"Kathryn, this is where you die."

"Survive this…"

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

"All things came from nothingness, and unto nothing shall all things return."

The moment these words escaped Aurora's lips, horror flashed across Kathryn's face. A tremor ran through the stillness as if the world had drawn in a breath. Even the light seemed to dim, thinned by the chill that spread over the ruined ground.

For the first time Kranos was certain. Kathryn had finally felt fear.

Before Kathryn could react, a gray aura welled up from Aurora and rolled outward in a cold tide that swallowed everything in reach. It brushed against stone and sky with the quiet of falling ash, then closed over Kathryn like a shroud.

In the next heartbeat her expression changed. She felt the strength inside her body loosen and slide away, thread by thread, as if her blood had been replaced by sand. Mana, divine energy, every sliver of power and foundation she had built drained rapidly, leaving her hollow, unmoored, and breathless.

Kathryn returned to the state of an ordinary mortal.

Aurora had invoked the Essence of Nothingness and turned the strength that Kathryn had cultivated into emptiness. Years of tempering vanished in an instant, not even dust remaining to mark their passing.

Shock filled Kathryn's heart as she stared at Aurora. She could not believe that Aurora had grasped such a technique. If she had known that this terrifying variable lurked in the shadows of the situation, she would never have engaged her at all.

Regret gathered like cold dew.

"Kathryn, you did not expect this, right?" Aurora's voice carried a calm, gleaming edge. "You always believed you were the strongest. As an anomaly you stood far ahead of us ordinary cultivators. Because of that you became arrogant."

"Bow down and beg for mercy and I will choose to spare your life as a mortal." A smug smile touched her lips as she spoke.

The Essence of Nothingness had even reduced the Divine Illusion Eyes to nothing, leaving Kathryn with no means of fighting. The familiar currents of power did not answer her call. Silence pressed on her bones.

Now Kathryn was no different from an ordinary mortal.

Unable to muster any strength, Kathryn could only look up at Aurora, her eyes still bright with shock, yet steady.

"You are an interesting little girl, Aurora." Kathryn spat to clear the taste of iron from her mouth and looked at her evenly.

Despair lingered in her gaze, but there was no panic. Kathryn simply stared as though looking at a fool who did not understand the board she stood upon.

Seeing that expression, Aurora frowned. Displeasure creased her face. She wanted Kathryn to plead and beg. She wanted her to sink into true despair. She had not expected such stubbornness.

"Do you think you can leave here alive? Kathryn, give up. There is no escape for you. All your schemes have come to nothing." Aurora's tone remained even, each word measured.

Kathryn only laughed. The sound was low and strangely clean in the ruined air.

"Should I tell you a story?" she asked, her tone turning flat, as if the words were being weighed in her mind as she spoke them.

"A story about someone interesting."

Aurora gazed at her, eyes narrowing. A small part of her warned that she should not listen. Curiosity, however, stirred like a hand lifting a curtain.

"Go ahead and tell me your story," she said. "If it is interesting enough I will think of not killing you."

Kathryn laughed once again, the sound unhidden, carrying a faint rasp from a throat gone dry.

"There was once a man who wanted to cultivate immortality. Born with no talent, he was doomed and destined to fail on the immortal path."

"However, this man refused to give up. He tread the most dangerous places in search of a path to immortality. In the end he stumbled upon a way to ascend the divine realm and achieve immortality."

"The life of this man was fraught with difficulties. He struggled against others who were cultivators trying to stop his steps toward immortality."

"He tried his best, but in the end he was destined not to succeed."

"This man strove against the heavenly path, killed gods and demons, and became the unparalleled emperor of his era."

After speaking, Kathryn shook her head slightly. Her golden hair, dulled by the gray light, settled against her cheeks.

"You know, I learned something from him." As she spoke she lowered her voice and mumbled what she had learned, as if speaking more to herself than to her enemy.

Aurora could not hear her words. She frowned and leaned closer to catch them, the curiosity in her eyes flaring as she sought meaning where silence waited.

At that moment, a change swept through the surroundings.

The sky drew tight and then loosened. Heaven and earth shuddered. The fabric of space gave a sound like ice breaking in deep water. The surrounding strings of time trembled and collapsed, the invisible threads snapping one after another with gentle, fatal whispers.

Against all odds, Kathryn had reached through the veil and, for a blink in the current, transcended nothingness. She managed to gather a small portion of her strength. It was a thin flame, but in front of the fragile Aurora it was enough.

She moved. Her fist drove forward and struck Aurora square in the heart. Fingers closed with a merciless grip. Something within broke like dry glass.

Aurora's eyes widened drastically and a sharp gasp escaped her lips. She clutched her chest, struggling to breathe. With her heart destroyed and no strength to draw on, she could only gasp, struggling at the threshold of death.

Because of her former strength she did not die instantly, but she was too weak to display any technique or even rely on her body any longer. Her limbs felt distant, as if they belonged to someone else.

Practically, she was doomed.

Yet even as doom coiled around her, she spoke a few words to Kranos that caused him to remain where he stood, staring at her in shock as if the ground had shifted beneath him.

Seeing her sneak attack succeed and Aurora dragged to death's door, Kathryn felt a bright rush of relief. Joy stirred, fierce and simple.

Now all I have to do is find a way to deal with the Essence of Nothingness, and I will be able to continue with my schemes and plots. After deciding on her next course of action, Kathryn spoke lightly, voice calm with intent.

"Kranos, get her spatial ring. We should leave here… urgh…" As Kathryn continued speaking she suddenly paused. Her voice cut short as if a hand had closed around it.

A stinging pain opened in her chest. She turned slowly and stared at Kranos with wide eyes that reflected him like a mirror.

Time seemed to pause. A veil fell over the world. As she looked at Kranos, another scene rose to meet this one and the edges overlapped with the very first time they met.

Back then she had been a cheerful lady with bright golden eyes. He had encountered danger in the form of Desmond, and Kathryn had appeared like a saving grace, cutting the knot with a single act and helping him survive the crisis.

At that time she had seemed kind. When they introduced themselves, the moment went still. The strings of fate drew taut and bound them together. The world had felt strangely quiet, as if waiting to see what would become of that knot.

In those early days Kranos was unsure whether the strings were a good sign or a bad sign. Now, after everything that had come to pass, with Kathryn betraying him and granting him a second death, Kranos understood. The tie between them had been a negative karma all along.

It had always been an ill fated relationship.

Kranos lamented his own fate in a single inward breath. There was also Eric, the true mastermind who had constantly plotted against him, a shadow that refused to disperse. One step at a time, he would handle them all.

Kathryn held his gaze, her golden eyes locking onto Kranos's silver ones.

His expression was calm, cold, indifferent, almost chilling. In that gaze there was the patience of winter and the distance of stars.

Kathryn could not read him. No ripple of emotion surfaced on his face. It was the gaze of someone who had endured the long vicissitudes of the cultivation world and had learned to answer betrayal with quiet calculation.

In that moment Kathryn understood. The ultimate schemer she had to guard against was Kranos. The one she had intended to make into a chess piece had known of the board all along and had placed his own pieces with careful hands.

Everything that had transpired between them resurfaced in her mind and arranged itself into a picture that she could not mistake. Her life flashed before her eyes and each minor flaw she had overlooked returned to demand notice.

At the time she had not thought much of those details. Recalling them now, it was obvious that Kranos had been plotting something from the very start.

Her heart filled with regret, heavy and slow. She should never have tried to make Kranos her chess piece in the first place.

"Kranos… you." Kathryn coughed out a mouthful of blood and staggered forward, each step short and laboring.

In this state she was only a mortal and could not withstand a sword stab to her chest. The small enhancement to her body as a cultivator had been drawn out in the form of time points by the Time Sword.

Kathryn was certain. She would die.

There was no chance of coming back because she was only a mortal and could not call upon any abilities.

She coughed again, the sound thin. "You do not know what you have done. You will never survive the coming calamities." Her blood splattered on the ground and darkened the dust. Kathryn collapsed weakly, hands sliding over stone that felt suddenly far away.

Her whisper floated in the air as she slowly lost her breath. "You have… doomed the whole immortal worlds."

A frown formed on Kranos's face. He did not speak. He did not care. He would never regret his decision to kill the anomaly, Kathryn.

Kranos slowly let out a breath and stored the Time Sword in his system space. The weight that had gathered over his shoulders eased. He felt free and relieved, as if cool rain had washed grit from his skin.

He glanced toward the sky, and his silver eyes reflected the pale roil of the clouds.

He had never felt so free. Once again, he had cheated death, slipped its shackles, and stood where few could stand.

"As expected of time. In this life and in the next, I will never regret pursuing the path of time."

Suddenly the clouds trembled and the light changed. Rings of color slid through the air. Echoes like the footsteps of giants moved far above the vault of heaven. The world held its breath.

The Eye of the Immortal Heavenly Dao transcended space and appeared in front of Kranos. It stared without blinking and was brimming with life, ancient and patient, as if it had opened at the dawn of the first morning and never closed.

Kranos had not simply killed Kathryn, the anomaly. He had also torn away the will of the unremarkable young man, ending two anomalies. Such a situation had never been seen. They had both been terrifying in different ways. The weight of what he had done pressed against the boundary of silence.

The rewards for killing them would be substantial beyond measure.

A faint ethereal voice entered Kranos's mind. I will guide you then.

Noticing the mysterious rock in his mental space, the Heavenly Dao chose to aid Kranos in obtaining the true Mysterious Entity. Guiding him along the strings of fate meant more than counting rewards. Even the harvest from two anomalies paled beside that course.

The Eye considered and was still, and then its choice stood like a seal set into wax.

Just then a terrifying aura erupted in the surroundings. The air sharpened. The ground gave a sound like a sigh.

The void's corrosion reached its limit. The immortal planet could not withstand it any longer. It imploded with a sound that seemed both distant and very near, as if heard through water. A vast detonation rolled out and spanned countless miles, tearing the sky and shaking the depth where the stars would be.

Kranos and everything else were buried in the void. Flesh, stone, and light were drawn into a single dark motion. None could withstand the attack.

Kranos had died… again.

Or perhaps he had not…?

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