Collapse Reappears

Meanwhile, the one who had broken the deadlock in the battle had also fallen into a predicament.

De Ba De stopped all movement. His massive half-orc body paced irritably in place, low growls rumbling from his throat.

Those golden beast eyes were fixed on that patch of void. What burned within them was no longer hunger, but the fury of having been toyed with.

He could sense it.

Behind that emptiness lay an unprecedented feast.

Its scent was wrapped in a thick shell called "nonexistence," letting him smell it but not eat it.

For a predator who had only just awakened his gluttonous instincts, this was the greatest torment.

He tentatively extended his claws and slashed at the void.

His claws tore through space, yet slid across the boundary of that emptiness without affecting it in the slightest.

He opened his mouth again, trying to bite into it from afar.

But this time, his teeth missed. He bit down on nothing.

That dish had vanished from the menu.

"The target has completely erased its own existence, transforming into a pure conceptual entity of 'nothingness.'"

Ji Xing's voice rang through the team channel, as calm as ever, though it carried a trace of gravity.

"All of our offensive methods have failed on the logical level."

"The target is assimilating this divine kingdom. It is expected to completely 'nullify' itself along with this plane in twelve minutes. At that point, we will lose the target's coordinates forever."

Just as everyone was at a loss, Qin Chuan raised a hand.

The Sniper Gun, simple in design yet containing ultimate Truth, appeared once more.

The chamber opened.

His consciousness sank into the Sea of Chaos.

A Concept Bullet condensed under the force of his will.

There were no runes on the bullet, nor were there any Energy Fluctuations.

It possessed a perfect, pure geometric form.

Its very existence was a kind of "structure."

Collapse.

This time, what was to collapse was neither mountains nor a divine kingdom.

It was "nothingness" itself.

The muzzle aimed at that absolute "nothing."

The trigger was pulled.

There was no sound.

No light.

The concept representing "structural disintegration" did not even leave behind a flight path. The instant it was fired, it appeared directly at the center of that region of nothingness.

Then it vanished.

As though it had never existed.

Xiao froze for a moment. "Did it miss?"

Di Jia Ling Yu also furrowed her brow. She could not understand the intent behind this attack.

However, in the next second.

Crack.

A faint shattering sound, so slight it was almost imperceptible, rang out not from the air, but from the depths of everyone's souls.

Across that perfect, absolute region of nothingness—

A crack appeared.

A black crack, deeper than nothingness itself.

It was not a physical fissure, but a structural fracture in the very concept of "nothing."

Qin Chuan's bullet had not attacked "nothingness."

It had merely given "nothingness" something it should never have possessed.

—Structure.

As long as there was structure, it could be destroyed.

As long as there was structure, it would inevitably collapse.

"NO—!"

A shriek belonging to no material world erupted directly from the crack, transforming into a devastating Mental Storm.

It was the will of Elegy of the End.

She had never imagined that her perfect, absolutely safe "nothingness" would be forcibly defined, given form, and endowed with an attribute that allowed it to be destroyed!

Crack!

More fissures spread wildly across that patch of nothingness like a spiderweb.

That section of the cosmic canvas that had been carved away was being forcibly torn to pieces by an irresistible force.

Boom—!

In the end, that absolute nothingness completely shattered before everyone's eyes.

It did not turn into an energy storm, nor did it revert to its original divine form.

It broke into hundreds of millions of shimmering "concept fragments" of varying sizes.

Within every fragment was reflected a distorted, wailing soul, filled with sorrow and despair.

With a single shot, Qin Chuan had forcibly blasted Elegy of the End out of "nonexistence" and back into "existence"—and a "shattered existence" at that.

Just as everyone was stunned by this inconceivable sight—

A roar brimming with wild joy and greed resounded across the battlefield.

"Dinner time!"

De Ba De moved.

An unprecedentedly blazing light erupted from his eyes.

If Elegy of the End had just been a dish that had vanished from the menu, then now not only had the dish returned, it had been meticulously sliced, plated, and laid out by the chef, waiting for him to enjoy it!

He transformed into a streak of golden light. Rather than pouncing on any individual fragment, he suddenly opened his mouth wide.

A colossal, translucent golden tiger head formed from his divinity appeared above the battlefield, then viciously swallowed the hundreds of millions of concept fragments in a single bite!

Devour!

This was no longer gnawing, no longer tasting.

It was a gluttonous feast!

Those fragments of sorrow that could drive even gods mad, those crystallized despair that could plunge worlds into deathly silence—all of them now became the purest nourishment, frantically drawn into his body.

His body trembled violently.

The golden tiger-striped divinity frantically merged, collided, and digested those gray concept fragments.

His aura surged at a terrifying rate.

At the edges of the tiger stripes on his body, a profound grayish black began to emerge, as though it could devour all light.

It was the color of grief and despair.

Yet rather than corrupting him, that color added a trace of depth and restraint to his formerly wild, domineering kingly aura.

A cold majesty belonging to an executioner.

A few seconds later, every fragment in the sky had been devoured.

De Ba De slowly descended to the ground. With his eyes closed, the surging aura around him gradually settled.

The lines of his muscles seemed unchanged, yet he felt ten times heavier than before.

He opened his eyes.

At the deepest point of those golden vertical pupils, there was now a tiny, slowly rotating vortex composed of countless gray runes.

He raised his hand and looked at his claws, which still gleamed with a metallic luster.

Then, he lightly swiped at the empty space beside him.

Hiss.

A piece of that space was silently erased.

It was not torn apart, nor was it warped.

Existence itself had been denied.

He had completely digested Elegy of the End's divine authority and made it his own Claws and Fangs.

"Holy shit..."

Xiao's hand holding his blade trembled.

"Is this guy going to fight by eating from now on?"

Thinking of the gods they encountered in the future being chased all over the place by De Ba De gave him an absurd feeling.

Was there going to be any godly dignity left at all?