Beyond the Eternity

At exactly 9 PM, Gangdong-gu became a battlefield.

No, the word 'battlefield' was inaccurate. Instead, one could call it a deadly game of tag.

The two participants were Soo Jinyoung and Keikoku Amane. Soo Jinyoung had the runner role while Keikoku Amane was the tagger.

Of course, Soo Jinyoung could not afford to be caught by Keikoku's frail hands.

For someone who could manipulate antimatter and thus obliterate his opponent with a mere touch, a fight was nothing more than devising the quickest and most certain method to make contact with his enemy. However, even that was decided with the six wings behind him which could easily cross the speed of sound like child's play.

All he needed to do was strike the target once with those wings and let nature take its course. Even if the target somehow survived the initial impact—which was theoretically impossible without a miracle—they certainly wouldn't withstand the ensuing radiation and would die shortly afterward, regardless of their species.

Keikoku Amane has been the 'Disaster of Storms' for about one thousand years so he could comfortably say that has always been the case.

「 He knew that he was the strongest. Yet... 」

"What the hell is up with those flames of yours?! How are you able to survive a hit from my antimatter without immediately returning into dust, huh?!"

Shouted Keikoku from the skies with a demon-like voice.

「 Why was his heart filled with so much disorder? 」

When they first clashed, Soo Jinyoung was blown away and her left arm was severed. But she somehow managed to restored that severed arm using some blue-white flames of sorts and survived the lingering radiation too.

I don't just understand. First, It was that blonde from before and now, this woman. How many more strange people are in this world?

Keikoku Amane felt like he was punched in the gut. The fact that were people that could negate his Antimatter left a bitter taste in his mouth.

But it was a misunderstanding. Soo Jinyoung absolutely had nothing in her arsenal of skills capable of defending against antimatter. If she hadn't activated a certain skill just in time before the collision, she would have been instantly erased upon contact.

To be precise, It was her trump card which she calls a signature skill.

Pheonix Flame. It was a skill equivalent to the unique trait of the Pheonix species, Immortality.

Not only does It grant the user the ability to manipulate the legendary flames of the firebird, It also grants the user the Immortal-like regeneration of the Pheonix species.

As long as she was not instantly killed—her 'body' completely destoryed and her 'soul' crushed— and still possessed magic power, she can continue to restore herself from all forms of injuries even if her head was destoryed.

Without that skill, Soo Jinyoung's name might as well be 'corpse'.

Moreover, there was the unbearable burden of enduring the excruciating pain of burning, coupled with the relentless mental fatigue brought on by the inflicted attacks each time the skill was activated. So the skill certainly couldn't be called a free lunch.

But Keikoku Amane didn't know that. Even so...

"So what?!" The brown haired disaster gritted his teeth. "No matter how many times you restore yourself with those feeble flames, if you can't step within five meters of my space, you're nothing more than a moving punching bag that can handle alot of punishment!"

While shouting so, his six wings curled up behind him and gathered strength.

"I just came up with something good, make sure you dodge it, Okay? I don't want to make a mess out of that delicate little body of yours!"

If he was a normal boy meeting Soo Jinyoung for the first time, he would have definitely fall in love. But the current Keikoku was filled with a more twisted desire— to make a bloody mess of the woman's body.

Fwooosh!

The six wings unleashed countless black projectiles towards Soo Jinyoung's fleeing back. Looking behind her shoulders, Soo Jinyoung clicked her tongue and evaded the attack using Cloud Steps.

The black projectiles were like tiny needles that phased through anything they made contact with it.

Defending was futile, and using the surrounding buildings for cover proved pointless; even flying through the air was out of the question.

The sky was the territory of the Disaster of Storms. Using Cloud Steps that required mana to create an air platform would only make her an easy target.

Soo Jinyoung thought about using her flames to counter the black needless flying towards her, but quickly discarded that thought as soon as it came.

Those projectiles were created from the antimatter wings. Therefore, they were filled entirely with antiparticles that ignited upon contact with any form of matter, including the gases that make up fire.

If she tried to counter the projectiles using flames, It might cause a huge explosion that might swallow her as well.

"Tch."

Soo Jinyoung clicked her tongue and continued her tremendous sprint. Her sharp eyes tracked the descending black needles, and weaved left and right to dodge them with precision. Yet, it was impossible to avoid them all—several pierced her arms, thighs, and even her head, despite her best efforts. Even so, her flames continued to restore her damaged body parts.

This is getting no way. At this rate, I would be completely on the defensive.

She couldn't engage her opponent in a direct confrontation, but that didn't mean she would simply stand there and take his attacks like a good girl. As she considered her options, a clever strategy suddenly came to mind, and without hesitation, Soo Jinyoung swiftly set it into action.

Soo Jinyoung soared onto a rooftop and unleashed a devastating wave of flames, shaped like a cannon blast. The attack was amplified by the power of the Red Phoenix Sword.

The Red Pheonix was the guardian of the south and they happened to be fighting in Gangdong-gu, which was located at the southeastern of Seoul. As long as she was facing the opposite direction with her back facing South, she would be able to produce high amount of firepower. Even with the power of one of the Four Gods.

Swish!

Keikoku's over twenty-meter-long wings effortlessly nullified her attack with a dismissive whoosh and cut through the air like massive blades towards Soo Jinyoung's position.

Soo Jinyoung used Cloud Step to evade the demon-like wings that crashed into the building and split it vertically in two.

Large dust clouds exploded outwards from there along with the building collapsing.

Swish!

In the next moment, the same demon-like wings emerged from the dust and flew towards Soo Jinyoung like a bullet.

Noticing the situation, Soo Jinyoung used the Cloud Step technique while in mid-air to create distance. But she made a huge miscalculation.

"?!"

The black wings suddenly extended themselves, increasing their speed without warning and rushed towards her like a storm of dark storms. She tried to evade, the six wings had already entered her space.

A series of mini-explosions erupted on Soo Jinyoung's body like fireworks.

Her body was hurled over a few meters, slamming into a traffic light before crashing to the ground and skidding several meters before finally coming to a stop. As her destoryed body begun to slowly recover form, the disaster that was Keikoku Amane simply watched from above with his arms crossed and a look of pure boredem.

"C'mon! C'mon! This is just pitiful. What's the point of raising my hopes up if you're going to disappoint me in the end?! Surely, you can do better than this!"

"....."

He received no response. Soo Jinyoung stood up from the ground once her body was completely restored and continued to launch flames attacks at him while creating distance and keeping him within her field of vision. Keikoku felt like all his blood vessels inside his head were going to burst.

"Seriously, don't you know what you're doing is so fucking useless?! Repeating the same attack over and over again is not going to summon some miracle!!"

He could nullify any attack that made contact with his skin. More precisely, it was the 'Antimatter Diffusion Field' enveloping his entire body and anything he held, that effortlessly neutralized any threats before they could touch him. It was akin to how living organisms naturally radiate heat to adapt to changes in their environment without knowing.

Even if he were unconscious, his 'Antimatter Diffusion Field' would still protect him and prevent any external forces like physical attacks and energy-based attacks from reaching him. He could do absolutely nothing, and his enemies would ultimately destroy themselves without knowing the cause of their downfall.

Despite knowing that, Soo Jinyoung continued to launch flame attacks at him while keeping her distance.

"What's her deal anyways?"

Keikoku narrowed his eyes. What's the point of doing something that's obviously not going to work?

What she was doing reminded him of a child trying to fit a square block into a space on a box specifically designed for a triangular block. No matter how hard you tried, the square block's shape would always prevent it from fitting into the triangular slot on the box.

It was a matter of simple physics and common sense.

"Hah... Hah... What's this? Why am I out of breath?"

Keikoku Amane noticed he was out of breath. At first, he thought he had used up too much oxygen from talking and flying around, but something felt off. A scorching, acrid scent set off warning signals in his mind.

Hold on... Keikoku quickly surveyed his surroundings.

Soo Jinyoung kept her distance and continued firing bursts of flames towards him, while he struggled to catch his breath. He could nullify any direct attack, yet something was slowly suffocating him.

So that's it… Carbon dioxide, huh?

Flames are more than just heat; they consume the very oxygen in the air to ignite. Intense fires manipulate the surrounding gases, depleting the oxygen and leaving behind carbon dioxide along with other toxic byproducts.

Keikoku Amane was the Disaster of Storms. However, that didn't chance the fact he was still a human that breathed in oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide. If all the oxygen were removed from his surroundings and he was left with only carbon dioxide, he will definitely suffocate.

Soo Jinyoung did not need to attack him directly. As long as she kept him trapped in a zone where the flames devoured the oxygen, he would be helpless.

"You sure have guts! I'll give you that! This is what I've been waiting for! Finally, someone with a clever tactic! I didn't even know that I had such weakness! Thank you very much, you've done well."

Keikoku Amane laughed from pure excitement and thanked his opponent from the bottom of his heart.

"But..."

Soo Jinyoung became alarmed as the six wings behind him spread backwards as if threatening to explode.

"Now that I've figured it out, It's as good as useless. Surely, that's not all, right?!"

Boom!

The six wings erupted in a violent explosion, propelling Keikoku forward in a straight line like a cannonball. The shockwave generated by his launch shattered the glass windows of the surrounding buildings.

Soo Jinyoung activated Cloud Step to dodge and Keikoku zoomed past her like a blur. He barreled onward in a straight trajectory, demolishing several buildings in his path before finally coming to a halt as he crashed into a room.

"Fuck. I really miscalculated with that one. I thought I got the speed and velocity all figured out, but I messed up with the force of the explosion itself."

Keikoku mumbled as he stratched the back of his head while raising his body from the place he crashed into.

The Disaster of Storms. He was two hundred years old, but had the appearance of a twenty-two year old male.

He obtained the blessings of the System from when he was sixteen and has been able to control Antimatter ever since. However, that didn't mean he had completely mastered that power.

The reason was rather simple.

There was simply no need for him to become any stronger than he currently was. He had never tasted defeat and he defeated almost all his enemies with a single strike. Defense was a trivial matter—he never bothered, unless facing the rare few who wielded conceptual weapons. Even then, those opponents were incredibly scarce; in his entire life, he'd only encountered two such challengers.

As a result, he had never learned how to fight properly or even throw a punch.

It was like handing a loaded pistol to a child. Sure, the child could pull the trigger and kill someone, but they wouldn't know how to reload it once the bullets ran out. Therefore...

「 He was the strongest yet weakest disaster 」

Swish!

The six wings behind him instantly recovered form and he flew into the sky at once by breaking through the rooftop and flying through the hole.

But once he reached the skies...

"Huh? Where did she go?"

Keikoku swept his gaze around but he failed to find his opponent. Her appearance had completely disappeared like a ghost which caused a frown to appear on his face.

Playing hide and seek now, huh? I see. She's trying to buy herself some time to come up with some strategy out of her ass. It would take a lot of time to destory every building one by one and I'm too lazy to do that. So how do I fetch her out?

A child with a loaded gun can kill a man, but becomes truly dangerous once they learn how to reload it. In Keikoku's case, he had encountered an opponent who could regenerate endlessly, no matter how many times he destroyed them.

Simply put, he had found the best test subject for his abilities.

"Ah, I know! Would that work? I've been wanting to try something like that out, but the calculations are a little messy. But it should work, right?"

With a crazed smile, Keikoku Amane flew further upward into the air. He ascended higher and higher until he reached a satisfactory distance of several hundred meters in the sky.

Soo Jinyoung who had noticed him leaving tilted her head, confused.

Was he trying to run away?

She frowned. But she also didn't feel that was his true intentions. Why would he suddenly leave when he has the complete advantage? No matter how she thought about it, It didn't make sense.

She could tell he was plotting something, but couldn't figure out what.

[Many constellations grasps by the overwhelming sense of a bad omen.]

The constellations? She had been ignoring the indirect messages of the constellations that would appear here and there, but that message truly caught her eyes.

Wait, could it be...

Her blood ran cold.

Her worst fears became true when she heard a loud boom!

The sound penetrated into her ears and almost tore apart her fragile eardrums. The sensation of blood flowing out from her ears could be felt and the entire world seemed to shake.

It was not a metaphor. There was an intense vibration that could felt on the ground that resembled an earthquake. It was a terrible shockwave that spread throughout the earth.

The cause was a gigantic sonic boom. To be precise, the result was the sound barrier being broken more than 88,000 times in a millisecond.

Soo Jinyoung's vision slowly cleared, and she saw something falling from the sky to the ground at incredible speed while clearing the clouds.

Upon closer inspection, she realised that 'something' was a black cocoon which spinned rapidly like a high-speed drill. She wondered what it could possibly be, then finally recalled that it was descending from the heights of the sky where Keikoku Amane had vanished into.

"?!!"

She received a strong shock as alarm bells went off inside her head.

The entire blood cells and vessels inside her body were screaming at her to run away.

She must escape before that thing hits the ground.

If she doesn't escape, she'll definitely be ruined.

Soo Jinyoung immediately leaped out from her hiding spot and activated Cloud Step at full power.

Before she could even take her third step, her mind came to a heart-wrenching realisation.

Even if she uses the movement technique to the fullest, she won't be able to escape the blast radius on time. It was likely that she would be blown apart before she even leaves Gangdong-gu.

"Tck!"

Soo Jinyoung gritted her teeth. In the end, she decided to activate all her defensive skills at once and tank the explosion.

KABOOM!!! A heavy impact echoed.

In an instant, all sound was engulfed.

The area where the black cocoon had landed erupted like a colossal bomb and unleashed a torrent of flames that consumed everything in Gangdong-gu. The shockwave radiated outward, leveling structures and shattering glass windows in its fiery wake.

The scorching inferno mercilessly engulfed Soo Jinyoung's fragile body, her screams swallowed by the roaring flames, as the fire swept through the district in an unrelenting surge and devoured everything in its path.

The shockwave rippled outward, reaching neighboring districts and heralding a catastrophe that echoed through the city...

A giant mushroom cloud formed over Gangdong-gu. A horrific mixture of flame and smoke rose high into the sky and casted an ominous shadow over what remained of Gangdong-gu.

Nothing was left untouched.

All the buildings were destroyed, the roads lay in ruins, and the Jamsil Bridge had collapsed. Even the neighboring bridges and districts suffered from the shockwave's impact. Additionally, radiation spread alongside the sea of flames and made it evident that Gangdong-gu had been transformed into a dead zone where no living organisms could survive.

It was utter destruction, reminiscent of a nuclear explosion.