It hurt.
Bai Yumo could hardly formulate thoughts in the blazing inferno that was the core of a living star.
His skin burned into black ink, which was incinerated instantly. His flesh and bones were slowly melting regardless of the protection he established through his mana.
"GRRRRAAAAAAH!"
He let out a guttural roar as he tried to regain his senses.
Abyssal Mana filled the star, but it held no weight against the natural force within.
At least, not in its passive state.
"DAMMIT—!"
His words were muffled by the flames around him and sucked away with the air. His mind was still blurry, but the constant pain forced him to stay awake and allowed him to regain a portion of his faculties.
He was being watched by countless existences right now.
He was representing the entirety of his race!
He couldn't not…!
He could not fall so easily!
His voice came out in bursts through his gritted teeth. With all his power, he forced his jaw open and roared one more time.
"VOID…MANIFESTATION!"
VOOOOOOOOOOM!
A sound like bass dropping echoed into the starry sky.
Pure blackness exploded out of Bai Yumo's body and instantly enveloped the core of the star.
The size of the mana cloud decreased over the span of a second, and in the next, it rushed back into the Saint King's body.
Whoosh!
Bai Yumo was graced with fresh air.
The core of the star had been…devoured.
Flames rushed to fill the hole he created in the same instant, but that single moment was all he needed.
'Begone!'
He pushed his arm out and the same black was came out under his command, rushing through the flames and devouring everything in its path.
Bai Yumo flew through the gap and made his way out of the burning cloud that was once a star, but before he regained his sense of normalcy—
Thud!
Damien's fist flew into his face.
However, it was blocked by his own ragged arms.
This time, Bai Yumo was prepared!
His arms slashed out and grabbed Damien's neck so fast he couldn't react.
"Die, human!"
The Saint King angrily yelled and sent waves of mana into Damien's skin, mana which joined with the Abyssal Mana already clouding his system and ravaged his internal body.
Damien's eyes widened as sudden pain assailed him.
He rapidly isolated himself from the enemy with a thin layer of spatial mana and teleported himself out of his grip.
'Damn! He's still in fighting condition after that?!'
He cursed inwardly.
Bai Yumo didn't seem to have any outstanding regenerative abilities aside from his natural advantages, but he was sturdy enough to withstand that heat with his body until he could get rid of it.
He was injured, but only superficially.
By the last block alone, Damien understood these injuries meant nothing to him.
'How do I break him?'
This was Damien's thought as he charged back into battle and forced Bai Yumo into another melee.
Abyssal and Void Mana sparked through the starry sky. They flew hundreds of thousands of kilometers every second, moving in every direction as their fists hit each other's bodies.
It looked brutish, but the level of combat was far more sophisticated than one would expect.
After all, the two infused their every attack with law concepts!
Damien used everything he knew about Spacetime and Samsara against Bai Yumo, whose elements weren't named yet possessed equal and opposite qualities to his own.
Injuries started to accumulate.
Damien felt a great deal of stress on his bones that wasn't present usually, a consequence of all the foreign mana trapped in his body. His blood flow was slowed and his stamina took a huge hit, which essentially ruined his most prominent advantage.
Meanwhile, Bai Yumo's old injuries were aggravated to the fullest. His bones and flesh were already cracked and sundered, but every time Damien struck him, these injuries would burst open and fill him with waves of pain.
Yet, neither was willing to back down.
In fact, they only became fiercer with the passing of time!
'I can't beat him with universal power.'
This was what Damien learned throughout their exchange.
Whatever training Bai Yumo underwent in the time they hadn't seen each other turned him into someone who could perfectly counter Damien's Laws.
Their force might've been disproportionate, Damien was definitely stronger on paper, but in battle, he couldn't gain a proper advantage.
'Then…I have no choice.'
His eyes sharpened. His fists slowly filled with wisps of pitch-black mana.
If forces from within the universe didn't work, he had to use one that surpassed it!
Both the Breath of Nothingness and Breath of All Things combined into a single force. This force represented the height of Damien's Void comprehension, and it was at a level where he could hope it went undetected by the onlooking experts!
Bai Yumo felt the change.
Every time their bodies collided, he felt something elusive entering his body.
He couldn't sense it, nor could he locate it, but he could feel it intuitively.
'This is dangerous.'
He pushed back and tried to separate from their melee and return to ranged combat, but Damien wasn't about to let him.
Freya appeared in his right hand and fired several shots behind Bai Yumo, destroying the surrounding space and forcing him to stay within Damien's range.
A complex web of Dimensional Cages appeared next, and the Space-Time River finished off, sealing a large portion of space within Damien's dominion.
At a time like this, Void and Abyssal Mana had to be compared.
They looked almost like reflections of each other, but the Abyss was clearly a level lower.
One had to wonder if the Abyss was included in the forces that separated the universe from the Void, but this was far from the truth.
The Abyss, in Damien's observation of this mana, was literally a diluted manifestation of the Void.
The area outside Grand Heavens Boundary, which used to be an extension of the universe, was destroyed and became the Abyss.
The constant destruction and creation of universes.
This was what created such a twisted atmosphere like the Abyss.
And the Void that existed above universes as a concept naturally flowed its energy into these chaotic remains, slowly polluting them.
Damien didn't know how long it took, but one thing was for certain.
The Abyss was an area corrupted by the Void in the same way the Nox were trying to corrupt Grand Heavens Boundary.
Was it mere coincidence, or…?
BOOOOOOM!
Another massive explosion eclipsed the starry sky.
At this point, the battle had already gone on for an hour, full of back and forths and terrifying momentum that made it difficult to gauge who would come out as the final victor.
Considering how Damien and Bai Yumo were colliding tens of times per instant, the fact that they were still unable to gain an advantage over each other after this long was a surprise in itself.
Damien showed his worth many times to the point where even those who disliked him were forced to admit he was a genius.
Right now, the crowd's attention was on Bai Yumo.
The man who was able to stand up to a monster like Damien.
That man wasn't someone simple at all!
