MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Lucian's voice resounded across the battlefield, playful but absolute like an executioner's decree.

Existence Erasure

At the utterance of this voice, the very fabric of the Mirror Dimension quaked. From above, the sky split apart as though the heavens themselves were descending upon the world.

Through the sundered firmament, a colossal pillar of searing white light cascaded downward, its brilliance blinding and absolute.

With a deafening blast, it crashed upon the Demon King, its weight unfathomable, so immense it felt as though he bore the crushing burden of the universe itself upon his back.

A guttural groan escaped him as his body began to unravel. His flesh peeled away, fragment by fragment, while his core and the chaos energy that sustained him disintegrated at a maddening pace.

This time, even his vaunted regeneration could not defy the inevitable.

And yet, he did not falter. Panic never crossed his features. Instead, the calm mask upon his face gave way to something far more unsettling, a grin, sharp and unrestrained, as though he relished the agony of his own unraveling.

His lips parted, releasing but two words:

Reverse Effect

The words echoed with unnatural certainty. In an instant, the radiance that sought to erase him twisted in nature. Its destructive force inverted, transforming into restoration.

The light that once devoured him now poured into him like a torrent of vitality. His chaos energy surged and multiplied with each heartbeat, as if Lucian's attack no longer sought his end but conspired to strengthen him.

Witnessing this perversion of his spell, Lucian did not hesitate. Without a flicker of hesitation, he deactivated the ability, dissolving the pillar of light into nothingness.

But the Demon King had not come merely to be struck down.

Even as the remnants of Lucian's light dissolved, his lips curved into a darker smile, and words of annihilation rolled off his tongue.

World Devour

At once, an all-consuming tide of chaos erupted from his body, expanding outward in a merciless surge. It was neither restrained nor directed, it was pure, indiscriminate obliteration.

Wherever the energy touched, existence itself unraveled. Mountains crumbled into nothingness, forests dissolved into dustless void, domains woven by mana were swallowed whole, and vast oceans dried to barren emptiness in the span of a heartbeat.

Without hesitation, Anthony, Lucian, and Aaaninja blurred from their positions, retreating across fractured space as distance was the only shield against the consuming tide.

But just as the world seemed fated to vanish, another voice cut through the devastation.

Temporal Rewind

The words resonated from above, Aaaninja's tone commanding the very rhythm of the Mirror Dimension. His mana surged like a boundless sea, and from it spilled particles of time itself, radiant and innumerable.

In an instant, the torrent of chaos was arrested. Reality shuddered, and then, impossibly, time began to turn backward. The devastation folded upon itself as if rewinding a great cosmic reel: mountains reformed from scattered dust, trees sprouted anew from nothing, oceans roared back into existence, and the obliterated domains returned in their pristine entirety.

With effortless ease, Aaaninja had undone the Demon King's destruction, weaving back all that had been devoured.

But Aaaninja was not finished.

His voice resounded once more.

Time Displacement

Reality itself bent at his command. In an instant, the battlefield shifted, and the Demon King found himself standing face-to-face with Aaaninja in a place that belonged not to the present, but to the past.

For Aaaninja, Time Displacement was no mere technique, it was dominion over causality, the power to cast beings and objects into whichever thread of time he willed. And now, he had chosen to draw both himself and the Demon King into a moment already lived.

Without hesitation, his blade moved like judgment itself. It plunged into the Demon King's chest, piercing his heart. The sickening rip of flesh split the air as blood spilled freely, staining the earth below.

But the Demon King only widened his grin.

There was no acknowledgment of pain, no faltering under the mortal wound. He simply raised his gaze, locking onto the unblinking brilliance of Aaaninja's Eyes of Genesis.

And then he spoke.

Curse Of Eternal Blindness

An aberrant energy surged forth, crashing against Aaaninja's divine sight with staggering force. For an instant, the Eyes of Genesis flared defensively, holding the onslaught at bay, but even their power could not deny the briefest flicker of darkness.

That single heartbeat of blindness was all the Demon King required.

His hand shot forward like a spear, streaking toward Aaaninja's throat with lethal precision.

But Aaaninja did not move. He did not flinch. Even sightless, his expression held only calm amusement. For he had already seen this moment long before it came to pass.

And just as the killing strike closed in, space itself distorted.

Lucian materialized between them, his palm snapping out with unyielding force. His grip locked around the Demon King's wrist like an iron vice, halting the deadly thrust in place.

Since the Demon King delighted in curses, it was only fitting he should be greeted by one of his own.

Lucian's expression remained impassive, but his lips curved with subtle intent as he whispered the incantation:

Curse Of Decay

At once, a malignant energy surged from Lucian's grasp, slithering up the Demon King's body with blistering speed. Wherever it touched, flesh withered and rotted, spreading like an unstoppable plague.

For the first time, the Demon King's grin faltered into a frown. This was impossible, he was supposed to be immune to curses. And yet, this human's spell had bypassed his defenses entirely. Perhaps it was because this was not his true body… but he did not waste time lingering on the thought.

With ruthless decisiveness, he severed his own arm before the decay could consume him further. Flesh tore away, blood sprayed, and yet he remained unfazed.

In the next heartbeat, he vanished into the void, only to reappear moments later, whole once more. A new arm and even a new heart had already regenerated, his form restored as though the attack had never been.

From above, Anthony's katana descended, its arc sharp enough to split the heavens.

[Endless Katana Technique: Katana Series: Existential Nihility]

Mana surged violently across the blade, interwoven with void energy in perfect equilibrium. As the sword fell, it carried with it the weight of nothingness, a strike poised to erase existence itself.

The Demon King merely smirked. With but a thought, his sword materialized once more into his hand, the steel radiating a dreadful darkness. He swung, releasing a crescent of black energy that cut through reality itself.

The two attacks met.

Void and chaos collided, and in that instant, the very sky collapsed. A titanic explosion of blinding black radiance engulfed the Mirror Dimension, swallowing light, sound, and air in its wake.

Earthquakes tore through the world in seismic upheavals. The ground fractured like glass beneath divine hammers, while shockwaves thundered outward, carving concurrent rings of annihilation that drowned the dimension in unending ruin.

Sword scars ripped across space, etched into the dimension itself, each mark resounding with a deafening roar as if the cosmos were being cleaved apart. Forms and shapes of thunderous destruction sprawled in every direction, painting the battlefield in apocalyptic chaos.

Through the haze of destruction, Lucian's voice cut clear, steady and commanding.

Null Field

At once, an unseen domain expanded outward. Within its boundaries, all forms of power, mana, spiritual energy, chaos, even intent itself, were silenced into nothingness.

Lucian's hand lifted, and another incantation followed.

Frozen Sacrilege

From his palm, a chilling force erupted. Ice-elemental energy coalesced with terrifying density, and the temperature plummeted violently. Frost crawled across the air, and even space itself seemed to crystallize under the weight of his frost.

The Demon King's eyes snapped toward him, his instincts sharp. He reached for his chaos energy, but nothing answered. The Null Field had severed his dominion. He needed no explanation; one of the trio had caged him.

Lucian's palm extended, and with a blinding flash, an immense pillar of pure white ice tore forward, its radiance mesmerizing, its coldness soul-piercing.

The Demon King tensed to evade, but Anthony was already there, faster than thought. His hand clamped onto the Demon King's shoulder, locking him in place with immense force.

The icy blast struck.

With a thunderous crack, the frozen energy consumed the Demon King, detonating into him with catastrophic force. Before the inertia of the impact could hurl Anthony away, his figure blurred, vanishing from sight, ignoring the suppression of Lucian's Null Field as though it held no dominion over him.

The Demon King, however, had no such freedom. The pillar's full might slammed into him, blasting his form backwards like a ragdoll. He ricocheted violently across the shattered earth, his body carving a jagged trail of destruction as he crashed through the remains of the Mirror Dimension's fractured terrain.