A punch on himself.
But not any punch.
Apoptosis.Amadeus had achieved his supreme form.
He has become Apoptosis itself.
His power has tripled...no, quadrupled. His surroundings have simply ceased existence. As his body now has become the ultimate culmination of erasure, his surroundings, including materials and non-materials interacting with him, have simply vanished. In a way, it could be said that he had approached a state of existence similar to Penumbra, but actually still not it.
ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ԺȝՏԵՐՄՇԵɿԾՌ.
Penumbra said as he executed his attack on Amadeus. Even this simple ability, which can be performed just by thinking, would destroy any kind of material, including the abstract. To be hit by this meant vanishing from this world forever.
However...nothing happened.
Amadeus was standing still and unscathed.
Was the attack not released? No, it was. Did the attack not land? No, it did.
"As I said. The true power of Apoptosis is revealed when I'm used as its catalyst."
So this is what he meant, Penumbra thinks for himself.
"I see, that is certainly a very powerful card you had been saving. Due to your body now being the Apoptosis itself, any kind of attack or ability being used on you is the same as the Apoptosis touching and erasing them. No...I think it's more accurate to say your existence is now the embodiment of that ability. The event itself."
It was true. Amadeus was now Apoptosis and Apoptosis was now Amadeus. To erase the concept of Amadeus from existence meant erasing the concept of the Apoptosis ability from existence, and vice-versa. They have truly merged fundamentally. His weakness from before, which consisted of destroying his arm before the punch could be fully performed, was now inapplicable.
"Let's end this."
Amadeus says as he takes a fighting stance.
Penumbra watches him in silence.
"Hooooo!"
Amadeus kicks the space below his feet and advances toward Penumbra. His body was now a weapon, so not only he didn't need to punch anything, but anything that touched him would vanish, and even abilities that could be instantaneously cast, inside him or not, would be equally destroyed on a narrativistic scale.
Penumbra claps his hand once.
"ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ԲɿȝʅԺ."
Several dark transparent omnidirectional barriers are quickly formed around Penumbra, in a layered manner. Each barrier consisted of a different orderly logic applied to its existence, defying the foundations of spacetime in a unique way. There were hundreds...millions...billions of them. A barrier would be contained inside another, which would then be contained inside yet another, and so on. Yet, the dark-layered onion wasn't that big, diameter-wise. This is because the barriers were so stacked that the distance between one another could very well be infinitesimal.
"Futile effort."
An impact.
Amadeus collided with the first barrier. It was destroyed as if he advanced through a door made of butter or paper. Under normal circumstances, the nature of Apoptosis would allow Amadeus to erase all barriers after destroying the first one, but the creature he was up against was special. Different. Abnormal. Unnatural. It could exploit his weakness. But even then, that wouldn't protect him forever.
Next one.
Equally destroyed. Amadeus personally didn't see any point in keep creating these when his Summum Apoptosis was virtually invincible.
Next ones.
He kept destroying them as he advanced, gradually closing the gap between himself and Penumbra. It was only a matter of time before the Dark was erased from this reality, Amadeus thinks.
However, Amadeus couldn't help but notice.
As he kept ramming into the fields, it was becoming increasingly harder to destroy the next barriers. If he took 0 seconds to destroy the first one, now he was taking 0.5 seconds. Something which seemed insignificant, but he couldn't help but wonder.
Only 50 barriers left.He tried to erase the concept of distance between himself and Penumbra, but that distance had been metaphysically changed and fragmented across numerous distinct orderly logical states of spacetime that he didn't understand, which prevented Apoptosis from erasing all the distance at once. So in either case, he had no choice but to keep destroying the barriers one by one.
"You are only delaying the inevitable...No matter. I suppose it's a proper reaction when faced with impending doom. Soon you'll be part of this world's lost order, ethernal."
Walkure sends a telepathic message to Penumbra.
[Brother, I believe I'm in condition to perform Iron Maiden at the present moment. Let me take the lead]
[Negative], replies Penumbra, also telepathically.
[Please elaborate]
[This individual is my specimen, unbeknownst to him. He possesses something that will confirm what I had been analyzing for a long while. A stepping stone that will lead me to a greater state]
A few barriers left.
"I'll allow you to utter your last words now.", says Amadeus
Penumbra watches him in silence.
"I see. No matter."
Amadeus advances through the last remaining barriers.
There was now nothing in-between him and the dark shape.
"Perish."
Within his range, Amadeus performs a punch, though he did not need it.
The punch directly strikes Penumbra in his chest. This event exudes an immense and blinding light, with purple and black colors, and shakes the foundations of space and time. In a few seconds, Penumbra's humanoid form is covered by white dazzling light and disperses itself, disappearing from reality.
He was gone. Gone from this world on a narrativistic scale.
Amadeus looks at his surroundings in silence and takes a deep sigh with his eyes closed.
"You were certainly the first individual to push me this far. I applaud you for that. May you rest in peace."
When Amadeus opened his eyes and turned around, he notices Walkure watching from afar.
"Now it's your turn. Prepare yourse-"
But before he could even finish his sentence, the unthinkable happens
"Blurrgh!"
Amadeus' mouth spits blood.His chest has been ripped open.
When he looked at his thorax, he could see a pitch-black hand that had impaled through his chest, and behind him, a figure could be seen.
"Peace? It's far too soon for that. I will take your compliments, however."
It was Penumbra.
"H-How?"
Penumbra takes off his hand off Amadeus' body and kicks him away, creating a distance between both.
"Ghhrr...you..how are you even alive...No, more important, how can you touch me and not be destroyed...?"
Indeed, this was something completely incomprehensible. Penumbra, who should have been permanently erased, was now standing still and unscathed, and he could now touch Amadeus even when Summum Apoptosis was active. How could this be?
"I have been thinking about the best way to deal with that ability of yours. I had several different ways of doing it, but turns out the most simple one was enough.
"ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ρՐԾρԾՏɿԵɿԾՌ. It was true that you erased my being and non-being, but you also didn't."
Amadeus listen to his words, puzzled.
"ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ρՐԾρԾՏɿԵɿԾՌ is an ability that I created in an attempt to understand the principles behind logical omnipotence. It allows me to occupy and embody two events at once, paradoxically. A contradictory state, in which even impossibilities may be materialized. When you punched me, ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ρՐԾρԾՏɿԵɿԾՌ was put into action. Not only my existence was destroyed by you, but it was also not. I embodied those two propositions at once. You erased me, but you also didn't, therefore I am here."
"S-Such thing...can't be..."
It was beyond comprehension. Beyond reason. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this ethernal was close, if not on par, with the crowned one when it came to the violation of fundamental logic.
"Even if you use your Apoptosis to also deny what I just did, I'll just embody an impossibility that is also inapplicable even to that event of yours. For instance, let us suppose that you decide to erase both states at once. You would, but you would also not. And if you try further and include the one that you didn't before, you would also not. If you try to erase the ability itself on a fundamental level, you would also not. Even if you tried to erase impossibilities and the concept of impossibilities, I'd just embody an impossibility that you didn't. I am grateful for finally finding someone to test my hypothesis. You can be disposed of now."
"hhrrr...RAAARGGHHHH!"
The accursed one rushes in the direction of the dark, disregarding anything and everything, in a state of desperation.
Penumbra snaps his fingers.
ՌȝʍԾ ȝՃ ԵԹՅʅȝԵ.
From Amadeus' insides, numerous pitch-black spikes sprout, piercing and impaling all of his body. By influencing the dark within our bodies, he could freely model it into whatever he wanted. It is true, for even within our bodies there are places where light shouldn't reach, and would thus be within Penumbra's range of influence.The spikes then bent and connected with each other, forming a sphere, encompassing and containing Amadeus's body inside.
Penumbra then extends his right-hand open and slowly closes it.
The sphere thus acted in accordance, compressing itself, alongside everything inside it, until it vanished into nonexistence.
"You had fought well."