Chapter 15 – The Void That Devours

The sky above cracked like shattered glass. Midnight-colored fissures spread across existence itself, bleeding an eerie void that pulsed with hunger. The battlefield, once solid beneath Raphael's feet, now felt fragile—unstable. As if reality itself hesitated to remain intact.

Yet Nyx stood there, untouched by the chaos, his form blurred at the edges like he wasn't fully bound by the world. His gaze, void-black and infinite, carried no malice—only certainty.

"You still think force alone will be enough?" Nyx's voice was calm, yet it carved through the air like a blade, each word vibrating in Raphael's bones.

Raphael didn't respond with words—only action.

The moment his foot struck the ground, the earth detonated beneath him, sending stone and dust spiraling into the sky. A single step shattered the land, the force of his acceleration sending shockwaves through the battlefield. His fist, wrapped in a spiraling maelstrom of Resonance, tore through the air toward Nyx's chest—

But it hit nothing.

Nyx wasn't there.

Not an afterimage. Not speed. Absence.

A cold sensation crawled up Raphael's spine.

Then—

A palm pressed against his chest.

Raphael's mind barely had time to process it before his entire body folded inward, every molecule in his being crushed in an instant. Not by force. Not by pressure. By something worse—existence rejecting him.

And then, he was gone.

A deep, thunderous crack split the battlefield, and where Raphael once stood, a massive crater now gaped open. The surrounding mountains buckled, their peaks snapping off like brittle glass, avalanches of stone crashing down. The sky convulsed—light twisted and bled into darkness.

Then—space ruptured.

Raphael re-emerged, gasping, his body fighting to hold itself together. His cells burned. His mind screamed. Every fiber of his being recognized what had just happened.

Nyx hadn't just hit him. He had pushed Raphael out of reality for a fraction of a second.

The realization sent a cold rage through him.

His power flared, golden arcs of Resonance ripping through the ground beneath him. The air howled as his presence twisted the battlefield back under his control. The terrain trembled as his power surged, the very atmosphere distorting as he refused to be erased.

Nyx tilted his head slightly, as if amused. "You're adapting faster than I expected."

The world still groaned around them. Raphael's return had thrown everything into flux. Space writhed, trying to settle—but something had changed. The battlefield no longer felt neutral.

It was hostile.

Not to Nyx.

To Raphael.

The air around him grew heavy, the gravity shifting in ways that weren't natural. The ground felt foreign beneath his feet, as if it no longer belonged to him.

Then, the first tremor struck.

A deep, resonating pulse that sent spiderweb cracks tearing through the land. A second pulse followed, then a third.

Raphael's gaze snapped upward.

The sky was falling.

The very fabric of the world above was coming apart, as if rejecting its own existence. Massive slabs of darkened sky broke away, plummeting like meteors, each piece carrying the weight of an entire realm's collapse.

It wasn't just a battle anymore.

Nyx had turned the battlefield itself into a weapon.

And Raphael was its target.