Reality warped, and the Ascendants in front of him scattered backward in the wake of his command. In the distance, over the planets and within it, every WorldSacker, save for the Ascendants, found themselves suddenly in crushing agony as reality compressed around them, squeezing the life out of them until they ceased to exist.

  The ascendants tried to fight him off, combining their wills to combat his. But Merak was a veteran of countless battles. He was older than all of them combined. He had seen the rise and death of civilizations.

  Their mental pressure was like a breeze to him.

  "Harbinger, ple—" the boss, Duroh, pleaded, but Merak ignored him.

  He moved, appearing before a random Ascendant. With a physical strength that should have been several layers below that of the Ascendant, Merak dug into her physical body. And then he tore it apart.

  The dark expanse of space was soon engulfed In a blaze of light as three suns appeared. One, a golden yellow, shining so bright it engulfed space with a light similar to that of an actual sun.

  The second was a purple orb, no less in size than the first one. Merak felt the panicked mind of the Ascendant as it slammed a mental attack on him, likely in an attempt to shove him off than an actual attempt at killing him. Merak ignored it.

  The third Sun was that of a brown, muddy color. Earth. It didn't blaze like the previous two, but burned with no less power as it hovered in between the other suns.

  Wrapped around those three Suns was a thin silvery ring, vast.

  The Ascendant panicked as its true form was revealed. More powerful yet extremely vulnerable at the same time. There wasn't a physical layer to limit her output of power.

  She brought her full power to bear, and space for billions of miles warped. Giant asteroids from every corner of the system drew closer at blistering speed, at the command of the Ascendant. Even the three dead planets.

  Merak shook his head, and then willed.

  All over the planets, the survivors of the Sacking felt space close around them, and then they disappeared, transported to a safe location. They should never have to suffer for the death of another.

  The leader, Duroh, understood the significance of what Merak had just done and what that meant for the rest of them, because his eyes widened. But before he could open his mouth to call out a warning, Merak dug his fingers into the Spirit layer of the naked Ascendant, who was only protected from death by the simple silver ring surrounding him.

  Merak shattered it.

  Through the apocalyptic explosion that rang out a second later, engulfing the space in so much destruction that the closer of the previously intact planets shattered into mountain sized asteroids.

  Through the fire, Merak simply drifted forward, emerging on the other side. Behind him, the death of the Ascendant clothed him in an aurora of gold, purple, and brown.

  Merak will and space stabilized. He didn't want an unstable stage this early in the fight.

  He turned his eyes towards the other Ascendants, who looked at him with equal parts Terror and anger. They didn't understand what they had just gotten into.

  "Harbinger, please I beg you!" Duroh said with an expression of complete terror. He alone knew who Merak was and what he was capable of.

  "Spare this lowly one, Harbinger!" the man tried again, but Merak was done listening.

  He stepped, and space parted before him like it was never there, had never been there.

  The law of space was defiled and Merak found himself standing before the snake lady, Cyela.

  "You have a beautiful name," he said, right before he tore her body in twain, leaving no chance for her to react.

  Like the other ascendant, she too suddenly found herself laid bare as her first defense against true death was removed.

  Her poison affinity attempted to corrupt his avatar, but Merak wasn't having it.

  "None of that," he tsked right before he plunged his hand through the Spirit layer and Into the purple sun, shattering her consciousness.

  The Ascendant died with a warbling screech which cut off as soon as the rest of her exploded.

  Two down.

  By now, the others had likely realized what they were dealing with. They looked at him with full on terror now, and one had even done the metaphorical act of shitting his pants.

  "We can take 'im," Grusto attempted. "'Es jus' one man. What more can 'e do?"

  "Oh," Merak raised an eyebrow, and then willed.

  Behind them, the World Ship that had been moving in place suddenly found its movement halted, as oblivion destroyed the concept of space around it.

  Had the erased space not plunged the man into the unreal, Merak would surely have. As it was, the ship was already lost to time and its magnificent defenses would simply cease working in a place like the unreal. Of the Ascendant, Merak hoped the man was smart enough to end himself.

  Merak turned back to Grusto. "What were you saying?"

  The man, speechless, did the only thing cowards do when without any form of backing. He ran.

  He was lucky too, as the other Ascendants did the same, fleeing in every direction.

  Once again, Merak willed, and before the Ascendants could cross this system's border, they found themselves almost crashing into a long strip of tear that circled the entire system.

  "You can flee if you want," he shrugged. "You're more likely to survive crossing the threshold than you would in a fight against me. But do remember what you might encounter if you end up unlucky."

  Like the wise men that they were, they stepped back and then slowly turned to face him. He could feel them shivering now.

  "Harbinger, hav—URK!" another person began, but was cut off as Merak appeared beside him and then tore through his physical and into the Spiritual, killing him in one single strike.

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  "I tire of this chase," Merak frowned in distaste. "Fight me or I will make your deaths agonizing."

  He needn't have made the threat, as like prey that had been cornered with no chance left to escape, the remaining Ascendants turned to face him, drawing on their weapons, even Duroh.

  The darkness of space was once again washed away in the wake of the unleashing of more than a dozen Ascendant level weapons.

  An arrow hummed as it materialized, radiating the combined crushing energy of multiple oceans. And that was literal. Merak could sense the power of a dozen oceans bound into the weapon. This thing could drown entire planets.

  He nodded in admiration.

  A sword burning with a quarter power of the sun swiped at him, and Merak stepped back through space to appear a distance farther.

  He smiled as he did so. Maybe this wouldn't be as boring as he thought.

  Merak blitzed through space, weavings and dodging in between a hail of arrows, a single one of which could level entire continents. And the archer rained thousands.

  He slipped behind a giant asteroid, disappearing just as it shifted towards him. An arrow impacted it a second after Merak disappeared, turning it to rubble.

  He emerged behind the archer, punching just as she turned towards him, bow leveled on his face. Merak pulled back and dodged, then weaved back towards her, but by then, her defensive technique was already up.

  He changed targets immediately, leaving the woman encased in a massive swirling orb of oceanic water. Merak appeared beside an earth wielder who was already encased in their defensive technique, a suit of reinforced armor made from different powerful earth materials.

  Merak ignored the crushing pressure and the aura of immutability that reverberated from the wielder, and then he punched. Space warped, there was a boom, and then the man was flying, blasting backward in a blazing trail of fire.

  Merak gave the man no reprieve, appearing an instant behind his uncontrolled form. He ignored the panicked attempt of the man as a trail of giant blazing asteroids rained down on him. In quick succession, Merak disintegrated the asteroids, oppressed the essence of Space around them, which blocked off the Ascendant's Movement technique. Undone, he stabbed his hands forward, unraveling the Master technique before it could form, and then—

  EARTH REIGN: REALITY PETRIFICATION.

  Merak pulled back with a hiss right at the wake of the Ascended technique, and then pulled back some more as he felt its effect take hold.

  Everyone scattered, enemies and allies alike as the space around them began petrifying. It wasn't physical, no, but everyone knew what it was.

  Merak couldn't help but smile as essence all around crawled to a standstill. The man might have succeeded in escaping death, but he'd just consigned his companions to it.

  Leaving the earth ascendant for later, Merak turned towards the Water Ascendant right as she appeared before him, a single blazing arrow nocked and pointed straight at him.

  Merak sensed the power of the Master technique. This woman had taken in the power of an astral ocean and imbued it into her weapon.

  He wasn't going to survive the impact of that weapon.

  Right before he felt space constrict around him, the effects of the Ascended technique crossing the conceivable width of a planet, Merak lunged forward.

  The woman's eyes widened, likely expecting him to have retreated. In a panic, she let loose her undercharged attack, and Merak shifted to the side, missing the arrow by a hairs-breathe.

  A sword of blazing sapphire power appeared in his hands, and with barely a pause, Merak brought it down, cutting through her defensive technique in one fell swoop.

  Merak felt as the woman opened her mouth to call out her ascended technique, but it was already too late. His sword cut through her body, spirit, and soul in one swift strike.

  Her explosive departure cut off, petrified by the technique of her companion.

  Merak left before the technique could reach him.

  Reinell's heart, at least what counted as a heart in a body construed entirely out of essence, beat heavily as she watched the strange ascendant tear through their ranks.

  The Jezaar clan, unlike the other clans, were a family. The Ascendants in the clan were closer than was the norm for WorldSackers, and played fair with each other. Which made it all the more painful as she watched her friends, her family, die like sheeps to a slaughter.

  The Ascendant, Merak, was a monster. An abomination. She knew cult ascendants were powerful, with those of the great fourteen greater. But this... This man was an impossibility, a demon from the eight pits of hell.

  Koise was gone, torn apart in the opening of the battle. Cyela was dead, following a few seconds after Koise. And then Zalash... Dear Zalash. Reinell knew she'd have to break the news of his death to his husband, and she dreaded having to look the grieving man in the face.

  Right at the moment, she was hidden, cloaked with the essence of air and every other form of cloaking technique she could think of, to the extent even her companions knew nothing of her whereabouts.

  She watched, heart wrenching, as the Ascendant tore Seira in two with a blazing blue sword. She knew what that sword was made of, and with that knowledge, their fate just became gloomier.

  Slowly, she approached, careful to move around his perception. She knew that even as he weaved between the artificial suns conjured by Noseih, he could still see the rest of them, so she played careful not to be picked out amongst the rest.

  Space lit up as multiple blazing suns materialized around the ascendant, right as a long serpentine form swept past her location, accompanied by a human form with blazing wings.

  Noseih must have been going all out, given that three out of his four main techniques were called. Reinell's hope grew at. If Noseih was going full on murderhobo on the man, maybe they still had a chance to escap—

  FIRE ARTS: STAR SHATTERING.

  This time, Reinell had to step back out of her shroud, calling the entirety of her essence around her. Her defensive technique snapped up around her in an invisible orb of swirling air, and even then, She wasn't satisfied.

  She triggered her movement technique, tapping into its omnipresent characteristic, and then she dissolved alongside her orb, appearing a great distance from the call site, on the other side of the star system. Even then, she still felt the backwash as a massive single sun collapsed into a supernova, shattering space and planetary bodies alike.

  When it all died down, Reinell's orb was so battered she felt a single boulder could collapse it entirely, so she dispelled it.

  It took some time for the light to die down, and Reinell watched with bated breath. She hoped that the Harbinger of Oblivion would have at least taken some injury that would force him retreat.

  That didn't happen. Instead, when she finally saw through the explosion site and the two men hovering in between, her breath hitched again.

  Merak stood, seemingly uninjured, with barely a thread on his clothes singed.

  Noseih also stood before him, untouched by the explosion. But Reinell still quaked In dread.

  The Harbinger of Fire was held up by the neck by a younger looking Merak, an impassive expression on the face of the Oblivion master.

  Reinell heard a snort, and then Noseih's head was single handedly torn out from the neck, baring his true form to the world. The Oblivion master didn't have to do anything, leaving the fragile form to the shattered space around.

  Noseih died the next second.

  She opened her mouth with the intent to call out her ascended technique. The man likely didn't know where she was, and even if he somehow caught her, it'd be too late. The others could deal with his injured form.

  Her eyes widened when Merak disappeared, and she turned around in panic, hastily searching for his appearance.

  When he did, it wasn't next to her, as she'd feared. Merak appeared in front of the kneeling form of Duroh, their squad leader.

  "Please Harbinger," the once proud man pleaded, and then knelt. "This has gone on long enough. Spare us, and we will swear a life of eternal servitude to you. All of us."

  Reinell's entire being quailed at that. She was sworn to the Jezaar clan, yes, but it wasn't one of servitude, let alone eternal. She didn't want to become an eternal servant to anyone, but it seemed she wasn't going to be given a choice here. It was either servitude or death, and Reinell loved her life dearly enough to see it cut short.

  She pulled down her defenses and drifted closer to the pair. She wasn't the only one.

  The remainder of their number drifted closer and then took a knee beside Duroh, including the formerly boisterous Grusto.

  They didn't need to word it out; only their intent was enough. She felt it as reality took notice of their intent, and that was all. Something settled into her being, a metaphysical chain around her soul, and Reinell became a slave.

  She looked up at their new master, staring into the twin blazing orbs of Sapphire blue.

  Merak gazed down at them, with barely a wave of his hand, Grusto's head popped off, his soul following a second later. The explosion of his soul was snuffed out.

  "I do not want liabilities."