The spatial ring in the Abyssal Mistress's hand flared violently.

A sharp pulse of light burst outward, piercing through the void like a signal flare.

Grey's pupils shrank.

The instant he saw it, his instincts screamed danger.

That light was not ordinary. It carried a pressure that did not belong to this battlefield, nor to this level of existence. Whatever she was activating, it was something he could not afford to let finish.

Grey did not hesitate.

Time stopped.

The world froze in place as if reality itself had been seized by an invisible hand. The Abyssal Mistress remained suspended mid-motion, the light locked halfway through its eruption, space around it distorted but unmoving.

Grey exhaled slowly.

His consciousness sharpened as the Nexus Ruination Art began to circulate. Complex patterns flared across his mind interface, energy pathways burning as power was forcefully redirected into a single catastrophic point.

He knew the cost.

Once this art was unleashed, his reserves would be completely drained. His body would be left empty.

But that light gave him a feeling he could not ignore.

He had to end this now.

Just as Grey stepped forward.

The frozen world shook.

At first, it was subtle. A low tremor rippled through the halted space, like cracks forming beneath ice. Then the trembling intensified, spreading outward in violent waves.

Grey's expression changed.

For a split second, an overwhelming presence erupted from the suspended light in the Abyssal Mistress's hand. It was vast, cold, and suffocating, carrying an authority that did not belong to her.

"Hm?"

A terrifying voice boomed directly inside Grey's mind.

His head rang violently, consciousness momentarily destabilized as pressure slammed against his soul. His vision blurred, and his time-frozen domain wavered.

The next instant, the world around him vanished.

Grey found himself standing within a dark void.

A man stood before him.

He had short blond hair and deep blue eyes that seemed to pierce straight through existence itself. He wore a pristine priest's uniform, adorned with faint symbols that radiated divine restraint rather than holiness.

Those eyes locked onto Grey.

"Who are you, little brat?"

The man's voice carried no anger, only indifference, as if Grey's existence barely registered.

He raised his hand.

Space warped around his fingers as he reached forward, attempting to seize Grey directly, bypassing distance, time, and law.

In that instant, Grey felt it clearly.

This was not a projection.

It was an intrusion.

The void shattered.

The frozen world trembled violently before collapsing outright. Time cracked like glass and burst apart.

Time resumed.

Reality surged back into motion as if released from a stranglehold.

Grey staggered mid-air.

Sharp pain tore across his body.

He looked down and saw several deep cuts etched across his flesh, space-scarred wounds that had formed without him even realizing it. Blood seeped out briefly before his regeneration surged, rapidly knitting the injuries shut.

His expression darkened.

He had been injured.

Before he could react further, the Abyssal Mistress's body was suddenly lifted into the air, her expression twisting in shock and relief at the same time.

A spatial crack tore open beside her.

Before Grey could reach her, the distortion swallowed her whole, sealing shut instantly afterward.

"No!"

Grey's figure flickered.

In an instant, he crossed the distance, spatial perception flaring to its limit as countless spatial nodes unfolded in his awareness. He traced the remnants of the distortion, locking onto the exit point.

Then his heart sank.

His expression changed drastically.

The spatial node on the other end did not exist within this region.

It originated far away.

From the west.

"Tch."

Grey straightened slowly, eyes icy.

"She actually managed to escape."

Yet that was not what truly unsettled him.

His thoughts returned to the man in the priest's uniform.

He looked no different from a messenger of a god, yet Grey knew that description could not have been more misleading.

He was a High Order member!

A High Order existence capable of ignoring both space and time to directly launch an attack on him.

Just the thought alone sent a chill through Grey's mind.

Still, the Abyssal Mistress had escaped.

That was the part that truly irritated him.

It had taken an immense amount of power, careful positioning, and even external interference to inflict enough damage on her. Every step had been calculated, every move forced her deeper into disadvantage.

And yet, in the end, it had all gone to waste.

"How annoying."

Grey glanced around irritably, his spatial perception sweeping the surroundings once more, even though he already knew the result.

The Mistress must have landed safely on the other side.

And if his judgment was correct, then that fourth-rank existence had now undoubtedly become aware of him.

That realization made his brows twitch.

"This is just great."

Yet despite the frustration boiling within him, Grey knew there was nothing he could do about it.

The Law of Entropy was the key factor.

It was precisely that law which had destabilized his time stop, forcing disorder into a domain that should have been absolute. If not for that interference, his frozen world would have remained intact.

If time had held for even a moment longer, he could have eliminated her cleanly.

But reality did not allow such conveniences.

Less than two seconds had passed.

From the moment she was struck by his attack to the instant she activated the talisman, the interval had been terrifyingly short.

Even while reeling from the damage, she had reacted immediately, relying on a contingency that had clearly been prepared long before this battle ever began.

That alone spoke volumes.

This was not luck.

It was preparation.

Among all the enemies he had encountered so far, the Abyssal Mistress was one of the more competent ones.

She had made her arrangements in advance and had not hesitated for even a heartbeat before abandoning the battlefield the moment survival became uncertain.

Grey exhaled slowly, the irritation within him settling into cold clarity.

Against beings tied to higher laws, especially those capable of introducing entropy into time itself, brute force alone was no longer sufficient.

And now, a fourth-ranking High Order member had seen him.

That was the real price of this encounter.

Grey's gaze shifted.

His eyes locked onto a lone figure suspended in the air at a distance, silently observing everything that had just transpired.

The instant their gazes met, the man stiffened.

He flinched.

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