Chapter 497: The Primordial and The Prima
—
-「Let a nigga brag Pitt, Legend of the fall, took the year like a bandit, Bought Mama a crib and a brand new wagon, Now she hit the grocery shop lookin' lavish—」
High above the nonexistent battlefield, [Icons] shimmered in the sky as Neji called them forth, as they all resonated with the rhythm of [Starboy] by The Weeknd, yet the lyrics seemed to change themselves at one point.
In this vast expanse of the cosmos, a spectacle more unique than anything else unfolded beneath the watchful eyes of countless spectators, each one a formidable presence in their own right. They wondered, for the umpteenth time in the last century, what the Icons in the sky truly were, and why were they singing?
-「Star Trek roof in that Wraith of Khan, Gods get loose when they hear this song, A hundred on the dash get me close to God, We don't pray for love, we don't pray at all」
Each beat of the song seemed to synchronize with the clash of titans below, lending an almost cinematic quality to the epic confrontation. The onlookers wondered if the music function of the Icons truly existed for theatrics, or if it served as another purpose.
Among the hidden onlookers who were enjoying this fight as a Live Stream, Class Zero, King Omni, the pinnacle of Class Zero, was there. They watched with an inscrutable expression in their undistinguishable, mist-like form.
"...A sight to see, indeed," they murmured, their voice carrying the weight of eons. The outcome of this battle could very well dictate the future of the omniverse.
In another part of the omniverse was Queen Quantum, her form a swirl of subatomic particles, as she too observed the battle with a cosmic scientist's curiosity. "Fascinating," she commented, "to see such powers constrained, yet still so... explosive."
Other cosmic entities, like the ancient star wanderer, Lord of All that is Light, Alaric, and the nebula-born Sage of Creation, Nebulon, exchanged speculative glances as they too watched this battle from lightyears far.
"Do you think the Primordial underestimated him? It's been a few minutes, yet he isn't dead yet." Alaric's voice was a constellation of sounds, any human would have bled from their ears and died if they heard it.
Nebulon, her eyes reflecting the swirling galaxies within that could see from one part of the cosmos to the other with ease, simply nodded. "Perhaps."
Likewise, entities that Neji knew, and entities he had never met, all observed the battle where his and the omniverse's fate would be sealed. Among these observers, however, it was Contessa Fate who felt the tension most acutely.
Fate watched the battle happen from nearby, while her fellow Class 1s fought against the Godmother and her many clones that defined her many lives. They left Fate be, but she was sure she'd be targeted the moment she tried something.
So, Fate stayed on the sidelines and watched as Neji and the Primordial's hands collided, sending shockwaves through the fabric of reality. Seeing Neji's frustrated frown as he failed to get the upper hand, she couldn't help but recall her first encounters with him.
"He's grown beyond what I foresaw," she admitted, a mix of admiration and affection lacing her words. "But is this enough..." She had feared he'd be taken out in the first few minutes, but here he was. But how long can he last for…?
As the song [Starboy] reached its crescendo, so too did the fight, each movement, each strike, a force coming from the depth of the indomitable spirits of the combatants.
…..
As the beat of [My Band] by D12 pulsed through the cosmic battlefield, Neji and the Primordial God continued their clash, standing at the epicenter of a confrontation.
The air around them, charged with the raw essence of emptiness, destruction, emptiness again, and then creation, vibrated with the power of their presence. With each clash, stars of hyperversal-scale flickered and dimmed, galaxies trembled, and the fabric of reality itself seemed to tear and stitch itself back together in a desperate attempt to keep pace with their battle.
Neji, his form that of a majestic celestial hybrid dragon, scales shimmering with the light of a thousand suns, unleashed a roar that shattered dimensions. From his maw, a breath of void and creation intertwined, a stream of energy that could obliterate stars and birth nebulas in the same breath.
The Primordial, the strongest entity with Void affinity, met this attack with a wave of his hand, his energies of erasure weaving a pulse of destruction that devoured and distorted everything it touched.
Kimi, Eurynome, Anodi and Margnas fought too, but everyone had their attention on the biggest fish. Neji and the Primordial's fight transcended the physical, each blow and counterblow a cataclysmic event that reshaped the hyperverse around them.
In a clash of wills and authority over the void, slowly Neji gained more of a standing against the Prince of the Void. However, as the first Voidborn, Neji could never reach the authority the Primordial had over the Void.
With a snap of his thoughts, Neji summoned galaxies to serve as shields, their spiral arms spinning faster as they absorbed the brunt of the Primordial's demonic sword onslaught. In response, the Primordial conjured black holes, their gravitational pull so immense that they threatened to swallow not just Neji but the very essence of life itself.
Amidst this cosmic dance of destruction, the two titans exchanged words, their voices echoing across the void. "You fight well for a former mortal," the Primordial taunted, his eyes gleaming with a mix of condescending disdain as he launched a volley of dark red energy spears, each one, if they hit Neji, would give him serious injuries
Neji, unyielding, accurately created a few multiverses to change the trajectory of the spears away from him, shaping and reshaping the cosmos as he fought. "And you, you old fool," he retorted with a laugh, "seem to forget that this is a fight, not a measure of how destructive we can be."
With a flick of his tail, he shattered a hyperversal constellation, using the resulting burst of stellar energy to amplify his next attack. The Primordial was hit on his jaw, and for the first time in his existence, he was blasted away with blood dripping down his jaw.
The battle raged on, neither combatant giving ground. They moved through the cosmos with unfathomable speed, their battle taking them from the edges of one realm to another, and therefore causing their personal temporal fields to be messed up. The Gods who watched the fight couldn't truly see the fight. These two beings bent the laws of time and space faster than the cube could reorient itself, so while minutes may have passed, hours could have passed for the fighters.
But even after hours, they fought to a standstill, the destroyed hyper verses around them trembling in their might.
The Primordial God and Neji locked gazes, and the Red Titan looked at Neji with his jaws clenched. "You're not half bad, Prima. No, I admit, you're strong, perhaps the strongest being I've ever faced." the Primordial God conceded, a rare admission from a being used to supremacy.
"Thank you," Neji replied, his voice steady despite the exertion. "But it's insulting that you added 'perhaps'. Fine, allow me to prove that I truly am the strongest."
And with that, they launched into another series of exchanges, their powers colliding in a display of might that would leave the cosmos forever changed. The fight continued, a battle between two forces of omnipotent nature that refused to yield.
* * *
As Neji and the Primordial God clashed for the hours to come, their battle wasn't just a fight; it was an epic saga that spanned the breadth of the omniverse.
Their confrontation was a masterpiece painted on the canvas of creation, with strokes that defied the very essence of space and time. They moved with such speed and ferocity that they seemed to fracture the continuum, leaving ripples in reality that would echo through eternity and beyond.
Their battlegrounds were as varied as the cosmos itself, from the shimmering branches of an Archverse's tree to the crystalline labyrinths of the hyperverse, glowing with the light of unborn stars, and ending at the shadowy depths of the void, where reality itself seemed to unravel.
Each realm bore witness to their clash, landscapes transforming under the weight of their power. In one moment, they stood amidst the nebulas, their battle cries mingling with the whispers of cosmic winds. In the next, they were plunging into the heart of beyond hyperversal black holes, their forms illuminated by the event horizon's ghostly light.
The spectators, a gathering of entities from across all existence, watched in rapt attention as minutes turned hours, and hours turned days. But for Neji and the Primordial, time was much longer. Due to moving in and out of areas where time moves differently, as well as the void, who knew how long they fought for? Days of the observers' time stretched into decades, centuries, and even millennia for Neji and the Primordial.
Who knows truly how long has passed?
The clash was not merely physical but a dance of cosmic forces, where each movement was a cataclysm, and each strike was enclosed with the will to create or destroy. Neji's dragon form, scales shimmering with the condensed light of galaxies, clashed against the Primordial's void-made flesh, his very presence an abyss that threatened to swallow all.
The Primordial God, wreathed in shadows that devoured light and all creation, unleashed torrents of destructive energy, each wave capable of erasing universes from the annals of history. His laughter boomed across the omniverse, a sound that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring, as he summoned demonic legions from the depths of nonexistence, each fiend a nightmare made manifest.
Neji, in response, called forth his draconic might, using borrowed Fables and his Icons, as well as the rest of his powers. Boost and Divine Dividing didn't work, but many others did. His roars shook all of reality, the Cube and the Prime. With a sweep of his tail, he carved rifts in the fabric of space, through which poured the radiance of creation itself, light that could birth stars or obliterate them in its intensity. His claws, imbued with the void's essence, tore through dimensions, leaving trails of luminescence that painted the dark canvas of the void.
Slowly, the Voidmancer was demonstrating more authority, getting close to the first Voidborne.
They stood face to face once more, standing on top of the surface of a moon as the both of them panted for breath. The air around them crackled with their presence, their breathing heavy, an oddly humane sight in their divine forms.
The Primordial's grin was wide, filled with the thrill of the challenge. "Haah, how long has it been since I've fought like this?" No, he has never fought like this. Never this long. Nobody could last this long. For the first time in his eon-long life, the Primordial wasn't guaranteed a win. Even during the fight, Neji was getting stronger, his Icons growing greater. The Primordial could feel that. If this fight continued, it may take a million years, but at some point, Neji's authority might rival his own.
The Primordial didn't know, but this was how Neji always fought. He fought against Gods as a mortal, and as a God, he fought against the strongest in existence. It was only recently that he became truly strong, but Neji never forgot that feeling, the hopelessness and the weakness. He became the strongest because he was Neji.
The Primordial never had a weakness, since his birth only a few entities could stand up to him. He never struggled in a fight, let alone bleed. He was the strongest because he was The Promidial.
That's why he was on the back foot right now, with a spear in his stomach. A spear not of the void but of pure creation. They may have been evenly matched, but in the end, the Primordial had no "experience"; he never fought in a "battle".
Neji's titanic form shivered as he used his void authority to empty the space around the Primordial, forcing him to be teleported in front of his spear. The same technique he used on Lord Oblivion so long ago.
Three more Icons formed in the sky, joining the others. The Spear Icon, the Light Icon, and the Creation Icon. The Primordial struggled, each spear chipping away at his health. He was forced to use his to destroy the spears.
As he did that, Neji continued crafting spears with the light of creation itself. With each second the Primordial had more holes poking into him.
For the first in his life, The Primordial felt it. The fear of death, and the hopelessness of getting outmatched. He used the concept of emptiness to heal himself, but that took will. How many more times can he do that? A billion, a trillion? At some point, he'll die.
The Primordial stared at Neji, thoughts filling his head as he no longer protected himself. Holes formed his vision from one place to the other. He could only see glimpses of Neji.
Neji could feel the Primordial giving up, and he started attacking with more spears. His Icons sang and ran throughout the multiverse. He was going to do this, he was winning.
Then another sound filled the air… a heartbeat.
The Primordial rushed him, the void helping him. The tricks Neji used were useless now, the Primordial was going all out. The Primordial grabbed Neji's Draconic head and threw him at a nearby hyperverse.
The Primordial, when confronted with the possibility of death, didn't give up. No, he may lack equal battle experience, but he was not the type to back off from a fight. He did not fear anything.
What followed wasn't helplessness but excitement. An echo of laughter as the thrilled Red God leaped at Neji. He exercised his authority over the void in a way he never thought of before. He grabbed the void and pulled, mirroring what Neji did to him.
"I have had enough fun, this is dangerous... Allow me to test my limits," Then, suddenly, with a mere flick of his wrist, the Primordial God summoned the vast, unfathomable depths of the void, a blackhole connected to the depths of the void, that widened its maw at Neji and him into its cold embrace.
"Close." He commanded the hole to close, to stop it, but he failed. His willpower fell short, as tendrils of void gawked at him, pulling him inside.
There, in the heart of nothingness, awaited a legion of nightmarish entities, each one a grotesque solidification of the darkest imaginings of nonexistence. The Primordial joined them, slipping behind Neji, with a grin painted across his face.
"Show me Prima, excite me more," the Primordial said, just as he and the creatures, twisted and malevolent, swarmed towards Neji in a tide of shadow and horror.
Despite all these horrific creatures, the Primordial was still the most dangerous one to Neji's life, as he threw himself into the fray with a ferocity that matched the relentless assault of the void's denizens, as their firstborn, as their Prince.
His onslaught was a tempest of destruction, weaving void and devastation into a storm aimed with unerring precision at Neji. Neji clenched his teeth and faced them.
* * *
At the depths of the void, Time was vague. 'Just how long has passed?' Neji wondered as he exchanged attacks. 'Million years…? A billion? Or how much longer…?' he had nobody to answer him in this depth of nonexistence.
[It hasn't been long enough, Master.] Nobody, other than Sisty. [Keep fighting!]
Neji did just that. Although the Primordial was the Prince of the Void, Neji too had a solid connection with it. He was the Voidmancer, he too could call forth help from it.
Especially with the help of Kimi's Item, the [Watch of Eldritch] that he had received back in Babylon after a quest. Earlier, she had upgraded it just to prepare for this battle.
[The "Watch of the Eldritch" is a summoning item. To use it, the master simply has to inject a large amount of mana into the watch and wish for what sort of thing he wants to summon. A playmate? A sparring partner? A helper in battle? An eldritch God? The void's reflection of an entity from another Omniverse? Etc.]
Still, the item was nearly not enough to match Primordial and his legion of voidborne. Neji had to amplify it by using an incredible amount of energy as resources; since he had a Level cap, all the killing wasn't giving him any EXP, so he used the excessive EXP to fuel the Watch; he also used Boost to amplify it, and Divine Dividing to divide the void beasts' powers and pouring the power into the Watch.
What did that grant him?
In this timeless expanse, where the very concept of duration lost its grip, Neji battled not merely for victory, but for his sanity itself. By his side, hundreds of shadowy entities he had summoned fought too. Among them, few stood exceptional.
-「Many Men~ Many Many Many Many Men…. Have mercy on me, Have mercy on my soul, Somewhere my heart turned cold」
Shadowy Icons, mere reflections of real ones, sang not for Neji but for someone special.
"[Hollow King's Spear, Dance of the Starlit Sky]!" With a mere gesture, a shadowy man with long black hair called forth a powerful technique, as a million ghostly spears, each a shimmering phantom, forged overhead in this void. Its whiteness was a contrast to the dark void, it was a sight to see, as even the Primordial failed to block or dodge all of those attacks.
Neji wondered whose reflection this was.
"[Divine Departure]!" another shadowy man, who Neji was pretty sure was a variant of Gol D. Roger, the King of the Pirates, the Initiator of Freedom, from another Omniverse, swung his sword that left a cleave through the void. A million void monsters fell.
"[Planet Befall]!" a buff, muscular, monster-looking guy, wearing a face mask with long horns, called forth meteorites out of nowhere in this void.
The relentless barrage from Primordial and his goons was unending. The Primordial was different from how he was outside. He began to use the different aspects of the void to make himself stronger and faster. Hell, Neji could even see him use a technique he copied from one of his own specters.
Neji ignored The Primordial, making his many specters fight him. They could see that the first Voidborne was beginning to become more sophisticated and intricate in his movements, but that was a risk he was willing to take.
Neji used his [Mine] to absorb the voidborne. Though the void is infinite, the creatures of the void weren't. More could be born, but that would take time. There were perhaps a couple quadrillion of them here, but well Neji had all the time in the world.
"[The Crown of the Hollow King]-!" The same entity from before tried an attack, but before it could fully load, the Primordial unleashed a powerful attack and destroyed the man. The Hollow King, as Neji called him in his head, shrugged his shoulders and waved at Neji before his body crumbled.
The Primordial turned to Neji, a smug grin on his face as the void bent around him in new ways: the aspect of emptiness surrounded him like a shield, the destruction aspect shrouded his sword and claws, and he moved not by his will but emptying the space as Neji did.
Neji on the other hand did not falter at the sight. He had devoured every creature of the void, and now, from the looks of it, he had as much authority over the void as Prince of Void, the Primordial.
The Primordial charged towards him using the void as a medium. Neji opened his maw and blasted the light of creation towards him. He eliminated the void, an impossible task. As he grew his authority in the void, he managed to equally transfer that authority over to his creation aspect. These two concepts were but two sides of the same coin.
The Primordial fended off the beam of light only barely. He used his authority over his birthplace to snuff the lights out, but Neji anticipated that. He appeared behind The Primordial, flexing his new authority over the void. As now they stood as equals over the void, the Primordial couldn't stop Neji who delivered a staggering blow to his chin, sending him hurtling out of the abyss through a white hole.
Neji would have liked to fight more in the void, but The Primordial still had the Edge here, as it was his birthplace. Neji entered the portal with a blast of pure destruction in his right hand. Leaving the void realm behind, and emerging back into the Cube where his friends and enemies stood watching, only mere hours had passed in contrast to the zillion years they spent in the void.
The other fights were still going on, but they slowed down, and even stopped when the main fighters returned to sight.
"Your final card failed, Primordial," said Neji, huffing and injured, as he hurled a blast of pure destruction at the Red God. The God laughed in response, his will intricately guided the blast out of his way. Both warriors stood, visibly marred by the conflict, their forms adorned with the scars of their epic struggle.
They engaged in a prolonged stare-down, a silent communion that spoke volumes of the respect forged in the heat of their clash. The audience, both the ones nearby and the collection of cosmic beings far from here, watched in hushed awe.
The Primordial, his majestic aura dimmed, bled golden ichor from numerous wounds, a divine being brought to the brink. On the other hand, Neji in his starry celestial form, had his body cracked and leaking cosmic dust. Both appeared equally spent, yet undeterred.
"This is the last attack," Neji said.
"Then so be it," the Primordial replied.
With a gravity that silenced the cosmos, they prepared their ultimate attacks, drawing upon the very essence of their being. The Primordial raised his hand and grabbed his own spine; he pulled it out, wielding it as a bone sword; an artifact glowing with a deathly ferocity that threatened to tear the fabric of reality.
On the other hand, Neji showed him a defiant grin and took out his own weapon from his Inventory. It was a red-colored long blade that seemed to hum with a deep, resonating power.
It was the Status Cutter.
"The Status Cutter," he declared, his voice echoing through the omniverse, a challenge that was both a provocation and a final statement of intent. "Do you recognize it?"
Of course, the Primordial didn't recognize it. But he could feel the connection he had with it; he made it from his own soul, after all. It was meant to kill Neji, so it defied him. Only now could he wield it after becoming the Void's King. The Status Cutter was made to be wielded by the Primordial, but now with his new authority, Neji could wield it too.
In fact, it was rather easy to overwrite its rule that said the sword was "meant to kill system users" with something opposite; one could say he had more authority over it than the Primordial himself.
The both of them kicked the ground and rushed at one another.
"[Hollow King's Spear]-!" The Primordial wielded the technique he copied in the void, he seems to have taken a liking to it. While Neji simply used every technique ingrained in the [Gamer System] in the blade of Status Cutter.
– Shinggg!
Their swords clashed, a collision that was more than physical—a battle of omnipotent wills, of destinies intertwined.
Then, in an instant that would forever be etched into the annals of omniversal history, the universe blinked. Something odd happened. All light, all existence, seemed to stop, a moment of terrifying stillness. The stars dimmed, and darkness fell upon reality.
The Cube turned off.
…..
When light returned, and the cosmos stirred once more, Neji lay motionless, his body a broken vessel, his journey at its end.
A body shimmered into existence beside Buddha; it was Maestro Myth, as the cosmos returned to his existence after Neji's passing.
The Primordial, though heavily injured, a wound on his side, laughed triumphantly like a maniac, a sound that carried both victory and a dark satisfaction. To everyone's surprise, he was wielding both of the swords on both his hands.
"Oh, such a great fight this was." he chuckled, "I'm extremely pleased by his powers. Still, does the Beyond Omnipotents' chosen lack a brain? Why would he use a weapon I made, one meant to kill him, against me? What a good punching bag he was." he taunted, his laughter echoing across the void.
The spectators, entities of unimaginable power in their own right, watched in stunned silence, the reality of the moment settling in like a cold shroud.
After a second of silence, the reactions were immediate, a torrent of emotions unleashed. Contessa Fate collapsed, her strength leaving her as despair took hold. "No... it can't end like this..." she whispered, her voice lost in the void, as she fell to her knees.
Anodi, her composure shattered, stood frozen, unable to comprehend the sight before her as she stared with her lips agape. "Neji..." she murmured, the word a plea to a cosmos that seemed indifferent to their plight.
Kimi's rage was the most palpable force. "NO! NO! NO, NO, NO!" She shouted and surged forward, only to be held back by the Godmother, whose wisdom at that moment prevented further tragedy. "Let me go! I can still save him! No, I'll kill that fucker!" Kimi protested, her voice laced with desperation.
"No, child. There is nothing left to save," the Godmother replied, her tone somber, a stark contrast to the chaos around them.
Amid the chaos, Lady Life appeared out of nowhere. She wasn't supposed to be nearby, yet she had come rushing when she felt his life force end. As a beacon of hope in a scene of despair, she rushed to Neji's side. "Wake up, wake up!" her powers tried, desperately, to undo the unchangeable. But his body leaked numbers, instead of blood, "Prima, please... don't leave me… Wake up!" she pleaded, using her life force to try to heal him, but it was as if he was never alive.
All her efforts were in vain.
"Leave now unless you want to die, Abstract," The Primordial taunted, reveling in his perceived victory, as he raised a hand and consumed Neji's body with tendrils of void. His body shivered, as he felt powers rush into his being, an act of finality that sealed the deception. "A fitting end for a false god," he declared, his voice cold as the void.
Lady Life stared at the spot where Neji's body was before she snapped her head at the Primordial and growled. The aftermath was a blur of motion and emotion as she leaped at him, but the Primordial didn't move. His mere presence almost melted away her body. Buddha intervened before Life could risk her life further, taking her into custody, a fate that seemed to add insult to injury.
"I beg your pardon, O' Great God, this one had had the same fate as your daughter," Buddha intoned, his voice carrying the weight of judgment.
"Whatever. Leave, everyone. The futile 'war' has ended, with the winner obvious." the Primordial said, turning to Eurynome. "Let us be ready to leave too, wife," he said, and Eurynome nodded with a smile. She flew to his side and joined him, and he put an arm around her waist.
There was silence, as everyone prepared to leave. Their bodies glowed with light as they prepared teleportation; the Godmother forced it on Kimi who seemed to be losing her mind.
Yet, as the Primordial and Kimi began to be teleported away at the same time, his eyes met Kimi's. Beneath the surface of their exchange, the rage and smugness, their eyes and lips shared a secret
"Just as planned. Well played, young master," Kimi whispered with her lips that only the Primordial- no, Neji, caught.
A plan has been fulfilled.
The Primordial, Neji in disguise, his new form a perfect imitation of his vanquished foe, whispered, "It's not over yet," as he'd have to pretend to be someone else till the day Neji will be born, no, till the day he'll choose to return to the past. Only then will it complete and break the loop.
Everyone left, and the Omniverse continued its history. With the false Primordial as its victor, history was artificially forced to etch in a way that would rhyme with the other possibility.
Neji spent millennia pretending to be the Primordial… until D-day came.
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Master4thWall: Introduced in Chapter 1, and defeated at Chapter 497. The Primordial Lived Long.