"Huh?"

Grey's expression changed instantly as the unfamiliar voice echoed in his mind.

Who was it?

And more importantly, how had he failed to notice anyone nearby?

His perception was sharp. His mind sense was active. Yet there had been no warning at all. No fluctuation. No presence.

Could this entity exist beyond the range of mental perception?

That alone was terrifying.

But what truly unsettled Grey was something else entirely.

A method that could boost him to four hundred percent output and allow him to remain in that state temporarily without suffering rebound damage?

Did something like that even exist in this world?

Nexus Overclock relied on the Golden Ratio and Nexus energy mimicking its structure. Even then, every increase beyond safe limits carried consequences.

The reserve cycle was also sustained by the Golden Ratio, running constantly in the background with minimal energy loss.

Grey ran through countless possibilities in his mind.

Nothing fit.

Nothing made sense.

And that led him to a single conclusion.

He should not trust this voice.

Not even slightly.

What if it was a trap?

This place was ground of high order. Nothing that manifested here could be taken at face value. A disembodied voice offering power was the most suspicious thing imaginable.

Hell no.

Just as he finished that thought, the Abyssal Mistress spoke.

"It's over, junior."

Her cold voice echoed across the battlefield as she began walking down from the air.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Each step sent reverberations across the land, the ground trembling under the sheer pressure of her presence.

"I originally planned to make you surrender," she continued calmly, "but now I'll make sure you won't be able to move an inch for countless months to come."

A cold grin spread across her face.

She stretched out her armor covered hands, long pointed nails extending from her fingers, each one gleaming with abyssal light.

"Give it your all, junior," she said indifferently.

"Because at this level, the things you can pull off are limited."

"MYRIAD ABYSSAL FIST!"

Her presence expanded explosively.

The world itself seemed to recoil.

She thrust her arms forward.

In an instant, abyssal energy surged violently as a colossal fist formed high above the battlefield. It descended from the sky, crashing down toward Grey from several miles away.

The fist was enormous.

It spanned miles.

Space groaned as it fell, pressure crushing everything beneath it long before it even reached the ground.

The Abyssal Mistress did not underestimate him anymore.

Grey's unpredictability had forced her hand.

This time, every attack she used was massive, overwhelming, and impossible to evade with tricks alone.

She would keep him within her range.

She would ensure a direct hit.

She was not going to repeat the same mistakes again.

Grey stared at the falling fist from the sky with a grim expression. The abyssal construct spanned an absurd distance, its sheer size distorting the air long before it reached him. One thing was certain. Six seconds were not enough to dodge this attack. There was no angle, no safe margin, no trick he could pull that would let him escape its range.

Since that was the case, there was only one option left.

He would go beyond his limits.

Grey's eyes blazed with Nexus energy as his Saint's Eyes ignited fully. The world flashed purple as surrounding forces were violently dragged toward him. Circuit-like patterns crawled across his pale arms, becoming sharper and more defined as Nexus energy surged through every pathway in his body. Space trembled faintly as gravity, law fluctuations, and converging force collapsed toward his clenched fist.

If he wanted to break this attack, he had to exceed what his body was meant to handle.

As for what came after, he had already decided.

Once he escaped the spatial region the Abyssal Mistress had thrown into disorder, he would retreat into his secret realm. He would recover, consume healing potions, stabilize himself, and return to finish her properly with the Nexus Ruination Art. So what if it was shameless? The presence this woman exuded was clearly not something he could face head-on at his current state. Survival came first. Victory could wait.

With that resolve, Grey shot forward.

His figure tore across the sky like a collapsing star, the world losing color as his halo burned intensely above him. Immense momentum gathered around his body as he surged upward toward the descending abyssal fist, space bending violently in his wake.

However, just before he could force Nexus Overclock to four hundred percent, the world paused for a fraction of a second.

Whrmm.

The disordered spatial nodes in the area suddenly rearranged themselves. A foreign influence spread outward, forcibly cleansing the Law of Entropy affecting the region. The distortion collapsed as if something had overridden it entirely.

In the next instant, a spatial fracture formed beside Grey, and a beam of light shot out from it, slamming directly into his back.

Then the familiar voice appeared again.

"Sigh… I knew you wouldn't listen to me."

Her sigh stretched too long, almost exaggerated, as if she were savoring the moment. "But I suppose that's fair. Trusting strangers is boring anyway. Hehe."

The laughter echoed again, softer this time, yet sharper, like glass scraping against his thoughts. "Still, if you truly want to kill that woman… you'll need four hundred percent."

"Good luck, young man."

The voice burrowed deeper into his mind, playful and mature, yet carrying a warped delight that made it impossible to tell whether she was encouraging him… or seeing it as entertainment.

Grey's pupils contracted as his mind perception finally locked onto the source. It was a construct, hexagonal in shape and perfectly symmetrical, embedded directly into the flow behind him. It did not emit chaotic fluctuations nor did it interfere violently with his circulation. Instead, it sat there with unnerving precision operating with absolute control.

The next instant, countless needle-like sensations pierced into his back, not violently, but with surgical exactness. Immediately after, the world slowed.

Ba-dump.

Grey's heart skipped a beat as the incoming abyssal fist loomed in his vision, frozen within a stretched moment of time.

At the same time, his system interface reacted.

[Warning. Foreign construct detected within host.]

[Warning. Foreign power detected.]

Alerts flooded his perception, but before he could react, the interface began recalibrating.

Because the power entering his body was not destabilizing him.

It was stabilizing him.

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