-like ring dimensional construct materialized between Distorted Shadow and the golden torrential blade light. As the golden Excalibur clashed against the reflective surface of the mirror-ring space, a shockwave rippled, seemingly absorbing the attack that distorted the very fabric of reality.
After the golden light has been completely swallowed by the mirror-like ring, in a dazzling display, the golden MEKA shattered into countless fragments, each piece reflecting the light of Excalibur in a mesmerizing golden dance of annihilation.
Other than the fact that he had regained his original size and cultivation base, Distorted Shadow stood somewhat unscathed, but its mirror-like ring cracked as it was barely capable of reflecting the damage produced by the Great Archmage. As the dust settled, the MEKA lay in ruins, its pilot ejected from the cockpit, battered and broken. The convert has most of its biologicals scorched by golden light, whereas its mechanical mods melt from sheer heat. What’s left of the Great Archmage was a broken metallic skeleton, as even a rank 6 attack could not completely destroy it.
Distorted Shadow has no confidence in defeating his father, but he has been underestimating himself. Information is his greatest weapon. The Great Archmage falling under Distorted Shadow’s hands is simply because he had all the data necessary to kill him. It was a mix of bad luck and incompatibility.
If the Great Archmage wasn’t his father, or he didn’t know all of his killer moves, things would’ve progressed in another direction.
Nevertheless, he could not savor the feeling of triumph after winning against his maker, as there were still multiple Braves to kill. Though, it was a fact that he had exposed his methods. The more it is used, the less effective it becomes as every Epics in this battlefield are rank 6 Sovereign-seeds. Given their capacity, even if they don’t see it directly, they could still use some deduction methods to refine countermeasures.
Thus, it would be better if Distorted Shadow kept his primary combat style hidden.
Urged by the Shattered Starfield Cube World crumbling, the techno-magus used an information-path killer move to turn his person into information current, downloading himself to the skeletal remains of the Great Archmage. Then, prismatic metal began to envelop the mechanical corpse, filling it with flesh-like layers until eventually turning the corpse into a human with the same appearance as the Great Archmage, the only difference being the eyes which are completely black, even the sclera.
“Hah…” Distorted Shadow was amazed at the level of technological advancement the Great Archmage had achieved to refine this body. Magic machinery is a completely alien concept to the techno-magus. “Even running on 30% of its operational capacity is way beyond most of my Mars-patter arsenal.”
“Limitless Heaven,” he sent an encrypted message, “If I can restore this vessel to half its former glory, my power will be twice my peak. Transport me into a mineral-rich Cube World with hastened timeflow. This Mortal Shell demands restoration.”
