Zareth Morghul gasped in agony, the void energy rippling across his shadowy form sputtering as he stared in sheer disbelief at the man standing behind him.
"What are you doing?!?!" Zareth yelled, his heavy, oppressive voice cracking with shock as the devastating force of Vesper Noctis’s Starlight Devourer tore through his back.
Vesper’s eyes glowed with an eerie, predatory dark energy. His menacing smile widened as he raised his hand, his fingers tracing a complex, unholy combination of symbols into the air.
"Special Technique: Rune of the Abyssal Revenant," Vesper whispered coldly.
It was a forbidden, master-level fusion of the Rune of the Abyss, the Rune of Severance, and the Rune of Shadow Resurrection all woven into one. The dark sigils instantly branded themselves onto Zareth’s chest. In one agonizing second, the Rune of the Abyss and Rune of Severance violently drained every ounce of Zareth’s life force and severed his magical connection, killing him instantly. But before his body could even hit the floor, the Rune of Shadow Resurrection took hold.
Zareth’s eyes snapped open, blazing with the exact same void energy as before. He had been revived in the perfectly identical body, possessing the exact same memories and personality, but with one sinister twist: he was now entirely a puppet, fully controlled by Vesper and sharing his master's exact will. To anyone else, the 4th in Command of the Eclipse Sovereignty looked completely unchanged.
Vesper turned away from his new creation and violently grabbed the trembling Dr. Kalmaris Vorst by the collar of his lab coat. "We have some things to accomplish," Vesper said darkly. He glanced over his shoulder at his puppet. "Watch over everyone. Make sure nothing happens."
The newly revived Zareth simply nodded.
With a wave of his hand, Vesper released the Planetary Shroud that had plunged the suspended captives into sensory deprivation. The eternal, suffocating night dissolved, returning the headquarters to its dim, star-speckled void. Vesper then stepped into a crackling shadow portal, dragging the terrified scientist with him before the rift snapped shut.
As the darkness of the shroud lifted, the captives in their Spectral Rune Cages blinked against the sudden return of the starlight. Captain Arcturus Valen, Captain Alaric Voss, Captain Elowen Virellis, Kiera Voss, Elder Moros, and Kenshiro Takamura all glared down at the lone figure of Zareth standing before them.
Captain Arcturus Valen was the first to speak. His posture remained perfectly rigid, his sharp eyes darting around the empty space. "Where did Vesper and Dr. Vorst go?"
Zareth looked up, void energy coiling around him like a dark storm. "Shut up, insect," he hissed dismissively.
But inside the shimmering confines of his prison, Captain Valen’s brilliant mind was already working at speeds that defied mortal comprehension. Activating his Grandmaster of the Cosmos intellect—a tactical awareness known to be far smarter and far more advanced on the battlefield than even Captain Daichi—Valen began piecing together the anomalies.
Something isn't right, Valen thought to himself, his eyes narrowing. Malakar explicitly ordered Vesper and Zareth to stay here and watch over us while Dr. Vorst builds the energy containment source. But all of a sudden, Vesper and Dr. Vorst are gone, leaving Zareth alone. They are acting against Malakar's direct orders.
Valen shifted his focus from Zareth to the glowing, dark symbols of the Spectral Rune Cage holding him. He knew the mechanics of this prison: it absorbed energy-based attacks and reflected them back with greater intensity. The longer someone remained trapped, the more their own powers fed the cage, turning it into an impenetrable fortress.
But Valen’s unparalleled intellect realized a crucial flaw in its design. The cage fed off the projection of power. Just because his magic felt as if it were caged away and suppressed, didn't mean in reality it was. The power was still inherently his; it was simply waiting for a frequency the cage couldn't process.
Captain Valen looked down at the lone guard and questioned him again. "Are you going to tell me what Vesper is really doing, or are you just here to play guard dog?"
Zareth’s dark aura flared with anger. He floated upward, closing the distance until he was hovering right in front of Valen's cage.
"Say one more word and I'll kill you through this cage," Zareth threatened, his voice heavy and oppressive. He sneered, crossing his arms. "I'm not dumb enough to let you out, because I know that's what your plan is with getting me amped up."
Valen’s lips curled into a faint, knowing smile. "No," the Head of the Strategy Division said softly.
Suddenly, Valen's eyes began to glow with a brilliant, piercing blue light that illuminated the dark void.
"I just wanted to see something," Valen continued, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "And now that you are close, I can see very... clearly."
"Why you!" Zareth roared in fury. Raising his hand, he summoned a Voidwalker Elite, a shadowy entity that could phase through physical and magical barriers, and sent it slashing directly into Valen's cage.
But Valen was already moving.
"Essence Manifest: Quantum Strategy Nexus."
Upon activation, the entire atmosphere within the dark plane warped. Arcturus Valen became the center of a swirling vortex of strategic data streams, visualized as luminous blue and silver threads that extended out into various timelines and probabilities. His eyes emitted a brilliant, blinding glow, showcasing his elevated perception as he viewed multiple dimensions and outcomes simultaneously. A magnificent, holographic map of the cosmos constantly shifted and evolved around his body, representing his dynamic control over galactic maneuvers.
The sheer, overwhelming quantum force of his Essence Manifest shattered the Spectral Rune Cage from the inside out. The dark symbols exploded into harmless sparks of light as the inescapable prison was completely destroyed upon activation.
Zareth’s jaw dropped in absolute shock as the brilliant tactician floated out of the wreckage, surrounded by a cosmos of shifting data. But before Zareth could even attempt to retreat or summon the Void Legion, it was already too late. He had stepped perfectly into Valen's trap.
"Cosmic Checkmate," Valen commanded.
This was Valen's ultimate Specialty Technique—an ability so incredibly potent that it was only effective within a strict 2-meter radius, and could only be used once every 10 years. But within those 2 meters, Valen became a god of localized reality, allowing him to do absolutely whatever he wanted.
"Freeze," Valen ordered.
Instantly, a localized time bubble materialized around Zareth. The dark void energy rippling off his body halted completely mid-air. Zareth was frozen in time, trapped perfectly still like a statue inside an unbreakable temporal sphere.
From their respective cages, Captain Alaric Voss, Captain Elowen Virellis, Kiera Voss, Elder Moros, and Kenshiro Takamura stared in utter shock. They were astounded not only by the sheer, flawless smartness of Captain Valen’s bait-and-trap tactic, but by the jaw-dropping revelation that he, too, possessed an Essence Manifest.
Suspended in the dark plane, surrounded by his swirling cosmic map and luminous threads of probability, Captain Arcturus Valen adjusted his posture. Looking incredibly cool and entirely victorious in his ultimate form, the Grandmaster of the Cosmos had just flipped the board on the Eclipse Sovereignty.59Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc6I0H8SWmX
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