Global Gods : Skill-Resonance Awakened Chapter 382 382: Ch 382 : The Clash in The Darkness

Suspended in the boundless expanse of the quiet void, Sunny existed like a phantom of amethyst starlight, his awareness partially anchored to the steady cadence of the sub-realm universe dwelling within him.

He observed the transformations within Anohara's empire with the impartial satisfaction of a master artisan watching a self-operating timepiece.

"The secondary stage commences once the divine universe's foundation solidifies," Sunny murmured into the emptiness. "When ninety-five percent of those fifty billion worlds synchronize, the barrier must yield."

He conveyed this decree to the Overseer, the soul-duplicate entrusted with the internal oversight of his inner domain.

This strategy was a brilliant maneuver of engineered evolution. At present, the sub-realm functioned as a sanctuary; shielded, segregated, and secure. Yet, security often breeds inertia.

Upon the establishment of unity and the Cosmic Empire's absolute reign, when transgression dwindles to a mere statistical anomaly, the advancement of its inhabitants would inevitably stagnate.

To avert such a fate, Sunny resolved to physically integrate the sub-realm into the Multiverse of Gods.

It would transcend its status as a hidden pocket of existence, becoming a tangible neighbor to the ancient, advanced civilizations he had already brought under his dominion.

The juxtaposition of Anohara's consolidated technological and arcane prowess against the raw, traditional magic and the millennia-spanning technological evolution of the elder universes would spark a new epoch of conflict.

This would transcend a mere territorial dispute, evolving into a contest of ideologies; a centuries-long competition in magical theory and technological innovation.

Sunny inclined his head, a subtle smile gracing his lips. While the Demigods and Thea could meticulously manage the internal arrangements of this grand societal experiment, the external challenge, the yearning for the wider world, remained solely his responsibility.

Abruptly, the hairs on Sunny's nape bristled. This was not a corporeal sensation, but a disturbance in the conceptual framework of his aura.

An entity, or perhaps a force, was observing him from a distance that defied conventional spatial understanding.

With a light, musical chuckle, Sunny snapped his fingers.

Instantly, his Invisibility and Aura Concealment abilities intensified to their utmost limit.

To any watcher, it would appear as though a star had simply vanished. His presence completely dissolved, leaving only the frigid, impassive void in its wake.

"Presumptuous," Sunny commented softly, his gaze sweeping the distant darkness. "To attempt to pinpoint my location... hah. You'll need to be swifter than a shadow to find me."

Without hesitation, he activated a Void Step. It was not mere movement; he flickered, disappearing from his current position in the void and reappearing light-years away, oriented towards a vast, unnatural blackness.

His Divine Eyes ignited, striving to pierce the preceding gloom, but for the first time since his apotheosis, illumination failed him. The darkness was not merely an absence of light; it actively negated it.

"This oppressive darkness... it feels quite vexing," Sunny whispered. It exuded hunger, weight, and antiquity. His divine premonition, now amplified by the lineage of the Royal Nihilum clan, thrummed with an urgent warning.

The re-embodiments of the primordial Deities, the beings who held dominion before the very concept of multiverses existed, were concealed somewhere within that obsidian shroud.

He observed the periphery for a moment. The darkness was not static; it was an immense sphere, its expansion so rapid that it would engulf nearby multiverses within mere decades. It was a cosmic affliction, consuming the light from the encompassing bubble.

"If I do not halt this, it will consume my bounty before I can even preserve it," Sunny declared, his eyes ablaze with a blend of protective fervor and chilling indignation.

With another Void Step, Sunny plunged directly into the sphere.

Within, the very fabric of reality seemed to unravel.

Sunny rotated, searching for an egress, for the faint, reassuring shimmer of the multiverses he had just departed.

But there was nothing. Not a trace of multiverses, nor clusters of them, nor the ethereal currents connecting them. He felt akin to a minuscule ant marooned in the heart of an endless chamber draped in black velvet.

Then, the initial impact struck. His Invisibility and Aura Concealment abilities, which had never faltered, flickered and extinguished.

His form began to radiate with its inherent Cosmic luminescence, transforming him into a stark beacon in the profound darkness.

"Could this be a Domain?" Sunny pondered, his hand impulsively moving towards his mask, as if fearing its imminent disappearance, mirroring his lost invisibility.

He attempted to manifest a basic illumination spell, a spark of ethereal energy to repel the encroaching gloom.

The golden luminescence flared for a fleeting instant before being smothered, not by a retaliatory enchantment, but by the environment itself. The ethereal energy simply dissolved into the surrounding darkness, as if it had never been conjured.

"My spells are being unmade... and even my passive talents are being reverted?" Sunny whispered, his voice sounding thin in the oppressive silence.

He tried his Divine Eyes once more, pushing his power to the limit.

The violet light in his pupils surged, but the darkness remained absolute. "I suppose even my divine eyes has its limits," he sighed, a cold weight settling in his stomach. "And I have just touched it."

He began to wander aimlessly, his feet treading on nothingness. He tried to sense the aura of the Old Gods, but the darkness acted as a universal silencer.

He was a predator who had walked into a trap where his primary senses were useless.

Far across the void, within the obsidian heart of the Demonic Capital, Deimos, the Lord of Discord, stood over a trembling figure.

The tracker, a high-tier Demon God specialized in long-range aura scouting, was a pathetic sight. Blood leaked from his nose and eyes, and his scales were scorched from the strain of peering into forbidden places or people.

"Be quick," Deimos hissed, his voice a low, vibrating promise of pain. "What is taking so long? You are a Demon God of the Hunt, yet you fumble like a blind mortal."

"Lord..." the tracker wheezed, his voice cracking. "I... I found him. I traced his aura for a moment, but he sensed me. He vanished. I am sacrificing my very essence to find the trail again, but it's as if he has stepped out of reality itself."

The demon god's eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed, his life-force flickering like a candle in a gale.

"Tch. Weakling," Deimos spat. He reached into his robes and pulled out a strip of black paper etched with silver runes, a Soul-Binding Script. He slapped it onto the forehead of the unconscious tracker.

The demon god's eyes snapped open. They were no longer the fearful eyes of a servant; they were blank, milky orbs, devoid of soul but filled with a hollow, mechanical intelligence.

"Tell me," Deimos commanded the puppet. "Give me his last coordinates. In which direction was he phasing?"

"Master, the target was positioned sixty five million light-years North of the Multiverse of Treasures. He was facing a Deep Dark sphere. This darkness isn't registered in the maps, it seems to have suddenly appeared out of nothing...."

"The Multiverse of Treasures?" Deimos's eyes glowed with a feral, red light. "The rat was plucking my gardens right under my nose."

His hatred for Cosmos was a living thing, a burning fire in his gut. He had initially ordered the tracker to find Cosmos, but Cosmos's innate talent for concealment was absolute; even the tracker's soul-sacrifice had yielded only a wall. But Sunny? He didn't possess such passive talents. He hadn't been hiding his presence until the very last second.

"So, he goes North," Deimos whispered, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "He thinks this darkness will hide him. He doesn't realize that in the void, I am the echo that never dies."

Deimos removed the script, leaving the tracker to rot on the floor, and vanished in a burst of black lightning. His goal was simple: catch the Sovereign, enslave his soul, and use him to bait the thief.

Back in the hidden dimension of the Pearl of Calamity, Lom sat on his throne, watching the shifting map of the bubble. He saw the Darkness of the black dot closing in towards the light of the violet dot.

"Heh. I don't even need to lift a finger," Lom smirked, his fingers drumming against the armrest.

He knew Deimos was hunting. He knew the Lord of Discord would be able to track the traces of a being like Sunny far easier than he could track a being like himself, who possessed talent for hiding away from any sight.

"Deimos is hungry for revenge," Lom mused, zooming in on the dark spot on his map, the same expanding sphere Sunny had just entered. "He is heading straight for Cosmos. And the location of their clash... well, it's the one place where even a Demon Lord's law starts to fray."

Lom leaned back, his eyes glittering with a dark, expectant joy. "Go on, Deimos. Go play with the Sovereign in the dark. I'll be here to pick up the pieces of whoever is left."