"Barrier," Somnus barely had enough time to even speak the words of the spell and position his hand in front of him to mark the area where the barrier would appear. Somnus heard that some skills offer those who use magic the ability to silently cast spells. In fact, his [Reflex Cast] used that ability, but it was only available as a reflexive action.

Aeon's sword exploded with fire when it struck the invisible barrier, and Aeon tilted backwards, off balance. The plasma that escaped the sword's barrier was being sucked back into the barrier and before long, it was completely mended.

Somnus took this opportunity to attack Aeon. He could clearly see the weakness of Aeon with [Slay Sight] and [Vector a.s.sist] was guiding him towards striking that spot. His sword swept through the air, from a half-slash to a thrust. The edge of the sword collapsed s.p.a.ce itself, so Somnus was not even worried about the superalloy armor that protected Aeon.

Just before Somnus's blade could strike true, Aeon's wings blasted Somnus with pure mana. It was like a gale force wind—no, stronger than that. No matter how hard he tried, Somnus just couldn't push his sword further and eventually lost the battle for stability and had to stumble back.

"Baryon Beam," Aeon uttered and pointed his right wingtip at Somnus.

"Magnetism," Somnus uttered the moment he heard the word Baryon.

The ground around Somnus rose up, coiling around him.

A beam of orange-red light shot from Aeon's wing, striking Somnus but just before impact it curved around him and blasted into the ceiling. The beam s.h.i.+fted downwards, slicing open the ceiling and spraying rocks everywhere, before dissipating.

This was extremely risky. If that was a Neutron beam, Somnus would probably be dead. Luckily, it was a Proton beam.

Still, that spell raised several red flags in Somnus's head. How were the protons so cohesive? They should be repelling each other as is—it was most likely a similar spell to the one on the plasma sword, which kept the plasma under pressure.

Even worse than that, Aeon used magic that could strip atoms of their particles, and then used those particles for bombardment. Not even Somnus could do that.

Lamentably, Somnus realized that he was vastly outcla.s.sed in this battle.

"Extinction Ray," Somnus said, pointing a finger at Aeon as energy began to gather at his fingertip.

"Barrier," Aeon said and then air in front of Somnus s.h.i.+mmered.

This was the same trick he used against the mages when the adventurers invaded!

"Rewrite," Somnus uttered, erasing the most important parts of his magic circle, causing the spell to fail and just waste his mana.

"Area Denial," Somnus said, focusing a sphere of entropic energy around Aeon. When the spell was about to coalesce, Aeon slashed his plasma sword through the sphere, completely destroying the physical form of the spell in the Information Dimension—the same ability as Somnus's [Information Layer Destruction].

Is this what it was like to fight against Somnus?

Aeon's posture suggested he was going to lunge at Somnus once more. "Is subject done?" Aeon asked, mocking Somnus's attempts.

There was no way around it. Somnus did not want to summon Hashmal, or risk turning his own heart into a Reactor. He only had one option left, and retreat was not it.

"Apocalypse Form," Somnus said. A dozen magical circles appeared Somnus, and this was the absolute limit of his Realize Capacity. The circles rotated for half a second as the symbols filled out on the ephemeral discs.

A beam of iridescent light fired from the center of each disc and focused on a point just above Somnus's head.

s.p.a.ce itself seemed to unravel at the point where the beams. .h.i.t. A black emptiness stretched out into a disc, and then then the center of the disc expanded, focusing the nothingness into a ring—just like Aeon's halo. But Somnus's was not made of plasma or fire, or magic for that matter. It was made of nothingness—the vacuum itself. It was a rift into the same dimension that Hashmal was trapped in, because it was Hashmal's power source.

Through this rift, Somnus could process and use that same power source.

Aeon's glowing eyes dimmed for a moment as he tried to a.n.a.lyze the make-up of that halo, but no doubt failed. It was not matter—it was a region of inaccessible s.p.a.ce.

"Define cla.s.s," Aeon spoke, mechanical voice somehow sounding far more serious than before.

"Request denied," Somnus said. Whether he had the power to be arrogant was irrelevant. Somnus's aim was to force Aeon to be on guard due to the unknown power. This would give Somnus time to test the limits of what he could do as he never used this spell before. For obvious reasons; if Hashmal disappeared because the vacuum became his power source, then there was a chance that Somnus too would disappear if he used it. But right now, that was a risk worth taking.

Somnus felt a connection to all of s.p.a.ce in his vicinity. It was strange, as if he was standing on the outside, looking down at the whole. It was like the ability to see a square and interact with all sides of it—something a two-dimensional creature could not do.

But it was not as if Somnus became a being of another dimension. He could merely sense the connection between to points in s.p.a.ce, and connect them together; like folding the piece of paper the square was drawn on.

Useful, Somnus thought.

"Extinction Ray," Somnus said, pointing a finger at Aeon again.

"Barrier," Aeon said, sounding a bit disappointed that they were doing this again.

A beam of black energy appeared to Aeon's right side, instead of Somnus's finger, and consumed him in the next instance.

The halo on Somnus's head seemed to pulse and grow larger by a slight amount.

Somnus stepped forward, and this time, without using any skills, appeared right next to Aeon, just as the beam faded.

Somnus slashed at Aeon and, despite Aeon's surprise and alarm, the Angel put his sword up to parry the blow. Somnus's sword phased through Aeon's sword, not even interacting with it, and then carved into Aeon's chest, burying itself deep into the superalloy.

Aeon's movement line appeared in Somnus's vision as the angel jumped away and Somnus followed. There was no sensation when Somnus travelled through this "undefined s.p.a.ce"; it felt as if he only took a step forward. Yet, when he appeared, he was next to Aeon once more, and this time he thrusted his sword through Aeon's back.

The mechanical angel screamed with a mechanical voice and then spun, slas.h.i.+ng the air with its blade-like wings. But no matter how close Somnus seemed to the angel, he was simultaneously infinitely far away, and much closer than the Angel thought. The wing slash found no purchase, seemingly bending around Somnus.

Seeing that, Somnus was reminded of Heptia, and how Somnus's attacks seemed to bend around her.

The halo above Somnus's head grew to double its initial size, flattening out like a disc. Scarlet waves rippled through the emptiness.

Somnus did not expect the spell to be this powerful and this instantly raised Hashmal's threat, because Somnus a.s.sumed he could to the same. He felt that, if things carried on like this, he could defeat Aeon with relative ease. Aeon did not seem to have any countermeasures against Somnus. Somnus thought nothing in the world had countermeasures against this spell. There had to be a drawback. Surely, there had to be a weakness.

Somnus caught a glimpse of the disc above his head and realized that it became larger. An ominous feeling settled into Somnus's bones.

"Surrender and become my servant," Somnus said. "Designation Aeon has no chance at victory."

It was partly a bluff, and partly a true statement.

Aeon's wounds were clearly visible; his chest was carved open and there was a sword sized hole in the center of its chest. It was a critical hit too, but it didn't instantly kill the drone. Did it also have a Mana Reactor like Hadron?

The angel was silent for a few moments, no doubt running the calculations for how further combat might proceed.

"This unit accepts surrender," Aeon said as he landed on the ground and his wings stopped glowing. Aeon fell to a knee, and lowered his head.

Somnus nodded and inwardly sighed in relief. Who knows what would have happened if he continued to fight any longer and allow the halo to expand. He had several theories about that event and none of them were pleasant. Best case scenario was that he would be erased from existence.

"Cancel," Somnus said, releasing the Apocalypse Form spell.

The halo trembled but didn't disappear.

"Release," Somnus said.

The halo cracked, pieces of nothingness fell off of it, and then widened further.

At that moment, Somnus realized the drawback of the spell. Every bit of power he borrowed from that other s.p.a.ce… it was being repaid now.

Mana critically low.

Instantly, his entire mana pool evaporated and after that, he felt as if his atoms were being ripped apart to pay the hefty price for dabbling with the power of things he should never have touched. The halo continued to grow, until it consumed everything.

He made a mistake.

You have taken damage. -Source Unknown HP.

You have died.