Abyss Draconis

The first glacial spear slammed into the swirling black — and was instantly swallowed whole.

No shatter.

No explosion.

Just silence and erasure.

Then the second came... and then the fifth, and then the tenth.

The Vortex grew with each devoured glacier, feeding on its divine cold to spin ever faster and darker.

The final spike — the largest, easily two kilometers long — descended with incredible power, and without even reaching the Vortex, it had already begun to crack into nothing, showing it would never be able to contain it.

But the 7th Calamity didn't just stand down. He moved forward as he thrust the staff toward the coming galaxia.

The staff's might was strong enough to destroy its own previous root skill as it slammed into the edge of the falling glacial, and then—

BOOOOOM!

A black nova rippled out, ripping the surrounding cosmic body to shreds. Stars blinked out as the ice met the abyss... but lost.

When the flash cleared, the 7th Calamity hovered, staff smoldering with abyssal energy, his cloak in tatters.

But he was alive, staring at Ryuk, whose gaze locked onto him, eyes burning with primal rage—and in the next instant, he faded from where he hovered.

When he reappeared, he was right before the 7th Calamity, his humungous claws slashing outwards towards him.

The size made the 7th Calamity resemble a man facing an incoming mountain, but the evil didn't know retreat.

His staff yanked backward, elongating to 20 meters in length all in the span of a blink, and then—

BAAAAAAAAANNNGGGGGG!

It slammed straight into Ryuk's claws, the entire void swelling into havoc, but it was just the beginning.

BAAANNNG!

BAAAANGG!

BAAAANGG!

The attacks continued ceaselessly between them as they became a blur of light that raced through stars.

Star bodies occasionally splintered into the void as they tore through them, fighting like two enraged beasts.

Neither seemed to tire, continuing forever—until an incredibly powerful clash, at the heart of a planetary core.

It was so powerful that it drove both backwards with enough force to send them flying through the star's heart, ripping its entire body into two, each lodged in half of the remains.

Standing atop one of the half-destroyed stars was a towering Frostborne Calamity Dragon.

His glacial wings had been torn, one split down the middle and trailing stardust and frozen blood.

The once-impervious Draconic scales that shimmered like star-crystals had darkened, seared, and in some places had begun to reveal bubbling nanobots beneath.

One of his horns had snapped, jagged at the base, and a third of his spiked tail was missing.

His chest—where the Draconic Core once burned—had now caved in, as if a black hole had struck him point-blank.

Veins of dark frost crawled across his body, signs of corrupted abyssal energy from the battle.

Every breath steamed with blood, and one of his eyes glazed over and bloodshot.

And yet, despite the ruin, his claws dug into the half-severed star body as he pushed himself out of the crater, gaze focused on the other end, where lay the skeletal figure who also tried to slowly crawl out of the chasm.

His skeletal frame now floated in ruin.

Segments of his rune-engraved armor had been seared open, exposing a cracked backbone etched with ancient curses.

His ribcage was caved in as if crushed by the weight of his own staff turned against him.

His jaw hung dislocated, twitching with faint will, while one eye socket flickered erratically, the other dim with light having been gouged out, leaving a shimmering frost mist in its place.

His left arm was missing, torn off at the shoulder, and his staff floated broken beside him.

Its middle core had long been shattered, leaving an empty hole as the dark runes covering the staff bled with sparks.

And still, Zar'kul grinned, with half his skull missing.

He ripped himself from the destroyed star's remnants as he stepped forward one pace at a time, his voice ringing loud and clear.

"To have thought, the Little Dark One."

"The one who was never meant to exist in the first place had grown so much."

"Hehehehe!" he laughed mockingly as he watched Ryuk rise from the chasm of the stars he was buried in, eyes gleaming in fury.

"Be mad all you want. Your fate was sealed many, many years ago."

"Right when your pathetic of a father allowed himself to be blinded by something as fickle as love."

"Ever since then, his blood has been cursed to eventual ruin."

"A fall from grace, and you are just an unlucky blood of his who happened to possess what should never have been yours in the first place," he sneered, watching Ryuk's draconic form collapse onto the ground before his transformation faded off, leaving him back in his mortal state.

In an instant, Zar'kul placed both skeletal hands to form a runic seal, which glowed with unstable abyssal energy before he muttered:

"Calamitous Knull: Abyssal Reversal!" he intoned in the ancient tongue.

Ryuk watched as the runic symbol he drew in the air came to envelop his figure, and the broken arms and shattered ribs all began resetting backward—but they never fully healed.

Most likely, he had reversed time on itself to some time of their battle, or he didn't have enough energy to fully heal himself.

But if one thing was clear, it was that Zar'kul now radiated an aura stronger than that of Ryuk's, with fewer wounds.

His staff lay thrown to the side as he stepped forward toward Ryuk, walking on the mirrored void with newfound vigor...

"You cannot bear my ungodly power. All your actions up until now have only delayed your eventual fate..." he said, then watched Ryuk's hand press against the ground as he rose to his knees, then stood on trembling legs before crouching.

But then his expression of pain turned into a grin of mockery as he looked at the approaching Zar'kul, with a smile brimming with disdain and defiance.

"Pathetic little old thing, bragging to me of his supreme power... power he got from stealing my own body part..."

"If you think that earlier battle was anything... then think twice."

"I'm just getting started..." Ryuk muttered, and in the next instant, a vial of blue appeared in his hands, and he downed the entire dose before crushing the glass bottle in his palms.

A groan left his skin as bizarre blue energy appeared from the cracks and damage in his body, and Zar'kul watched the injuries heal as Ryuk's energy returned with even more vigor.

But then, Ryuk's left and right hands fingers slowly moved toward each other, forming a bizzare hand seal before he muttered with an abyssal grin:

"Domain Expansion..."