The storm churned above, skies veined with violet lightning. The air between the three figures trembled—charged with raw magic, overlapping timelines warping space.
Kim Ji-yoo stepped forward, boots cracking fractured concrete. Her hand blazed with layered runes—golden glyphs orbiting her fingers like miniature galaxies. Magic surged up her arm, fire stitched into the fabric of time.
Beside her, Arth stood like a gravity anchor, his palm pulsing with distortion. His eyes scanned Ouroboros—searching for weaknesses in the temporal flow.
Across from them stood Ouroboros—a version of Arth twisted by time, betrayal, and boundless ambition. His voice echoed with layered resonance, vibrating across possible futures.
“So,” he said, smiling with terrible calm, “you finally stand together. How poetic.”
Ji-yoo raised her glowing hand. “Let’s see how poetic you feel after I scatter your atoms across the 11th dimension.”
Ouroboros smirked. “Adorable.”
She didn’t wait.
Aetherfire erupted—golden spellchains snapping from her fingers, streaking toward him with impossible velocity.
Simultaneously, Arth unleashed a collapsing gravity well behind Ouroboros, boxing him in.
But the man of entropy had seen this. Hundreds of times.
He twisted midair, slicing through Ji-yoo’s magic with a temporal blade, phasing sideways to narrowly evade Arth’s trap. His motion left afterimages—fractured echoes of himself, split seconds apart.
“Anchor point: Now!” Ji-yoo shouted.
A rune beneath Ouroboros detonated—locking his timeline for a single breath.
Just long enough.
Arth reappeared behind him, photon blade aimed straight for the spine.
CLANG!
Ouroboros parried—barely.
“Nice trick,” he muttered, releasing a wave of temporal force that hurled both of them back. “You’ve learned.”
Ji-yoo flipped midair, snapping her fingers. Space folded in a kaleidoscope of portals—shattering mirrors in the air.
She dove through one, reappearing behind Ouroboros, blasting him with anti-entropy sigils. He screamed, his aura flickering, destabilizing.
Arth struck from the front, launching a chronopulse that compressed the moment around Ouroboros—slowing time to a crawl.
For one second, he was vulnerable.
Then Ouroboros snapped.
A pulse of inverted time burst outward—hurling them back and skipping the timeline two seconds forward, disorienting them.
“You can’t win,” he snarled. “You're wielding fragments of what I’ve already mastered.”
Ji-yoo wiped blood from her lip, fire in her eyes. “And yet… you're bleeding.”
They struck again—relentless. Ji-yoo’s spell-weaving warped the battlefield, folding space and distorting perception. Arth layered tachyon mines into Ouroboros’s blind spots.
But balance was an illusion.
Ouroboros adapted. With every strike, every spell, he learned—evolved.
He warped behind Ji-yoo—too fast.
She spun, shielding just in time—sparks igniting on contact.
He seized her wrist and leaned close, whispering:
“You’re the only one he trusts. That’s why this hurts.”
She twisted free, blasting him point-blank with a chain spell that destabilized his timeline—just long enough.
Arth drove his blade through Ouroboros’s side.
Ouroboros roared—bleeding light the color of dying stars.
Then—
His hand lashed out, seizing Ji-yoo by the throat.
Arth surged forward. “Let her go!”
“I could end her now,” Ouroboros said, voice shaking with fury… and awe. “But I want you to watch.”
Ji-yoo struggled, glyphs pulsing around her neck, trying to break his grip.
Then—
A failsafe ignited.
A portal erupted beneath her, triggered by lethal intent—runed threads woven into her coat.
In a streak of golden light, she vanished.
Arth’s eyes widened. “No—Ji-yoo!”
Ouroboros stared at the empty space, jaw tightening.
“Convenient,” he muttered coldly. “Always slipping away.”
Arth’s rage boiled. “You bastard.”
Ouroboros turned. “Now it’s just us. No more spells. No more distractions.”
The ground around them fractured. The sky buckled.
“You were always my best version,” Arth said, voice low. “But I never knew how much I hated myself… until I saw you.”
Ouroboros grinned, blood gleaming at his lips. “And I never knew how much I loved power… until I became you.”
They charged.
Blades clashed. Time shattered.
Two reflections of the same soul—locked in a war to unmake the world.
Kim Ji-yoo gasped awake.
Overhead loomed the scarred face of Celestial Sera, lit by soft starlight.
“I pulled you out just in time,” Sera said, exhaling. “A second later, and you'd be dead.”
Ji-yoo stared at her, recognition dawning in her eyes. “You knew, didn’t you? Who he really was.”
“I knew,” Sera said quietly. “And now I reap what I sow.”
“You’ve saved my life twice. And I know there’s always a price behind that smile.”
Sera smiled. “Smart as ever.”
Then, her expression turned solemn. “I need you to go to Heaven.”
Ji-yoo blinked. “What?”
“To convince them to reinstate me,” Sera said. “That’s the only way we win.”
Chapter 22: The Ultimate Showdown Part 1 End
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