So, in half an hour, the ridiculous acceleration granted by the Nexus, for an unknown reason, would wear off and he would die in about 0.2 seconds. Fortunately, his own acceleration still had about five seconds left, which corresponded to 0.05 real seconds.

To put it simply, once he exited this state, unless he could stop the void flames in 5.15 seconds, approximately, he’d be finished.

Once more, not dead as void conceptually referred to pure nothingness.

In a funny twist, no one could see through void by its literal description. As nothing existed within it, any attempts to see through it returned nothing at all. Anything revealed or spoken here stayed between just him and the Nexus.

Half an hour gave quite a bit of time to think though. With the Nexus’ help, Icy quickly isolated what caused what the issues, although even it clearly knew nothing about the void flames.

“So I’m going to die because of the instability of my Origin Force, but you’re telling me I physically couldn’t have merged the two without it as well? How does that even work? Wait! Don’t answer that!” Icy already feared an onset headache as he asked that question another time, but still could not figure out a way to correct this instability.

No answer came, thankfully, but that left Icy in a conundrum as he pondered this matter for ten minutes straight already.

With a clearer idea on the problem, he considered some things but the Nexus shot them all down instantly. All of them came from the root cause of this whole mess.

[You do not have any means to exert Exeter class powers. Without her blood, it would’ve been completely impossible to overwrite the natural laws and allow for these flames]

It always looped back to this single word. One he sought after for years now and the Nexus could never truly expound upon, but here and now it freely spoke without a single care. With understanding on how screwed up a situation he dug himself into, Icy just asked the questions which came to mind. The ones he held onto for years now, cautiously he said, “So can you finally explain what that even means? And how Raccelline’s bloodline related to this?”

[Exeters are just any beings or objects which have exceeded the universe’s natural laws, their power varies greatly but you can imagine them as the next step after the 8th tier. Raccelline was just born with a bloodline of that level, however, we have no power over Exeters and cannot return hers to a baseline like others]

That all sounded too simple. Too easy in all honesty.

[Did you expect more? We only keep this classified since Exeters are existences that overwrite natural laws. We obviously don’t want more of these since we’re also part of the universe]

On second thought, the problem wasn’t that it sounded too simple, but rather how the Nexus phrased all of it. After years of hiding all of this, it now spewed it out in the most anti-climactic manner as though it explained simple history to him.

“So what about overwriting natural laws is so bad exactly? Can’t the universe just suppress them if they try to cause any lasting damage?”

[You think we haven’t killed several? The problem is that any use of their power can destroy vast regions just like these void flames. Not to mention the work we put in to correct the unstable laws they overwrite the universe with, it’s frustrating dealing with any aftermath]

So the issue purely came down to the Nexus wanting to avoid extra work?

That really crushed all his expectations of all this stuff, well, at least he personally felt the level of power which exceeded supreme tier. Now just came a matter of not dying to it, but Icy stuffed that thought away in favour of more questions, “What makes a law unstable? Aren’t they all just mathematical descriptions?”

[Let’s take a very simple real example, fire is visible because the hot plasma releases energy as light. Now imagine it stopped doing that. You no longer lose energy through that unwanted effect]

Why did it have to give an example… It didn’t exactly sound that important on a physical scale as that situation wasn’t that impactful. Magical fires certainly achieved that anyway, so the exact situation hardly harmed anyone except for those nearby a regular flame.

“Oh… You meant stopping the physical process of it. That would destroy everything, wouldn’t it? That breaks things,” Icy’s tone dropped quickly as he overlooked the surface-level description for its actual effects. The Nexus’ example used fire as its focus, but obviously the full extent went far beyond just that single existence. If it affected magical objects too, then it meant no magical object could emit light. But at the same time, an important regulatory mechanism would vanish, with horrifying aftereffects.

The complete breakdown of reality happened from just that single change!

An idea sprung up from this idea of failure though, one which potentially saved his life in this moment. Asking calmly, “Are there varying degrees of instability then? Like how a quick-killing disease might fail to spread.”

[Naturally, that’s usually what happens when Exeter class beings utilise their powers, they hardly care for the ramifications of their creations. Most times, they simply use it once for a single move and then move on to the next]

Disregarding the ambivalence to destruction these beings presented, Icy now reaffirmed his idea. A second opinion helped, to which he changed the conversation’s direction, “If I used more Origin Force to enhance the void flames, would they destabilise and destroy themselves in the process?”

[We honestly cannot know. With regular pure Origin Force, definitely not]

He expected that latter part, which only deepened his resolve in this action. In the meantime, he couldn’t actually act in any way as the Nexus’ acceleration completely froze all his abilities, which gave him every reason to question it endlessly on things which usually came up as a dreaded ‘classified’ response.

Unfortunately, he learnt very little else about the powers or dangers of Exeters. The name itself was the Nexus’ laziness as it simply expounded on their ability to ‘exit’ and ‘exceed’ natural laws. And technically, the flame’s cover cut off his ability to receive enhancements from the Nexus, as is the case for all Exeters, but he didn’t lose anything by this missing aspect.

And while he did ask more about the Nexus’ past, still it remained silent on those unknown years. The restriction on its words came from personal preference, not any rules initiated by the universe.

When those final moments of its acceleration ended, Icy took the few seconds of availability with extreme care. Origin Force from his palace flooded his body and the spirit pushed copious amounts of it into the flames without any caution. The infusion process took just a second, at which point they detached from the conceptual nothingness to merge back into Icy. To some degree, nothing which happened made sense, if void flames reduced everything to a true void then how could his spirit merge into it or enhance anything?

Literal nonsense, that defined unstable laws best.

This infusion differed from the layers of transparent power used as glue, as the flames devoid of anything gained a golden tinge on their very tips. A golden tip he saw for perhaps a mere millisecond as they smothered out just as fast. It all met Icy’s vapid inspection of these flames, as he stopped trying to use logic in the process and instead sought out what they did and how he created them.

They created void wherever they passed. And he created them by merging opposing powers with a binder; no clear or obvious link between the two actually existed, but as the Nexus showed, that was fine!

A vacuum surrounded his body now, void flames extinguished instantly as even the slightest enhancement from Origin Force instantly broke down whatever laws formed the flames. Icy gave up any attempts to understand what broke, but knew there was no way that such an unstable existence possibly retained its form under such chaotic Origin Force.

Furthermore, what surrounded him was no longer void either… The Nexus reacted to his success in a moment and repaired space.

Alive, after over half an hour of discussion and theorising, the great expansion of flames continued outwards as the single second of reality came to an end. Just one second to overturn a dire battle and come out alive, albeit on his last legs.

Another side of this battle existed though, one which only observed a single second.

From outside its slowed state, Lostradus only saw how true nothingness engulfed his ball of golden fire for a but a moment. All his mana consumed, and now both his flames brutally consumed by void, he collapsed instantly. Even a phoenix cannot revive from nothingness, and so he only regaled in fear and horror as darkness took his vision.

Both dragons fell to the ground with two vastly different emotions.

One proud of their victory given a dangerous foe, and the other confused and in search of answers.

Icy’s divinity fell to complete silence as well, the sliver of gold usually hidden away had dulled as its amassed power collapsed into the void flames, however, as he never integrated the power into his body, the damage hadn’t affected him in the slightest! His spirit fell silent though. Not injured, even though it literally became one with void, but so drastically exhausted and overused that only long infusions of Origin Force could heal it.

“Now, to get my prize,” Icy grinned maliciously at Lostradus, who fell like a stone onto the black earth. Some of Icy’s wafer scales cracked and chipped from the fall too, but healed up with a bit of mana.

Icy took his time, casting one of his few other Master true spells to end this battle. Dray’s Skullcracker, a spell made by a dragon to literally smash open the heads of fellow adult dragons. Supposedly, ‘Dray’ was a shortened name, but no reference to the creator existed beyond this.

With dozens more souls devoured for this spell’s activation, on top of a surge of condensed mana, Icy ended this battle. An earthen board appeared beneath Lostradus’ fallen head with a great hammer of brown and black stone up above. It rotated backwards, like an executioner reeled their axe to kill with a single slice… Icy waited to see if someone stopped this final spell and saved Lostradus.

Any… second… now… The spell activated, its great weapon not even metres from a gory kill.

They’d have to appear now, surely!

But nothing stopped it, Icy certainly didn’t.

Stone against stone echoed throughout the empty black plains, the dragon winced as bone, blood, and brain matter flew outwards in every direction. He hadn’t even heard the squashing of flesh or cracking of bone, it instantly broke under such an impact and the delicate, pink brain completely broke too.

Icy believed that Lostradus or his master secretly prepared a final measure to save his life, perhaps they sealed some phoenix flame within to revive them right now!

[Killed Level 78 Godbreaker ash dragon! Received 636% EXP]

Unwilling to believe this simplicity, he asked with the utmost caution, “He’s truly dead? Is it possible to acquire experience twice if a being revives?”

[Experience is given once the Mind or Soul completely disperses, only true necromantic resurrection can revive him now]

“What about that other method with Exeters?”

[Classified Information]

He forgot about that. From now on, the Nexus couldn’t hand out information like candy. Not unless he could create and control an Exeter class object again, preferably not flames which almost destroyed him as well. Though it all felt so easy, never did Icy imagine killing Lostradus would go so swimmingly, but as he stepped towards the crumpled body, ready to harvest it, one of his expectations turned out right.

Things had been too easy.

The dead dragon’s shadow, previously invisible against such dark earth, suddenly solidified and separated from their body. A humanoid figure in black stood up and faced him, its form wispy and ethereal as though unreal, and for a moment Icy unsure which race controlled it. His eyes flashed white for a moment and saw its true form as a mere avatar controlled with some unknown spell.

However, to lower his gaze now proved innocence and stupidity, as such a deep growl responded to their appearance and silence.

“No need to show such hostility on our first meeting. I’m here on behalf of my emperor, to present a relationship under which we both prosper,” the shadow’s face parted and spoke without any teeth or tongue, in fact, it lacked anything beyond a superficial outer shell.

“Which emperor? And why should I trust your word when you invaded a dragon-owned realm whilst evading the gaze of our elders?” Icy noticed this part too, how the figure’s body contained a strange coating of runes to block out all non-physical gazes.

Only someone in the realm could see this shadowy existence, in other words, only Icy.

Furthermore, they somehow filled his words with these runes too, while his mouth produced noises, they could only be heard by this figure.

No doubt, they were either a Sage or Great sage.

“Why Muthzud, of course, the only Primordius of our race also leading their own power. Ah, no need to be like that, I do apologise for the trouble we caused,” the shadow’s hands raised harmlessly as it let out a light laugh, but Icy’s growl not only developed into a hateful snarl but he prepared to strike with the orb if necessary.

Muthzud could be considered one of the most famous names across the whole third world. A name in the same league as Manus, Salvation, and Asharvad, three of the strongest gods on this planet…

Because he was the emperor of the only eternal empire.

“So you’re how he got phoenix fire, and did you make the death of me and my friends a condition?” The pure hatred in Icy’s words as he held back a roar with every breath exceeded anything he ever mustered against Lostradus, but reasoning still told him to drain this unknown eternal wizard of all information they possessed.

With their continued compliance, that wizard simply maintained a poor posture as though surrendering as they spoke, “Hold on, we did provide the fire as you say. Which is why I came personally. We wish to make a deal. One where we will no longer threaten you or your friends. Will you hear it out?”

With a weak and unsure tone, he might have believed them if human experts weren’t ‘randomly’ dying all over the continent over the last six months.

The shadow suddenly turned to the dragon corpse nearby and pulled out two purple crystals, without even a lick of mana, Icy watched as an orange flame and a transparent one flew out of Lostradus’ corpse and each settled in a crystal. The eternal came to collect both?

He should’ve known, and now he lost the biggest reward from–

Two purple crystals landed beside Icy. In one the orange phoenix heart flame, and the other a shrunken wisp of Divinus-wrecking flame…

Up close, Icy easily recognised these as the cores of both fires. Without these cores, any fire created was temporary and fleeting, but as long as you had these, then an infinite amount could be generated purely with mana.

“As I said, we wish to make a deal. These are merely a token of goodwill to show our sincerity… Will you hear our offer now? I can assure you, even a dragon would find it hard to reject,” the words oozed with actual worry, the eternal filled with great trepidation that Icy might still reject before he even gave the offer.