The battlefield was distorted beyond recognition. Whole moments flickered and failed—light froze midair, sounds looped in broken echoes, the very idea of cause and effect hung by a thread.
At the center of this storm: Nullframe and Zero Step.
The two figures stood locked in an impossible exchange—neither moving in a conventional sense, neither following the laws of reality.
One represented unstoppable motion through all time.
The other — unchanging stillness beyond cause.
BOOM.
A pulse shook the sky — not an explosion of force, but a ripple through possibility.
Every time Zero Step advanced, Nullframe's presence attempted to erase that moment — to skip the attack entirely.
"You lost when you started." Nullframe's fractured voice echoed.
Yet with each impossible step, Zero Step bent across those nullified outcomes — fists striking where no strike should have been possible.
Orion and Lyra watched in awe.
Veyra clutched Kael's arm. "Kael… they're fighting on a level… we can barely even see…"
Zevak's scanners sparked furiously in the corner. "Their interaction is breaking my readings—this is beyond baseline omniversal cause trees! It's pure paradox combat!"
Kael's gaze never left the clash. His heart was pounding harder and harder—because deep inside… he felt it.
Something ancient.
Something vast.
Some sleeping power waking inside him.
Zero Step stepped again—and this time struck a heavy blow across Nullframe's chest. Cracks of stillness bled across Nullframe's form, like shattered frames of a film reel.
But Nullframe did not falter.
"You blinked. I was always here."
A surge of null-space pulsed outward, sending shockwaves of distortion toward Zero Step — and even brushing across Kael and the others.
Kael dropped to one knee, gasping — time itself was trying to reject him.
Veyra knelt beside him. "Kael—!!"
He gritted his teeth, sweat running down his face. His voice, strained:
"It's… coming… I can feel it…"
Orion helped steady him. "What do you mean?"
Kael's fists began to glow with an otherworldly brilliance — not just energy, but something deeper, divine. His voice trembled:
"My… Ascension… It's not ready… but it's waking—!!"
Lyra gasped. "He's triggering… something's breaking through…"
But before they could process further — Nullframe and Zero Step's clash reached a fever pitch. The air warped with every second that passed—or failed to pass.
Zero Step's voice rang out:
"Kael. Hold fast. Soon — the eye will close."
Kael's eyes burned. "Soon… I will rise…"
⸻
TO BE CONTINUED…