It was not that the elders lacked talent. Their cultivation Arts just did not hold the property to stand against nonexistence.

Therefore, they were vulnerable against the Void Dragom.

Lilith moved like a shadow made flesh to protect Zephya. She wove an array of subterfuges, filigreed and fierce. The female elder who had tried to annihilate her jumped forward, pride turned to pure violence. She cast Purge of the First Light and aimed to end Lilith as if she were a stain on history.

Lilith's dagger found the void between places. Her weave struck, but was met by the echo of Vahn's Claw, which tore at the fabric of the Purge. The attack collapsed inward, and its edges were fed into the Black Hole Core. For all the elder's fury, the projection she commanded was now a flicker of arrogance looking at its own death.

Darius realized projection after projection was slipping. He didn't not have much time left.

So, he sharpened his gaze and directed a complex, multi-layered art he had used against true monarch level Spirit Beasts. He named it Celestial Inquest. It was an array of law that asked a soul every painful question and accepted only confession or nullity.

It found Vahn's chest, and for the first time there was a tremor. Memory opened, guilt and love spilled, and there was no answer that could satisfy a court that ate souls.

Vahn gritted his teeth and placed a hand on the cobblestone. He felt small and terrible at once. He did not need to prove innocence. He only needed to be. He called on the ancient lineage inside him: the blood of an Ultimate race, the hunger and the covenant with void.

With a motion like a closing of a book the Claw Swipe swept through Celestial Inquest. It did not fight the questions. It removed the pages. The prosecution had nothing to read.

Projection after projection got destroyed. The Elders' faces drained color. Their Heaven Grade Arts, the jewels of their order, went from instruments of execution to fragile toys that broke against a thing that did not belong to the same taxonomy of power.

Darius cursed, a human sound full of raw, old sorrow. He could not let them flee. He had invested his prestige, his authority, and his certainty into this night. He raised a barrier in desperation, a dome of coding and doctrine meant to force Vahn into a single, governed state.

Vahn's next movement was quiet enough that Lilith did not hear it at first. He extended his palm and the air swallowed the barrier around it like a man who closed his mouth and the world stopped breathing.

Ka-boom!

The dome imploded softly into nothing. The elders looked at one another and saw their reflections as they had never seen them before: not masters but temporary flames. Mortality was a word they had always assumed applied to other kinds of people.

The projections fractured. A few elders screamed. Others tried to solidify longer, but the night had learned a new law. Vahn's Black Hole Core fed on the residual energies until there was nothing left to feed. The projections dissolved along tidy seams.

Where the elders had stood like icons, they now appeared as exhausted old men, their real bodies miles away and their spiritual presence shattered like blown glass.

Vahn did not advance. He did not need to. He had made his verdict. He stood over the rubble of an attempted execution and the promise that the world now belonged to different rules. His breathing was ragged. His paws and scales were dark. He had become a monster and yet remained a husband and a father and a man who would not allow his house to be destroyed by these lowlifes.

Lilith fell to her knees, arms wrapped around Zephya. Zephya sobbed until her shoulders shook.

Darius, humiliated, called his remaining strength to withdraw. He spoke into the empty air, command and bargaining braided together.

"This is not over," he told them. "We will return."

He would not say to when he would return. He would only promise ruin and then leave with what small dignity he still possessed.

Vahn watched them go with an expression that made even Lilith flinch. When they were gone, when the last flicker had been absorbed and the night had calmed into a new atmosphere, Vahn lowered his dragon head.

His Void Dragon form remained in place for a breath more, then dissolved back into flesh and bone human.

His body fell onto Lilith's arm.

Holding him to her chest, she whispered,

"You have made a mistake, husband. But You did what had to be done.

He looked at her, and for a moment the man and the void were one. The city felt different. The cost had been paid and the ledger added a new line. He did not know yet whether it was victory or the beginning of an older war.

For now he gathered Seraphina's disciple close and let Lilith press her forehead against his chest. The moon watched.

The night folded like a map. Somewhere, the White Lotus would raise alarms and plan revenge.

​"Vahn, the Gate! Now!" she urged, holding him steady alongside the terrified, weeping Zephya.

​Vahn, though weak and exhausted, hurriedly managed to open the Temporal Void Gate for them to escape. He knew a continued battle with their real bodies, especially after that drain, would kill him instantly.

​He had somehow defeated the projections of the Supreme Elders, but the victory was purely tactical.

​Lilith swiftly carried him toward the rift alongside Zephya, their forms vanishing into the silver-black shimmer of the Nexus just as the city lights began to switch on in terrified chaos.

​They reappeared in the familiar, safe confines of the Royal Palace of the Necrotic Dynasty.

​"Aunt Lilith, You're back... Eh, What happened to Papa?" Eterna, Vahn's daughter, rushed forward, noticing the terrifying wounded state he was in.

​"Papa, you're bleeding! Who did this to you? Sniff, sniff...I'm going to call Mommy!" Eterna's small voice was filled with frantic worry.

​Lilith gently put Vahn down and nodded, her voice rough. "Go, Eterna. Now."

​After only a moment, Seraphina burst into the chamber, her eyes instantly landing on Vahn's broken body. She staggered, the sight of his gruesome bruises and the black-tinged blood overwhelming her composure.

​She broke into sobs, collapsing onto his chest. The smell of his metallic blood reached her nose, tearing at her heart.

​"Vahn! What have they done to you?" Seraphina cried, the guilt of his sacrifice for her disciple crushing her.

​She immediately began casting the powerful Healing Lights of the Saintess, her hands glowing brilliantly as she worked to restore his ravaged body and soul.

Vahn closed his eyes and listened to the soft, caring sounds of those he loved.

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